Maxil
Maxil was a Time Lord commander of Gallifreyan Chancellery Guard and Castellan of the High Council.
Biography
Like all Time Lords, Maxil was taken from his family at the age of eight for the selection process in the Drylands. Staring into the Untempered Schism as part of a Time Lord initiation rite, Maxil was inspired by what he saw in the Schism. (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords [+]Loading...["A Brief History of Time Lords (novel)"])
Maxil became Commander of the Chancellery Guard. During this time, he stunned the Fifth Doctor with a staser blast and confined him in a cell under the Capitol to await the judgement of President Borusa and the High Council. He also planted a listening device in the Doctor's TARDIS on the orders of the Castellan. (TV: Arc of Infinity [+]Loading...["Arc of Infinity (TV story)"])
Promoted to Castellan, Maxil regularly trained Castellan Wynter. (AUDIO: Lies [+]Loading...["Lies (audio story)"]) Inquisitor Prime Darkel contacted him to escort her into the Vaults so that she could speak with her advisor (AUDIO: Imperiatrix [+]Loading...["Imperiatrix (audio story)"]) and, during the Gallifreyan Civil War, he sided with Pandora over Romana. Afterwards, he was demoted to Commander. (AUDIO: Appropriation [+]Loading...["Appropriation (audio story)"])
References
Discussing the coincidence of look-alikes with Peri Brown, the Sixth Doctor mentioned Maxil. (AUDIO: Prime Winner [+]Loading...["Prime Winner (audio story)"])
Personality
Maxil could be gruff and impatient (PROSE: Arc of Infinity [+]Loading...["Arc of Infinity (novelisation)"]) and followed his orders loyally. (TV: Arc of Infinity [+]Loading...["Arc of Infinity (TV story)"]) He was resentful of the Castellan, (PROSE: Arc of Infinity [+]Loading...["Arc of Infinity (novelisation)"]) who once called him a fool, (TV: Arc of Infinity [+]Loading...["Arc of Infinity (TV story)"]) and sided against the liberal President Romana in the Gallifreyan Civil War in favour of the more conservative Darkel. (AUDIO: Appropriation [+]Loading...["Appropriation (audio story)"])
Appearance
Maxil was a burly man with square jawed features (PROSE: Arc of Infinity [+]Loading...["Arc of Infinity (novelisation)"]) and curly brown hair. (TV: Arc of Infinity [+]Loading...["Arc of Infinity (TV story)"]) He shared a resemblance to the Sixth Doctor. (AUDIO: Prime Winner [+]Loading...["Prime Winner (audio story)"])
Behind the scenes
- Maxil was portrayed by Colin Baker, who later became the Sixth Doctor. Maxil was also to have appeared in The Five Doctors [+]Loading...["The Five Doctors (TV story)"], but was dropped due to Baker being unavailable. A myth later arose that this was as a result of Baker being chosen to succeed Peter Davison as the Doctor; however, in fact, Baker wasn't offered the role of the Sixth Doctor until June 1983, months after The Five Doctors was filmed.[source needed]
- Maxil shoots the Fifth Doctor at one point during Arc of Infinity [+]Loading...["Arc of Infinity (TV story)"] — namely in the closing moments of part one. As a result, Baker has often joked that he gained the role of the Doctor by shooting the previous incumbent.[source needed]
- Colin Baker has said he made the suggestion that, in The Mysterious Planet [+]Loading...["The Mysterious Planet (TV story)"], Commander Maxil should have arrested the Doctor and taken him into the courtroom on Space Station Zenobia.
- This was the first time that a future actor to play a Doctor was involved in an earlier production on screen. Baker would be succeeded in this regard by Peter Capaldi. Prior to being cast as the Twelfth Doctor in 2013, Capaldi played both Lobus Caecilius in The Fires of Pompeii [+]Loading...["The Fires of Pompeii (TV story)"] in 2008 and John Frobisher in Torchwood: Children of Earth in 2009. Furthermore, David Tennant participated in several Doctor Who audio dramas for Big Finish Productions (the first being Colditz [+]Loading...["Colditz (audio story)"]) and had a minor voice role in Scream of the Shalka [+]Loading...["Scream of the Shalka (webcast)"] before being cast as the Tenth and Fourteenth Doctors. David Bradley, who stood in for William Hartnell as the First Doctor in The Doctor Falls [+]Loading...["The Doctor Falls (TV story)"], Twice Upon a Time [+]Loading...["Twice Upon a Time (TV story)"] and The Power of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Power of the Doctor (TV story)"], previously played Solomon in Dinosaurs on a Spaceship [+]Loading...["Dinosaurs on a Spaceship (TV story)"] and voiced Azure of the Claw Shansheeth in Death of the Doctor [+]Loading...["Death of the Doctor (TV story)"].
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