Mutant (Mawdryn Undead)
A group of mutants inflicted with endless regeneration had once been immortality-seeking scientists led by Mawdryn.
History[[edit] | [edit source]]
Seeking immortality, Mawdryn and his accomplices stole a metamorphic symbiosis regenerator from Gallifrey, which they modified to give themselves endless life. However, they found that the process induced constant mutative regeneration, which they came to consider a fate worse than death. Because of their mutations, they were exiled by the elders of their planet to an endlessly-travelling spaceship programmed to take them within transmat distance of a planet every seventy years to enable them to attempt to seek a cure.
During their exile, they experimented with the regenerator in the hopes of finding a cure, but discovered that the process was irreversible. However, their experiments introduced a viral side effect to the mutations, causing them to pass on what they had come to consider the "Time Lords' curse" to others with whom they came into contact. (TV: Mawdryn Undead [+]Loading...["Mawdryn Undead (TV story)"])
At some point, one of the mutated scientists was captured by the Rani as part of a menagerie which she released into Albert Square to capture the Doctor. (TV: Dimensions in Time [+]Loading...["Dimensions in Time (TV story)"])
After three thousand years, Mawdryn was transmatted to Earth and managed to bring the Fifth Doctor, Tegan, Nyssa, Turlough, and two versions of the Brigadier onto the ship, where the mutants explained their plight to the Doctor and begged him to give them his remaining regeneration energy, which they would be able to use to permanently end their lives - trying to convince him to help by telling him of their belief that the Time Lords had abandoned them to their fate by withholding a missing element which would have allowed them to experience ordinary regeneration. The Doctor refused; however, the viral element of their mutations had by that point spread to his companions, as the mutants had known would occur, and he was forced to begin the process of acceding to the scientists' demands that he give up his regeneration energy, which would allow the mutants to use the regenerator machine both to end their own lives and to cure the Doctor's companions.
Before this became necessary, however, a contact between the two versions of the Brigadier induced the Blinovitch Limitation Effect and released a discharge of temporal energy which the mutants were able to use to reverse their mutations and finally die, ending their long period of agony. (TV: Mawdryn Undead [+]Loading...["Mawdryn Undead (TV story)"])
Biology[[edit] | [edit source]]
The mutants were originally humanoid in form. Their attempt to give themselves immortality resulted in endless mutative regenerations which altered their appearances and caused them extreme pain. (TV: Mawdryn Undead [+]Loading...["Mawdryn Undead (TV story)"]) They were described as having "twisted arms" and "sunken eyes", with at least one among their number sporting a claw-like hand (PROSE: Mawdryn Undead [+]Loading...["Mawdryn Undead (novelisation)"]). Their brains appeared to be exposed through their skulls (TV: Mawdryn Undead). Mawdryn in particular had an "ulcerous sarcoma" on the side of his face, and appeared to Tegan, Nyssa, and the Brigadier to have "bulging reptilian eyes", a "high domed forehead", and "slimy flesh" that "crept and quivered like a stranded fish". Turlough thought of the mutants as resembling living corpses. (PROSE: Mawdryn Undead [+]Loading...["Mawdryn Undead (novelisation)"]). In attempting to end their torment, they also induced a viral effect in their mutations, causing them to spread to anyone with whom they came into contact.
They were able to stabilise their forms when connected to the regenerator machine or in atmospheres such as the interior of the TARDIS, but would quickly degenerate in any other environment. Using the regenerator, they could assume a specific form, which they used to visit planets in hopes of finding a cure. (TV: Mawdryn Undead [+]Loading...["Mawdryn Undead (TV story)"])
The mutants were unable to die under ordinary circumstances, even being able to survive in the void of space (PROSE: Mawdryn Undead [+]Loading...["Mawdryn Undead (novelisation)"]), with anything that would otherwise have ended their life simply causing them to change shape again. However, it was possible for them to end their lives using a sufficient burst of energy directed into the regenerator machine. (TV: Mawdryn Undead [+]Loading...["Mawdryn Undead (TV story)"])
