Dorium Maldovar
Dorium Maldovar was a 52nd century Crespallion black marketeer and owner of the Maldovarium.
Already an acquaintance of the War Doctor, Dorium owed the Eleventh Doctor a favour after an encounter with the Lux and unwillingly joined him in the Battle of Demons Run where he was beheaded by the Headless Monks. His severed head, which remained alive, was kept in the Seventh Transept where he spent his time consuming media and occasionally receiving guests in the form of Iris Wildthyme and the Twelfth Doctor.
Biography[[edit] | [edit source]]
Early life[[edit] | [edit source]]
By the final months of the Last Great Time War, Dorium was working as an assistant to Senor Bensteth. At this time he met the War Doctor, who forced him to come with him to Villengard to destroy the thirteen weapons factories before the Dalek Fleet could take control of them. After the Doctor used a molecular fruit bomb to turn the factories into palm trees, he told Dorium to open a bar and serve banana daiquiris. (COMIC: The Whole Thing's Bananas [+]Loading...["The Whole Thing's Bananas (comic story)"])
Dealings[[edit] | [edit source]]
By 5145, (TV: The Pandorica Opens [+]Loading...["The Pandorica Opens (TV story)"]) Dorium had set up the Maldovarium on a planetoid near Geryon's Eye and from it dealt in black market items. He found a convex mirror beneath the establishment which he kept in his quarters as his favourite mirror. (AUDIO: The Light Keepers [+]Loading...["The Light Keepers (audio story)"]) He spent some time imprisoned in the Stormcage Containment Facility, his period of imprisonment overlapping with that of the Master, Krasko and River Song, (COMIC: The Master Plan [+]Loading...["The Master Plan (comic story)"]) the latter of whom had not long been imprisoned. (COMIC: The Master Plan [+]Loading...["The Master Plan (comic story)"], AUDIO: The Bekdel Test [+]Loading...["The Bekdel Test (audio story)"])
Dorium gave a vortex manipulator to River in exchange for a Callisto Pulse to disarm the micro-explosives which she had put in his wine (TV: The Pandorica Opens [+]Loading...["The Pandorica Opens (TV story)"]) and Garundel planned to approach him for time travel to pursue Jenny and Noah, the two sharing a mutual acquaintance. (AUDIO: Stolen Goods [+]Loading...["Stolen Goods (audio story)"]) The Headless Monks were "old customers" of his and from them (TV: A Good Man Goes to War [+]Loading...["A Good Man Goes to War (TV story)"]) and other customers at the bar learnt of the Kovarian Chapter's base at Demons Run and of their doings. (WC: Brain Trafficking [+]Loading...["Brain Trafficking (webcast)"], TV: A Good Man Goes to War [+]Loading...["A Good Man Goes to War (TV story)"])
Dorium met the Eleventh Doctor, who purchased two pots of oolong tea and three dozen fruit scones. The Doctor did not pay the 12 credits before leaving, prompting Dorium to remember his face. He obtained a gravity wave manipulator from the Wavemasters of Arkethon (AUDIO: The Light Keepers [+]Loading...["The Light Keepers (audio story)"]) and had a media chip fitted in his head. (TV: The Wedding of River Song [+]Loading...["The Wedding of River Song (TV story)"])
Increasingly frustrated by the Beacon People and their digging, Dorium allowed the Eleventh Doctor to repay the debt he amassed from his bar bill and, more significantly, by crashing into the Maldovarium in his TARDIS by helping him put an end to it, using his gravity wave manipulator to create a force field around the ship. Dorium and the Doctor travelled to the Beacon and thwarted the Lux, after which Dorium hired Plume as his deputy and asked her to have the mirror containing the Light Queen reburied. Before leaving, the Doctor told Dorium that Dorium was now in his debt. (AUDIO: The Light Keepers [+]Loading...["The Light Keepers (audio story)"])
Dorium made a deal with the Shadow Proclamation to allow him to continue his operations in return for setting up a fake black market auction, at which he claimed that a refrigerator was a TARDIS, to lure other traders to be arrested. He protected Jenny and Noah because of his debt to the Doctor and, after handing over the traders, gave them the disused TARDIS upon which the Maldovarium was based and pointed them in the direction of New Damson. He then relocated the Maldovarium to another world. (AUDIO: Inside the Maldovarium [+]Loading...["Inside the Maldovarium (audio story)"])
To help Jenny fight the Cybermen on New Damson, Dorium sent Sogo with her gold sword. Upon learning of this, Jenny wondered if Dorium had sent her the invitation to the auction on purpose to set these events in motion. (AUDIO: Altered Status [+]Loading...["Altered Status (audio story)"])
The Headless Monks requested security software which Dorium was able to supply in the form of the brain of a Judoon whose frontal lobe contained the knowledge. Dorium was paid for this with sentient money, the wriggling of which he enjoyed. Having heard of the kidnapping of Melody Pond, he asked if they were mad to have angered the Doctor in such a way. (WC: Brain Trafficking [+]Loading...["Brain Trafficking (webcast)"])
Demons Run[[edit] | [edit source]]
One day, Dorium Maldovar was fearfully closing down his bar in a hurry. He was caught by Colonel Manton and Madame Kovarian, who asked him what he knew; a month they had been on Yellow Alert after Amy's baby was born and the Doctor hadn't done anything. Dorium explained that there were numerous people throughout time and space who owed the Doctor a debt for helping them; the Doctor was gathering an army. Dorium explained that the stories about the Doctor were true and not just myths. Seeing they were getting nowhere, Kovarian and Manton left. Dorium prepared to follow suit, but found the TARDIS had landed in the backroom of his bar.
As he was one of many people who owed the Doctor a debt, he helped rescue Amy and her baby at Demon's Run. He did not serve in a combat role, but hacked into the station's computer and discovered that Melody Pond had "human plus Time Lord" DNA.
Dorium made a fatal mistake when he and the others were surrounded by the Headless Monks. He believed they were his friends and would not hurt him. He approached them with open arms, but they swiftly decapitated him and added him to their ranks. His headless body was subsequently killed by the Doctor's remaining allies in their fight against the monks. (TV: A Good Man Goes to War [+]Loading...["A Good Man Goes to War (TV story)"])
Post-beheading[[edit] | [edit source]]
The Doctor was told by the alien Gantok that Dorium had information about the Silence. They went to the Seventh Transept, where the heads of those whom the monks had beheaded were stored. Dorium's head was in a box, alive and able to speak. He told the Doctor that on the fields of Trenzalore, at the fall of the Eleventh, a question would be asked, a question that must never be answered. The Doctor took him aboard the TARDIS and Dorium tried to explain to him that he must die at some point.
Later, a Headless Monk carried Dorium's head back to the Seventh Transept. Dorium realised it was the Doctor, but wondered how he could still be alive after the Lake Silencio incident. The Doctor had used the Teselecta to fake his death. As the Doctor left, Dorium warned him Trenzalore and the Fall of the Eleventh still awaited him. Dorium called after the Doctor the first question in the universe, which he had been running from his entire life: "Doctor Who?" (TV: The Wedding of River Song [+]Loading...["The Wedding of River Song (TV story)"])
Iris Wildthyme and Panda once encountered Dorium, who told Iris that soon she would face "the Penultimate Question". (PROSE: From Wildthyme with Love [+]Loading...["From Wildthyme with Love (novel)"])
At some point, the Eleventh Doctor dropped by the Maldovar Market and picked up Handles. (TV: The Time of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Time of the Doctor (TV story)"])
The Twelfth Doctor occasionally used Maldovar as a bowling ball. On one such occasion, the Doctor brought Maldovar to a game with Strax. However, Strax destroyed the targets before the Doctor could get his turn and Maldovar didn't get used. (COMIC: The Adventures of Strax & the Time Shark [+]Loading...["The Adventures of Strax & the Time Shark (comic story)"])
Personality[[edit] | [edit source]]
Dorium Maldovar was a friend of the Doctor's despite his dealings with criminals and even the Doctor's enemies. He respected the Time Lord, to the point of almost being afraid of him which was shown when he warned Madame Kovarian that it was not a good idea to make the Doctor angry. (TV: A Good Man Goes to War [+]Loading...["A Good Man Goes to War (TV story)"])
Although he was an associate of Kovarian, the Silence and the Headless Monks, Dorium's loyalty was to the Doctor. He helped the Time Lord rescue Amy Pond, getting himself beheaded in the process. (TV: A Good Man Goes to War [+]Loading...["A Good Man Goes to War (TV story)"]) He didn't seem too bothered by his beheading, joking with the Doctor about it and commenting that living without a body actually wasn't so bad. He could keep himself entertained with a chip he had installed in his skull, as he said that the wifi in the Seventh Transept was excellent. (TV: The Wedding of River Song [+]Loading...["The Wedding of River Song (TV story)"])
Dorium had a tendency to complain, which was particularly observable post-beheading when the Doctor took him onto his TARDIS to find out more information about his "death" at Lake Silencio. (TV: The Wedding of River Song [+]Loading...["The Wedding of River Song (TV story)"])
Appearance[[edit] | [edit source]]
Dorium described himself as old, fat and blue. (TV: A Good Man Goes to War [+]Loading...["A Good Man Goes to War (TV story)"]) The Eleventh Doctor told him that his silver pendant complemented his complexion. (AUDIO: The Light Keepers [+]Loading...["The Light Keepers (audio story)"])
Behind the scenes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- In a parodic Doctor Who Adventures comic series called Alien Babies!, Dorium is also in charge of a baby daycare in the Medusa Cascade.
- Jessie character Bertram parodies both Dorium and the Cybermen in the season two episode "The Jessie-nator: Grudgement Day".
- Dorium was supposed to appear as a hallucination when the Eleventh Doctor regenerated, along with other of the Doctor's companions. In the end, only Amy appeared.[1]
- Dorium was based on Signor Ferrari in Casablanca.
