Character Highlight: Kamelion (Doctor Who)

Of all the Doctor’s companions, I have the least to say about Kamelion.  His time on the show is one of the shortest, as he’s barely in more episodes than Katarina, but he also has far less discernible personality than she does.  What’s more, he spends most of his limited tenure not being himself (if you’re not familiar, you’ll see what I mean in a second.)  Kamelion-related spoilers.

The Fifth Doctor, Tegan, and Turlough first encounter Kamelion in the 13^th century, at the court of King John.  The Doctor is perplexed to find the king there at all, since history places him somewhere else at the time of their arrival, and what’s more, the king is behaving erratically.  Of course, our heroes discover that he’s not King John at all:  he’s Kamelion.

A shapeshifting robot more prone to psychic interference than an Ood, Kamelion was brought to this era as part of the Master’s plan to prevent the creation of the Magna Carta.  All in a day’s evil work for the Master, but as we know, the Doctor is no stranger to thwarting the Master’s plans, and the two engage in a psychic battle for Kamelion.  The Doctor, no surprise, is able to break the Master’s control over Kamelion and takes him on board the TARDIS, recognizing despite the trouble the robot caused that it wasn’t actually his doing.

After which, Kamelion disappears for the next five stories, only to be destroyed in his second and final serial.  He’s again coopted by the Master, this time made to masquerade as the villainous Time Lord himself, but with Peri’s help, he’s able to resist the Master’s control just long enough to ask the Doctor to deactivate him, so he’ll never be used against others again.  Farewell, Kamelion, we hardly knew ye.

From a practical standpoint, Kamelion was a big misfire that the show decided to ignore until it could be dispatched.  The robot prop wasn’t made in-house, so the production team didn’t really know how it worked, and the software designer who made it move died unexpectedly.  So, the show was left with a robot prop they didn’t make and no comprehensive operating notes from the one guy who knew how to program it.  All this added up to one uncooperative robot prop, and it malfunctioned endlessly during Kamelion’s brief time on the show.  Even considering the fact that most of his screentime involved actors playing him instead, as different people he’d shapeshifted into, the prop caused too many problems to make the character worth keeping around.

So no, this was an experiment by the show that didn’t work, and Kamelion always looked really silly and clunky in action.  But I still appreciate the show for trying it out; it reflects classic Who’s penchant for trying new things (even if they were beyond the means of the BBC’s production budget,) branching out instead of just sticking with the basic companion format.