Dorian (Blake's 7)

Dorian was the main antagonist in the Blake's 7 episode "Rescue".

He was portrayed by the late Geoffrey Burridge.

Biography
Dorian was a space traveller who discovered a cavern on the planet Xenon which could cleanse him of any ravages of time and "appetite": He could indulge any vice he wished and then use the chamber to purge him...so long as he had someone trapped in the room to take on his ravages. The first receptacle was his partner and over the next two hundred years he replaced him with other individuals, who were transformed into deformed creatures by the process. He constructed a base over the chamber, also building the clip guns and modifying his freighter, Scorpio, with a controlling computer, Slave. He made three unsuccessful attempts to construct a working teleport, allying himself with the local Seska tribe and providing them with nutrients in return for technical assistance. He also claimed to have mentored the scientist Ensor.

As time went on, Dorian's impurities became such that no one individual could hold them, with his recipients dying faster and faster. He hired the gunslinger Soolin, who was unaware of his true nature and became his lover. He decided that his next recipient would be a gestalt of several different individuals and selected the Liberator crew, feeling that their shared experiences had created a bond that would make the creation of the gestalt easier.

Dorian tracked the Liberator down to the planet Terminal only to discover the ship had been destroyed, leaving the surviving crew stranded. Posing as a salvage captain, he saved Vila and Dayna from the planet's giant snakes, then allowed the crew to hijack him and his ship, knowing it was pre-programmed to take them back to Xenon. Once they arrived there, he sealed Scorpio, the only way off the planet, in a silo that could only be opened with his voice prints, with a nuclear compression charge that would go off if he didn't reset it every 48 hours.

Dorian offered the crew his hospitality but had Soolin remove the ammunition from their guns. He then also disarmed her gun. After explaining his history to Avon and Soolin, he took them to the chamber along with Tarrant and Dayna, where the gestalt began to form. In the confusion however, he had overlooked Vila, who followed them into the chamber and handed a working gun to Avon. Avon used it to kill the creature that currently held Dorian's impurities. As a result, they were transferred back into Dorian, causing him to age to death.

Trivia

 * The character is very obviously based on the story of Dorian Gray.