Celation is a minor antagonist featured in the Doctor Who serial "The Daleks' Master Plan", which aired in 1965-1966. It is a living nebula with the power to manipulate its own particles in various ways, such as coalescing into human-sized humanoid avatars or compressing around objects, capable of condensing said objects into singularities to destroy them. When dealing with the representatives of the Outer Galaxies, Celation's avatar was a humanoid resembling a bald, pale-skinned male human with a body covered in many small, round, dark rock-like growths. Later, Celation used an avatar of a female humanoid.
In "The Daleks' Master Plan", Celation was portrayed by the late Ian East and later the late Terence Wood. In the audio story "The Perfect Prisoners", Celation was voiced by Francesca Hunt.
Biography[]
The Daleks' Master Plan[]
By the 40th century, Celation, a living nebula, drifted through the Milky Way. As a courtesy to communicate with most species, Celation would use some of its particles to create humanoid avatars, but as it was a nebula, Celation considered itself beyond the concept of gender, and thus would often change the appearance of its avatars. However, Celation soon grew a desire to conquer worlds, and was in contact with rulers and other important figures of the Outer Galaxies, such as Zephon and Trantis, thinking poorly of the latter. In the year 4000, the Daleks organized the Galactic Council, an alliance of the Outer Galaxies meant to conquer the Solar System and exterminate humanity, Zephon convincing Celation to join them. However, like Zephon, Celation was not present at the first meeting, but by the seventh meeting, it had secured a seat on the council, consisting of Outer Galaxies representatives Beaus, Gearon, Trantis, Malpha, and a human named Mavic Chen, the treacherous Guardian of the Solar System who had been secretly conspiring with the Daleks for decades. In order to properly attend and communicate with the delegates present, Celation used an avatar of a male humanoid who spoke with a strained, raspy voice.
At the seventh meeting, Zephon, who had been delayed, was also scheduled to make an appearance. Celation, seated alongside the other current delegates and Daleks, awaited Zephon, who was tardy, annoying all of them. Eventually, the Daleks searched for Zephon, finding him and bringing him to the chamber, but unbeknownst to them, "Zephon" was actually a Time Lord known as The Doctor in disguise, the real Zephon incapacitated elsewhere by The Doctor's allies. With everyone now assembled, the meeting began, where the Daleks announced that they had completed work on a superweapon known as the Time Destructor, making Celation and the other delegates applaud by striking their hands against the table. Chen then revealed that he had a sample of taranium, an incredibly rare material meant to be the power core to the Time Destructor, which took him 50 years to get, setting it down on a table.
Then, the real Zephon awoke and broke free of his restraints, sounding an intruder alarm. The meeting broke up in a panic, Celation and the other delegates fleeing, allowing The Doctor to steal the taranium and escape with his allies by stealing Mavic Chen's ship. Zephon was blamed for the events and executed by the Daleks, and although he tried to say that Celation and Beaus would pull out if he were removed, Celation and Beaus remained on the Galactic Council after Zephon's death. After some time, a series of events led The Doctor to supposedly surrender the taranium core to the Daleks, but it was actually a fake, a fact they did not realize.
With that, Trantis, Chen, and Celation gathered to witness the assembly and test of the Time Destructor. While Chen gloated about how instrumental he was to the Galactic Council's plan, Trantis noted that his species were accused of stealing the core, and was happy that the accusations had been cleared up. Celation pointed out how the real culprits were humans, but Chen clarified that The Doctor was not a human, despite being externally identical to one, referring to The Doctor as a "creature from another galaxy." When Chen mentioned that The Doctor could travel through time, Celation noted that it hadn't figured out time travel, and Chen remembered that Trantis' species had tried and failed to achieve time travel. Chen then dismissed the importance of The Doctor, as the time had come to test the Time Destructor. Then, the Daleks, deciding to get rid of Trantis' influence, for his empire was the strongest in the alliance, a fact he had used to strongarm the Daleks into giving him a higher position, turned on him and forced him into the chamber as the test subject. Celation asked why Trantis was chosen to be the subject, and Chen replied that Trantis' own arrogance had made the choice for him. The device then activated, and Trantis, terrified, recoiled from it and fell to his knees. Seeing Trantis' face twist and contort in fear, Chen assumed that the device was meant to induce madness, and Celation noted that it always found Trantis to be somewhat unhinged. However, Chen and Celation suddenly realized that the device wasn't working, angering them. The Daleks found that the mechanisms of the Time Destructor were functioning properly, but realized that the core itself had failed, for it was a fake. After pulling Chen away, a Dalek also tried to take Celation away, but Celation protested that it was merely invited as an observer, and was thus allowed to return to its chambers while Trantis was executed.
Both Chen and the Daleks set out to retrieve the core, Chen finally securing it after chasing The Doctor across time. This prompted Celation and the other Galactic Council representatives to meet, where Celation expressed outrage over the time wasted by losing and chasing the core, proposing to remove Chen from the Galactic Council, claiming that with the taranium back in their possession, Chen served no more purpose to them. The delegates then voted for the removal of Chen, but the Dalek Supreme, leader of the Daleks and their representative on the Galactic Council, entered and interrupted, followed by Chen, who spoke that the Dalek armies were ready to deploy.
Malpha asked why Chen was speaking for the Dalek Supreme, but Chen ignored him, making Celation demand to know why Chen knew aspects of Dalek plans that the other delegates did not know. Chen then revealed that he was "more equal" than the other delegates, angering Beaus, who shouted that Chen spoke out of turn. However, Chen declared that his contribution of taranium and success in retrieving it has placed him in charge of the Galactic Council. Shocked and enraged, the delegates shouted to arrest Chen and moved to attack him, now calling to kill him, but Chen drew an energy pistol and shot Gearon, killing him and making Celation and the others freeze, stunned to silence. Chen then smugly said that he had been placed in charge of the Galactic Council by the Dalek Supreme, meaning they must now obey him. Celation then asked for the Dalek Supreme, but Chen suddenly realized that during the delegates' attempt to attack him, the Dalek had left the room and completely sealed it. Disregarding the strange turn of events, Chen tried to assert his authority once more and discuss the division of conquered territories, but Daleks suddenly entered the room and declared the meeting over, ordering Celation, Chen, and the other delegates to follow.
As it turns out, the Daleks had turned on Chen and the delegates, seeking to carry out the plan on their own rather than deal with the influences of several interstellar empires, and even planned on invading the Outer Galaxies. As such, the Daleks imprisoned the delegates deeper in the facility, which the Daleks intended to self-destruct as they began the invasion of the Solar System, leaving the base. However, their detention center had an intercom within it, and they were suddenly contacted by Steven Taylor and Sara Kingdom, human allies of The Doctor who had entered the base to find The Doctor, who they had been separated from. Celation and Chen managed to speak to the humans through the intercom, demanding to be released, and the humans, assuming The Doctor was imprisoned with them, moved to free them. As they waited, the delegates menaced Chen, with Celation threatening to kill him if the situation was a trick or more of Chen's treachery, but Chen instead proposed that the Outer Galaxy representatives join him to form a new Galactic Council, one that could rival and even destroy the Daleks.
Then, the humans arrived, and Chen pushed the aliens out of the way to speak with Steven and Sara, demanding to be let out. However, Steven only wanted The Doctor, and knew that Chen had betrayed humanity by serving the Daleks, but the delegates all called out that they too had been betrayed by the Daleks, with Celation saying that they did not know where The Doctor was. Sara figured that the aliens could mobilize their own forces against the Daleks, and Steven said that their only chance was to get back to their planets and organize a defense before the Daleks invaded them as well. Beaus protested that their species would execute them for conspiring with Daleks, but Celation said that if they saved their people, that would not be the case. With that, Celation and the other delegates pledged to stand against the Daleks, and were thus released, quickly fleeing the planet to raise defenses. Behind them, Kembel and Chen were both later destroyed by a now-functional Time Destructor, which also destroyed the device and the Dalek army still on it.
The Perfect Prisoners[]
After the surviving delegates returned home, the powers of the Outer Galaxies declared war on the Daleks for their treachery, even fighting alongside Earth and other powers of the Outer Galaxies, battling the Daleks in a series of conflicts across galaxies. It is unclear if Celation participated in this conflict, but it later arrived on Zephon's homeworld, and believing that The Doctor's disguise back on Kembel was the real Zephon, told the people about how "Zephon" had betrayed them on Kembel by stealing the taranium for The Doctor, leading to Zephon's family to be hated. Later in the 41st century, presumably during a respite period that occurred after decades of war against the Daleks, Celation, who still desired to conquer Earth, joined with the Syndicate, a criminal organization formed from the heirs, relatives, and surviving members of the original Galactic Council, including Sentreal, a member who had pulled out before Celation joined, although councilman Warrien remained absent. As part of the Syndicate, Celation planned to conquer Earth, rule the galaxy, and kill The Doctor, who the other Syndicate members had blamed for sparking the events on Kembel with his interference, and Celation's humanoid avatar took on a female appearance. The Doctor, accompanied by sleeper Time Agent Anya Kingdom, under the identity of Ann Keslo, tracked the Syndicate to stop them, and Anya would kill any Syndicate members they found. After Sentreal and Trantis III were killed by Anya, Celation and Malpha backed out of the Syndicate, but Celation still sought to kill The Doctor, finding him and Anya aboard a spaceship.
Using its entire nebula, Celation engulfed the ship and began compressing it with its particles, aiming to condense the ship into a singularity and destroy all aboard, but Anya overloaded the ship's reactor to explode from the living nebula's attack. The Doctor, who did not know that Anya was the one killing the Syndicate members up until she murdered Sentreal and Trantis III in front of him, attempted to warn Celation about the reactor, but was too late, forced to evacuate the ship with Anya using his TARDIS. The reactor then exploded from the strain, quickly irradiating Celation and killing it, as The Doctor detected no signs of life when he later returned.
External Links[]
- Celation on the Doctor Who Wiki
