Gagan Rassmussen is the main antagonist of the Doctor Who revival episode "Sleep No More".
He was a brilliant scientist from the 38th century who in an attempt to revolutionize sleep created devices known as the Morpheus Pods which allowed their users to get over a month of rest after only a few minutes of use. While trying to upgrade the machines they became unstable and caused the sleep dust of their users to mutate into monsters known as The Sandmen, causing the deaths of the entire crew including Rassmussen himself who was taken over and now sought to spread their influence across the galaxy.
He was portrayed by Reece Shearsmith who also portrayed Edward Tattsyrup, Geoff Tipps, Papa Lazarou, Bernice Woodall, Cathy Carter-Smith and Father Halfhearte in The League of Gentlemen, Mr. Jelly and Maureen Sowerbutts in Psychoville, Ray, Hector,Dr. Maxwell, Mr. Warren, George, Dr. Jacob Tyler and Viktor in Inside No. 9, Malcolm Webster in The Widower as well as one third of the Vogons in the 2005 film adaptation of The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy.
Biography[]
Rassmussen was a scientist who created the Morpheus Pods to revolutionize the idea of sleep and make people more efficient and able to work longer. The devices were a huge success however Rassmussen and his crew were unsatisfied and wanted to make them more efficient, in their attempts to upgrade them however the devices became more and more unstable, causing mutations in the sleep dust of their users which would eventually grow into organisms of their own who would kill and replace the users. This happened to the entire crew including Rassmussen himself.
The Sandman version of Rassmussen however retained his original self's form and mind and sought to spread his people across the universe, seeking to kill countless lifeforms and replace them with Sandmen. To achieve this he created an alibi for himself in the form of a recorded video explaining his situation, this alibi however was also his plan, with the recording containing the encoded signal which created The Sandmen to begin with.
A distress signal for his ship was sent out to a rescue team on Triton who boarded in an attempt to "save" him from The Sandmen. The Doctor and Clara Oswald also showed up shortly thereafter, when the parties found one of the pods still containing someone they opened it and sure enough, Rassmussen was inside. The Doctor was incredibly sceptical of the scientist's work and made no secret of how much he disapproved and was suspicious of Rassmussen who grew incredibly irritated with The Doctor's questions, claiming that they all needed to get out of there. Soon after The Sandmen encountered the group and attacked, with Rassmussen seemingly killed in the chaos.
He was alive however and hiding until The Doctor made it known that he was aware of Rassmussen's deception, Rassmussen revealed to him that The Sandmen "spared" him and that he wanted to help them but keep them away from him, planning to so by apparently sending "Patient Zero" of his upgraded pods to Triton so it could infect the entire population. Before he could go through with this plan however he was shot and killed by the commander of the rescue team Nagata in vengeance for her comrades who were all killed by The Sandmen. The Doctor, Clara and Nagata manage to escape in the TARDIS just before the ship is destroyed and The Sandmen are killed.
Rassmussen's true plan was revealed at the end of the episode on his recording, where he explained that he made everything about Patient Zero up simply to get the signal spread to whoever was viewing his recording. He then revealed himself as a Sandman before taunting the viewer and laughing before crumbling to dust, finally dying for good.
Personality[]
Rassmussen at first appeared to be an affable but rather meek and anxious man who genuinely was just in over his head and wanted to escape from a mistake he had made. This hid his more devious and manipulative nature, with him in reality being a much more cold and focused individual who was highly devoted to The Sandmen and wanting to do what was best for them. When he revealed himself as a Sandman his true personality emerged, with him being shown to be much more quiet, monotone and sadistic in his end goals.
Appearance[]
Gagan Rassmussen unlike the other converted Sandmen had his human form maintained, with him resembling that of a handsome human man in his 40s with pale skin, blue eyes and short, thick, brown, wavy hair. He wore a high collared black suit with silver, grey & white accents across both his shirt and trousers, he also wore black shoes and to help him see had to wear clear framed glasses.
Just before dying Rassmussen rubbed his eye and it crumbled into dust alongside the rest of him, showing his true form as a Sandman.
Trivia[]
- Reece Shearsmith was offered the role of Rassmussen by his long-time collaborator and close friend Mark Gatiss who wrote "Sleep No More", he was excited at the opportunity due to wanting to play a villain in Doctor Who for years at that point.
- Additionally Shearsmith also played Patrick Troughton in the William Hartnell biopic An Adventure in Space and Time two years prior for Doctor Who's 50th anniversary, also directed by Gatiss.
- Shearsmith is also the second League of Gentlemen member to play a villain in Doctor Who with Gatiss previously portraying Richard Lazarus in series 3 of the revival.
- Additionally Shearsmith also played Patrick Troughton in the William Hartnell biopic An Adventure in Space and Time two years prior for Doctor Who's 50th anniversary, also directed by Gatiss.
- On set Reece Shearsmith met Jenna Coleman who played Clara Oswald and she told him how much of a fan she was of his at the time fairly new show Inside No. 9 prompting Shearsmith to offer her a place on the waitlist for a guest star role in the series, which she eagerly accepted, this finally came into fruition in 2020 when she played Beattie in the episode "Death Be Not Proud".
