Malpha is a minor antagonist featured in the Doctor Who serial "Mission to the Unknown" and "The Daleks' Master Plan", which aired in 1965-1966. He is a member of the Dalek's Galactic Council, a representative of his home galaxy in their mission to conquer the Solar System. He is a humanoid alien who mostly resembles a human, but is silicon-based, and is thus almost entirely comprised of a rock-like substance, which almost resemble scales. While his silicon-based physiology and high-gravity homeworld granted him superhuman strength, his very physiology renders him vulnerable to sonic attacks.
The actor for Malpha in "Mission to the Unknown" was the late Robert Cartland. In "The Daleks' Master Plan", Malpha was portrayed by Brian Edwards. In the audio story "The Perfect Prisoners", Malpha was voiced by Christopher Naylor. Also notably, Malpha's name is shared by his planet and species.
Biography[]
In the 40th century, Malpha was the ruler of his homeworld, and was regarded as one of the great powers of the Outer Galaxies, his species regarded as a threat to Earth. 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. They met on the jungle planet Kembel, where he found evidence of human soldiers present somewhere on the planet, suspecting that one of the Outer Galaxies delegates had betrayed them and was working with the humans.
In the meeting chamber, Malpha was the last to enter, with delegates Beaus, Sentreal, Gearon, Trantis, and Warrien were already assembled. When the Dalek leader at the meeting tried to commence, Malpha drew an energy pistol and objected, declaring that he had learned of spies from the Solar System who were present among them, surprising the other delegates. The Dalek leader clarified that there were no such spies among them, instead revealing that they had caught human soldiers landing on the planet, and had destroyed their ship. Malpha pointed out that the humans, who were unaccounted for, could still send a message home, but the Dalek proclaimed that the humans would be exterminated by his patrols, which Malpha found satisfactory while the other delegates applauded.
With the situation cleared up for the moment, Malpha expressed his agreement for an alliance between all powers present, the decision unanimous. As the delegates began to cheer and gloat about their perceived power, Malpha gave a short speech about how the alliance represented the greatest military power ever assembled, confident that they could conquer all inhabited worlds of the Solar System and beyond. With that, the Daleks declared that their first target would be Earth, and all the delegates cheered for victory.
For six other meetings, the Galactic Council reviewed their invasion plans. By the seventh meeting, another alien named Celation had joined the alliance, Warrien had left for unknown reasons, and Sentreal had also pulled out after realizing it was in the wrong meeting. A delegate named Zephon was also scheduled to appear at the seventh meeting after many delays, and a human, Mavic Chen, the traitorous Guardian of the Solar System, who had also been conspiring with the Daleks for decades, had joined the Galactic Council. At the meeting, Malpha and the other delegates 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 Malpha 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, Malpha 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. 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. The Daleks then tested the Time Destructor on Trantis, who they deemed to be too dangerous due to the power his state wielded, where they discovered that the core was a fake. They then executed Trantis, and both Chen and the Daleks set out to retrieve the core, Chen finally securing it after chasing The Doctor across time. This prompted Malpha 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, as 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 Malpha 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 Malpha, 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. 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, something Malpha agreed with. With that, Malpha and the other delegates pledged to stand against the Daleks, and were thus released, rushing to the landing pads outside to retrieve their ships. After boarding, Malpha quickly took off and returned to his homeworld to warn them of the Dalek invasion. 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.
After getting back to his homeworld, Malpha assembled his armies and declared war against 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. After decades of fighting, the war crawled to a period of respite, and it is unclear what became of Malpha during this time. However, Malpha still desired to conquer Earth, so later in the 41st century, presumably during the respite period, Malpha joined the Syndicate, a criminal organization headed by surviving members, heirs, and relatives of the original Galactic Council, who sought to control Earth and kill The Doctor, who was blamed for sparking the events on Kembel. Malpha was confident in his ability to do so, boasting that his strength alone allowed him to snap any adversary in half like a twig, but his time with the Syndicate ended with Malpha being killed by sonic vibrations that reduced his body to rubble, despite his attempt to pull out of the Syndicate after Trantis III and Sentreal were killed by sleeper Time Agent Anya Kingdom.
External Links[]
- Malpha on the Doctor Who Wiki
