Sabalom Glitz
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| Doctor Who character | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Sabalom Glitz | |
| Affiliated with | None |
| Race | Unknown |
| Home planet | Salostophus |
| Home era | 2 million years in the future |
| First appearance | The Trial of a Time Lord: The Mysterious Planet |
| Last appearance | Dragonfire |
| Portrayed by | Tony Selby |
Sabalom Glitz is a fictional character from the long-running British science fiction television series, Doctor Who. Glitz is a rogue from the planet Salostophus in the Andromeda Constellation. Glitz's first love is money, and he is often engaged in mercenary acts and profiteering. The character was created by writer Robert Holmes.
The Sixth Doctor and Peri Brown encounters Glitz and his fellow mercenary Dibber on the planet Ravalox (The Mysterious Planet). Glitz and Dibber are on Ravalox looking for secrets stolen by the Sleepers of Andromeda from the Matrix on Gallifrey. The secrets are guarded by an L-3 robot by the name of Drathro. Glitz plans to destroy the Black Light system which provides Drathro with energy and then steal the secrets. When Dibber destroys the external collection aerial, the system becomes dangerously unstable, and only the Doctor's intervention prevents a potentially catastrophic explosion.
Nearing the end of the Doctor's trial, Glitz is summoned to the Gallifreyan space station by his business partner — the Master. The Master reveals that the events on Ravalox have been engineered by the Time Lords to cover up the theft of the secrets. As the trial dissolves into chaos, Glitz accompanies the Doctor into the fictional reality of the Matrix to fight the Valeyard. The Master bribes Glitz to betray the Doctor, but in turn is tricked by the Valeyard. Given what he thinks are the true secrets of the Matrix, the Master tries to upload them into his TARDIS systems. They are in fact trapped, causing the Master and Glitz to be paralysed within the TARDIS. After the Doctor finally defeats the Valeyard, he pleads with the Time Lords to show leniency on Glitz.
The Doctor, having since regenerated into his seventh persona, next encounters Glitz on Iceworld on the planet Svartos (Dragonfire). On this occasion, Glitz has become a mercenary for the power-mad Kane in order to pay his debts. After hearing about a fabulous treasure known as the Dragonfire, Glitz accompanies the Seventh Doctor, Ace and Melanie Bush in their search, hoping to keep it for himself. The Dragonfire turns out to be part of a large bio-mechanoid dragon, which in turn is revealed to be Kane's jailer on the planet Svartos. After the bio-mechanoid is destroyed, Kane uses the Dragonfire to power the Iceworld systems intending to escape. He also has his mercenaries drive the occupants of Iceworld onto Glitz's ship, the Nosferatu, which he subsequently destroys. Eager for revenge, Glitz goes to find Kane, and meets The Doctor, Ace and Mel in the control room of Iceworld. The whole of Iceworld turns out to be a massive spaceship, in which Kane intends to make his escape and seek revenge on his home planet from which he was banished three thousand years earlier. However, with the systems now fully powered, The Doctor uses Iceworld's star charts to reveal to Kane that his homeworld had been destroyed when its sun went supernova a thousand years earlier. Kane then kills himself with unfiltered sunlight. Glitz then avails himself of the opportunity to steal Kane's ship, which he renames Nosferatu II, in which he then departs. To the Doctor's surprise, Mel elects to leave the TARDIS and travel with Glitz.
[edit] Production notes
The original outline by Ian Briggs for the Seventh Doctor serial The Curse of Fenric made a reference to Ace not being a virgin, but this was removed for the final production.[1] Briggs, who had created the character of Ace, had stated in Ace's character outline for Dragonfire that she had slept with Glitz on Iceworld. The Paul Cornell-written New Adventures novel Love and War implies (and his later novel Happy Endings confirms) that Ace lost her virginity to Glitz.
[edit] Other appearances
Glitz also appears in the Past Doctor Adventures novel Mission: Impractical by David A. McIntee. The Sixth Doctor and Frobisher run into Glitz and Dibber as they attempt to pull off the crime of the century on Vandor Prime.
