Wednesday 29 March 2023

M is for... Mailer


Harry Mailer was a convict at Stangmoor Prison. This was the location for a criminal rehabilitation experiment by Professor Emil Keller. He had devised a machine which drained negative emotions from the minds of criminals, rendering them passive and able to rejoin society. Mailer was the next convict to be processed in this way, when the professor arrived at the prison. This proved to be the Master - his device really containing an alien mind parasite which fed on evil.
A noted London gangster, Mailer held a lot of sway over his fellow convicts and so made an ideal agent for the Master when he organised a revolt. Mailer was to help him hijack a nerve gas missile, which UNIT was transporting through the Stangmoor area. The ambush succeeded and the missile was handed over to hired mercenaries, whilst Mailer returned to the prison - hoping to coerce the authorities into providing an escape route for him whilst he held hostages such as Jo Grant.
When UNIT later raided the prison, Mailer was on the point of killing the Doctor when he was shot dead by the Brigadier.

Played by: William Marlowe. Appearances: The Mind of Evil (1971).
  • Marlowe returned to the series in 1975 to play Lester in Revenge of the Cybermen.
  • For many years, fandom was told that he was married to Fernanda Marlowe, who played UNIT's Corporal Bell in this story and the next (The Claws of Axos). This was untrue.
  • Marlowe did go on to marry Kismet Delgado - widow of the Master actor Roger Delgado.

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