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Why I like Melkur

Cuz it sounds like Melkor "Melkur" is the Trakenite word for a fly caught in honey. They apply it to those evil beings who visit their world and get completely overwhelmed by the unbearable niceness. That is to say, the people of Traken are just so darned nice that evil sort of shrivels up and dies - or at least is completely immobilized. By all the niceness. That or the god-like power of the Keeper. And because the people of Traken are so very unbelievably nice, they treat it as their duty to care for these poor benighted scions of pure evil until such time as they eventually decay and fall apart.

One particular Melkur - the one this post is about - proves unusually resilient, not doing much more than gathering moss, despite year and years of being given flowers by beautiful women. And that's the first really cool thing about Melkur. The villain of the piece spends the first half of the episode as an immobile stone statue that does literally nothing but stand there. I love the slow, patient villain. There's something like fifteen years of backstory and relationship build-up between Melkur and Kassia (the super nice Trakenite assigned to give it flowers). That long term of a progression isn't seen again until Dr. Simeon in "the Snowmen." But it's really cool. Because how much of a threat can an inanimate statue really be? Well...

Melkur is basically Satan. He's a tempter - a whisperer and a poisoner of the mind. He's subtle. (A subtle villain? What?) It's really insidious because all he does is stand there. But that's what Kassia needs - someone to talk to, someone who will listen and never judge. He's a girl's best friend, a confessor, and so when he finally asks something in return she's only too happy to give it. Especially since it's framed as him helping with her problem. The little redhead girl, alone in the garden, whose imaginary friend suddenly comes to life - sound familiar? He's always been there, and knows all her secrets, her fears and insecurities, how her mind works. Kassia never sold her soul, per se, but she spent years pouring it out for something she thought was safe - and turns out to be quite the opposite.

Because this particular Melkur is something so evil and twisted that it manages to (after 15-odd years of working at it, and as the power of the Keeper fades) overcome the cloying atmosphere of Traken and get itself moving again. And doing things like appearing sinisterly in doorways and shooting laser beams out of it's eyes (yeah...that escalated quickly). Okay, so, it's silly, but I really love the laser eyes thing. And it makes a ton of sense after the Reveal. Because Melkur is more than he appears. Part statue, part killer robot, part creature - and part something else entirely. Seductive, hypnotic, and deadly. Because even once he gets moving, he doesn't just go on a murderous rampage around Planet of the Really Nice People. No. Melkur has a plan - a plan that requires Kassia. As ever, his chief power is in his voice. (Wait, that's Saruman. Whatever). And with years of ammunition and patience at his disposal, and fueled by her own legitimate desperation (and just a wee bit of mind control) he can get Kassia to do whatever he wants. And it's this backgrounded threat that is really effective. The shadowy figure working through agents, but also the deeply personal and psychological/emotional danger he represents.

I also really like his design. The asymmetric visor makes him look like he's in a permanent sassy head-tilt. And the expression on his stone face is utterly unreadable. Stern or cruel? Concerned or condescending? What goes on behind those glowing red eyes, forever cold and silenced? I just can't get over the subtlety of Melkur, a decently rare (but always desirable) trait in Doctor Who. Everything revolves around him, but he is (very nearly) the immobile point at the center. He's just a really extraordinarily cool villain.

But seriously, he totally sounds just like Melkor, who is the Satan figure from the Silmarillion, which is just too perfect for words. When I first read it I was like "wait, this guy's name is Melkor? Like in "the Keeper of Traken" ? That's AWESOME!"

(If you can figure out how this post is related to Gilbert & Sullivan, you win all the points).