Monday 13 November 2017

C is for... Colony Sarff


Davros' personal chief of security. Sarff was dispatched to find the Doctor when it appeared that Davros was dying, visiting the Maldovarium, the Shadow Proclamation headquarters, and the planet Karn in his quest. His message to the Doctor was: "Davros remembers". The Doctor was present on Karn when he arrived, but remained hidden. He knew what the message meant - an allusion to a meeting he had with Davros when the Kaled scientist was still a boy. Colony Sarff finally tracked the Doctor down in medieval England. Here he revealed his true form. His humanoid shape was actually composed of a colony of snakes - hence his name. The snakes could inject Dalek nanogenes into people they bit - turning them into Dalek drones.


Sarff took the Doctor to Skaro, along with Clara and Missy. Some of his snakes were employed to bind the prisoners' wrists. When the Doctor tried to escape by stealing Davros' chair, he was overpowered as the unit was full of snakes. Later, Sarff disguised himself as energy cables on Davros' intensive care unit. This was part of a ploy for Davros to steal some of the Doctor's regeneration energy for himself and his Daleks. Missy arrived and blasted the unit with a Dalek gun, destroying Sarff.

Played by Jamie Reid-Quarrell. Appearances: The Magician's Apprentice / The Witch's Familiar (2015).

  • Sarff is the Welsh word for serpent.
  • The character's distinctive gliding motion was created by the actor using a segway hover-board under his robes. Reid-Quarrell put it to further use when he later played one of the gliding Cloister Wraiths in the series finale.
A Sarff prosthesis, as seen at the Doctor Who Festival in 2015.

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