- "I am Scaroth! Through me, my people will live again!"
- ―Scaroth
| Jagaroth | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Statistics | |
| Name | Jagaroth |
| Aliases | None |
| Continuity | Doctor Who |
| Category | Alien |
| Status | Extinct |
| Homeworld | Unknown |
| Stellar System | Mutter's Spiral |
| Galaxy | Milky Way (likely not originally) |
| Biology | |
| Body type | Quasi-humanoid |
| Average lifespan | Unknown; possibly several million years |
| Average Height | Unknown |
| Average Weight | Unknown |
| Limbs | 4 |
| Eyes | 1 |
| Fingers | 10 |
| Toes | Unknown |
| Special adaptations | None |
| Social Structure | |
| Native language | Unknown |
| Sub-groups | None |
| Representatives | Scaroth |
| Allies | None |
| Enemies | The Doctor |
| Appearances | |
| First Appearance | Doctor Who: City of Death (Part 1) |
The Jagaroth were an alien race featured in the television series Doctor Who. Two date, only two members of the Jagaroth race have ever been featured in the series. The first Jagaroth was an unnamed scientist and the other was a pilot known as Scaroth. Scaroth proved to be the central villain of the "City of Death" serial, which aired in the Autumn of 1979. The Jagaroth were characterized by their fleshy, mottled skin and a single eye positioned in the center of their face.
History[]
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The Jagaroth in ancient Egyptian texts.
The Jagaroth were a scientifically advanced and powerful race that existed several million years ago. As once described by Scaroth, the last remaining member of the Jararoth, they were "...infinitely old, infinitely superior". In the distant past, a civil war broke out between the Jagaroth and the entire species was on the verge of extinction. Four million years ago, a Jagaroth scouting patrol came to the planet Earth during its primordial era hoping to colonize it. They found the planet to be completely uninhabitable and prepared to leave. However, the atmospheric thrust motors on their ship were damaged and inoperable. Out of desperation, they attempted to take off using their warp drive, against the advice of warp-field operator Scaroth. The attempt to create a stable warp field so deep inside the planet's gravity-well failed, causing the ship to explode.
The explosion created a massive burst of radiation, which blanketed the entire region. The excessive radioactivity proved to be the catalyst which jump-started the development of life on Earth.
Scaroth miraculously survived the explosion, but not without consequences. His physical essence was splintered into twelve replicated versions of himself and shunted through the time stream to different points in time. Each duplicate operated independently of one another, but was able to maintain telepathic communication with each of the other surviving splinters. These aspects of Scaroth pressed the development of humanity forward, prompting the advancement of technology in the hopes that it would one day be suitable enough to create a time machine so Scaroth could return in time to the point of the ship's explosion and prevent himself from activating the warp field drive.
By the year 1979, Scaroth had succeeded in this task, due in large part to the efforts of a Russian scientist named Fyodor Nikolai Kerensky. A Time Lord known only as the Doctor, accompanied by his companion Romana and a detective named Duggan, learned of Scaroth's plan and attempted to stop him. They warned him that going back and changing time would prevent the radioactive explosion responsible for creating life on Earth, but Scaroth didn't care. Unable to prevent the creation of his time machine, they used their own methods to follow Scaroth into Earth's primordial past and stop him from altering the future. Scaroth then returned to the year 1979 where he was killed just moments after exiting the time machine. With his death, the Jagaroth species became extinct.
Notes & Trivia[]
- As a race, the Jagaroth were only featured in the first chapter of the "City of Death" serial. Scaroth however, appeared in all four chapters.
- The term Jagaroth is used both in the singular and plural context.
- Actor Julian Glover played the role of Scaroth, while Peter Halliday played the 2nd Jagaroth astronaut. Halliday also played a 16th century soldier in parts 2 and 3 of the serial.
- The voices of the Jagaroth consisted of a deep, reverberating echo.