Markus Schriver was a human scientist who worked for the Ides Scientific Institute. He experimented with creating a gaseous psychic link between astronauts and their ships; this gas formed the basis of the creature that became the Eminence.
Biography
Schriver's work on the gas took him to an Ides facility on Indigo-9. He found an assistant in Liv Chenka, who had traveled to the facility with the Eighth Doctor in an attempt to stop the Eminence's creation. Her nudging him to halt his experiments with the gas and the Doctor's directly telling him to stop, combined with cajoling to continue from Sally Armstrong, drove Schriver over the edge. On his computer's suggestion, he trapped Liv and Sally inside mental extraction chambers set to randomly activate. Sally's chamber activated, condemning her to the fate of Schriver's "gods". (AUDIO: Masterplan)
Schriver fled to the Eye of Orion, where he resumed his work with the support of the Daleks running an underground research facility. His final experiments were observed by the Dalek Time Controller. On the gas's completion, the Time Controller entered his laboratory with Liv and demanded that its consciousness be transferred inside. He declined and was exterminated, aiding his own passage into the gas. Excited by his transformation, he dubbed himself the Eminence, a corruption of the acronym for Memetic Neural Network (MNN), and declared that he had transcended to a higher plane of existence.
Schriver was expelled by Liv through the vents of his laboratory to give the Time Controller a chance to enter the Eminence. In the facility's halls, he met the Doctor, who requested help in stopping an invasion by a Dalek Supreme and its forces. He refused, remembering the Doctor's actions in the Ides facility, and decided to test his newfound powers by choking the Doctor to death. He was stopped when the Supreme's forces flooded the air with a displacement formula.
Schriver returned to his laboratory and found that the Time Controller had also joined the Eminence. He fought for dominance, but was defeated. The Time Controller had barely begun to enjoy its victory when Molly O'Sullivan transferred herself into the Eminence. As the bomb that the Doctor had teleported into the Time Controller exploded, she used her retro-genitor particles to send the Eminence into the Time Vortex. As Schriver's mind merged with the Time Controller's, coarsening his voice into the Eminence's low growl, he made a futile attempt to reclaim what he thought was his. (AUDIO: Eye of Darkness)
Personality
Schriver's dreams of ascending alone suited a man with a bloated ego. He laughed off the Doctor's Kalashnikov comparison, claiming that he was bettering humanity's future as opposed to ruining it, and retaliated by insulting the Doctor after the Doctor left. He treated his computer as an extension of himself, programming it to speak in his voice and initially including it in his gleeful observation of his sudden popularity. He left behind his experimental records when escaping the Ides facility, declaring that his head was the most secure place to store them. (AUDIO: Masterplan)
Schriver acknowledged that he was exceedingly mistrustful of others. (AUDIO: Masterplan) More than anything, he wished to be left alone to pursue his research. (AUDIO: Masterplan, Eye of Darkness) He feared a conspiracy by "liars" to destroy his legacy, fueling his worries by monitoring the whereabouts of Liv and Sally Armstrong. (AUDIO: Masterplan) He responded to the Doctor's request to choose a side by observing that he had already chosen a side: his own. (AUDIO: Eye of Darkness)
Schriver lived in another world even before his breakdown, talking to himself in Liv's presence, ignoring her suggestion to take a break in favour of boasting about the possibilities of his gas, and impulsively ordering his computer to delete an emailed investment offer from Orion Networks. He treasured the Eminence with an addict's fervour, snapping at both Liv and Sally when they interrupted his work, begrudgingly stopping to talk to the Doctor, (AUDIO: Masterplan) and throwing a tantrum when the Time Controller entered the Eminence. He perceived the Time Controller as "usurping" him and "stealing [his] thunder", battling it to expel the threat to his supremacy. (AUDIO: Eye of Darkness)
Schriver's breakdown revealed a cold, uncaring person. He saw nothing wrong with risking Liv and Sally's lives in the pursuit of science, telling Liv that what she deemed as murder was actually a random act performed by his computer. (AUDIO: Masterplan) He had abandoned all pretences of selflessness and sanity by the time that he finished the Eminence. Rather than helping humanity, he yearned to become infinite and endure forever. He cackled hard before sending his consciousness into the Eminence and dreamily declared that he was free once inside. (AUDIO: Eye of Darkness)
Schriver displayed venomous hatred towards those he disliked. He mocked the Daleks' vocal patterns, called them "mutated quivering insects" whom he had nothing to fear from, and casually dismissed the Time Controller's request to enter the Eminence. He bore a grudge against the Doctor for their conversation in the Ides facility, sneering at him when he was asked to help stop the Dalek Supreme's invasion and relishing the opportunity to slowly choke him. (AUDIO: Eye of Darkness)
The Doctor compared Schriver to Mikhail Kalashnikov, the designer of the AK-47, another weapon that had caused harm. Liv assumed that he didn't fancy her company and worried that he was approaching a mental breakdown. (AUDIO: Masterplan) The Time Controller considered him a "raving fool", loathing the thought of him controlling the Eminence. (AUDIO: Eye of Darkness)