| “ | Damn it! You humanzzz, worshipping your tribal sky godzzz; I am so much more! That night, the universe exploded in my mind! I wanted to take what wazzzz mine! And you, Agatha Christie, with your railway station bookstore romancezzzz, whatzzzz to stop me killing you? [...] Whatzzzz to stop me killing you all?! | „ |
| ~ The Vespiform after it's identity is revealed |
The Vespiform is the main antagonist of the Doctor Who episode "The Unicorn and the Wasp".
He was portrayed by Tom Goodman-Hill, who also played Tony in Fungus the Bogeyman and Sanderson Reed in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
History
The Vespiform are a race of giant wasp like aliens native to the Silfrax Galaxy. In 1886, a member of the species landed on Earth in Dehli, India, to study the human race. Taking on a human form and adopting the name 'Christopher', it met Lady Clemency Eddison, and the two fell in love. Eddison loved him so much that she did not care when he showed her his true form, and the relationship produced a child. Sadly, the romance ended in tradgedy; Christopher died soon after in a monsoon flood, but not before giving Eddison the Firestone jewel, which was in actuality a Vespiform telepathic recorder.
Following her return to England, Eddison shut herself away for 6 months, claiming she had contracted malaria, during which she gave birth to a son. Due to the shame a child born out of wedlock would bring to her family, she gave the child up for adoption. The child grew up to be Arnold Golightly, who was raised in an orphange and grew up to become a vicar. One evening, Golightly caught two men stealing from his church, greatly angering him for the first time in his life. Having been locked in human form up until that point, the rage broke this lock and Golightly transformed into his wasp form for the first time, terrifying the two thieves into submission. At the exact same time, Lady Eddison had been reading The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie. She was wearing the Firestone around her neck, which transmitted Golightly's true identity to his brain. However, due to Eddison reading an Agatha Christie novel at the time, the words were transmitted to him as well, becoming his template on how the world worked. Now aware of his true origins, Golightly decided to claim what he thought was rightfully his: the Eddison title.
Soon later, Golightly was invited to a party at Eddison Manor, the place where he was born 40 years prior. Among the guests included Professor Peach, socialite Robina Redmond (who was actually a notorious jewel thief known as The Unicorn, who had attended the party to steal the Firestone), and Agatha Christie herself. The Doctor and Donna Noble also invited themselves thanks to The Doctor's psychic paper. When Professor Peach discovered Golightly's birth certificate, Golightly killed him by striking him on the head with a lead pipe. He later killed Miss Chandrakala by dropping a gargoyle onto her (as she had helped cover up Lady Eddison's pregnancy), and attempted to kill The Doctor by poisoning him with cyanide. All of these murders, included his attempted one on the Doctor, were performed in the style of an Agatha Christie novel.
After killing his half-brother, Roger Curbishley, by stabbing him in the back with a bread knife, Golightly was exposed as the murderer by Agatha and The Doctor. Enraged, he transformed back into his wasp form and prepared to kill everyone in the room, but Agatha used the Firestone to lure him to a nearby lake, with The Doctor and Donna in close pursuit. As The Doctor attempted to reason with him, Donna took the Firestone and threw it into the lake. Connected to the Firestone, Golightly flew into the lake and drowned, nearly taking Agatha with him due to the mental connection they shared because of his mind being based on her thought processes. However, in his last moments, Golightly redeemed himself by severing the connection, saving Agatha's life.
The severing of the connection caused Agatha to suffer from amnesia, and the Doctor and Donna dropped her off at the Swan Hydropathic Hotel ten days later with the TARDIS, coinciding with Agatha Christie's historical disappearance. Despite her amnesia, Agatha's memories of the events at Eddison Manor emerged in her storytelling, such as story ideas given to her by The Doctor and Donna (including the character Miss Marple and the basic plot of Murder on the Orient Express) and a copy of Death in the Clouds which featured a giant wasp on the cover.
Trivia
- Golighty's identity as the Vespiform and the murderer is foreshadowed during his questioning by the Doctor and Agatha; while the other suspects are revealed to by hiding something in each of their testimonies, Golightly is instead portrayed as being completely honest when he claims to have been unpacking in his room during Professor Peach's murder. Once he is revealed at the finale of the episode, it transpires that Golightly was actually the only suspect who was completely lying in his testimony.
