Tuesday 4 July 2017

C is for... Caber


Nickname for the servant to the Duke of Forgill, whose ancestral home is near the shores of Loch Ness. His real name is Gaelic, and the Duke claims the Doctor and his companions wouldn't be able to pronounce it. Presumably the Caber - named after the famous Highland Games sport of tossing the caber - acts as ghillie, or gamekeeper on the estate.
It is a Zygon duplicate of the Caber which the Doctor, Sarah and Harry encounter. When the latter finds a survivor from a wrecked oil-rig washed up on a beach, the Caber shoots them both - killing the crewman and wounding Harry. The real Caber is rescued by the Doctor and escapes the Zygon spaceship before it self-destructs, killing the Zygon who had been impersonating him.

Played by: Robert Russell. Appearances: Terror of the Zygons (1975).

  • A test of strength and skill, tossing the caber entails holding a tree trunk in an upright position, then throwing it forward so that it lands top end down but still vertical. It should fall away from the thrower. You are marked down if it falls to the side or back towards you. Distance thrown isn't part of the scoring. It is usually a larch log that is used, 19 feet 6 inches long, and weighing some 79 kg. 
  • Russell had previously played a guard in Power of the Daleks
  • He was not Scottish.

No comments:

Post a Comment