The Stranger (video Series) - History of The Stranger

History of The Stranger

In a pan-dimensional area referred to as the "Dimensional Web", there exist two races: the Protectorate, which are currently dominant and in charge, and the Preceptors, apparently defeated by the Protectorate. The Preceptors act by taking on corporeal forms within the material universe and carry out random acts of violence, terrorism and assassination in an effort to strike back at their oppressors (although it is never truly determined which race is in the right and which is in the wrong, so it is difficult to say whether the Preceptors are terrorists or freedom fighters), usually in teams of two or three. One such Preceptor cell is headed by Solomon, considered one of the top Preceptor leaders. His second-in-command and partner is Egan (played by David Troughton) and the third member of the team is a relative newcomer named Saul (John Wadmore). Solomon and Egan have worked together for a long time and therefore have complete faith in one another.

However, one mission, while accomplishing the objective (the assassination of an unimportant female caterer), ends in disaster with Solomon being captured by the Protectorate and Egan and Saul managing to escape. Since the Protectorate no longer believe in execution (their own past is too bloody for that) and incarceration would be a drain on their resources, Solomon is selected to be the first to undergo a new process – the Estrangement Programme, in which the prejudices of the subject are "extracted" by a form of mental block or conditioning and wiping out all past memories of the subject's "crimes" (the Protectorate state emphatically that this is not brainwashing).

Note: In the audio adventure "The Last Mission", it is revealed that during the above mission Solomon was captured by the planet's local security force, but the officer in charge (Elisabeth Sladen) turned out to be a Protectorate agent who had set a trap for all three Preceptors. While Solomon was in her custody, she offered Solomon a deal in which, in return for her allowing the Preceptors to accomplish their mission and Egan and Saul's escape, Solomon would surrender himself to the Protectorate and undergo the then-experimental Estrangement Programme. Believing that his beliefs were not prejudices and that the program would not affect him, he agreed, never revealing the bargain to Egan and Saul.

After Solomon undergoes the procedure, he is assigned a Protectorate observer who also acts as a companion, Miss Brown (Nicola Bryant), and begins his new life as the Doctor-like "Stranger". However, in the adventure In Memory Alone, the Stranger, while suffering from amnesia and in order to defeat a malfunctioning combat suit, is forced to hook up his own brain to a computer system, and the resulting shock causes the mental conditioning to be disrupted. The Stranger arrives in England on Earth in The Terror Game still suffering from amnesia, but runs into Egan and Saul (who now believe that the Stranger, now identified as "Solomon", may have turned traitor) and Tamora Hennessay (Louise Jameson).

After Tamora reveals herself to be another Protectorate agent, Solomon escapes and goes into hiding under the name of "Preston Richards" while slowly recovering his lost memories and trying to learn whether or not he's still being affected by the Estrangement Programme. In the adventure Breach of the Peace, Egan and Saul, using the identities of Metropolitan Police detectives, track Solomon down and force him to take them back into the Web, but Metaphysic, a heavily guarded research project where an experiment in psychokinesis is being conducted by a Dr Hunter (Geoffrey Beevers) on a talented girl named Meta (Bernadette Gepheart), causes a tear in the Web that drags Solomon, Egan and Saul back to England (Eye of the Beholder) and forces them to intervene when Hunter's experiment goes out of control.