Minski Minski de Sade was the ruler of an alternate version of France . Created by a flawed alien experiment to better understand human history , Minski ' s creators were the mysterious race known only to the First Doctor as the seemingly extra - dimensional Masksmaster s of the Pageant , who created machines and wore masks to give themselves identities . Intrigued by the relationship between individual psychology and the historical dynamic of Earth , the Masksmasters removed Earth from space - time around the year 1794 . They rebuilt it in a pocket universe within a machine that could regulate and control the physical nature of the world ( it is crucial to note that the Masksmasters were simply curious about what would happen if history was different and did not seek to cause any actual harm to the human race ) . Fascinated by the Marquis de Sade ' s philosophies , which had made him a quirk of his era , they created Minski — a mass of bio - engineered tissue mimicking a human child , although lacking some internal organs such as a heart — to serve as de Sade ' s adopted son on Earth , programming him with an epistemic code based on de Sade ' s philosophies , simultaneously functioning as the system operator . Unfortunately , the Masksmasters miscalculated the effect that de Sade ' s philosophies would have on the project , resulting in Minski becoming corrupted when de Sade ' s epistemic code entered the system . This led to Minski developing independence and seizing control of the system , to the extent that he had de Sade locked up in prison — wearing a velvet mask and known simply as " Prisoner Number Six " to conceal his identity — while replacing him with a clockwork automaton that Minski could more easily control . In this new timeline , the French Revolution never ended , First Deputy Minski single - handedly maintaining his rule for ten years , rebuilding the Bastille during his reign , and the original text of the Marquis de Sade ' s play Justine survived under the name of " The Misfortunes of Virtue " . Determined to spread and cement his control , Minski went on to create engineered cybernetic maggots , capable of infecting humans by feeding on nervous tissue and cerebral matter , travelling to the brain as they fed . The maggots themselves died within hours , but the traces of their engineered DNA that were left in the body as a result of their secretions would leave the victims susceptible to Minski ' s control , as well as being passed on through sexual contact and all subsequent generations , essentially functioning like a genetically - engineered STD . By allowing British and American forces into Paris , where they would drink infected water — as well as having intercourse with the prostitutes Minski had infected with his maggots — the virus would spread across the world , granting Minski complete control of the components of the world - machine rather than just the operating system . However , Minski ' s plans were interrupted when the Doctor and Dodo Chaplet arrived on this new Earth in 1804 , Dodo subsequently being taken in by a group of travelling actors while the Doctor was arrested as a curfew breaker . Sensing the arrival of a strange new power in his world , Minski had the TARDIS brought to him in an attempt to learn its secrets , unaware that the Doctor had been left in Prisoner No . 6 ' s cell due to a filing error after No . 6 ' s scheduled execution had been postponed by the prison governor . Despite the Doctor ' s weakened condition — he was aware that he was nearing the end of his first incarnation , but was struggling to resist his approaching regeneration because he was afraid of losing a part of himself when he changed into his next body — he managed to escape the Bastille with the aid of No . 6 , subsequently using No . 6 ' s unique insight into the world that the Masksmasters had created to find a way into the machine that controlled the world , confronting the controllers of this world with his knowledge of their actions . Although the Doctor and No . 6 were subsequently captured by Minski and placed in his " murder machine " — a maze with multiple death - traps in it — after the Doctor refused to provide Minski with access to the TARDIS , they were able to escape the traps as the maze was designed based on Sade ' s mind , giving No . 6 a unique insight into how the maze worked . Aided by the severed head of a guard who had been through the world machine earlier — reanimated as part of Minski ' s experiments and briefly used as a vessel for the Masksmasters to communicate with Minski — the Doctor deduce d Minski ' s true agenda , the head providing him with a key to access the heart of the World Machine . With Sade now loathing the corruption of the Revolution he had dreamt of at Minski ' s hands — the Doctor discovering the automaton Sade ' s true nature when it tried to attack him — he attacked and wounded Minski , Minski subsequently being stabbed by one of his guards when his attempt to convince her to act as a host in which he could heal himself merely exposed her to the true horror of what he was . Flinging Minski ' s body into the Machine ' s heart to bring the system to a halt by ending his control over it , the Doctor convinced the Masksmasters to turn back time and undo their interference in Earth ' s history , the Masksmasters promising that they would never again carry out such experiments . ( PROSE : " The Man in the Velvet Mask " )