When the third Doctor visited the purple-skied planet Karfel, he defended a scientist named Megelen, but later had to report Megelen to the inner sanctum for unethical experimentation on Morloxes, creatures native to the caves of Karfel. Unfortunately, this action was apparently not enough to keep Megelen from his experiments. During a later experiment with a Morlox, he was sprayed with a canister of a chemical called Mustakozene-80. The smell excited the Morlox, which broke loose and mauled Megelen. Besides destroying the Morlox (fortunately for Megelen), the Mustakozene-80 also caused a spontaneous tissue amalgamation, turning Megelen into a combined mutant...half-Karfelon and half-Morlox (not so fortunately for him). The upside of this was that Megelen now had increased longevity and massive intellectual growth; the downside was that he had become an extremely ugly creature. The left half of his face was Morlox, with a glittering green eye, while the right half stayed human. His right hand also stayed human, although the left hand mutated into a Morlox flipper. The experiment also left him emanating the bittersweet, sickly smell characteristic of Morloxes.
Horrified by his new appearance, Megelen - now in control of Karfel and calling himself the Borad - outlawed all mirrors from the planet. This was expanded to include banning anything that was shiny. The only mirrors that remained on the planet were components of the amulets that allowed access to the Karfelon power systems. The Borad became a cruel dictator, monitoring the entire citadel and banishing anyone who expressed rebellious thoughts. In his addresses to the Karfelon people, the image seen on the public address screens was that of a grey-haired, bearded man with a kindly voice.
His experiments in various areas never ceased; one of his lines of research was into time experiments. From the results, the Borad fashioned a device which he called the Timelash, through which he sent all the perceived rebellious elements of Karfelon society, never to return again. Other experiments were into cloning technology, at which he succeeded. He also seems to have made advances in android technology; the ones used on Karfel have deep blue skin, golden hair and musical voices, and are armed with some kind of laser gun. Generally the Borad stays in his room within the citadel, seated in a mobile chair equipped with a beam that causes death by rapid aging.
The Borad plans to provoke war with Karfel's neighboring planet, Bandril (which is apparently in a different solar system). Bandril is suffering from a great famine, and is determined to take supplies from Karfel by force if the Borad refuses to uphold his agreement. The Borad intends to do no such thing, and hopes that the Bandrils will destroy Karfel with a weapon that will eradicate all life except for the Morloxes - and, thus, him. He then plans to destroy the Bandrils and repopulate the planet. But in order to do that, he needs a mate...and he finds himself impressed by Peri's pluckiness. Intending to make her into his mate, he attempts to recreate the initial experiment using Peri; fortunately, she is rescued by the Doctor and Herbert. The Doctor then manages to kill the Borad with a time-delayed deflection of his own old-age beam. But Peri and the Doctor soon learn that this was but a clone of the Borad; the real dictator soon turns up to finish his predecessor's work. The Doctor uncovers a mirror in the main room of the citadel; appalled and stunned by seeing his reflection again, the Borad is practically helpless to prevent the Doctor backing him into the Timelash, which he then destroys with a Kontron crystal.
