Sandbox:Charles Decker
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
This page is a sandbox. Sandboxed pages are unfinished and not yet approved. Information found here may be unpolished or unverified. |
|---|
Dr. Charles Decker is the the protagonist and villain of the 1961 film Konga. He is a jealous, narrow-minded, and self-serving botanist and professor at Essex College. After being lost in the jungles of Uganda, he returns with the secrets that connect plant and animal life, which allows him to create a growth serum that he gives to his ape minion Konga.
In the Charlton Comics series of Konga comics, Decker is more sympathetic, and only accidentally orders Konga to kill his enemies with psychic suggestion.
History
- Konga (1961)
Konga
While flying over the African jungle, Dr. Decker's private plane burst into flames. The news was carried back to England, where he and his pilot were presumed dead. After a year in Uganda, Decker returned home to much media attention. He claimed that he had bailed out of the plane in time and been rescued by the local natives, a Bantu people called the Bagandas. He chose to remain with them for his year-long disappearance due to his discovery and subsequent study of unique local insectivorous plants. He revealed to the media that if he could prove his theories derived from his study, it would rewrite the human understanding of the connections between plant and animal life. One other thing he brought with him from Uganda was a baby chimpanzee named Konga, who he claimed had helped lead him to the village where he had stayed. He went on to declare that the two had become close friends, and he could not have beared to leave the young ape behind.
When he returned to his home, he enjoyed a drink and spoke to his combination secretary, housekeeper, assistant, and sometimes lover Margaret. She had kept his experiments running during his time away as per his written instruction, and the two had kept a correspondence of letters over the past year. Decker quickly showed her his experiments and cleared his greenhouse to make way for some rare Ugandan plants, with which he believed he had discovered the secret of rapid exponential growth. It was Decker's belief that the plants had "human" properties that would have fascinating ramifications for the scientific community, and that when injected into the bloodstream, they would produce "human" effects. Margaret did not understand his ambition, and they went to bed. The next day, Decker set to work in his basement laboratory. As he processed the plants he told Margaret about the native "witch-doctor" who had aided him and shown him some of his concoctions for promoting growth in animals, but Decker noticed as well that the man would control his patients with seeds that made them suggestible and obedient. He became so passionate during his speech that his solution boiled over, spilling onto the floor. Margaret and Decker's cat Tabby then began licking at the strange green liquid. Decker was aghast at Margaret's carelessness to let him into the lab, and grabbed his gun from a nearby drawer. He proceded to shoot the cat two times before menacing Margaret, and claiming that even a few drops could have made Tabby grow to the size of a leopard, and that either way Konga was going to be his experimental subject. He resolves to bury Tabby in the yard that night.
After only a week, Decker's Ugandan sprouts had reached maturity, and bloomed into three varieties of strange, carnivorous plant. After harvesting some of their leaves, he returned to the basement, where he injected his alleged friend Konga with his green growth serum. Before his and Margaret's eyes, Konga grew into a young adult chimpanzee.
Decker then went back to teaching at Essex College. He gave a presentation on his time away, and spoke about the Baganda people. After class, his student Sandra stayed behind to help prepare diagrams as per his request. Decker thanked her and admired how much she had grown since they last met, in both intellect and in beauty. He invited her to take part in extracirricular activities and to become his assistant at school, which she, being a person with ambitions of becoming a scientist, happily obliged. Decker then went to a meeting with the school's Dean H.C. Foster. Foster informed him of various reprecussions the school had been met with as a result of some of Decker's recent interviews, and his claims of revolutionizing the connection between plant and animal life. It was Foster's belief that his claims would damage Essex College's reputation. Decker insisted that he was truly close to using plant cells to create directed mutation in human beings, but the Dean was not swayed. He insisted that Decker needed rest after his ordeal in Uganda. Decker shouted at him that he would not be stopped and stormed out.
That night he mutated Konga again and he came to resemble an upright gorilla. Decker hypnotized him and sent him to assassinate the Dean as a test of obedience. Konga was successful, and a few days later, Margaret accosted him about it in the greenhouse. Decker insisted that if she went to the authorities, she would be seen as just as guilty as him, and that Foster's death was akin to that of a lab rat, giving its life for scientific advancement. He assured Margaret that he would not kill her, and she insists that he must marry her. Decker plays along with this, and claims he will do so after the school term but is careful to remind her that their public-facing relationship must not change until then.
When summoned for questioning by Scotland Yard, Decker insisted that he and Dean Foster had not had any kind of argument on the night of his death, and could not help them in their investigation. Later on, he hosted a party at his house, and invited an Indian botanist called professor Tagore, who informed Decker that the two of them were researching the same topics. Decker offered to collaborate, but Tagore refused, claiming that he could not now add collaborators since he was so close to a breakthrough. He did however agree to let Decker see his work and offer comment that night after the party. Decker brought Konga to Tagore's house in his van, and left its back door, and Tagore's front door open. Inside he learned that he was in fact ahead of Tagore, who had not yet achieved mutation. Decker shouted that his glory would not be taken from him, and Konga then strangled Tagore to death and trashed the lab while Decker stole his research papers.
The next day Decker took his students out for field research. He insisted Sandra sit up front with him, and rejected her friend Bob, insisting that he court her on his own time. He then told Sandra that he saw her as more than a student and hoped they could find some time alone together.
Books
Konga
Comics
- Konga #1-2, 7, 12 (1961-1965)
- Konga's Revenge #1 (1962-1964)
Konga (1961-1965)
"Konga"
Decker is not a creep and Konga's killing is an accident.
"Return of Konga"
Bob and Sandra make another Konga.
"Konga Meets the Creatures from Beyond Space"
Konga, despite this being an entirely new creature named Konga with no relation to the previous beast, remembers befriending Decker and the events of the film.
Konga issue #12
Konga's Revenge
"A Mate for Konga"
Gallery
Promotional materials
-
Decker and Margaret on a lobby card -
Decker, Sandra, and Bob on a lobby card -
A lobby card with Decker in Konga's hand at Elizabeth Tower -
Promotional still of Decker & Margaret in the greenhouse -
Promotional still of Decker feeding the carnivorous plants -
TV promotional still of Decker and Konga lying dead -
TV promotional still of Decker in the lab -
TV promotional still of Decker and Margaret with Konga -
TV promotional still of Decker and Konga at Elizabeth Tower
Trivia
- In his relationship with Sandra, Decker exhibits almost all of the behaviors associated with sexual grooming.
Comments
Showing 0 comments. When commenting, please remain respectful of other users, stay on topic, and avoid role-playing and excessive punctuation. Comments which violate these guidelines may be removed by administrators.