The Unknown Inspector

The Unknown Inspector
Vital statistics
Also known as:	The Undercover Inspector
Planet of Origin:	Kayaclasch
Species	Infinity Knight
Gender:	Male
Appears In:	The Alias of the Inspector, The Twilight of the Inspector, The Night of the Inspector, The Golden Jubilee of the Inspector 2012 Christmas Special
Portrayed By:	William Hurt
Talk Page

"The Unknown Inspector" refers to the mysterious individual who appeared at the end of the episode "The Alias of the Inspector" and in the webisode "The Twilight of the Inspector" and the 50th anniversary special, "The Night of the Inspector".  He is played by American actor William Hurt.

"The Alias of the Inspector"

The Inspector goes undercover

After the apparent destruction of the Supreme Counter-Intelligence, the Eleventh Inspector and Geneva return to the BOOTH and find a shadowy figure inside. He opens the door and tells the Inspector to follow him somewhere. The Inspector obeys him without saying a word as the stranger pulls out a revolver. Geneva asks the Inspector who this man is and why he must follow him, but he only answers, "I can't do anything against him. He is me!"

As the BOOTH fades away, the words appear on screen "With WILLIAM HURT Playing THE INSPECTOR!"

"The Twilight of the Inspector"

The Unknown Inspector in mid-transformation

In a surprise return appearance of Steve Carell, the Eighth Inspector prepares to go undercover to investigate a secret group of renegade Infinity Knights. He clandestinely adopts the identity of the Unknown Inspector with the special assistance of the Teman Mothers, who use their mystic water to transform him in a different version of the standard Infinity Knight metamorphosis. What he does not suspect is that his inquiries will lead into the Time Wave…

"The Night of the Inspector"/"The Golden Jubilee of the Inspector" 2012 Christmas Special

Discovering the fanatical Inspector General is behind the renegades, the Unknown Inspector goes on the run and enlists the aid of the Eighth, Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh Inspectors and their respective Associates. Banding together to as "The Inspector Detail", they attempt to avert the renegades setting off the Time Wave in their private war against the Blorgons.

In the end, however, the Unknown Inspector concludes that the only way to prevent history from remembering the Infinity Knights as having been as bad as the Blorgons, if not worse, is for him to obliterate both sides with the Trans-Temporal Tourbillon—even though this means his taking responsibility for the Time Wave. Only through the intervention of the Eleventh Inspector is he prevented from using it, although metamorphosis its destruction triggers does not go as expected...

The US Inspector Spacetime 2012 Thanksgiving Special

As part of the celebrations for Inspector Spacetime's 50th anniversary celebrations, the American remake aired crossover special for Thanksgiving that featured the Unknown Inspector. In it, he visits the American Inspector to reveal to him that he is not the original but only an alternate from a separate timeline created by echoes from the Time Wave. Fearing that this counterpart might lose sight of his mission, he proposes a series of eleven trials, based on the adventures of his past selves, that would test his moral code. Each time a trial is completed, they proceed to the next incarnation of the Inspector through an alternate process called "trans-metamorphosis". Should he fail at any time, the Unknown Inspector will atomise him for changing into a potentially dangerous figure unworthy of being called "The Inspector".

In the final test, the Unknown Inspector introduces a child he claims has the potential to grow up to be a threat to all of space and time, leaving the American Inspector with the choice of killing him or sacrificing himself to let him survive. The American Inspector deduces that this is a trick question and that both he and the child are one in the same. He then encourages the child to go out and see the universe, with the hope of befriending other alien life, thereby encouraging himself to do the same once more. With his faith in his counterpart confirmed, the American Inspector returns to his BOOTH so he can celebrate Thanksgiving with his associate and best friend, the Ensign.

Fan Theories

While waiting for the 50th anniversary special to explain the character, fans tried to guess who this Inspector was and where he fit in the show's timeline. Some popular theories include him being the Anti-Inspector, the fourteenth incarnation of the Inspector, a young First Inspector, or even the Indictor.

• The situation was further confused when the US Inspector Spacetime 2012 Thanksgiving Special aired before BTV's official 50th Specials since the former had to be written without access to much of the plot twists in the latter due to Stefan Toffat's obsessive secrecy. Fans still argue over whether the crossover should be considered canon or ignored as an inconvenient fact (like Charity Galloway stating she was the Eighth Inspector's niece in the TV Movie).

Trivia

• The Unknown Inspector's hat is an oblique character allusion to the broad-brimmed fedora worn by Christopher Lee's early non-canonical "Inspector Spacetime" in the 1964 and 1965 films.