The red
dragon Scaborous was presumably an early version of
Bhal-Shebah, a.k.a.
Firestorm of
Marblehead. Several months before
Series 8 was filmed,
Lord Fear’s Diary in
The Quest newsletter mentioned that
Sylvester Hands had somehow managed to acquire this monstrous and intimidating reptile. His Lordship went on to say: "
I can't wait for the next season to start and see how 'Old Scabby' sets about the Powers that Be. 'Powers that Were' - more likely."
There was no explanation as to why the dragon's name had changed by the time the season began, or why he'd developed a split personality that in fact made him useless for guard duty. The original diary entry may be regarded as non-canonical, or else it's possible that Scaborous was replaced with a different dragon after proving uncontrollable. Several creative and amusing theories can be found in
this forum thread.
