Doctor Who & Spin-Offs A-Z Game

[Guest]

R ~ 'Revenge of the Cybermen' - First broadcast in four weekly parts from April 19 to May 10, 1975.

Synopsis:

Returning from Skaro by means of the Time Ring, the Doctor, Harry and Sarah find themselves back on Space Station Nerva but millennia earlier, where a lethal infection is spreading through the crew.

[Alan]

S ~ Smith, Sarah Jane - Sarah Jane Smith was originally a journalist and then companion with the third and then fourth incarnations of the Doctor. Afterwards, still a journalist, she worked first with K-9 Mk. III and then solo, uncovering evil plots on the side. In the late 2000s, while living in Ealing, she worked with her adopted son Luke and several young friends to fight evil aliens.

Sarah Jane Smith was introduced in the 1973 Doctor Who story The Time Warrior. She made her last regular appearance in the 1976 story The Hand of Fear. Her next appearance was in the 1981 one-off TV movie K-9 and Company: A Girl's Best Friend. She then returned in the 1983 TV movie The Five Doctors and then in the 2006 story School Reunion and the 2008 story The Stolen Earth. She is currently the lead character in Doctor Who's second spin-off series, The Sarah Jane Adventures which started in 2007.

[Guest]

T ~ Telos - Telos is an arid and mountainous planet, with little sign of vegetation. Beneath its surface, however, are the legendary tombs of the Cybermen. The planet was featured in the serials 'The Tomb of the Cybermen' and 'Attack of the Cybermen'.

Telos was originally covered entirely in ice, and inhabited by the Cryons, humanoids who could survive only in the cold. As temperatures rose, the Cryons were forced underground, building giant refrigerated cities as shelter. When the Cybermen entered the Telos system, they took over the planet, using the cities as cryogenic facilities.

The Cybermen disappeared sometime in the 21st century, following defeats around human-occupied space. Although the rest of the galaxy presumed them to have died out, they had, in reality, retreated into hibernation in the tombs of Telos to await discovery and reactivation.

Sometime around the 25th century, a team of archeologists, led by Professor Parry and financed by the Brotherhood of Logicians, embarked on an expedition to Telos, believing it to be the Cyberman homeworld and hoping to discover artefacts amongst its ruins. No Cryons were encountered during these events and it is not known what the Cryons were doing during the Cybermen's long sleep.

Uncovering the entrance to the tombs, Eric Klieg of the Brotherhood brought the Cybermen out of hibernation in an attempt to ally the Brotherhood with them. However, the Cybermen were intent on converting all of the expedition and once more begin their expansion. The Second Doctor and companions Jamie McCrimmon and Victoria Waterfield were on hand to help the survivors of the expedition escape the tombs and then reseal them.

However, this respite was short-lived, as by the 26th century the Cybermen had once again developed into a galactic threat. When the Sixth Doctor arrived on Telos inside the tombs, the Cyber Controller captured and imprisoned him in a refrigeration chamber. There, he met Flast, the leader of a Cryon rebellion against the Cybermen, who revealed the presence of stores of vastial in the chamber, an unstable mineral that became explosive at temperatures above 15 degrees Fahrenheit. Using a sonic lance, they ignited the vastial, destroying the Cyber Control. With the Cybermen destroyed, the Cryons regained their planet.

[Alan]

U ~ Unified Intelligence Taskforce - UNIT or Unified Intelligence Taskforce (formerly known as the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce) was a military organisation which operates under the auspices of the United Nations. Its purpose was to investigate and combat paranormal and extraterrestrial threats to the Earth. The Doctor was UNIT's scientific advisor during his 3-year exile to Earth and continued to help them even after his exile was lifted.

The roots of the organisation itself, however lay, in previous alien encounters. The Intrusion Countermeasures Group headed by Group Captain Ian Gilmore, which got involved in the Shoreditch Incident in 1963 (as seen in the 1988 story Remembrance of the Daleks) served as a specialised military force with scientific assistance would seem almost a trial run for UNIT, though not an international organisation. Though Gilmore did have two scientific advisors, the seventh incarnation of the Doctor did most of the work, here, on the technical end.

UNIT was formerly set-up in 1967 following incidents in the London Underground in 1965 (as seen in the 1968 story The Web of Fear) and at the London Post Office Tower in 1966 (as seen in the 1966 story The War Machines). The UK branch of UNIT had its baptism of fire fighting off the Cybermen in 1969 (as seen in the 1968 story The Invasion).

UNIT is still active today.

[Guest]

V ~ 'Vengeance on Varos' - First broadcast in two weekly parts from January 19 to January 26, 1985.

The Doctor visits the planet Varos to obtain supplies of a rare ore called zeiton 7, vital to the functioning of the TARDIS. Varos was once a colony for the criminally insane and the descendants of the original guards still rule, while the poverty-stricken people are kept entertained by screenings of public torture from the Punishment Dome.

Their Governor has been trying to negotiate a better export price for zeiton ore from Sil, an envoy of the Galatron Mining Corporation, whose reptilian body is supported and kept cool by a mobile water tank.

The Doctor and Peri meet two rebels, Jondar and Areta. Peri and Areta are captured and almost reshaped into beast-like creatures by Quillam, the Dome's sadistic commandant, but the Doctor saves them and tells the Governor the true value of zeiton 7.

Quillam and Varos's Chief Officer, who are in the pay of the Corporation, try to kill the Doctor and the Governor but are themselves despatched. Sil plans an invasion of Varos by a force from his home world, Thoros-Beta, but the Corporation veto this and instruct him to buy the zeiton ore at any price.

[Alan]

W ~ World War VI - World War VI was a conflict that began in the year 5000 when the Supreme Alliance used the Peking Homunculus to assassinate the Commissioner of the Icelandic Alliance. It was mentioned in the 1977 story The Talons of Weng-Chiang.

The Peking Homunculus was created by Magnus Greel in Peking, and was sent as a gift to the Commissioner of the Icelandic Alliance. Though it was believed to be a toy for his children, it was actually an assassin and killed the Commissioner and his family. This sparked off a war between the Icelandic Alliance and the Supreme Alliance.

Since Magnus Greel was known as "the Butcher of Brisbane", this title may have been earned during a battle of World War VI.

For a while, the Supreme Alliance was in power, but soon the war turned against them in the final battle for Reykjavik (a war which the Doctor was involved with). After the conflict, Magnus Greel took the Peking Homunculus and escaped through time to the 19th century using a Time cabinet.

[Guest]

X ~ Xeraphin - The Xeraphin were an ancient species encountered by the Fifth Doctor in the story 'TimeFlight'. Originating from the planet Xeriphas, they possessed immense psychokinetic and scientific powers. The Doctor believed the race to have been wiped out during the crossfire during the Vardon/Kosnax war. Instead, the entire race fled to Earth in an escaping spacecraft. The ship crashed near present day Heathrow some 140 million years ago. When the Xeraphin emerged they built a Citadel to mark their new home but the Xeraphin were so plagued with radiation that they abandoned their original humanoid bodies and transformed into a single bioplasmic gestalt intelligence within a sarcophagus at the heart of the Citadel.

The arrival of the Master coincided with their emergence from the gestalt state when the radiation effects had subsided, and his influence caused the emergence of a split personality of good and evil, each side competing for their tremendous power while yearning to become a proper species once again. The Master, who was stranded on Earth at the time too, succeeded in capturing the Xeraphin as a new power source for his TARDIS. However, the Doctor's intervention meant his nemesis' TARDIS was sent to Xeriphas where events became out of his control.

[Alan]

Y ~ Yarvell - Yarvell was a Kaled female, the daughter of Colonel Nasgard and Lady Calcula, and the older half-sister of Davros. She featured in the Big Finish Productions audio series, I, Davros.

Yarvell loved her father but resented her mother for constantly favouring Davros over her, and was disgusted by her brother's interest in animal life. At age 18, she was a member of the Military Youth, but was frustrated at how long it was taking for her to become an officer. She befriended Major Brogan when he brought Nasgard home, and when he comforted her when she grieved her father's death, he revealed his pacifist beliefs to her. She was devastated when she was forced to help execute Brogan, believing him to be innocent, and was horrified at Davros's request to have Brogan's body for experimentation.

By age 31, Yarvell had become an officer of the Kaled military, and member of the peace movement. When she learned of Davros's part in a mission to destroy a Thal weapon development facility, she told some of her contacts in the peace movement, who warned the Thals of the attack. She didn't want her brother dead, just removed from the war effort as she saw him as a threat to peace. After Calcula tricked Yarvell into revealing the truth, she drowned her in the swimming pool at their home. Davros acquired her body for his experiments.

After Davros was rescued from the Thals by Nyder, he hallucinated conversing with his mother and sister.

[Guest]

Z ~ Zarbi - The Zarbi appeared in the 1965 First Doctor story 'The Web Planet', and are an (ant-like) insectoid species, with some characteristics associated with beetles, from the planet Vortis, which were controlled by the power of the Animus. They are roughly eight feet long, and the Menoptra claim, perhaps a little callously, that they are "little more than cattle".

They possess little intelligence but were not at all aggressive until the Animus arrived. They were enslaved to the alien consciousness and considered the butterfly-like Menoptra (with which they once lived peacefully) their mortal enemies. Only they could control the woodlouse-like venom grubs (also known as larvae guns).

They returned to their normal ways after the Animus was defeated by the First Doctor, Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright and Vicki. It is presumed that the various species on Vortis are now living peacefully together.

[Alan]

A ~ Aliens of London - 2005 story starring Christopher Eccleston as "The Doctor" and Billie Piper as "Rose Tyler".

Guest starring Noel Clarke as "Mickey Smith" and introducing Naoko Mori as "Toshiko Sato".

Synopsis
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The Doctor takes Rose home. But when a spaceship crash-lands in the Thames, London is closed off, and the whole world goes on Red Alert. While the Doctor investigates the alien survivor, Rose discovers that her home is no longer a safe haven. Who are the Slitheen?

Trivia
------

• This story introduces the Raxacoricofallapatorian race and the family Slitheen. They would return again in the story Boom Town and later in the spin-off series The Sarah Jane Adventures in the stories Revenge of the Slitheen, The Lost Boy, and in the Comic Relief mini-episode From Raxacoricofallapatorius With Love.
  
  
• Introducing the character of Toshiko Sato who went on to become a regular character in spin-off series Torchwood.
  
  
• UNIT returns for the first time since the 1989 story Battlefield.
  
  
• Albion Hospital is seen for the first time. It would feature again in the story The Empty Child.

[Guest]

B ~ 'Battlefield' - First broadcast in four weekly parts from September 6 to September 27, 1989.

The TARDIS materialises in the English countryside near the village of Carbury, where a nuclear missile convoy under the command of UNIT's Brigadier Winifred Bambera has run into difficulties. Lying on the bed of the nearby Lake Vortigern is a spaceship from another dimension containing the body of King Arthur, supposedly held in suspended animation, and his sword Excalibur.

Ancelyn, a knight from the other dimension, arrives on Earth to aid the King but is followed by his rival Mordred and the latter's mother, a powerful sorceress named Morgaine. They all recognise the Doctor as Merlin - a fact that the Time Lord attributes to events in his own future.

A battle breaks out between UNIT and Morgaine's men. Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart has come out of retirement to assist in the crisis and ends up using silver bullets to kill the Destroyer - an awesomely powerful creature unshackled by Morgaine to devour the world - although he himself is almost killed in the process.

Morgaine tries to fire the nuclear missile but is overcome by shock when the Doctor tells her that Arthur is in fact dead. She and her son are then taken prisoner by UNIT.

[Alan]

C ~ Cooper, Gwen - Gwen Elizabeth Cooper was a Cardiff Police Constable before she joined Torchwood 3.

Gwen was a uniformed police constable when she was called in on a murder scene, only to encounter a mysterious team of individuals known only as "Torchwood". She got involved when she stumbled across the team investigating one of several murders covertly carried out by one of Torchwood's own personnel, the devious Suzie Costello. She also witnessed the killing of a hospital porter by a Weevil, an obviously non-human being. Captain Jack Harkness took her on a tour of the Hub, after which he dosed her with retcon, a drug that induces selective amnesia, but she still managed to make notes on her meeting with the team. Subsequently, she joined Torchwood at the invitation of Captain Jack Harkness, who valued her empathetic nature and ability to see beyond the facts.

Gwen's first appearance was in Torchwood's première episode Everything Changes. She also made a guest appearance in the 2008 Doctor Who story The Stolen Earth.

[Guest]

D ~ Davros - Davros is an archenemy of the Doctor and is responsible for the creation of the Doctor's deadliest enemies, the Daleks. Davros was created by screenwriter Terry Nation.

Davros is a scientist from the planet Skaro whose people, the Kaleds, were engaged in a bitter thousand-year war of attrition with their enemies, the Thals. He is horribly scarred and crippled for reasons that are never explained on-screen, with only one functioning arm and one cybernetic eye mounted on his forehead; for much of his existence he depends completely upon a self-designed mobile life-support chair which encloses the lower half of his body. It would become an obvious inspiration for his eventual design of the Dalek. Davros's voice, like those of the Daleks, is electronically distorted. His manner of speech is generally soft and contemplative, but when angered or excited he is prone to ranting outbursts that resemble the hysterical, staccatissimo speech of his creations.

Davros is a megalomaniac who believes that through his creations, the Daleks, he can become the supreme being and ruler of the universe. He is a brilliant scientist who has demonstrated mastery of robotics, metallurgy, chemistry, artificial intelligence, cloning, genetic engineering, biology, physics, military tactics and cybernetics.

[Alan]

E ~ Enemy of the Bane - Finale story to the second series of The Sarah Jane Adventures.

Guest starring Nicholas Courtney as "Brigadier Sir Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart".

Synopsis
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Gita Chandra is kidnapped by Mrs Wormwood, in a ruse that turns out to be a snare for Sarah Jane. Mrs Wormwood has joined forces with another of Sarah Jane's enemies; as they prepare to settle old scores with her, she turns to an old friend for help.

Trivia
------

• Brigadier Sir Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart returns for the first time in 19 years, having last appeared on television in the 1989 Doctor Who story Battlefield. His appearance in this story marks 40 years in the role, having first appeared as Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart back in the 1968 story, The Web of Fear, and makes him the longest serving single character in Doctor Who thus far second only to the Doctor himself.
  
  
• Mrs Wormwood returns along with the Bane. They last appeared in the 2007 TV movie Invasion of the Bane.
  
  
• Commander Kaagh from the Series 2 première story The Last Sontaran returns.

[Guest]

F ~ Fenric - Fenric a.k.a. Hastur the Unspeakable was an immensely powerful sentient force, at least as old as the universe itself and an intelligence of pure evil. Appeared in the serial 'The Curse of Fenric'.

The being known as Fenric was one of two forces, one good, one evil, which were present at the Dawn of Time. Some sources state that Fenric originated not in the beginnings of this universe but, like the other Old Ones, in a universe before this one. These accounts state that Fenric bore (and still bears) the name of Hastur the Unspeakable. The name Fenric came from a mythic figure in Norse mythology. The myths described a monstrous wolf which would, during the final battle between gods and beasts, destroy the world at the end of time.