Doctor Who & Spin-Offs A-Z Game

[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 ~ War Chief, The - The War Chief was a former friend of the Doctor and later, a renegade Time Lord who assisted the War Lords, who had abducted soldiers from wars spread across Earth's history to play in simulated versions of the wars from which they originated. Thinking Humans the most vicious species in the galaxy, the aliens hoped to later pit the survivors against each other and to use the humans to conquer Mutter's Spiral.

The War Chief aided the War Lords by giving them technology to build basic TARDIS-like space-time machines, SIDRATs, which they used to kidnap the human soldiers and travel between era-specific zones which they had created. The War Chief and the Doctor met and recognised each other. The War Chief solicited the Doctor's help to double-cross the War Lords and seize power for themselves. The Doctor pretended to accept the War Chief's offer.

At the same time, the Security Chief of the operation distrusted the War Chief, believing he meant to call in the Time Lords. The two engaged in a series of machinations against each other which ended with the War Chief disgraced, though he shot his rival dead. Unable to resolve matters and return the soldiers to their own times, the Doctor summoned the Time Lords for aid, while the War Lords discovered the War Chief's plans and executed him.

[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 ~ Yo-Yo - A yo-yo was a round toy which shot up and down on a string. The Doctor sometimes kept one on his person. He largely used it in his second and fourth incarnations to test local gravity. However, his fourth self may have gotten so used to using it scientifically, that he actually began to simply find it fun to play with. Indeed, his skill with the yo-yo appeared to increase over time.

[Guest]

Z ~ Zeos - Zeos is one of the planets at war in 'The Armageddon Factor'. Zeos has a greenish-gray surface.

[Alan]

A ~ Attack of the Cybermen - 1985 story starring Colin Baker as "The Doctor" and Nicola Bryant as "Peri Brown".

Synopsis
---------
Whilst narrowly avoiding a collision with Halley's Comet in the TARDIS, the Doctor and Peri encounter a distress call emanating from London, Earth in 1985. The Doctor decides to investigate...

In central London, a gang of diamond thieves, led by ex-Dalek agent Lytton, plan to enter their target building via the sewers. But once down in the darkness, things start going wrong, for lurking in the underground shadows are the Cybermen...

After the Doctor and his companion Peri are captured by the Cybermen, they are caught up in a complex scheme which involves dramatically altering history, allowing the Cybermen to prevent the destruction of their first home planet Mondas. Forced to take the TARDIS to the new homeworld of the Cybermen (the ice-tombs of Telos), the Doctor realises the situation is being sinisterly manipulated, but by whom? The Cybermen? Lytton? The Cryons (the original inhabitants of Telos)? Or perhaps even his own race, the Time Lords?

Trivia
-------

• The TARDIS returns to I.M. Foreman's scrapyard at 76 Totter's Lane...the original location that the TARDIS was first seen leaving from in the 1963 story An Unearthly Child.
  
  
• The Cyber Controller returns. He had last been seen in the 1967 story The Tomb of the Cybermen.
  
  
• Lytton returns. He had last been seen in the 1984 story Resurrection of the Daleks.

[Guest]

B ~ Bandraginus 5 - Bandraginus 5 was a planet rich in the rare mineral Oolion until it was destroyed by Zanak in 'The Pirate Planet'. It had over a hundred million inhabitants.

[Alan]

C ~ Cybermen - The Cybermen were a race of artificially modified near-Humans which originated on the planet Mondas, Earth's twin planet.

The Cybermen were cybernetically augmented humanoids. Though the Cybermen varied greatly in design through time, the various versions of the Cybermen had several things in common. Nearly all were silver in colour, though, for stealth purposes, a black variety also existed in the London sewers. They also exhibited exposed circuitry and tubing which may contain hydraulic fluids for motion, covering a rubber or mylar-like outer skin. Cybermen frequently attempted to increase their numbers by cyber-conversion.

Cybermen made "survival" their central objective. Since they could not reproduce naturally, they needed to reproduce by other means, via cyber-conversion. At times they have tended to focus on converting the population of Earth, at other times with simply destroying it.

Cybermen tended toward covert activity, scheming from hiding and using Human or other agents, cybermats or androids to act as their proxies until they appear.

Cybermen first appeared in the 1966 story The Tenth Planet. The parallel universe Cybermen first appeared in the 2006 story Rise of the Cybermen.

[Guest]

D ~ Dæmos - Dæmos is the home planet of the Dæmons in the story 'The Dæmons'. It is also mentioned in 'The Satan Pit' as one of many planets with legends of a horned god.

[Alan]

E ~ Enlightenment - 1983 story starring Peter Davison as "The Doctor", Janet Fielding as "Tegan Jovanka", & Mark Strickson as "Vislor Turlough".

Synopsis
----------
When the White Guardian appears uttering a cryptic warning of imminent danger - “The winner takes all”, the Doctor is puzzled. Then the TARDIS materializes on an old Edwardian sailing ship. Before long, however, he is amazed to discover that the ship, along with others, is sailing through space.

The Doctor and his companions soon become caught up in a sailing race run by the mind-reading Eternals. The first prize is Enlightenment - ultimate wisdom to gain one’s heart’s desire, and some of the more devious crews will stop at nothing in order to claim it. But as the Black Guardian’s evil mesh draws tight, it looks as though the Doctor might not live to cross the finishing line...

Trivia
-------

• The "Black Guardian Trilogy" began in the story Mawdryn Undead, and continued in the previous story, Terminus. It concludes here.
  
  
• The White Guardian returns. He was last seen in the 1978 story The Ribos Operation.

[Guest]

F ~ Fifth Planet - The fifth planet in our solar system was destroyed by the Time Lords, in an attempt to destroy the Fendahl, the planet's remains create the asteroid field that lays between Mars and Jupiter.

[Alan]

G ~ Gallifrey - Gallifrey was the homeworld to the Gallifreyans and to the Time Lords, amongst them the Doctor. It was destroyed in the Last Great Time War.

Gallifrey was located in the constellation of Kasterborous, at galactic co-ordinates 10-0-11-0-0 by 0-2 from Galactic Zero Centre. Kasterborous was also known as the Seven Systems, so that Gallifrey had the alternative name, The Shining World of the Seven Systems.

From orbit, Gallifrey was rust-coloured, with brown lakes and grey clouds. From the planet's surface, it boasted an orange sky and trees with silver leaves. These reflected the morning sunlight, making it look like the forests were on fire. There were also green forests, golden fields and red deserts, but overall it seems to have been a much drier world than Earth.

Gallifrey was first seen in the 1969 story The War Games but not named until the 1973 story The Time Warrior.

[Guest]

H ~ Hakol - A probe from this planet features in the Fifth Doctor serial 'The Awakening'. The people of Harkol can harness psychic energy, and use tinclavic metal acquired from Raaga.

[Alan]

I ~ Inferno - 1970 story starring Jon Pertwee as "The Doctor", Caroline John in her last regular appearance as "Liz Shaw", and Nicholas Courtney as "Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart".

Synopsis
----------
Earth. 1970. An unhinged scientist, Professor Stahlman, is attempting the first penetration of the Earth's crust in a top secret drilling project called Inferno. His purpose? To tap into a new energy source at the core. But at what cost?

When the Doctor is called in with his companion Liz Shaw by UNIT to oversee the project, he soon develops grave misgivings. Things begin to go very wrong when a mysterious green substance leaks from the drillhead. A substance which turns all who come into contact with it into alien primeval creatures called Primords.

Meanwhile, the Doctor finds himself transported into a parallel universe identical to 20th Century Earth. The mystery deepens as he finds that although the place, time and people are all the same, no-one seems to know who he is.

Only one thing is certain: the drilling must be stopped before the full force of the energy from the core is unleashed, destroying not only this Earth but the one the Doctor has just left behind...

[Guest]

J ~ Jahoo - Jahoo is one of the twenty-seven planets taken by Davros in 'The Stolen Earth'.