Doctor Who & Spin-Offs A-Z Game

[Guest]

S ~ Sutekh - Sutekh, a member of an alien race called the Osirans, was encountered by the Fourth Doctor in the 1975 story 'Pyramids of Mars'. The Osirans were an ancient and incredibly powerful but now extinct race. The renegade Sutekh was a crazed super-being who feared all forms of life might one day challenge his hegemony and so became Sutekh the Destroyer, the destroyer of all living things. This included his home planet Phaester Osiris and ancient Mars.

Sutekh's brother Horus and the remaining 740 Osirans tracked Sutekh down to Ancient Egypt and used their powers to restrain and imprison him in a pyramid on the planet Earth. He was placed in a remote location with the Eye of Horus beaming a signal from Mars to suppress Sutekh's powers and hold him an immovable prisoner. The tales of the Osirans were remembered in Egyptian mythology — Sutekh as the god Set, brother of Horus; and in the designations Sados and Satan.

In the year 1911, the archaeologist Professor Marcus Scarman broke into the inner chamber of the Pyramid of Horus on Earth, discovering Sutekh and allowing him a chance of escape. Scarman's cadaver was used to construct Osiran service robots and a rocket aimed at the controlling Eye of Horus on Mars. The Doctor was successful in destroying the rocket, but then taken over by Sutekh and made to take Scarman and the Robots to Mars, where they succeeded in destroying the Eye and freeing Sutekh. The Doctor was eventually able to defeat the freed Sutekh by trapping him in a time tunnel for thousands of years — Longer even than the extended life span of an Osiran.

[Alan]

T ~ Time Lords - The Time Lords and Time Ladies (sometimes called "Lords of Time" or, rarely, "Chronarchs") were the oligarchic rulers of the planet Gallifrey. They were biologically Gallifreyan.

The Time Lords were led by the High Council. The Council consisted of the Lord or Lady President, the Lord or Lady Chancellor, the Castellan and Lord Cardinals. The Inner Council consisted of the three most powerful members of the High Council. The Lord President was the most powerful member of the Council and had near absolute authority, and used a link to the Matrix, a vast computer network containing the knowledge and experiences of all past generations of Time Lords, to set Time Lord policy and remain alert to potential threats from lesser civilizations.

The Lord or Lady Chancellor was next in power, and handled many of the government functions. The Castellan controlled the Chancellery Guard and therefore the safety of Gallifrey.

Apart from the man known as the Doctor, the Time Lords were made extinct at the conclusion of the Last Great Time War with the Daleks.

[Guest]

U ~ Usurian - The Usurians from the planet Usurius are a species that abandoned military conquest in favour of economic conquest. They enslaved humanity after their engineers made Mars suitable for human habitation, humans having depleted the Earth's resources. Once humanity had depleted Mars's resources as well, the Usurians engineered Pluto so that humans could inhabit it. They created six artificial "Suns" around it and installed the Collector, seen in 'The Sun Makers', to oversee the collection of taxes from their human workforce. They intended to abandon Pluto and leave humanity to become extinct once the humans had exhausted its resources, there being no economically viable planet to relocate humanity to once more. The humans on Pluto revolted against the Collector and seized control of Pluto. The revolutionaries intended to relocate to Earth as the Doctor assured them it would have regenerated in their absence.

The Usurians have knowledge of the Time Lords, graded as "Grade 3" in their "latest market survey", considering it to be of low commercial value. Usurians can adopt a humanoid form but in their natural state they resemble seaweed. Shock can force them to revert to their natural form. According to the Doctor, Usurians are listed in a "flora and fauna" of the universe written by a Professor Thripthead under poisonous fungi.

[Alan]

V ~ Vespiforms - Vespiforms were an insectoid race which had hives in the Silfrax Galaxy. They were an ancient and wise race.

Vespiforms were a species of insectoids which resembled oversized wasps. Adults could measure around 3 metres in height. They were powerful creatures, with large stingers which could be regrown within hours of use. They had the ability to transform into the guise of other species. The transformations were accompanied by a glowing, purple-pink haze and left behind morphic residue. When in another form, Vespiforms were genetically compatible with the mimicked species. This allowed them to interbreed with members of other species.

Sometime prior to Earth's 19th century, the Vespiforms developed intergalactic space travel. This capacity allowed at least one of the species to travel from the Silfrax Galaxy to Mutter's Spiral. Once there, at least one Vespiform went to Earth, presumably for the purposes of research. Vespiforms also had telepathic recorders. These devices held the essence of the Vespiform cultural heritage, and served as a sort of "instant school". The entirety of what it meant to be a Vespiform could be transferred from the recorder to the mind in a matter of seconds. But the device also transferred the thoughts of any being in very close proximity to it as well. Were the thoughts of a non-Vespiform to blend with the information contained in the recorder, the results could be unpredictable.

Very little was known of the history of the species itself. Torchwood Three leader Captain Jack Harkness heard whispers of a war between Quark rebels and Vespiforms, but he could not confirm these stories.

A Vespiform appeared in the 2008 story The Unicorn and the Wasp.

[Spimman]

W - Web Planet, The 1965 story starring William Hartnell as "The Doctor", Jacqueline Hill as "Barbara Wright", William Russell as "Ian Chesterton", & Maureen O'Brien as "Vicki Pallister".

[Alan]

X ~ Xenon - Xenon was the home planet of the Whifferdills. The 6th Doctor's shape-shifting companion Frobisher came from this planet. It is in Mutter's Spiral.

[Guest]

Y ~Yeti - Although resembling the cryptozoological creatures also called the Yeti, are in actuality alien robots. Their external appearance, that of a huge hairy biped, disguises a small spherical mechanism that provides its motive power. The Yeti serve the Great Intelligence, a disembodied entity from another planet, which tried to form a physical body in order to conquer the Earth. The Yeti are initially a ruse to scare off curiosity seekers, and later form an army serving the Great Intelligence.
The Great Intelligence and its Yeti minions were thwarted twice by the Doctor's second incarnation, played by Patrick Troughton, in the serials 'The Abominable Snowmen' and 'The Web of Fear'. A Yeti was also one of the creatures in the Death Zone featured in 'The Five Doctors'.

[Spimman]

Z - Zarbi appeared in the 1965 First Doctor story The Web Planet written by Bill Strutton, 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 their mortal enemies. Only they could control the woodlouse-like venom grubs, also known as larvae guns.

[Guest]

A ~ Argolin - Appeared in the Fourth Doctor story 'The Leisure Hive' (1980), and are the inhabitants of Argolis. In 2250, the Argolin, led by Theron, fought and lost a 20-minute nuclear war with the Foamasi. As a result of this war, the Argolin became sterile. They were also quite long-lived, but when they neared the end of their life they aged and declined very rapidly. The Argolin who survived the war put aside their race's traditional warlike ways and remade Argolis as "the first of the leisure planets", catering to tourists from many worlds. They built a "Leisure Hive" dedicated to relaxation and cross-cultural understanding; due to radioactive fallout from the war, the Argolin planned to live in the Hive for at least three centuries. Argolis continued to struggle financially, and by 2290 faced possible bankruptcy. A rogue faction of Foamasi known as the West Lodge attempted to purchase the entire planet to use as a criminal base, sabotaging recreation facilities to encourage the Argolin to sell. The criminal nature of the offer was exposed by a Foamasi agent, aided by the Fourth Doctor and Romana.
Since the Argolin were sterile, they attempted to renew their race using cloning and tachyonics, but only one of the clones, Pangol, survived to adulthood. Pangol was mentally unstable and obsessed with the Argolin's former warrior culture. He attempted to create an army of tachyonic duplicates of himself, but was unsuccessful and was eventually restored to infancy through the same tachyonic technology that had created him.
In appearance, Argolin are humanoids with greenish skin. Their heads are covered with what appears to be elaborately coiffed hair, but may not be (since when Pangol is reduced to infancy he retains the distinctive Argolin hairstyle). Their heads are capped with small domes covered in beads, which fall off when the Argolin become sick or die.

[Alan]

B ~ Blink ~ 2007 story starring David Tennant as "The Doctor" and Freema Agyeman as "Martha Jones".

Synopsis
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In an old, abandoned house, the Weeping Angels wait. However, when people start disappearing, a young woman called Sally finds cryptic messages bleeding through from 1969 – messages from a mysterious stranger called the Doctor. But can she decipher them before the Angels claim their prize?

[Spimman]

C - Caxtarids are humanoids with metallic red hair and eyes, who appear in the Virgin New Adventures novels Return of the Living Dad and The Room with No Doors, both by Kate Orman. They come from the star system Lalande 21185, and are expert torturers. Amongst the planets they have conquered is Kapteyn 5, home of more than sixty sentient species including avians and butterfly-people.

The Caxtarids were wiped out by a virus that destroyed DNA. This was created by the government to be used against "the rebels". The Doctor attempted to prevent its use, but it was activated ten years after his involvement, during another rebellion.

A green-eyed Lalandian, who says she is a "different caste" from the Caxtarids, appears in the Eighth Doctor Adventures novel Seeing I, by Orman and Jonathan Blum. The same book states that the Caxtarids (or Ke Caxtari) do not deal in weapons, but do trade in people.

[Guest]

D ~ Destroyer - The Destroyer was an other-dimensional entity summoned by the sorceress Morgaine in 'Battlefield' (1989) to aid her in defeating the Seventh Doctor. Known by many titles, including "Destroyer of Worlds", he was kept subdued by chains of pure silver, and even Morgaine hesitated in unleashing him on the world until he allowed the Doctor to gain the upper hand, thus forcing Morgaine to free him in a desperate attempt to avoid defeat.

At the time, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart had been called out of retirement to assist UNIT against Morgaine's invasion. Taking a box of silver bullets meant for combating werewolves from UNIT stores, he loaded a revolver with them. The Destroyer taunted the elderly Brigadier for being the best Earth could offer as its champion; the Brigadier's response was to fire the silver bullets into the demon. The building the Destroyer was in subsequently exploded in a burst of magical energy, and presumably the creature was destroyed with it.

[Spimman]

E - Eternals, as seen in Enlightenment (1983), are beings who live in the "trackless wastes of eternity", as opposed to the likes of the Doctor and his companions who are "Ephemerals". Eternals use Ephemerals for their thoughts and ideas. The Eternals have lived for so long that they are unable to think for themselves and need human minds to give them existence, and entertainment; as such, they use human crews on their ships. Eternals seek out "Enlightenment", the wisdom to know everything. They are aware of the Void, calling it "the Howling" ("Army of Ghosts" (2006)) and were responsible for banishing the Carrionites ("The Shakespeare Code" (2007)).

[Guest]

F ~ Fendahl - The Fendahl was an entity that devoured life itself, it appeared in the Fourth Doctor serial 'Image of the Fendahl'. It originated on the fifth planet of Earth's solar system, which the ancient Time Lords placed in a time loop in an attempt to imprison the creature. However, the Fendahl escaped and, in the form of a humanoid skull, was buried under volcanic rock on prehistoric Earth 12 million years ago. The story of the Fendahl passed into Time Lord myth, and was forgotten. The Fendahl's power, contained in a pentagram-shaped neural relay in the bones of the skull, affected life on Earth via a biotransmutation field, influencing life forms in its vicinity (including the early hominids) to develop into forms it could use.

In the late 20th century, the Fendahl skull was discovered in Kenya by a team of anthropologists under the leadership of one Dr. Fendelman. Fendelman brought the skull to an English research facility at Fetch Priory, near the village of Fetchborough. The Priory was built on a time fissure, causing psychic ability in some nearby residents. In the Priory, Fendelman and his fellow researchers Thea Ransome, Adam Colby and Maximillian Stael performed experiments on the skull, attempting to unlock its secrets. Fendelman used a crude time scanner to examine the skull, a dangerous activity which drew the attention of the Fourth Doctor. Stael attempted to capture the power of the Fendahl for himself by means of black magic rituals, performed with the aid of a local coven, but he, Fendelman and Ransome were all being used by the Fendahl to recreate itself.

The Fendahl was a gestalt creature with multiple aspects. Thea Ransome was transformed into the Fendahl Core, a humanoid female with golden skin and blank, staring eyes. Several of the cult members became slug-like creatures called Fendahleen. All the aspects of the Fendahl had powerful psychotelekinetic ability, and can control the muscles of human victims. The Fendahleen were vulnerable to sodium chloride, which altered the creatures' conductivity and destroyed their electrical balance.

In its final form, the Fendahl would consist of the Core and twelve Fendahleen; however, the Doctor was able to prevent the creature from reaching its full manifestation. He rigged Fendelman's time scanner to implode, destroying the Core and the Fendahleen. He also removed the skull, planning to drop it into a star about to go supernova.

[Spimman]

G - GENIE In the BBC Books novel The Stone Rose, the GENIEs (Genetically Engineered Neural Imagination Engines) are artificial life forms developed by a scientist working in artificial reality. They resemble a cross between a small dragon and a Platypus ensconced in a box, and are capable of altering reality and perception according to people's desires, whether spoken or thought. Lacking free will, they are thus compelled to grant "wishes", potentially causing disruption when in the presence of human beings.