Doctor Who & Spin-Offs A-Z Game

[Guest]

H ~ Harrison Chase - Harrison Chase was an eccentric millionaire whose primary hobby was botany, He appeared in 'The Seeds of Doom'. He was a madman with a disdainful attitude toward human life, and favouritism over another form of life, in this case plant life.

Through his vast resources, Chase learned that the seed pods of a Krynoid, an intelligent form of alien plant life, had been found in Antarctica. A collector of rare specimens, Chase became obsessed with obtaining a sample, and successfully acquired one. He allowed the Krynoid to possess one of his henchmen, who began to mutate into a Human-Krynoid hybrid. As the monster grew in size and power, Chase too became possessed by the Krynoid.

Convinced of a future where Krynoids are the dominant life form on Earth, Chase aided the monster in earnest. By this time, the Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith were trapped on Chase's property. Chase eventually captured Sarah and attempted to kill her by throwing her into a compost shredder. The Doctor stopped him, and the two fought, until Chase fell into the shredder and perished.

[Spimman]

G - Gelth appeared in the Ninth Doctor episode "The Unquiet Dead". They were a new race of alien villains that the Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler encountered in the 2005 series. They were also the first element of the new series that attracted attention for being "too scary". Following complaints, many of which were made by Mediawatch UK, the BBC stated that in future, episodes of that nature would be forewarned by a statement of "may not be suitable for under 8s".

The Gelth were intelligent gaseous life-forms, blue and spectral in nature, who claimed to have lost their corporeal forms as a consequence of the Time War. They arrived on Earth via the spacetime rift at an undertaker's house in 1869 Cardiff and proceeded to take possession of recently deceased corpses. Their forms could not be maintained for long in Earth's atmosphere and they required a gaseous medium to sustain them — gas from decomposing bodies or coal gas in the gas pipes common to Victorian era households.

Claiming to be on the verge of extinction, the Gelth convinced the Doctor to aid their entrance into our plane of existence via Gwyneth, the undertaker's servant girl who had developed psychic powers due to growing up near the rift. The Gelth proved instead to number in the billions and intended to take the Earth by force and murder its population to provide vessels for themselves. Ultimately, the Gelth were thwarted when Gwyneth sacrificed herself, blowing up the building and sealing the rift. Whether all the Gelth that had entered our world perished as well is unclear.

[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.

[Spimman]

I - Isolus are an alien species, tiny spore-like creatures traveling through space, first appearing in the episode "Fear Her". In that episode, one of them was separated from the swarm and the creature wound up on Earth, inhabiting a young English girl named Chloe Webber. The Isolus was confused by Chloe's fears of her father and, acting through her, trapped neighborhood children in Chloe's pencil drawings. The Isolus released Chloe when the Doctor showed it the love the human race could produce in the events just before the 2012 Summer Olympics. An Isolus is a creature of intense emotion and it is sheer need to be together that keeps them alive.

[Guest]

J ~ Jethrik - An extremely valuable mineral. A small piece can power an entire fleet of battleships. One of the pieces of The Key to Time was disguised as a lump of Jethrik in 'The Ribos Operation'.

[Spimman]

K - Koh-i-Noor Diamond Revealed to be an element for a telescopic device designed to focus a beam of moonlight to trap and eventually destroy the physical form of a werewolf in "Tooth and Claw".

[Guest]

L ~ Laser spanner - A device which was owned by the Doctor until it was stolen by Emmeline Pankhurst, whom the Doctor referred to as a "cheeky woman". Martha Jones initially believed she had coined the term as a joke upon being introduced to the sonic screwdriver.

[Alan]

M ~ Mark of the Rani, The - 1985 story starring Colin Baker as "The Doctor" and Nicola Bryant as "Peri Brown".

Synopsis
---------
In 19th century England, the Doctor finds himself facing two competing enemies: his old adversary the Master, and the Rani, another Time Lord with a sinister plan. The local population are turning violent and unpredictable and, with a major meeting of the brains of the Industrial Revolution due to happen in the village soon, the Doctor must work out what exactly is causing all the problems. Only the Doctor can stop both the Master and the Rani's evil plans.

Trivia
-------

• First appearance of Kate O'Mara as "The Rani".
  
  
• A device used for calling for a TARDIS known as a Stattenheim Remote Control is introduced. Another would be used in the following story, The Two Doctors.

[Guest]

N ~ Nanogenes - Nanotechnological robots which can heal damaged tissue. They are part of Chula technology, seen in 'The Empty Child' and 'The Doctor Dances'. In a war ambulance, the nanogenes are designed to heal soldiers and ready them for battle, making them Om-com capable.

[Alan]

O ~ Original Sin - 1995 novel featuring the 7th Doctor and Bernice Summerfield, and introduced new companions Roz Forrester and Chris Cwej.

Synopsis
----------
The last words of a dying alien send the Doctor and Bernice to thirtieth-century Earth in an attempt to avert an unspecified disaster. Before they can even unpack they’ve been arrested by the Adjudicators and sentenced to death by the Imperial army. Their attempts to prove their innocence take them from the mosaic planet Purgatory to a prison inside a star.

Meanwhile, Adjudicators Roz Forrester and Chris Cwej have their own problems. Investigating a series of apparently motiveless murders, they have stumbled upon a conspiracy with sinister overtones. On the run and out of luck, the only people they can turn to are their chief suspects: the Doctor and Bernice.

And as they run, someone is watching them. Someone who knows the Doctor of old...

Trivia
-------

• First appearance of new companions Christopher 'Chris' Cwej and Roslyn 'Roz' Forrester.

[Guest]

P ~ Peladon - The setting of the Third Doctor serials 'The Curse of Peladon' and 'The Monster of Peladon'.

_______________________________

'The Curse of Peladon'

The Doctor and Jo make a test flight in the TARDIS and arrive on the planet Peladon. Seeking shelter, they enter the citadel of the soon-to-be-crowned King Peladon, where the Doctor is mistaken for a human dignitary summoned to act as Chairman of a committee assessing an application by the planet to join the Galactic Federation.

The other committee members - Alpha Centauri, Arcturus and the Martian Lord Izlyr and his Warrior subordinate Ssorg - have already arrived, but are disconcerted by the death of one of the King's advisors, Chancellor Torbis. High Priest Hepesh, who opposes the union with the Federation, attributes Torbis's death to the Curse of Aggedor, the sacred beast of Peladon. Other incidents occur and the Doctor concludes that a saboteur is at work.

Spoiler:

At first he suspects the Ice Warriors, but the guilty parties are eventually revealed to be Hepesh and Arcturus. Arcturus has convinced Hepesh that the Federation would only exploit Peladon for its mineral riches, whereas this is in fact his own race's intention. Arcturus is destroyed with a blast from Ssorg's sonic gun, but Hepesh escapes into a network of tunnels beneath the citadel, where he foments rebellion amongst the guards. The rebels storm the citadel and take the King prisoner.

Hepesh then orders Aggedor - a real beast he has been using for his own ends - to kill the Doctor. The Doctor, however, has tamed Aggedor, and it is Hepesh who dies.

_______________________________

'The Monster of Peladon'

The TARDIS returns to Peladon some fifty years after the Doctor's last visit. The planet is now ruled by Queen Thalira - daughter of the late King Peladon - with advice from Chancellor Ortron. The Doctor and Sarah are arrested by Ortron for trespassing on sacred ground but their names are cleared by Alpha Centauri, now Galactic Federation ambassador to Peladon.

Spoiler:

A ghost-like image of Aggedor has been responsible for some deaths in the planet's trisilicate mines, heightening unrest amongst the miners. The Doctor discovers that the apparitions are really the result of the use of a matter projector and a directional heat ray by a human engineer, Eckersley.

Eckersley is in league with a group of renegade Martian warriors, led by Commander Azaxyr, in a plot to seize the trisilicate deposits for Galaxy 5, a power bloc at war with the Federation. Azaxyr mounts an attack on the throne room and kills Ortron.

The Doctor however turns the heat ray on some of the Martians, while others are dispatched by the miners. Eckersley flees, taking the Queen hostage, but the Doctor uses the real Aggedor to track him down. Eckersley is killed, but Aggedor also dies in the skirmish.

Its plans thwarted, Galaxy 5 surrenders to the Federation. The Doctor is invited by Thalira to take over as Chancellor but he declines, suggesting the miners' leader Gebek would make a better candidate.

[Alan]

Q ~ Quantum Transducer - The Quantum transducer or "Ghost Machine" allowed Humans a form of mental time travel. Ed Morgan acquired the machine (perhaps by finding it, perhaps by obtaining it off somebody else) and then Bernie Harris, a small-time fence in grey market alien artefacts filched it out of a biscuit tin found in a lockup owned by Ed Morgan pressumably.

Torchwood 3 acquired the machine by tracing alien energy signals from the device while still in Harries' possession. After a chase that led her to a train station, Gwen Cooper ended up with Harries' hoody, which contained in its pocket the machine. There she mentally time-slipped back in time and saw a ghost from World War II, not a phantom in the conventional sense, but a quantum echo of the long-ago emotional state of a living person, Tom Flanagan. The other half of the machine, also at Bernie's, snapped in neatly with the first and picked up visions of the future.

The Transducer eventually was put away with other dangerous alien artefacts in Torchwood 3.

[Guest]

R ~ Regeneration - Natural biological process that a Gallifreyan goes through if their body succumbs to natural causes or fatal injury. It has been said that a Gallifreyan can only regenerate twelve times giving him or her a total of thirteen lives. But since the Time Lords' extinction and the loss of Gallifrey during the Time War with the Daleks, this limitation may possibly no longer be a factor for the only surviving Gallifreyan, the Doctor.

The Doctor himself has regenerated nine times and each time has been caused by different circumstances. Only the Doctor's first incarnation has regenerated because his body reached it's natural end. He is currently in his tenth incarnation.

[Alan]

S ~ Smith, Sarah Jane - Sarah Jane Smith was originally a journalist and then companion with the 3rd and then 4th incarnations of the Doctor. Afterwards, still a journalist, she worked first with K-9 Mark 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 first appeared in the 1973 story The Time Warrior. She was present during the Doctor's third regeneration in the 1974 story Planet of the Spiders. She made her last regular appearance in the 1976 story The Hand of Fear after the Doctor was forced to return her to Earth when he gets recalled to Gallifrey. Sarah Jane returned in the 1981 spin-off TV movie K-9 and Company: A Girl's Best Friend. She made guest appearances in the 1983 TV movie The Five Doctors in which she met the Doctor's 1st, 2nd, and 5th incarnations, the 2006 story School Reunion in which she met the Doctor's 10th incarnation, and the 2008 story The Stolen Earth.

Sarah Jane is the lead character in the 2007 spin-off series The Sarah Jane Adventures.

She's played by actress Elisabeth Sladen.

[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.