Doctor Who & Spin-Offs A-Z Game

[Alan]

I ~ "I Can't Decide" - "I Can't Decide" is an early-21st Century rock song by the band The Scissor Sisters, originating from the group's album, Tah-Dah.

The Master appears to be a fan of this song, as he requests that it be played during his command of the Valiant during the Toclafane invasion, and plays it while he taunts the aged Doctor.

[Spimman]

J - Jelly babies as enjoyed by the Fourth Doctor

A confectionery favoured by the Second, Fourth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Doctors and the sixth seen incarnation of the Master (as seen in the "Sound of Drums").

[Guest]

K ~ Key to Time, The - A figure presenting himself as the White Guardian commissions the Doctor, Romana and K-9 to find all six segments of the Key to Time, a cosmic artifact resembling a perfect cube that maintains the equilibrium of the universe. Too powerful for any single being to possess, it has been split into six different segments and scattered across space and time, disguised by the raw elemental power within them into any shape or size. However, the Guardian claims that the forces balancing the universe are so upset that the segments of the Key must be found and assembled, to stop the universe so that he can restore the balance.

The first segment is disguised as a lump of Jethryk on the planet Ribos. The second is actually the planet Callufrax, but that planet has been shrunk by the space-hopping pirate planet Zanak. The third is the Great Seal of Diplos, having been stolen by a criminal of that planet. The fourth is part of a statue on the planet Tara. The fifth has been consumed by the monster squid Kroll, causing it to grow to gigantic proportions. The final segment is in fact a female humanoid — Princess Astra.

In the final episode, the purported White Guardian attempts to take the Key from the Doctor. The Doctor sees through the figure's charade, however, reveals him as the Black Guardian in disguise, and once again scatters the segments of the Key across time and space.

[Alan]

L ~ Langer, Clyde - Clyde Langer was a classmate of Maria Jackson and Luke Smith at Park Vale Comprehensive School who joined them on adventures with Sarah Jane Smith involving aliens. He first appeared in The Sarah Jane Adventures series 1 story Revenge of the Slitheen.

At around age 14, Clyde first met Maria and Luke on his first day at Park Vale School. He considered himself one of the "cool kids". Clyde had a rebellious streak and disliked the school dinners as the food was rotten due to a Slitheen machine in the school. The next day he brought a home-made chip sandwich to school where the science teacher, a Slitheen in disguise, had a negative reaction to the vinegar in the sandwich as vinegar was the Raxacoricofallapatorian's weakness. After school his science teacher unmasked and chased Maria and Clyde, Clyde sprayed deodorant to confuse the advanced sense of smell of the Raxacoricofallapatorian. After meeting, Sarah Jane Smith, he helped defeat the Slitheen. In the aftermath of this, Clyde decided to join the others in fighting evil aliens and to tutor Luke in the ways of "coolness". In contrast to the others, Clyde showed no moral qualms about the Slitheen being killed - "They were going to kill billions of people, I dunno what the big dilemma was".

Clyde Langer is played by Daniel Anthony.

[Spimman]

M - MagnaClamp

These clamps negate the weight of the things they are attached to, allowing a single person to easily lift something weighing several tons. Those seen belong to the Torchwood Institute. It appeared in "Army of Ghosts" and "Doomsday". In "Doomsday", the Tenth Doctor and Rose each use these clamps to attach themselves to the walls of Torchwood One to prevent themselves from being sucked into the Void along with the Dalek and Cyberman armies.

[Alan]

N ~ Nightmare of Eden - 1979 story starring Tom Baker as "The Doctor", Lalla Ward as "Romana", and David Brierley as the voice of "K-9 Mk. II"

Synopsis
---------
The TARDIS lands at the site of a hyperspatial collision between two spacecraft, the Empress and the Hecate. As a result, neither ship is dimensionally stable, risking the lives of all those aboard. The Doctor, K9 and Romana offer to help out.

When a crewmember is found dead, his face lacerated by huge claws, it seems something deadly has been released by the accident. But how is the death linked to the discovery that the killer drug Vraxoin has been smuggled aboard - and where has the supply come from?

The Doctor soon realises that the aliens stored in a projection machine may hold the answers - and that the cages holding these specimens are anything but secure as the savage Mandrels, hideous swamp-creatures from the planet Eden, tear through the corridors of the helpless spaceships...

[Blencathra]

Ogron

Ogrons are low-intelligence, ape-like hominids who live in scattered communities on an unnamed planet on the outer fringes of the Milky Way, far from the central spaceways. The dominant lifeform on their home planet is a giant slug-like lizard named the Eater, and the Ogrons both pray to and are preyed on by it.

Ogrons are hired mercenaries. Those who have employed their services include the Master and the Daleks. On some human planets, Ogrons are employed as police officers, usually led by a mentally augmented leader.

They appear in Day of the Daleks, Carnival of Monsters & Frontier in Space

[Alan]

P ~ Planet of Evil - 1975 story starring Tom Baker as "The Doctor" and Elisabeth Sladen as "Sarah Jane Smith".

Synopsis
---------
A distress call from the last planet in the known universe forces the TARDIS to commence emergency materialisation on Zeta Minor. Simultaneous with the Doctor's arrival, is the landing of a spacecraft from the planet Morestra on a rescue mission to recover a missing group of scientists. An expeditionary force from the spacecraft soon uncovers their sinister remains, but who or what has caused their gruesome deaths?

Only one scientist, Professor Sorenson, has survived and he is hell-bent on tapping the powerful resources within Zeta Minor to save his own planet which is slowly dying. But he and his compatriots cannot possibly realise the full extent of the dark forces at work. And so it is left to the Doctor to convince them that Zeta Minor is indeed, the Planet of Evil...

Trivia
------

• This was the first story to feature the 4th Doctor behind the console of the TARDIS. The TARDIS console room had not been seen on-screen since the 3rd Doctor story Death to the Daleks. A new TARDIS console makes its television début in this story.

[Guest]

Q ~ Question Marks - Starting from the 1980 story 'The Leisure Hive', the 4th Doctor started wearing shirts with Question Marks on the collar. The 5th Doctor and the 6th Doctor also wore shirts with Question Marks on the collar and also wore trouser braces displaying them too.

The 7th Doctor wore a pullover with Question Marks on and from the 1987 story 'Delta and the Bannermen', he started carrying a Question Mark-handled umbrella too.

[Spimman]

R - Reality Bomb

A device created by Davros and the Daleks which they prepared to use in "Journey's End". It was meant to disrupt the electrical bond between all atoms in every form of matter, using Z-neutrino energy compressed into a single string by an alignment of 27 planets, therefore destroying the whole of the universe and all other universes via a rift at the heart of the Medusa Cascade. It was, however, disabled by Donna.

[Guest]

S ~ Sonic knife - A tool used by Scaroth in stealing the Mona Lisa in 'City of Death'.

[Alan]

T ~ Time and the Rani - 1987 story introducing Sylvester McCoy as "The Doctor" and starring Bonnie Langford as "Mel Bush".

Synopsis
---------
After being attacked by the Rani, the TARDIS crash-lands on the planet Lakertya. On the floor of the console room, the Doctor begins his sixth regeneration...

In his post-regenerative confusion the Doctor is separated from his young companion Mel and tricked into assisting the Rani in her megalomanic scheme to construct a giant time manipulator.

Lost on the barren surface of the planet, Mel has to avoid the Rani's ingenious traps and her monstrous, bat-like servants, the Tetraps. She joins forces with a rebel faction among the Lakertyans, desperate to end the Rani's control of their planet.

The Doctor must recover his wits in time to avoid becoming a permanent part of the Rani's plan to collect the genius of the greatest scientific minds in the Universe...

Trivia
------

• Second and, to date, last appearance of Kate O'Mara as "The Rani".

[Guest]

U ~ Umbrella - The Seventh Doctor carried, from 'Delta and the Bannermen' onwards, an umbrella with a question-mark shaped handle. He had ceased using it by the time of his last appearance in the Doctor Who television movie. The Sixth Doctor occasionally carried a different umbrella, a multicolored model with a straight handle. This was destroyed in the Seventh Doctor's first story, 'Time and the Rani'. The first time the Doctor is seen on screen with an umbrella (a simple black one), is in the Second Doctor serial 'The Krotons'.

[Alan]

V ~ Vervoids - Vervoids are a type of artificially created humanoid plants. They appeared in the 1986 story The Trial of a Time Lord as part of the section known as Terror of the Vervoids.

They're the size of Humans, with pink head-like organs surrounded by petals. They can release swamp gas out of their "mouths" when panicked. They have short tendrils at the ends of their "arms" which can function as hands for simple tasks or can shoot out poisonous darts. They are covered in maple-tree like leaves which can regenerate into entire Vervoids if they are placed in soil. Vevoids grow in pods which are awoken when exposed to higher spectrum of light. Vervoids have short lifespans, living for less then a year until they decay.

Vervoids were created by a team on Mogar in order to create a race of slaves. This attempt wasn't entirely successful, since one of the team-members was infected by vervoid pollen and the vervoids were genetically inclined towards survival. Instead of serving the Humans, they saw the Humans as a threat to their own existence. After an accident on the Hyperion III in 2986, the Vervoids were awakened early and attempted to kill all Humans. The Doctor was able to stop them by accelerating their growth rate, causing them to die from old age. Previously, the Doctor's trial had viewed these future events but the evidence had been tampered with by the The Valeyard, prompting him to add a charge of genocide to the Doctor's crimes. The Doctor did not deny wiping out the Vervoids but maintained he had no other option.

[Spimman]

W - Warpstar

A small crystalline device carried by Sarah Jane Smith in "Journey's End" that looks like a necklace, but is in fact a highly explosive device (a "Warp-fold conjugation") inside a carbonised shell. According to Sarah Jane, it was given to her by a Verran soothsayer to be used at "the end of days". Jack Harkness wires it into the Dalek Crucible's mainframe and threatens to use it; however, he does not get the opportunity as the Daleks swiftly transmat Jack, Sarah Jane, and their companions away.