Doctor Who & Spin-Offs A-Z Game

[Alan]

X ~ Xylok - The Xylok were a mysterious crystalline race. The Xylok seemed to be made of clear crystals, but they had a very unusual structure and were actually alive. They had the ability to contact with other Xylok remotely and interface with computers. They could also apparently survive for millions of years. Due to their crystalline and computer-like nature, they were also vulnerable to 21st century Earth computer viruses.

Sarah Jane Smith's computer, Mr. Smith, is a Xylok.

[Spimman]

Y - Yeti of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, 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.

[Guest]

Z ~ Zarbi - The Zarbi appeared in '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 ~ Attack of the Cybermen - 1985 story starring Colin Baker as "The Doctor" and Nicola Bryant as "Peri Brown".

Synopsis
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While attempting to fix the TARDIS's Chameleon Circuit, the Doctor returns to I.M. Foreman's Scrapyard at 76 Totter's Lane in 1985, where he meets up with his old enemies the Cybermen, who have come from the future to attempt to change history by sending Halley's Comet crashing into Earth. Lytton, last seen working for the Daleks, is also caught up in the Cybermen's plot. But is Lytton working for the Cybermen, himself, or someone else?

Trivia
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• Second appearance of the Cyber Controller. It was last seen in the 1967 story The Tomb of the Cybermen. The Controller is once again played by Michael Kilgarriff.
  
  
• Second and final appearance of Lytton as played by the late Maurice Colbourne. He had last been seen in the 1984 story Resurrection of the Daleks.
  
  
• The TARDIS returns to I.M Foreman Scrapyard at 76 Totter's Lane. This is the location from which it originally left in the very first story in 1963, An Unearthly Child.
  
  
• The TARDIS returns to the planet Telos. It had last been on the Cybermen's adopted home-world in The Tomb of the Cybermen.

[Spimman]

B - Blathereen

A Raxacoricofallapatorian family who are the sworn enemies of the Slitheen family, and have infiltrated the prison on the planet Justicia

[Guest]

C ~ Carrionite - The Carrionites, as seen in 'The Shakespeare Code' (2007), are a race of witch-like beings. The species originates from the Fourteen Stars of the Rexel Planetary Configuration. They use advanced science which appears much like magic and voodoo. Unlike humans, who use numbers, maths and science to advance and split the atom, the Carrionites use words to manipulate the universe and defy physics. The Carrionites appear to be possess some unknown ability to discover a person's true name; although Lilith was in the room when the Doctor and Martha Jones introduce themselves to Shakespeare she later remarks "there is no name" when trying to name the Doctor but being there when the Doctor introduces himself does not explain that Lilith named Rose. In the "old" times of the universe, they were banished through powerful words by the Eternals.

The three Carrionites shown in 'The Shakespeare Code' were Lilith, Mother Doomfinger and Mother Bloodtide. They are defeated by Willam Shakespeare with the help of the Doctor and Martha who helped him find the right words to defeat the Carronites, ending with 'expeliamus." The Carronites were re-trapped in a crystal ball by this. According to Lilith, apparently Shakespeare accidentally released Doomfinger, Bloodtide and Lilith while he was distraught over his son Hamnet's death from the Black Plague.

[Spimman]

D - Deadlock seal

A deadlock seal is a type of locking mechanism introduced in "Bad Wolf " that sonic devices, such as the Doctor's sonic screwdriver, cannot open. Since that episode, deadlock seals are often used as a plot device to prevent the Doctor from using his sonic screwdriver to easily escape or otherwise defeat his opponents. The TARDIS itself can also be deadlocked, preventing even those with keys from entering; it does not, however, prevent the sonic screwdriver from interfering with the ship itself; in "Utopia", the Master exploited this to steal the Doctor's TARDIS.

[Alan]

End of the World, The - 2005 story starring Christopher Eccleston as "The Doctor" and Billie Piper as "Rose Tyler".

Synopsis
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The Doctor takes Rose Tyler on her first voyage through time, to the year five billion. The Sun is about to expand and swallow the Earth. But amongst the alien races gathering to watch on Platform One, a murderer is at work. Who is controlling the mysterious and deadly Spiders?

Trivia
------

• First appearance of the Face of Boe.
  
  
• First appearance of Lady Cassandra O'Brien.
  
  
• First appearance of Spider Robots.

[Spimman]

F - Fob Watch, engraved with Gallifreyan symbols, used to store the memories and biology of a Time Lord who uses the Chameleon Arch. The watch uses a perception filter to prevent the transformed Time Lord from noticing it. Those with telepathic abilities are apparently immune to the filter, as are those already aware of the watch's nature. The Family of Blood can also smell the Time Lord stored within. When opened by the Time Lord, it restores their original physiology. Anyone else opening it gets flashes of the memories stored within. In the 2008 Christmas Special, "The Next Doctor" (David Morrissey) is discovered to own a fob watch, which the Doctor suspected to be a Time Lord watch. Although it is soon revealed to be a normal fob watch, it helped to identify Morrisey's character as Jackson Lake, a normal human.

[Alan]

G ~ Grant, Josephine "Jo" - Josephine Grant (later Josephine Jones) first appeared in the story Terror of the Autons. She was placed in UNIT in 1971, against Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart's wishes, by her uncle - General Hobson, a high-ranking official in the United Nations. The Brigadier decided that Jo could replace Dr. Elizabeth Shaw, who had returned to Cambridge, as the Doctor's research assistant. In the story Colony in Space, she reluctantly took her first trip in the TARDIS and travelled with the Doctor to other places in time and space.

In 1973, Jo eventually parted ways with the Doctor and UNIT after falling in love with Professor Clifford Jones in the story The Green Death. They married and later had a son together that they named Matthew. By 1997, Jo and Clifford had divorced.

Josephine "Jo" Grant was played by Katy Manning.

[Spimman]

H - Hymetusite A crystalline substance in The Horns of Nimon. The crystals provide power for spaceships and cities.

[Guest]

I ~ Ice Warriors - The race originated on Mars, and first appeared in the 1967 serial 'The Ice Warriors' where they encountered the Second Doctor and his companions Jamie and Victoria. The name Ice Warrior is not the name of their species, but was applied to them by an Earth scientific team in the Martians' first on-screen appearance.

The Ice Warriors are reptilian humanoids, their scaly skin and features usually hidden under heavy armour. They have large, claw-like hands on which are mounted sonic weaponry, and their voices are a highly sibilant whisper due to the different composition of Earth's atmosphere. Two types of Ice Warrior are seen in the series, the rank and file Warriors, and an officer class, which fan lore has christened Ice Lords (with at least one being referred to as a "Lord" on screen). The main difference between the two is the design of their armour, with the Ice Lords wearing a lighter, more flexible version than those of the Warriors.

[Spimman]

J - Jagrafess, or, to give its full title, The Mighty Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe (AKA Max) was a gigantic, gelatinous creature similar to a slug in shape. Its exact origins are not known, but it was sentient and able to communicate in a series of growls and screeches. It had a life span of about 3000 years, with sharp, vicious teeth and several vestigial eyes. Its metabolic rate, however, meant that it had to be kept at low temperatures to survive. Its first and only appearance to date was in the episode "The Long Game".

The Jagrafess was the supervisor of the mysterious and sinister Editor on board Satellite 5, a space station that broadcast news across the whole of the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire of the year 200,000. The Editor (who called the Jagrafess "Max" for short) claimed that the Jagrafess had been placed with Satellite 5 some ninety years before by a consortium of interstellar banks. The intent was to use the news broadcasts to subtly manipulate the Empire, retarding its social, economic and technological growth and turning it more inward looking and xenophobic. Control was enhanced by the use of computer chips, installed in every human brain; chips that allowed the users to access the computer systems of the 2001st century, but at the same time allowed the Jagrafess and its cohorts to monitor people's thoughts. In this way, the human race was reduced to slavery without them even realising it.

The environmental systems of Satellite 5 had been configured to vent all heat away from Floor 500, keeping it cold enough for the Jagrafess to survive, attached to the ceiling of the main control room. When the Ninth Doctor, Rose and Adam arrived on board, the Doctor recognised that human development had been deliberately obstructed and began to investigate. Ultimately captured by the Editor and about to be killed by the Jagrafess, the Doctor and Rose were saved by the actions of Cathica, a human journalist, who reversed the environmental systems. The Jagrafess overheated, bloated up and exploded, apparently ending its threat and the scheme to hold back the human race.

[Guest]

K ~ Key to Time - The Key to Time is the umbrella title that links all six serials of Season 16 of Doctor Who. The arc was originally conceived of by producer Graham Williams, who had proposed it as part of his application for the producer's job in 1976. The name refers to the powerful artifact whose segments the Doctor, Romana and K-9 are searching for during the season.

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. However, the Doctor sees through the figure's charade, reveals him as the Black Guardian in disguise, and once again scatters the segments of the Key across time and space.

[Spimman]

L - Lazarus, Professor Richard played by Mark Gatiss is the main villain of "The Lazarus Experiment" (2007). Lazarus is a 76 year old human scientist whose research concerns the use of sonic technology to enable rejuvenation. His work is funded by the enigmatic Harold Saxon. He is obsessed with ensuring his immortality, despite the risks being taken or any potential losses in terms of human life.

After a malfunction at the first public demonstration of his process, he appears to be young once more. However, the experiment mutates his DNA, activating long dormant characteristics within his genes. He undergoes repeated transformations into a large, insectoid creature, which needs to steal the life energy from other beings in order to revert to a youthful, human form, killing them in the process. His first victim is his partner, Lady Thaw. He attempts to make Martha Jones's sister, Tish, his next victim, but she is saved by Martha and the Doctor.

After going on a rampage, Lazarus is seemingly killed by the machine which effected his transformation, which has been modified by the Doctor. However, he recovers in the ambulance called to remove his body, whereupon he feeds on the medics before seeking sanctuary at Southwark Cathedral. The Doctor, Martha and Tish follow him there. The sisters succeed in luring Lazarus up to the top of the belltower, at which point the Doctor plays the organ at maximum volume, which, in conjunction with the Sonic Screwdriver, resonates the church bell and plays havoc with Lazarus's sonically-manipulated genetic structure, eventually causing him to fall to his death. He then reverts to his aged, human form, his experiment undone.