Doctor Who & Spin-Offs A-Z Game

[Alan]

S ~ Sontaran Experiment, The - 1975 story starring Tom Baker as "The Doctor", Elisabeth Sladen as "Sarah Jane Smith", & Ian Marter as "Harry Sullivan".

On a future Earth recovering from devastating solar flares, the Doctor, Harry, and Sarah discover Styre, a Sontaran warrior, conducting experiments on astronauts he has captured during their investigation of the rejuvenated Earth.

[Guest]

T ~ Thal - According to Thal history as given in the original Dalek story (1963), they were once a warlike race, but following a terrible war with the peaceful and scientific Dals who shared their planet, they renounced violence and became pacifist farmers. After centuries of this lifestyle, they were forced to take up arms again when the Dals — now developed into the aggressive and xenophobic Daleks — returned and attempted to wipe them out.

That history was revised in 'Genesis of the Daleks' (1975), which revealed the detailed origin of the Daleks. The name of the Dals was changed to the Kaleds, who were a fascistic society involved in a generations-long war of attrition with the Thals (whose use of slave labour did not make them much better). The prolonged conflict had turned Skaro into a wasteland, and radiation sickness was a common hazard. The Kaled chief scientist, Davros, accelerated the mutation of the Kaled species and put the results into tank-like travel machines, which became the dreaded Daleks.

In 'The Daleks', the Doctor helped the Thals defeat the Daleks on Skaro, apparently returning them to a peaceful age before he left.

At some point, the Thals established a space-faring civilization. In 'Planet of the Daleks' (1973), set in Earth's 26th century, and several generations after the events of The Daleks, a Thal expedition was sent to the planet Spiridon. Together, the Thals and the Third Doctor defeated a Dalek plan to duplicate the natural invisibility of the planet's inhabitants and launch a ten-thousand strong Dalek army hidden on the planet. What happened to the Thals after this is not revealed in the series, though in 'Destiny of the Daleks' (1979) Skaro was shown to be an abanddoned planet. Skaro was destroyed in 'Remembrance of the Daleks' (1989), when the Seventh Doctor sent the Omega Device to the future to destroy the Dalek/Thal homeworld, although nothing further has been noted about the Thals after the aforementioned Spiridon encounter.

[Alan]

U ~ UNIT - UNIT is short for United Nations Intelligence Taskforce.

Following the events of what later became known as "The Shoreditch Incident" in 1963 (as seen in the 1988 story Remembrance of the Daleks), "The London Event" in 1965 (as seen in the 1967 story The Web of Fear), and the "The C-Day Fiasco" in 1966 (as seen in the 1966 story The War Machines), UNIT was set up in 1968 to investigate and combat paranormal and extraterrestrial threats to the Earth.

UNIT had its baptism of fire in 1969 where it investigated and successfully fought off a Cybermen invasion (as seen in the 1968 story The Invasion). As well as defeating the Cybermen, UNIT investigated and fought off other alien attacks from Silurians (as seen in the 1970 story Doctor Who and the Silurians), Axons (as seen in the 1971 story The Claws of Axos) Daleks (as seen in the 1972 story Day of the Daleks), and twice from the Autons (as seen in the 1970 story Spearhead from Space and the 1971 story Terror of the Autons) to name a few.

40-years on and UNIT is still operating today.

[Guest]

V ~ Varga plant - Varga Plants grew naturally on the Daleks' homeworld, Skaro, and when the Daleks set up a base on the planet Kembel they brought some Varga plants with them to act as sentries in the jungle surrounding their base. They were suited to this as they could move around freely by dragging themselves along with their roots.

Varga plants resemble cacti; they are covered in fur and thorns. Anyone pricked by a Varga thorn will be consumed by the urge to kill, while simultaneously becoming a Varga plant themselves.

This grisly fate happened to astronauts Jeff Garvey and Gordon Lowery, and their commander, Marc Cory, was forced to kill them.

The plants later made an appearance in the Big Finish audio I, Davros: Purity. In this, it was revealed that the Varga plants were one of the oldest species on Skaro, but for most of their history had been immobile. Since the start of the Kaled-Thal war however, exposure to radiation and chemical weapons had caused them to rapidly evolve into a much deadlier form, capable of self-locomotion. It was this discovery that caused Davros to become interested in genetically engineering creatures in order to create weapons of war.

[Alan]

W ~ War Games, The (This 1969 story marked the last regular appearances of Patrick Troughton as "The Doctor", Frazer Hines as "Jamie McCrimmon", and Wendy Padbury as "Zoe Heriot". This is the 50th story of the series, and the last to be recorded in black and white. This story names the Doctor's race, for the first time, as the Time Lords and although his home planet is seen, it would not be named as Gallifrey until the 1973 story The Time Warrior. The Doctor's reasons for leaving Gallifrey, and the fact that he stole the TARDIS, are also revealed.

The TARDIS's arrival in what appears to be a World War I battlefield begins an intriguing problem for the Doctor as he pieces together a complex galactic plan: but the truth of the War Games is a challenge that forces the Doctor to contact his own people, the Time Lords.

[Guest]

X ~ Xeraphin - The Xeraphin were an ancient species encountered by the Fifth Doctor in the story 'Time-Flight'. 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.

Before fleeing Xeriphas and the Xeraphin, the Master took with him Kamelion, a Xeraphin war weapon with advanced shape-changing abilities dependent on the will of its controller. Kamelion was freed from the Master and joined the Doctor's TARDIS crew in "The King's Demons".

[Alan]

Y ~ Yana (Human personality that the Master hid behind to save himself from the Time Lords' Time War with the Daleks. Yana ceased to exist after the Master's personality reasserted itself after he opened his Chameleon Arch in the 2007 story Utopia. Yana was played by Derek Jacobi.)

[Guest]

Z ~ Zarbi - The Zarbi appeared in the 1965 First Doctor story '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 ~ Arc of Infinity (1983 story starring Peter Davison as "The Doctor", Sarah Sutton as "Nyssa", and Janet Fielding as "Tegan Jovanka".

Shielded by a collapsed star lurks a malevolent presence, an alien consisting of pure anti-matter. Its intention? To bond with a Time Lord and so cross over into this dimension through the Arc of Infinity — the gateway to all dimensions. The chosen Time Lord is the Doctor. To avert disaster, he is recalled to Gallifrey before the collision of matter and anti-matter leads to the destruction of all dimensions.

This story was one of many during Doctor Who's 20th year which saw the return of an old enemy. This story saw the return of Omega (this time played by Ian Collier) who had last been seen in the 1973 story The Three Doctors. This story also saw the return of Janet Fielding to Doctor Who having left at the end of the previous story Time-Flight. Colin Baker guest stars as "Commander Maxil". It was Baker's performance during this story that caught the eye of producer John Nathan-Turner. It would eventually lead to him casting Baker as the 6th incarnation of "The Doctor" less than a year later. This story also saw the return of "Borusa" (now played by Leonard Sachs) who had first been seen in the 1976 story The Deadly Assassin (played by Angus MacKay) and then the 1978 story The Invasion of Time (played by John Arnatt). Making his first appearance in this story was Paul Jerricho as "The Castellan". He would return to make his second and last appearance in The Five Doctors.

[Guest]

B ~ Brain of Morbius, The - Years ago, the Time Lord known as Morbius tried to lead a revolution but was executed for his ambition on the planet Karn. When the Fourth Doctor and Sarah arrive on the planet, they discover that, thanks to Dr Solon, the dead may rise...

[Alan]

C ~ City of Death - 1979 story starring Tom Baker as "The Doctor" and Lalla Ward as "Romana".

While taking in the sights of Paris, the Doctor and Romana sense that someone is tampering with time. Who is the mysterious Count Scarlioni? Why does he seem to have counterparts scattered through time? And just how many copies of the Mona Lisa did Leonardo da Vinci paint?

This story was set and filmed in Paris. This was the first out of the five times (to date) that Doctor Who was filmed outside of the UK. Other stories that followed this to film abroad were Arc of Infinity (filmed in Amsterdam), Planet of Fire (filmed in Lanzarote), The Two Doctors (filmed in Spain), the 1996 TV movie Enemy Within (filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia), and The Fires of Pompeii (filmed in Rome, Italy).

[Guest]

D ~ "Dalek" - "Dalek" is an episode in the new series of Doctor Who that was first broadcast on April 30, 2005.
The episode is set in Utah in the year 2012, in the underground bunker owned by Henry van Statten, a billionaire collector of alien artifacts. After one of his exhibits, the "Metaltron" escapes, the Doctor races against time to stop it from surfacing and wreaking havoc against humanity.

[Alan]

E ~ Enemy Within - 1996 TV movie starring Paul McGann as "The Doctor" and Daphne Ashbrook as "Grace Holloway". Guest starring Sylvester McCoy as "The Doctor".

This movie marked the handover of the role of "The Doctor" from Sylvester McCoy to Paul McGann.

[Guest]

F ~ Fire, Planet of - The Fifth Doctor and Turlough are drawn to the planet Sarn by Kamelion, where they encounter the Master in one of his diabolical plans to tap the power of the Numismaton gas.

This was the last story to feature Mark Strickson as Turlough. He would return for the Fifth Doctor's regeneration scene in 'The Caves of Androzani'.

[Alan]

G ~ Genesis of the Daleks - 1975 story starring Tom Baker as "The Doctor", Elisabeth Sladen as "Sarah Jane Smith", & Ian Marter as "Harry Sullivan". It marks the first appearance of Davros, the creator of the Daleks.

Intercepted while travelling between Earth and the Ark, the Fourth Doctor and his companions are transported to the planet Skaro on a mission for the Time Lords — to prevent the creation of the Daleks.