Doctor Who & Spin-Offs A-Z Game

[Guest]

Z ~ Zarbi - Were a insectoid species native to Vortis. Resembling giant ants, they were used by the Menoptera as cattle until the Animus arrived and took control of them, forcing them to fight their former masters. They reverted to their original nature after the Doctor, Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright and Vicki defeated the Animus.

The Zarbi appeared in 'The Web Planet'.

[Alan]

A ~ Ace - Ace's real name is Dorothy McShane. She originated from Earth in 1987.

Ace first appears in the 1987 story Dragonfire, where she is working as a waitress on the planet Iceworld in the distant future. She had been a troubled teen on Earth, having been expelled from school for blowing up the art room as a "creative statement". Gifted in chemistry (despite failing it for her O-levels), she was in her room experimenting with the extraction of nitroglycerin from gelignite when a time storm swept her up and transported her to Iceworld, and far in her future. There, she meets the 7th Doctor and his companion Melanie "Mel" Bush. When "Mel" leaves the Doctor at the conclusion of the serial, he offers to take Ace with him in the TARDIS, and she happily accepts.

Her weapon of choice, disapproved of by the Doctor (who nonetheless finds it useful on occasion), is a powerful explosive she called "Nitro-9", which she mixes up in canisters and carries around in her backpack.

Affectionately giving the Doctor the nickname of "Professor", she is convinced that the Doctor needs her to watch his back, and protects him with a fierce loyalty. In turn, the Doctor seems to take a special interest in Ace's education, taking her across the universe and often prompting her to figure out explanations for herself rather than giving her all the answers. However, the Doctor becomes more mysterious, single-minded and calculating after taking her on, and though he acts with her best intentions at heart, his higher motives and morality, as well as his strong tendency to manipulate events and people, including Ace, result in several difficult moments in their relationship.

What the Doctor is aware of, but Ace is not, is that her arrival on Iceworld was no accident but part of a larger scheme conceived by Fenric, an evil that had existed since the beginning of the universe, a plan that stretches across the centuries. Ace is a "Wolf of Fenric", one of many descendants of a Viking tainted with Fenric's genetic instructions to help free it from its ancient prison, and a pawn in the complex game between it and the Doctor. After Fenric is defeated, Ace continues to journey with the Doctor.

Her last TV appearance was in the 1989 story Survival. Ace's time with the Doctor after that was further explored in the New Adventures and Past Doctor Adventure line of books and Big Finish Productions' Doctor Who audio adventures.

In the book of the New Adventures line Love and War, Ace leaves the TARDIS to remain in the 26th century after the Doctor allowed her lover to be killed in order to stop an alien menace. In the book Deceit, it is revealed that after leaving the TARDIS, Ace joined Spacefleet and joined in Earth's war in fighting the Daleks. Three years later, Ace rejoined the Doctor and his new companion Professor Bernice "Benny" Summerfield aboard the TARDIS.

Ace permanently departed the TARDIS in the book Set Piece. She becomes Time's Vigilante, using a short-range time hopper mounted on a motorcycle to patrol a particular segment of time; in effect doing what the Doctor does, but on a smaller scale.

Ace returned to make a couple several appearances in the New Adventures line of books before making her last in Lungbarrow.

Ace was played by Sophie Aldred.

[Guest]

B ~ Black Tile - A piece of alien exotic technology that has been in Jack Harkness's possession since he joined Torchwood. Its function remains mostly unknown, but is assumed to be a form of early warning system. It was seen in 'Border Princes'.

[Alan]

C ~ Cooper, Gwen - Gwen Cooper (born 16th August, 1978) is a former South Wales Police Officer and currently Torchwood Three's second-in-command.

In the Series 1 première episode Everything Changes (set in 2007), Gwen was recruited to work for Torchwood Three by Captain Jack Harkness. Jack believes that Gwen is right when she says that the team has been working with aliens and alien technology for so long that they have become hardened and have lost touch with humanity. She acts as the moral centre of the team, reminding them that they are in a position to help people, not just to scavenge technology.

Unlike her colleagues who have let their professional lives consume them, Gwen maintains a life outside the Institute. She lives with her boyfriend (later husband), Rhys Williams, who is a transport manager.

In the Series 1 finale episode End of Days (set in 2008), her emotions are played with as Rhys' life is threatened then taken away, eventually leading a coup with Torchwood Three medic Owen Harper to overthrow Jack and open the Rift, believing it will resurrect Rhys. While ecstatic when eventually Rhys is returned at the price of Jack, who battled with Abaddon and remained dead for days, Gwen stayed by his side for the entire time, unwavering in her belief in him, before he is finally resurrected, and thanks her after she kisses his dead lips. After Jack's disappearance she, along with the rest of the Torchwood Three team, was dispatched on a "wild goose chase" to the Himalayas by British Prime Minister Harold Saxon (aka The Master) (The Sound of Drums).

Gwen took charge of the team in Jack's absence, and there was tension when Jack finally returned in the Series 2 première episode Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang.

In the Series 2 finale episode Exit Wounds, she was extremely affected by the death of colleagues Toshiko "Tosh" Sato (Torchwood Three's Tech Specialist) and Owen, stating that she didn't know if she could carry on.

Gwen Cooper is played by Eve Myles.

[Guest]

D ~ Decontamination sponge - Described only as looking like a "squat loofah" by Gwen, this item can decontaminate up to six different types of nuclear radiation, making it especially useful as only three types exist on Earth. Because of its effectiveness, Jack has to store it in a lead box at all times it isn't being used. When Owen becomes contaminated in 'Another Life', he uses the Decontamination sponge to soak up the radiation.

[Alan]

E ~ Emperor of the Daleks - Comic strip adventure which featured in Doctor Who Magazine in 1993. It featured the 7th Doctor and Professor Bernice "Benny" Summerfield with guest appearances from the 6th Doctor and Perpugilliam "Peri" Brown.

This comic strip is a sequel to the 1985 TV story Revelation of the Daleks and a prequel to the 1988 TV story Remembrance of the Daleks. It explains how Davros escaped his trial, became Dalek Emperor, and learnt about the Hand of Omega.

[Guest]

F ~ Firing Stock 15 Rifles - First seen in Doctor Who episodes "The Impossible Planet"/"The Satan Pit", and later in the background of Torchwood episode "Day One", these are fictional projectile weapons used by the Human Empire in the distant future. These rifles are based on P-90's but fire ammunition that is designed to only impact on organic-based targets, preventing accidents in hostile environments. An expedition of the "Torchwood Archives" who landed to conduct investigations on a planet on the other side of the galaxy, had several security guards bearing FS-15 Rifles, and used them to great effect against their rebelling Ood population. These presumably fell through the Rift and were salvaged.

[Kidwizz]

G ~ Gallifrey - Gallifrey was the homeworld to the Gallifreyans and to the Time Lords, amongst the the Doctor. It was destroyed in the Last Great Time War.

[Guest]

H ~ Harp of Rassilon - From "The Five Doctors". One of the many artifacts with Rasillon's name on it, the Harp of Rasillon is accompanied by a painting that shows Rasillon himself playing it. Upon seeing this the Fifth Doctor comments that he did not even know Rasillon was musical. Playing the tune notated on the sheet music in the painting unlocks a secret door leading to the Time Scoop controls.

[Kidwizz]

I ~ Ice Soldiers - The Ice Soldiers were four warriors guarding one of the keys to the Conscience of Marinus. Susan, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright accidentally freed them from suspended animation while trying to retrieve the key. They tried to kill the group of travelers, and succeeded in killing Vasor. (The Keys of Marinus)

[Guest]

J ~ Jacenite - A mineral in 'The Horns of Nimon'. If used to power a weapon, that weapon can stun or kill a Nimon.

[Alan]

K ~ K-9 - Robot Computer in the shape of a dog. K-9 was a product of 51st century technology. He was created by Professor Marius.

K-9 first appeared in the 1977 story The Invisible Enemy. At the conclusion of that story he joined the 4th Doctor and his companion Leela aboard the TARDIS. K-9 left the TARDIS to look after his mistress Leela who had decided to remain on Gallifrey after she fell in love with the security guard commander at the conclusion of the 1978 story The Invasion of Time.

The Doctor built K-9 Mk. II and they were then both joined by new Time Lady companion Romanadvoratrelunder (i.e. Romana) in the story The Ribos Operation. In the 1980 story Warriors' Gate, K-9 Mk. II was badly damaged by Time Winds. When Romana decided to remain in E-Space (the micro universe the TARDIS had become trapped in) the Doctor gave her K-9 knowing he could only be repaired if he stayed in E-Space. In the New Adventure line of books, Romana eventually returned to Gallifrey and K-9 Mk. II followed. Presumably both K-9 Mk. I and K-9 Mk. II were on Gallifrey when it was destroyed during the Time War with the Daleks.

In the spin-off special, K-9 and Company, the Doctor's former companion Sarah Jane Smith received a K-9 unit as a present in 1981. This was K-9 Mk. III. K-9 Mk. III appeared next in the 1983 TV movie The Five Doctors and tried to warn Sarah not to leave her house believing she was in danger. Sarah ignored this advice, found herself in danger, but was returned safely. K-9 Mk. III eventually broke down due to the difficulty in trying to find suitable 20th century components to replace the 51st century technology K-9 was built from. In the 2006 story School Reunion, K-9 Mk. III was restored by the Doctor (now in his 10th incarnation) and later sacrificed himself to defeat an alien race called the Krilitane.

The Doctor built for Sarah a K-9 Mk. IV. In the New Years Day TV movie of The Sarah Jane Adventures, Invasion of the Bane, it was revealed that K-9 Mk. IV had been attempting to seal off a black hole for a year and a half and it was a task that consumed a great deal of his time. K-9 Mk. IV next appeared in the Series 1 finale episode The Lost Boy in which he was called on by Sarah to fight her computer "Mr. Smith" which had turned against her. K-9 Mk. IV won and then returned to sealing off the black hole.

K-9 was voiced by John Leeson and briefly by David Brierly between 1979 and 1980.

[Guest]

L ~ Leela - Leela first appears in the 1977 serial, 'The Face of Evil', where she was a warrior of the savage Sevateem tribe, who were the descendants of the crew of an Earth ship that crash landed on an unnamed planet in the far future. The name of her tribe, "Sevateem", was a corruption of "survey team". Although the Doctor at this point was content to travel alone, Leela forces her way into the TARDIS and continues to accompany the Doctor on his journeys.

Although Leela is a primitive, she was also highly intelligent, grasping advanced concepts easily and translating them into terms she could cope with. Despite the Doctor's attempts at "civilizing" her, however, Leela is strong-willed enough to continue in her savage ways. She usually dresses in animal skins, armed with a knife or a set of poisonous Janis thorns which she does not hesitate to use on people who threatened her, much to the Doctor's disapproval.

Although Jameson's eyes are naturally blue, as Leela she initially wore red contact lenses to make them brown. However, the contact lenses severely limited her vision, and producer Graham Williams promised her she could stop wearing them. To explain the change in-story, writer Terrance Dicks wrote a scene in the 1977 serial 'Horror of Fang Rock' where Leela's eyes suffer "pigment dispersal" and turn blue after viewing the explosion of the Rutan ship.

In her travels with the Doctor, Leela faces killer robots, murderous homunculi, the Rutan Host, and the Sontaran invasion of the Doctor's home planet of Gallifrey. It is during this final adventure, 'The Invasion of Time', that she met and fell in love with Andred, a native Gallifreyan, and decides to stay behind to be with him. The first K-9 remained with her.

[Alan]

M ~ Monk, The - The Monk is a Renegade Time Lord. He first appeared in the 1965 story The Time Meddler.

The Monk was the possessor of a stolen Mark IV TARDIS – superior to the Doctor's and with a fully functioning chameleon circuit – and said he left the Doctor's then-unnamed home planet some fifty years after the Doctor did.

He liked to meddle in history and to change it for his own amusement and for what he considered to be the better — lending mechanical assistance to the builders of Stonehenge; giving Leonardo da Vinci tips on aircraft design; making money by using time travel to exploit compound interest. When the Doctor first encountered him, the Monk was attempting to prevent the Norman Conquest as part of a plan to guide England into an early age of technological prosperity. On that occasion he wore the guise of a monk in order to gain the trust of the 11th-century locals of Northumbria, hence the name by which he is most often known.

The Doctor stranded the Monk in the 11th century by stealing his TARDIS's dimensional controller, which reduced the interior dimensions of the time machine to minuscule size.

In the story The Daleks' Master Plan, it is revealed that the Monk had eventually restored his ship and tracked the Doctor to a volcanic planet, where he attempted to maroon his enemy by destroying the Doctor's TARDIS's lock. However, the Doctor managed to repair it and next materialised in Egypt, with the Monk still following him. While there the two encountered the Daleks, the Doctor stole the directional unit from the Monk's TARDIS, causing the Monk to lose control over his TARDIS's navigation. The Monk was last seen marooned once more, this time on a desolate icy planet.

Although the Monk never appeared on screen again, he appeared in the New Adventure book No Future. Following that he appeared in flashback sequences in the book Divided Loyalties and an alternate version of him briefly appeared in the book The Quantum Archangel, both of which are part of the Past Doctor Adventures line of books.

The Monk was played by Peter Butterworth.

[Guest]

N ~ Nyssa - Nyssa is an aristocratic native of Traken, the daughter of Tremas (a consul of the Traken Union) and stepdaughter of Kassia. She aids the Doctor and Adric when the Master wrests control of the Keepership by first manipulating and then murdering her stepmother, but is herself hypnotised and kidnapped by the Master after he takes control of her father's body. After being freed from his control, she is brought to Logopolis by the Watcher and discovers that Traken has been destroyed as a side effect of the Master's tampering with the Logopolitan's formulae. She subsequently joins Adric and Tegan Jovanka as a companion and member of the TARDIS crew, and witnesses the Fourth Doctor's regeneration into the Fifth.

During her journeys with Tegan and Adric aboard the TARDIS, Nyssa finds herself trapped in a mathematical equation by the Master – whom she hates as he is, of course, now using "that face" (her father's). She also encounters a race of androids and their insane ruler, helps foil the genocidal plans of a wounded Terileptil and incidentally start the Great Fire of London, and discovers her remarkable resemblance to Ann Talbot.

Adric's death while battling the Cybermen affects the TARDIS crew deeply. When confronted by an illusion of Adric created by the Master shortly afterwards, both Nyssa and Tegan are initially taken aback, until they see through the deception when Nyssa sees Adric is still wearing his now-destroyed badge. During this adventure, Nyssa also displays a previously unseen psychic ability when she is contacted by the Xeraphin.

Nyssa travels alone with the Doctor for an unspecified period of time when the Doctor leaves Tegan at Heathrow. Although no televised adventures take place in this period, several spin-offs including those by Big Finish Productions and BBC Books' Past Doctor Adventures are set in this gap.

Nyssa and the Doctor are reunited with Tegan while battling against Omega in Amsterdam and on Gallifrey, help Tegan battle her inner demons as personified by the Mara, and meet the Doctor's old friend and ally Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. It is during this adventure that she and the TARDIS crew meet Turlough, posing as a typical English schoolboy. When the TARDIS crew arrive on the derelict space station Terminus, Nyssa's adventures with the Doctor come to an end, as – to Tegan's horror – she elects to stay on board the Space Station in order to help free the enslaved guards and turn the station into a real hospital. The Doctor is moved by this noble gesture and parts saying that he thinks she is very brave.