Doctor Who & Spin-Offs A-Z Game

[Guest]

M ~ Macra - The Macra first appear in the 1967 Second Doctor story 'The Macra Terror'. They are an intelligent, giant crab-like species from an unnamed planet colonised by humanity in the future. The Macra invade the control centre of the colony and seize the levers of power without the colonists — including their Pilot — knowing what had happened. Thereafter the Macra only appear at night, when the humans are in their quarters, observing a curfew. They have strong hypnotic powers which alter human perception. They also have the ability to ensure messages are vocalised through electronic apparatus such as television or sensor speakers. Both these tools are used to keep the human colonists under control, believing they are blissfully happy. This provides a cover for the Macra to use the colonists as miners in a vast gas mine. The gas is deadly to the miners but vital to the Macra, enabling them to move more quickly and rejuvenating their abilities. The Second Doctor effects a revolution on the Macra planet and helps engineer an explosion in the control centre, destroying the Macra in charge.

The Macra also feature in the 2007 episode 'Gridlock', becoming the only one-off opponent of the Doctor in the classic series to appear in the revived series so far. In the episode, some Macra are found to be alive below New New York, a city of New Earth. They live in the thick fog of exhaust gases on the main motorway under the city, tracking the flying cars by their lights and snatching at them when they get too close. The Doctor says that the species is billions of years old and once developed a mighty empire as "the scourge of this galaxy", but the Macra beneath New New York must have devolved into nothing more than beasts.

[Alan]

N ~ Noble, Donna - Donna Noble was a fiercely independent companion of the 10th Doctor. Despite humble origins, Donna Noble is also noted by Rose Tyler as unknowingly being the most important woman in all of creation. After her mind was transformed into that of a Time Lord, she became unstable after saving the universe, the sheer amount of knowledge and the Time Lord Conciousness overwhelming her human brain. The Doctor, to save her life, had to suppress her memories of him and as such she no longer remembers anything about their travels, or recognises him, he had to do this due to her becoming the DoctorDonna since she had a Time Lord - Human metacrisis.

Donna made her first appearance in the 2006 TV movie The Runaway Bride. She returned in the Series 4 première story Partners in Crime and was a regular character from this point until the 2-part Series 4 finale The Stolen Earth.

[Guest]

O ~ Opera Glasses - These are a small set of binoculars that the Doctor carries with him in the 2005 episode 'The Empty Child', as well as in the novel 'The Nightmare of Black Island'. In the latter, he uses them to gain a closer view of Ynis Du's lighthouse. The actual origin of the glasses are unknown; however, the fact that they are described as having "computer-enhanced lenses" suggests that they are a product of some future time.

[Alan]

P ~ Power of the Daleks, The - 1966 story starring Patrick Troughton as "The Doctor", Anneke Wills as "Polly Wright", and Michael Craze as "Ben Jackson".

Synopsis
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Disoriented after his regeneration, the Doctor takes the TARDIS to the Earth colony Vulcan. Ben and Polly are disturbed - the Doctor isn't the man he used to be.

The Doctor too is worried. The colonists have found the remains of two Daleks - which they plan to revive.

Once revived, the Daleks claim that they are content to serve humanity. Can it really be true? Or do they have their own, more sinister plans?

[Guest]

Q ~ Quantum Accelerator - A TARDIS component, one of the items exchanged between the Master and the Doctor in 'Time Flight'.

[Alan]

R ~ Randomiser - The Randomiser was a device that would ensure a TARDIS would land at unpredictable times and places. The Randomiser, when activated, scrambled the TARDIS' co-ordinate settings giving the Doctor even less control than usual over the destination of his ship. As the name implies, using the Randomiser could send the TARDIS to any point in time and space.

After his successful completion of the quest to find the Key to Time, the 4th Doctor feared the vengeance of the Black Guardian. Reasoning that if he himself did not know where he was going, neither would the Guardian (and thus the eternal would be unable to pursue or act against him), he installed the randomiser in the central console.

The Doctor frequently chose to over-ride the device when it became necessary to visit a specific time or place.

In the end the Doctor chose to take his chances with the Black Guardian, removing the Randomiser as its components were needed within the Tachyon Recreation Generator on Argolis. He made no effort to replace the device despite his earlier concerns.

[Guest]

S ~ SIDRAT - Dimensionally transcendent time machines named SIDRATs were provided by the War Chief to the alien race known as the War Lords in 'The War Games'. According to the novelisation of the story by Malcolm Hulke, SIDRAT is an acronym for Space and Inter-Dimensional Robot All-purpose Transporter, as well as the backwards spelling of TARDIS.

[Alan]

T ~ Time Crash - 2007 mini-story starring David Tennant as "The Doctor". Guest starring Peter Davison as "The Doctor".

Synopsis
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The 10th Doctor accidentally pilots his TARDIS into the path of the 5th Doctor's TARDIS--which threatens to rip a hole in space and time the size of Belgium!

[Guest]

U ~ Untempered Schism - A gap in the fabric of reality, the Untempered Schism allows one to look directly into the Time Vortex. It is depicted as a stonework portal through which one sees the Time Vortex unaided. Gallifreyan children are taken to the Schism at the age of eight and made to face the Schism as a form of initiation into the Time Lord Academy. According to Tenth Doctor, Gallifreyan children who look into the time vortex through the Untempered Schism were either inspired, ran away, or went mad. In a flashback during 'The Sound of Drums', the Master is seen looking into the Schism as a child, an event that Tenth Doctor describes as the moment the Master went mad. The Doctor says he himself was one of those who "ran away, and never stopped".

[Alan]

V ~ Voga - Planet which featured in the 1975 story Revenge of the Cybermen. Voga, also known as the Planet of Gold, was a planet with an extremely high gold content. It contained more gold than in the rest of the known galaxy and with rocks being 50% gold, sometimes even higher.

Voga was originally a full sized planet, inhabited by the Vogans. During the Cyber-Wars, the Vogans started supplying the gold dust which would be used in the manufacturing of glitterguns. The Cybermen tried to stop this by destroying the planet, but one emergency bunker survived, which started drifting in space. Centuries later, it was captured in Jupiter's orbit. The Cybermen later discovered the planet again and attempted to destroy the remaining gold.

[Guest]

W ~ Weeping Angels - The Weeping Angels are a group of hunters featured in the Tenth Doctor episode 'Blink'. Because their physiology is quantum-locked, they only occupy a single position in space when seen by an observer. When they are not observed they become a "quantum wave form" that occupies many positions in space, thus they cannot move while being observed; but when they are not they can appear to travel exceedingly quickly. They use this ability to approach and attack unwary prey. They turn to stone when observed, acting as a defense mechanism. While in their locked state they appear as stone statues, often covering their eyes so that they will not see each other and lock themselves forever in stone form. This defense mechanism is what gave them the name "Weeping Angels".

According to the Doctor, the Angels are as old as the universe (or very nearly) but no one really knows where they come from. He also describes them as "creatures of the abstract", "the lonely assassins", and "the only psychopaths in the universe to kill you nicely", because their method of killing doesn't do anything of the sort: a touch sends their victims into the past to live out their lives before they were even born; the Angels then feed on the "potential energy" of the lives their victims would have lived in the present.

In 'Blink', a quartet of Weeping Angels strand the Doctor and his companion Martha Jones in the year 1969, and attempt to feed off the vast potential energy reserves of the TARDIS. Despite dispatching the Doctor, the Angels fail to get into the TARDIS; though they get the key, they can't find the machine itself. Sally Sparrow takes the key from one of them while it is in stone form, leading them to stalk Sally to regain it. During their pursuit, Sally inadvertently leads them to the TARDIS. Eventually the four Angels, having surrounded the TARDIS, are tricked into looking at each other when the box disappears, leaving them deadlocked in their stone forms.

[Alan]

X ~ Xana - Xana was the lover of Kane.

She was a member of Kane's criminal gang on Proamon. She killed herself to avoid being arrested and tried for her crimes. Her image and history were recalled in a archive within the Dragonfire creature. Kane had a ice statue erected in her honor but it melted in an assassination attempt on him.

[Guest]

Y ~ Yeti - Although resembling the cryptozoological creatures also called the Yeti, these 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'.

[Alan]

Z ~ Zygons - The Zygons were a race of metamorphic humanoids that originally originated from the planet Zygor. They appeared in the 1975 story Terror of the Zygons.

Zygons were solidly built humanoids with large, cone-shaped heads. Their heads, arms and torsos were covered in suckers, and they had deeply inset faces. Zygons had dark red blood and spoke in a gurgling whisper. Zygons were stronger then humans and could live for several centuries. They also had an earthy, iron smell. Zygons had the ability to sting people using venomous barbs on their palms. These stings could be used to stun, maim or kill, and would leave severe welts on the affected area.

At some point before the 12th century, a Zygon ship was damaged and was forced to land on Earth near Devil's Punchbowl in Scotland. They had a Skarasen with them, which, though still an infant at that point, provided them with the lactic fluid they needed to survive. In 1975, the Zygons of Devil's Punchbowl decided to take over Earth and physically adapt it to an environment more attuned to their species. UNIT and the Doctor stepped in and were able to stop them, letting the Skarasen free at the same time.

[Guest]

A ~ Anne Droid - In the episode 'Bad Wolf', the Anne Droid made an appearance in a parody of The Weakest Link. The robot is based on the host of The Weakest Link, Anne Robinson. The Anne Droid has also made an appearance on the real Weakest Link during a Doctor Who special.