Doctor Who & Spin-Offs A-Z Game

[Alan]

F ~ Four to Doomsday - 1982 story starring Peter Davison as "The Doctor", Matthew Waterhouse as "Adric", Janet Fielding as "Tegan Jovanka", and Sarah Sutton as "Nyssa".

Synopsis
----------
Whilst trying to return Tegan to Heathrow Airport, the Doctor instead lands the TARDIS on a seemingly deserted alien spacecraft, just four days away from its final destination — Earth.

The TARDIS crew discover that the ship isn't as empty as it first appears. On board they find Chinese, Mayan, Greek and Aboriginal crew members — and the alien froglike Urbankans. The Urbankan leader, Monarch, invites the Doctor, Tegan, Nyssa and Adric to continue the trip to Earth as his guests.

Monarch has returned to Earth every few thousand years throughout history, but now his intention is to stay for good. The Urbankans want to colonise Earth — but what plans does Monarch have for the future of mankind?

The more the Doctor learns of Monarch's grand scheme, the more unsettled Tegan and Nyssa become. But Adric thinks his friends have got the Urbankans all wrong. Who is the Doctor to trust...?

[Guest]

G ~ Great Seal of Diplos - Seen in 'The Stones of Blood', an important artifact stolen by the criminal The Cessair of Diplos. It was actually one of the pieces of The Key to Time in disguise.

[Alan]

H ~ Hostile Action Displacement System - The HADS (Hostile Action Displacement System) was one of the defence mechanisms of a TARDIS. Upon the outer shell of the vessel coming under attack, the unit dematerialised the TARDIS and rematerialised it a short distance away, in a safer locale. The HADS must be manually set, and the Doctor often forgets to do so, explaining why the TARDIS often doesn't react to attacks.

The Hostile Action Displacement System was seen being used in the 1968 story The Krotons.

[Guest]

I ~ Info-stamps - Dalek technology stolen by the Cybermen when the escaped the void in the 2008 Christmas Special 'The Next Doctor', they carry information about almost everything including the Doctor but they can be corrupted, for example Jackson Lake looked into one, making the Cybermen think he was the Doctor, it even backed fired on him causing him to lose his memory. The stamps can also be used as weapons by releasing an EMP bolt out of one end.

[Alan]

J ~ Jovanka, Tegan - Tegan Jovanka was, briefly, a companion of the Doctor during his fourth incarnation and for a longer length of time, his fifth incarnation.

On 28th February 1981, Tegan was on route with her aunt Vanessa to Heathrow Airport to start her new job with Air Australia. She entered a roadside police box on the Barnet Bypass to seek help, not knowing that it was a series of nested TARDIS' including Doctor's and Master's. The Master killed her aunt with his Tissue Compression Eliminator. She saw the the Doctor fall from the Pharos Project radio telescope and regenerate into his fifth incarnation

Tegan was left behind at Heathrow Airport in her home time due to a misunderstanding. Later, after losing her job with the airline, she returned to the TARDIS to search for her lost cousin, Colin Fraser, in Amsterdam.

Eventually, the carnage surrounding the early phase of the Dalek civil war prove too much, and she bids an emotional good-bye to the Doctor and Turlough in 1984 London.

Tegan's first appearance was in the 1981 story Logopolis. Her last appearance was in the 1984 story Resurrection of the Daleks although a vision of her appeared to the Doctor during his regeneration in The Caves of Androzani.

[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.

[Alan]

L ~ Land of Fiction - The Land of Fiction is a pocket universe inhabited by characters from various works of fiction, mythology and folklore. The Gods of Ragnarok created the Land for their own entertainment. But grew tired of its amusements and abandoned it for other things.

Spoilered for length:

Spoiler:

The Doctor first visited the Land of Fiction shortly after defeating the Dominators on Dulkis. To escape a volcanic eruption there, he flipped an emergency switch in the TARDIS to escape the lava. Consequently, the ship materialized in a White Void inhabited only by White Robots and a disembodied force that invaded the minds of the travellers. They managed to return to the safety of the TARDIS which appeared in a Black Void. The TARDIS appeared to explode, leaving Zoe and Jamie clinging to the TARDIS console, spinning in space and the Doctor floating nearby, seemingly dead.

After a dream-like transition, the travellers found themselves in a world called the Land of Fiction, without the TARDIS. The White Robots re-appeared, this time as Clockwork Soldiers. In the Land, mythical and fictional characters such as Lemuel Gulliver and unicorns (some based on actual beings) had a physical existence, as did puzzles, riddles and puns.

They found this realm to be under the control of an unseen presence known as the Master of the Land who attempted to turn Jamie and Zoe into fictional characters and to trick the Doctor into assuming the place and rule the Land. A futuristic computer, the Master Brain, had forced the Master of the Land into its slave.

The Master of the Land was in fact a benign old man, a writer of boys' fiction from Earth in the year 1926 who had also been trapped in this universe and taken over by the Master Brain. Zoe and Jamie were able to overload the Master Brain's systems, destroying it and freeing the old man from its control. Once the Master Brain was destroyed, everything vanished, the TARDIS re-assembled around them, and they found themselves returned to the normal universe.

[Guest]

M ~ Movellan - The Movellans,who made their first and only appearance to date in the Fourth Doctor serial 'Destiny of the Daleks', originated from outside the galaxy and were adversaries of the Daleks.

The Movellans outwardly resemble physically attractive humans, of various ethnicities and both genders. All of the Movellan androids wear white, form-fitting uniforms and wear their hair in silver braids. Being androids, the Movellans are stronger and have more endurance than normal humans. However, the major weakness of the Movellan design is that each android's external power pack, carried on its belt, can be easily removed to completely shut down the android. The power pack circuitry can also be modified, reprogramming the android to obey human orders.

[Alan]

N ~ Nyder - Nyder was a security commander and most trusted associate, and personal aide, to Davros. He was icily efficient and obeyed Davros's every order. He was in the end exterminated by the Daleks as he tried to carry out Davros's instructions.

Despite certain misgivings about Davros's more complicated plans (he preferred the more direct approach due to his military background), he never waivered and had no problems with the genocide of his own people and of the Thals just to achieve Davros's goals. He was also cunning and sly, and while not as intelligent as Davros he still managed to trick the other members of the scientific elite into revealing their treachery.

Nyder appeared in the 1975 story Genesis of the Daleks.

[Guest]

O ~ Optera - The Optera appeared in the First Doctor story 'The Web Planet'. These caterpillar-like creatures were once Menoptra, but they elected to instead burrow under the ground and abandon the world of light and flight above. It is implied that they may have been driven there by the malevolent Animus.

They have larger eyes than their Menoptra brethren, and have no wings. However, they have numerous arms and appear to "hop" in a stylised way (although whether or not they actually have legs is unclear). They speak with inflection different to that of their bee-like cousins, but their speech is a strange dialect of the language of the "upper world" and words and phrases they have coined for themselves (for example, when they refer to how they plan to dig a hole in a wall they say, "We shall make a mouth in it.")

At the story's end, the Animus is defeated and the Optera are persuaded to return to the surface, where they look forward to their children learning the joys of flight; implying that once back on the surface the Optera will redevelop wings. It is assumed that all of species indigenous to Vortis are now living peacefully together.

[Alan]

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

Synopsis
----------
In a Victorian gothic mansion, strange things are afoot. The master of the house, away in Egypt, has been replaced by a sinister Egyptian and cloth-wrapped Mummies roam the grounds killing people. Beneath a pyramid, the last of the Osirians — Sutekh the Destroyer — waits to be freed, to at long last bring his gift of death to all who live.

[Guest]

Q ~ Quark - The Quarks appeared in the Second Doctor serial 'The Dominators' (1969).

The Quarks were used on Dulkis by the Dominators to enslave and terrorise the indigenous Dulcian population to ensure the drilling of bore holes through the planet's crust. The Dominators planned to use their technology to fire seeds down the holes which would force the core to erupt, thus providing a new fuel source for their fleet.

The Quarks were rectangular in shape, with four arms: one pair which folded into the body, the other pair being retractable. On the end of each arm was a solitary claw. The legs extended out below the Quark body. The spherical head was visibly divided into octants; the upper four octants formed the sensory hemisphere, which detected changes in light, heat and motion. At five of the corners of the octants were directional crystal beam transmitters (the sixth corner joined with the robot's extremely short neck). Quarks communicated by means of high-pitched sound waves. Their major weakness was a tendency to run out of energy rather quickly.

[Alan]

R ~ Revenge of the Slitheen - 2007 première story for the first series of The Sarah Jane Adventures.

Synopsis
----------
Sarah Jane's young friends Maria, Clyde and Luke realise all is not as it seems on their first day at their new school.

They soon uncover the Slitheen's deadly plan, but together with Sarah Jane can they stop the evil aliens before it's too late?

Trivia
------

• First appearance of Daniel Anthony as "Clyde Langer".
  
  
• This story acts as a sort of sequel to the 2005 Doctor Who story Aliens of London.