Doctor Who & Spin-Offs A-Z Game

[Guest]

P ~ Pharos Project - The Pharos Project was a scientific research installation based on Earth with the intention of trying to contact alien intelligences.

A replica of the Pharos Project was created by the Logopolitans through Block Transfer Computation who used it to relay signals that opened the CVEs, programming them to shunt entropy out of N-Space and into E-Space.

[Alan]

Q ~ Quantum Transducer - The Quantum transducer or ("Ghost Machine") allowed Humans a form of mental time travel. It first appeared in the Series 1 Torchwood episode Ghost Machine.

Ed Morgan acquired the machine (perhaps by finding it, perhaps by obtaining it off somebody else) and then Bernie Harris, a small-time fence in grey market alien artefacts filched it out of a biscuit tin found in a lockup owned by Ed Morgan pressumably.

Torchwood 3 acquired the machine by tracing alien energy signals from the device while still in Harries' possession. After a chase that led her to a train station, Gwen Cooper ended up with Harries' hoody, which contained in its pocket the machine. There she mentally time-slipped back in time and saw a ghost from World War II, not a phantom in the conventional sense, but a quantum echo of the long-ago emotional state of a living person, Tom Flanagan. The other half of the machine, also at Bernie's, snapped in neatly with the first and picked up visions of the future.

The Transducer eventually was put away with other dangerous alien artefacts in Torchwood 3.

It was shown again when Owen Harper tries to find the blue prints for the Rift Manipulator in the Series 1 finale episode End of Days.

[Guest]

R ~ Reaper - Reapers appeared in the Ninth Doctor episode 'Father's Day'. Although not named on screen, they were referred to as "Reapers" in the publicity material for the episode. The production team based their design on the Grim Reaper, with their tails shaped like scythes.

Reapers are multi-limbed, flying creatures similar to pterosaurs, with a large wingspan, sharp teeth both in the form of a beak and a secondary mouth in their torsos, coupled with a rapacious attitude. The Reapers are apparently extradimensional, materialising and dematerialising out of the spacetime vortex. They are attracted to temporal paradoxes that damage time, like bacteria swarming around a wound. They then proceed to "sterilise" the wound by consuming everyone in sight.

Once in this dimension, however, they can be blocked by material barriers. The older the barriers, the more effective they are, but even the oldest of barriers cannot stop them forever. Paradoxes can also allow them to directly materialise at the spot of the paradox. If the timeline is restored, they vanish, with their actions reversed as if they had never happened.

In 'Father's Day', the Doctor explained that when the Time Lords were still around, there were laws to prevent the spread of paradoxes and that such paradoxes could be repaired. This implies that the Reapers are a natural phenomenon whose manifestation could be prevented if the paradox was resolved quickly. However, with the elimination of the other Time Lords in the Time War, there was no longer any agency that could repair time.

[Alan]

S ~ Stolen Earth, The - Series 4 finale story starring David Tennant as "The Doctor" & Catherine Tate in her last regular appearance as "Donna Noble".

Guest Starring Freema Agyeman as "Martha Jones", John Barrowman as "Captain Jack Harkness", Elisabeth Sladen as "Sarah Jane Smith", Billie Piper as "Rose Tyler", Noel Clarke as "Mickey Smith", Eve Myles as "Gwen Cooper", Gareth David-Lloyd as "Ianto Jones", Thomas Knight as "Luke Smith", Alexander Armstrong as the voice of "Mr. Smith", & John Leeson as the voice of "K-9 Mk. IV".

Synopsis
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When the Earth is stolen from its orbit and placed in another galaxy with 26 other stolen planets, the Doctor's secret army of allies comes together to defend the Earth from the New Dalek Empire. With battles raging on the streets and in the sky, the Doctor and Donna confront the Shadow Proclamation to find the truth; however, a fearsome old enemy waits in the shadows.

[Guest]

T ~ Terileptil - The Terileptils appeared in the Fifth Doctor serial 'The Visitation'. They are a reptilian humanoid species, they cannot survive long without breathing soliton gas, which is highly combustible when combined with oxygen. As an advanced society, they enjoy a heightened appreciation of both aesthetics and warfare, and have been known to employ bejeweled androids. Criminal punishment in Terileptil society includes life imprisonment working in tinclavic mines on the planet Raaga, often with sub-standard medical care.

In 1666, a group of Terileptil prison escapees hidden near London attempted to use a genetically enhanced version of the Black Plague to destroy humanity. The destruction of their lab in Pudding Lane — with help from the Doctor — causes the Great Fire of London.

The Terileptils destroyed the Sonic Screwdriver which did not appear again until the Doctor Who TV Movie and it is now used regularly in the new series.

[Alan]

U ~ Underworld - 1978 story starring Tom Baker as "The Doctor", Louise Jameson as "Leela", & John Leeson as the voice of "K-9 Mk. I".

Synopsis
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Exploring the very edge of the known universe, the Doctor, Leela and K-9 discover a group of astronauts searching for the lost gene bank of Minyan race. During the perilous voyage, the astronauts' craft plunges into the heart of a recently formed planet, wherein an awesome secret is hidden.

How will the Minyan quest end? What must the Doctor wrest from the Heart of the Oracle?

[Spimman]

V ~ Valeyard The Valeyard was an entity created between the Doctor's "twelfth and final incarnations", perhaps the essence of the Doctor's dark side from that time. Other than a cryptic hint as to the Valeyard's origins as the Doctor's future self (or part of his self), we do not know the origins of the Valeyard.

The Valeyard served as the prosecutor during the trial of the Doctor. He presented extracts from the Matrix depicting past events in the Doctor's life as evidence of the Doctor violating the non-interference policy of the Time Lords. Later in the trial he added a charge of genocide against the Vervoids.

The Valeyard had secretly tampered with the Matrix extracts to show the Doctor in the worst possible light and steer the trial to a guilty verdict. The Valeyard was acting on behalf of the High Council to cover up the Ravolox affair. As payment, the Valeyard was to have received the Doctor's remaining regenerations. The Master stepped in and revealed the Valeyard's true origins.

[Guest]

W ~ Wirrn - The Wirrn are an insectoid race that made their debut in the 1975 Fourth Doctor story 'The Ark in Space'. The name is sometimes spelled Wirrrn, which is a spelling originating from the novelisation of the story.

The Wirrn claim to have originated from Andromeda (whether they meant the galaxy, the constellation, or even a planet named "Andromeda" is unclear), but were driven into space by human settlers. They are slightly larger than humans, dark green and wasp-like in appearance, and live mostly in space, although their breeding colonies are terrestrial. Their bodies are a self-contained system, their lungs being able to recycle waste carbon dioxide and only needing to touch down occasionally on planetary bodies for food and oxygen. The Wirrn's life cycle involves laying their eggs in living hosts; the larvae emerge to consume the host, absorbing its memories and knowledge. A Wirrn larva is a green slug-like creature, varying in size from a few inches to 1 or 2 metres across. It can "infect" another organism through contact with a substance it excretes, mutating them into an adult Wirrn and connecting their consciousness to the hive mind.

In 'The Ark in Space', the Wirrn found Space Station Nerva in orbit around an Earth devastated centuries before by solar flares. The survivors had lain in suspended animation waiting for the planet to recover, but had overslept by several millennia. The Wirrn intended to use the sleepers as a food source and claim the empty Earth for their own, as both a means of survival and an act of revenge against the human race for taking their former territories. In the course of their plan, Noah, leader of Nerva, was infected and converted to their kind. However, Noah still retained "more than a vestige of human spirit", probably thanks to the encouragements of the Doctor, and led the Wirrn into Nerva's transport ship even though he knew it was rigged to explode. It did so, ending the Wirrn threat.

The Wirrn have also appeared in the Eighth Doctor Adventures novel 'Placebo Effect' by Gary Russell, and in the audio play 'Wirrn: Race Memory', produced by BBV and the Big Finish audio story 'Wirrn Dawn' by Nicholas Briggs. A dead Wirrn appears briefly in 'The Stones of Blood'.

[Alan]

X ~ Xarax - The Xarax were a species of scorpion-like aliens that featured in the Missing Adventures novel The Dark Path. They were midnight blue in colour, had wings and were the size of cars. When injured, they would emit a smell like cloves. Their homeworld was uninhabitable for Humans.

A Xarax worked on-board the Piri Reis and accidentally broke a leg during the mission to investigate the Darkheart colony. It was later erased from existence by the Darkheart.

[Guest]

Y ~ Yates, Captain Mike - Yates first appeared in the Third Doctor serial 'Terror of the Autons', the latest in a line of Captains assisting Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. He proved more durable than his predecessors, appearing semi-regularly in the programme from 1971 to 1974 alongside the Brigadier and Sergeant Benton. Together with the Doctor and his companions, Yates fought off alien invasions, the machinations of the renegade Timelord known as the Master, rogue computers and mutated maggots.

[Alan]

Z ~ Zygon Who Fell to Earth, The - Big Finish audio adventure starring Paul McGann as "The Doctor" and Sheridan Smith as "Lucie Miller".

Synopsis
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Ten years later and Aunty Pat is in her prime. She's snagged herself an ex rock star at the Kendal Folk Festival and now, in the brave new world of the early 1980s they manage together a snazzy hotel on the poetic and shingly shore of Lake Grasmere. However, still waters run deep and friends from the past are returning, intent on milking the old cash-cow...

[Guest]

A ~ Alpha Centauri - Alpha Centauri is an alien delegate for the Galactic Federation.

Alpha Centauri is a hermaphroditic hexapod from Alpha Centauri. It is tall, green, has one large blue eye, six arms and a high-pitched voice, wears a long yellow cape and walks with a nervous gait. It is prone to cowardice and hysterics. It has a low opinion of Earth, describing it as a "'remote and unattractive" planet, but regrets that its appearance can frighten humans. It regards females as unimportant.

It appeared in the 1972 story The Curse of Peladon and the 1974 sequel story The Monster of Peladon.

[Alan]

B ~ Battlefield - 1989 story starring Sylvester McCoy as "The Doctor" & Sophie Aldred as "Ace".

Guest starring Nicholas Courtney as "Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart".

Synopsis
---------
The Doctor and Ace receive a mysterious distress signal and land in the Earth village of Carbury, where a UNIT-led nuclear convoy has halted. The Doctor's concern is heightened when knights from another dimension begin to land in the area. Nearby is Lake Voortigen, the mythical resting-place of Excalibur, King Arthur's mystical sword...

But the lake holds a more sinister secret. A spaceship from the same alien dimension lurks under the lake - but does it really contain Arthur's corpse? And what is it that the Witch Queen, Morgaine, is really after?

The Doctor's old friend the Brigadier is sent in to investigate, but the Doctor's happiness is short-lived. It seems his friend must take on the might of the deadly Destroyer, a horned demon intent on bringing about the end of the world...

[Guest]

C ~ 'Castrovalva' - The freshly regenerated Doctor is in a vulnerable state, and the Master has escaped after the events of 'Logopolis'. His regeneration failing, the Doctor and his companions go to the city of Castrovalva to let him recover, but a trap waits for them there.

[Alan]

D ~ Destiny of the Daleks - 1979 story starring Tom Baker as "The Doctor" and introducing Lalla Ward as "Romana".

Synopsis
---------
Accompanied by the newly regenerated Romana, the Doctor lands on a mystery planet intrigued by the evidence of drilling taking place there, deep underground.

The discoveries he makes are chilling. For the planet is Skaro and the Daleks are in charge of the operation. But just what are his old enemies searching for? And why?

Perhaps the answers lie with the Movellans, a beautiful humanoid race led by Commander Sharrel. They are waging a war of their own with the Daleks and the situation is now stalemate. Should the Doctor tip the balance of power to aid the Daleks' ultimate destruction? Or are their intentions no less sinister than the Daleks' themselves?

Suddenly the Doctor finds himself enmeshed in a deadly battle which could result in the destruction of the universe itself as, once more, he summons the strength to face an all too familiar, timelessly evil adversary.