Doctor Who & Spin-Offs A-Z Game

[Guest]

A ~ Archangel Network - An Earth-wide mobile phone satellite network (made up of 15 satellites overall) seen in 'The Sound of Drums', the Archangel network creates a low-level, worldwide telepathic field which allows the Master to subtly influence the behaviour of the entire planet, first by convincing a substantial number of the British public to vote for his Mr. Saxon persona and later to keep most of the human race afraid of him. It also masks his Time Lord nature from the Doctor. In 'The Last of the Time Lords', the Doctor uses the network to channel the combined psychic energy of the entire human race, Martha having convinced them to think of the Doctor by name at the same moment.

It affected 98% of the British population by hypnotising them to Vote Saxon. Characters not affected included Clive Jones and Vivian Rook.

[Alan]

B ~ Bambera, Winifred - Brigadier Winifred Bambera was took command of the UK branch of UNIT from Brigadier Charles Crichton in 1989. In 1997 she fought against Mordred when he and his knights came across a dimensional gateway in Carbury, and would fight alongside the knight Ancelyn. Some months later she was part of the resistance when the Ice Warriors invaded the United Kingdom. She later had twins with Ancelyn.

Shortly after the defeated Ice Warrior invasion, Bambera left UNIT and handed command of the UK branch over to Colonel Ross Brimmicombe-Wood.

[Guest]

C ~ Crystal of Kronos - From the Third Doctor serial 'The Time Monster', this is used by the Master to power his TOMTIT machine, but turns out to be something much more powerful.

[Alan]

D ~ Delta and the Bannermen - 1987 story starring Sylvester McCoy as "The Doctor" and Bonnie Langford as "Mel Bush".

Synopsis
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As the billionth customers at a space tollport the Doctor and Mel win the Grand Prize – a place on the Fabulous Fifties Coach Tour to Disneyland, Planet Earth.
Unfortunately, they don’t quite make it there … Knocked off-course by a wayward satellite the coach party arrives instead at Shangri-la, a remote Welsh holiday camp.
But the peace and quiet of the countryside are soon shattered by the arrival of an army of marauding Bannermen soldiers, led by the ruthless Gavrok. They are tracking down Delta, the last of the Chimeron, with only one thought in mind – her destruction …

[Spimman]

E ~ Earth Empire The Earth Empire existed from circa the early 26th century until its fall circa the late 30th century.

[Alan]

F ~ Face of Boe - The Face of Boe was a male Boekind whose outward appearance was little more than a gigantic, humanoid-like head. Although he could only grunt vocally, he was able to communicate telepathically.

The Face of Boe had the distinction of being one of the oldest creatures in the known universe. This caused him to be dubbed on some worlds as "the creature that God forgot". He was well known by the 51st century, since Jack Harkness commented on the fact that he once saw someone dressed up as the Face of Boe. In 200,000, he was featured on BAD WOLFTV, at which point he was pregnant with six children (Boemina) who died forty years later. In 200,100, he was the focus of a question on Ton The Weakest Link, where he was described as the oldest living creature in the Isop galaxy.

In the year 5.5/Apple/26, the Face of Boe was the sponsor of an event to safely witness the destruction of the Earth by the expansion of the Sun. The event was sabotaged by Lady Cassandra, but the Face was among the survivors. By 5,000,000,023, the Face was hospitalised in Ward 26 of the hospital run by the Sisters of Plenitude on New Earth. Apparently dying of old age, the Face summoned the Doctor to his ward. When a novice told the Doctor the legend of the Face's last words - a secret which the Face would impart only to one like himself - the Doctor realised that he fit the description of the "wandering traveller". The Face of Boe eventually recovered, saying that although he had grown tired of the universe, the Doctor had shown him a new way of looking at things. The Doctor asked about the message, but the Face told him that it could wait for their third and final meeting, and teleported away.

The Doctor was ultimately reunited with the Face of Boe one last time during his travels with Martha Jones, in the year 5,000,000,053. Boe revealed his last secret with his dying breath after sacrificing himself to save the city of New New York: "You [the Doctor] are not alone". The Doctor dismissed this, as he still firmly believed himself the last Time Lord. This was the only time the Face of Boe communicated vocally with his only words out loud being "you are not alone."

After the death of Mr. Saxon, the immortal Jack Harkness said he lived on the Boeshane Peninsula, where, as the first Time Agent from that place, he was a poster boy and nicknamed "The Face of Boe". Given that the Doctor had just speculated that Jack might mutate in shape rather than age in the traditional way, this implied that he (Jack) might one day age into the being known as the Face of Boe.

[Guest]

G ~ Gelth - The Gelth appeared in the Ninth Doctor episode 'The Unquiet Dead'. They were a new race of alien villains that the Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler encountered in the 2005 series. They were also the first element of the new series that attracted attention for being "too scary". Following complaints (many of which were made by Mediawatch UK), the BBC stated that in future, episodes of that nature would be forewarned by a statement of "may not be suitable for under 8s".

The Gelth were intelligent gaseous life-forms, blue and spectral in nature, who claimed to have lost their corporeal forms as a consequence of the Time War. They arrived on Earth via the spacetime rift at an undertaker's house in 1869 Cardiff and proceeded to take possession of recently deceased corpses. Their forms could not be maintained for long in Earth's atmosphere and they required a gaseous medium to sustain them — gas from decomposing bodies or coal gas in the gas pipes common to Victorian era households.

Claiming to be on the verge of extinction, the Gelth convinced the Doctor to aid their entrance into our plane of existence via Gwyneth, the undertaker's servant girl who had developed psychic powers due to growing up near the rift. The Gelth proved instead to number in the billions and intended to take the Earth by force and murder its population to provide vessels for themselves. Ultimately, the Gelth were thwarted when Gwyneth sacrificed herself, blowing up the building and sealing the rift. Whether all the Gelth that had entered our world perished as well is unclear.

[Alan]

H ~ Harkness, Jack - Captain Jack Harkness (sometimes simply "Captain Jack" to those close to him, or as the Doctor refers to him "Captain"), was the name adopted by a con man from the 51st century and an associate of the Doctor. His original identity remains a mystery, whenever asked he refuses to answer. Reluctantly immortal and stranded on early 21st century Earth, he leads Torchwood 3.

[Guest]

I ~ Ice Warriors - The race originated on Mars, and first appeared in the 1967 serial 'The Ice Warriors' where they encountered the Second Doctor and his companions Jamie and Victoria. The name Ice Warrior is not the name of their species, but was applied to them by an Earth scientific team in the Martians' first on-screen appearance.

The Ice Warriors are reptilian humanoids, their scaly skin and features usually hidden under heavy armour. They have large, claw-like hands on which are mounted sonic weaponry, and their voices are a highly sibilant whisper due to the different composition of Earth's atmosphere. Two types of Ice Warrior are seen in the series, the rank and file Warriors, and an officer class, which fan lore has christened Ice Lords (with at least one being referred to as a "Lord" on screen). The main difference between the two is the design of their armour, with the Ice Lords wearing a lighter, more flexible version than those of the Warriors.

[Alan]

J ~ Janus Conjunction, The - Novel featuring the 8th Doctor and Sam Jones.

Synopsis
---------
The planets Janus Prime and Menda are diametrically opposed in orbit around a vast Red Giant star. But while Menda is rich and fertile in the light of the sun, Janus Prime endures everlasting night, its moon causing a permanent solar eclipse.

When the Doctor and Sam arrive on Janus Prime, they find themselves in the middle of a war between rival humans colonising the area. The planet is littered with ancient ruins, and the Mendans are using a mysterious hyperspatial link left behind by the planet’s former inhabitants. But what is its true purpose?

The Doctor and Sam must piece together a centuries-old puzzle. How can Janus Prime’s moon weigh billions of tons more than it should? Why is the planet riddled with deadly radiation? As the violence escalates around them, will the time travellers survive to discover the answers?

[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 ~ Lazarus Experiment, The - 2007 story starring David Tennant as "The Doctor" and Freema Agyeman as "Martha Jones".

Synopsis
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When the Doctor takes Martha home after her "one trip", he decides to stay around to witness the experiment of a man who claims to be able to "change what it means to be human".

[Spimman]

M ~Malmooth are a race of humanoid insects native to the planet Malcassairo, who are all but extinct by the year 100 trillion. The last surviving member of their race, Chantho, played by Chipo Chung, appears in "Utopia". A devoted assistant to Professor Yana (Derek Jacobi) for 17 years, when the Professor is revealed to be the Master and proceeds to turn on the Doctor and his companions, Chantho threatens to kill him. He electrocutes her, but she manages to shoot him before dying, forcing him to regenerate.
A feature of Chantho's speech is that she starts and ends her sentences with "chan" and "tho", respectively. She considers it "rude" to do otherwise, tantamount to swearing.
Physical features of the Malmooth include an insectoid exoskeleton and mandibles, and the ability to survive by drinking their own internal milk.
The Eighth Doctor encountered another of the Malmooth during a flashback sequence in IDW's 'Doctor Who: The Forgotten' issue 5.

[Guest]

N ~ Nestene - The Nestenes are among the oldest beings in the Doctor Who universe, described as creatures which existed in the "Dark Times", along with the Racnoss, Great Vampires and Carrionites. Eventually, they sought to invade the Earth, 'Spearhead from Space', using more human-looking Autons to replace key government figures, although these plans were thwarted by UNIT with the help of the Doctor, who also destroyed their invasion form, a multi-tentacled cephalopod.

The Nestenes subsequently returned in the first serial of Pertwee's second year as the Doctor, 'Terror of the Autons', which also featured the introduction of the Master. In this attempt, the Nestenes also made use of more mundane objects, animating plastic toys, inflatable chairs and artificial flowers in addition to their Auton servants. The Doctor convinced the Master that the Nestenes were too dangerous to be reliable allies, and they reversed the radio beam the invasion force was coming in on, sending it back into space.

In 'Rose', it was revealed that the Nestenes lost their food supply in a war when their protein planets rotted. Their intent was to overthrow and destroy the human race, as Earth was ideal for their consumption needs, being filled with smoke, oil and various pollutants. The Doctor eventually defeated them when a vial of his "anti-plastic" solution spilled into the vat of molten plastic which housed the main bulk of the Consciousness, causing it to explode.

'Rose' also featured an Auton facsimile that could change the shape of its features and limbs, and established that the Nestenes animate the Autons by means of telepathic projection. When duplicated, the originals are kept alive to maintain the copy. It is not yet clear if the war mentioned was also the motivation behind their earlier invasions or a recent development, but it is likely to be the same war as the Time War that is mentioned in subsequent episodes of the new series.

[Alan]

O ~ Original Sin - Novel of the New Adventures range of books. It features the 7th Doctor and Bernice Summerfield, and introduces Roz Forrester and Chris Cwej.

Synopsis
---------
The last words of a dying alien send the Doctor and Bernice to thirtieth-century Earth in an attempt to avert an unspecified disaster. Before they can even unpack they’ve been arrested by the Adjudicators and sentenced to death by the Imperial army. Their attempts to prove their innocence take them from the mosaic planet Purgatory to a prison inside a star.

Meanwhile, Adjudicators Roz Forrester and Chris Cwej have their own problems. Investigating a series of apparently motiveless murders, they have stumbled upon a conspiracy with sinister overtones. On the run and out of luck, the only people they can turn to are their chief suspects: the Doctor and Bernice.

And as they run, someone is watching them. Someone who knows the Doctor of old...