Doctor Who & Spin-Offs A-Z Game

[Guest]

E ~ 'Earthshock' - The TARDIS arrives on Earth in the 26th Century in a cave system containing numerous dinosaur fossils. The Doctor's party comes under suspicion from a military force, led by Lieutenant Scott, who are investigating the disappearance of a group of palaeontologists and geologists. They are all then attacked by androids - the true culprits - under the control of the Cybermen.

The Doctor manages to deactivate a bomb intended by the Cybermen to destroy an imminent peace conference. He then follows the bomb's activating signal to an approaching space freighter, commanded by Captain Briggs, on board which it transpires that an army of Cybermen are concealed.

An attempt by Adric to thwart the Cybermen's plans result in the freighter being inadvertently sent millions of years into the past, where it explodes and causes the extinction of the dinosaurs - and also the death of Adric. The Doctor destroys the Cyber Leader by forcing into its chest unit some gold fragments from a badge previously worn by Adric.

[Alan]

F ~ Flavia - Flavia was a Chancellor in the High Council of Time Lords, and later Lady President.

Flavia met with the fifth incarnation of the Doctor when Borusa summoned the Doctor's other selves to the Death Zone. She was sympathetic towards him and following Borusa's defeat and entombment in the Dark Tower, the High Council granted Flavia the power to make the Doctor President of the High Council. The Doctor used his emergency powers to place Flavia in charge, appointed her Acting President, until he returned and then escaped from his homeworld of Gallifrey, escaping the responsibility of assuming the office of Lord President.

Flavia later assumed the role of President. Later Romana, who had returned to Gallifrey from E-Space and taken a seat on the High Council, challenged Flavia for the role of President and won.

[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 ~ Highlanders, The - 1966 story starring Patrick Troughton as "The Doctor", Anneke Wills as "Polly Wright", Michael Craze as "Ben Jackson", & introducing Frazer Hines as "Jamie McCrimmon".

Synopsis
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Arriving in Scotland in the 18th century in the aftermath of the Battle of Culloden, the Doctor, Polly, and Ben are taken prisoner by a group of Scottish rebels. Offering medical help to the clan's injured Laird, the Doctor is able to win over their captors.

Their respite is short-lived, though. While Polly and the Laird's daughter, Kirsty, go to fetch water, the others are captured by a Redcoat troop under the command of Lieutenant Ffinch. Ffinch leaves his prisoners in the custody of Grey, a crooked solicitor who plans to sell them into slavery in the West Indies.

To win his friends' freedom, the Doctor must stretch his powers of disguise to their limits...

[Guest]

I ~ Info-stamps - Dalek technology stolen by the Cybermen when the escaped the void, 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 is 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 ~ Journal of Impossible Things, The - The Journal of Impossible Things was a journal kept by John Smith of his strange dreams - actually memories from his life as the Doctor's tenth incarnation, with some memories of previous incarnations' appearances. All but Martha Jones believed these to be products of John Smith's imagination.

[Guest]

K ~ Krillitane - The Krillitanes are an alien race that first appeared in the 2006 episode 'School Reunion'. They had infiltrated the Deffry Vale comprehensive school on present day Earth, increasing the intelligence of the pupils with Krillitane oil. Using the children as part of a giant computer programme, they hoped to crack the secrets of the Skasis Paradigm, the Universal Theory that would give them control over the basic forces of the universe and turn them into gods. Their scheme was foiled by the Tenth Doctor and his companions, though not before they attempted to ask the Doctor to join them in remaking the universe. This conversation showed that the Krillitanes were aware of the Time War, of the Time Lords and of their fate.

The Krillitanes are a composite race who pick and choose physical traits they find useful from the species they conquer, incorporating them into their own bodies. When the Doctor last encountered them they looked like humans with very long necks, but by the time of 'School Reunion', they possessed a bat-like form which they obtained from the conquest of Bessan ten generations prior. However, they were able to maintain a morphic illusion of human form, which could be discarded if needed.

[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.

[Guest]

M ~ 'Mindwarp' - First broadcast in four weekly parts from October 4 to October 25, 1986. It is part of the larger narrative known as 'The Trial of a Time Lord', encompassing the whole of the 23rd season. The title 'Mindwarp' is not used on screen and appears only on the serial's scripts with the four episodes that comprise the story being transmitted as The Trial of a Time Lord Parts Five to Eight. This story marks the final appearance of Nicola Bryant as Peri Brown.

Synopsis - Following on from The Mysterious Planet, the Valeyard and the Doctor argue about the Doctor’s involvement in those events. The Inquisitor warns them both to pay due respect to the judicial process. The Valeyard proceeds to present his second block of evidence - the Doctor's arrival on the planet Thoros Beta.

[Alan]

N ~ Ninth Doctor, The - The 9th Doctor was outwardly manic and energetic, he harboured deep guilt over the Last Great Time War. In stark contrast to the extravagant dress of most of his predecessors, the Doctor wore a plain leather jacket, red, green or black jumper and dark trousers. Unlike previous Doctors, this Doctor wore his hair close cropped.

This incarnation was a study in contrasts. On the one hand, he shared many characteristics with his predecessors. One moment he was full of manic energy and a sharp, offbeat wit; the next he was removed and reserved, keenly aware of the divide between himself and the humans he encountered. But the Time War of which the Doctor was the sole survivor had clearly affected him deeply indeed. This was a sadder and angrier Doctor; the weight of his having seemingly destroyed both the Time Lords and the Daleks preyed upon him greatly. But consequently, this was also a Doctor who harboured a new appreciation for the wonders of the universe and who, more keenly than ever, burned with a desire to keep the universe safe from harm. While his previous incarnations were rarely heard uttering minor curse words like "hell" and "damn", the 9th Doctor tended to use these phrases more freely. The 10th Doctor implied that the 9th Doctor was more angry and pained due to being "born from war" as he compared the Meta-Crisis Doctor to him.

In 200,100, the Doctor found that the Dalek Emperor had not died, and commanded an army of Daleks derived from unwilling Humans. The Doctor believed that he would give his life to stop them and sent the TARDIS back to 21st century Earth with his companion Rose Tyler aboard. Rose looked into the Heart of the TARDIS, became the god-like Bad Wolf and returned to the future to save him. Rose had absorbed the Time Vortex into herself, which would cause her death by cellular degeneration. Nevertheless, she declared the Time War over and destroyed the Dalek fleet with a wave of her hand.

The Doctor then re-absorbed the energies into himself. Cellular degeneration would have led to his death had he not regenerated into his 10th incarnation.

[Guest]

O ~ Ogron - The Ogrons are low-intelligence, ape-like hominids who live in scattered communities on an unnamed planet on the outer fringes of the Milky Way, far from the central spaceways. The dominant lifeform on their home planet is a giant slug-like lizard named the Eater, and the Ogrons both pray to and are preyed on by it.

Ogrons are hired mercenaries. Those who have employed their services include the Master and the Daleks. On some human planets, Ogrons are employed as police officers, usually led by a mentally augmented leader.

[Alan]

P ~ Partners in Crime - 2008 story starring David Tennant as "The Doctor" & reintroducing Catherine Tate in her first regular appearance as "Donna Noble".

Guest starring Billie Piper as "Rose Tyler" & Bernard Cribbins as "Wilfred Mott".

Synopsis
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Donna Noble is determined to find the Doctor again – even if it means braving the villainous Miss Foster. But when the alien threat escalates out of control, can Donna find her Time Lord before the march of the Adipose begins at last?

[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 ~ Reset - Series 2 episode of Torchwood.

Guest starring Freema Agyeman as "Martha Jones".

Synopsis
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UNIT Medical Officer Martha Jones arrives at Torchwood after reports of numerous deaths. A medical researcher has been injecting workers with Mayflies, the Mayflies cure all illnesses before killing the patient and Martha Jones has got one...

[Guest]

S ~ Silurian - The Silurians were Earth's first sentient species, were scientifically advanced, and lived during prehistoric times. At some point, the Moon approached close to Earth, threatening to cause geological upheaval, and the Silurians went into self-induced hibernation to survive.

The name Silurian is a misnomer. In the original story, it was coined and used exclusively by humans. The misnomer arose because the race was identified as belonging to the Silurian period when they were first encountered in the Third Doctor serial 'Doctor Who and the Silurians'. The Doctor, in a later serial, mentions that Silurians should more properly be called Eocenes. However, that term appears to be equally inaccurate. The Silurians are seen using dinosaurs as guard animals, and by the Eocene epoch, dinosaurs had long become extinct. Lawrence Miles suggests in his About Time reference books that the primitive Silurians co-existed with dinosaurs and their domesticated versions survived with them. An alternative explanation is that the Silurians resurrected the dinosaurs from fossil remains, using their expertise in genetic engineering.

In the novelisation of Doctor Who and the Silurians (titled 'Doctor Who and the Cave Monsters'), they are always identified as "reptile men (and women)" and in some of the New Adventures novels, the terms "Earth Reptile" and "Indigenous Terran" are offered as "modern" terms for them. Whichever period of history the Silurians actually belonged to, the first name applied to them is the one that has stuck.

Silurians are scaly, cold-blooded reptilian humanoids, with yellow eyes and oval mouths. In 'Doctor Who and the Silurians' they are also possessed of a red third eye that has various abilities, such as stunning or killing their opponents, signalling each other, or opening doors keyed to emanations from the third eye. The eye glows when it is active. In their subsequent appearance in 'Warriors of the Deep' (1984), the eye merely glows harmlessly (because of a mistake on the part of the production team) when an individual Silurian speaks. This "third eye" may be based on the parietal eye of the tuatara, which does have some sort of light-sensing function.