Doctor Who & Spin-Offs A-Z Game

[Alan]

W ~ War Games, The - 1969 story starring Patrick Troughton, Frazer Hines, and Wendy Padbury in their last regular appearances as "The Doctor", "Jamie McCrimmon", and "Zoe Heriot" respectively.

Synopsis
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When the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe arrive on Earth they find themselves caught up in the terrifying events of World War One, but new and unexpected horrors await them as the cross landscapes full of enemies and time zones confounded by centuries of wars. At the centre of the mystery stand the aliens who have kidnapped soldiers from different periods of Earth's history and brainwashed them into fighting each other.

When the Doctor learns the terrible purpose of the War Games he has one chance to defeat the aliens and end the Games... but to take it means risking recapture by his own people, the all-powerful Time Lords who are waiting to bring him to trial and who are capable of ending his very existence.

[Guest]

X ~ Xeraphin - The Xeraphin were an ancient species encountered by the Fifth Doctor in the story 'TimeFlight' by Peter Grimwade. Originating from the planet Xeriphas, they possessed immense psychokinetic and scientific powers. The Doctor believed the race to have been wiped out during the crossfire during the Vardon/Kosnax war. Instead, the entire race fled to Earth in an escaping spacecraft. The ship crashed near present day Heathrow some 140 million years ago. When the Xeraphin emerged they built a Citadel to mark their new home but the Xeraphin were so plagued with radiation that they abandoned their original humanoid bodies and transformed into a single bioplasmic gestalt intelligence within a sarcophagus at the heart of the Citadel.

The arrival of the Master coincided with their emergence from the gestalt state when the radiation effects had subsided, and his influence caused the emergence of a split personality of good and evil, each side competing for their tremendous power while yearning to become a proper species once again. The Master, who was stranded on Earth at the time too, succeeded in capturing the Xeraphin as a new power source for his TARDIS. However, the Doctor's intervention meant his nemesis' TARDIS was sent to Xeriphas where events became out of his control.

[Alan]

Y ~ Year That Never Was, The - The Year That Never Was was a year which, due to the destruction of the Paradox Machine, never occurred for a majority of the population of Earth but was remembered by a few people on the Valiant. During this time, beginning in approximately Spring 2008 to 2009 and lasting exactly a year, the Master, with the assistance of the Toclafane, ruled over Earth.

A revolt on the Valiant and the destruction of the Paradox Machine by Captain Jack Harkness reversed time to just before the Toclafane's decimation of the Human population (though not before their arrival on Earth). Everyone on the Valiant retained their memory of the year.

[Guest]

Z ~ Zygon - The Zygons appeared in the Fourth Doctor serial 'Terror of the Zygons', where it was revealed that centuries ago, the Zygon homeworld was destroyed in a stellar explosion. A craft escaped and somehow made it to Earth, where it then crashed into Loch Ness. When the Doctor encountered the Zygons, they were led by a warlord named Broton. Broton wished to conquer the world to allow a refugee fleet of Zygons to colonize Earth.

The Zygons have shape-shifting abilities, allowing them to replicate the appearance of another being, but they must keep the subject alive in order to use its body print. This skill was vital in their concealment and in their scheme to seize power despite their small numbers. The Zygons were also accompanied by an armoured cyborg creature called the Skarasen, the lactic fluid of which was necessary for them to feed. Broton planned to unleash the Skarasen (or Loch Ness Monster as it was known) as part of a bid to conquer the Earth. The plan was foiled and both he and his crew were killed due to the intervention of the Fourth Doctor and the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce (UNIT). Zygon technology is biological in nature: in essence their ships and equipment are actually alive.

[Alan]

A ~ An Unearthly Child - The first televised story of Doctor Who. It premièred on Saturday, 23 November, 1963. Introducing William Hartnell, Carole Ann Ford, Jacqueline Hill, and William Russell as "The Doctor", "Susan Foreman", "Barbara Wright", and "Ian Chesterton" respectively.

Synopsis
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London 1963. Teachers Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright are intrigued by mysterious pupil Susan Foreman. Following her home one night after school, they discover she lives in a strange junkyard. And in a corner of this junkyard is a police box. Their investigations are disturbed by a mysterious old man who emerges out of the London fog and moves toward the police box. They learn he is Susan's grandfather. He is the Doctor. But Doctor Who?

Forcing their way past the Doctor, the two teachers enter the police box, where they suspect Susan is being held against her will. They soon discover that this is no ordinary police box, what they find inside will change their lives forever. However, now that they know its secrets, can the Doctor afford to let them leave?

Carrying the Doctor, Susan and its reluctant new passengers, the TARDIS begins its journey. Travelling back in time, the crew encounter an ancient tribe who have lost the secret of fire.

[Guest]

B ~ Blue crystal - In 'The Green Death', the Third Doctor takes a perfect blue crystal from the planet Metebelis Three, which has the ability to focus and amplify thoughts. He gives it to Jo Grant as a wedding present, but she sends it back to him in 'Planet of the Spiders', setting in motion a series of events that end with the Doctor's regeneration.

[Alan]

C ~ Celestial Intervention Agency - Celestial Intervention Agency or CIA was a secretive Gallifreyan organisation dedicated to selectively breaking the non-interference policy of the Time Lords. The CIA were a group created to be a covert arm of the High Council to safeguard the Time Lords' interests. They evolved from a core group of Rassilon's guards. They would function as spies. It was said that "don't even know which side they're on."

The CIA initially employed the Doctor to work for them, ironically, following his trial for breaking the non-interference policy. The Doctor reluctantly agreed to go on a mission with the Time Lady Serena against the Players. After the completion of that mission, and Serena's death, he was assigned to go with Jamie McCrimmon at his side, the Doctor visited Space Station Chimera to speak with Dastari and persuade him to discontinue his time travel experiments.

The Doctor, now made to regenerate against his will, was exiled to Earth but the CIA continued to call upon the Doctor to do occasional missions for them. It was a member of the CIA who employed the 4th Doctor to go to Skaro to stop or delay the development of the Daleks because they foresaw a time when Daleks would wipe out all other lifeforms and become the dominant species. This action would, incidentally, in retrospect, count as the first pre-emptive salvo of the Last Great Time War.

[Guest]

D ~ Data Ghost - A Data Ghost is a short-lived imprint of the consciousness of the user of a Lux Industries spacesuit, created at the moment of death by the suit's built-in comms unit which links to the user's nervous system to allow thought-based communication. The concept first appeared in 'Silence in the Library' and appeared again in 'Forest of the Dead', when a member of Professor River Song's archeology team, Miss Evangelista, is killed by a swarm of Vashta Nerada. Their consciousness remains active in the device for a few minutes, and then the last thought of the dead person is simply repeated on an endless loop, until the device is shut down. In "Forest of the Dead", the Doctor finds out that the sonic screwdriver he gave to Professor Song in the future contains a neural relay that stored her data ghost into the device when she died rescuing the 4022 people trapped inside the Library's computer. He uses the screwdriver to store her Data Ghost in the computer, whereupon she is "resurrected" and can live on forever inside the computer, along with Miss Evangelista and the other members of her team who were killed by the Vashta Nerada.

[Alan]

E ~ Empty Child, The - 2005 story starring Christopher Eccleston as "The Doctor", Billie Piper as "Rose Tyler", and introducing John Barrowman as "Captain Jack Harkness".

Synopsis
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Chasing a metallic object through the vortex, the Doctor and Rose arrive in London during the Blitz. There, they find homeless children being terrorized, dead bodies with unexplained marks on their hands, a strange cylinder guarded by the army, and the dashing Captain Jack Harkness.

[Guest]

F ~ Firestone - A necklace from 'The Unicorn and the Wasp', it is connected to the Vespiform, and was used to kill it by Donna Noble by throwing it into a lake. An additional "monster file" on the BBC's Doctor Who website revealed the firestone was found in the lake, and sold at auction to a gentleman in a greatcoat.

[Alan]

G ~ Genocide Machine, The - Big Finish audio adventure starring Sylvester McCoy as "The Doctor" and Sophie Aldred as "Ace".

This audio story takes place after the TV story, Survival.

Synopsis
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The library on Kar-Charrat is one of the wonders of the Universe. It is also hidden from all but a few select species. The Doctor and Ace discover that the librarians have found a new way of storing data - a wetworks facility - but the machine has attracted unwanted attention, and the Doctor soon finds himself pitted against his oldest and deadliest enemies - the Daleks!

[Guest]

H ~ Huon particles - Ancient particles from the Dark Times, created independently by Time Lords and later the Torchwood Institute. They are potentially deadly and contain a great amount of energy. Huon particles will magnetise with other sets of Huon particles, causing people to inadvertently teleport. A remnant of them exists in the heart of the TARDIS.

[Alan]

I ~ International Electromatics - International Electromatics was a company founded by Tobias Vaughn on Earth. Packer was head of security there. It was at one point the world's largest manufacturer of electronic equipment; their micro-monolithic circuits were present in almost every piece of electronic equipment sold. When the Cybermen planned their invasion of Earth, they struck a deal with Vaughn: that the world was to be put under Cyber control, through the micro-monolithic circuits, and then Vaughn would become the ruler of Earth.

On a parallel Earth, John Lumic used various lorries owned by International Electromatics to capture several homeless people and take them to a Cybus Industries conversion factory at Battersea.

[Spimman]

J ~ Jethrik An extremely valuable mineral. A small piece can power an entire fleet of battleships. One of the pieces of The Key to Time was disguised as a lump of Jethrik in 'The Ribos Operation'.

[Guest]

K ~ Koh-i-Noor Diamond - Revealed to be an element for a telescopic device designed to focus a beam of moonlight to trap and eventually destroy the physical form of a werewolf in 'Tooth and Claw'.