Doctor Who & Spin-Offs A-Z Game

[Spimman]

B ~ Bees A story arc in Series 4 dealt with their disappearance, culminating in "The Stolen Earth", where it was revealed that some of them are aliens who traveled along a path which enabled the Daleks to "steal" Earth.

[Guest]

C ~ Chameleon Arch - The Tenth Doctor uses this in 'Human Nature' to "rewrite" every cell in his body, enabling him to hide from the Family of Blood in 1913. It causes extreme pain as it makes him whatever species the user wants but mostly just fully human, and gives him a set of TARDIS-created false memories in place of his own, creating the persona of 'John Smith'. He retains a small amount of "residual awareness", resulting in dreams about life before the change. The chameleon arch stores the Doctor's Time Lord self in a fob watch that slots into the device as it is operated. In 'Utopia', Martha discovers that the Master used the same process, generating "Professor Yana" as his persona.

[Spimman]

D ~ Demons have appeared in Doctor Who several times. Originally in Third Doctor serial The Dæmons, in which they were specifically aliens from the planet Dæmos who had come to Earth in the distant past and ingrained their existence as myth, with "demon" Azal summoned at the Master's will.

In 2006, both the Tenth Doctor series of Doctor Who and its spin-off Torchwood expanded upon a notion of actual malicious supernatural entities existing in the Doctor Who universe. "The Impossible Planet" introduced the Beast, a Satan-like demon remaining from the universe before our own, sealed away in planet Krop Tor by the "Disciples of Light". Later, the Torchwood episode "End of Days"', the mysterious Bilis Manger frees "Abaddon, son of the great Beast" from within the Rift, where he like the Beast had been imprisoned since "before time". Earlier in the first series of Torchwood, demonic supernatural entities, referred to by humans as "fairies", were established in "Small Worlds" as a non-alien presence on Earth since before mankind came to exist.

[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.

[Spimman]

F ~ Foamasi are an intelligent, bipedal race of reptiles resembling humanoid chameleons who appeared in the 1980 Fourth Doctor story The Leisure Hive by David Fisher. The race's name is a near-anagram of the word "mafioso". The Foamasi fought and won a 20-minute nuclear war with their sworn enemies, the Argolin. They communicate by means of chirps and clicks, this being made understandable by means of a tiny interpreting device held in the mouth. Although they are mostly a peaceful race (having learned the error of their ways from the devastating war) a renegade faction called the West Lodge exists, and frequently attempts to arouse hostilities between the two races.

Since their victory, the Argolin's home planet of Argolis has been officially owned by the Foamasi government. However, the Foamasi are the only ones who would want it as, being reptiles, they can safely walk on the radioactive surface of the planet. Two saboteurs from the West Lodge (disguised as the Argolin agent Brock and his lawyer Klout) arrive to try to force the Argolins to sell the Leisure Hive to them, so they can use it as a new base for their insidious plans. However they are thwarted when a group of Foamasi, one claiming to be a member of the Foamasi government, use a web-spewing gun to ensnare them and return them back to their unnamed home planet to face justice. Some Foamasi disguise themselves as humanoids by fitting into skin-suits which are smaller than the Foamasi's own bodies. This discrepancy is not explained (although the Slitheen family used a compression field to fit inside smaller skins, compared to their own body size).

A Foamasi assassin appears in the Eighth Doctor Adventures novel Placebo Effect by Gary Russell. In this novel, it is explained that the Foamasi can fit into disguises smaller than their bodies because their bones are hollow and collapsible.

[Guest]

G ~ Gas Mask - A regular gas mask from 'The Empty Child'. The "empty" child wore a gas mask. The nanogenes, the cause of the entire problem, grew gas masks on the people affected.

[Spimman]

H ~ Hath They appear as roughly humanoid fish-like creatures, with canisters of green liquid fitted to their faces. They are intelligent, emotional creatures — one formed a friendship with Martha Jones, and saved her life at the cost of its own. They seem fully sentient and while they do not speak a language intelligible to humans (even with the TARDIS's translation device), the two races planned to colonise the planet Messaline together. However, they later turned on each other before their eventual reconciliation.

The Monster Files feature states the Hath joined and assisted early human space colonisation

[Guest]

I ~ Ice gun - A fire extinguisher used by the Tenth Doctor to immobilise the Clockwork Droids in 'The Girl in the Fireplace'. The name "ice gun" was suggested by Mickey Smith. The Doctor called it a fire extinguisher.

[Spimman]

J ~ Janis thorn A poisonous weapon of the Sevateem, used by Leela much to the Fourth Doctor's disapproval. Seen in The Face of Evil and The Talons of Weng-Chiang, and mentioned (but not seen) in The Pirate Planet.

[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'.

[Spimman]

L ~ Laser spanner A device which was owned by the Doctor until it was stolen by Emmeline Pankhurst, whom the Doctor referred to as a "cheeky woman". Martha Jones initially believed she had coined the term as a joke upon being introduced to the sonic screwdriver.

[Guest]

M ~ Macra - The Macra first appear in the 1967 Second Doctor story 'The Macra Terror'. They are an intelligent, giant crab-like species from an unnamed planet colonised by humanity in the future. The Macra invade the control centre of the colony and seize the levers of power without the colonists — including their Pilot — knowing what had happened. Thereafter the Macra only appear at night, when the humans are in their quarters, observing a curfew. They have strong hypnotic powers which alter human perception. They also have the ability to ensure messages are vocalised through electronic apparatus such as television or sensor speakers. Both these tools are used to keep the human colonists under control, believing they are blissfully happy. This provides a cover for the Macra to use the colonists as miners in a vast gas mine. The gas is deadly to the miners but vital to the Macra, enabling them to move more quickly and rejuvenating their abilities. The Second Doctor effects a revolution on the Macra planet and helps engineer an explosion in the control centre, destroying the Macra in charge.

The Macra also feature in the 2007 episode 'Gridlock'. In the episode, some Macra are found to be alive below New New York, a city of New Earth. They live in the thick fog of exhaust gases on the main motorway under the city, tracking the flying cars by their lights and snatching at them when they get too close. The Doctor says that the species is billions of years old and once developed a mighty empire as "the scourge of this galaxy", but the Macra beneath New New York must have devolved into nothing more than beasts.

[Spimman]

N ~ Nanogenes Nanotechnological robots which can heal damaged tissue. They are part of Chula technology, seen in "The Empty Child" and "The Doctor Dances". In a war ambulance, the nanogenes are designed to heal soldiers and ready them for battle, making them Om-com capable.

[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.

[Spimman]

P ~ Psychic paper Described as "slightly psychic" paper and first appearing in the 2005 series episode "The End of the World", psychic paper is an apparently blank prop kept in a credit card or travel pass holder. It allows those holding it to show people whatever they want to see on the card. The paper has shown the ability to display telepathic messages from sources external to the user (such as the Face of Boe in "New Earth") and can apparently unlock electronic pass readers ("Army of Ghosts"). Torchwood Institute personnel receive psychic training and are not susceptible to psychic paper. It apparently does not work on those of very high intelligence, either, as William Shakespeare was shown the paper in "The Shakespeare Code" and commented that it was blank, which the Doctor notes proves Shakespeare is a genius. In the Doctor Who Magazine comic strip "The First", Ernest Shackleton also sees the paper as blank, comparing it with an attempt to hypnotise him which had been equally ineffective.

In the Past Doctor Adventures novel World Game, it is said to be a then-recent invention of the Celestial Intervention Agency; if this is the case, then from 2005 series episode "The End of the World" it can be considered as one of the few Time Lord artifacts remaining (besides the TARDIS).

The use of psychic paper and the results obtained seem to vary somewhat. In "The Empty Child", Jack Harkness states that it is a "tricky thing" and Rose says that you "can't let your mind wander when you're handing it over." Both he and Rose inadvertently give away private details about themselves when passing it between them. In "Tooth and Claw", the Doctor seems surprised when Queen Victoria says "It states clearly here that you have been appointed by the Lord Provost as my Protector." Later on, in "The Idiot's Lantern", the Doctor flashes the paper at a guard, and then has to look at it in order to tell Tommy that the man thinks he's the King of Belgium. This is also shown in the New Series Adventures novel The Nightmare of Black Island, in which the Doctor is unsure what another character saw, as there is no 'after-image'. In contrast, at its introduction in "The End of the World", the Ninth Doctor shows it to the steward while simultaneously stating what he wanted it to show. The steward's response of "Well, obviously...," gives the impression that when the person handing it over specifies what it should say, it does. The Tenth Doctor actually uses both methods in "Tooth and Claw", giving specifics to the Guard Captain, but letting Queen Victoria see what she needed.

Psychic paper has also been shown to be able to receive messages from throughout the universe, this was first shown in New Earth, when the Face of Boe sends the Doctor a message, and again in Silence in the Library, where the Doctor receives a cry for help from Professor River Song.