List of Doctor Who creatures and aliens
This is a list of monsters and aliens from the television series Doctor Who. Not all creatures or characters listed here are evil or villainous. The list includes some beings which are not extraterrestrial, but are nonetheless non-human. Some villains and robots from the series might also be considered monsters or aliens, but they are listed in separate articles.
A
Abzorbaloff
Template:Doctorwhorace The Abzorbaloff is a monster designed by nine-year-old William Grantham of Colchester, Essex for a "Design a Doctor Who Monster" competition held by Blue Peter. The Abzorbaloff kills its victims by absorbing them into its massive body, and their faces can be seen through its translucent green flesh.
The competition was announced in July 2005, and received 43,920 entries. These were judged by Blue Peter editor Richard Marson, presenter Gethin Jones, Doctor Who producer Russell T Davies and Tenth Doctor David Tennant. The first prize for the competition was to have the monster appear in an episode of Doctor Who. Tennant announced the winner on Blue Peter on 17 August 2005. It is expected that the Abzorbaloff will appear in the tenth episode of the 2006 series, but this has not been confirmed.
Argolin
Template:Doctorwhorace The Argolin, who appeared in the Fourth Doctor story The Leisure Hive (1980) by David Fisher, are the inhabitants of Argolis. In 2250, the Argolin, led by Theron, fought and lost a 20-minute nuclear war with the Foamasi. As a result of this war, the Argolin became sterile. They were also quite long-lived, but when they neared the end of their life they aged and declined very rapidly. The Argolin who survived the war put aside their race's traditional warlike ways and remade Argolis as "the first of the leisure planets", catering to tourists from many worlds. They built a "Leisure Hive" dedicated to relaxation and cross-cultural understanding; due to radioactive fallout from the war, the Argolin planned to live in the Hive for at least three centuries. Argolis continued to struggle financially, and by 2290 faced possible bankrupcy. A rogue faction of Foamasi known as the West Lodge attempted to purchase the entire planet to use as a criminal base, sabotaging recreation facilities in order to encourage the Argolin to sell. The criminal nature of the offer was exposed by a Foamasi agent, aided by the Fourth Doctor and Romana.
Since the Argolin were sterile, they attempted to renew their race using cloning and tachyonics, but only one of the clones, Pangol, survived to adulthood. Pangol was mentally unstable and obsessed with the Argolin's former warrior culture. He attempted to create an army of tachyonic duplicates of himself, but was unsuccessful and was eventually restored to infancy through the same tachyonic technology that had created him.
In appearance, Argolin are humanoids with yellowish skin. Their heads are covered with what appears to be elaborately coiffed hair, but may not be (since when Pangol is reduced to infancy he retains the distinctive Argolin hairstyle). Their heads are capped with small domes covered in beads, which fall off when the Argolin become sick or die.
Auton
B
Bandril
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The Bandrils appeared in the 1985 Sixth Doctor story Timelash by Glen McCoy. They are a reptilian species from a planet neighbouring Karfel and were only ever depicted on screen via a monitor link, so their size and overall body shape is unclear. The Bandrils were a generally peaceful but highly developed species dependent on grain exports from Karfel to feed their population and for many years a trade agreement provided them with food. However, with the rise of the Borad (or Megelen) as dictator of Karfel, the trade agreement was severed and a famine began amongst their population. The Bandrils attempted to use diplomacy to repair the situation but when this failed they declared war on Karfel and fired a deadly bendalypse warhead against the planet. The Doctor intervened to deflect the warhead and, having deposed and disposed of the Borad, he helped the Karfelons rebuild relations with their Bandril neighbours and end the state of war.
C
Chelonian
The Chelonians are a fictional extraterrestrial race of cybernetic humanoid tortoises who have appeared in various spin-off novels. The first appearance of the Chelonians was in the Seventh Doctor Virgin New Adventures novel The Highest Science by Gareth Roberts. They returned in Zamper and also featured in the Fourth Doctor missing adventure The Well Mannered War; as well as in the short stories The Hungry Bomb and Fegovy, both by Gareth Roberts and published in the Doctor Who Magazine Yearbook 1995 and the anthology Decalog 3: Consequences, respectively.
The Chelonians are a war-like race from the planet Chelonia. They are hermaphroditic and lay eggs. Some of their cybernetic enhancements include X-ray vision and improved hearing. Chelonians consider humans to be parasites and often try to eliminate them.
More detail can be found in I, Who, Lars Pearson, Mad Norwegian Press; and in E-book of The Well Mannered War by Gareth Roberts featuring the Chelonians.
Cryon
Template:Doctorwhorace The Cryons were the original inhabitants of the planet Telos prior to its colonisation by the Cybermen. They appeared in the 1985 serial Attack of the Cybermen, featuring the Sixth Doctor and credited to Paula Moore (although the story's authorship is a matter of some controversy).
The Cryons were biologically adapted to live in conditions of extreme cold. Indeed, heat is deadly to them. When the climate of Telos warmed, the Cryons moved into colder regions underground and built vast refrigerated cities. After the destruction of Mondas in 1986, the surviving Cybermen evacuated to Telos and seized the refridgerated cities for transformation into cryogenic tombs in which to hibernate and rebuild. The indigenous Cryons were subject to a systematic genocide, with the few that remained hiding deep in the tombs and launching sporadic acts of sabotage with no chance to overthrow the Cybermen. To repair their situation they recruited the mercenary Lytton and promised him riches if he were to make it to Telos and steal the time machine captured by the Cybermen. Their aim was to get him to change history and prevent the Cybermen ever coming to Telos by ensuring Mondas was not destroyed. However, the Doctor helped destroy CyberControl and so presumably directly aided the Cryons in their fight for survival.
All the Cryons shown on screen were female in form from the build of their thorax (and the casting of female actors to play them), so they may a species with one gender or the males may have perished in the genocide.
Cyberman
D
Dalek
Dominator
Template:Doctorwhorace The Dominators appeared in the 1968 Second Doctor serial named after them, written by Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln under the pseudonym "Norman Ashby". The Dominators were an aggressive, warlike race who claimed to be the masters of ten galaxies. Their technology was based on absorbtion of radiation. With the aid of their robotic servants, the Quarks, they intimidated the peaceful planet Dulkis, which they planned to turn into radioactive material. They were stopped by the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe.
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Draconian
Drahvin
Template:Doctorwhorace Drahvins are a relatively unsophiscticated race of warriors introduced in the 1965 First Doctor story Galaxy 4 by William Emms. Originating on Drahva in Galaxy Four, they are a rigidly hierarchical species in which women are the dominant gender. The Drahvins shown in the story are portrayed as blonde and beautiful. A small number of Drahvins assume leadership roles and are concerned with conquest and empire building, having the best food and weapons. The others are clones, with less intelligence and poorer provisions and weapons, and are easily bullied or outwitted. Drahvin science is deduced by the Doctor to be relatively basic and sometimes inaccuarate, and their spacecraft barely functional.
A patrol of Drahvins was on an interplanetary survey for potential new colony worlds when it encountered a Rill craft in orbit around an unnamed planet in Galaxy 4. The Drahvins opened fire and as a result both ships became marooned on a barren and dying world. The Drahvin leader, Maaga, was so desperate to escape the planet that she blackmailed the Doctor into helping her and, when this failed, led an armed raid on the Rill craft. However, the Rills’ robot servants, the Chumblies, defend their craft long enough for the Rills to flee. Maaga and her crew are left to die with the doomed planet.
E
F
Face of Boe
Foamasi
Template:Doctorwhorace The Foamasi are an intelligent, bipedal race of reptiles who appeared in the 1980 Fourth Doctor story, The Leisure Hive by David Fisher. 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 section called the West Lodge exists, and frequently attempt 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 Leasure 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, but it may involve technology similar to that used by the Slitheen.
Forest of Cheem
Template:Doctorwhorace The Forest of Cheem are an intelligent, bipedal, aboreal species that claim to be direct descendants of the tropical rainforest. Members of the Forest of Cheem appear in the Ninth Doctor episode, The End of the World by Russell T. Davies. According to the Ninth Doctor, they are of huge financial importance due to their land holdings and forests on various planets; and they have "roots" everywhere. If the Lady Cassandra is to be believed, and humanity "mingled" with other species, then they may be human-plant hybrids. They have a noble bearing and exhibit a respect for all forms of life. The group of Trees seen on Platform One was led by Jabe Ceth Ceth Jafe (named in Doctor Who: Monsters and Villains), and also included Coffa and Lute.
They neither respect nor understand technology, referring to computers as "metal minds" or "metal machines". They were also aware of the Time Lords and their fate in the Time War. The Doctor Who Annual 2006 classifies them as one of the higher species who were aware of the course of the war and its history-changing effects and also states that they were mortified by the bloodshed.
G
Gelth
Template:Doctorwhorace The Gelth appeared in the Ninth Doctor episode The Unquiet Dead, written by Mark Gatiss. They were the first 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 lifeforms, 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 a time 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 natural 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.
The scar left by the sealing of the rift continued to emit radiation into the 21st century. It appeared in the episode Boom Town, when the TARDIS was parked on top of it to refuel.
Graske
Template:Doctorwhorace The Graske are a race of small humanoids with three thick and pointed appendages on the head. They appeared in the 2005 Tenth Doctor interactive television story Attack of the Graske (written by Gareth Roberts).
The Graske take over a planet by replacing its population with duplicates, and also have the ability to travel in time. The originals are placed in stasis pods on their home planet of Griffoth to maintain the duplicates.
At the climax of the interactive adventure, the viewer can choose whether to release the Graske captives by reversing the settings of the teleport that brought them to Griffoth, or place the entire facility in stasis. If the viewer chooses stasis, both the Graske and its victims are frozen in time, with the duplicates remaining on Earth and other planets. If the viewer chooses the teleport, the originals are freed and the Doctor suggests he may take care of the Graske later.
The Graske were portrayed by Jimmy Vee, who also played the Moxx of Balhoon in The End of the World and the pig "alien" in Aliens of London.
Gundan
Template:Doctorwhorace The Gundans were a squad of war robots encountered by the Fourth Doctor in the 1980 story Warriors' Gate by Stephen Gallagher. They were designed by the human slaves of the Tharils and used as a spearhead in the revolution which overthrew the Tharil empire. Designed with the primary purpose to resist and kill Tharils, the Gundans could travel the time winds like their prey and butchered many during the revolt. Each Gundan was armed with an axe and decorated with horns to make the robots seem more fearful. The revolt began on the day of the Great Feast, and several inert and decaying Gundans were found by the Doctor when he visited the feasting hall in the Gateway between the universes. The skeletons of their defeated enemies remained in their seats around the feasting table. The Doctor repaired the memory wafers of a Gundan to discover what had caused the decay of the Gateway.
H
Haemovore
Template:Doctorwhorace Haemovores appeared in the Seventh Doctor story The Curse of Fenric (1989) by Ian Briggs. Vampiric creatures that fed on blood, they were the end result of human evolution in a possible far future, caused by millennia of pollution. As part of his final game against the Doctor, the entity known as Fenric transported the most powerful Haemovore (called the "Ancient One") through time to Northumbria in World War II. There, the Ancient One was to release the toxin which would pollute the world and thus create its own future.
Fenric's power could create Haemovores, from both present day humans and long-dead corpses. Two varieties were seen — one type looking much as they did in life except for elongated fingernails and a corpse-like pallor; and the other deformed blue-grey humanoids covered in octopus-like suckers. The Ancient One was of the second variety, and was the last living thing on Earth in its time. The Haemovores had the ability to hypnotically paralyse their victims so they could feed and drain them of blood. Not all of their victims were turned into Haemovores, although the selection process was never explained.
Ultimately, the Seventh Doctor convinced the Ancient One to turn against Fenric, and it released the toxin within a sealed chamber, destroying itself and Fenric's host. Whether this means that the future the Ancient One came from was averted is not clear, although the Doctor seemed to think so.
Horda
Template:Doctorwhorace The Horda appeared in the Fourth Doctor story The Face of Evil by Chris Boucher in 1977. Indigenous to the jungle world of the Sevateem, they are some two foot long and are very savage beasts. Their razor sharp teeth were said to be able to strip the flesh from a man’s arm so quickly he would not have time to yell. Horda hunt in packs and react to the movements of their prey.
The Sevateem evolved the Test of the Horda as a measure of justice and bravery. They kept a pit full of Horda and offered criminals the chance to redeem themselves through the Test, whereby they were gradually lowered into the pit by means of a rope. To prove innocence the accused was issued with a crossbow which had to be fired at the exact correct moment to sever the rope without them falling into the pit – which was, of course, the fate of the guilty. The Fourth Doctor naturally triumphed in the Test of the Horda.
I
Ice Warrior
J
K
Kaled
Krynoid
Template:Doctorwhorace The Krynoids appeared in the 1976 Fourth Doctor story The Seeds of Doom by Robert Banks Stewart. They are a highly dangerous, sentient form of plant life which are renowned amongst galactic botanists. They spread via seed pods which travel in pairs and are violently hurled through space by frequent volcanic eruptions on their unnamed home planet. The pods when opened are attracted to flesh and are able to infect and mingle their DNA with that of the host, taking over their body and slowly transforming them into a Krynoid. The species can also exert a form of telepathic control over other plant life in the surrounding area, making it suddenly dangerous and deadly to animal-kind. In the later stages of development the Krynoid can also control the vocal chords of its victims and can make itself telepathically sympathetic to humans. Fully grown Krynoids are many meters high and can then release hordes of seed pairs for further colonisation.
Two pods arrived on Earth at the South Pole during the prehistoric Pleistocene era and remained dormant in Antarctica until discovered at the end of the twentieth century. One of them hatched after being exposed to ultra-violet light, and took control of a nearby human scientist. The Fourth Doctor intervened in the nick of time and ensured the Krynoid was destroyed in a bomb, but the second pod was stolen and taken to the home of millionaire botanist Harrison Chase in England. Chase ensured the germination of the second pod, which overtook his scientific adviser Arnold Keeler, and transformed its subject over time into a virtually full-sized Krynoid. Unable to destroy the creature by other means – and with the danger of a seed release imminent from the massive plant – the Doctor orchestrated an RAF bombing raid to destroy the creature before it could germinate.
L
Lurman
Template:Doctorwhorace The Lurmans are a humanoid species of whom two of their number, Vorg and Shirna, were introduced in the 1973 Third Doctor story Carnival of Monsters by Robert Holmes.
The Lurmans are spacefaring race who are widely travelled and well known. Vorg had a military background, indicating a level of defensive capability and the existence of armies. However, both the Lurmans who visited Inter Minor were best described as showmen (or perhaps conmen), making a living from a banned MiniScope. They dressed very outlandishly and their idea of entertainment was often similar to that of humans. Vorg could, however, turn his hand to confidence tricks to make a living and both Lurmans were very conversational and persuasive. They communicate with other species through translator diodes.
Vorg and Shirna were played by Leslie Dwyer and Cheryl Hall respectively, both of whom found greater fame in separate BBC sitcoms.
M
Macra
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The Macra appeared in the 1967 Second Doctor story The Macra Terror by Ian Stuart Black and they are an intelligent, giant crab-like species from an unnamed planet colonised by humanity in the future. In appearance, they resemble giant vast, lumbering crustaceans with extended eyes on stalks and formidable, enormous claws. The Macra invaded the control centre of the colony and seized the levers of power without the colonists - including their Pilot - knowing what had happened. Thereafter the Macra only appeared at night, after the humans were in their quarters respecting a curfew. Lacking vocal chords, they presumably communicate by some form of telepathy and have strong hypnotic powers which can alter human perception and affect the brain. They also have the ability to ensure messages are vocalised through electronic apparatus such as television or sensor speakers. Both these tools were used to keep the human colonists suppressed and subjected on the Macra planet. The humans instead believed they were blissfully happy. This provided a cover for the Macra to use the colonists as miners in a vast gas mine. The gas produced was deadly to the miners but vital to the Macra, enabling them to move more quickly and rejuvenating their abilities. The Second Doctor effected a revolution on the Macra planet and helped an engineer an explosion in the control centre, destroying the Macra in charge and presumably dooming the species.
Menoptra
Template:Doctorwhorace The Menoptra (originally spelled Menoptera) appeared in the First Doctor story The Web Planet, by Bill Strutton (1965). They are an intelligent, bipedal insectoid species from the planet Vortis. In appearance, they resemble giant bees, with each Menoptra possessing four large wings. They have yellow and black stripes around their bodies and appear to be around six feet tall, but do not seem to have typical insect body parts (such as mandibles or an abdomen).
Peaceful and kindly by nature, the Menoptra move in a unique, stylised way and their vocal inflections are stilted. They were very welcoming of the First Doctor, Ian, Barbara, and Vicki; but showed an animosity towards their fellow insectoids, the Zarbi, as well as an abhorrence for the Animus, a hostile alien intelligence that had taken over the originally passive Zarbi and almost all of Vortis. Once it was clear that the Doctor was willing to help them defeat the Animus, they were only too glad to assist in any way they could.
The assumption is that once the Animus was defeated, the Menoptera, Zarbi and the rest of the inhabitants of Vortis were able to live together in peace.
Mentor
Template:Doctorwhorace The Mentors are an amphibious race native to the planet Thoros Beta. They have two arms but no lower limbs, and speak to other species through a translation device worn around their necks. The most notable of the Mentors is Sil, whom the Sixth Doctor and Peri ecountered first on the planet Varos in Vengeance on Varos, and then again on Thoros Beta in Mindwarp. Both stories were written by Philip Martin.
Other Mentors include Lord Kiv (portrayed by Christopher Ryan), their leader. Lord Kiv was suffering from a condition that caused his brain to expand so much that it would no longer fit inside his skull. His chief scientist devised a series of experiments to offer Kiv a brain transplant — his brain would be implanted into a host body, allowing Kiv to live, but the host would die. The Mentors were also seen to be selling weapons to their less advanced neighbours from the planet Thoros Alpha, slave trading and keeping hostage the warrior king Yrcanos of the Krontep. After a transplant into another Mentor body was unsatisfactory, Peri was chosen as a suitable host for Kiv's brain. The Doctor was snatched out of time by the Time Lords, so it is not exactly clear what happened to Peri next, but in The Ultimate Foe it appeared that Yrcanos was able to save her.
Monoid
The Monoids were a mute reptilian race with only a single eye (hence the name). They featured in the First Doctor serial The Ark, by Paul Erickson and Lesley Scott. Members of the species travelled to the Earth when their own planet was dying, and were allowed to travel with the humans on the Ark headed for the planet Refusis II when the Earth befell the same fate. When the Doctor, Steven and Dodo arrived on the Ark, Dodo's cold quickly infected the Monoids, and caused some of them to die. The Doctor discovered a cure for the cold, and was able to save many lives.
When the Doctor returned to the Ark 700 years later, the Monoids had taken over the Ark from the humans. It was revealed that after the Doctor's departure from the Ark, another cold strain broke out, sapping the will of the humans and allowing the Monoids to take over. The Monoids planned to colonise Refusis II themselves in place of the humans. However, many Monoids were killed by the native Refusians, an invisble species, and they were forced to make peace with the humans. The Refusians then allowed both species to settle on the planet.
The Monoids also feature in the Bernice Summerfield audio drama The Kingdom of the Blind by Big Finish Productions.
Morok
Template:Doctorwhorace The Moroks appeared in the 1965 First Doctor story The Space Museum by Glyn Jones and are a militaristic humanoid species from Morok who held brief dominion over a space empire that brought them into contact with Daleks and many other species. Their civilisation seemed very reliant on technology and advanced weaponary. At the height of their Empire, they constructed a vast Space Museum on the planet Xeros and enslaved the native Xerons to do their bidding there. Like the Roman Empire, the Morok Empire became decadent and declined.
At the time of the visit by the First Doctor to the Space Museum, the Moroks governing the Museum are a mixture of sadistic bullies and tired administrators, reflecting sourly that the glories of the Morok empire are past. Their leader, Lobos, seems to veer between these two negative frames of mind. They use terror tactics and deadly Zaphra Gas to keep control over the indigenous Xeron population but, inspired by Vicki, the Xerons fight back and overthrow the Moroks on Xeros. By the time the TARDIS crew leaves, the Museum is dismantled, its destruction mirroring the end of the greater Morok Empire.
Movellan
Moxx of Balhoon
Template:Doctorwhorace The Moxx of Balhoon is a small, blue, goblin-like creature who sits on an antigravity chair because his atrophied legs are too small to carry his overweight body. He appeared in the Series 1 episode, The End of the World by Russell T Davies. His speech is terse and to the point, and he greets people by means of formal spitting. As detailed in the book Doctor Who: Monsters and Villains, the servo-motor in the Moxx's chair must be replaced every 20 minutes or he will start to sweat glaxic acid. He is apparently grateful if someone points this problem out and may even reward them with a coin of "solid blick".
The Moxx represents the solicitors Jolco and Jolco. When the systems on Platform One are sabotaged, he is among those incinerated when the Sun's rays break through the protective exo-glass of the observation room. According to Doctor Who: Monsters and Villains by Justin Richards, the Moxx's favourite song is Yap Cap Forward Bigga Toom Toom Toom.
Celestial Toyroom, the magazine of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society, reported that the Moxx will be appearing in Series 2. Which episode this will take place in is not known, although being set in the same era, New Earth would seem a likely candidate, despite the Moxx's apparent death in The End of the World. The Moxx was portrayed by Jimmy Vee, who also played the pig "alien" in Aliens of London and the Graske in the interactive adventure Attack of the Graske.
N
Naglon
Template:Doctorwhorace
The Naglon are from the 1993 BBC Radio 5 Third Doctor story The Paradise of Death, written and subsequently novelised by Barry Letts. Self-described as "barely humanoid", they are bipedal but have mauve faces that display extreme changes of color and motion in reaction to emotion or stress. The Doctor has had trouble with the species before. The single Naglon in The Paradise of Death is an extreme sadist who revels in causing pain and death as well as enjoying feeling those emotions in his victims.
O
Ogri
Template:Doctorwhorace
The Ogri were the titular The Stones of Blood in the 1978 Fourth Doctor story by David Fisher. A silicon based life-form from the planet Ogros in the Tau Ceti system, Ogri are mute stone monoliths that resemble megalithic cromlech. They dwell in a natural habitat of amino acid swamps, feeding by absorption, but blood will do equally well. They move by dragging themselves along the ground, often at quite high speeds. Three Ogri were stolen and brought to Earth by the Cessair of Diplos (breaking Galactic Charter article 7594, under which such silicon based creatures were protected from being removed from their natural environment) in her desire to evade the justice of the Megara and avoid detection . For many centuries they formed part of a stone circle on Boscawen Moor, but they could be revived from this dormant state by the use of blood. Once awakened, they desire more blood and are capable of rampages, crushing and draining life-forms for their globulin. This active phase is illustrated by a strange glow from within. One Ogri ended up in the sea after falling from a cliff, another was blasted to atoms by the Megara, while a third was returned by the justice machines to its homeworld. In the original scripts for The Stones of Blood, the Ogri were depicted as granite-skinned humanoids who resembled stone blocks only when dormant or stationary. The Ogri have also occasionally featured in various Doctor Who spin-off novels, such as The Fall of Yquataine.
Ogron
Optera
The Optera appeared in the First Doctor story, The Web Planet by Bill Strutton. 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 nor they actually have legs is unclear). They speak with inflection different to that of their butterfly-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.
P
Primord
The Primords appeared in the Third Doctor serial Inferno by Don Houghton. They were the result of humans, including Stahlman himself, being exposed to slime that was produced as a byproduct of Professor Stahlman's Project Inferno, a scheme to penetrate the Earth's crust in search of a new energy source. In some circumstances, the infection could be transmitted if a Primord touched a human and heat would cause the transformation to progress at a more rapid pace. The creatures were never actually called Primords in the story, although they were credited as such. Primords were resistant to gunfire, and could only be killed by a rapid loss in body temperature or a massive physical trauma (such as a fall from a great height). They could be slowed down by large bursts of extreme cold such as fire extinguishers. The degree of intelligence displayed by the Primords was variable; they acted mainly on instinct, but displayed signs of organisation and tactics. They made a high pitched, screeching sound, which the Third Doctor claimed that he had heard before during the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883.
The Doctor's visit into a parallel universe where the Stahlman Project was more advanced demonstrated to him the dangers of the Earth's crust being penetrated. It set into motion a chain of events that the Doctor claimed would lead to the planet's disintegration, and a similarly infected parallel Stahlman used the slime to actively mutate workers at the project. The Doctor managed to escape back to his original reality and to stop the project before "penetration zero". The BBC Books sequel to the serial, The Face of the Enemy by David A. McIntee, later revealed that despite the Doctor's assumption, the parallel Earth had in fact not disintegrated, but the surface had been devastated beyond recovery; and implied that many survivors of the disaster had since become Primords.
Q
Quark
Template:Doctorwhorace Quarks are a fictional race of robots ruled by the alien race Dominators, appearing in the Second Doctor serial of the same name by Henry Lincoln and Mervyn Haisman in 1969.
The Quarks were used on Dulkis 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 the corners of seven of the octants were directional crystal beam transmitters (the eighth 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.
The Quarks were portrayed by children (requiring them to have a chaperone whilst on set.) One Quark was also seen in the serial The War Games, while one of the children who portrayed one of the Quarks appeared as an Axon (in their humanoid guise) in The Claws of Axos. The Quarks were desigend as an, albeit unsuccessful, attempat at creating a merchandise property, as the Daleks had become earlier.
Quarks are also referred to in the Big Finish Productions audio drama Flip-Flop. When they attacked the space yacht Pinto, the Seventh Doctor and Mel went searching for leptonite crystals in order to defeat them. It is not known whether the Doctor succeeded in defeating the Quarks on that occasion. The Quarks were also mentioned, and mocked viciously, in the Doctor Who Unbound audio play Exile.
Additional information on the Quarks can be found in:
- Harris, M. The Doctor Who Technical Manual 1983. Severn House London/J. M. Dent Pty Ltd Boronia/Australian Broadcasting Corporation Publishing, Sydney.
R
Reaper
Template:Doctorwhorace Reapers appeared in the Ninth Doctor episode Father's Day, written by Paul Cornell. Although not called Reapers on screen, they were referred to as such in the publicity material for the episode.
Reapers are multi-limbed, flying reptiles 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. They are apparently extradimensional, materialising and dematerialising out of the spacetime vortex. They are summoned when a temporal paradox occurs that damages time, like bacteria swarming around a wound. They then proceed to "sterilise" the wound by consuming everyone in sight, with the oldest objects being the tastier targets.
Once in this dimension, however, they are physical creatures and can be blocked by material barriers. The older the barriers, the more effective they are, but the Reapers are relentless enough to be able to overcome even the oldest of barriers eventually. Paradoxes within the barrier can also allow them to directly materialise at the spot of the paradox.
In Father's Day, the paradox that summoned the Reapers was the prevention of the death of Rose Tyler's father, Pete. 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 last great Time War, there was no longer any agency that could repair time.
Pete eventually sacrified himself to restore the timeline. While the exact circumstances were still different, this was apparently enough, as the Reapers dematerialised and those they had killed restored with no memory of what had happened.
The Reapers are reminiscent of the Vortisaurs of the Big Finish Productions audio plays, the Hunters of the Virgin New Adventures novel The Pit by Neil Penswick, and the depiction of the Chronovores (first featured in The Time Monster) in Cornell's own novel No Future.
Rill
Template:Doctorwhorace Rills are a pacifist species of large reptiles which derive from an unnamed planet in Galaxy 4, and appeared in the 1965 First Doctor story Galaxy 4 by William Emms. One Rill craft became marooned on a dying world in Galaxy 4, where they were threatened by the aggressive Drahvins, and their craft are powered by advanced solar energy converters.
In appearance they have vast scales, large bodies and prominent tusks. They are a highly advanced species which communicate through telepathy and have evolved a technology to translate their thoughts into visual images. The Rills created the Chumblies as robot servants to do tasks on their behalf and also as translation devices with other species.
They move and react very slowly and see human bipedal reactions as a human might view an insect scurrying around. Rills breathe ammonia and the smell and sight of the species can be frightening initially to both Drahvins and humans.
Rutan Host
S
Sea Devil
Silurian
Slitheen
Sontaran
Sycorax
Template:Doctorwhorace The Sycorax, who appeared in the debut Tenth Doctor story The Christmas Invasion in 2005, are a race of alien beings who attempted to enslave humanity on Christmas Day, 2006. They encountered a human space probe, Guinivere One, and discovered a sample of A+ blood. Using a system of "blood control", the Sycorax forced every human being on the planet Earth who had that blood type to stand on the roof edges of tall buildings. With one-third of the human race facing death, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Harriet Jones, was summoned to the Sycorax space ship. She was given the ultimatum: surrender the planet and half its population to slavery or those controlled would all leap to their deaths.
The intervention of the newly-regenerated Tenth Doctor saved the human race when he challenged and defeated the Sycorax leader in single combat. The Doctor also revealed that the blood control would not have been able to override its victims' survival instincts and they would not have jumped. The Doctor allowed the Sycorax to leave the planet with the warning that it was defended, but Jones ordered the covert organisation Torchwood to destroy the retreating Sycorax ship, much to the Doctor's anger.
The Sycorax appear to be skinless humanoids wearing mantles of bone, usually keeping their features concealed under helmets. They are proficient in the use of weapons like swords and whips, the latter which can deliver an energy discharge that disintegrates the flesh of its target. Their language is called Sycoraxic.
The Sycorax also appear to have technology that is either disguised or treated as magic, referring to "curses" and the Doctor's regenerative abilities as "witchcraft". The Sycorax leader referred to an "armada" that they could use to take Earth by force if the blood control failed. They also appear to have a martial society, with traditions of honourable combat.
The Sycorax mothership is destroyed on the orders of Harriet Jones, by the mysterious Torchwood missle defense system.
T
Terileptil
The Terileptils appeared in the Fifth Doctor serial The Visitation by Eric Saward. 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 a little help from the Doctor - causes the Great Fire of London.
According to the Virgin Missing Adventures novel The Dark Path by David A. McIntee, by the 34th century, their homeworld Terileptus is a member of the Galactic Federation, and a noted builder of starships. A Terileptil also appears as the chief engineer on a Federation starship. The planet is destroyed during the events described in the novel; however, as with all spin-off media, the canoncity of this information is uncertain.
Tetrap
The Tetraps are a bat-like race from the planet Tetrapyriarbus. A pack of Tetraps was employed by the Rani to help defend her Giant Brain in the Seventh Doctor's debut story, Time and the Rani (1987) by Pip and Jane Baker. The Rani armed a pack of Tetraps for this purpose and used them as general henchmen to terrorise the native Lakertyans.
Tetraps have four eyes, one on each side of their head, giving them all-round vision, and put this to good use in stalking fugitives. Like bats, they sleep by hanging upide-down in a cavern. They feed off a dark red-coloured sludge that the Lakertyan leader releases down a chute into a trough.
They possess limited intelligence, but soon realise that the Rani's plans would have them all killed on Lakertya. This is confirmed when their leader, Urak, hears of her plans and she later leaves him to guard over her laboratory rather than take him with her in her TARDIS, thus condemning him to death. Urak and the enraged Tetraps capture the Rani in her ship and take her back to their home planet to force her to help solve their natural resource shortages.
Thal
Tharil
Template:Doctorwhorace The Tharils were the leonine species encountered by the Fourth Doctor in the 1980 story Warriors' Gate by Stephen Gallagher. Gifted with time sensitivity, the Tharils used the Gateway between N-Space and E-Space as a portal for access to multiple dimensions by riding the time winds. They built an empire based on terror and slavery, descending on other planets and enslaving their populations. However, the human slaves of the Tharils fought back and designed the Gundans, killer armoured robots which were able to stand up to the Tharils, pursuing them along the time winds, and butchered many of them on the day of the great feast.
As the Tharil empire and dominion crumbled, the human species began to exploit their former masters in a continuing cycle of oppression. The Tharils now became the slaves, used as forced navigators of the time winds and traded as rare and valuable commodities. Ships such as the Privateer under Rorvik which became moored in the Gateway were built of the dense dwarf star alloy to prevent the Tharils escaping. When Rorvik’s Privateer became stuck in the Gateway the Doctor and Romana befriended two Tharils, Biroc and Lazlo, and they explained the history of the Tharil race to them. The two Time Lords helped to free Tharils still trapped in the Privateer, and Romana stayed behind in the Gateway to help the Tharils build a new life based on freedom and equity.
Tractator
Template:Doctorwhorace The Tractators appeared in the 1983 Fifth Doctor serial Frontios by Christopher H. Bidmead. Tractators are insect-like burrowers resembling biped woodlouse creatures which curl into balls when dormant. They are a species of universal outcasts who formed a collective intelligence, though without the guiding will of their leader they are only mindless animals. They have a considerable natural power of gravity control and once attacked Trion.
The Fifth Doctor discovered Tractators had infected the colony of Frontios; their leader, the Gravis, had secretly drawn human colonists to Frontios because he needed to use their bodies and minds to power his excavating machines. Human subjects were periodically drawn through the earth of the planet into the catacombs below where their body parts were used in the construction of diabolical machinata. Tractators are mute, though the Gravis has the power of voice (in the novelisation of Frontios it has a specially constructed gruesome translating machine).
The Doctor used the Gravis's desire for the TARDIS to cut him off from the other Tractators, thereby rendering them helpless. The Gravis was abandoned on the barren world of Kolkokron.
U
V
Varga plant
The Varga plants appeared in the First Doctor serials Mission to the Unknown and The Daleks' Master Plan, which were essentially a prologue and a main epic. They were created by Terry Nation.
Varga Plants grew naturally on the Daleks' homeworld, Skaro, and when the Daleks set up a base on the planet Kembel they brought some Varga plants with them to act as sentries in the jungle surrounding their base. They were suited to this as they could move around freely by dragging themselves along with their roots.
Varga plants resemble cacti; they are covered in fur and thorns. Anyone pricked by a Varga thorn will be consumed by the urge to kill, while simultaneously becoming a Varga plant themselves.
This grisly fate happened to astronauts Jeff Garvey and Gordon Lowery, and their commander, Marc Cory, was forced to kill them.
Venom Grub
Template:Doctorwhorace Venom Grubs (also called Larva Guns) are creatures seen on the planet Vortis in the 1965 First Doctor serial The Web Planet by Bill Strutton. They are wild, woodlouse-like creatures that in a more dormant state pose non harm to anyone other than their prey. However, because they attack their prey using an electrical discharge emitted from cable-like mouthparts this ability can be used in a trained Venom Grub against more advanced species.
Venom Grubs have little natural intelligence and are reliant on instinct. However, when the First Doctor visited Vortis for a second time he found the Venom Grubs were being mentally controlled by the Zarbi and being used as the equivalent of guard dogs in maintaining their control of the planet. Thus these animals were turned into fierce attack beasts by the Zarbi, all by the will of the Animus. When the Animus was destroyed and the Zarbi freed, the Venom Grubs also returned to their natural, less aggressive state.
Venom Grubs were also mentioned in the 2005 series episode, Boom Town.
Vervoid
Template:Doctorwhorace The Vervoids were an intelligent, bipedal, vegetable lifeform seen in the Sixth Doctor serial The Trial of a Time Lord: Terror of the Vervoids by Pip and Jane Baker. They are fully mobile, and have somehow acquired the power of speech. They are able to recognise at least some humans, and have a xenophobic hatred of humans (whom they refer to as "animalkind"). They walk with a slow, lumbering gait and the petals of the flowers on the end of their "arms" pulsate regularly.
They begin their life cycle as man-sized pods, from which they are only awoken by high intensity light. Only infraspectrum light is safe, as it allows them to remain dormant. They can kill by shooting poisonous thorns or by emitting marsh gas. They keep dead humans on a "compost heap" and they are driven back to their lair when darkness comes. The Doctor and Melanie Bush destroy them using vionesium (a volatile metal similar to magnesium), which emits intense light and carbon dioxide when exposed to oxygenated air, effectively ageing them to death.
See also: Day of the Triffids.
Vortisaur
Template:Doctorwhorace Vortisaurs are a species of reptile from the Big Finish Productions audio plays and appeared in the first Eighth Doctor audio play, Storm Warning. Vortisaurs are flying reptiles with similarities to pterosaurs. They live exclusively in the space-time vortex, the dimension which time machines like the Doctor's TARDIS pass through as they travel from point to point. They are attracted to the chronal distortions given off by objects travelling through the vortex, and occasionally scavenge from ships wrecked and lost in that environment. They have sharp teeth, and in addition to the physical wound from a Vortisaur's bite, the chronal energies of the creature also age the wound and the surrounding tissue by decades.
In Storm Warning, the Doctor encountered a flock of Vortisaurs in an act of scavenging from a time ship that was caught in a pepetual time loop and tried to drive them off, only to be attacked himself. While he managed to get the TARDIS away to France in 1930, materialising on board the Airship R101, he unknowingly brought one of the creatures with him, a fact he uncovered when it attacked a crewmember. The Doctor and his new companion Charley used the Vortisaur as a ride to escape the crash of the airship. Charley took a liking to the vortisaur and kept it as a pet for a time, naming it Ramsay as she felt that it resembled then-Prime Minister James Ramsay MacDonald.
However, Ramsay soon began to weaken, being away from the vortex for so long. Despite finding a temporary solution in Sword of Orion, the Doctor and Charley knew they had to return it to its natural habitat. As they returned approached the center of the vortex, however, it attacked Charley. Ramsay sensed the fracturing web of time around her as she had been fated to die in the R101 crash but escaped that fate due to the Doctor. The Doctor managed to expel Ramsay through the open doors of the TARDIS but the ship — and the Doctor — were damaged in the process, leading to the events of Minuet in Hell. Charley's paradoxical existence was eventually resolved in Neverland.
Neither Ramsay nor the Vortisaurs have appeared since, although the Reapers of the 2005 episode Father's Day are reminiscent of the Vortisaurs in appearance and concept.
W
Wirrn
Template:Doctorwhorace 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 a world called Andromeda, but were driven into space by space settlers. They are 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 human hosts, the larvae emerging to consume the host and absorbing their memories and knowledge. A grown Wirrn can also "infect" another person through contact with a substance it excretes, mutating them into another Wirrn and connected to their 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. They intended to use the sleepers as a food source and claim the empty Earth for their own, infecting Nerva's leader, Noah. However, Noah's human side reasserted itself 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. A dead Wirrn appears briefly in The Stones of Blood.
Wolfweeds
Template:Doctorwhorace The Wolfweeds appeared in the 1979 Fourth Doctor story The Creature from the Pit by David Fisher. They are mobile, aggressive plant creatures native to the jungle world of Chloris. They are of limited intelligence but can respond to pain and hunger. They feed on flesh and meat, and are presumed to hunt in packs since the trained versions of the Wolfweeds behaved in this manner.
The Huntsman of Chloris controlled a pack of Wolfweeds them with a whip and used them to terrify the native human inhabitants of Chloris. Rebels or malcontents were devoured by the Wolfweeds. This oppression was one of the keys to the oppressive rule of the Lady Adrasta. However, they cannot devour metal, as proven when some Wolfweeds sought to digest K-9.
When the Tythonian ambassador, Erato, was released from its pit prison it consumed a pack of Wolfweeds to help replenish its need for chlorophyll.
X
Xerpahin
Template:Doctorwhorace The Xeraphin were an ancient species encountered by the Fifth Doctor in the story Time-Flight 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 co-incided 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.
Before fleeing Xeriphas and the Xeraphin, the Master took with him Kamelion, a Xeraphin war weapon with advanced shape-changing abilities dependent on the will of its controller. Kamelion was freed from the Master and joined the Doctor's TARDIS crew in The King's Demons.
Y
Yeti
Z
Zarbi
The Zarbi appeared in the 1965 First Doctor story, The Web Planet written by Bill Strutton and are an (ant-like) insectoid species, with some characteristics associated with beetles, from the planet Vortis, which were controlled by the power of the Animus. They are roughly eight feet long, and the Menoptra claim, perhaps a little callously, that they are "little more than cattle".
They possess little intelligence but were not at all aggressive until the Animus arrived. They were enslaved to the alien consciousness and considered the butterfly-like Menoptra (with which they once lived peacefully) their mortal enemies. Only they could control the woodlouse-like venom grubs (also called larvae guns)
They returned to their normal ways after the Animus was defeated by the First Doctor, Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright and Vicki. It is presumed that the various species on Vortis are now living peacefully together.