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The Nightmare of the Black Island
(Mike Tucker) |
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 Name: Cynrog
Format:
Book.
Time of Origin: Specific planet and
time of origin unknown; however, they have an inter-galactic empire
extending for an unspecified time and distance, but known to have
extended far enough for their ships to reach Earth in the present
day.
Appearances: "The
Nightmare of the Black Island"
Doctors: Tenth
Doctor
Companions: Rose Tyler
History: The Cynrog are a particularly vicious
race of aliens, being physically a dark grey-green colour with wrinkled
skin, a pug nose, cat-like eyes and sharp teeth. Their conquest based
on a warped religious crusade, the Cynrog have dominated entire galaxies
in the name of the powerful and ruthless General Balor, who was worshipped
as a god following his resurrection in a questionable accelerated
genetic mutation experiment. Possessing powerful psychic-based technology,
the Cynrog were capable of accessing the minds of others using their
machines - although the evidence suggests that they were no more
psychic than normal humans without technological assistance - and
were also capable of channelling that mental energy to perform various
actions.
The
Cynrog first came to Earth when Balor’s ship crash-landed off
the coast of a Welsh village in around the 1940s, leaving him badly
injured and close to death. Using his technology, he was able to
broadcast fragments of his mind into the minds of the children who
had discovered his ship. As a result, although his body died, his
mind was divided amongst the seven children who had witnessed the
crash, each of them subsequently tormented by nightmares and other
such difficulties over the course of their lives as Balor’s
mind fought to come back together with its other ‘components’.
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| David Tennant |
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Eventually, the other Cynrog came to Earth
at some point around the Second World War, making contact with Nathaniel
Morton, one of the children who had been exposed to Balor’s ship
when he crashed. Convincing him that they could not only remove the elements
of Balor’s mind from him and his fellows, but also restore them
to youth so that they could live the lives that their trauma had denied
to them, the Cynrog - led by the aptly-named ‘nurse’ Peyne,
a Priest Commander of the Third Cynrog Scientific Militia - set up a
research facility in the nearby rectory. While Morton subtly drew his
old friends back to him over the course of the next few decades, the
Cynrog used a behaviour inhibitor set up in the nearby abandoned lighthouse
to tap into the nightmares of the local children, generating monsters
every night to discourage people from going out - as well as telepathically
discouraging people from trying to seek help from outside - while simultaneously
gathering energy from the childrens’ nightmares to create a new
body for Balor (Morton and his old friends being too elderly to provide
sufficient energy themselves).
This
situation continued until the Tenth
Doctor and Rose Tyler arrived in the village
after the TARDIS’s
telepathic circuits picked up the signals from the telepathic
aerials of the behavioural inhibitor, causing Rose to
dream of the lighthouse and prompting The Doctor to travel
to the village to investigate the signals. Having escaped
the nightmarish ‘monsters’ -
mostly variations on themes such as giant insects - and reaching
the local pub, The Doctor and Rose learned what was happening,
as well as
the belief that Morton was involved in the events in question.
While Rose befriended Ali Hardy - the daughter of the owners
of the pub - The
Doctor, having failed to question Morton and only managing
to get a brief look at his associates - now kept alive only
by machinery - investigated
the lighthouse with the aid of Brownyn - a woman in her seventies
whose son, Jimmy, was taken from her by child protection
because they thought
she was a bad mother - discovering the Cynrog’s spaceship and the
behavioural inhibitor that they had hidden on the island.
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The Nightmare of the Black Island
(CD Cover) |
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Back on land, while exploring an underground tunnel with
Ali, Rose was captured by Miss Peyne, learning Peyne’s true
identity and race before Peyne wired her up to the dream machine
to learn the truth about her presence. Fortunately, Ali - who had
been following Rose since she was captured - managed to rescue Rose,
The Doctor simultaneously encouraging the adults to wake the children
up to prevent the monsters being created while he travelled to Morton’s
house, discovering Balor’s body and confronting Peyne about
her plans. Outraged at The Doctor’s defiance, Peyne awoke Balor
once again, but swiftly realising from his brutal behaviour that
a fragment of his mind was still missing - the fragment having been
hidden in the mind of the young Bronwyn, who had witnessed the crashed
ship while hiding from the other children in the nearby bushes -
Peyne attempted to use the energy of normal human minds as a substitute
for the fragment. Unfortunately for Peyne, Balor’s mind was
so weakened by the loss of that fragment of himself that Morton was
able to gain control of the body instead, killing Peyne before turning
on The Doctor. At the last minute, Ali, on Rose’s instructions,
reprogrammed the dream inducer to tap into the minds of adults rather
than children, sending all the adults to sleep and causing Balor’s
new body to collapse before it was fully formed, the mundane problems
of adults lacking the imagination of children that Balor required
to properly manifest.
As a pleasant side-effect, due to Peyne reprogramming
the machinery to search for Bronwyn while it was still carrying out
its pre-programmed mission to rejuvenate Morton and his friends,
the machinery drew the life force from Morton and the others and
sent it to Bronwyn, restoring her to her youth during her pregnancy,
providing her with a second chance at both life and motherhood. With
Balor defeated - the last vestiges of his mind were transferred into
The Doctor, who resolved to purge them from his subconscious when
he returned to the TARDIS - The Doctor ordered the Cynrog to depart
in their ship’s stasis chambers, confident that he would leave
them with some very unpleasant nightmares for the journey home. |
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