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| Carnival of Monsters |
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 Name: Drashigs
Format:
Television show and Book
Time of Origin: Swamp moon of Grundle,
although The Doctor has never been there himself; every Drashig The
Doctor has faced had been taken from somewhere else.
Appearances: "Carnival
of Monsters" and "The
Eight Doctors"
Doctors: Third
Doctor, Fifth
Doctor and Eighth
Doctor
Companions: Jo Grant,
Tegan
Jovanka and Turlough
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| Carnival of Monsters |
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History: Although the Drashigs are essentially
just animals, their sheer ferocity and power mean that they can still
pose a threat to The Doctor under the right circumstances. Massive
snake-like creatures with six eyes on stalks, the Drashigs had fanged
mouths and segmented bodies strong enough to withstand machine-gun
fire, capable of bursting through solid structures. Essentially unintelligent,
they were still somewhat social, hunting in packs of three - relying
on scent for hunting purposes - and living in colonies of twenty.
However,
the Drashigs’ most distinctive feature is the fact that they
are fundamentally omnivorous, capable of eating anything, including
metal. There is recorded evidence that a ship once landed on the
moon where the Drashigs live and the Drashigs not only ate the entire
fifty-person crew, armed with modern weapons, but also ate all but
a few scraps of the ship itself (the Fifth
Doctor once speculated
that a Drashig could even eat the TARDIS,
although it is unclear if this meant that it was large enough to
swallow the ship whole
given that the HADS ("The
Krotons") would have relocated
the TARDIS if it faced serious damage). A notable weakness of the
Drashigs was their focus, as they would follow a trail to find their
prey even if the prey had doubled back, suggesting that their eyesight
is rather poor.
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| Carnival of Monsters |
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The Third
Doctor and Jo Grant had an accidental
encounter with the Drashigs when the TARDIS materialised in a Miniscope,
a device that contained miniaturised life-forms from all across the
galaxy, and one of the few still existing after the First
Doctor lead a campaign to have the Time Lords ban them from the universe
for the device’s disrespect for sentient life-forms. While
attempting to explore the Miniscope - which included the lost ship
the SS Bernice and a group of Cybermen as its ‘inhabitants’ -,
The Doctor and Jo accidentally arrived in the Drashig habitat. The
Doctor was able to delay the Drashigs by using the sonic screwdriver
to ignite the marsh gases in their swampy habitat while he and Jo
ran from them, but his subsequent attempt to escape the Miniscope
accidentally led the Drashigs to a way out, although their small
size allowed The Doctor and the Miniscope’s owners to contain
them long enough for the Drashigs to be destroyed with an Eradicator
- a device that eliminated troublesome ‘livestock’ -
until The Doctor could link the TARDIS to the Miniscope and send
the other life-forms back to their home times.
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The Eight Doctors
(Terrance Dicks) |
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The
Doctor next encountered the Drashigs when the Eighth
Doctor was visiting
his past selves to regain his lost memories, only for his visit to
attract unwanted attention from the other Time Lords ("The
Eight Doctors"). Although the current President, Lady Flavia, was
a friend of The Doctor’s who saw no harm in allowing his visits
to continue so long as there was no sign of damage to the Web of
Time, Ryoth, an ambitious younger Time Lord who resented The Doctor’s
role in the downfall of his associates Goth ("The
Deadly Assassin")
and Borusa ("The
Five Doctors"), used the opportunity to
try and convince the Celestial Intervention Agency to provide him
with the means of disposing of The Doctor. Using the Timescoop, forbidden
technology from the days of Rassilon, Ryoth attempted to kill the
Fifth Doctor - the incarnation that the Eighth Doctor was ‘scheduled’ to
visit next - with a Raston
Warrior Robot and a squadron of Sontarans,
but the two Doctors were able to trick their enemies into destroying
each other.
Outraged at The Doctors’ continued survival, Ryoth
sent a Drashig against them next, only to be caught by surprise when
The Doctors were able to set up a Temporal Reverse Feedback Field
that reversed the polarity of the temporal flow and sent the Drashig
to the Timescoop itself. After it ate Ryoth and damaged the Timescoop,
the Drashig was trapped in the vault until the Chancellory Guard
discovered it trying to get through the door, quickly setting up
an emergency transmat beam to send the Drashig into the Death Zone,
a location where Time Lords had once pitted other races against each
other, hoping that it would eat the other horrors in the Zone. |
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| VHS Cover |
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| DVD Cover |
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| Original Target Cover |
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| Reprinted Virgin Books Cover |
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