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Wishing Well
(Trevor Baxendale) |
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 Name: Vurosis
Format:
Book
Time of Origin: Actron Pleiades star
system; specific planet and time of origin unknown, but one crash-landed
on Earth in around the eighteenth century and remained dormant until
the beginning of the twenty-first.
Appearances: "Wishing
Well"
Doctors: Tenth
Doctor
Companions: Martha Jones
History: Described
by The Doctor as a particularly nasty example of extraterrestial
life, the Vurosis are intelligent proto-molecular parasites from
the Acrtron Pleiades star system, preying on defenceless planets
with easily adaptable carbon-based life forms such as Earth. Arriving
as seeds, the Vurosis subsequently germinate underground that spread
and reproduce by transforming the indigenous species into others
like itself using a process described as telekinetic transmutagenics,
resulting in the victims being mutated into Vurosis-like entities
on the cellular level.
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| David Tennant |
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When The Doctor encountered a Vurosis, it
was trapped at the bottom of an old well in the village of
Creighton Mere, having become separated from its brain - which physically
manifested
as a green stone - during the crash and thus reduced to operating
on instinct as it grew and developed within the well. Fortunately for
the
Vurosis, its brain had been discovered some years back, eventually
falling into the hands of student Nigel Carson, telepathically prompting
him
to dig to under the well with promises of wealth and power
(There was a story about a highwayman who had lost his loot at the bottom
of the
well). Encouraging two of his friends to dig with him, they
made significant advances towards the well, although they were also aided
by the fact
that the local lord, Henry Gaskin, still had access to an
old tunnel that his father had dug some years back which they could use
as a starting
point.
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Wishing Well
(CD Cover) |
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Arriving
in the village for a holiday, the Tenth
Doctor and Martha Jones learned
the story of the highwayman and the well from local tramp Old Barney,
only to be shocked when Barney was disintegrated directly in front
of them; the Vurosis brain had attempted to transform Barney to act
as a new body for it, but the fragility of the human form had rendered
such an action impossible. Investigating the well as Nigel continued
to dig the tunnel, The Doctor was pulled into the well by the Vurosis’ body
- operating on instinct to attack the ‘intruder’ - leaving
Martha to travel down the Gaskin Tunnel just in time to discover
that one of the students was mutating into a monster after coming
in contact with the highwayman’s skeleton.
As the mutated student attacked Martha, The Doctor broke
through the crumbling wall that connected the tunnel to the well,
using the sonic screwdriver to drive the creature off as he and Martha
escaped. Although recognising the creature as a mindless Vurosis
that had mutated the students on instinct, The Doctor was unable
to stop the student from uniting the brain and the body, but the
Vurosis’s current lack of energy limited the danger it posed
at present; it had to spend its time immediately after ‘waking
up’ establishing defences rather than killing anyone. Provoking
the Vurosis into attacking him before it was fully charged, The Doctor
drew on the mental energy of Martha and their current allies from
the village, turning the Vurosis’s attack back on itself and
causing its entire form - body, brain and all - to crumple into dust. |
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