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The Forgotten Army
(Brian Minchin) |
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 Name: The Vykoids
Format:
Book
Time of Origin: Precise planet was
unspecified, but they landed on Earth in the Ice Age and survived
until the present.
Appearances: "The
Forgotten Army"
Doctors: Eleventh Doctor
Companions: Amy Pond
History: Despite being possibly the smallest race
The Doctor has ever encountered - reaching only a few centimetres
in height, although in appearance they resembled trolls -, The Doctor
has described the Vykoids as a highly advanced race, stating that
their civilisation must be Level Eighteen at least - Earth being
only a Level Five planet at the time of their attack in 2010 - given
their demonstrated level of technology, thus accounting for their
arrogance in their dealings with Earth despite their significant
height disadvantage. Their most obvious advanced technology is the
time freeze, allowing them to slow down the rate at which they perceive
time from the perspective of the rest of the universe, giving them
the appearance that they were moving at superspeed, but they were
also capable of controlling the minds of larger life-forms with a
specially designed ‘control chair’ that connected to
humans behind their ears.
When
the Vykoids came to Earth, they were looking for slaves to help them
mine the Desiccated mines of Cassetia 2, essentially massive lumps
of animal waste that had been left by an ancient space-dwelling race
that could be mined to form explosives. Arriving on Earth in the
distant past, the Vykroids’ initial assault featured them arriving
in a ship designed to resembled a woolly mammoth, the ‘ship’ being
essentially a real mammoth with mechanical ‘organs’ (It
was even capable of emitting genuine waste, although the purpose
of duplicating the mammoth this specifically was never specified)
with the intention of capturing Earth’s animals to use them
as slaves. Unfortunately, after their cryogenic units malfunctioned,
the Vykoids were subsequently ‘asleep’ for thousands
of years before they could capture anything, forcing the commander
to adapt the plan by arranging for the mammoth to be brought to a
city. The mammoth was eventually discovered by Sam Horwitz, a research
assistant who had discovered newspaper clippings talking about a
treasure of prehistoric bones buried under Arctic ice in Svalbard,
discovering it during a subsequent expedition.
With the mammoth having ‘woken up’ in
the New York Natural History Museum when it was about to be put on display,
the Eleventh Doctor and Amy - The Doctor having taken Amy to New York
to try and visit a burger and sausage place that served such good food
it had a reputation even in the future - swiftly helping to stop the
mammoth’s rampage by luring it outside so that it could be tranquilised.
While investigating the mammoth after it had been taken to the zoo, The
Doctor confirmed that the creature was artificial, but further examination
was cut short when the mammoth generated a wave of green energy, activating
the Vykoid time freeze and allowing them to begin their invasion.
Having
cut the power to New York, the Vykoids proceeded with their attack,
easily disarming any police attempts to capture them by taking away
their weapons before the police realised what was happening - often
humiliating them into the bargain by switching their clothes - while
scaring civilians to direct them to a single area. After taking in
the Vykoids’ plans, The Doctor and Amy tracked down Sam Horwitz
and his friend, Polly Vernon, a high school teacher, The Doctor asking
Polly to contact her students so that he could use them to find the
source of the Time Freeze that the Vykoids were now broadcasting,
taking advantage of the fact that the Vykoids would have no interest
in the small children as slave labour. While the children searched
the city, The Doctor, Amy and Sam examined the mammoth, determining
that its interior was protected by the Time Freeze, with anyone inside
it perceiving time as going far slower than those outside it, giving
The Doctor a weapon that he could use against the Vykoids.
With the Vykoids having taken control of the city’s
police commanders in order to trick the humans into travelling to
a specific location - specifically, Broadway, claiming that it was
the only area ‘cleared of terrorist devices’ - that would
make it easy for the Vykoids to capture them, The Doctor, Amy and
Sam took the mammoth to the Statue of Liberty, the Statue having
been identified as the Vykoid control centre. Confronting the Vykoids
in the Crown Room of the Statue, The Doctor was easily able to disarm
the Vykoid commander - his reflexes slowed due to his reliance on
the Time Freeze - and deprive him of his control rod for the teleport
systems. Although the Vykoids tried to briefly gain the upper hand
by taking control of Sam to threaten Amy, The Doctor was able to
convince Sam to focus his mental strength and fight off the Vykoid
influence, subsequently reprogramming the teleport systems to transport
the Vykoids away rather than the humans. Although the commander initially
refused to leave Earth empty-handed, he accepted defeat after The
Doctor coldly informed him that he was showing more kindness to the
Vykoids than they had ever shown to the species they had conquered,
informing the Vykoid High Command that Earth had a great champion
that the Vykoids couldn’t defeat. |
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