Doctor Who - New series, new species, part 18

Well I may as well round off this old Doctor Who thing before it becomes a distant memory. I'll cover the end of The Sarah Jane Adventures' second series and also the Doctor Who Christmas special in the one post if I may. Both species discussed are technicalities in my book but I'll include them for completeness' sake and to fill the air while I think of something else to write.

Horath

The final two episodes of The Sarah Jane Adventures were rife with returning characters and species. The Trickster made another appearance, along with his Graske friend and the Sontaran Kaagh reappeared along with 1st episode villain Mrs Wormwood of the Bane. Slotted in amongst all this was Horath, some kind of ancient computery monster thing with the power to destroy the world. I'd got my hopes up with this one, but the show didn't deliver, I was hoping for some kind of epic monster similar to the Torchwood finale, but all we got was a clack hole and a typical "regain my honour" ending to wrap it all up.

Horath was an ancient menace lost to time, but found by the Bane renegade Mrs Wormwood. She coerced Sarah Jane Smith and her band into finding the scroll of Horath, hidden deep with in UNIT's Black Archive. The scroll held the key to reuniting Horath's consciousness with his physical form, but this failed to take place when Wormwood's plan was sabotaged by her former mercenary Kaagh, who she betrayed. The gateway to Horath's power was sealed and he remained captive.

Cybershade
















As I said this technically can be argued as not a new species, but simply a variation on the old Cybermen and in principle the same thing. However I do think that they are quirky enough to be discussed separately here. I did quite like the way the beast came out of nowhere, was distinctly Cybermen and distinctly new at the same time. I do wonder how they managed to create such large feathery monsters with already low technology, but I think the Cybershades are cool enough to have their place without being shot down by me.

Cybershades were an experiment of desperation, used by the Cybermen after they arrived in Victorian London. Needing to enlist new soldiers and scouts they resorted top the easier task of converting simple mids such as those of stray cats and dogs and using them to create a more basic Cyberman that could be given tasks to do, though not very complicated ones. These creatures were dubbed Cybershades and used their enhanced strength and agility to further the Cybermen's cause and to track and disrupt the Doctor as he hunted them. The Cybershades were eventually defeated when the Doctor stopped the CyberKing attack craft and caused all Cybermen to overload and die.

Thanks for reading.