List of Doctor Who robots

The long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who has featured many robots. The Daleks and Cybermen are not listed as they are cyborgs, and therefore not true robots.

Contents: Top · 0–9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

A

Adherents of the Repeated Meme

Main article: The End of the World

Robots that worked for Lady Cassandra and were defeated by the Ninth Doctor.

Advertising satellite

Main article: The Greatest Show in the Galaxy

A small robot that delivers junk mail to advertise events, as in The Greatest Show in the Galaxy. The advertising satellite was able to use the TARDIS' viewing screen to show the advertisement.

Androids (Androzani)

Main article: The Caves of Androzani

Androids created by Sharaz Jek.

Androids (Cyberman)

Main article: Earthshock

Two androids created by the Cybermen to guard a bomb. The androids are defeated with concentrated fire and Adric's help.

Androids (Karfel)

Main article: Timelash

Blue androids portrayed as the police and servants of Karfel.

Androids (Kraal)

Main article: The Android Invasion

These androids were created by the Kraals for an invasion on earth by duplicating people such as Harry Sullivan. The androids contain a gun inside their fingers.

Androids (Taran)

Main article: The Androids of Tara

Androids (Terileptil)

Main article: The Visitation

Androids (Urbankan)

Main article: Four to Doomsday

Anne Droid

Main articles: Bad Wolf and The Parting of the Ways

Auton

Main article: Auton

C

Caw

Main article: The Infinite Quest

Chumblies

Main article: Galaxy 4

Cleaning robots

Main article: Paradise Towers

Clockwork Droids

File:TeamTARDIS Clockwork Android by Kiyoshi Ryuu The clockwork androids (aka the Clockwork Men) were repair robots on board the spaceship SS Madame De Pompadour in the 51st century, in the episode "The Girl in the Fireplace". When the ship broke down in the Dagmar Cluster, they did not have the necessary parts to make repairs, so they used body parts of the crew. To complete repairs the androids required a new command circuit for the ship's main computer. Believing that the brain of Madame de Pompadour at age 37—the same age as their ship— was compatible, they used the ship's quantum drive to open time windows to 18th Century France, trying to find one that led to her 37th year.

They disguised themselves in masquerade costumes to blend in. They are equipped with a short range teleporter, scanners, tranquilizers, and various tools. They can heat themselves if they get frozen and can drain excess fluid from their system. The operation of their clockwork parts makes a constant ticking sound. The Doctor defeated them by disconnecting the time window that led back to the ship, which caused them to shut down due to lack of purpose, and not being rewound.

Steven Moffat expressed an interest to bring back the clockwork androids in the 5th series,^{[citation needed]} stating their camouflage would take the guise of a different era's style; however, this did not happen.

Clockwork soldiers

Main article: The Mind Robber

Robots in the fictional world created by the Master of the land of fiction.

Cyberking

Main article: Cyberking#The CyberKing

The Cyberking was a giant robot controlled by the Cybermen and Miss Hartigan in 2008's The Next Doctor.

D

Davinadroid

Main article: Bad Wolf

G

Gadget

Main article: The Waters of Mars

Gadget was a robot invented and controlled by junior technician, Roman Groom, for the Bowie Base One Mars station. After the Doctor saved Gadget, along with Adelaide Brooke, Mia Bennett and Yuri Kerenski, the robot stopped working due to loss of signal.

Gundan

Doctor Who alien
Gundans
Type	Armoured war robot
Affiliated with	Celestial Being
Home planet	Earth
First appearance	Warriors' Gate

The Gundans were war robots encountered by the Fourth Doctor in the 1980 story Warriors' Gate by Stephen Gallagher. They were designed by the human slaves of the Tharils and used as a spearhead in the revolution which overthrew the Tharil empire. Designed with the primary purpose to resist and kill Tharils, the Gundans could travel the time winds like their prey and butchered many during the revolt. Each Gundan was armed with an axe and decorated with horns to make the robots seem more frightening. The revolt began on the day of the Great Feast. Several inert and decaying Gundans were found by the Doctor when he visited the feasting hall in the Gateway between the universes. The skeletons of their defeated enemies remained in their seats around the feasting table. The Doctor repaired the memory wafers of a Gundan to discover what had caused the decay of the Gateway.

H

The Host

Main article: Voyage of the Damned

The Host were golden robotic angels who gave information to passengers aboard the Titanic space cruiser. Initially thought to have been malfunctioning, the Host were controlled by Max Capricorn who instructed them to kill all remaining passengers after a meteor collided with the ship. They used their halos as weapons and had the ability to fly. After Max Capricorn was killed, the Host obeyed the next highest authority on board the Titanic—the Doctor.

I

Ice soldiers

Main article: The Keys of Marinus

K

K1

In Robot, K1 was a robot designed in the 20th century to replace humans in dangerous environments, but was subverted by a group of intellectuals who wanted to take power for themselves.

K-9

Main article: K-9 (Doctor Who)

The Doctor's faithful robotic dog companion.

Kamelion

Main article: Kamelion

Kandy Man

Doctor Who universe character
Kandy Man
Affiliated	Helen A
Species	Robot
Home planet	Terra Alpha
Home era	Unspecified
Appears in	The Happiness Patrol
Portrayed by	David John Pope

The Kandy Man (or Kandyman) was a pathological, psychopathic robotic killer from 1988's Seventh Doctor story The Happiness Patrol (written by Graeme Curry). Employed by the egocentric Helen A, the Kandy Man delighted in creating methods of torture and destruction using confectionery, such as drowning people in sugary solutions like its "fondant surprise". It was sadistic and had a warped sense of humour, claiming it liked its victims to "die with a smile on their faces" by making candies that were so sweet the human body was unable to cope with the pleasure.

Composed of things like sherbet, marzipan and caramel, it was created by Gilbert M, with whom it shared an almost symbiotic relationship. The Doctor stuck the Kandy Man to the floor using lemonade—it had to keep moving or its constituent ingredients would coagulate. The Kandy Man died when its external candy shell was dissolved in a pipe by fondant released by the oppressed Pipe People.

Although it resembled the trademarked character of Bertie Bassett, the BBC's internal investigations revealed the resemblance was entirely coincidental, though they promised Bassetts that the character would not return.

The Seventh Doctor encountered the Kandy Man again on the planet Tara in The Trials of Tara, a short story by Paul Cornell from Decalog 2 written entirely in iambic pentameter. In that story, Count Grendel rebuilt the Kandy Man after its charred body crashed on Tara.

L

L1

Main article: The Mysterious Planet

L3

Main article: The Mysterious Planet

M

Mechonoid

Doctor Who alien
Mechonoid
Type	Robots
Affiliated with	Human Colonists
Home planet	Mechanus
First appearance	The Chase

The Mechonoids were large, spherical robots originally created to serve humans in The Chase. Mechonoids which had been sent to prepare the planet Mechanus for human colonisation kept the astronaut Steven Taylor prisoner, since he did not have the Mechonoids' control codes. Daleks, following the TARDIS crew, engaged the Mechonoids in battle; it is unknown which side was victorious.

The Mechonoids appear in the Big Finish audio drama The Juggernauts. In this story, Davros adds human nervous tissue to robotic Mechonoid shells to create the Juggernauts of the play's title. The Mechonoids also appear in the comic strip The World That Waits in the 1965 annual The Dalek World.

Dalek Wars, in the third issue of Doctor Who - Battles in Time features the Daleks battling the Mechonoids on Mechanus. The Mechonoids shown are computer-generated.

The Mechanoids appeared in the comic TV 21 which featured a strip based on the Daleks, but in which the Doctor did not appear. The Mechanoids are the sworn enemies of the Daleks. A race of blue-skinned humanoids subtly interfere in order to prevent a war.

The Mechonoids made appearances in:

• The Chase, a First Doctor episode with Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright, Vicki Pallister, Steven Taylor and The Daleks written by Terry Nation.
• The Juggernauts, a Sixth Doctor Big Finish audio drama with Melanie Bush and Davros along with The Daleks, written by Scott Alan Woodard.
• War of the Daleks, an Eighth Doctor BBC Books novel in the Eighth Doctor Adventures line written by John Peel.

Megara justice machine

Main article: The Stones of Blood

Metallic root

Main article: Death to the Daleks

Mining robot

Main article: Colony in Space

Movellan

Main article: Movellan

N

Nanogene

Nanogenes are 'flocking' nanobots that repair damaged tissue. In The Empty Child, nanogenes inadvertently use a dead child as a template, reproducing the same injuries on anyone the child touches. The nanogenes restore those it converted after they are provided with a complete human template.^[1]

O

Osirian service robots

Main article: Pyramids of Mars

The Osirian service robots made appearances in:

• Pyramids of Mars, a Fourth Doctor serial with Sarah Jane Smith and Sutekh an Osiran, written by Stephen Harris, Robert Holmes and Lewis Greifer.
• The Sands of Time, a Fifth Doctor novel with Tegan Jovanka, Nyssa and the Osirans, written by Justin Richards.

P

Polyphase Avatron

Main article: The Pirate Planet

Q

Quark

Doctor Who alien
Quarks
Type	Robots
Affiliated with	Dominators
Home planet	Unknown
First appearance	The Dominators

The Quarks appeared in the Second Doctor serial The Dominators by Henry Lincoln and Mervyn Haisman in 1969.

The Quarks were used on Dulkis by the Dominators to enslave and terrorise the indigenous Dulcian population to ensure the drilling of bore holes through the planet's crust. The Dominators planned to use their technology to fire seeds down the holes which would force the core to erupt, thus providing a new fuel source for their fleet.

The Quarks were rectangular, with four arms: one pair which folded into the body, the other pair being retractable. On the end of each arm was a solitary claw. The spherical head was divided into octants; the upper four octants formed the sensory hemisphere, which detected changes in light, heat and motion. At five of the corners of the octants were directional crystal beam transmitters (the sixth corner joined with the robot's extremely short neck). Quarks communicated by means of high-pitched sounds. Their tendency to run out of energy quickly was their primary weakness.

A Quark was also seen in the serial The War Games. The Quarks were designed as an, albeit unsuccessful, attempt at creating a merchandise property, as the Daleks had become earlier.

Quarks are also referred to in the Big Finish Productions audio drama Flip-Flop. When they attacked the space yacht Pinto, the Seventh Doctor and Mel sought leptonite crystals in order to defeat them. It is not known whether the Doctor defeated the Quarks on that occasion. The Quarks were also mentioned, and mocked viciously, in the Doctor Who Unbound audio play Exile.

Quarks can be seen on the VHS cover of The Five Doctors, although they did not appear in the story because they were drafted out at an early stage. They were replaced by a Raston Warrior Robot, encountered by the Third Doctor.

On the BBC website, Captain Jack's Monster Files entry for the Vespiform mention that they may have been at war with "Quark rebels".

The Quarks were portrayed by children.

Additional information on the Quarks can be found in:

• Harris, M. The Doctor Who Technical Manual 1983. Severn House London/J. M. Dent Pty Ltd Boronia/Australian Broadcasting Corporation Publishing, Sydney.

R

Raston Warrior Robot

The Raston Warrior Robot was found in the Death Zone on Gallifrey; it could move faster than lightning and was capable of taking out a troop of Cybermen (The Five Doctors) in seconds. It moves so fast that it appears to just teleport from place to place, only visible when it remains stationary. Its own targeting systems are primarily based on detecting movement. Physically, the robot is very lithe, always moving around to scan its environment for targets, and jumping around almost like a ballet dancer when attacking (the actor portraying the robot wears a silver ballet bodysuit, in contrast to the clunky and slow-moving Cybermen). Its face is smooth with no visible eyes. In combat, it launches spike-like projectiles from its hands. The spikes are carried internally, apparently capable of collapsing down to a very small size to fit inside, but when fired they expand out to about three feet long. The spikes are launched out of the hands using a flicking motion directed at a target, and the robot is capable of firing many spikes in rapid succession. The spikes are capable of tearing apart Cybermen with ease. The robot is also capable of holding onto the spikes and wielding them as a melee weapon; it did this to decapitate a Cyberman that was already disabled. The robot is ruthlessly efficient, but apparently also somewhat sadistic: when it encountered the Third Doctor and Sarah Jane, who were unarmed, it could easily have killed them but instead fired spikes at the ground near them then ran around in circles, prompting the Doctor to state that it was toying with them. However, as soon as the well-armed Cybermen arrived, the Raston warrior robot shifted to attacking them with quick volleys of spikes. The Third Doctor considers them to be "the most perfect killing machine ever devised". The Doctor himself could find no means of disabling the robot, but simply avoided it by fleeing past it while it was distracted by a squad of Cybermen. According to the Eighth Doctor Adventures novel The Eight Doctors by Terrance Dicks, the robots were built by an ancient race, older than the Time Lords, who were ultimately destroyed by their own weapons. However, the novel Alien Bodies by Lawrence Miles claims this was false advertising on the part of their manufacturers. It uses atomic radiation as a power source, drawing it from the atmosphere, and locks onto electrical impulses in the brain of its victim, but can become confused if it meets two beings with the same brain pattern. A Raston Warrior Robot appears in the Past Doctor Adventure World Game, also by Dicks, and in the game Destiny of the Doctors.

Russell T Davies, in the March 2008 issue of Doctor Who Magazine, expressed interest in bringing the Raston Warrior Robot back in the new series of Doctor Who, citing the battle between the Robot and the Cybermen in The Five Doctors as one of the finest in the show's history.

Robots of death

In The Robots of Death, there were three types of slave Robots, created by a distant human society. The robots were originally built to perform menial tasks. In at least one instance these robots took to raising a human child, Taren Capel. He eventually learned to reprogram the robots to kill humans, and attempted to stage a Robot Revolution.

There were three classes of robots:

• D-class, colloquially known as Dums, were incapable of speech and merely followed orders.
• V-class, or Vocs were capable of verbal response, but no more intelligent than the D-class.
• SV-class, or Supervocs were capable of reason and decision-making, and were used to co-ordinate the other robots in an organisation. Supervocs have been utilised in detective work.

These robots made appearances in:

• The Robots of Death, a Fourth Doctor episode with Leela, written by Chris Boucher
• Corpse Marker, a Fourth Doctor novel with Leela written by Chris Boucher
• Kaldor City: Occam's Razor, a Kaldor City audio play, written by Alan Stevens and Jim Smith
• Kaldor City: Death's Head, a Kaldor City audio play, written by Chris Boucher
• Kaldor City: Hidden Persuaders, a Kaldor City audio play, written by Jim Smith
• Kaldor City: Taren Capel, a Kaldor City audio play, written by Alan Stevens
• Kaldor City: Checkmate, a Kaldor City audio play, written by Alan Stevens
• Kaldor City: Storm Mine, a Kaldor City audio play, written by Daniel O'Mahony
• Robophobia, a Seventh Doctor audio play, written by Nicholas Briggs

Robot bus conductor

Main article: The Greatest Show in the Galaxy

Robot clown

Main article: The Greatest Show in the Galaxy

Robot crab

Main article: Paradise Towers

Robot Doctor Who

Main article: The Chase (Doctor Who)

A duplicate of the First Doctor, created by the Daleks to infiltrate the TARDIS crew.

Robot Dracula, Robot Frankenstein's Monster and Robot Grey Lady

Lifelike humanoid robots created from the Festival of Ghana 1996. They mimicked characters from horror films to frighten visitors of a 'haunted house'.

Main article: The Chase

Robot knight

Main article: The Time Warrior

A knight-like robot created by the Sontaran, Linx.

Roboform

The Pilot Fish (as described by The Doctor) first appeared at Christmas 2006 in "The Christmas Invasion" (broadcast 2005). The pilot fish wanted the Doctor's regenerative energy and so tried to kill Rose, Jackie and Mickey as they were in the way. They were disguised as Santas in a brass band, and attacked using weapons concealed within the instruments. They remote controlled a Christmas tree that swirled at high speed, cutting through nearly anything in its path. The Doctor indicated that pilot fish indicated that something bigger was coming; their presence preceded the arrival of the Sycorax.

In "The Runaway Bride" (2006), the pilot fish, still disguised as Santas, were controlled by the Empress of the Racnoss who referred to them as "roboforms". The Doctor said the pilot fish were "mercenaries". They used bombs disguised as Christmas baubles that could fly and then swoop at a target before detonating. They were revealed to have golden faces, featureless except for black eyepieces. The Roboforms later makes a brief appearance in "The Pandorica Opens".

S

Seers of the Oracle

Main article: Underworld

Servo robot

Main article: The Wheel in Space

Slab

Main article: Smith and Jones

Sontaran surveillance robot

Main article: The Sontaran Experiment

Smilers

Main article: The Beast Below

Smilers are a security task force that were employed on the Starship UK in "The Beast Below" They resmble carnival fortune telling robots and are monitor the population of the ship from thousands of booths aboard the spaceship. The population is terrified of Smilers due to their relationship with the "beast below" whom citizens who displease them are sacrificed to. They have three faces that they can change to depending their mood ranging from Smiling to Angry. Cyborg version of Smilers also exist although they are much rarer.

Spider robots

Spider robots were used by Lady Cassandra in "The End of the World" and "New Earth".

They are small robots with four tentacle-like appendages and two saucer-shaped body parts. The top part has a red 'eye' which can emit light. Individually, they aren't very strong or dangerous, but can be formidable in large groups. They were transported as metallic orbs, which were in turn transported by the Adherents of the Repeated Meme.

In "The End of the World", the spider robots were used by Cassandra to disrupt the systems of Platform One (namely the sun filter systems) so that she could claim the insurance money to pay for her plastic surgery bills. In "New Earth", they were used for spying around the eponymous planet.

Squawk

Main article: The Infinite Quest

T

Trin-E

Main article: Bad Wolf

W

War Machines

Main article: The War Machines

White Robots

Main article: The Mind Robber

Y

Yeti

Main article: Yeti

Z

Zu-Zana

Main article: Bad Wolf

References

1. ^ Paul Parsons (2006), The Unofficial Guide: The Science of Doctor Who, Icon Books