The science fiction television series Doctor Who has presented various vehicles belonging to multiple races/societies.
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In The Tenth Planet a shuttle was used by a Cyberman landing party in 1985 to negotiate with Earth authorities at Snowcap base. In Silver Nemesis a different shuttle was used by a task-force of Cybermen led by the Cyber-Leader, charged with the task of retrieving the Nemesis statue in 1988 to use in taking control of Earth.
In The Moonbase a large saucer-shaped ship was used by the Cybermen in their take-over of the Moonbase, hidden behind some mountains quite a distance from the base. The ship and the Cybermen invasion-force were both thrown off into space by the Gravitron device they wished to capture.
A battle fleet of Cybermen were seen in an unknown part of space in an unspecified point in time. Rory Williams arrived on the Cyber Leader's ship and said he had two messages one from the Doctor and one from him. He asked where his wife was (Amy Pond). The Cyber Leader asked what the Doctor's message was at which point Cyber ships began to be destroyed by the Doctor.
Strictly speaking, the visible, outer form of the Daleks is itself a vehicle. It is explained several times in the series that the metallic shell is a life support system and transport for the mutant descendents of the Kaled people, which was created by Davros in Genesis Of The Daleks. The living being within the shell is likewise revealed to the viewer at several points.
The Daleks use time machines in The Chase and The Daleks' Master Plan; both are revealed to be dimensionally-transcendental ("bigger on the inside") like the TARDIS, capable of transporting many Daleks to any point in time and space. In the first story, the vehicle is referred to as the "DARDIS" in scripts, though the term is not used on screen.
In Resurrection of the Daleks the Daleks used a battle cruiser to attack the prison space station containing Davros. The cruiser was heavily armed, allowing the Daleks to overwhelm the station's defenses and rescue Davros. The cruiser was destroyed when the station's self-destruct mechanism was activated.
In The Dalek Invasion of Earth the Daleks use flying saucers for transport and to scout for human resistance. "Bad Wolf" and "The Parting of the Ways" also feature saucer-shaped Dalek motherships. These variants possess enough firepower to crumple the continents of Earth in little time. The Dalek Emperor's "flagship" is several times the size of a regular ship and carries missiles. A different design of Dalek mothership seen in the Seventh Doctor serial Remembrance of the Daleks is described as being able to crack the Earth open like an egg.
"The Stolen Earth", "Journey's End", "The End of Time Part II", "Victory of the Daleks" and on The Pandorica Opens .
The Dalek shuttlecraft is capable of atmospheric landing and has been seen to be able to carry at least four Daleks. The Seventh Doctor in Remembrance described the Dalek shuttle as having massive ground defences but an un-guarded service hatch on the top. Dalek shuttles possess a control position with an "engaged" Dalek. In The Power of the Daleks, a damaged shuttlecraft was discovered buried in a mercury swamp on the Earth colony planet Vulcan, where the dormant Daleks were revived by the colonists, ignorant of what the Daleks were. Exactly how the shuttlecraft came to crash on the planet, and how long it had been buried before discovery, are never explained in the episode. Like the Dalek time machines it is dimensionally-transcendental, with an inner chamber containing Dalek embryos and machinery used to construct Dalek casings.
In the "Army of Ghosts"/"Doomsday" a void ship is a spherical ship that is capable of travelling through the nothingness between parallel universes, existing outside the whole of time and space — though visible to the human eye, it emits no energy of any kind and has no mass to speak of, thus causing an uneasy feeling in those who look upon it. Torchwood instruments, being more advanced than any human technology, originally could not detect anything from the sphere, but began reading mass and energy emissions when the Daleks emerged; the devices might simply have been reading the Daleks themselves.
This is the flagship of Davros' New Dalek Empire, based within the centre of the "Medusa Cascade". It is a giant spherical space station, with a ring running around the centre of it with five or six docking arms spreading out from it. The station uses a Magnatron to steal planets from space and time and place them within the Medusa Cascade. It is the centerpoint for Davros' Reality Bomb, a weapon created using 27 stolen planets, that could cancel out the electrical energy binding atoms together.
The Crucible is powered by a core of Z-Neutrino energy, which manifests itself as a massive, star-like fireball. The station has many levels, including the bridge manned by the Supreme Dalek and a prison ("The Vault") where both Davros and the insane Dalek Caan are kept.
The Buccaneer is a 17th century pirate ship commanded by Captain Wrack that sailed through space propelled by solar winds in a race organised by the Eternals.
Chula ambulances are tube-shaped vehicle coloured mauve, the intergalactic symbol for distress. To facilitate its function, the ambulance is filled with enough nanogenes to heal an entire planet's worth of people. It landed by Albion Hospital in London during the Blitz, planted there by Captain Jack Harkness to attract Time Agents.
Captain Jack Harkness, before joining the Doctor, possesses a time ship of Chula design. Aside from the aforementioned time-travelling capacity, the ship possesses a tractor beam and a camouflage device. The ship is destroyed (though this is not seen onscreen) when Jack takes a World War-II era bomb on board to rescue the Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler. Jack is rescued by the TARDIS before the ship explodes.
The Family of Blood owned a green spaceship with a cloaking device and a vortex manipulator for time travel. It was also shown to have significant firepower. It was destroyed by the Doctor.
A prison ship using the same dimensionally transcendental technology as was used in the TARDIS. It was created by the Time Lords to house millions of Daleks captured during the Time War. It has a forcefield, and can also fly. The Ark can only be opened by the touch of a person who has travelled through time. The Ark needs an area of thirty square miles for proper use.
It is the main feature of the episodes "Army of Ghosts" and "Doomsday", along with the invasion of Earth by the Cybermen. The Genesis Ark is sucked in to the void, along with all the Daleks it released.
The Sontarans travel in spherical spaceships. The spheres are covered by tessellating squares and have a single curved door which opens outwards to reveal the ship's only room, a control room.
In The Time Warrior, a Sontaran warrior named Linx crashed his spaceship on Middle Age Earth where he is forced to make repairs. Kidnapping scientists from the 20th century using an osmic projector and hypnotising them, Linx has his ship repaired. However, he is shot dead as he prepares to take off and falls on his controls triggering the launch mechanism prematurely. The ship explodes destroying the castle in which it had been sheltered along with it.
In The Sontaran Experiment, a Sontaran named Styre landed on Earth to experiment on human astronauts ahead of a Sontaran invasion. Under the Doctor's instruction, Harry Sullivan removed a component from the ship's energizer as the Doctor fought Styre. When Styre returned to his ship to recharge his energy, the sabotaged energizer drained Styre as opposed to feeding him, causing Styre to shrivel, and the ship to explode soon afterwards.
Sontaran battlecraft are seen again in The Two Doctors.
The Sontaran ships in "The Sontaran Stratagem", an episode in series 4 remain very true to the original design, but the spherical pod now sports extra armaments a slightly different cris-cross pattern, and a viewing port at the front. Unlike earlier designs, these pods seem to be completely spherical.
A Sontaran battlecraft pod also appeared in the Sarah Jane Adventures episode "The Last Sontaran".
First seen in The Sontaran Stratagem orbiting above earth, the mothership is a large spherical shape with an external 'claw-like' structure added on. Around the middle it contains numerous docking ports for sontaran battle pods. The Doctor states that it has the power to 'destroy the earth with one blow'.
The SS Madame de Pompadour is a ship found drifting through space around two and a half galaxies away from Earth in "The Girl in the Fireplace". It is a 51st century energy trawler that collects dark matter in its rotor-like arms, which double as the ship's main source of propulsion.[1] It is severely damaged in an ion storm[2] and features a number of time portals into 18th century France, created by its backup engines.
The Sycorax travel in a massive city ship apparently built into an asteroid. Appearing in "The Christmas Invasion", the ship is so massive that the shockwave created by it entering the Earth's atmosphere shattered all of the glass in London and it eclipsed the Sun. This ship is destroyed by Torchwood One under orders from Prime Minister Harriet Jones.
The Webstar is the star-shaped ship of the Empress of the Racnoss. A similar vessel, used to house Racnoss children, is revealed to be the centre of the Earth. Both appear in "The Runaway Bride".
Webstars are shaped like eight-pointed stars, though the design of the two ships is inconsistent. Both are covered in a substance that resembles spider webbing. The Empress' ship can discharge energy bolts from its points. The Empress' ship is destroyed over London by Challenger 2 tanks per orders from cabinet minister Harold Saxon.
Judoon rockets are transport used by the Judoon. The rockets themselves fly vertically with engines at the bottom of the rockets. When landing, three prongs come out to ensure a secure landing. During the events of Smith and Jones, three rockets landed on the Moon, to where they had previously used an H2O scoop to transport the Royal Hope Hospital. The Moon is regarded as neutral grounds by Galactic Law. The Plasmavore Florence Finnegan planned to escape in one, while simultaneously killing all the life forms currently on the Moon and on the side of the Earth which was facing it.
Appearing in "Aliens of London" & "Love and Monsters", the Slitheen craft was owned by the Slitheen. This was the very spaceship that crashed into Big Ben and destroyed two faces. The tower was seen to have a scaffold around it in subsequent episodes, but the unbroken faces were apparently still working. The Slitheen used this event as a diversion for their larger plans, mainly destroying the Earth for money.
In "The End of the World", Platform One is the luxuriously appointed space station orbiting Earth carrying the rich and affluent of the universe, staying to view the sun expansion and the destruction of the Earth in the year 5 billion.
In "The Ark in Space" Space Station Nerva is the space station in orbit around the Earth in the 30th century. Its function is to keep members of the human race preserved in cryogenic stasis following a cataclysm on the surface until the Earth is safe for rehabitation.
In the "Revenge of the Cybermen" it is shown in its original use as Nerva Beacon.
In "The Beast Below", the colony spaceship containing the remaining population of the United Kingdom is Starship UK
The Third Doctor's main mode of transport, during his exile on Earth, was a canary-yellow roadster. This vehicle, bearing the registration number "WHO 1", made its debut in the Third Doctor story Doctor Who and the Silurians and it made its final regular appearance in the Fourth Doctor story Robot. Upon the Fourth Doctor's departure from Earth, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart had it "put into mothballs". It has reappeared in the Fifth Doctor story The Five Doctors- driven by the Third Doctor as he was 'collected' by the story's villain-, the Seventh Doctor serial Battlefield (wearing the registration number "WHO 7" for this story only) and the 1993 charity special Dimensions in Time. Bessie was actually one of about 100 cars made by an inventor based in England that used Ford 103E Populars as a base, with a fibre-glass body. These kit cars were sold as 'Siva Edwardian' cars, available as both two and four seaters.[1] The current chairman of the Ford Sidevalve Owners Club has a four seater Siva based on an early 8 hp Ford Model Y.
The Doctor made several modifications to Bessie during his time at UNIT. These were an anti-theft force field (The Ambassadors of Death), a remote control (The Dæmons) and a minimum inertia hyperdrive (Allowing it to go along roads at extremely high speeds without risking the passenger being thrown from their seats if sudden stops are required). (The Time Monster).
A hovercraft-type vehicle that was also capable of flight, used by the Third Doctor in the serials Invasion of the Dinosaurs and Planet of the Spiders. The vehicle was also known as Alien, but was only ever referred to as "my car" by the Doctor in the television series. However, it is popularly referred to as the Whomobile. The vehicle was specially commissioned by and was the property of Jon Pertwee, and was not seen in the programme again after he left it. It bore the license plate WV0 2M, and was registered as an invalid tricycle.
In the episode "Gridlock", New Earth's underground motorways are filled with large, box-shaped, flying cars, similar to camper-vans complete with beds, communication devices, as well as recreation, kitchen and toilet facilities. People like Brannigan (a humanoid cat, like the Sisters of Plenitude in "New Earth") and his wife Valerie had been traveling for years on the motorway in never ending gridlock, sometimes only travelling between a few yards to a few miles per year, trying to get off and even ended up having children while they waited. The cars are built for such trips, completely recycling waste into water and food, as well as having air filtration systems. Strangely enough, most of the passengers had become resigned to their fate and had become somewhat comfortable living their lives in a perpetual holding pattern, as well as having given up trying to communicate with the outside world to find out what the problem was. When they needed to communicate with other cars, they would use a high-tech version of a "CB Radio"
The Valiant was a UNIT controlled airborne aircraft carrier similar to Cloudbase in Gerry Anderson's Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons series. As the craft operates in international airspace under the control of the United Nations, it is neutral territory. It was designed in part by the Master in the guise of Harold Saxon then the British Minister of Defence. Elements of the design make reference to Time Lord architecture, such as roundels and an insignia based on a Gallifreyan design. It is also equipped with a scaled down version of the Torchwood weapon that destroyed the Sycorax ship in "The Christmas Invasion";[3] however, since it is mounted on the ship's underbelly, it can only fire at surface targets, as opposed to the surface-to-air or surface-to-space aim of the ground-based Torchwood version.
It was first featured in "The Sound of Drums"/"Last of the Time Lords". As the United Nations requires that the British Government move first contact operations from British soil to neutral territory, the US Government forces Harold Saxon to make contact with the Toclafane on board. It is then used by the Master as a mobile headquarters during his rule of Earth. In "The Poison Sky", the Valiant aids UNIT in their counterattack on the Sontaran forces occupying the ATMOS factory. By hovering over the factory, the carrier is able to clear the poisonous gas surrounding the area with the powerful downdraft of the vehicle's engines. It also fires upon the factory to commence the attack on the Sontaran forces, using the Jathaa sunglider technology recovered by the Torchwood Institute.
It appeared again in "The Stolen Earth", in which it was shown being attacked by Dalek forces. The last transmission from the carrier was the order for its crew to abandon ship. It is then stated in the next scene that it had been lost.
| Vehicle | Serial / Episode | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| The Ark | The Ark | A generational ship inhabited by humans and Monoids. |
| Ice Warrior ship | The Ice Warriors | An ancient Martian spaceship buried in a glacier on Earth. |
| The Wheel | The Wheel in Space | A space station conducting scientific research. |
| Silver Carrier | The Wheel in Space | A supply vessel eighty million miles off course overrun by Cybermen. |
| Empress | Nightmare of Eden | An interstellar cruise ship caught in a dimensional instability after colliding with the Hecate after emerging from hyperspace at the same co-ordinates. |
| Hecate | Nightmare of Eden | A trade ship caught in a dimensional instability after colliding with the Empress after emerging from hyperspace at the same co-ordinates. |
| Hydrax | State of Decay | A cargo vessel disguised as the Tower ruled by the Great Vampires. |
| Privateer | Warriors' Gate | An interstellar slave ship whose hull was constructed of dwarf star alloy in order to be capable of imprisoning members of the time-sensitive species Tharil |
| Cargo freighter | Earthshock | A spaceship overrun by Cybermen and set on a collision course with prehistoric Earth. The crash killed Adric and caused the K-T extinction event. |
| Hyperion III | Terror of the Vervoids | A space liner infested by Vervoids. |
| King Arthur's organic transdimensional spaceship | Battlefield | A booby trapped ship submerged in Lake Vortigen housing the body of King Arthur and the Excalibur sword. |
| Jathaa Sun Glider | Army of Ghosts / Doomsday | A downed spaceship housed in Torchwood One. |
| Sanctuary Base 6 Rocket | The Satan Pit | The rocket that the people of Sanctuary Base 6 used to escape Krop Tor. |
| S.S. Pentallian | 42 | A 42nd century ship that would have crashed into a nearby sun if the Doctor hadn't intervened. |
| Utopia Rocket | Utopia | The gigantic rocket used to transport the last survivors of the human race to the fabled Utopia. |
| Crusader 50 | Midnight | The vehicle used to take the Doctor and passengers to the Sapphire Waterfall, on the planet Midnight. |
| The Titanic | Voyage of the Damned | The cruise liner that crashes into the TARDIS after he had finished repairing it after The Last of the Time Lords and Time Crash that is destined for Buckingham Palace unless the Doctor can save it. |
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