Vortis (Doctor Who)
Encyclopedia
Vortis is a fiction
al planet
in the (equally fictional) Isop galaxy, created by Bill Strutton
and originally featuring in six 1965 BBC
episodes of the British
science fiction
television
series Doctor Who
, collectively titled The Web Planet
, and featuring William Hartnell
as the First Doctor
. It also appeared in an original Doctor Who novel
, Twilight of the Gods
, one of the Virgin Missing Adventures
range. and an audio drama Return to the Web Planet
produced by Big Finish Productions
.
The popularity of The Web Planet meant that two of the species
inhabiting Vortis, the ant
-like Zarbi and the butterfly
Menoptra, appeared twice in the 1966 Doctor Who Annual. One story, "Lair of the Zarbi Supremo" by David Whitaker, was released as an audio feature on the 2006 DVD
release of the original adventure, read by one of its stars, William Russell
.
, water
and presumably food
. Before the sinister Animus took control of the planet, Vortis was covered in a flower
forest
, which the Menoptra hoped would return.
Many years later after the Animus was apparently vanquished, Vortis drifted into the neighboring Rhumos system and was fought over by the Rhumons, who considered it a disputed territory. The Animus had also survived, until the intervention of a time traveller
once more brought peace to the troubled world.
butterflies and able to achieve space flight with their wing
s alone, the Menoptra were the original masters of Vortis until the Animus inveigled itself within the minds of the Zarbi. The Menoptra fled to Pictos, one of the moon
s of Vortis, eventually planning an invasion. Those that were captured were either killed or forced to work, once their wings had been removed by the Zarbi. That their attempt to retake their home world was a success was largely down to the efforts of the aforementioned party of time travel
lers.
, some of the Menoptra fled underground, adapting
to a subterranean environment
and calling themselves the Optera. This species have lost the ability to fly, and resemble upright caterpillar
s, indicating that they had evolved
through neoteny
. They also have larger eyes than their Menoptra brethren. However, they have numerous arms and appear to 'hop' in a stylised way. With the Animus defeated, they appeared to believe that future generations of Optera would redevelop flight
.
from their snouts that proved fatal to all it touched. The Grubs were rendered harmless once the Zarbi were freed from the Animus's influence.
Venom Grubs were mentioned in the 2005 episode Boom Town
, where it is implied that they are used to punish disobedient Slitheen
.
in the planet's history. These insectoid
s lack intelligence, and so were easily enslaved by the malevolant Animus and used against the Menoptra. When the Animus's evil
influence was lifted through the intervention of a mysterious time traveller
and his human
companions, the Zarbi returned to their docile state.
According to the novelisation of The Web Planet, the Zarbi reproduce through the "Zarbi Supremo", who acts like a queen bee
. The Supremo also appeared in the 1966 Doctor Who Annual.
Fiction
Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...
al planet
Planet
A planet is a celestial body orbiting a star or stellar remnant that is massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity, is not massive enough to cause thermonuclear fusion, and has cleared its neighbouring region of planetesimals.The term planet is ancient, with ties to history, science,...
in the (equally fictional) Isop galaxy, created by Bill Strutton
Bill Strutton
Bill Strutton was a prolific British screenwriter who worked on some of the best-remembered 1960s television shows including Ivanhoe, The Saint, The Avengers, Riptide and Doctor Who. Born in Australia, Bill Strutton won a state scholarship to university at 14 but dropped out after two years to go...
and originally featuring in six 1965 BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
episodes of the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
series Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
, collectively titled The Web Planet
The Web Planet
The Web Planet is the fifth serial in the second season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 13 February 1965 to 20 March 1965...
, and featuring William Hartnell
William Hartnell
William Henry Hartnell was an English actor. During 1963-66, he was the first actor to play the Doctor in the long-running BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who.-Early life:...
as the First Doctor
First Doctor
The First Doctor is the initial incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by the actor William Hartnell from 1963 to 1966. Hartnell reprised the role in the tenth anniversary story The Three Doctors in 1973 - albeit in a...
. It also appeared in an original Doctor Who novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
, Twilight of the Gods
Twilight of the Gods (Doctor Who)
Twilight of the Gods is an original novel written by Christopher Bulis and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The novel features the Second Doctor, Jamie and Victoria...
, one of the Virgin Missing Adventures
Virgin Missing Adventures
The Virgin Missing Adventures were a series of novels from Virgin Publishing based on the British science-fiction television series Doctor Who, which had been cancelled in 1989, featuring stories set between televised episodes of the programme. The novels were published from 1994 to 1997, and...
range. and an audio drama Return to the Web Planet
Return to the Web Planet
Return to the Web Planet is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
produced by Big Finish Productions
Big Finish Productions
Big Finish Productions is a British company that produces books and audio plays based, primarily, on cult British science fiction properties...
.
The popularity of The Web Planet meant that two of the species
Species
In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...
inhabiting Vortis, the ant
Ant
Ants are social insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from wasp-like ancestors in the mid-Cretaceous period between 110 and 130 million years ago and diversified after the rise of flowering plants. More than...
-like Zarbi and the butterfly
Butterfly
A butterfly is a mainly day-flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, which includes the butterflies and moths. Like other holometabolous insects, the butterfly's life cycle consists of four parts: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Most species are diurnal. Butterflies have large, often brightly coloured...
Menoptra, appeared twice in the 1966 Doctor Who Annual. One story, "Lair of the Zarbi Supremo" by David Whitaker, was released as an audio feature on the 2006 DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
release of the original adventure, read by one of its stars, William Russell
William Russell (actor)
William Russell is an English actor, mainly known for his television work. He was born in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear.-Doctor Who:...
.
History of Vortis
The planet appears to be cold, dark and lifeless, but nevertheless supports a breathable atmosphereAtmosphere
An atmosphere is a layer of gases that may surround a material body of sufficient mass, and that is held in place by the gravity of the body. An atmosphere may be retained for a longer duration, if the gravity is high and the atmosphere's temperature is low...
, water
Water
Water is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H2O. A water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at ambient conditions, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid state, ice, and gaseous state . Water also exists in a...
and presumably food
Food
Food is any substance consumed to provide nutritional support for the body. It is usually of plant or animal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals...
. Before the sinister Animus took control of the planet, Vortis was covered in a flower
Flower
A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...
forest
Forest
A forest, also referred to as a wood or the woods, is an area with a high density of trees. As with cities, depending where you are in the world, what is considered a forest may vary significantly in size and have various classification according to how and what of the forest is composed...
, which the Menoptra hoped would return.
Many years later after the Animus was apparently vanquished, Vortis drifted into the neighboring Rhumos system and was fought over by the Rhumons, who considered it a disputed territory. The Animus had also survived, until the intervention of a time traveller
Doctor (Doctor Who)
The Doctor is the central character in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who, and has also featured in two cinema feature films, a vast range of spin-off novels, audio dramas and comic strips connected to the series....
once more brought peace to the troubled world.
Menoptra
Resembling giant, humanoidHumanoid
A humanoid is something that has an appearance resembling a human being. The term first appeared in 1912 to refer to fossils which were morphologically similar to, but not identical with, those of the human skeleton. Although this usage was common in the sciences for much of the 20th century, it...
butterflies and able to achieve space flight with their wing
Wing
A wing is an appendage with a surface that produces lift for flight or propulsion through the atmosphere, or through another gaseous or liquid fluid...
s alone, the Menoptra were the original masters of Vortis until the Animus inveigled itself within the minds of the Zarbi. The Menoptra fled to Pictos, one of the moon
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...
s of Vortis, eventually planning an invasion. Those that were captured were either killed or forced to work, once their wings had been removed by the Zarbi. That their attempt to retake their home world was a success was largely down to the efforts of the aforementioned party of time travel
Time travel
Time travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the...
lers.
Optera
In an apparent example of emerging speciationSpeciation
Speciation is the evolutionary process by which new biological species arise. The biologist Orator F. Cook seems to have been the first to coin the term 'speciation' for the splitting of lineages or 'cladogenesis,' as opposed to 'anagenesis' or 'phyletic evolution' occurring within lineages...
, some of the Menoptra fled underground, adapting
Adaptation
An adaptation in biology is a trait with a current functional role in the life history of an organism that is maintained and evolved by means of natural selection. An adaptation refers to both the current state of being adapted and to the dynamic evolutionary process that leads to the adaptation....
to a subterranean environment
Natural environment
The natural environment encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally on Earth or some region thereof. It is an environment that encompasses the interaction of all living species....
and calling themselves the Optera. This species have lost the ability to fly, and resemble upright caterpillar
Caterpillar
Caterpillars are the larval form of members of the order Lepidoptera . They are mostly herbivorous in food habit, although some species are insectivorous. Caterpillars are voracious feeders and many of them are considered to be pests in agriculture...
s, indicating that they had evolved
Evolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
through neoteny
Neoteny
Neoteny , also called juvenilization , is one of the two ways by which paedomorphism can arise. Paedomorphism is the retention by adults of traits previously seen only in juveniles, and is a subject studied in the field of developmental biology. In neoteny, the physiological development of an...
. They also have larger eyes than their Menoptra brethren. However, they have numerous arms and appear to 'hop' in a stylised way. With the Animus defeated, they appeared to believe that future generations of Optera would redevelop flight
Flight
Flight is the process by which an object moves either through an atmosphere or beyond it by generating lift or propulsive thrust, or aerostatically using buoyancy, or by simple ballistic movement....
.
Venom Grubs
Unlike the other bipedal species of Vortis, Venom Grubs crawl along the ground. They were used as mobile weapons by the Zarbi, able to shoot venomVenom
Venom is the general term referring to any variety of toxins used by certain types of animals that inject it into their victims by the means of a bite or a sting...
from their snouts that proved fatal to all it touched. The Grubs were rendered harmless once the Zarbi were freed from the Animus's influence.
Venom Grubs were mentioned in the 2005 episode Boom Town
Boom Town (Doctor Who)
"Boom Town" is an episode in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast on 4 June 2005. The Doctor, Rose and Jack travel to modern-day Cardiff and meet up with Rose's boyfriend, Mickey...
, where it is implied that they are used to punish disobedient Slitheen
Slitheen
The Slitheen are a family of massive, bipedal extraterrestrials from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who and they are adversaries of the Doctor. They first appeared in the 2005 series episodes "Aliens of London" and "World War Three", and subsequently recur in later episodes of...
.
Zarbi
The Zarbi resemble giant ants, and according to the Menoptra have been used as cattleCattle
Cattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...
in the planet's history. These insectoid
Insectoid
Insectoid denotes any creature or object that shares a similar body or traits with common earth insects and arachnids. The term is a combination of "insect" and "-oid" . Compare "humanoid"....
s lack intelligence, and so were easily enslaved by the malevolant Animus and used against the Menoptra. When the Animus's evil
Evil
Evil is the violation of, or intent to violate, some moral code. Evil is usually seen as the dualistic opposite of good. Definitions of evil vary along with analysis of its root motive causes, however general actions commonly considered evil include: conscious and deliberate wrongdoing,...
influence was lifted through the intervention of a mysterious time traveller
Doctor (Doctor Who)
The Doctor is the central character in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who, and has also featured in two cinema feature films, a vast range of spin-off novels, audio dramas and comic strips connected to the series....
and his human
Human
Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
companions, the Zarbi returned to their docile state.
According to the novelisation of The Web Planet, the Zarbi reproduce through the "Zarbi Supremo", who acts like a queen bee
Queen bee
The term queen bee is typically used to refer to an adult, mated female that lives in a honey bee colony or hive; she is usually the mother of most, if not all, the bees in the hive. The queens are developed from larvae selected by worker bees and specially fed in order to become sexually mature...
. The Supremo also appeared in the 1966 Doctor Who Annual.
See also
- Doctor WhoDoctor WhoDoctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
- List of Doctor Who monsters and aliens
- List of Doctor Who planets
- WhoniverseWhoniverseWhoniverse, a portmanteau of the words "Who" and "universe", is a word used to describe the fictional setting of the television series Doctor Who, K-9 and Company, Torchwood, The Sarah Jane Adventures and K-9, as well as other related stories...