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| The Flood |
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 Name: The Flood
Format: Television
show
Time of Origin: Mars; originally in
the time of the Ice
Warriors; The Doctor faced it in 2059.
Appearances: "The Waters of Mars"
Doctors: Tenth
Doctor
Companions: Adelaide Brooke
History: One of The Doctor’s most dangerous
and mysterious adversaries, ‘the Flood’ - as it was
referred to by the show’s producers - was essentially a
highly dangerous virus of ambiguous sentience.
Based
on all available information, the Flood was a highly-evolved
virus, capable of transmitting itself after infecting a water
supply and subsequently spreading through such diverse means
as consumption to simple physical contact. Its full history -
such as whether it was a natural evolution or an artificial creation
of some kind - is unknown, but it was apparently frozen in an
ice field under a large crater by the Martians in their distant
past, demonstrating the ability to understand Ancient North Martian
(The Doctor speculated that the Ice
Warriors had contained the
Flood, but his words don’t rule out the possibility that
they created it).
Hosts of the Flood appeared to have been completely
drenched in water regardless of the amount they had been initially
exposed to - one person was infected by nothing more than a single
drop of Flood-contaminated water landing on his cheek -, the
skin around their mouths appearing broken and their irises turning
white. Based on scans of the victims, those afflicted with the
Flood had lower-than-normal pulses and their brain activity was
simply described as ‘haywire’. Their host’s
physical speed was also greatly increased, to the point where
The Doctor and Adelaide Brooke had to use an accelerated robot
in order to escape being caught by the Flood’s first hosts
while they tried to escape their first attack.
Now ‘breathing’ water,
the Flood had no need for oxygen, with one member of
the base speculating that they generated their own internal
fission to cope with the cold temperature as they briefly
walked outside the base, also being capable of generating
water as an offensive weapon. Their hosts appeared to
be vulnerable to electricity, although this could have
just been an extension of humans’ natural weakness
to electricity rather than something specific to the
Flood, particularly since it only incapacitated the shocked
host for a few seconds. The Doctor speculated that the
virus was particularly effective because the human body
was at least 60% water, but it is uncertain how this
would affect its use of other species as hosts.
It was unclear if the Flood was sentient; some of its
hosts were capable of speech, but this ability was only shown
in the early stages of infection when it may have been drawing
on the host’s memories of language rather than its own
ability. Subsequent ‘communication’ between Flood-infected
hosts was limited to a high screeching that could have been nothing
more than a signal they sent to other hosts to attract attention,
similar to wolves howling. During this brief period of ‘lucidity’,
the Flood expressed an interest in spreading to Earth to infect
the water supply there, suggesting that they require other sources
of water rather than possessing a limitless amount on their own,
although they still clearly controlled a great deal of water.
The rate of infection varied between being instantaneous to taking
some time, with the Flood apparently delaying symptoms in the
host to allow it to spread, although other victims were apparently
able to resist the infection long enough to take some kind of
action.
Having been apparently trapped by the Martians in the
distant past, the Flood remained unknown until the crew of Bowie
Base One, Earth’s first offworld colony, landed on Mars
in 2058, setting up base directly over the ‘iceberg’ where
the Martians had contained the Flood. Despite this, it took over
a year for the Flood to infect the base, only spreading to the
human population when the water filters in the bio-dome where
the base’s food supplies were grown - ran out and there
were no decently-sized replacements available, resulting in the
bio-dome’s water supply becoming infected and the virus
soon spreading to the crewmembers in the dome at the time.
Accompanied by The Doctor - who had arrived at the base
by accident and was forced to remain despite his attempts to
leave as the events of this date were a fixed point in time and
space that he shouldn’t alter -, Adelaide Brooke, the base
commander, determined the extent of the threat they faced, but
found herself facing an ever -escalating threat as the virus
threatened to spread. With the base locked down, the Flood’s
hosts were able to use the maintenance shafts to climb inside
the dome and reach the roof of the base, subsequently generating
sufficiently powerful blasts of water to penetrate ten feet of
steel, infected water spraying throughout the base and cutting
the crew off from the rocket.
With the mission’s second-in-command having been
forced to destroy the rocket after he was infected to prevent
the Flood returning to Earth, the Flood’s hosts apparently
attempted to ‘summon’ the Flood from the glacier,
generating a scream of some sort. With only three members of
the crew left alive, The Doctor - having become too emotionally
invested in the crisis despite his knowledge that it was a fixed
point in time - used one of the base’s robots to head to
the TARDIS - unable to go there himself because his spacesuit
had been damaged and the other suits were blocked off by the
Flood -, using the robot to remotely pilot the TARDIS to rescue
him, Adelaide and the base’s last two survivors, the ship
arriving mere moments before the Action Five nuclear detonation
could complete itself. With the destruction of Bowie Base One,
it is possible that the Flood itself was destroyed in the explosion,
although this is uncertain at best, and its possible existence
on Ancient Mars creates the possibility for it to return in future. |
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| Infected by The Flood |
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| Tarak Becoming Infected |
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| Maggie Cain |
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| Maggie Cain |
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