Large winged reptilian creatures which were attracted to "wounds in time", or temporal breaches - such as when Rose Tyler changed the timeline by saving the life of her father, Pete. He should have died when she was a baby, but she intervened to stop him being hit by a car.
The Doctor described them as "antibodies", come to clean the wound - though he also described them at one point as bacteria, infecting it. He claimed that they targeted the new, and age was a defence against them, which is why he gathered a wedding party - which included baby Rose and her parents - inside the church.
The Reapers had scythe-like tails and a second mouth in their chest, which they used to consume their victims. They targeted sentient beings, and physical structures could act as a barrier against them. They could, however, attack a TARDIS. They reduced the Doctor's to its external Police Box shell.
When Rose handled her baby self, it created a new paradox which gave the Reapers the strength to break into the church, and the Doctor was consumed by them.
They could not be destroyed - only banished back to their own domain once the temporal breach had been closed, by time resuming its intended course. Pete Tyler achieved this by sacrificing himself in front of the car that should have killed him.
With the breach healed, their victims were returned with all memory of them forgotten.
Appearances: Father's Day (2005)
- The Reapers are never named on screen.
- The scythe-like tail is a remnant of an earlier production design, where they looked more like the traditional image of the Grim Reaper.
- Spin-off material claims that they usually inhabit the Temporal Vortex, and are related to Chronovores.
- See also "What's Wrong With... Father's Day" for some inconsistencies regarding the Reapers.
No comments:
Post a Comment