Didoan
The Didoans, (AUDIO: The Crash of the UK-201) also known as the Didoi (PROSE: The Rescue) or the Dido people, (TV: The Rescue) were a peaceful humanoid race native to Dido.
Culture
The Didoans were a very peaceful race, as their small population made any violence a threat to their survival. They had ceremonial clothes resembling an insectoid creature which they wore on special occasions. These clothes consisted of a headdress with antennae, eyestalks, mandibles, and spikes around the neck; black robes; clawed gloves with spiked wrists; and clawed shoes with spikes around the ankles.
History
When the spaceship UK-201 crashed on the planet in 2493, the Didoans met with the surviving passengers, but were killed along with them in an explosion engineered by Bennett to cover up a murder he had earlier committed aboard the ship. At least two Didoans survived, and when they confronted Bennett, he backed away in fear and fell from a rock ledge to his death.
After the First Doctor's TARDIS left Dido, the captain of the approaching Earth rescue ship contacted UK-201 again, asking for the homing beacon so he could find the planet. However, the Didoans wrecked the communications system in the hopes that the rescue ship would never arrive. (TV: The Rescue) However, according to one account, the rescue ship did arrive, and killed two of the Didoans before determining that Dido posed nothing of value to explorers. (PROSE: The Rescue)
Behind the scenes
- The Rescue doesn't give us a clear, one-word demonym for "a being from the planet Dido". The name Dido people is what the First Doctor directly called them in "Desperate Measures". The novelisation of The Rescue and The Time-Travellers' Guide refer to them as Didoi. In The Crash of the UK-201, they are referred to as Didoans.
- The appearance of the two Didoans in "Desperate Measures" is never explained.
- The two Didoans were played by John Stuart and Colin Hughes, who remained uncredited both on-screen and in Radio Times. (DWM 325)
