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The Empty Child 'plague' was a technological plague which spread around a part of London in 1941. The Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler encountered the Empty Child and helped play a part in its cure.
History
When conman Captain Jack Harkness planted a Chula ambulance in 1941 London, the Chula nanogenes, who had never previously encountered humans, infected a dying human boy named Jamie caught in the London Blitz. Assuming that the gas mask he was wearing was part of his face, they "healed" him, and unintentionally created the "Empty Child," a "zombie" based on the Jamie's characteristics and injuries at death. Thus, everyone affected by the plague inherited a gas mask in place of their faces, severe head trauma on the left side, partial collapse of the chest cavity of the left, and a gash on the back of their right hands.
The nanogenes also gave the child the standard abilities of Chula soldiers, specifically super-human strength, telepathic abilities and the ability to communicate using other items. The Empty Child still had a child-like mentality and escaped to search for its mother.
The Empty Child compulsively searched for his mother, and, in doing so, contaminated other humans with the nanogenes. Those who were infected did likewise so that the nanogenes spread in a fashion similar to a virus. The child, and all victims of it, were infamous for repeating the phrase "Are you my Mummy?" endlessly.
The Empty Child plague was finally stopped when the Ninth Doctor reunited the Empty Child with his mother and the nanogenes understood, recognising the mother as the superior source, the proper sequence for a human of that era. (TV: The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances)
References
- When given a gas mask during Sontaran invasion of Earth, the Tenth Doctor jokingly asked, "Are you my mummy?," a reference to these events. (TV: The Poison Sky)