Goblin

Goblins were a species of short, green-skinned humanoids with prominent noses and pointy ears. They had a place in human folklore, and the term was sometimes used in general terms to refer to a magical trickster, rather than to a specific trickster; in this figurative sense, the Doctor was sometimes compared to a "goblin".

Goblins were fond of kidnapping and eating human children, especially babies. (PROSE: A Message from Janis Goblin ^[+]Loading...["A Message from Janis Goblin (short story)"])

The Thirteenth Doctor once claimed to not believe in Goblins, however she changed her mind upon momentarily reflecting on the matter. (PROSE: The Good Doctor ^[+]Loading...{"chaptnum":"3","1":"The Good Doctor (novel)"})

History

Origins

When explaining the relationship between the Goblins and the Toymaker, the Fifteenth Doctor inferred that the Goblins were "the legacy" of the Toymaker, whose legions had followed him (PROSE: The Church on Ruby Road ^[+]Loading...{"page":"100","chaptnum":"Thirteen","1":"The Church on Ruby Road (novelisation)"}) into the universe after the Fourteenth Doctor inadvertently summoned him at the edge of the universe. (TV: Wild Blue Yonder ^[+]Loading...["Wild Blue Yonder (TV story)"], The Giggle ^[+]Loading...["The Giggle (TV story)"]) Indeed, after the Fifteenth Doctor negated a cracked timeline the Goblins created, they faded from view, as though they had been erased from existence, or pulled back into another world. (PROSE: The Church on Ruby Road ^[+]Loading...{"page":"137","chaptnum":"Eighteen","1":"The Church on Ruby Road (novelisation)"})

While the Doctor considered Ruby Sunday's suggestion that the Goblins had caused every accident throughout history, (TV: The Church on Ruby Road ^[+]Loading...["The Church on Ruby Road (TV story)"]) which was an idea that even "amaze[d]" him, he naturally wanted to dismiss the possibility as it didn't make sense — neither the probability or the science of it — but he couldn't shake the fact that the Goblins didn't make sense in general. (PROSE: The Church on Ruby Road ^[+]Loading...{"page":"96","chapter":"Thirteen","1":"The Church on Ruby Road (novelisation)"})

On Earth

Goblins had a place in human culture and folklore. One of the props stored in an old pantomime theatre prop-room was a goblin costume; after the Thirteenth Doctor attempted to summon the "magic of pantomime" to life using a link she'd clicked on Spacebook, it turned out to be very literal, replacing the props with real versions of the various characters, "snatched" from their homes against their will. This included a sword-wielding goblin. Before long, however, the Doctor found and rubbed the now-real magic lamp and summoned a Genie, using the first of her three wishes to get him to send away all the other, more dangerous fictional beings the Spacebook link had summoned. (COMIC: It's Behind You! ^[+]Loading...["It's Behind You! (comic story)"])

Janis Goblin. (PROSE: A Message from Janis Goblin ^[+]Loading...["A Message from Janis Goblin (short story)"])

Janis Goblin once thanked all the humans who had listened to "The Goblin Song", believing that the proceeds going to Children in Need would mean more children for she and her fellow goblins to eat. After realising this was not the case, she asked someone to pass her some twins. (PROSE: A Message from Janis Goblin ^[+]Loading...["A Message from Janis Goblin (short story)"])

At least one group of Goblins were time riders that could "bimble" through time using their ship. They would creep into the normal universe through the power of accidents, chance, and coincidence. The Fifteenth Doctor discounted this as being magic, instead describing it as a "different form of physics" and a "new science". Using this form of science, they would would create bad luck around certain people both for fun and also as preparation for stealing babies that they wanted to eat, which apparently made them taste better. Their technology was mostly based around complex systems of rope and allowed them to make a flying wooden ship. They attempted to steal Lulubelle on Christmas Eve of 2023, but were thwarted by the Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby Sunday. The goblins then stole Ruby on Christmas Eve of 2004, resulting in a "cracked timeline". The Doctor was able to thwart them using his intelligent gloves by weighing down their ship and impaling the Goblin King on a church spire, seemingly banishing them from the universe. This resulted in the timeline being restored. (TV: The Church on Ruby Road ^[+]Loading...["The Church on Ruby Road (TV story)"])

On other planets

Goblins, among other creatures, were present on a battlefield in the Slough of the Disunited Planets. The Tenth Doctor, Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart and Michael Yates comforted one mortally wounded goblin as he died. (COMIC: The Warkeeper's Crown)

As fantastical creatures in human folklore, goblins were brought into existence on Avalon by the nanobot system on the planet, which realised the fantasies of 22nd century human colonists. As such, goblins had an entry into the Avalonian Bestiary. Also in the book were bogies, which were described as shape-shifting goblins. (PROSE: The Sorcerer's Apprentice)

In mythology

According to legend, the Pandorica was the prison of a warrior or goblin who dropped out of the sky and tore the world apart until a "good wizard" tricked it and locked it up. River Song remarked that the good wizard had likely been the Doctor himself, though it later became clear that the trickster and warrior in the legend had actually been the Doctor, with the Pandorica Alliance of his worst enemies being the ones who were to seal him away. (TV: The Pandorica Opens) On the other hand, in his speech to the Clerics in which he told them that the Eleventh Doctor was a living breathing man, Colonel Manton said that the Doctor was not, among other things, a goblin. (TV: A Good Man Goes to War ^[+]Loading...["A Good Man Goes to War (TV story)"])

Christina Rossetti's poem "Goblin Market" referred to goblins. Dee Dee Blasco quoted the poem.

"We must not look at goblin men,

We must not buy their fruits:

Who knows upon what soil they fed

Their hungry, thirsty roots?" (TV: Midnight ^[+]Loading...["Midnight (TV story)"])

Members of the Great Houses regarded the Sontarans as "goblins"; Larissa remembered the Sontaran invasion of Gallifrey as a "goblin infestation", (PROSE: Newtons Sleep) and in Mujun: The Ghost Kingdom the Seventy-Ninth Sontaran Assault Corps was represented by a "goblin-hoarde". (PROSE: The Book of the War, AUDIO: The Eleven Day Empire)

Goblin's Copse was a rural English village near Beaconsfield. (PROSE: Beautiful Chaos ^[+]Loading...["Beautiful Chaos (novel)"], TV: The Last Sontaran ^[+]Loading...["The Last Sontaran (TV story)"])