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Handbots were alien robots designed to aid people with the plague Chen-7.
They administered medicine, which was deadly to anyone non-Apalapucian. The Handbots had no faces. They had blank head and hands crafted from organic skin. Their hands were sensors to see their enviroment. This was a feature questioned by The Doctor, who wondered why the robots' creators wouldn't just give them eyes. Any living creature touched by a Handbot's hand would fall asleep instantly. Touching two hands together would create a feedback loop which would stun the robot(s) for a short time. Their heads came apart to reveal a gun which fired anaesthetic needles. When someone spoke to them, they chose whether to accept a statement as true; the green and red buttons on their chest showing the result. The chest could then drop down to reveal a syringe used to administer the medicine.
The handbots spoke in warnings, such as "Do not be alarmed. This is a kindness." perhaps as a means of simulating personality or to reassure patients of their beneficent nature, regardless of their limited ability to distinguish different species who did not require their services. They could be reprogrammed to be docile, as in the case of Rory. (DW: The Girl Who Waited)
Behind the scenes
- Writer Tom MacRae has said that one of the scariest Doctor Who moments for him personally, was a scene in Terror of the Vervoids where Vervoids attack a man using deadly seed pods delivered from their hands. He speculated that the idea of hands being frightening may have subconsciously inclined him to create the Handbots.