Nostrovite

The Nostrovites were a race of shapeshifting humanoids.

	Shapeshifter
	"Carrie"
	Something Borrowed

Biology

The Nostrovites, in their natural form, appeared to vaguely resemble a human, but with red eyes, sharp claws and teeth, and visible blood vessels. Nostrovites were carnivores, but only ate living flesh and would normally ignore corpses. The females, at least, could create a sticky, web-like structure to keep prey alive until they were hungry again. The blood of the Nostrovites was black. Females were apparently a lot tougher than the males; three bullets from a revolver were sufficient to kill a male Nostrovite, but the female was still on its feet after taking three rounds of bullets to the torso. This was attributed to "some mother instinct or something" by Owen Harper.

The Nostrovite proteus gland. (TV: Something Borrowed)

With the use of their proteus glands, they could adopt other humanoid forms. Though they could mimic appearances, they could not mimic smells. This allowed Gwen Cooper to identify the real Brenda Williams from the imposter because of Brenda's "bloody awful perfume". (TV: Something Borrowed)

Life cycle

The Nostrovites, like many other species, had two sexes — male and female. However, they also required a third member: a host. After fertilising the female's eggs, the male would take the eggs and store them in a sack in his mouth. After finding a potential host, the male would bite them and inject the eggs into the host's bloodstream. The eggs would quickly develop inside the host as if the host was merely pregnant with another of its species.

After a while, the female would track down the host and tear them open to release the young. This process was Nostrovite childbirth. The newly-born child would then feast upon the corpse as its first meal. (TV: Something Borrowed)

Nostrovite as Captain Jack Harkness. (TV: Something Borrowed)

History

The Nostrovites were familiar to Jack Harkness. At some point in their history, some Nostrovites discovered Earth and developed a taste for human flesh.

A mated pair of Nostrovites came to Cardiff. Though the male was killed by Jack Harkness, it was able to inject Gwen Cooper with eggs by biting her on the arm. The day after the attack was Gwen's wedding, which she went through with even though the female was still out there. The female followed her to the wedding and took the form of Carrie. It killed Mervyn and captured Toshiko Sato and Banana Boat. Later when it was discovered, the female took the form of Brenda Williams and tried to hold Mary Cooper hostage, but was shot by Gwen.

The Nostrovite survived, and tried to get closer by taking the form of Jack Harkness, but Gwen was able to escape again. Eventually, the Nostrovite eggs were removed by Rhys Williams using the singularity scalpel and the female was destroyed by Jack. (TV: Something Borrowed)

Behind the scenes

Torchwood website

The series 2 version of the Torchwood website had a preliminary investigation into the Nostrovites by Owen Harper. He speculated that the species has many of the hallmarks of a composite race, and could have taken. He observed hooks in the specimen's DNA, suggesting the species required a genetic sample to shapeshift. He said that "Even when it's in human form, the brains are located in its abdomen."