Ravenous
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The Ravenous were a race of creatures from the Old Times who fed on Time Lords. A clan of Ravenous returned in the era before the Last Great Time War and were encountered numerous times by the Eighth Doctor, Liv Chenka, Helen Sinclair, and the Eleven.
Biology
In their natural state, the Ravenous resembled clowns, with the Doctor speculating that they inspired the traditional image of the modern clown as part of a universal racial memory attempting to make them less scary. (AUDIO: Deeptime Frontier)
The Ravenous were essentially the natural predator of the Time Lords, having evolved specifically to feed on regeneration energy; however, Time Lords suffering from regenerative dissonance, such as the Eleven, were essentially immune to the Ravenous, as their condition somehow contaminated their regenerative energy so that the Ravenous couldn't feed on it. (AUDIO: The Odds Against)
History
The Ravenous were originally a race known as the Kolstani, who existed on a planet in the Time Vortex, drawing on the energy of the Vortex to sustain themselves. The Time Lord scientist Artron attempted to analyse that power to create a system of perfect regeneration, but was interrupted when the Doctor and the Master came to the planet seeking his insight into the Ravenous. The Master devised a machine that would allow him to absorb the energy from the Kolstani, forcing Artron to help him by fatally wounding the Doctor, but Artron reconfigured the device to give him that power rather than the Master. However, draining the energy from the Kolstani compromised their mental stability, reducing them to a state of perpetual hunger, where they sought to take the regenerative energy from Time Lords as a means of compensating for their own loss of energy. (AUDIO: Day of the Master)
Old Times
In the Old Times of Gallifreyan history, according to the Matrix, the Ravenous threatened the earliest Time Lord pioneers. The Eighth Doctor speculated that the Ravenous evolved as the universe's way of balancing out the increased lifespans that Rassilon gave to his people.
One incident involving the Ravenous occurred during Time Lord interventions with the early human colony planet Yalta Prime. Rassilon ordered Time-Skiff Alpha 9 to materialise in Yalta Prime's atmosphere to awe the humans, but the Ravenous attacked the skiff during its journey and it arrived one week late without a single living crew member.
Rassilon led the near-genocide of the Ravenous. To retain moral high ground, the Time Lords kept a single family of Ravenous alive and imprisoned them in a bubble dimension which was lost in the Time Vortex. (AUDIO: Deeptime Frontier)
Imprisonment
Isolated in their prison dimension, the Ravenous learned "new tricks", including possession. (AUDIO: Deeptime Frontier)
Seeking that Time Lords be brought to them in their prison dimension, the Ravenous placed a bounty at the Maldovarium. Acting on this, the Nightstalker came to 1963 Shoreditch and attempted to kidnap the First Doctor and Susan Foreman for the Ravenous. He was stopped by River Song and Susan. (AUDIO: An Unearthly Woman)
Return of the Ravenous
Fearing the coming Last Great Time War, Daria Visteron used the Deeptime Frontier to release the Ravenous from their prison dimension. (AUDIO: Deeptime Frontier)
After defeating the Kandyman's and the Eleven's scheme with the thought spider, the Eighth Doctor and his companions caught of a glimpse of faces reflected in glass, screaming, and Helen Sinclair saw a word in her mind: "Ravenous." Afterwords, the Eleven mused to himself that he knew what they fed on, and that all anybody could do was run. (AUDIO: Sweet Salvation)
The Eleven was later found by one of the Ravenous onboard a dying TARDIS which he had stolen. The Eleven was scared enough to call for the Doctor’s help escaping it. According to the old tales, the Ravenous ate temporal energy, with Time Lords thus being their most potent source of "food", while shorter-lived life forms such as humans would be little more than the equivalent of a packet of crisps to satisfy the Ravenous' appetite. After the Eleven stole the Doctor's TARDIS, the Doctor was able to escape the Ravenous by using the last of the dying TARDIS's power to make a random materialization, leaving the Ravenous in the TARDIS as the ship's interior dimensions finally collapsed. (AUDIO: Seizure) This Ravenous' corpse was found by the Deeptime Frontier. (AUDIO: Deeptime Frontier)
The Ravenous found the Nine at the Nine's prison while pursuing the Doctor, (AUDIO: The Odds Against) and the two allied to trap the Doctor by creating a fake origin for the Ravenous. (AUDIO: The Odds Against, L.E.G.E.N.D.) The Eleven took the Nine's place in this partnership and tricked the Doctor into thinking the Ravenous had been destroyed. (AUDIO: The Odds Against)
Behind the scenes
- Several Ravenous (including one in close-up) were featured in What is inside the TARDIS?, an animated, narrative trailer for Ravenous 4 released by Big Finish in 2019. Having invaded the Doctor's TARDIS, they were seen lurking in the rafters of the Eighth Doctor's console room's four metallic pillars before one of their number leapt down with a shriek.
