Cult
Cults were belief-based organisations.
The Cult of Skaro was a cult formed during the Last Great Time War by a group of Daleks to think in manners outside that of the Dalek race. (TV: Doomsday [+]Loading...["Doomsday (TV story)"]) The Cult of Shining Darkness was formed with the purpose of destroying all robotkind. (PROSE: Shining Darkness [+]Loading...["Shining Darkness (novel)"])
Some cults were much like religions, formed for/through the worship of a deity; on Earth most such cults took their name from the deity they worshipped. These included the Cult of Vulcan, (TV: The Fires of Pompeii [+]Loading...["The Fires of Pompeii (TV story)"]) the Brethren, (TV: Tooth and Claw [+]Loading...["Tooth and Claw (TV story)"]) the Brotherhood of Demnos (TV: The Masque of Mandragora [+]Loading...["The Masque of Mandragora (TV story)"]) and the Hecate Cult. (TV: A Girl's Best Friend [+]Loading...["A Girl's Best Friend (TV story)"]) One cult worshipped Bernice Summerfield as a deity from its church on a deserted aircraft carrier at the centre of the Medelein Sea on Phraxa. They instigated a galaxy-wide campaign to bring about her death because she wasn't living up to their image of her. (PROSE: The Dead Men Diaries [+]Loading...["The Dead Men Diaries (short story)"])
Other cults had specific places within their respective societies. The Sibylline Sisterhood was a highly prestigious cult of soothsayers in Pompeii that cultivated the psychic potential of individuals present in the city. (TV: The Fires of Pompeii [+]Loading...["The Fires of Pompeii (TV story)"]) The Tong of the Black Scorpion, who worshipped Weng-Chiang, was described by the Fourth Doctor as one of the most dangerous criminal organisations on Earth. (TV: The Talons of Weng-Chiang [+]Loading...["The Talons of Weng-Chiang (TV story)"])
Other cults such as Faction Paradox revelled in being known as a "cult", as a taboo and as an affront to the Time Lords, whose ideologies and practices they actively sought to mock and intimidate. (PROSE: Alien Bodies [+]Loading...["Alien Bodies (novel)"], Unnatural History [+]Loading...["Unnatural History (novel)"])
Isaac Greatorex was part of a religious sect in the 18th century that was later revived by Whittaker and Gavin Purcell. (HOMEVID: The Devil of Winterborne [+]Loading...["The Devil of Winterborne (home video)"])
In the 1970s, Jo Grant watched a BBC3 documentary about a cult in Utah, which "gave [her] the creeps." (AUDIO: The Many Deaths of Jo Grant [+]Loading...["The Many Deaths of Jo Grant (audio story)"])
The Church of the Outsiders was a cult based around outer space. They preyed on the weak and the unhappy who felt as though they did not belong. (AUDIO: Believe [+]Loading...["Believe (audio story)"])
