Meercock

The Meercocks were a race that resembled the Martians in H. G. Wells' novel The War of the Worlds, (PROSE: Verdigris) although some accounts indicate they were those Martians. (PROSE: Enter Wildthyme, et al.) They had tentacles, smelled like sulphur, and sat in giant metallic eggcups with three stilts. (PROSE: Verdigris)

The Valceans destroyed the Meercocks' original homeworld. Verdigris found the spacecraft with the last survivors in the 1970s. The ship was the size and shape of St Pancras railway station and had train-shaped shuttles to go to planetary surfaces. He convinced them to invade Earth by imitating fictional characters like Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf. To aid in their invasion, they weakened Earth culture by introducing postmodernism. After Verdigris' plot was stopped by the Third Doctor, he instructed Iris Wildthyme to help the Meercocks find a new home on Makorna, but he later doubted that that was where Iris took them; (PROSE: Verdigris) the Martians of Mars were identical to the Meercocks and had shapeshifting technology with similar quirks to that given to the Meercocks by Verdigris, but these Martians may have simply existed in another account than that of the Meercock's. (PROSE: Enter Wildthyme, AUDIO:  Glam Rock Detective, The Ninnies on Putney Common)