Men in Black (Dreamland)

The Men in Black were the android agents used by the Alliance of Shades to remove any signs of alien activities, including any witnesses.

History
In 1958, four androids, including Mister Dread, were obtained by Lord Azlok and were sent to find Rivesh Mantilax and his weapon. They were damaged by Night Eagle and his tribe, though Mister Dread was later repaired.

In 1972, the Alliance discontinued most of their robotic agents. (TV: Dreamland)

Since the 1970s, three of the agents, including Dread, were kept to defend a vault in which many of the items they covered up were kept. They were activated when Androvax attempted to open the vault and save his species. Dread and two other agents stopped him, and Sarah Jane Smith when she attempted to do the same. When Dread found that Sarah Jane had taken the newspaper clipping of Ocean Waters, they attacked Waters' house, finding Sarah Jane, Rani, Androvax in Clyde's body, Ocean and Minty. Androvax managed to escape with the two devices to open the vault in Gita's body. Clyde tricked the other two agents into destroying each other with their laser blasters. Dread used 450 years of his power cell to allow Androvax and his Veil ship to leave Earth safely. Dread then wiped Gita's mind of all of alien encounters before powering down, ending the Men in Black for good. (TV: The Vault of Secrets)

In late 2010, three Men in Black were hypnotised by the Krulius as part of his army of alien slaves led by him to attack Sarah Jane's house. Clyde threw several Vlimon slime balls at the androids, jamming their Neuronic relay circuits. When he defeated several other of the aliens, the Men in Black regrouped with the army and the Krulius ordered them to retreat. (WC: Defending Bannerman Road)

Characteristics
Members of the Men in Black had the physical appearance of human males, though had slate or pale green eyes under their sunglasses.

Abilities
The androids were capable of retracting their hands and replacing them with weapons. (TV: Dreamland) In 2010, they instead removed their hands to reveal weapons hidden inside. Their removed hands were capable of functioning independently from their bodies, as Dread's hand crawled through St Jude's Hospital looking for him after Sarah Jane threw it away in an encounter. (TV: The Vault of Secrets) They appeared to have some form of wireless connection to one another, as they were able to communicate and plan without speech. (TV: Dreamland) They were also capable of wiping memories, which they did by revealing their eyes. (TV: The Vault of Secrets)

Dread and his companions had apparently been upgraded to become resilient to sonic attacks since their encounter with the Tenth Doctor. This was evident when Sarah Jane tried to disable them with the sonic lipstick. While they initially start to freeze up, a green energy shield appeared around them negating the affects of the sonic device. Despite this, sonic devices worked when they were deactivated and reactivated them in a manner Dread claimed to be painful. (TV: The Vault of Secrets)

According to the Doctor, they were poorly programmed in aspects like blending in, investigation and concealment. This was evident by their cold personalities and, according to the Doctor, their choice of aliases. The fact they never completely covered up alien activity, led to most of them being deactivated by the 1970's. (TV: Dreamland) As a result of their lack of certain programming many of them were not very bright and could be easily outwitted. (TV: Dreamland, TV: The Vault of Secrets)

Older or more experienced androids like Mr Dread were more intelligent and adaptive, as evident by Dread hiding the second key with a former witness and his use of a scanner to discover Androvax's host. Other androids seam dependent on him for instruction or to keep them in line. (TV: The Vault of Secrets)

Behind the scenes

 * According to the Tenth Doctor, the other members were called Mister Terror, Mister Fear and Mister Apprehension. However, he may not have been serious when he said this.
 * The idea of the agents were inspired by the popular UFO conspiracy theory of the Men in Black, these being government agents dressed in black suits who reportedly harass or threaten UFO witnesses in order to keep them quiet about what they have seen. This was later said out loud by Clyde and Rani, the latter who asked where Will Smith was, referring to the film franchise.