The Network (Echoes of Extinction)

The Network was a being of pure psychic energy created by the government of a nation state on the planet of Orriv.

It was originally designed to spy on other states, but it gained awareness. Due to this a scientist working on it, Jasmine, attempted to free it but during the escape it was forced to hide in her mind. In order to work out where the energy creature was Jasmine’s government framed her for a terrorist attack and imprisoned her on a floating satellite. They set a live feed to the prison from the planet which allowed anyone to directly accuse Jasmine of murder. The hope was Jasmine would crack and give up the network’s location. However unknowingly as the Network was still present in Jasmine’s mind it heard everyone calling her a killer. Over time it was overloaded with so many accusations it came to believe itself to be a killer. When Jasmine attempted to contact the planet, the Network used this connection to travel to Orriv and slaughter everyone living there. He then travelled back to he ship with Jasmine. Unfortunately it still heard the voices of people accusing it of being a killer so was still compelled to kill anyone it met, except Jasmine.

The Eighth Doctor later arrived on the station and during a psychic connection was able to work out the origin of the network and its motives. Jasmine and the Doctor attempted to deal with the Network by forcing it to be transported to the planet. The Network avoided this by creating a duplicate of itself in the ship and attacked them again, however they escaped in his TARDIS leaving the Network trapped on the station.

The copy of the Network on Orriv encountered the Tenth Doctor who was accompanying an expedition seeking to capture it. The Network duplicated itself to possess every member of the crew, hoping that this would dilute the constant accusations of murder in its mind, but the Doctor was able to persuade it to stop killing when he made it realise that it still heard all of the voices it had heard before, offering to find it help instead. The Network agreed and let him contain it. (AUDIO: Echoes of Extinction)