Viyran

The Viyrans were a race of mysterious beings, infamous for the creation of a variety of biological and viral weapons.

Biology
The Viyrans were always seen in white hazmat suits. They appeared to be humanoid, with three fingers and a thumb on each hand. They had no spoken language, but communicated telepathically, through hand motions or by trying to replicate an individual's voice. (AUDIO: Patient Zero)

It was a mystery whether they were actually biological or robotic. (AUDIO: The Viyran Solution)

Technology
The Viyrans may have created the Amethyst Viral Containment Station to safely store the deadly viruses they created. They used flying glass coffins to collect infected patients to try to cure them. They could time travel. (AUDIO: Patient Zero)

As the Viyrans had no vocal chords, they used language assimilators to communicate with others. These assimilators would copy the voice of the person the Viyrans were talking to, but the voice could be distorted and modified. The Viyrans had limited neural modification technology. For example, they could tell when a person was remembering things, but not what the memories were. They could also wipe a person's memories, but on one occasion it took 349 attempts, with the memories continually reasserting themselves. (AUDIO: Mission of the Viyrans) They could also create perceptual barriers. (PROSE: No One Died)

Diseases
The Viyrans were best known for the diseases they created.
 * One disease could destroy the minds of everyone on a planet. (PROSE: No One Died)
 * One disease was a metallic-looking worm which was six inches long. It could induce beneficial coincidences. It could transmit itself through telephones. (AUDIO: Urgent Calls)
 * Another disease could cause a frenzy. (AUDIO: Urban Myths)
 * Another disease could grant wishes. (AUDIO: The Vanity Box, The Wishing Beast)
 * A fifth disease would warp the DNA of the host, slowly killing them. (AUDIO: Mission of the Viyrans)



History
The Viyrans originated in a place far distant from Mutter's Spiral, Earth's galaxy.

The Viyrans waged a war with an unknown force with a variety of viral weapons. Peace was eventually reached and the biological weapons were gathered together in Amethyst Viral Containment Station to destroy them. During an incident with the Sixth Doctor and the Daleks, the viruses were spread throughout the universe. The Viyrans began travelling through the universe to find and cure these diseases. (AUDIO: Patient Zero)

One disease fell through the atmosphere of Grallista Social and was ingested by Peri Brown. It caused the population to start to turn into copies of her. After the Viyrans arrived, they were able to cure them. They also tried to wipe Peri's memories so that the virus couldn't be replicated, which took them 349 attempts. This was also the Viyrans' first encounter with humans. (AUDIO: Mission of the Viyrans)

In the far future, a Viyran was infected with a temporally active virus known as KX Variant 243. It was sent back in time to 1918 to the Blackwell Convalescent Home where it educated Dr. Herbert Goring in Virology before the term was supposed to be invented. It set up a base at Blackwell known as the White Room and began infecting human subjects with samples of KX Variant 243 to alert the Viyrans in the future. When the Eighth Doctor arrived in the TARDIS, the TARDIS' artron energy activated the virus and and a Viyran from the future used KX Variant 243 to come and contain the infection by incinerating the Earth. The Doctor convinced the two Viyrans that they were each Patient Zero and that their duty was to destroy each other. The contaminated remains of the Viyrans were left to disintegrate and the virus was left dormant in both the infected subjects and the remnants when the Doctor left. However, the Viyran's remains were what caused their past selves to be infected in the first place, creating a causal loop. (AUDIO: The White Room)

In 1962, a viral particle fell onto Lower Downham. The Viyrans followed it to try to neutralise it. The virus was too dangerous, so the Viyrans evacuated the whole village and set up a perceptual barrier, making it seem to disappear. The Tenth Doctor and Rose Tyler interfered, but the Viyrans removed everyone. (PROSE: No One Died)

In 1974, one of the Viyran viruses transmitted through telephone lines was found on Earth. It infected Lauren Hudson and caused her to have phenomenal luck. (AUDIO: Urgent Calls)

Behind the scenes

 * The Viyrans first appeared in No One Died, a story included as part of the Doctor Who Storybook 2007. They later appeared in audio plays produced by Big Finish Productions. This was the first time any element created for the revived Doctor Who franchise appeared in a Big Finish-produced work.