The Arcateenians were a levitating squid-like species that communicated telepathically. The Arcateenians come from Arcateen V, but not all of their race are peaceful. The Torchwood team in Cardiff had to deal with a hostile Arcateenian, whilst Sarah-Jane Smith encountered a more benign Arcateenian that had an interest in poetry. The Arcateenians also liberated the cowardly Tivolians from the evil Fisher King centuries ago, but they soon enslaved the annoying Tivolians too. Arcateen V is a planet that the Doctor has yet to visit onscreen in Doctor Who.

Torchwood: Greeks Bearing Gifts

★★★★★

TX: 26/11/2006

Written by Toby Whithouse    Directed by Colin Teague

Torchwood member Toshiko Sato is given an alien pendant by a woman called Mary, which allows her to read people’s thoughts. But Toshiko quickly discovers that this telepathic ability is more of a curse than a blessing, as she hears what her Torchwood colleagues really think of her. But Tosh also uses the pendant to save a family from a deranged estranged father. Tosh and Mary develop an intimate lesbian relationship. Mary reveals herself to be an alien refugee from Arcateen V. As a political prisoner, Mary was accompanied by a guard when she was transported to Earth in 1812. After she killed her guard, Mary took a human body (a soldier who hired a prostitute in order to lose his virginity – I lost my virginity when I was 18) and began devouring human hearts over the centuries since to sustain herself. Captain Jack Harkness deduces all of this from the archeological excavation of Mary’s transporter and from Tosh’s suspicious behaviour. Jack tricks Mary into holding the reprogrammed transporter, which teleports her to the centre of the Sun, killing her. Tosh tells Jack that the pendant is a curse before destroying it. Toshiko is puzzled as to why she was unable to read Jack’s thoughts, but Jack changes the subject.

The Sarah Jane Adventures: Invasion of the Bane

★★★☆☆

TX: 01/01/2007

Written by Russell T Davies & Gareth Roberts    Directed by Colin Teague

Maria Jackson and newly divorced father Alan have moved into Bannerman Road, Ealing, London and things will never be the same again! Maria’s next door neighbour, Sarah-Jane Smith is a journalist who investigates aliens! Maria spots Sarah-Jane one night communicating with an alien star poet – an Arcateenian. I have met the former poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy. Maria and her friend Kelsey Hooper investigate a nearby Bubble Shock factory which manufactures a lucrative fizzy drink. But the drink contains an element of an alien called Bane. The Bane have also created a human archetype to distill the perfect taste for humans, to make Bubble Shock sell better. Sarah-Jane, Maria and Kelsey recover the archetype and escape the factory. But the Bane pursue them back to Sarah-Jane’s house, where Sarah-Jane repels them with alien technology. Maria discovers Sarah-Jane’s attic which is full of alien artefacts and a supercomputer called Mr Smith. Sarah-Jane confronts Mrs Wormwood, the leader of the Bane, saying that she intends to stop her. Mrs Wormwood initiates the Bane’s plan and begins to control all the humans that drank Bubble Shock, turning them into zombies. The gang return to the Bubble Shock factory. Remembering that factory tour participants had to turn off their mobile phones, Maria activates hers, which causes distress to the Bane Mother. The archetype uses a signal transmitted from the star poet’s more powerful communicator to kill the Bane Mother. The Bubble Shock factory explodes and the gang escape in the nick of time, but so does Mrs Wormwood… Back on Bannerman Road, Maria and Sarah-Jane decide to name the archetype Luke and Sarah-Jane also decides to adopt him. The adventures of Sarah-Jane Smith and her teenage friends have only just begun!

Under the Lake/Before the Flood

★★★★☆

TX: 03/10/2015 – 10/10/2015

Written by Toby Whithouse    Directed by Daniel O’Hara

A Tivolian undertaker called Gibbis has brought the body of the Fisher King to bury him on Earth in 1980. The Fisher King is a terrifying and powerful creature that enslaved the cowardly civilisation on Tivoli before the planet was liberated by the Arcateenians. However, the Tivolians were soon enslaved again by their own liberators, the Arcateenians. The Fisher King, who is far from dead, has been experimenting with ghosts, which have infested a future underwater sea base called the Drum in the year 2119 and the crew (including the deaf Cass) have been forced to hide. The Twelfth Doctor and Clara Oswald arrive on the sea base and discover the ghosts and the wreck of the Fisher King’s hearse and his coffin. The Doctor and the crew travel back in time to prevent the Doctor’s death. However, they quickly realise that they are in danger of being caught in the Bootstrap paradox. The crew of the Drum place land mines next to a dam nearby. When they explode, the dam bursts flooding the makeshift dummy Soviet base and drowning the Fisher King. The Doctor hides in the Fisher King’s coffin which reawakens him in the future. The Doctor, Clara and the surviving Drum crew members seal the ghosts inside a special chamber. In the TARDIS, the Doctor explains the Bootstrap paradox to Clara, using an example about Beethoven’s Fifth.