Fairy Fairies , as the human race called them , were dangerous humanoid entities native to the Earth . Fairies were not alien life - forms , but had lived alongside humanity since the dawn of time . Their exact nature was unclear , although Jack Harkness described them as part myth , part spirit world and part reality jumbled together , mixed with " old moments and memories " . He speculated that they might be " part Mara " . Though incredibly dangerous and capable of wiping out humanity , they were not a direct threat unless they or their so - called " Chosen Ones " were explicitly harmed or threatened . There was no way to trap them as they controlled the elements of Fire , Earth , Air and Water . ( TV : " Small Worlds " ) According to the Twelfth Doctor , Fairies were also called " the Fae " , " the Fair Folk " and " Homo fata vulgaris " . They came from the Invisible , a realm that ran alongside Earth . ( PROSE : " The Shining Man " ) Biology . Fairies had a wide variety of advanced , seemingly magical abilities . They had control over the elements and could produce localised , deadly storms and gales . Not bound by normal physical laws , they could choose whether a camera could take their pictures . They made themselves invisible to closed circuit television cameras on one occasion . On another , they let their photographs be taken . They could travel through time and had an apparently non - linear relationship to it ; a picture of Jasmine Pierce , who became a Fairy in 2007 , was seen in her fairy form in 1917 . They could kill their victims by " stealing their breath " , asphyxiating them by clogging their throats with rose petals , drowning them via rainstorms or using gales to draw all oxygen away from the victim . One was also somehow able to get into and out of a fully sealed police cell without disturbing anything . Fairies could be seen in two forms : a small , glowing humanoid form with butterfly - like wings ; and a human - sized , more monstrous form . Both forms had wings and could fly with ease . At least in the larger form , Jack Harkness described them as only visible from the corner of one ' s eyes . ( TV : " Small Worlds " ) History . Jack Harkness told Gwen Cooper that Fairies came from the Dawn of Time . Humans , over time , made Fairies into something harmless and beautiful , but those who had encountered them , like Jack , never doubted their powers . ( TV : " Small Worlds " ) When the Earth was young , the veil between the Invisible and the Visible was thinner , allowing fairies to cross the divide and wreak havok in the human dimension . They frequently attacked Huckensall village . The people in the village protected themselves by building the doors in the village from the wood of a rowan tree . In 1654 , a Fairy Finder came to the village and rounded up the Fae , burying them deep in the ground . ( PROSE : " The Shining Man " ) According to Jack , Fairies were once human children taken from various times stretching millennia into the past . These children were called the Chosen One s , whom the Fairies protected and avenged if harm came to them . Eventually , the Fairies would claim these children and take them to their " Lost Lands " . Once there , the children would become Fairies themselves . The Fairies required these children to continue their race , despite being immortal ( or near - immortal ) . These " Chosen Ones " always seemed slightly odd and would try to spend as much time as possible with the Fairies . The Fairies were not generally involved with the affairs of other humans , but they violently defended any infringements on their territory and killed anyone they felt had acted against them . Despite this , they did not kill two girls who were bullying Jasmine Pierce , possibly indicating an unwillingness to harm children . They could also distinguish between those who harmed the Chosen child and who didn ' t . When Jack was on a train with a group of soldiers who had run over a Chosen One , the fairies attacked the men , but left Jack unharmed in a car full of dead bodies . The Fairies also appeared to have limitless powers over the elements . Jasmine Pierce , a Chosen One , told the team , when they tried to stop her being taken , that they would " turn the world to ice " . When Jack said that would mean no more Chosen Ones , Jasmine said the Fairies would simply keep to the past . ( TV : " Small Worlds " ) In 2017 , the Shining Man craze on the internet led to a general sense of fear among the public , and the barriers between the Invisible and the Visible began to weaken , allowing fairies to interact with humans again . ( PROSE : " The Shining Man " ) The Eighth Doctor encountered a species called the Sidhe , which was also immortal and able to move through time , and also said to be responsible for the Earth legends of fairies . ( PROSE : " Autumn Mist " ) The Doctor encountered fairies alongside Madame Vastra during his ninth ( or earlier ) incarnation . ( COMIC : " The Lost Dimension " )