Quark Quarks were robot s that served in the Dominator s ' multi - galactic empire . An offshoot of rebel Quarks went on to conquer worlds on their own . These Quarks were dangerous enough that the Doctor was forewarned so he could place John and Gillian in a safer location . ( COMIC : " Invasion of the Quarks " ) Appearance . Quarks were cuboid in shape with a sphere on top . Four spikes came from opposite sides of this sphere , with one on top . They had rectangular compartments on their chests into which their cuboid arms folded . Their arms were equipped with weaponry and manipulating appendages . The spore spikes were red along with the rim attaching them all . The rest of the sphere was black and the body was grey . The Quarks ' feet were large pieces of metal in the shape of a block ; poles attached these to the body . ( TV : " The Dominators " ) Abilities . Quarks were able to use their guns to kill directly , stun , electrocute , communicate and to power up objects . They could collect data from a survey just by turning 360 degrees . They emitted warning signals when tripped or covered . The Dominator s had symbols representing each Quark on a wall , the symbol for the corresponding Quark flashing when that Quark was destroyed . Dominator Quarks generally communicated with bleeps , shrill squeaks , and squawks , although they were capable of high - pitched speech . ( TV : " The Dominators " ) On several occasions , the independent Quarks used Giant Wasp s to cover for their limited agility . ( COMIC : " The Killer Wasps " ) The Seventh Doctor once described a specific weakness the Quarks had . According to him , they were effectively " allergic " to leptonite crystal s . If they came within half a mile of leptonite , they would explode . ( AUDIO : " Flip - Flop " ) History . According to the Fourth Doctor , the Quarks inhabited a completely different era and region of the universe to the Kroton s . Thus , to witness a conflict between the two races would not " make sense " . ( COMIC : " The Lost Dimension " ) Quarks were originally the robot servants of the Dominator s . The Dominators Rago and Toba took a party of Quarks to the planet Dulkis and had them drill a shaft , through which a device could be dropped that would cause a planet - wide volcanic eruption and make the planet an ideal source of power for the Dominators . The Second Doctor and his companion s Jamie McCrimmon and Zoe Heriot were on Dulkis when this party arrived . Along with the Dulcian Cully , Jamie destroyed a number of Quarks through various methods . He destroyed one by shooting it with a gun , distracted one while Cully smashed it with a large boulder , and used explosives to destroy a third . The Doctor managed to catch the Dominators ' bomb as it fell down the mineshaft and , as the Quarks and Dominators prepared to leave , placed it aboard their craft . Once the ship was in flight , the bomb detonated , destroying the remaining Quarks and their masters . ( TV : " The Dominators " ) The Dominators took the Quarks to Earth in the 1950s to try and enslave the human race . They used the Quarks to stun anyone who discovered them earlier than intended . The Quarks and the Dominators were defeated by the Tenth Doctor . ( COMIC : " Quiet on the Set " ) Other accounts show the Quarks working alone , without reference to the Dominators . They were famed for their brutality and conquests . ( COMIC : " Invasion of the Quarks " ) Jack Harkness referred to " rebel Quarks " in a report on the Vespiform , implying these were Quarks who rebelled against and broke away from their Dominator masters . Possibly at some point in their history , these Quarks waged war with the Vespiforms . ( WC : " " ) The rebel Quarks had multiple battles with the Second Doctor , especially in their attempts to invade Earth . Their first attempt was in 1968 , where a Quark spearhead destroyed a radar tracking station in Scotland and made a landing at an old castle . The Doctor seized their ship and used it to take out the invasion fleet . ( COMIC : " Invasion of the Quarks " ) After this encounter , the Quarks were all ordered to search for and kill the Doctor . At some point , they attacked the planet Gano . When the Doctor and Jamie arrived there , seemingly in 1968 as well , the Quarks unleashed their Giant Wasp s . ( COMIC : " The Killer Wasps " ) At another time , apparently on contemporary Earth again , the Quarks ambushed the Doctor and buried the TARDIS under rubble in an attempt to prevent him escaping . ( COMIC : " Jungle of Doom " ) In 1971 , when the Doctor invented the Martha series of houseworker robots and sold them to an American company , the Quarks waited until they were widespread across the country and then turned them against human ity . This was intended as a prelude to their invasion , but they were routed when the Doctor reprogrammed the Marthas to engage the Quark armies . ( COMIC : " Martha the Mechanical Housemaid " ) In 1984 , slave Quarks were part of a failed Dominator secret invasion of Earth . Under Iceland , Major Whitaker ' s UNIT forces destroyed them . ( COMIC : " The Fires Down Below " ) In 2044 , a Quark squad arrived on the planet Hekton to kill the Second Doctor , but were defeated by the human colonists . ( COMIC : " The Duellists " ) In 2053 , a Quark assassin pursued the Doctor when he participated in an automobile race on Earth . ( COMIC : " Death Race " ) In 3090 , the Seventh Doctor and Mel arrived on the planet Puxatornee looking for leptonite crystal s with which to defeat the Quarks in an ongoing battle they were having on the space yacht " Pinto " . It was unknown whether this battle also took place in 3090 . ( AUDIO : " Flip - Flop " ) A film adaptation of H . G . Wells ' " The Time Machine " , which according to the Sixth Doctor " hadn ' t even been bad enough to be good " , featured Quarks and the Giant Wasps . ( PROSE : " Synthespians™ " ) Rassilon Era . As part of a failed Dominator invasion of Gallifrey , Quarks " flooded " the Capitol . They were fought by Leela and K9 Mark I , who destroyed 39 Quarks between them . Though the Fifth Doctor would claim that there was never " any serious risk of us being conquered " , one of the Quarks was fitted with a bomb which caused severe damage to the Capitol , necessitating the construction of a replacement building . ( AUDIO : " Time in Office " ) Alternate universes . In an alternate universe , the Quarks were the dominant power of their reality , theorised by the Fourth Doctor to be the result of a hypothetical absence of the Dalek s . A fleet passed into a gate through the Void to N - Space and engaged in battle with forces of the Kroton Imperium who had arrived the same way . Discovering the Doctor ' s TARDIS , they engaged a transmat opposing that of the Quarks to bring it aboard , with the Fourth Doctor and Romana II taking the chance and boarding one ship , which they found inhabited by advanced Kroton s , to stop the tug of war . A boarding party of Quarks was transmated to the ship to intercept but was quickly destroyed by the Krotons . Soon after , both Quark and Kroton fleets were attacked by forces of the Ogron Confederation of Planets who , coming from yet another universe , sought to cease hostilities between what they saw as " lesser - evolved species " via the use of deadly force . Ultimately , all three sides retreated to face a crisis in their respective universes . ( COMIC : " The Lost Dimension " ) Other information . During his trial , the Second Doctor recalled the Quarks as one of the adversaries he had broken the Time Lord code of non - interference to fight . ( TV : " The War Games " ) The Sixth Doctor and Melanie Bush fought the Quarks and their Giant Wasp s on one occasion . ( PROSE : " Millennial Rites " ) Iris Wildthyme was once trapped in the Death Zone and encountered Quarks . ( PROSE : " The Scarlet Empress " ) Panda once met someone dressed in a Quark outfit . ( AUDIO : " Whatever Happened to Iris Wildthyme ? " ) Behind the scenes . The Quarks were originally created by Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln for " The Dominators " . They left the project as they felt it was no longer faithful to their original draft . A major factor in this was the design of the Quarks and the fact that " The Dominators " had been shortened from six to five parts . As a result , the story aired with the writers ' names taken off and a pseudonym substituted . Haisman and Lincoln later felt cheated out of royalties from merchandise featuring the Quarks . Owing to their small size , children inhabited the costumes . A Quark , along with a Dalek , a Yeti , an Ice Warrior and a Cyberman , appeared briefly in studio ( versus previously seen footage from past stories ) in the last episode of " The War Games " and in publicity photos taken during the shoot during which the monsters posed with the Doctor , played by Patrick Troughton . Despite the Dominator s being the titular enemy and their leaders , the Quarks appeared in " TV Comic " in an uncharacteristic manner , as solo villains , without the Dominators .