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 virus es they created . They used flying glass coffin s to collect infected patients to try to cure them . They were capable of time travel . ( AUDIO : " Patient Zero " ) They used the Ever - and - Ever Prolixity to travel through time . ( AUDIO : " The Viyran Solution " ) 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 339 attempts , with the memories continually reasserting themselves . ( AUDIO : " Mission of the Viyrans " ) They could also create perceptual barrier s . ( PROSE : " No One Died " ) Diseases . The Viyrans were best known for the diseases they created . 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 Dalek s , 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 339 attempts . This was also the Viyrans ' first encounter with human s . ( AUDIO : " Mission of the Viyrans " ) In the far future , a Viyran was infected with a temporally active virus known as KX Variant 243 . ( AUDIO : " The Viyran Solution " ) 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 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 " ) At some date in Earth history , the Viyrans ' attempt to eliminate a single viral particle - despite the fact that there was only a one in five billion chance that the virus would manifest seven hundred millennia in the future - resulted in human society collapsing as most of the population regressed to a feral mental state due to a side - effect of the radiation used in the treatment . Using a Viyran disseminator , the Sixth Doctor was able to use the TARDIS to expose all of Earth ' s population to chronal energy , which he had determined would eliminate the viral particle , as well as turning back time so that the Viyrans ' original attempt to eliminate the virus never happened . ( AUDIO : " Blue Forgotten Planet " ) 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 " ) Working with Charlotte Pollard , the Viyrans investigated a virus located near the Ever - and - Ever Prolixity . ( AUDIO : " The Lamentation Cipher " )