Men in Black The Men in Black were the android agents used by the Alliance of Shades to remove any signs of alien activities , including any witnesses . History . In 1958 , four androids , including Mister Dread , were obtained by Lord Azlok and were sent to find Rivesh Mantilax and his weapon . They were damaged by Night Eagle and his tribe , though Mister Dread was later repaired . In 1972 , the Alliance discontinued most of their robotic agents . ( TV : " Dreamland " ) Since the 1970s , three of the agents , including Dread , were kept to defend a vault in which many of the items they covered up were kept . They were activated when Androvax attempted to open the vault and save his species . Dread and two other agents stopped him , and Sarah Jane Smith when she attempted to do the same . When Dread found that Sarah Jane had taken the newspaper clipping of Ocean Waters , they attacked Waters ' house , finding Sarah Jane , Rani , Androvax in Clyde ' s body , Ocean and Minty . Androvax , now in Gita ' s body , managed to escape with the two devices to open the vault . Clyde tricked the other two agents into destroying each other with their laser blasters . Dread used 450 years of his power cell to allow Androvax and his Veil ship to leave Earth safely . Dread then wiped Gita ' s mind of all of alien encounters before powering down , ending the Men in Black for good . ( TV : " The Vault of Secrets " ) In late 2010 , three Men in Black lookalikes were part of the army of alien slaves led by the Krulius to attack Sarah Jane ' s house . Sarah Jane thought that these lookalikes were the Men in Black under some kind of hypnotic influence . However they called themselves Assault Force Delta . Clyde threw several Vlimion slime ball s at the androids , jamming their Neuronic relay circuits . After Clyde defeated several of the other aliens , the Men in Black lookalikes regrouped with the army and the Krulius ordered them to retreat . ( COMIC : " Defending Bannerman Road " ) Characteristics . Members of the Men in Black had the physical appearance of human males , though had slate or pale green eyes under their sunglasses . ( TV : " The Vault of Secrets " ) Abilities . The androids were capable of retracting their hands and replacing them with weapons . ( TV : " Dreamland " ) In 2010 , they instead removed their hands to reveal weapons hidden inside . Their removed hands were capable of functioning independently from their bodies , as Dread ' s hand crawled through St Jude ' s Hospital looking for him after Sarah Jane threw it away during an encounter . ( TV : " The Vault of Secrets " ) They appeared to have some form of wireless connection to one another , as they were able to communicate and plan without speech . ( TV : " Dreamland " ) They were also capable of wiping memories , which they did by revealing their eyes . ( TV : " The Vault of Secrets " ) Dread and his companions had apparently been upgraded to become resilient to sonic attacks since their encounter with the Tenth Doctor . This was evident when Sarah Jane tried to disable them with the sonic lipstick . While they initially start to freeze up , a green energy shield appeared around them negating the affects of the sonic device . Despite this , sonic devices worked when they were deactivated and reactivated them in a manner Dread claimed to be painful . ( TV : " The Vault of Secrets " ) According to the Doctor , they were poorly programmed in aspects like blending in , investigation and concealment . This was evident by their cold personalities and , according to the Doctor , their choice of aliases . The fact they never completely covered up alien activity , led to most of them being deactivated by the 1970 ' s . ( TV : " Dreamland " ) As a result of their lack of certain programming many of them were not very bright and could be easily outwitted . ( TV : " Dreamland " , TV : " The Vault of Secrets " ) Older or more experienced androids like Mr Dread were more intelligent and adaptive , as evident by Dread hiding the second key with a former witness and his use of a scanner to discover Androvax ' s host . Other androids seem dependent on him for instruction or to keep them in line . ( TV : " The Vault of Secrets " )