Rutan Host The Rutan Host ( PROSE : " First Frontier " ) , more often simply called Rutans , were a race of amorphous green blobs who waged a millennia - long war with the Sontaran s . Biology . In their natural forms , the Rutans were shaped somewhat like jellyfish , with a green glowing body and many light - green tendrils . They were amphibious and could cling to sheer , vertical surfaces . They had considerable mobility out of the water , despite their shape . Rutans could see , even without visible eyes , but their vision was limited . ( TV : " Horror of Fang Rock " ) They could also speak by forming vocal apparatuses ( PROSE : " The Infinity Doctors " ) which gave them a harsh , tinny voice . ( TV : " Horror of Fang Rock " ) Rutans reproduced by binary fission , with two identical Rutans being produced . ( PROSE : " Shakedown " ) Rutans were formidable fighters , even when they did not have weapons . Rutans could generate lethal shocks to defend themselves and seemed to be able to absorb electrical energy directly for sustenance . ( TV : " Horror of Fang Rock " ) They could also use this energy to produce a force field to absorb energy from weapons , though this required great effort . ( PROSE : " Shakedown " ) Though they preferred colder environments ( TV : " Horror of Fang Rock " ) , Rutans could survive almost anywhere , including the vacuum of space . ( PROSE : " Shakedown " ) Culture . The Seventh Doctor described the Rutans as " infinitely adaptable " . ( COMIC : " Pureblood " ) Rutans never referred to themselves as individuals , preferring the first person plurals " we " , " us " and " our ( s ) " . They also had no individual names . The Rutan hive mind was co - ordinated by a Queen who lived on Ruta III . Without her control the Host would fall apart . ( PROSE : " Shakedown " ) A Rutan Roulade was a food dish . ( AUDIO : " My Dinner with Andrew " ) Military tactics . Rutans were able to operate independently , but they did not see individuals as important and all individual desires were subsumed by the general desire to win the war with the " Sontaran rabble " . ( TV : " Horror of Fang Rock " ) Rutans used shapeshifting technology to adapt to alien environments and infiltrate alien cultures ; they were consummate spies . A Rutan usually killed specific individuals and then impersonated them . ( TV : " Horror of Fang Rock " , COMIC : " Pureblood " ) Technology . The Rutan Host had unknown types of technology , though they were apparently less advanced than the Sontarans . Rutan spaceships were crystalline in structure and looked like glowing balls of fire . These ships could control the weather to a degree . Individual Rutans could also shapeshift into other forms , but they needed to know the form very well , usually after careful study and dissection . ( TV : " Horror of Fang Rock " ) Circa 1880 in England , Percival Ross managed to obtain Rutan healing salve and experimented with its ability to merge normally incompatible kinds of animal tissue , creating hybrids . ( PROSE : " Evolution " ) Rutan biotechnology was sufficiently advanced to " uplift " a species to sentience . By the 26th century , they had done this at least once , on the planet Sentarion , where they were worshipped by the insectoid Sentarii as " the Shining Ones " . ( PROSE : " Shakedown " ) They also created the Octopod as a biological weapon . ( COMIC : " Cyclops " ) At some unknown point in the future , the Rutans were developing a new weapon that could destroy any planet by converting it from matter to anti - matter . ( PROSE : " The Infinity Doctors " ) At some point , they also used analysis engines . ( PROSE : " The Quantum Archangel " ) History . The Rutan Host had been engaged in war with the Sontarans for thousands , if not millions , of years , though the two species had a brief alliance during the Millennium War . ( PROSE : " The Quantum Archangel " ) At some point in their early history , the Rutans discovered a wormhole that linked Ruta III with Sentarion . The Rutans planned to use it as an escape route in emergencies and so modified the native species as guardians . The Rutans were considered to be " the Shining Ones " and the technology to open the wormhole was hidden in a temple and guarded by Harrubtii assassins . ( PROSE : " Shakedown " ) In the dying days of the Fifty - first Star Fall Campaign , the Sontarans suffered great losses against the Rutans . ( COMIC : " The Instruments of War " ) In 1199 , a Rutan was inhabiting the Stockbridge Castle on Earth . ( AUDIO : " Castle of Fear " ) In the 13th century , the Doctor ' s TARDIS clashed with a Rutan ship . The Rutans crashed and remained underground for 400 years , by which time the Houses of Parliament had been built on top of the crash site . ( GAME : " The Gunpowder Plot " ) In the 13th century , ( TV : " The Sontaran Experiment " ) a squadron of Rutan fighters attacked the Sontaran commander Linx ' s ship while he was on a reconaissance mission , forcing him to perform an emergency landing on Earth . ( TV : " The Time Warrior " ) In 1605 , the Rutans under the Houses of Parliament awoke from stasis and planned to take in the plot to blow up Parliament with Guy Fawkes to free their ship . At the same time , a platoon of Sontarans arrived to retrieve the Rutans ' doomsday weapon which could wipe out either species . The two sides proceeded to battle in the Houses of Parliament for the weapon while the Eleventh Doctor , Amy and Rory attempted to stop them both . The Doctor , having discovered a second Rutan doomsday weapon , gave one to both sides , one retargeted to destroy the Rutans , without telling them which was which , thus creating a stalemate . The Rutans and the Sontarans both gave up and left Earth . ( GAME : " The Gunpowder Plot " ) In 1609 , Rutans participated in the Armageddon Convention , which convened in Laputa , a floating island in the sky near Venice . ( PROSE : " The Empire of Glass " ) Though the Rutans originally controlled most of the Mutter ' s Spiral , by the 1900s , they were starting to lose the war and were forced to retreat to more fortified locations . During this time period , a Rutan scout landed on the coast of England and took over the Fang Rock lighthouse while attempting to assess the planet ' s usefulness as a base to fight the Sontarans . All their actions were to advance the war , such as scouting out new planet s to use as bases . Both the scout and its mothership were destroyed by the Fourth Doctor . ( TV : " Horror of Fang Rock " ) In 1918 , a Rutan Octopod crashed onto Earth . It attacked the " USS Cyclops " , but was driven back by the Tenth Doctor and Heather McCrimmon . ( COMIC : " Cyclops " ) In 1941 , a Rutan spy disguised himself as a decorated Nazi veteran called Heinz Bruckner . As Bruckner , he sent artillery strikes in the Sahara Desert to pinpoint the location of the Sontaran " world engine " weapon the Warsong so he could use the Earth as a weapon against the Sontarans . After activating the weapon , the Twelfth Doctor stopped Bruckner ' s plans by using a Sontaran osmic projector to send Bruckner ' s trigger mechanism through time . He then blew up the weapon with his sonic screwdriver so that neither the Sontarans nor the Rutans could claim the weapon for themselves to use against the other side . ( COMIC : " The Instruments of War " ) In the late 20th century , Group Marshal Stike said that the war going badly for the Sontarans was " on the contrary " . The Sixth Doctor stated that his money was " still on the Rutans " . ( TV : " The Two Doctors " ) During the 21st century , a Rutan arrived on Earth and posed as a young swimmer called Emma who was a contestant in the globe games . The Rutan was forced to kill several humans to prevent them from revealing its true identity , until it was killed by one of a group of Sontarans that invaded BASE . ( PROSE : " The Sontaran Games " ) During the 26th century , a Rutan known as Karne was working undercover as a Sontaran . When he learned that the Sontarans knew of the wormhole over Sentarion , he tried to return to the Rutans , but was wounded and stranded in space . Becoming known as " the Ripper " , Karne started killing rich individuals , stealing their money and identity and using the cash to buy a flight to somewhere else . After being wounded on Megerra , Karne stowed away on the " Tiger Moth " . Commander Steg , who was tracking him down , was able to kill him on the " Tiger Moth " , but not before Karne was able to reproduce . The second Karne was able to get to Sentarion , where he intended to use the wormhole to escape to Ruta III . Unfortunately for him , the Doctor closed the wormhole to stop a Sontaran War - Wheel from reaching Ruta III . Karne was later killed by Steg . ( PROSE : " Shakedown " ) During the Rassilon Era , the Rutan Host and the Sontaran Warburg convened on Gallifrey to make diplomatic overtures . ( PROSE : " The Infinity Doctors " ) Undated events . Both Sontaran s and Rutans were trapped in the Edifice . They continued to fight even there . ( AUDIO : " The Forever Trap " ) A planet ( defined as a " worthless rock " by the Sontarans ) was an outpost of the Sontaran - Rutan war . Ended up on it , the Fifth Doctor , Adric , Tegan and Nyssa bumped into a troop of Rutans , that tried to imprison and kill them , in vain . ( COMIC : " In Their Nature " )