The Claw Shansheeth were a rogue group of Shansheeth. They had grown tired of constantly hearing people mourn over the deaths of their beloved ones and decided to put an end to death throughout time and space to ensure no more funerals would need to be held, believing it to be a noble cause. (TV: Death of the Doctor)
The members of the Claw Shansheeth introduced themselfs to Sarah Jane Smith as:
- Azure of the Claw Shansheeth (the blue-jewelled Shansheeth)
- Aureolin of the Claw Shansheeth (the yellow-jewelled Shansheeth)
- Amaranth of the Claw Shansheeth (the red-jewelled Shansheeth) (PROSE: Death of the Doctor)
History
The group operated in the 15th Funeral Fleet. As part of their plan to end death, they lured the Eleventh Doctor to a battle-scarred wasteland and managed to take his TARDIS from him. Lest risking the loss of their newly acquired machine for their crusade by trying to take the key from the Doctor, the Shansheeth went to Earth and decided to orchestrate a faux funeral for the Doctor, declaring him dead and faking a DNA result.
They formed an alliance with one of the UNIT workers in exchange for tracking down old companions of the Doctor and finding ones suitable enough to have their memories drain by the memory weave to conjure a new TARDIS key for taking her out into the universe and time to broaden her horizons.
During the "funeral" the Shansheeth filtered the memories of those there and found Sarah Jane Smith and Jo Jones had the strongest memories out of the group. Deciding that it was now time to end their charade, the Shansheeth began playing the Weave to induce memories of the Doctor and the TARDIS in their minds. However, Sarah Jane's companions learned of this plot and went to inform Sarah and Jo.
Much to the Shansheeth' shock, the Eleventh Doctor had managed to get to Earth by making a biological swap with Clyde via the use of residual artron energy absorbed by Clyde during Sarah Jane's wedding trap by the Trickster. However, they decided to roast the children alive as bait for the Doctor after they hid in their quarters. After the Doctor perfected his swapping machine, the Shansheeth took Jo and Sarah to the funeral room where they held the TARDIS and began sucking out their memories to make a new key.
However, the Doctor managed to save the kids and they encouraged Jo and Sarah to remember everything about their travels with the Doctor, Jo's travelling through the world and all the aliens Sarah encountered. This caused the memory weave to begin overloading. Despite their best attempts to stop the "wise old women", the Shansheeth ended up caught in the resulting explosion. The Wide Wing of the High Shansheeth Nest later apologised on behalf of them for the trouble they caused. (TV: Death of the Doctor)
