- "Mutant" redirects here. See also mutant (disambiguation).
A Kaled mutant inside a Dalek casing. (TV: Dalek)
Mutation was a biological change outside that of normal evolution, be it forced or effected by outside sources to bring a change which would not normally have occurred in the same time frame or along a particular path of evolution. Something was said to be mutagenic if it caused mutation.
Process
Some reasons for mutation were similar to that of evolution — the adaption to a situation, area, or time; however it was a forced and "unnatural" change, outside of what of would have occurred during "normal" evolution. Other mutations were caused by accident or by deliberate design of another individual or species.
Mutations could be caused by deliberate subjection to a mutagenic process, (TV: The Daleks, Genesis of the Daleks) by exposure to radiation, (TV: The Ark, PROSE: The Sons of the Crab) by exposure to DNA or toxins from another species, (PROSE: The Story of Martha - The Weeping, TV: Cold Blood) or by other means.
Examples
The Daleks were created by Davros mutating the Kaled race by subjecting them (or their cells) to a mutagenic process, forcing them to evolve from the effect of radiation. (TV: The Daleks, Genesis of the Daleks) The use of nuclear and chemical-biological weapons during the war also mutated animal life; many mutants lived in the Lake of Mutations. (TV: The Daleks) According to a definition by the Movellans, Davros himself was a humanoid mutant. (TV: Destiny of the Daleks)
The Refusians' invisibility was a result of a mutation caused by solar flares on their planet Refusis II. (TV: The Ark)
The spiders of Metebelis III mutated, becoming highly intelligent and having great psycho-kinetic / telepathic powers as a result of mutation from the Metebelis or "blue" crystal. (TV: Planet of the Spiders)
The Primords came into existence during an attempt to penetrate the Earth's crust, when humans came into physical contact with Stahlman's ooze. This mutated them into the animalistic Primords which favoured heat like that provided by the Stahlman's ooze. (TV: Inferno)
Although the physical changes of the Solonians were believed by the humans of the Earth Empire to be harmful mutations, they were actually part of the species' natural life cycle, where seasonal metamorphosis occurred, (TV: The Mutants)
Mawdryn and his followers stole a metamorphic symbiosis regenerator from the Time Lords and used it on themselves, only to find that their immortality was one of unending mutation and regeneration. (TV: Mawdryn Undead)
The entire colonist population of Agelaos was mutated by the millions of types of alien DNA filtering through the wormhole above the planet. (PROSE: The Story of Martha - The Weeping)
Silurian venom sometimes had mutagenic properties, as when Alaya poisoned Tony Mack. (TV: Cold Blood)
The Yend underwent severe mutations after exposure to radiation from the star Mortain. (PROSE: The Sons of the Crab)
On one planet, a crashed spacecraft spilled fuel. This caused nearby insects and other life forms to mutate to giant sizes. (COMIC: The Mutants)
Exposure to zygma energy, employed in the functioning of the time cabinet, caused mutations on its only known user, Magnus Greel. (TV: The Talons of Weng-Chiang)
The Time Lords became what they were through billions of years of exposure to the Untempered Schism. Similarly, Melody Pond was mutated in utero by being conceived in the TARDIS as it was flying through the time vortex. (TV: A Good Man Goes to War)
Saibra, a woman who identified as "mutant human", had a condition which enabled her to change form by replicating living cells upon contact. She was given a gene suppressant to control her condition by the Twelfth Doctor. (TV: Time Heist) Other mutant humans included Xais, as well as Eddie and Charlie Nisbett. (AUDIO: The Romance of Crime)