Clockwork Men
The Clockwork Men first appeared in The Girl in the Fireplace (Series 2 : Episode 4) as repair androids for the ship, SS Madame de Pompadour. The androids sole purpose was to repair the ship if it became damaged; however when the ship was damaged in an Ion storm in the Dagmar Cluster, the androids ran out of spare parts to repair the ship with. As such, they used the body parts of the 50 crew members to repair the ship, but they still required a brain for the command circuit. The androids believed that only the brain of someone who was the same age as the ship (37 years) would work with the system, and so modified the ships quantum drive to open up numerous time windows into 18th century France.
The androids believed that the brain of 37 year old Madame de Pompadour would assist them in their mission to repair their ship, but the time windows they opened didn’t pinpoint her 37th year, and so spent a lot of time trying to find the right window into her life. While wandering around 18th century France, the androids disguised themselves in French dress to blend in with the crowd. The androids were equipped with scanners, sharp tools, short range teleporters and tranquillizers, and made a tick-tock noise from their clockwork parts. They were clockwork so that they could function if electric to the ship was compromised.
The androids were able to heat themselves if frozen solid and also expend excess fluid from their clockwork parts. The Clockwork Men tried to decapitate Madame de Pompadour at the age of 37, but were stopped by the Doctor when he crashed through one of the time windows connecting them to the ship. When the Doctor revealed that they would be unable to return to the ship, and thus had no purpose left (as they couldn’t fix it if they couldn’t get to it), the androids shut down due to this lack of purpose.