"Isn't nature wonderful?"

―A sarcastic James Lester on the Parasite.^[src]

Home time period	Late Holocene epoch
Creature type	Cestoid
Deaths caused	Tom Two Dodos
Appearances	Episode 1.4

The Parasite is a giant, parasitic cestoid that uses other creatures as hosts.

FactsEdit

The Parasite can spread through biting or kissing, and makes its hosts highly aggressive. It enters a host's bloodstream as larvae, and feeds off the nutrients there. It then matures and lays its eggs in the host's saliva to be passed onto a new host through a bite. It also causes the host to become unusually aggressive and easily provoked into biting other potential hosts, in order to increase the chances of the Parasite's eggs being passed onto other hosts.

As well as becoming highly aggressive, the host will also become highly sensitive to light, coughing and choking when they are exposed to bright light. Their eyes will also turn a bright bluish colour when angered or provoked. Eventually, due to the Parasite destroying the host's internal organs and attacking the central nervous system, the host and the Parasite will both die (though a Parasite was once shown to survive for what was stated to be a matter of hours after its host had died, and to leave in search of a new host).

It is possible to surgically remove a Parasite from its host, which will save the host in the process, but this apparently must be done within a short amount of time after infection; Cutter indicated that once the Parasite becomes advanced enough, the death of its host will become virtually inevitable.

HistoryEdit

Episode 1.4Edit

At least two Parasites were each carried in an infected Dodo through the Spaghetti Junction to 21st Century Matchroom Stadium. One of the Dodos died shortly after coming through the Anomaly. During the autopsy, the Parasite exited the Dodo and went after Abby Maitland, but it was trapped by Stephen Hart inside a jar. Without a host it then died.

The other infected Dodo was stolen by Tom and Duncan, and Tom was bitten and infected with the Parasite before the Dodo died. Tom then infected a medic with the Parasite, but the medic was instructed to have his Parasite surgically removed. Tom, and presumably his Parasite, later died at Matchroom Stadium.

Trivia Edit

• Some fans have speculated that the Parasite may be from the Future; it may have been carried in a host through a future Anomaly or the Spaghetti Junction to pre-17th century Mauritius. This would make it the first future creature seen by the team, not the Future Predator.
• The Parasite is the first creature to use humans as hosts.
• It's the first fictional creature in Primeval.
• The symptoms of the Parasite's influence are very similar to those of rabies and vampirism.
• The Parasite vaguely resembles the spawn of the Precambrian Worms, which are also parasitic but use a different method. While the Worm larvae simply burrow into the flesh of their host, the Parasites reproduce by contagion, passing from one host to the next.

External LinksEdit

• Parasite on the BBC America site
• Parasite on the Watch site