The Time Beetle was a member of the Trickster's Brigade. By physically latching onto a victim, the Beetle wa able to rewrite their timeline, feeding on the energy this process generated. (TV: Turn Left)
Biography[]
The Time Beetle was sent to Shan Shen through a mirror inside a silver puzzle-box by its master, the Trickster. The Trickster told the fortune teller to care for the Beetle, in exchange of which the Trickster would ensure she would see prosperity once again. At the time, the Beetle was quite small, smaller than one of its new keeper's hands. (COMIC: Turn Left Prequel Comic)
Some time later, the Beetle had evidently grown thanks to the people who had been fed to it, now being about as large as a backpack. (TV: Turn Left) Auteur, hiding out on Shan Shen, recognised the Beetle as an agent of "the Brigade" and told the fortune teller to feed a redhead called Donna to her master. (PROSE: A Better World) The Beetle crept onto Donna's back as her fortune was being read and rewrote a crucial choice in her life: her decision to “turn left” and go work for H.C. Clements, which led directly to her first meeting the Doctor.
However, because Donna was so central to history, the process created a “great big parallel world” instead of merely rewriting a small paragraph of the universe. Donna was able to reverse the change from within that new world, and woke up back on Shan Shen. Cut off from its energy source in the middle of feeding, the Time Beetle was blasted back, writhed on the ground in pain, and expired. Its remains were later examined by the Doctor who recognised it as a member of the Brigade. (TV: Turn Left)