Editing Great One (White Darkness)

{{Infobox Species
|image = Cthulhu_(The_Lovecraft_Invasion).jpg
|aka = [[Great Old One]]
|only = White Darkness (novel)
|individuals = [[Cthulhu]]
}}According to some accounts, the beings remembered in occult [[Earth]] lore as the [[Great Old One]]s were a specific race of powerful interdimensional beings, known in their prime as the '''Great Ones''', who held dominion over a number of [[planet]]s around [[15 (number)|15]] [[million]] [[year]]s before the [[20th century]]. The [[Seventh Doctor]] prevented one of these Great Old Ones, ([[PROSE]]: ''[[White Darkness (novel)|White Darkness]]'') [[Cthulhu]], ([[PROSE]]: ''[[All-Consuming Fire (novel)|All-Consuming Fire]]'') from rising again in [[1915]] [[Haiti]]. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[White Darkness (novel)|White Darkness]]'')

== History ==
According to the Seventh Doctor, the Great Old Ones "originally came from [[Great Old Ones' universe|some other universe, other dimension]] – one of the [[outer planes]], most likely – and part of their being still reside[d] there". Among other planets, all of which had similar carvings as archaeological evidence of the Old Ones' presence, they were one of the groups which claimed mastery over the Earth in prehistoric times, having come there from a distant [[galaxy]]. 

There, they coexisted with the "[[Star People]]" and the "[[Silurian|reptile men]]" in a shared, advanced [[civilisation]]. However, over time, the reptile men "departed from the face of the world" (along with their [[Human|augmented apes]]) and the Star People fled back whence they came after their [[Shoggoth|genetically-engineered slave caste of servitors]] turned on them. Eventually, only the Great Ones were left. They were then besieged by [[Fendahl|"the unarmed predators who hunted with one huge fang and the touch of decay"]], and decided to hide their physical forms underground while shunting their [[consciousness]] into the [[Time Vortex]], where it rode on the [[Time Winds]], awaiting stellar alignments which would allow the reunification of mind and body, and able to telepathically influence cultists to make the necessary preparations for such an event.

[[Old One (White Darkness)|One such Old One]] buried its body beneath the island of [[Hispaniola]]. Its body's natural telepathic instincts became active for several days in [[1915]], seeking to control humans into performing rituals that would summon his full consciousness back into his physical form; however, he was thwarted by the Seventh Doctor. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[White Darkness (novel)|White Darkness]]'') 

=== Later accounts ===
{{main|Great Old One}}
According to later accounts, the Old One encountered by the Doctor in Haiti, [[Cthulhu]], was a member of a very different understanding of the "Great Old Ones", as a group of beings who had survived the death of [[pre-universe|the universe]] before [[the Big Bang]], and had gained [[god]]like powers in the new reality; he was thus the equal of the likes of [[Nyarlathotep]] and [[Yog-Sothoth]]. Though described in some accounts as merely a group of beings who had found a way to survive together, ([[PROSE]]: ''[[All-Consuming Fire (novel)|All-Consuming Fire]]'') other accounts of these Great Old Ones or [[elder god]]s speculated that they may have been an [[earlier race of Time Lord]]s. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Millennial Rites (novel)|Millennial Rites]]'', ''[[Divided Loyalties (novel)|Divided Loyalties]]'') Another member of this race was [[Lloigor]], otherwise known as the [[Animus]] of [[Vortis]]; ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Millennial Rites (novel)|Millennial Rites]]'', ''[[All-Consuming Fire (novel)|All-Consuming Fire]]'') the [[Second Doctor]]'s description of the Animus's kind as "the Old Ones" was midway between the two accounts, both referring to them as a specific race of conquerors with bounded ability, but also as survivors from another universe. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Twilight of the Gods (MA novel)|Twilight of the Gods]]'')
{{quote|The Animus is one of an incredibly ancient race sometimes called the "Old Ones". They are beings of great mental power, who regard all other life forms as inferior to themselves and suitable only to serve them or to be incorporated into their own substance as they grow and spread their influence.|[[Second Doctor]] ([[PROSE]]: [[Twilight of the Gods (MA novel)|Twilight of the Gods]])}}

== Behind the scenes ==
[[David A. McIntee]]'s depiction of the "Great Old Ones" in ''[[White Darkness (novel)|White Darkness]]'' as a race of powerful, but ultimately non-divine, "ancient aliens" is actually closer to [[H. P. Lovecraft]]'s usage of the term in {{wi|The Call of Cthulhu}} than [[Great Old One|later usage]] of the term in works by [[Craig Hinton]], [[Gary Russell]] and [[Andy Lane]] to refer to various spins on the idea of a panthon of eldritch beings from the [[pre-universe]], which established a lasting confusion in ''Doctor Who''/Cthulhu Mythos crossovers between Cthulhu's people the Great Old Ones, and the entities more commonly referred to in Lovecraftian lore as "the Outer Gods", "the Other Gods" or "the Elder Gods". In fact, in Lovecraft's depiction, the Great Old Ones worshipped the Other Gods in much the same way that human cultists might worship the Great Old Ones. 

== External links ==
* '''[[w:c:lovecraft:Great Old One|''Great Old One'' on the Lovecraft Wiki]]'''

[[Category:Other dimension species]]
[[Category:Psychic species]]