Divine Intervention

Divine Intervention
Leader:	Robin Bright-Thompson
Notable members:	Rafaella Hicks, Aisha Akhtar
First appearance:	Divine Intervention
Appearances:	AUDIO: Dead Time, Twisted Folklore, Snow, What Just Happened?

In one version of history, Divine Intervention was the organisation responsible for the subjugation of Earth and the Earth Empire. It traded people's freedoms for complete control over human history. Though the organisation's ultimate aim was to "protect" humanity from its own mistakes, under leader Robin Bright-Thompson, Divine Intervention would be responsible for humanity's end, in a doomsday scenario which would be the culmination of their efforts. (AUDIO: What Just Happened?)

History

Beginnings

At first, Divine Intervention was an organisation on 21st century Earth that recruited people whom they believed could influence economics, politics and the media to make "drastic, positive social change" with the aim of creating a utopia.

In 2020, Robin Bright-Thompson and Helen Sinclair encountered Divine Intervention and Robin passed their entry test. Robin believed that they were just a marketing company, but Helen thought that they were more sinister. (AUDIO: Divine Intervention)

Rise to power

Divine Intervention had complete control over Earth by 2050, having taken over from within. (AUDIO: The Long Way Round) In one possible future, projected by the Doctor's TARDIS, by 2035 they held the world at ransom, locking up "radical" individuals who would not do their bidding, and using threats on their lives to enforce "good behaviour", forcing prisoners' loved ones to perform atrocities, only to keep them alive. (AUDIO: Snow)

Divine Intervention maintained power, in large part, by controlling the narratives and written histories of those they sought to control, focusing on the next generation, who would no longer remember what the world had been before. (AUDIO: The Long Way Round, Twisted Folklore) They also ensured compliance by separating individuals from their loved ones. (AUDIO: Snow, Twisted Folklore)

Early on, Divine Intervention claimed ownership over all alien technology, (AUDIO: Snow) working to reverse-engineer whatever they could find, and making discoveries which would not be shared with the wider population. (AUDIO: What Just Happened?)

In the altered 2050 visited by the Eighth Doctor, Liv, Helen, Tania and Andy, Divine Intervention controlled the government. They were already being led by Robin, who disguised himself in a mask and called himself "the Doctor". (AUDIO: The Long Way Round) Over the centuries, Divine Intervention took control over other planets, drastically changing their histories, including Rarkelia (AUDIO: Twisted Folklore) and Judoonia. (AUDIO: Patience)

The Resistance was formed on Earth, and would spread in silence across the Earth Empire. They sought to dismantle this oppressive regime. Divine Intervention's faceless leader, known only as "the Doctor", became their primary target. However, no surviving member managed to pass on intelligence regarding his identity. (AUDIO: The Long Way Round, Twisted Folklore, What Just Happened?)

Robin's leadership

With Divine Intervention, Robin set himself up as dictator on Earth. He developed the technology which would massively prolong his own life, in a bootstrap paradox, wherein a younger Robin had been bioengineered with this gift on a future devastated Earth, during his first and only trip on the TARDIS. (AUDIO: What Just Happened?) Here, Robin had been told he would be important to Divine Intervention's grand plans for Earth. (AUDIO: Dead Time) He later reasoned his way out of all responsibility for wiping out his own species, supposing that, since the Doctor told him he would be responsible, Robin's actions were pre-determined, and entirely the fault of the Eighth Doctor. (AUDIO: What Just Happened?)

Early on, Robin displayed a mindset in which he regarded others as "worms", as completely inconsequential. He considered himself to be outside time, like the Doctor. Feeling abandoned by the Eighth Doctor, "stranded" in the 21st century, he reasoned it should be his responsibility to shape history, following through to the end, whereas the Doctor "evaded" his own responsibilities by allowing for free will. (AUDIO: What Just Happened?)

As "the Doctor", he was responsible for countless deaths, both from his position as head of Divine Intervention, and, more directly, by killing others himself, appearing at key moments as a masked figure. (AUDIO: The Long Way Round) While the Doctor pointed out Robin's actions were his own responsibility, he continued to maintain a distance from his own actions, claiming the Doctor was responsible for everything he had become. (AUDIO: What Just Happened?)

Eighth Doctor's involvement

In one version of events, in which the Eighth Doctor was not present to avert Earth Empire's genocide on Rarkelia, (AUDIO: Twisted Folklore) a small group of surviving Rarkelians travelled back in time to kill the Doctor, (AUDIO: Divine Intervention) believing him to be the same man as Robin, who took the Doctor's name, believing he was honouring the man who'd inspired him. (AUDIO: The Long Way Round, What Just Happened?) In a paradox which helped the TARDIS restore its inner dimensions, the Eighth Doctor allowed himself to be killed, knowing that the Rarkelians would never have come at all, if it was his own future influence on Rarkelia which brought them here. (AUDIO: Divine Intervention) In fact, it would be the restoration of the TARDIS in this very paradox, and Robin's first trip alongside the Eighth Doctor, which held this new timeline together. (AUDIO: Dead Time, What Just Happened?)

Afterwards, the Eighth Doctor and his companions travelled along this strange new timeline, trying to uncover the point at which it branched out from known history. Along the way, they discovered that the Resistance believed the Doctor was behind everything, (AUDIO: The Long Way Round) averted the crisis on Rarkelia, creating yet another paradox, (AUDIO: Twisted Folklore) and experienced one possible chain of events, in which Tania died in Liv's arms, having been left behind while the rest of the group travelled forward to 2035. (AUDIO: Snow)

In this averted timeline, she actually lived through the rise of Divine Intervention. (AUDIO: Snow) After reuniting with Tania in 2020, they resolved to take on a mission to uncover the man behind Divine Intervention, who called himself "the Doctor". Making a deal with the Resistance, the group used the Doctor's TARDIS to breach defences, and finally met Robin in "the Doctor's office", where they accidentally brought about the next stage in Divine Intervention's new history. (AUDIO: What Just Happened?)

Doomsday scenario

To keep his ranks in line, Robin developed a doomsday device. Likening this to nuclear war, Robin intended to employ this weapon only as a threat, to ensure the survival of the human race at all costs. However, during his long-awaited confrontation with the Eighth Doctor, in which the Resistance attempted to assassinate them both, Robin wiped out the Earth Empire to avert his own death. (AUDIO: What Just Happened?)