Last Great Time War

For Time Wars in general, see Time War.

The Last Great War was the war between the Time Lords and the Daleks, which destroyed Gallifrey and left a few survivors.

The Dalek Emperor, one of the survivors of the war (DW: The Parting of the Ways)

History

Origins of the War

The facts of the Time War are little known, its origins slightly more so. At one point, the Time Lords predicted that in one possible timeline, the Daleks would make themselves the dominant life form in the universe. A Time Lord sent the Doctor on a mission to Skaro during the Thousand Year War with certain objectives:

• If possible, to avert the creation of the Daleks

• Otherwise to alter their development and make them less aggressive

• Find some intrinsic flaw or weakness to exploit in the Daleks

The Doctor believe he managed only to, perhaps, set back the history of the Daleks for a thousand years. (DW: Genesis of the Daleks)

Later developments

Subsequently, Daleks planned to infiltrate the High Council of the Time Lords with duplicates (DW: Resurrection of the Daleks) one of the Dalek Puppet Emperors opened declaration of hostilities; although the Daleks claimed that these were merely in retaliation for the Time Lords' sending of the Doctor back in time to prevent their creation.

The Etra Prime Incident (BFA: The Apocalypse Element) began an escalation of events. Lady President Romana made diplomatic overtures (NA: Lungbarrow) and attempted a Dalek-Time Lord peace treaty initiated by Lady President Romana under the Act of Master Restitution. (DWA: 206 Doctor Who Annual)

This Act enabled the Doctor to safely visit Skaro to retrieve the Master's remains. (DW: Doctor Who: The TV Movie)

The War

Weapons used by the Time Lords included Black Hole Carriers and N-Forms. The Daleks, wielding the full might of the Deathsmiths of Goth and launched a massive fleet into the Time Vortex. This war lasted for years and took place throughout space and time. One of the known settings is the planet Arcadia, where the Doctor fought on the front lines and which eventually fell to the Daleks. (DW: Doomsday) The last action of the Time War was by the Doctor, who destroyed all of the Daleks and Time Lords. He also removed all traces of both races out of time. (DWA: Doctor Who Annual 2006)

Aftermath and aftershocks

Otherwise, the war was unseen by "lower species" but devastating to the time-aware "higher" ones.

The Nestene Consciousness' justified its 2005 invasion of Earth due to its "protein planets" being destroyed in the war (DW: Rose). The Forest of Cheem also knew of the war and its effects on the Time Lords (DW: The End of the World). The Gelth lost their bodies because of the war, being turned into gaseous forms (DW: The Unquiet Dead). The Eternals apparently fled this reality in despair, never to be seen again, and the Animus died in the conflict. (DWA: Doctor Who Annual 2006)

The destruction of the Time Lords created a vacuum that may have left history itself more vulnerable to change. The Doctor told Rose that time was in flux and history could change instantly - a more fluid definition to that which had been seen before. (DW: The Unquiet Dead)

The most dramatic demonstration of this was when Rose created a Temporal paradox by crossing her own time stream to save her father's life just before his intended death in a traffic accident. This summoned the Reapers, who descended to sterilize the "wound" in time by devouring everything in sight. The Doctor stated that if the Time Lords had been still around, they could have prevented or repaired the paradox. (DW: Father's Day)

The consequences of creating a paradox were also why the Doctor could not go back in time and save the Time Lords.

As well, the Doctor noted that when the Time Lords were around, travel between parallel universes was less difficult, but with their demise, the paths between worlds were closed. (DW: Rise of the Cybermen)

The survivors and their fates

Time Lords

• The Doctor survived. He has stated that if any other Time Lords lived, he would have sensed their presence. (DW: Dalek)

The Doctor's survival may possibly have entailed a regeneration. Though he did not say so categorically, he implied unfamiliarity with his new face when he first met Rose Tyler.

Daleks

• A lone Dalek survived and crashed onto the Ascension Island on Earth in 1962 (DW: Dalek)
• The Dalek Emperor also lived, although he had fallen through time to approximately the 2,000th century and set about re-building an army from the DNA of Humans. (DW: Bad Wolf) Transformed temporarily into the Bad Wolf entity, Rose stated, "the Time War ends now", and vapourized both the Emperor and his fleet. (DW: The Parting of the Ways)
• The Dalek Cult of Skaro and the Daleks imprisoned in the Genesis Ark were able to escape into the Void. Apart from Sec and a few others, the Cult of Skaro and the other Daleks were sucked back into the Void. (DW: Doomsday)