Great Old One

Great Old One
Main aliases:	Great Old One
Biological type:	Pre-Universe being
Affiliated with:	None
Place of origin:	Pre-Universe
Appearances:	NA: White Darkness, All-Consuming Fire MA: Millennial Rites PDA: Synthespians™

The Old Ones, sometimes known as the Great Old Ones, were beings from before the universe, according to the Doctor. (NA: White Darkness, All-Consuming Fire, MA: Millennial Rites)

Folowing the demise of the last universe, they passed on into this one in which they discovered they had god-like powers with which they manipulated the universe. (MA: Millennial Rites)

The appearance and powers of the Old Ones vary from entity to entity. They all have, in Human terms, immense powers.

List of Old Ones by their Mythos names

• Azathoth
• Cthulhu
• Dagon
• Hastur the Unspeakable
• Lloigor
• Nyarlathotep
• Shub-Niggurath
• Yog-Sothoth

Notes

• The Doctor associated the Gods of Ragnarok with the Old Ones (NA: All-Consuming Fire), but we do not know their Cthulhu Mythos names.
• Though not an Old One itself, the Nestene Consciousness is the child of Shub-Niggurath. (PDA: Synthespians™)
• Though not explicitly described as such, the god-like Golgoth seems very clearly reminiscent of the entities of the Mythos. (DWM: The Cybermen: The Dark Flame)

Behind the Scenes

The Old Ones originated in the Cthulhu Mythos, which pre-dated Doctor Who. Some characters in televised Doctor Who, such as Sutekh (though based on an actual ancient Egyptian god) the Fendahl, had shown the apparent influence of the Mythos. Not until the novels White Darkness and then All-Consuming Fire and Millennial Rites explicitly named the Old Ones as existing in the Doctor Who Universe. The latter two books took certain known Doctor Who enemies, such as the Animus and explained that they had links to the Mythos. The Taking of Planet 5 showed that the Cthulhu Mythos also existed in the form of fiction in the Doctor Universe. The established Cthulhu Mythos and the Doctor Who version have some differences. The idea of the Old Ones originating before the universe originates in Doctor Who novels, for example.