Earth's frozen period
For a sizeable period which overlapped with the 511th century, Earth existed in a "thoroughly frozen" state. The planet was no longer the centre of human culture, with almost all of Earth's history and culture forgotten and the planet being known as "Old Old Earth" due to the presence of New Earths.
This frozen state was caused by "a couple of nuclear winters and a large comet".
At some point, explorers on Old Old Earth discovered a natural cave in Arctic Skipton which had several preserved 20th century texts, including The Story of Robin Hood, Boys' Friend, Thriller Picture Library, The Captain, The British Boys' Book of Our Empire, Captain Justice and the Submarine Gunboat, and Sexton Blake and the Terror of the Tongs. These texts became the only frame of reference in the wider universe for Earth culture before the freeze, sparking the Terraphile craze. (PROSE: The Coming of the Terraphiles [+]Loading...["The Coming of the Terraphiles (novel)"])
Behind the scenes
- This period of Earth history is the setting of the 1967 novel The Ice Schooner, part of the Michael Moorcock Multiverse.
- In The Ice Schooner, only a single nuclear winter is mentioned. The second nuclear winter mentioned in The Coming of the Terraphiles may be the one depicted in the 1984 Jerry Cornelius story The Alchemist's Question.
- The Ice Schooner refers to this era as the "new Ice Age". Brian Hayles' Doctor Who and the Ice Warriors [+]Loading...["Doctor Who and the Ice Warriors (novelisation)"], a novelisation of his TV story The Ice Warriors [+]Loading...["The Ice Warriors (TV story)"], also refers to that story's Second Ice Age as the "New Ice Age". The original Ice Warriors TV story was broadcast a year after The Ice Schooner was serialized in New Worlds magazine, meaning that it was possible Hayles was inspired by the setting of The Ice Schooner.
