Great hibernation
The great hibernation was the event in which the Silurians retreated into hibernation to survive an incoming cataclysm. (PROSE: The Scales of Injustice [+]Loading...["The Scales of Injustice (novel)"]) According to the findings of historians, there had in fact been multiple retreats as different triads or tribes of Silurians went into hibernation to avoid numerous disasters (PROSE: The Monster Vault [+]Loading...["The Monster Vault (novel)"]) including the origin of the Moon, (TV: Doctor Who and the Silurians [+]Loading...["Doctor Who and the Silurians (TV story)"]) infestations of the red leech, (PROSE: The Monster Vault [+]Loading...["The Monster Vault (novel)"]) and the extinction of the dinosaurs. (COMIC: Clara Oswald and the School of Death [+]Loading...["Clara Oswald and the School of Death (comic story)"])
History
Hibernations
A Silurian leader told the Third Doctor that the Silurians discovered a small planet which was approaching the Earth, calculating that it would draw off the atmosphere, destroying all life. In order to survive, the Silurians entered suspended animation until the atmosphere would return. We built this place, and suspended our lives till the atmosphere should return. The Doctor understood that this small planet was the Moon, and that the catastrophe anticipated by the Silurians had never happened. (TV: Doctor Who and the Silurians [+]Loading...["Doctor Who and the Silurians (TV story)"])
Soon after, the Doctor encountered the Sea Devils, who claimed to have lived alongside apes. These Sea Devils also recalled that their astronomers predicted that a great catastrophe would end all life on Earth. The Doctor likewise informed them that the catastrophe they predicted never happened, adding that the apes they left behind on the surface to die became humans. (TV: The Sea Devils [+]Loading...["The Sea Devils (TV story)"])
The Third Doctor repeated the claim to Marc Marshall that the Silurians built the shelters when they thought the planet would "suck away" Earth's atmosphere as it rushed by. (PROSE: The Scales of Injustice [+]Loading...["The Scales of Injustice (novel)"]) Conversely, the Fifth Doctor recalled that the Silurian astronomers predicted that Earth was about to be "struck" by the planet at the time. (PROSE: Warriors of the Deep [+]Loading...["Warriors of the Deep (novelisation)"])
Following the Fifth Doctor, (PROSE: Warriors of the Deep [+]Loading...["Warriors of the Deep (novelisation)"]) the Eleventh Doctor recalled that Silurian astronomers predicted a planet heading to Earth on a crash course. The Silurians then built life underground and put themselves to sleep for millennia in order to avert what they thought was the apocalypse, when in reality it was the Moon coming into alignment with the Earth. The Doctor revealed to Malohkeh that he knew this through his earlier encounter with the Silurians. (TV: Cold Blood [+]Loading...["Cold Blood (TV story)"])
A Silurian family were prepared to go into suspended animation due to the Moon coming into alignment with the Earth, which was misinterpreted as a threat. Kaya, a young Silurian, was upset when her her father told her that she could not bring her pet orangutan Leefa under the surface due to Eldane's orders, and she spent the next few weeks playing with Leefa and attempting to teach Leefa to talk. On the day of their hibernation, her father and his friend Malokeh made sure she was safe as she went into hibernation. (PROSE: The Little Planet [+]Loading...["The Little Planet (TBB short story)"])
Bleytal recorded that the Silurian Ark had gone far enough to avoid the "destructive impact" which had been forecast for the Earth. (TV: Dinosaurs on a Spaceship [+]Loading...["Dinosaurs on a Spaceship (TV story)"]) The Ark itself was launched on 4 June 100,000,000 BC. (PROSE: Time Traveller's Diary [+]Loading...["Time Traveller's Diary (novel)"])
Having lived through the so-called age of the Dinosaurs, the warrior-class Sea Devils survived the extinction event which wiped out their prey by plunging their aquatic colonies into a state of hibernation. (COMIC: Clara Oswald and the School of Death [+]Loading...["Clara Oswald and the School of Death (comic story)"])
Aftermath and legacy
With the absence of the Silurians, the primitive apes whom they saw as pests evolved into humans. (TV: Doctor Who and the Silurians [+]Loading...["Doctor Who and the Silurians (TV story)"], The Sea Devils [+]Loading...["The Sea Devils (TV story)"]) Nevertheless, stories of the Silurian Empire spread through the universe, with many alien species considering 21st century humanity to be insignificant compared to Silurians. (PROSE: UNIT History [+]Loading...["UNIT History (short story)"])
