The Black Archive was a secret vault maintained by UNIT.
It was relocated to theTower of London.
Function
It functioned as a depository of everything that shouldn't exist on Earth but did anyway, and required a UNIT level one clearance to gain entrance. (TV: Enemy of the Bane) The staff had their memories erased after every shift. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)
History
The Doctor, during either his second or third incarnation, aided in the foundation of the Black Archive. (COMIC: Don't Step on the Grass)
At some point, UNIT started keeping a particular eye on the Doctor's companions by taking them to the archive while they were separated from the Doctor; the companions' memories of the visit were subsequently erased, but UNIT kept a wall of photographs of the companions after confirming that they could be trusted (TV: The Day of the Doctor).
On 4 June 1972, UNIT bought the Tunguska Scroll from a private collector and placed it in the Black Archive. In 2009, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart smuggled Sarah Jane Smith into the archives to steal the scroll. (TV: Enemy of the Bane) During the same year, the Tenth Doctor sent Martha Jones there to fetch information on the Krynoid virus in the hopes that it might hold a key to stopping the Enochian invasion in Greenwich Park. (COMIC: Don't Step on the Grass)
In the 21st century, a vortex manipulator had been donated there by Captain Jack Harkness. Kate Stewart entered with Clara to show it. However, it tuned out that it was not Kate Stewart, but actually a Zygon duplicate of Kate, and the Zygons had infiltrated the base. Clara then used the manipulator to travel to 1562. The Zygons then had free reign of the base, believing with the amount of alien technology there that they could overrun the Earth easily. The genuine Kate Stewart then turned up, and activated the nuclear armed self-destruction mechanism the base had. The Zygon who was imitating Kate was able to shut it off due to it being voice responsive to her voice, but the real Kate could also countermand it, resulting in a deadlock between the two. Eventually the Eleventh, the Tenth, and the War Doctor turned up to stop her. They activated the memory erasing equipment in the ceiling, meaning the two sets of people forgot that they were human and Zygon, and stopped the self-destruction mechanism, saving themselves and the whole of London, resulting in peace talks between the humans and the Zygons. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)
Inventory
- Tunguska Scroll, stolen by Sarah Jane Smith in 2009 (TV: Enemy of the Bane)
- Magna-Clamps, (TV: The Day of the Doctor) identical to those recovered by Torchwood One from a crashed spaceship in Mount Snowdon, used by the Tenth Doctor and Rose Tyler to end the Battle of Canary Wharf. (TV: Army of Ghosts/Doomsday)
- The head of a Cybus/Cyber Legion Cyberman.
- The head of a Supreme Dalek (TV: The Day of the Doctor) identical to the one who led the New Dalek Empire. (TV: The Stolen Earth/Journey's End)
- A pair of red heeled shoes (TV: The Day of the Doctor) identical to the ones River Song wore on the Byzantium. (TV: The Time of Angels)
- Time Agent vortex manipulator donated by Jack Harkness circa 2013 (TV: The Day of the Doctor)
- Space-time telegraph originally given to Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart by the Doctor, allowing direct communication to the TARDIS (TV: The Day of the Doctor).
- A board containing photographs of all of the Doctor's past companions (Including a currently-unrecorded meeting between Mike Yates and Sara Kingdom) (TV: The Day of the Doctor)
- A Dalek tommy gun (TV: The Day of the Doctor) identical to the ones used by the Cult of Skaro on 1930 (TV: Evolution of the Daleks)
- Chair from the Naismith Mansion.The Master use it to tie The Doctor (TV: The End of Time)
- Half part of a Silent.
- Facemask of one of the Clockwork Droids (TV: The Girl in the Fireplace)
- Amy Pond's pinwheel (TV: The Eleventh Hour)
- The sonic probe used by older version of Amy (TV: The Girl Who Waited)