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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
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 out of the Cthulhu Mythos, a shared universe based on the writing of H.P. Lovcraft and to an extent, some of his contemporaries. A few characters anc concepts 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, however, not until the novels White Darkness and then All-Consuming Fire and Millennial Rites had explicitly named Old Ones appear in fiction set in the Doctor Who Universe.
The latter two books took known Doctor Who enemies, such as the Animus and retconned them into having links to the Mythos. The Taking of Planet 5 revealed that the Cthulhu Mythos also existed in the form of fiction in the Doctor Who Universe. Though 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), stories set in the Mythos frequently contradicts itself.