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Is this name really T:NPOV-compliant? Despite a degree of fandom prevalence, it's rarely used in-universe, most often to contrast specifically with E-Space. Also, there's another, unrelated universe called "N-Space" in The Ghosts of N-Space. Can't we find something better?
Talk about it here.
The prime universe of Gallifrey, also known as N-Space as well as many other names, was the home universe to the Renegade Time Lord known as the Doctor. (TV: Warriors' Gate, The Keeper of Traken, PROSE: Lungbarrow, etc.)
- You may be looking for Null-Space or Universe Three.
This universe existed alongside many parallel universes in the Multiverse, (TV: Army of Ghosts, AUDIO: Master of Worlds, Palindrome) which was itself a part of the Omniverse. (COMIC: The Glorious Dead)
According to the Eleventh Doctor, the universe was born alive, but it could only become aware of itself by developing sensors across its surface, known as life forms, each of which suffered a temporary delusion of separate identity during data collection - called consciousness - but in reality had little to no individual existence. (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor) At the dawn of its formation, an abstract entity called the Solitract attempted to join the universe's laws and concepts, but it was incompatible with the other "pieces" of its existence, and threatened their coming together into a single whole. It was only after banishing it to the Solitract plane that N-Space could properly form. (TV: It Takes You Away)
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The reason that good always prevailed in the universe (TV: Twice Upon a Time) was because of the actions of the Doctor, whose intervention in the lives and planets across time and space helped keep the universe together. (TV: The Time of the Doctor) In fact, Tecteun believed that the universe had been "tainted" by the Doctor's influence. (TV: Once, Upon Time)
The greatest threat to life in the universe came from the highly xenophobic species known as the Daleks, which sought to exterminate all non-Dalek life, (TV: The Parting of the Ways, etc.) resulting in them often coming into conflict with the Doctor, who always seemed to triumph over the exterminators. (COMIC: The Lost Dimension) The greatest enemies of each other, (TV: Victory of the Daleks, et. al) the lives of the Doctor and the campaigns of the Dalek race were both intertwined within each other, becoming one of the few, if not the only, constant in the Doctor's existence. (COMIC: Harvest of the Daleks)
According to the First Doctor, aeons were but a "blink of an eye" relative to his universe's lifespan. (AUDIO: Daybreak) Indeed, the end of the universe was projected to occur in either 60,000,000,000 (AUDIO: Zagreus) or 100,000,000,000,000 AD, (TV: Utopia) and it began 13,500,020,012 years before 2109. (PROSE: Transit) In yet another account, "four-and-a-half billion years" was referred to as "half the lifetime of the universe" by the Eleventh General and was the span of time separating the 21st century from the temporal position of Gallifrey at "the extreme end" of the time continuum. (TV: Hell Bent)
According to the Tenth Doctor, the universe contained millions, (TV: Planet of the Ood) potentially trillions of galaxies while constantly expanding. (PROSE: The Last Dodo)
More than one version of N-Space existed due to time being altered. Omega claimed to have witnessed an infinite number of realities in his observations of the universe's past and future changing, and tried to escape in one altered form of the universe. (PROSE: The Infinity Doctors) Different versions of the universe were known to have existed before, during and after the War in Heaven, (PROSE: The Adventuress of Henrietta Street, The Book of the War) by the design of the Council of Eight, (PROSE: Sometime Never...) before, during and after the Last Great Time War, (PROSE: Prisoner of the Daleks, Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe, AUDIO: Companion Piece) and during Total Event Collapse. (TV: The Big Bang) Alternate forms of the universe also existed in contained forms such as bottle universes, (PROSE: Christmas on a Rational Planet, Dead Romance) and the divergent timelines in the Axis. (AUDIO: The Axis of Insanity)
Names
N-Space
One commonly used name for the specific universe home to the Doctor and governed by the Time Lords was Normal Space, usually abbreviated to N-Space. The Fourth Doctor, Romana II and K9 used this name to refer to their home universe when visiting E-Space. (TV: State of Decay, Warriors' Gate, The Keeper of Traken, PROSE: Doctor Who and the State of Decay, Doctor Who and Warriors' Gate). One of the Carnival Queen's gynoids also referred to the universe as "Normal-Space" to Chris Cwej. (PROSE: Christmas on a Rational Planet) J, who lived in E-Space, was confused when he heard the Doctor and Romana talking about "normal space". (PROSE: O, Darkness Adric continued to think of the universe as "N-Space" while living in it. (PROSE: The Keeper of Traken Planet of the Elves) He referred to it as "N-Space" when speaking to Roz Forrester. (PROSE: Cold Fusion) Saya Rohar referred to the universe as "N-space" in relation to hyperspace. (PROSE: Piecemeal) A Gallifreyan historian used the term "N-Space". (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords)
Bendix and Rexton also knew their universe as "normal space", as distinct from hyperspace. The Eighth Doctor noted that his TARDIS was "shielded from normal space". (PROSE: Vanderdeken's Children) The Fourth Doctor told Harry Sullivan that Reavers materialise in "normal space" to devour anachronisms. (PROSE: Toil and Trouble) The Fifth Doctor, Tegan Jovanka and Vislor Turlough referred to their home universe as "N-Space". (AUDIO: Equilibrium, The Entropy Plague) The Fifth Doctor was surprised to receive a hyperspace distress signal that appeared to be coming from normal space. (PROSE: The Ultimate Treasure On Planet 81 a courier rocket could punch its way "out of normal space" and "into the hyperspace current". (PROSE: The Big Hunt) The Sixth Doctor explained to Mel that Tungard had breached "normal space" to access subspace. (PROSE: Spiral Scratch) The Seventh Doctor and Ace travelled from the time vortex into normal space. (PROSE: Sunday Afternoon, AD 848,988) The Seventh Doctor told Chris Cwej vampires were "a life form from a dark universe, perhaps a distillation of our nightmares from N-Space itself – the fear of our own blood". The N-form thought it sensed a traveller using an "N-Space conduit". (PROSE: Damaged Goods) K9 informed Sara Jane when Sam Jones no longer existed "within the parameters of normal space". (PROSE: Interference - Book One) Fitz Kreiner and the Eighth Doctor referred to their universe as "normal space" in different conversations. (PROSE: Autumn Mist) Kode remembered being dragged from the Cold "into normal space". The Eighth Doctor said he hoped the Cold did not invade "N-space". (PROSE: Interference - Book Two) Clare Keightley explained to Chris Parsons that the monitor in Chronotis' TARDIS showed its "exact N-space coordinates". (PROSE: Shada) The Celestial Intervention Agency repeatedly used the name N-Space for "the universe containing Gallifrey", "the N-Space universe of Earth and Gallifrey", and recorded how the Logopolitans created tunnels called "charged vacuum emboitments" from N-Space into several other universes, allowing its entropy to be siphoned out. (PROSE: A Sourcebook for Field Agents) Romana later explained to Ace that "[...] Gallifrey is a temporal anomaly. It exists not only in the Universe of N-Space, but also within its own exclusive time stream." (PROSE: Lungbarrow) President Flavia called it "normal space". (PROSE: The Eight Doctors)
Selvynkesh said the prison asteroid was there the Houses keep "everything they don't want to leave inside normal-space". Veeble later said the infrastructure of the prison was "off to an angle outside normal-space". (AUDIO: Movers) Tepes said that a "reality lock" separated Rassilon's workshop from "normal space". (AUDIO: Zagreus) When the Tenth Doctor and Donna fled the Family of Blood, the TARDIS vibrated as it ancient engine "extracted it from normal space". (PROSE: Blood Will Out) Captain Dan Laker found himself staring at the transition point between "normal space" and a wormhole. (PROSE: Deep Time) Mictlan became a micro-universe when it "detached from the surface of normal space". (PROSE: The Taking of Planet 5)) A black ship "re-entered normal space" over Bornea for Mr Quixotl's auction. (PROSE: Alien Bodies) When Clarence entered the Mind of God, a drone told him he was "not inside normal space any more." (PROSE: Where Angels Fear) Benny noticed that the S-Stone drive's effects were nothing like the the supralight of hyperspace, and instead looked like travelling through normal space at impossible velocities. (PROSE: Walking to Babylon) After their ship hit a temporal wave front, Benny and Jason Kane found themselves in "what appeared to be normal space". (PROSE: Oblivion) The Factory "phased into normal space" around Canopus II. (PROSE: Ghost Devices) When the Inner World was destroyed, its inhabitants were pulled "back into normal space". (PROSE: Down) Bernice felt relief when she dropped from a turbulent hyperspace journey "back into normal space". (PROSE: Beyond the Sun) Sasha woke when her ship returned to normal space after a jump to light speed. (PROSE: Mutually Assured Survival) The weapon Son 11-21 injured itself travelling from its trapdoor universe "into normal space". (PROSE: Keeping Up with the Joneses)
The Seventh Dovto showed Benny a Time Lord game where the loser is the one who lets an object drop a hypercube into normal space. (PROSE: Love and War) The Broadsword dropped out of hyperspace into normal space for one hour to test firing its weapons. (PROSE: Shadowmind) Ace thought the Terran ship was the fastest she had ever travlled in normal space. (PROSE: Theatre of War) Romana told Benny the Great Vampire planned to bring his horde back into normal space from E-Space. (PROSE: Blood Harvest) The Doctor saw a tortuous geography with Winterdawn outside of normal space. (PROSE: Falls the Shadow (novel) Ms Cohen felt a lurch in her stomach as the ship she was on "dropped back into normal space" from hyperspace. (PROSE: Set Piece) A wormhole could be defined as a "hyperspace tunnel through normal space". (PROSE: Shakedown) After a "hyperwalk", Penelope "appeared in normal space ten feet above the ground". (PROSE: The Room with No Doors) A black obelisk carrying Ruath "spun back into normal space" inside the Capitol's TARDIS bay. (PROSE: Goth Opera) The Rani taught a creature in the time vortex to divery vortex energy and "reach out into normal space". (PROSE: State of Change) Robin Goodfellow's people removed the Earth from "normal space" and transferred it ot a pocket universe. (PROSE: The Man in the Velvet Mask) Romana told the Doctor that she thought the last segment of the Key to Time could be used to move a ship "between normal space and hyperspace". (PROSE: The Shadow of Weng-Chiang) The Ark Royal had retro rockets to allow it to move in normal space. (PROSE: Cold Fusion) Chell asked Tramour'des if they could drop out of hyperspace "back into normal space". (PROSE: A Device of Death) Dolde saw his homeworld vanishw when his ship was "plucked so rudely from normal space". (PROSE: The Well Mannered War) In hyperspace Marco told his co-pilot Billy if they ejected themselves from the ship they would "pop back into normal space". (PROSE: Heritage) The Interstellar Cruise Liner Empress used a warp drive to enter hyperspace and emerge back into "normal space". (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Nightmare of Eden)
Other nomenclatures
This universe was the primary universe or primary reality to the numerous parallel universes which diverged from it. (PROSE: The Quantum Archangel)
Several nomenclatures were used for the universe with respect to other realities, including numerical designations. To the Division, their home was Universe One in relation to the parallel Universe Two. (TV: Survivors of the Flux) In relation to the Prime Universe and to the Fourth Universe, it was known the Third Universe. (AUDIO: 'Quinnis [+]Loading...["Quinnis (audio story)"], PROSE: Auteur's Abecedarium, Resurrection of the Author) When the Second Doctor, Jamie McCrimmon and Zoe Heriot visited one Space Time Universe, beings of the Life Force from the Eight Thousand and Ninety First Universe identified the companions as having come from the Five Hundred and Third Universe. (PROSE: A Thousand & One Doors)
The universe was also generally known within and abroad as the Totality. (PROSE: Collective Unconscious, A Bright White Crack) Users of Shadow-Space, an artificial pocket dimension, called it Home D. (AUDIO: Masquerade) Donna Noble once referred to it as "the Doctor's world" in relation to the parallel timeline created by the Time Beetle. (TV: Turn Left)
The denizens of the Infernal Regions referred to Jason Kane's universe as the Phantasmagorical Regions. (PROSE: The Door into Bedlam)
Not all of the universe was explored or fully understood, leading to the recorded parts of the universe being referred to as the known universe. (TV: Planet of Evil, The Invasion of Time) However, this term was also used to refer to the universe as a whole, as in being "known" to its inhabitants. (TV: Survivors of the Flux)
Omega knew his native universe as it existed outside the anti-matter universe as the universe of matter and the real universe. (PROSE: The Infinity Doctors) Bernice Summerfield and the Seventh Doctor identified their universe as the "real universe", with the Silurian Earth being a sub-universe. (PROSE: Blood Heat)
Pyke-Xi Raul once referred to his native universe as "the Bellbreaker's Cradle". (PROSE: Wringing Off)
Properties
Structure of time
Before the anchoring of the thread, the universe was unstructured and chaotic. (PROSE: The Book of the War) There were no laws of physics, only infinite possibility, (PROSE: Christmas on a Rational Planet) and "time ran wild". (TV: War of the Sontarans) Magick and science coexisted in the universe, although magick predominated. (PROSE: So Vile a Sin)
During the Dark Times, the Time Lords placed six Mouri in the Temple of Atropos on the planet Time to channel all time in this universe and anchor it to a single timeline, (TV: Once, Upon Time) creating the Web of Time. The Eye of Harmony, a star frozen on the verge of collapse into a black hole which Rassilon brought to Gallifrey, acted as the "hitching post" for the Web. (AUDIO: Neverland)
The anchoring purged the universe of all irrationality, (PROSE: Christmas on a Rational Planet) with magick banished from the universe. (PROSE: So Vile a Sin) Some Time Lords theorised that binding the universe to a single continuity had created anti-time, the equivalent to time as anti-matter was to matter. These theories were proven correct with the discovery of a negative counterpart of the Web of Time composed of anti-time, known as the Antiverse. (AUDIO: Neverland)
The course of time in the universe could be altered, with most events being in constant flux with other possibilities according to Marnal. (PROSE: The Gallifrey Chronicles) The Trickster and his Brigade sought to deliberately alter events to create chaos, (TV: Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?, Turn Left) as did the Sirens of Time. (AUDIO: The Sirens of Time) In some cases when specific events were removed from the Web, analogous events would take their place, (PROSE: The Left-Handed Hummingbird) such as the Tenth Doctor's attempt to save Adelaide Brooke in 2059 which shaped the same course with only minor alterations after she defied his attempt to alter events by committing suicide. (TV: The Waters of Mars) On other occasions, alterations to events created entire alternate timelines, such as the Daleks' use of time travel to invade and occupy Earth in the 21st century, (TV: Day of the Daleks) technology being taken from the Seventh Doctor and Ace whilst captive at Colditz Castle enabling the Nazis to win World War II, (AUDIO: Colditz) and the Black Guardian preventing the Doctor ever leaving Gallifrey. (COMIC: Time & Time Again)
However, some events called fixed points had effects so significant that they would cause significant disruption to the Web if changed, (PROSE: Attack of the Cybermen) such as the destruction of Pompeii in 79, (TV: The Fires of Pompeii) the Eleventh Doctor's supposed death at Lake Silencio in 2011, (TV: The Wedding of River Song) and Jack Harkness being alive. (TV: Utopia, AUDIO: The Death of Captain Jack) Time Lords knew which points were fixed and which were not. (TV: The Fires of Pompeii, Cold Blood)
Entropy
Because of entropy, N-Space should have ceased to exist as a result of heat death some time before the 20th century in the Humanian Era, if not for the Logopolitans. The Logopolitans used Block Transfer Computations to create the CVEs to vent entropy from N-Space into E-Space. (TV: Logopolis) Sometimes the CVEs also allowed physical objects to travel from N-Space into E-Space. (TV: Full Circle)
Co-ordinates
Unlike E-Space, which used coordinates with a negative value, relative to the navigational system of the Doctor's TARDIS, N-Space used positive coordinates. The Fourth Doctor suggested, then, that N-Space was a positive universe and E-Space its negative counterpart.
The TARDIS scanner continued to show images of N-Space even after materialising on Alzarius, which had the same co-ordinates as Gallifrey, though reversed. The Doctor suggested that, rather than relaying visual information, the scanner operated off the absolute value of the co-ordinates and could not process negative coordinates. The scanner system was made functional by replacing its original N-Space image translator with one native to E-Space. (TV: Full Circle)
The Gateway, whose co-ordinates had a zero value (neither positive nor negative) served as a place of transit between N-Space and E-Space. (TV: Warriors' Gate)
The Temple of Atropos also had space-time co-ordinates of "zero", which the Thirteenth Doctor thought was impossible. (TV: War of the Sontarans)
Transit points
The Tenth Doctor claimed that when the Time Lords existed travel between this universe and other parallel realities was easy. After the Time War however the walls of reality had closed, making it much harder. (TV: Rise of the Cybermen)
Entering the event horizon of a black hole could enable travel to places outside of the universe, such as the Anti-matter universe where Omega was trapped. (TV: The Three Doctors, PROSE: The Infinity Doctors) Irving Braxiatel piloted his TARDIS to the Beyond via a black hole. (AUDIO: Beyond)
At the edge of the known universe on Zeta Minor, a "pool" of anti-matter existed which appeared to lead to a dimension of anti-matter. (TV: Planet of Evil)
Objects could pass from N-Space to E-Space through a Charged Vacuum Emboitement (CVE), as occurred accidentally to the Doctor's TARDIS. (TV: Full Circle) The CVEs were opened by the Block Transfer Computations of the Logopolitans, in an attempt to delay the universe's succumbing to entropy. After the destruction of Logopolis, only one CVE was left open, (TV: Logopolis) though in a later aborted timeline the Time Lords opened one in an attempt to divert a sentient wave of entropy from N-Space to another universe. (AUDIO: Masterful) Other means to reach E-Space existed, including the Gateway. (TV: Warriors' Gate) The Great Vampire travelled to E-Space from N-Space by means unknown, as did the human ship, the Hydrax. The Doctor surmised that the Hydrax was intentionally brought into E-Space by the Great Vampire. (TV: State of Decay) The Doctor helped the Hermes travel from E-Space to N-Space by using his TARDIS to connect a gravitational anomaly in N-Space to the event horizon of a black hole in E-Space, which the Hermes was flying into. (AUDIO: Messages from the Dead)
The escape of the Cult of Skaro's Void Ship left a crack in the Time Vortex, (TV: Doomsday) which the Tenth Doctor's TARDIS fell through, arriving on a parallel Earth. (TV: Rise of the Cybermen) The Doctor closed the crack after returning to the universe. (TV: The Age of Steel)
A breach in reality existed above London. The Torchwood Institute opened it by firing particle guns at it, in doing so colliding N-Space with a parallel universe where a parallel Torchwood performed similar experiments. The experiments with the breach also enabled the Cult of Skaro's Void Ship to re-enter the universe, breaking down the barriers sufficiently that the Cybermen of the parallel universe were able to use the breach to cross from one universe to the other, followed by the Preachers. The Tenth Doctor closed the breach by opening it fully on his universe's side to pull in all lifeforms contaminated with "Void stuff", saturating the breach in doing so. (TV: Army of Ghosts, Doomsday)
The effects of Davros's Reality Bomb weakened the barriers of the universe such that travel between universes became possible again. After the detonation of the Reality Bomb was foiled, the barriers were reinstated in a process the DoctorDonna called dimensional retroclosure. (TV: Journey's End)
The universe's time tracks crossed with those of the Fourth universe, enabling travel between them. (AUDIO: Quinnis [+]Loading...["Quinnis (audio story)"])
A small rip in reality linked the universe to that of the Scratchman. Through this tear Scratchman was able to make small bargains with individuals, and eventually he lured the Fourth Doctor in an attempt to widen the breach to gain full access to the universe. (PROSE: Scratchman)
The Cybermen of the Cyber-Mainframe formed a gateway to N-Space via technology they'd seeded on Earth. (AUDIO: Telepresence, Code Silver)
During the Time War the Dalek Time Strategist created a portal to the Multiverse, finding itself in a parallel universe where Davros had never created the Daleks. The portal was later destroyed by the Daleks. (AUDIO: Palindrome)
N-Space existed side-by-side with a reservoir of evil that was made of manifest suffering and fear. There were weak points that Dr Colin Dove termed "synapses" through which, at perihelion when the two worlds were at their closest, the evil force could come through with the help of powerful sensitives. The land that Hawthorne was built upon was one such example. (HOMEVID: The Zero Imperative)
History
- For a detailed, N-Space-focused history, see timeline.
Origin
- Main article: Event One
During the first period, there was an "empty void", (TV: Terminus) then matter exploded outward in the form of hydrogen. (TV: Castrovalva) Event One filled the multiverse with new matter, new energy, and new life. (PROSE: The Quantum Archangel) The Vondrax were believed to have been born nanoseconds after the Big Bang, making them the oldest species in the universe. (PROSE: Trace Memory)
Dark Times
- Main article: Dark Times
Life in the universe began in the Dark Times, with the Old Ones emerging in the First Proliferation. (PROSE: The Knight, The Fool and The Dead) The earliest known species included the Hond, (COMIC: Defender of the Daleks) the Kamishi, also known as the First Race. (AUDIO: The Rulers of the Universe) and the Olympians, which spread life across the rest of the universe using the life spores. (COMIC: The Life Bringer!) After a millennia lying low, the Kotturuh began spreading across the universe to distribute mortality, instigating the Kotturuh crisis. (PROSE: The Guide to the Dark Times)
The Dark Times saw the height of the Old Ones, who were "giants of the universe" according to the Tenth Doctor. These included the Racnoss, Jagaroth and Exxilons. (PROSE: The Knight, The Fool and the Dead)
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The Time Lords of Gallifrey, as the first sentient culture to develop within their universe, (PROSE: Lucifer Rising) were responsible for setting the parameters within which the universe operated. (PROSE: Sky Pirates!) Their civilisation was founded by Rassilon, (TV: The Deadly Assassin) Omega, (TV: The Three Doctors) and an other, (PROSE: Remembrance of the Daleks) after the overthrow of the Pythia. (PROSE: Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible) The founders of Gallifrey achieved the power for time travel through the detonation of the star Qqaba, (COMIC: Star Death) though Omega was lost to the anti-matter universe in the process, (TV: The Three Doctors) and the ability to regenerate through experimenting on the Timeless Child. (TV: The Timeless Children)
The Time Lords expunged magic in favour of science as the basic governing principle, (PROSE: Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible, Christmas on a Rational Planet) and also established the morphic field that favoured the development of humanoid life. (PROSE: Lucifer Rising) They established the Web of Time which guaranteed the universe a stable, linear history, (AUDIO: Neverland) achieving control of time through the six Mouri in the Temple of Atropos on the artifical planet Time. (TV: Once, Upon Time) The Time Lords held absolute power, (TV: The Ultimate Foe) however after using his technology to examine the future Rassilon learnt of another species, the Divergence, that would one day eclipse Time Lords. To prevent this he confined them to their own timeline in a time loop. (AUDIO: Zagreus) The Time Lords' new control of time did meet opposition, with the two Ravagers embarking on the Founding Conflict to overthrow what they deemed the Time Lords' heresy. (TV: Once, Upon Time)
The young universe saw many conflicts such as the war between Gallifrey and the Great Vampires, (TV: State of Decay, PROSE: The Pit) the Racnoss Wars, (AUDIO: Empire of the Racnoss) the Time Wars, (COMIC: Black Sun Rising, PROSE: Sky Pirates!) and the Great Inferno. (COMIC: Terrorformer) Two alliances were known to have been formed during this era, the Fledgling Empires and the Alliance of Races, both including Gallifrey. (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords, COMIC: Terrorformer)
Following disastrous interventions on Klist, Plastrodus 14, (PROSE: The Quantum Archangel) and Minyos, the Time Lords adopted a strict policy of non-interference, whereby they would only observe the wider universe. (TV: Underworld) In secret, the Division continued interventions for when policy and reality diverged, (TV: The Timeless Children) as did the Celestial Intervention Agency. (TV: The Deadly Assassin) Notably the Division resolved the Siege of Atropos, where the Ravagers had evicted the Mouri from the Temple of Atropos and jeopardised the Time Lords' control of time. After the Fugitive Doctor restored the Mouri, returning time to normal, the Ravagers were captured and imprisoned. (TV: Once, Upon Time)
In 150 million BC, the threat of the Mad Mind of Bophemeral led to numerous species collaborating against it in the Millennium War, which lasted a thousand years. After the Mind's defeat, the Guardians of Time erased all memory of the conflict. (PROSE: The Quantum Archangel)
The Doctor's travels
- Main article: The Doctor
The Doctor ran away from Gallifrey for "many pressing reasons". Travelling across time and space righting wrongs, the Doctor had a profound impact on the universe, (TV: Twice Upon a Time) becoming a "figure of legend" (TV: For Tonight We Might Die) who fought evil where-ever and when-ever they found it. (TV: Twice Upon a Time, et. al) They left a particular impact on Earth, with the police box shape of their TARDIS even becoming a part of humanity's race memory. (COMIC: Hunters of the Burning Stone) The Doctor was a part of the Thals' legends, (TV: Planet of the Daleks) a noble of Draconia, (TV: Frontier in Space) and remembered in the Ood's songs. (TV: Planet of the Ood) River Song believed that the meaning of the word doctor itself derived from him. (TV: A Good Man Goes to War)
Due to repeatedly foiling their plans, the Doctor became the sworn enemy of the Daleks, known in their legends as "the Oncoming Storm". (TV: The Parting of the Ways) It was the Doctor who kept the Daleks in check and stopped them from conquering all of space and time, (COMIC: The Lost Dimension) only for that to make the Daleks grow stronger in fear of them. (TV: Asylum of the Daleks) The Doctor also became a sworn enemy of the Sontarans, (TV: The Sontaran Stratagem) the Black Guardian, (TV: The Visitation) the Cybermen, the Nestene Consciousness, and countless other foes they bested in the name of protecting the universe. (PROSE: Revenge of the Nestene) As was observed by Joan Redfern, one could not have the Doctor without having the monsters as well, and vice versa. (TV: The Family of Blood)
Twice the Doctor was put on trial by the Time Lords for his interference in the universe, with the first sentencing him to exile on Earth, (TV: The War Games) and the second collapsing due to the revelation that the prosecutor was a twisted future version of the Doctor himself. (TV: The Ultimate Foe) On numerous occasions the Time Lords secretly used the Doctor as a deniable agent, most notably attempting to have him avert the creation of the Daleks. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks) There were also a number of other Renegade Time Lords who interfered in the universe, including the Monk, (TV: The Time Meddler) the War Chief, (TV: The War Games) the Master, (TV: Terror of the Autons) Drax, (TV: The Armageddon Factor) the Rani, (TV: The Mark of the Rani) the Corsair, (TV: The Doctor's Wife) and a Renegade who was known by the numbers of his incarnations. (AUDIO: The Eleven)
Linear history
The Jagaroth's interstellar empire grew beyond their ability to control. When their subjects rose up against them, the Jagaroth were reduced to only one ship. (PROSE: The Whoniverse) Four hundred million years prior to the 20th century, the Jagaroth travelled to the primordial Earth, only to find it unsuitable for habitation. In their attempt to depart, the ship was destroyed. The radiation generated by this explosion catalysed the development of life on Earth. (TV: City of Death)
Millions of years before humanity's era, the Silurians and Sea Devils dominated Earth. Their era came to an end when their scientists mistook the arrival of the Moon for an imminent threat, prompting the species to enter hibernation to survive. Due to the predicted cataclysm never happening, their hibernation system failed to reawaken them. (TV: Doctor Who and the Silurians, The Sea Devils) The Silurians also launched an ark into space. (TV: Dinosaurs on a Spaceship)
The ancient race of Dæmons from Dæmos studied other races, treating the universe as their laboratory. The Third Doctor believed that, circa 100,000 years BC, the Dæmons arrived on Earth and helped the humans to overcome the Neanderthals before trying to lead their evolution and development. (TV: The Dæmons) A Dæmon was one of the only beings to successfully travel to the edge of the universe. (COMIC: Voyage to the Edge of the Universe)
"Ten thousand years" prior to 2009, according to the Tenth Doctor, the war between the Sontarans and the Rutans began. (TV: The Poison Sky) Prior to the non-interference policy, Gallifrey attempted to arbitrate to no avail. (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords) The war raged for thousands of years, (TV: The Sontaran Experiment) and on a thousand worlds across Mutter's Spiral. (PROSE: A Soldier's Education)
The Exxilons influenced the development of many early civilisations. (TV: Death to the Daleks) They visited Earth during the early stages of the Incan civilisation, (PROSE: The Left-Handed Hummingbird) and Yemaya 4. (PROSE: SLEEPY) Eventually they decided to pool their technology into the Great City of the Exxilons, (TV: Death to the Daleks) planting beacons on other worlds to drain the natives' mental energy for the City. (AUDIO: The Exxilons) Eventually, the sentient City decided that the only flaw left was the Exxilons themselves and drove them out. The City drained all the energy from the planet Exxilon, which meant the Exxilons were incapable of using any technology above the stone age. (TV: Death to the Daleks)
Approximately seven thousand years before the 20th century, the Osirans had contact with the Egyptian civilisation on Earth, inspiring their mythology, (TV: Pyramids of Mars) as well as with the people of Mars. (PROSE: GodEngine) After Sutekh seized the Osiran throne by killing Osiris, (AUDIO: The Ship of a Billion Years) Osiris was resurrected as Horus and a time war for the Osiran throne ensued. (AUDIO: Ozymandias) As recalled by the Fourth Doctor, Sutekh destroyed the Osiran home planet, Phaester Osiris, and subsequently left a "trail of havoc across half the galaxy". (TV: Pyramids of Mars) Fighting between the Osirans occurred on Youkali. (PROSE: Return of the Living Dad) Horus ultimately triumphed with the aid of Faction Paradox and Sutekh was imprisoned. (AUDIO: The Judgment of Sutekh) Sutekh was frozen in place within an Egyptian pyramid by a signal broadcast from the Eye of Horus, kept in a pyramid on Mars. (TV: Pyramids of Mars) Following the defeat of Sutekh, Horus placed himself in suspended animation in the Black Pyramid on Beta Osiris. (PROSE: Scarab of Death) Eventually the Osirans created a gateway to enable them to depart the universe for a higher one of four dimensions rather than three, leaving behind Anubis to oversee the gate and as a precaution against Sutekh's escape. (COMIC: Spiral Staircase, Sins of the Father)
Circa 1000 BC, the Dark Empire ruled by the immortal tyrant Horath dominated Mutter's Spiral. Horath was eventually overthrown, with his body and consciousness being separated as he could not be killed. (TV: Enemy of the Bane)
The Shadow Proclamation arose as a means of policing and regulating the many empires and interstellar dominions in the galaxy. While some races refused to recognise or sign up to its mandates, the Shadow Proclamation went on to have considerable influence, (PROSE: The Whoniverse) and employed the Judoon as enforcers. (TV: The Stolen Earth)
Centuries before the 21st century, (AUDIO: Red Dawn) Mars was ravaged by disasters and the atmosphere was no longer capable of keeping out radiation. This prompted the native Ice Warriors to abandon their planet, (AUDIO: The Judgement of Isskar) though some factions remained on Mars and its moon Deimos in hibernation. (TV: Empress of Mars, AUDIO: Red Dawn, Deimos) 11 World-Ships were among the exodus however became caught in the Great Desolatrix, a centuries-old cosmic storm that had rendered entire patches of the universe inhospitable. (PROSE: Red Planet)
On Skaro the Thousand Year War raged between the Thals and the Kaleds. In the last years of the war, Davros rose to power in the Kaled Scientific Elite, (AUDIO: Corruption, Guilt) and embarked on the creation of the Daleks, seeing to the devastation of both sides of the war so his new species could rise in their places. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks) Centuries later, the chance visit of the First Doctor to Skaro revealed the survival of the Thals to the Daleks, forcing him to lead the Thals into battle against the Daleks to prevent them detonating a neutron bomb to wipe out all life on Skaro bar themselves. (TV: The Daleks) This incident also alerted the Daleks to the existence of alien life. (AUDIO: The Lights of Skaro) Under the leadership of the Dalek Emperor, the Daleks began interstellar conquest. (COMIC: The Amaryll Challenge, The Penta Ray Factor, Eve of War) In building the Dalek Empire, the Daleks experienced a technological surge comparable to the Gallifreyans' own empire building. (PROSE: A Brief History of the Time Lords)
According to projections made by the Doctor's TARDIS, in 1951 an experiment by the Forge briefly opened a portal into the Divergent Universe, nearly unleashing the Divergence into the universe. (AUDIO: Zagreus)
In the late 20th century, Earth began facing increasing attention from alien life, coming under threat from the Great Intelligence, the Cybermen of Planet 14, Ice Warriors, the Nestene Consciousness, the Unzal, Axos, the Mega, Scorchies, Zygons and Kraals. These incursions were faced by the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce (UNIT), aided by the Doctor mainly in his exiled third incarnation. (TV: The Web of Fear, The Invasion, Spearhead from Space, The Claws of Axos, Terror of the Zygons, The Claws of Axos, AUDIO: Wrath of the Ice Warriors, The Unzal Incursion, The Mega, The Scorchies) UNIT's early history was complicated by temporal anomalies, with the conflicting dates of various operations leading the organisation to establish a dating protocol. (AUDIO: The Split Infinitive, PROSE: The Enfolded Time)
By 1981 the universe had passed the point where it should have succumbed to entropy. The Logopolitans used their Block Transfer Computations to delay the collapse by venting entropy through Charged Vacuum Emboitements (CVEs). The meddling of the Tremas Master caused this effort to collapse, unleashing a wave of entropy on the universe as the CVEs closed. The complete destruction of the universe was averted by the Fourth Doctor and the Master reopening a final CVE via the Pharos Project, venting the entropy. Logopolis and the entire Traken Union were among the casualties, (TV: Logopolis) with the area of space wiped out by the entropy becoming known as the Silver Devastation. (AUDIO: Cold Fusion)
In the 1980s, the Prime Mover struck a wrong note on the Event Synthesizer, which helped keep the universe running harmoniously, unleashing Melanicus from his imprisonment. Melanicus seized control of the Synthesizer and used it to instigate the Millennium Wars, for no other reason than to do it. The Wars encompassed a thousand different worlds and a thousand different time periods, until the Fifth Doctor and Sir Justin stopped Melanicus and restored the Synthesizer to the Prime Mover. (COMIC: The Tides of Time)
In 1986 the home planet of the Cybermen, Mondas, was destroyed. (TV: The Tenth Planet) This was a part of the Web of Time. (TV: Attack of the Cybermen) The Cybermen survived and went on to settle on Lonsis and Telos, (AUDIO: Human Resources) which they usurped from the native Cryons. (TV: Attack of the Cybermen) Over the following centuries, the Cybermen remained a major threat, primarily to humanity whom they sought to Cyber-convert, and waged multiple Cyber-Wars. (TV: Revenge of the Cybermen, Nightmare in Silver)
In the 1990s, the Reborn Master orchestrated an inter-dimensional crisis, endangering the structure of reality, so he could divert dimensional energy to the Tolians and use them to conquer the universe. After numerous incursions from other dimensions centring on Earth, the Seventh Doctor discovered the Master's plan and convinced the leader of the Tolians to stop him. (AUDIO: Dominion)
In 1997, knights from another dimension arrived in the universe at Carbury in search of King Arthur, battling the Seventh Doctor and UNIT. (TV: Battlefield)
In the 2000s, humanity again began to attract attention from alien life, which the Tenth Doctor attributed to them becoming noisier. (TV: The Christmas Invasion) These included a Slitheen gambit to reduce Earth to molten rock, to sell for profit, (TV: World War Three) and a invasion by the Sycorax which were both foiled by the Doctor. (TV: The Christmas Invasion) In the years that followed Earth was targeted by the Bane, (TV: Invasion of the Bane) Sontarans, (TV: The Sontaran Stratagem, The Poison Sky) the Skith, (COMIC: The Age of Ice) the Nestene Consciousness, (PROSE: Autonomy, AUDIO: Extinction) and the Monks. (TV: The Pyramid at the End of the World)
In the 2010s, Cybermen from another universe in the Multiverse invaded Earth, seeking a foothold to begin conquering the universe. They were repelled by the combined forces of UNIT and the War Master. (AUDIO: Code Silver, Master of Worlds)
The Kasaavin, who hailed from another dimension, spent centuries embedding themselves across the universe as a prelude to invasion. With the assistance of the Spy Master, they attempted to gain a foothold on Earth in 2020 but were defeated by the Thirteenth Doctor, who exiled them back to their realm. (TV: Spyfall)
Through the 21st century, Earth went through a period of chaos, including climate change, ozone degradation, the "oil apocalypse", (TV: The Waters of Mars) the Great Cataclysm, (TV: Aeolian) the hatching of the Moon causing high tides across the planet, (TV: Kill the Moon) and a Korven invasion in 2050. (TV: The Eclipse of the Korven) Despite this humanity made its first steps into the stars, with Adelaide Brooke leading the first settlement on Mars, Bowie Base One, (TV: The Waters of Mars) and the Moonbase hosting the Gravitron to control Earth's weather and T-Mat. (TV: The Moonbase, The Seeds of Death) Humanity successfully defended itself against an Ice Warrior invasion in the Thousand Day War. (PROSE: Transit, GodEngine)
After a failed invasion in the 21st century, (COMIC: Return of the Elders) the Dalek Empire twice occupied Earth in the 22nd century, (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth, AUDIO: Lucie Miller, To the Death) beginning a long enmity between humanity and the Daleks over multiple Dalek Wars. These included a brief incursion in 2223, (AUDIO: Vengeance) an invasion of Earth's solar system in the 25th century, (COMIC: Invasion of the Daleks) a galactic-wide war in the 26th century, (PROSE: Love and War, Prisoner of the Daleks) a Dalek plot against Earth in 4000, (TV: Mission to the Unknown, The Daleks' Master Plan) which escalated into the Great War, (PROSE: The Evil of the Daleks) and the Second Great Dalek Occupation. (AUDIO: Return of the Daleks)
In 2326, (AUDIO: The Cradle of the Snake) the Mara, an entity delighting in pain and madness, was created from the evil in the minds of the people of the planet Manussa, being given independent life via the Great Crystal. Ruling Manussa, the Mara founded the Sumaran Empire which lasted 600 years until the first Federator defeated the Mara by banishing it into the Dark Places of the Inside. (TV: Snakedance)
By the 26th century, Earth was the centre of a spacefaring empire. This empire faced an uprising of androids in the Orion system, leading to a protracted war, (AUDIO: Sword of Orion) had tense relations with the neighbouring Draconian Empire, resulting in a brief but destructive conflict, (TV: Frontier in Space) and made an attempt to exploit the Sense Sphere, home to the Sensorites. (TV: The Sensorites) By this time Silurians had been accepted into Earth society as "Earth Reptiles". (PROSE: Love and War) The empire collapsed in the 30th century, under the reign of Empress Forrester, (TV: The Mutants, PROSE: So Vile a Sin) who subsequently led the Earth Alliance, (PROSE: Flight of the Cyberons) a looser military alliance of Earth and its colonies. The Alliance fought against the Eminence, (AUDIO: Destroy the Infinite, Rule of the Eminence) the Cyberons, (PROSE: Flight of the Cyberons) and the Knights of Velyshaa. (AUDIO: The Sirens of Time)
By the 40th century, (PROSE: Legacy) the Galactic Federation existed, with its members including Earth, Mars, Alpha Centauri, Arcturus and Peladon. (TV: The Curse of Peladon) The Federation fought Galaxy 5 in a war, (TV: The Monster of Peladon) and was attacked by the Daleks in the 4010s. (PROSE: Legacy) The Federation's democracy was eventually brought down. (PROSE: The Crystal Bucephalus)
A new human empire, the Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire, existed by the 42nd century and spanned multiple galaxies. This empire oversaw the mass enslavement of the Ood by Ood Operations until a revolution liberated them. (TV: Planet of the Ood)
The Daleks became trapped in a logical stalemate in a war with the robotic Movellans, due to both sides relying on logical battle computers. They retrieved their dormant creator from the ruins of Skaro but Davros was captured by their human slaves who rose up against them. (TV: Destiny of the Daleks) The Daleks subsequently lost the war due to the Movellans developing a virus so rescued Davros from human custody in 4590, (PROSE: Resurrection of the Daleks) in hopes of him providing a cure, however he turned on them deeming them failures. (TV: Resurrection of the Daleks) Exploiting the ongoing galactic famine, he established himself as the Great Healer on Necros and secretly created a new species of Daleks. (TV: Revelation of the Daleks) This schism resulted in a civil war between Davros' Imperial Daleks and those loyal to the Supreme Dalek, culminating in a gambit by both sides to seize the Hand of Omega, which was actually a trap arranged by the Seventh Doctor to end the civil war and destroy Skaro. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks) Accounts differed as to outcome following this gambit, with one claiming the Dalek Prime subsequently arranged a civil war to assert its leadership over the Daleks, (PROSE: War of the Daleks) whilst another claimed a surviving Imperial Supreme declared itself Emperor and founded the Restoration Empire. (PROSE: The Restoration Empire)
The 51st century saw the Great Breakout, a new wave of human colonisation among the stars, (TV: The Invisible Enemy) whilst Earth endured a new Ice Age and World War VI against the dictator Magnus Greel. (TV: The Talons of Weng-Chiang) The Church was a spacefaring power in this era. (TV: The Time of Angels)
In the 53rd century, the Dalek Hive encountered Daleks of a parallel universe who had fallen into the universe at the Magellan Cluster via a spatial rift. (COMIC: Fire and Brimstone)
Circa 6087, (AUDIO: Wirrn Isle) humanity abandoned Earth due to the impending threat of solar flares, leaving a few hundred humans dormant aboard Nerva Beacon to resettle once the danger had passed whilst the rest of humanity embarked on a new wave of colonisation. (TV: The Ark in Space) The colonists reached the Andromeda galaxy where they fought the Wirrn. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Ark in Space, AUDIO: Wirrn Dawn) A single Wirrn queen made its way to Earth's galaxy and found Nerva, using the dormant humans to incubate its young and causing damage to the systems that prevented their awakening for ten thousand years. (TV: The Ark in Space) Whilst the planet was uninhabited, the Charrl occupied Earth for 3,497 years. (PROSE: Birthright) After Nerva was disturbed by the Fourth Doctor, (TV: The Ark in Space) Nerva colonists resettled on Earth, (AUDIO: Wirrn Isle) and humanity would later establish the Third, (COMIC: A Fairytale Life) and Fourth Human Empires. (TV: The Long Game)
By the 374th century the Morestran Empire covered 80 million light-years and contained 1427 inhabited star systems. (PROSE: Zeta Major) When Morestra's sun began to die, scientists pursued alternate sources of power. This pursuit led Professor Sorenson to take an expedition to Zeta Minor, the planet farthest out in the known universe, where he discovered anti-matter minerals that had come through a "pool" leading to another dimension. (TV: Planet of Evil)
Humanity would continue to exist in the latest eras of the universe, beyond the frontier in time which Time Lords were forbidden to cross. (TV: Frontios) Earth finally fell victim to the expansion of its Sun in 5000000000. (TV: The End of the World) In the planet's absence humanity was deprived of a common cultural reference point and the Posthuman era began. (PROSE: The Book of the War) The Ice Warriors also existed beyond Earth's demise, with a faction of them coming into conflict with human colonists on Hereafter. (PROSE: The Silent Stars Go By) A nostalgia movement motivated humanity to found New Earth in galaxy M87. (TV: New Earth)
Humanity ultimately survived even as the end of the universe neared. (TV: Utopia) The Cybermen also survived near the end of the universe, (COMIC: Supremacy of the Cybermen) as did the Sycorax. (COMIC: Agent Provocateur)
Last Great Time War
- Main article: Last Great Time War
The Time Lords fought against the Daleks in the Last Great Time War, "for the sake of all creation" in the Tenth Doctor's words. (TV: Gridlock) The war lasted for centuries in a linear sense, however it more accurately lasted an eternity as both sides fought across time and space. (PROSE: Engines of War) As the Gelth ambassador recalled, "the whole universe convulsed" during the Time War. (TV: The Unquiet Dead)
The war boiled out of control, destroying entire epochs of time and causing collateral damage to whole species, (PROSE: The Whoniverse) even embroiling a parallel universe. (AUDIO: Palindrome) The Gelth were reduced to gaseous forms, (TV: The Unquiet Dead) Eve's species was wiped out, (TV: The Mad Woman in the Attic) the Zygons lost their homeworld, (TV: The Day of the Doctor) and Nestenia, home to a rapport between the Nestene Consciousness and Embodiment of Gris, fell. (PROSE: Revenge of the Nestene) During the conflict, the Eternals finally forsook the universe, (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords) abandoning their "hallowed halls" as they "despaired" of this reality. (PROSE: Meet the Doctor)
Numerous species became embroiled in the fighting themselves, including the Deathsmiths of Goth, (PROSE: Meet the Doctor) Graxnix, (COMIC: Hotel Historia) Ogrons, (AUDIO: Planet of the Ogrons) Brancheerians, (AUDIO: The Uncertain Shore) Tharils, (AUDIO: Lion Hearts) Thals, (AUDIO: Temmosus) and Voord. (COMIC: Four Doctors) The Time Lords even allowed the Great Vampires into the universe to destroy a Dalek fleet. (COMIC: The Bidding War) The Sontarans sought to join the fighting but were dismissed by both sides. (AUDIO: The Eternity Cage) After regenerating into a warrior on Karn, (TV: The Night of the Doctor) the Doctor fought in the war and was responsible for the bloodiest campaign in the history of the known universe, partly known universe, and unknown universe. (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor)
By the end of the War, the conflict had descended into what the Tenth Doctor described as "hell", with the Skaro Degradations, the Nightmare Child, the Could've Been King and his Army of Meanwhiles and Neverweres involved in the fighting. (TV: The End of Time)
In the War's final days, the Daleks invaded Kasterborous, (PROSE: Dalek) and laid siege to Gallifrey. With the entire Dalek race bombarding the planet from orbit, "all thirteen" incarnations of the Doctor ended the conflict by relocating Gallifrey to a pocket universe, making the billions of Daleks accidentally destroy one another in their own crossfire. The rest of the universe believed that both sides had annihilated each other. (TV: The Day of the Doctor) The Tenth Doctor recalled that the Time War left the universe "hollowed out" with a billion galaxies reduced to ruins. (PROSE: The Knight, The Fool and The Dead)
At the cessation of the Time War, the constant shifting timelines which had defined the conflict resolved into a single version of the Doctor's universe, the Post-Time War universe. (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe, The Paradox Moon) Without the presence of the Time Lords, the universe became a more risky and dangerous place. Travel to parallel universes was seemingly impossible, (TV: Rise of the Cybermen) and the creation of time paradoxes had a much more dangerous effect. (TV: Father's Day, AUDIO: Divorced, Beheaded, Regenerated) Time travel became widely viewed as dangerous, leading to the collapse of Majenta Pryce's chain of time-travel based hotels, Hotel Historia. (COMIC: Hotel Historia)
Unaware of how the War had truly ended due to the timelines being out of sync, (TV: The Day of the Doctor) the Doctor believed himself and the TARDIS to be the last of their kinds. (TV: The End of the World, Rise of the Cybermen) His supposed status as the last of the Time Lords was known to the Krillitanes, (TV: School Reunion) the Trickster, (TV: The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith) and the Fatality Index. (TV: Extremis) In truth, two other Time Lords had survived, the Master and the Monk, (TV: Utopia, AUDIO: Divorced, Beheaded, Regenerated) and Gallifrey itself remained safe in the pocket universe. (TV: The Day of the Doctor) Similarly, the Daleks were believed to be extinct, with humanity, unaware of the war, knowing they had disappeared thousands of years prior to 200100. (TV: The Parting of the Ways) In truth, the Daleks survived through a single Drone, (TV: Dalek) the Dalek Emperor, (TV: The Parting of the Ways) and the Cult of Skaro. (TV: Doomsday)
Aftermath of the Time War
Power vacuum
In the power vacuum left by the removal of the Time Lords and Daleks various powers competed to fill it, including the Sontarans, the Cybermen, and the Unon. (COMIC: Weapons of Past Destruction) The Hajor too, after their dimension was damaged by a shockwave caused by the Time War ripping through their realm, attempted to become the new Lords of Time. (COMIC: The Futurists) The Discordia also took advantage of the Time Lords' absence to rampage through history, (AUDIO: Kings of Infinite Space) until being stopped by River Song. (AUDIO: Someone I Once Knew)
The Time Agency eventually asserted itself as protector of the Web of Time in the Time Lords' absence. (COMIC: Weapons of Past Destruction) Notably they developed a temporal superweapon, the Hourglass, based on a Time Lord weapon which was capable of predicting the outcome of events and removing individuals and locations from time in a time lock to prevent the events coming to pass if the Agency deemed it necessary. This was performed on an entire galaxy, L-10, until the Tenth Doctor intervened and exploited the consicence of the Hourglass to convince it to release the galaxy. (AUDIO: The Shattered Hourglass) Eventually the Agency was disbanded, having only 7 agents left at the time. (TV: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang)
Restoration of the Daleks
The Doctor's TARDIS fell through a crack in the Time Vortex into a parallel universe. Though the Doctor was soon able to return and closed the crack behind him, (TV: Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel) the Cybermen native to the Earth of this universe were able to invade that of N-Space by following the breach created by the Void Ship containing the Cult of Skaro, whom had survived the Time War hiding in the Void. The resulting Battle of Canary Wharf was only ended when the Doctor opened the breach to pull the Cybermen and Daleks into the Void. (TV: Army of Ghosts/Doomsday) The Cult however escaped to 1930 New York where they attempted to birth a new race of Human-Daleks but were foiled by the Tenth Doctor. (TV: Evolution of the Daleks)
The last survivor of the Cult, Dalek Caan, fled into the Time War itself and retrieved Davros. Together they founded the New Dalek Empire, which developed the reality bomb within the Medusa Cascade, a second out of sync from the rest of the universe. As a result, the barriers between the universes started to weaken. To power the bomb, the Daleks used a magnetron to steal 24 planets from N-Space in 2009, as well as an additional three planets from other time periods. The loss of the 24 planets came as an outrage to the universe, with the architect of the Shadow Proclamation declaring war, intending to seize the TARDIS to wage it. However, the Doctor purposely left the Shadow Proclamation behind as he confronted the New Dalek Empire, who intended to use the reality bomb to destroy the entire multiverse, save themselves. Ultimately, the Doctor and the Children of Time thwarted this plan and returned the stolen planets to N-Space, with the Meta-Crisis Tenth Doctor destroying the New Dalek Empire and the walls of the universe eventually started closing themselves, a process that the DoctorDonna called a dimensional retroclosure. (TV: The Stolen Earth/Journey's End)
A single saucer survived and exploited a Progenitor and the Eleventh Doctor to create a New Dalek Paradigm which resolved to return to the Daleks' own time and "begin again". (TV: Victory of the Daleks) After failed attempts by the Paradigm to dominate the universe via the Eye of Time and Eternity Clock, (GAME: City of the Daleks, The Eternity Clock) a new Dalek Empire was established, led by a Parliament of the Daleks, (TV: Asylum of the Daleks) and Skaro was restored. (TV: The Magician's Apprentice)
Survival of the Time Lords
Schemes of the Master
The War Master survived the Time War by hiding as a human using a Chameleon Arch at a time near the end of the universe. His true personality was awakened inadvertently by an encounter with the Tenth Doctor, whose TARDIS he stole. (TV: Utopia) The Master subsequently arranged a paradoxical invasion of 21st century Earth, by making a deal with the cannibalised descendants of humanity from the distant duture, the Toclafane, to enslave their ancestors. He converted the Doctor's TARDIS into a paradox machine to achieve this and ruled Earth for a year, intent on starting a New Time Lord Empire. The paradox was broken by the efforts of the Doctor, Martha Jones and Jack Harkness, undoing the invasion and sending the Toclafane back to the future. The Master was subsequently shot by his wife Lucy Saxon and refused to regenerate, leaving the Doctor the last of the Time Lords again. (TV: Last of the Time Lords)
The Master was resurrected by the Cult of Saxon and subsequently exploited the Immortality Gate to turn the entire human race into duplicates of himself. At this time he made contact with Time Lords from the final days of the Time War, via a White-Point Star capable of passing through the time lock, who intended to use him to initiate the Ultimate Sanction, tearing the time lock open, causing the destruction of the Time Vortex and the entire universe so the Time Lords alone could ascend into creatures of pure consciousness. The Sanction was stopped by the intervention of the Tenth Doctor who severed the link by shooting the White-Point Star, saving the universe. (TV: The End of Time)
Siege of Trenzalore
- Main article: Siege of Trenzalore
The Time Lords in the pocket universe identified a crack in time with which they could re-enter the universe. The Time Lords sent out a message through the crack which spread throughout the universe. Though it appeared indecipherable, every sentient being that detected the signal had a feeling of pure, unadulterated dread which led "half the universe" to Trenzalore, the planet where the crack was located and home to a small human colony. The Church, led by Tasha Lem, arrived first and sealed the planet off with a forcefield, enforcing an uneasy truce amongst the powers in orbit. She allowed the Eleventh Doctor access and he found the message to be the Question of his name; by answering, he would give the Time Lords the clear to return to the universe. Tasha refused to permit this, knowing the Time Lords' return would instigate a new Time War, and he in turn refused to abandon his people and the people of Trenzalore. This led a standoff, with Tasha committing the Church to the cause of the Silence by keeping the Doctor from unleashing the Time Lords and the powers in orbit from descending on Trenzalore, known as the Siege of Trenzalore. Over years numerous species launched incursions to Trenzalore to kill the Doctor and stop the Time Lords, including the Cybermen, Sontarans, (TV: The Time of the Doctor) Ice Warriors, (PROSE: Let it Snow) a Krynoid, (PROSE: An Apple a Day...) the Nestene Consciousness, (PROSE: Strangers in the Outland) a Tsunami Snake and the Krotons. The Mara also infiltrated Trenzalore, but in contrast to the rest actually wanted to force the Doctor to speak his name and begin a new Time War. (PROSE: The Dreaming)
The Kovarian Chapter broke away from the Church of the Silence, seeking to alter his past to stop the Doctor ever arriving at Trenzalore. They attempted to destroy his TARDIS, (TV: The Time of the Doctor) triggering a total event collapse, which, by nature, spread into the past as every sun went supernova at every moment in history, which would have led to the whole universe never having existed along with all other universes. (TV: The Pandorica Opens) The cracks altered events across time as they spread, creating a new timeline of the universe missing events such as the 21st century Dalek invasion and the march of the CyberKing in 1851. (TV: Flesh and Stone) Entire planets including Saturnyne and D4 fell victim to the cracks. (TV: The Vampires of Venice, PROSE: Student Bodies)
In a failed attempt to prevent the cataclysm, an alliance of species was formed and imprisoned the Eleventh Doctor in the Pandorica, mistakenly believing he was the only one capable of flying the TARDIS so was the only possible person responsible for the coming end of the universe. (TV: The Pandorica Opens) Eventually only the Earth remained as the eye of the storm while the remnant of the universe slowly collapsed, with the explosion of the TARDIS taking the place of its sun. In 1996, the Eleventh Doctor used the Pandorica, which contained a few billion atoms or "memory" of the old universe to reboot it in Big Bang Two. At the heart of the explosion, the Doctor was consigned to the never-space between worlds with all memory of him being erased from the universe, however, he was able to return because Amy Pond remembered him. (TV: The Big Bang) Ironically this incident caused the crack at Trenzalore to exist as "scar tissue" in the universe, meaning the Kovarian Chapter had become part of the history they were trying to change. (TV: The Time of the Doctor)
The Kovarian Chapter continued their War against the Doctor, attempting to manufacture a half Time Lord assassin, River Song, who ultimately rejected their conditioning to save the Doctor from her own assassination attempt. (TV: Let's Kill Hitler) The Silence then arranged a fixed point in time at Lake Silencio in which they forced River to shoot the Doctor dead. Her attempt to resist broke time, resulting in a broken history until the Doctor revealed he'd made arrangements to survive the shooting via the Teselecta enabling her to go through with it and restore time to normal. (TV: The Wedding of River Song)
Kovarian eventually learned of the ruse however and led another attempt to assassinate the Doctor, this time targeting him in his fifth incarnation. (AUDIO: My Dinner With Andrew) Killing the Doctor this early in his life had drastic consequences for the universe however, with stars disappearing, until River Song convinced the assassin, her clone sister Brooke, to alter history so she hadn't actually killed the Doctor. (AUDIO: The Furies)
400 years into the Siege of Trenzalore, most powers had retreated whilst the Daleks massed for war and compromised the Silence. With the forcefield weakening, Trenzalore descended into all-out war between the now allied Doctor and Silence against the Daleks. Centuries later, as the Doctor was dying of old age in his last incarnation, the Daleks won and closed in on the crack. At the urging of Clara Oswald, the Time Lords intervened by closing the crack and supplying the Doctor with a new cycle of regenerations, with which he saw to the defeat of the Daleks. (TV: The Time of the Doctor)
Fall of Gallifrey
Eventually, Gallifrey returned to the universe, positioned at the extreme end of the time continuum, for its own protection. (TV: Hell Bent) The Time Lords remained in hiding, at one point exploiting Missy to carry out an intervention so their involvement remained secret. (PROSE: Lords and Masters)
During this time, the Twelfth Doctor overthrew and exiled President Rassilon. (TV: Hell Bent) Rassilon subsequently made contact with a surviving faction of Cybermen and gave them the power to conquer all of time and space with Time Lord technology, rewriting the history of the universe into a new timeline. He and Cybermen conquered Gallifrey and planned to use the Time Lords' regeneration energy to regenerate the universe to their design at the moment of its ending, storing the energy within the Eye of Harmony. The Cybermen betrayed Rassilon however, intending to create the Age of the Cyberiad with the universe's regeneration, and so he worked with the Doctor to redirect the regeneration energy to regenerate the universe back to how it had been before his alliance with the Cybermen. (COMIC: Supremacy of the Cybermen)
Gallifrey was eventually ravaged by the Spy Master, after he discovered the secret of the Timeless Child. (TV: Spyfall) After the Master exposed the Timeless Child to the Thirteenth Doctor, (TV: The Timeless Children) the Division decided to abandon the universe for the next one, (TV: Survivors of the Flux) and enacted a plan to destroy the universe by unleashing the Flux in space on 31 October 2021 and releasing the two Ravagers in time. (TV: Once, Upon Time) The Flux destroyed "many galaxies", only failing to destroy everything due to the Thirteenth Doctor colliding her TARDIS with it. Earth was at the epicentre of what remained of the universe. (TV: Survivors of the Flux) A final Flux event, released by the Ravagers to destroy everything left, was foiled by the Doctor by sabotaging a scheme the Sontarans had devised to exploit it, so they were in the path of the Flux along with Dalek and Cybermen forces they'd deliberately lured there, and putting a Passenger form in its path. Combined, they had sufficient matter to resolve the Flux, (TV: The Vanquishers) saving the universe. (TV: Eve of the Daleks)
End of the universe
- Main article: End of the universe
N-Space was projected to end in varied times, including the years 60,000,000,000 AD, (AUDIO: Zagreus) 100,000,000,000,000 AD (TV: Utopia) and, in an alternate universe, 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (One hundred nonillion, 1032) AD. (PROSE: The Infinity Doctors)
One book claimed that moments before the end all that was left was the “starless void” space had become, several scattered individuals who had immortality, and Gallifrey. (PROSE: The Whoniverse) Ashildr was one of the immortals left at the end. (TV: Hell Bent) According to a projection made by the Doctor's TARDIS, the Divergence attempted to break into the universe in the final moments. (AUDIO: Zagreus)
Universal trends
The Twelfth Doctor claimed that the Time Lords of Gallifrey were the "most civilised civilisation" in the universe. (TV: World Enough and Time) They believed that their Matrix was the greatest source of knowledge in the universe. It was said that, upon being introduced to the Matrix, a President of Gallifrey would have more power than anyone in the known universe. (TV: The Invasion of Time) However, the Twelfth Doctor later expressed that even the Matrix had been surpassed by the Dalek pathweb. (TV: Twice Upon a Time)
The Second Doctor described Omega as "one of the most powerful blokes in the cosmos." (TV: The Three Doctors)
The Thirteenth Doctor claimed that a Dalek was the most dangerous creature in the universe. (TV: Resolution) Earlier, the Twelfth Doctor "welcome[d]" Clara Oswald to "the most dangerous place in the universe" when they entered the inside of a Dalek. (TV: Into the Dalek)
The Eleventh Doctor considered the Romans to be the greatest military machine in the history of the universe, greater than even the Daleks. (TV: The Pandorica Opens)
Jack Harkness recalled an Earth saying, taught to him by "a very old, very wise friend", "an injury to one is an injury to all". He went on to claim that when people acted according to that philosophy, the human race was the finest species in the universe. (TV: Children of Earth: Day Four) Earlier, he claimed that that humans were the only race to go camping. (TV: Countrycide)
Warning Ianto Jones against his cyber-converted girlfriend, Lisa Hallett, Jack told him that the Cybermen would be spreading out across the universe before he knew it. (TV: Cyberwoman) The Twelfth Doctor noted that many organic species across many worlds, such as Marinus, Mondas and Planet 14, inevitably made the choice to upgrade themselves into Cybermen, noting his foes "always [got] started". (TV: The Doctor Falls)
Kaagh, of the Tenth Sontaran Battle Fleet, believed that power was the most beautiful thing in the universe. (TV: Enemy of the Bane)
Sarah Jane Smith believed that, in all the universe, only the Doctor could know straight away and help fix the Trickster's perversion of history. Ultimately, however, Sarah Jane was forced to stop the Trickster without him on that occasion. (TV: The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith)
In 2009, Major Cal Kilburne, actually an undercover Bane, told Sir Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart that UNIT had to adapt to the challenges of a more hostile universe. Alistair, who served decades prior, considered that it did not get more hostile than in his day. Considering the prospect of joining UNIT, Clyde Langer was "ready to fight the scum of the universe."
Mrs Wormwood suggested that Luke Smith was "quite unique throughout the entire universe. Alone in its darkness, without blood kin. Just as I am." (TV: Enemy of the Bane)
Sarah Jane observed that once one had "seen the universe for real", nothing ever look[ed] quite the same again."
Androvax, who lost his homeworld, believed that the only truth of the universe was death and destruction, noting that all worlds would inevitably die. Luke acknowledged that there was destruction in the universe for billions of years. However, he noted that without destruction, the universe would not evolve, and that survival was really what the universe was about. Sarah Jane concurred:
Parts of the universe are dying all the time. Planets, stars, people. But the amazing part is that it isn't the end. It's only the beginning of something new and exciting being born.
She went on to claim that the "wonderful thing" about the universe was that "you just never know". (TV: Prisoner of the Judoon)
Eve was surprised to find that humans liked being scared, observing that the universe was full of nightmares and they made fake ones. (TV: The Mad Woman in the Attic)
According to Mr Smith, the Shansheeth were known throughout the universe as the carers of the dead. (TV: Death of the Doctor)
According to the Thirteenth Doctor, the Ux were found on only three planets in the whole universe. (TV: The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos)
Other references
The Fourth Doctor claimed that the Louvre was the only gallery in the known universe with a picture like the Mona Lisa. (TV: City of Death)
Jack Harkness observed that the Sex Gas travelled "halfway across the universe for the greatest sex" yet still ended up dying alone. (TV: Day One)
Before his memory was wiped, Mr Smith wished to "let the universe witness the power of the Xylok once more." He believed that the universe was better served by the survival of the Xyloks over the human race. (TV: The Lost Boy)
Jack Harkness boasted that he had "seen the universe." (TV: The Blood Line) He was told by Toshiko Sato, a fellow member of Torchwood Cardiff, that he had shown her the wonders of the universe. (TV: Exit Wounds)
Rupesh Patanjali recalled a woman who took her own life after the revelation of alien life to humanity, explaining that she saw her place in the universe to be tiny. (TV: Children of Earth: Day One)
The Tenth Doctor noted that the Trickster was a creature from beyond the universe, "forever trying to break in to our reality, manifest himself". (TV: The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith)
Sarah Jane observed that Androvax raged against the universe for the loss of his people. Clyde considered if a whole race of "body-popping aliens" was good for the universe, while Sarah Jane told him that Androvax's crimes did not mean his species was better off extinct. (TV: The Vault of Secrets)
Sarah Jane claimed that "in all the universe [she] never expected to find a family". (TV: The Lost Boy, The Man Who Never Was)
Behind the scenes
- Lance Parkin's Doctor Who reference guide AHistory refers to the programme's setting as N-Space throughout the text.
- The Doctor Who Illustrated A to Z printed in 1985 includes an entry on N-SPACE, saying, "Normal space is the universe in which the Doctor usually travels".
- Esdevium Games' Fourth Doctor Sourcebook printed in 2014 uses the term "N-Space" for the universe, and suggests a quest where a new threat forces E-Space's people to invade or possibly flee as entropy destroys their own universe, "making N-Space the aggressor".
- The radiodrama Ghosts of N-Space includes a Hell like dimension called N-Space, short for Null-Space. The Third Doctor Sourcebook explains it will use only the name "Null-Space" for the latter to avoid confusion with "our universe, since it is also sometimes referred to as N-Space (meaning Normal Space)". It then mentions- "A full breach in the barrier between Normal Space and Null-Space would be catastrophic, allowing the fiends free reign to rampage across the Earth!" It similarly calls the fiends Null-Forms to avoid confusion with the Gallifreyan weapon N-Forms.