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- For information on the Doctor Who Universe from a metafictional standpoint, see separate article.
A universe may be considered as a space-time continuum, and the matter, energy, laws and biodata contained therein, such as it operates as a complete totality unto itself.
Cosmology
These universes exist within an expanse called the Void (DW: Army of Ghosts), an ur-space often conceptualised as an ocean in which they float. (FP: The Book of the War)
A number of universes exist (DW: Inferno), but it is not known if that number is infinite or merely incalculably huge. (FP: The Book of the War) The Time Vortex can be used to access all of them except ones that exist parallel (Parallel universes could be accessed before the Last Great Time War).
Some exist 'sideways' or 'parallel' to each other (DW: Battlefield), although such spatial language must be understood as simplification given that 'space' is a phenomenon local to within universes. (FP: The Book of the War) Likewise, some exist 'before' (NA: All-Consuming Fire) or 'after' (MA: Millennial Rites) each other, although such temporal language must be understood as simplification given that 'time' is a phenomenon local to within universes. (FP: The Book of the War)
Many universes develop a civilisation equivalent to that of the Time Lords - the first culture within a given reality to reach a level of sophistication which allows them to tailor the laws of that universe to their own nature. (MA: Cold Fusion)
The composition of the universe consists of galaxies which are made of stars which are orbited by planetary bodies. Earth, for example, lies in the Sol system of Mutter's Spiral, the galaxy closest to the Andromeda Galaxy.
Parallels
Most 'parallel' universes are exactly that: parallel. They run alongside each other but exist independently. They may share many common features but do not 'diverge' or 'branch off' from each other at any specific point. (FP: The Cosmology of the Spiral Politic)
The countless worlds in which the Roman Empire never fell or in which the Nazis won World War II (FP: Warlords of Utopia) are not twigs off the branch of some 'main' universe or paths that have split off at some particular juncture, but are entirely separate creations that share many, but not all, of the features of the familiar universe. (FP: The Cosmology of the Spiral Politic) The same would seem to hold true of Pete's World and Inferno Earth. (DW: Rise of the Cybermen, Inferno)
Those universes which share the most features in common may be considered as being located 'closest' to each other and those which share the least features in common may be considered as being 'furthest away' from each other. Although, again, the spatial terminology here is a simplification as 'space' only exists within universes. (FP: The Cosmology of the Spiral Politic)
It was, however, possible for complete new universes to be formed by 'branching off' from specific points in another universe's history. The difficulty with this though is that it cuts the lifespan of the original universe in half. (NA: Blood Heat)
A healthier way for a universe to reproduce is for it to develop within it a species capable of 'engineering' a new universe from scratch. (FP: The Cosmology of the Spiral Politic) Although the Time Lords apparently never attained this level of accomplishment, an unpopular fringe theory on Gallifrey held that their own entire reality had been engineered in this way by the 21st century Humanity of some other universe. (FP: The Book of the War)
History
"Before"
The so-called 'Pre-Universe' which existed prior to the Doctor's had a pink void, stars shaped like doughnuts and physical laws closer to what might be understood as magic. (MA: Millennial Rites)
Knowledge of this universe was a closely guarded secret, and was only in the Doctor's possession as a result of his connection to the Matrix during his time as Lord President. (MA: Millennial Rites, DW: The Invasion of Time) Even then, the knowledge would ultimately prove temporary; In his sixth and seventh lives the Doctor was fully conversant with the details and specifics of this universe (NA: All-Consuming Fire, PDA: Synthespians™), but by his tenth life it was almost an article of religious faith to him that such a universe could not have existed. (DW: The Impossible Planet)
This universe's equivalent to the Time Lords were the Old Ones, who found a means by which to survive into the next. (NA: All-Consuming Fire, MA: Millennial Rites) The Beast claimed to have existed before the universe. (DW: The Impossible Planet) It was also speculated that the Ancient Lights came from the previous universe. (SJA: Secrets of the Stars)
Life of the Universe
The universe of the Doctor and of the Time Lords, the current existing Universe, is known as N-Space. It is constantly expanding (DW: Genesis of the Daleks) and was created out of a continually existing black void roughly fourteen billion years ago in what is known as Event One. (DW: Castrovalva)
- For more information on Event One, see corresponding article.
The universe passed the point where it should have succumbed to heat death, but vented most of its entropy into E-Space. (DW: Logopolis)
The universe was replete with pocket universes and other realms or domains discrete from the wider continuum. Some of these existed in exotic special dimensions such as Calabi-Yau Space (PDA: The Quantum Archangel), some folded into quirks of perceptual history such as the Eleven-Day Empire (EDA: Interference - Book One) and others, such as Mictlan, had no measurable existence beyond the purely conceptual. (EDA: Alien Bodies)
When the Olympian Prometheus stole life spores from the planet Olympus and let it go across the universe, he created life. This angered Zeus, who chained Prometheus to a mountain on an unknown planet for his actions. (DWM: The Life Bringer) Greyjan the Sane, on the other hand, stated that life evolved from a single ancestor cell. This didn't include more exotic lifeforms, which came into being soon after the creation of the universe. (EDA: The Ancestor Cell)
- It is possible both sources were true, with life spores being another name for the ancestor cell.
The Time Lords of Gallifrey, as the first sentient culture to develop within their universe (NA: Lucifer Rising), were responsible for setting the parameters within which the universe operates. (NA: Sky Pirates!) They expunged magic in favour of science as the basic governing principle. (NA: Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible, Christmas on a Rational Planet) They established the morphic field that would seem to favour the development of humanoid life. They established the Web of Time which guaranteed the universe a stable, linear, history. (BFA: Neverland, FP: The Book of the War)
With the Time Lords now lost to the Last Great Time War, the universe has become a more uncertain and dangerous place. The ability to travel to other universe has stopped (DW: Rise of the Cybermen) and the creation of time paradoxes has a much more dangerous effect. (DW: Father's Day)
The destruction of the TARDIS caused the the cracks in time to start opening up throughout time and space while all of the universe was being erased and destroyed. By piloting the Pandorica, which basicaly contained a blueprint for the universe into the heart of the TARDIS explosion (which was happening at all points in space and time), the Doctor was able to reboot the universe and restore it to its original self. It is unclear, however, how much of things erased by the cracks were restored however. Amy Pond's parents, her husband Rory and the Doctor were all restored, however this was because she specificly remembered them and the influence of one of the cracks on her life for years. In the case of the Doctor, she had to activly remember him in order to restore him after he was erased by the cracks while restoring the universe so everything else erased, such as the Weeping Angels may not have been restored. (DW: The Pandorica Opens, The Big Bang)
"After"
The end of the Universe, also known as Event Two (PDA: The Infinity Doctors), has been variously projected to occur in 60 billion AD (BFA: Zagreus), 100 trillion AD (DW: Utopia) or 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 AD. (PDA: The Infinity Doctors)
Though the Doctor denied the existence of a universe before his own, he remained aware that the death of his universe would be followed by the birth of another. (DW: Army of Ghosts) The Time Lords at the end of the universe killed themselves at a Time Institute ceremony. (ST: The End)
The City of the Saved existed 'in between' the end of the Doctor's universe and the start of the next one. The inhabitants of the City once believed they had penetrated into that universe and established a colony there, but in fact they were deceived and had only reached a simulated environment inside the hostile TARDIS known as Antipathy. (FP: Of the City of the Saved...)
The After-Universe is a pink void interspersed with green mists of orbiting plankton and Saraquazel, who became its equivalent of a Time Lord. (MA: Millennial Rites) The Zytragupten also inhabit this universe. (DWM: The Stockbridge Child)
