Mars
- For the short story, see Mars.
Mars (also known as Sol IV) was a planet in the Sol system, inhabited by the Ice Warriors and later by Human colonists.
Features
Only Mars and Peladon contained deposits of the valuable ore, trisilicate. (DW: The Curse of Peladon)
Moons
History
Remote past
The Doctor theorized that, circa 12 million BCE, the Fendahl passed from its homeworld to Mars on its way to Earth, fleeing the efforts of the Time Lords to trap it in a time loop. (DW: Image of the Fendahl)
The age of the Ice Warriors
By human prehistory, the Ice Warriors already possessed spaceflight. With their ecosystem dying and becoming more inhospitable, the Ice Warriors, led by Varga, sent an expedition to Earth, but the ship crashed and was frozen in a glacier where it would remain for millennia. (DW: The Ice Warriors)
The Osirians
Around 5000 BCE, the Osirians reached Mars and set up underground bases there, beneath pyramids that they constructed. Sutekh, was imprisoned in a tomb in Egypt, kept in a state of paralysis by an energy beam transmitted from the main pyramid on Mars itself. A warning message, Beware Sutekh broadcast continually by radio (DW: Pyramids of Mars)
Modern pre-colonization period
Early 20th century
In 1911. Laurence Scarman picked up this signal on his marconiscope. That same year, Sutekh escaped from his ancient bondage.(DW: Pyramids of Mars)
On 31st October 1938, many Humans across the United States took Orson Welles's radio adaptation of H.G. Wells's The War of the Worlds literally, and believed that Martians had really invaded. (BFA: Invaders from Mars)
Later 20th century
Mars was a target of a series of British manned space probes, overseen by the British Space Centre (a renamed British Rocket Group) and constructed with International Electromatics technology. (MA: Who Killed Kennedy) Mars Probes 6 and Mars Probe 7 made contact with a group of peaceful radioactive humanoids. Another spacecraft, Recovery 7, entered Mars orbit to determine what had happened to earlier probes. (DW: The Ambassadors of Death)
An international mission to Mars shortly after led to contact with the Zoltans, which was made public knowledge and led to a media frenzy. (DWA: Soldiers from Zolta)
- This public revelation of the existence of aliens was never acknowledged in any other story.
In 1977, Britain's Mars Probe 13 astronauts accidentally wandered into the city of the Argyre Clan Ice Warriors and were slaughtered after they spied on a research facility. To appease the Ice Warriors, the British government's representative Minister Grayhaven had mission commander Alexander Christian imprisoned (framed for the astronaut's deaths) and agreed to ensure humanity would not return to Mars. For the next two decades, the British secret service spread disinformation that Mars was uninhabitable and sabotaged NASA data in order to discourage Mars future missions. In actual fact, Mars' atmosphere was breathable. (NA: The Dying Days)
In 1994, Michael Rennigan, a lone Human astronaut marooned on desolate and lifeless Mars, found himself aided by unseen friends, namely the Doctor and his companions. (DWM: Rennigan's Record)
The Doctor refers to an extinct Martian civilisation whose intelligence and beauty far surpassed that of his own people, which doesn't seem likely to be a reference to either the Ice Warriors or the Osirians.
In 1997, Britain returned to Mars with the Mars 97 mission - a deliberate plan by Grayhaven and Argyre Clan Lord Xznaal to give the Ice Warriors a pretence for a "retaliatory" conquest of the United Kingdom, with Grayhaven placed in power as a Prime Minister. When it turned out the Ice Warriors were using him to have a chance to wipe out and terraform Earth, Greyhaven wiped out the Argyre's nests on Mars with the Mars 97 Orbiter. Xznaal was defeated soon after by UNIT and the Doctor. (NA: The Dying Days)
Early 21st century through 2095
Circa the dawn of the 21st century, another human space expedition landed on Mars. (BFA: Red Dawn)
On 31st October 2006, the Guinevere One was launched by the British Rocket Group for an intended landing on Christmas Day, but was intercepted by the Sycorax. (DW: The Christmas Invasion)
The Ice Warriors had not given up their ambitions to colonise Earth. A strike team was sent to take control of T-Mat, and use it to transport seed pods to Earth that were designed to terraform its environment to an environment more suited to them. (DW: The Seeds of Death).
In the last part of the 21st century, The Ice Warriors lost the Thousand Day War with Earth, opening up the planet for Human colonization and exploitation. (NA: Transit)
The Human colonisation of Mars commenced in 2095. (BNA: Beige Planet Mars)
Colonization period
By the early 22nd Century, Mars had been partially terraformed into a tourist resort for the wealthy. As the seas and canals were not red enough for the tourists, cranberry juice was poured into them. This human activity led to malevolent, formless entities escaping from the sea's reflective surface; The Doctor and Rose defeated them, with the Doctor believing the threat of the entities returning would force humanity to treat Mars with respect. (DWM: The Cruel Sea) Later in the 22nd Century, Mars had ceased being a pure resort and had residential settlements.
The Doctor and his companions visited Mars in 2157, during the Dalek occupation of Earth. (NA: GodEngine)
Shortly after the Dalek defeat, Anji Kapoor was stranded on Mars for four years. At this time, Ice Warriors would sometimes stage attacks on human workplaces in an attempt to gain independence from humanity; these attacks largely failed. (EDA: Fear Itself)
By the 26th century, the time of Bernice Summerfield, scholars like Benny herself devoted themselves to the study of Ice Warrior culture. (NA: Transit)
In 2545, during the Dalek War, the Daleks were able to seize control of Mars due to a failure to deploy Mars' nuclear deterrent. They would be eventually driven off-world by Earth and its allies. By 2595, Humans celebrated the five hundredth anniversary of the start of Human colonization. (BNA: Beige Planet Mars)
Further on
Circa the 39th or 40th century, Mars and the Ice Warriors were part of a Galactic Federation that included Earth, Alpha Centauri and Arcturus. The presence of trisilicate made the planet politically important. (DW: The Curse of Peladon)
In the 40th century, Space Security agent Bret Vyon was born in Colony 16 (DW: The Daleks' Master Plan).
- The Doctor knew Bret's sister, Sara Kingdom, also. We do not know if she also grew up on Mars.
By the 2001st century, Mars was now stated to be home to a university of questionable reputation, although no further reference to the planet was made. (DW: The Long Game)
Also around that century, the planet was the subject of question on the Game Station: it was determined, however, that the dish Gaffabeque originated on Lucifer, and not Mars (DW: Bad Wolf)
Uncertain dates
- Varga's frozen ship was discovered near Brittanicus Base by scientists during another Ice Age on Earth, and the thawed crew's attempt to seize the base was also stopped by the Doctor. (DW: The Ice Warriors)
- Under the influence and control of the Usurians, a colony of humans temporarily moved to Mars, then on to Pluto after overpopulation had made Earth unlivable. (DW: The Sun Makers)
- The Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith visited a colonized Mars. (VD: Scarab of Death)
- The Doctor and Leela visited a terraformed, commercialized Mars abundant with commercialized imagery derived from Human science fiction. (VD: Crimson Dawn)
Behind the Scenes
- Though unpublished during his lifetime, the David Whitaker short story Rennigan's Record is the earliest portrayal of Mars in the Doctor Who Universe.
External links
