2005

2005 in

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the DWU • production history • vital statistics • releases

The year 2005 was most significant for being the year when central London was attacked by the Nestene Consciousness. It was also the year that Rose Tyler joined the Ninth Doctor on his travels. (TV: Rose)

The FLIPback Project began at the Snowcap Base, at Earth's South Pole, to counter the predicted reversal of the Earth's magnetic field in 2006. (PROSE: Iceberg)

According to one account, London's cabs were replaced with motorcycles to relieve the increasing traffic congestion. (PROSE: Cat's Cradle: Warhead) Other accounts stated that London kept its taxis. (TV: The Christmas Invasion, etc.)

Dated events

January-June

On 1 January 2005, Rose Tyler encountered a man who predicted she would have a great year. Unbeknownst to her, he was the tenth incarnation of the Doctor, whom she had not yet met in her personal timeline. After she left, the Doctor succumbed to radiation poisoning after spending an unknown amount of time holding back the regeneration and staggered towards his TARDIS, encouraged by a vision of Ood Sigma. After dematerialising the TARDIS, he regenerated into his eleventh incarnation. (TV: The End of Time)

Prior to Rose handing in her lottery money to a syndicate at work, Jackie got a phone call from Rose in the middle of the day on a Wednesday; Rose was using the superphone to call Jackie from the year 5,000,000,000 after she had already left (from Rose's perspective). (TV: The End of the World)

In mid-February, Clive Finch took a photograph of himself with his wife Carole and two children, Michael and Ben, at Thorpe Park. (PROSE: Rose)

Ianto Jones joined Torchwood One in March, (AUDIO: New Girl) prior to the Auton attack. (AUDIO: One Rule)

The Autons attack. (TV: Rose)

On 4 March, (AUDIO: One Rule) the Ninth Doctor was in London pursuing the Nestene Consciousness. His investigations took him to the Henrik's department store, where he saved Rose Tyler from an Auton attack. He blew up the building. The following day, Rose investigated the identity of the Ninth Doctor, talking to conspiracy theorist Clive Finch about his website on the Doctor at whoisdoctorwho.co.uk. Rose's boyfriend, Mickey, was abducted by Autons and replaced with an Auton duplicate. Using the head of this Auton, the Doctor tracked the Nestene Consciousness' signal. It had been rendered a scavenger without protein planets by a war the Doctor fought in. Rose rescued Mickey (and later, the Doctor) and destroyed the Consciousness with anti-plastic. She joined the Doctor on his travels. Meanwhile, Clive was killed by the Autons as they assaulted London. (TV: Rose, Aliens of London) Elton Pope was also out shopping in the city centre at the time and survived the attack. (TV: Love & Monsters) The invasion, which would be subsequently covered up as a 'terrorist attack', had spread to at least Cardiff where the city centre was brought to its knees as Barry Jackson used it as a cover for his murder of the Lord Mayor of Cardiff, Roy Llewellyn. (AUDIO: One Rule)

Ellie Oswald, the mother of Clara Oswald and the wife of Dave Oswald, died on that day at the age of 44. As well as her husband and daughter, her funeral was attended by the Eleventh Doctor. (TV: The Rings of Akhaten)

Shortly after the invasion, an Auton head that was recovered from the Queen's Arcade shopping centre, the garbage bin that swallowed Mickey, and a secondary bomb discovered in Henrik's were taken and stored in the Leamington Spa Lifeboat Museum. (GAME: Security Bot)

Rose made a brief return trip to her own time, (TV: The End of the World) but promptly disappeared until 2006. (TV: Aliens of London)

For the rest of 2005, Mickey Smith lived with accusations that he had kidnapped or killed Rose Tyler. He was taken in for police questioning about her disappearance five times from early 2005 to early 2006. Jackie Tyler fueled the mistrust of him around the Powell Estate with a "whisper campaign." Understandably, Jackie devoted considerable time to the search for her "missing" daughter. (TV: Aliens of London)

On 22 March, the North Eastern Daily Press reported that Sharonda Arkley had shot four of her colleagues and put their bodies in caves along Blackhall Rocks. (PROSE: Weapons Grade Snake Oil)

Angola suffered from an epidemic of the Marburg virus in early 2005, with a British news broadcast on 26 March reporting that the death toll had risen to 120. (AUDIO: One Rule)

As recounted by the Eighth Doctor, the European Cup final was won by Liverpool, led by Steven Gerrard, who triumphed over A.C. Milan despite being 3-0 down at half time, having scored three goals in the second half before going on to win the match, marking Liverpool's fifth win of the European Cup in its history. (AUDIO: Something Inside)

July-December

In November, a Crimewatch episode on the Blackhall Rocks Multiple Murder was broadcast. (PROSE: Weapons Grade Snake Oil)

On 22 December, while in her aunt's house in Devon, Sally Sparrow tore off a piece of wallpaper, revealing a message from 1985 asking for help. After later finding a photograph with the Ninth Doctor asking to look through the wallpaper again, she found another message leading her to play a video recording of the Doctor in 1985, the Doctor communicating to Sally through already having the conversation from Sally's uncompleted Christmas homework.

The Doctor explained that the TARDIS had "burped" forward in time twenty years and needed Sally's help. Sally's future self appeared, telling Sally to hit the TARDIS reset button to reach the Doctor. The Doctor told Sally to finish her homework detailing this conversation and the messages left to her first, which she did. Sally then piloted the TARDIS to the Doctor to rescue him. (PROSE: What I Did on My Christmas Holidays by Sally Sparrow)

Unknown dates

The Cybermen invade. (COMIC: The Flood)

In 2005, the Eighth Doctor and Destrii defeated a plot by highly advanced Cybermen who had travelled back in time to convert the population of Earth using modified rain. The Cybermen had time travelled to convert the Earth's population because the humans of their home time were too genetically diluted to become Cybermen.

MI6's headquarters was massacred in the process, allowing Patrick Lake to rise up the hierarchy and pitch the outer-space branch "Wonderland". (COMIC: The Flood, Hunters of the Burning Stone)

The magazine Der Spiegel gave away a personal organiser with every issue. (PROSE: Transit)

The FLIPback Project began at the Snowcap Base at Earth's South Pole at the same time that the Cybermen left over from the attack on Earth in December 1986 again became active. (PROSE: Iceberg)

London police, including DI Billy Shipton, began investigating the disappearance of people from an abandoned house called Wester Drumlins. The police began collecting as evidence vehicles left abandoned by those who had disappeared, at one point taking a police box from the scene. (TV: Blink)

The Eighth Doctor and Lucie Miller foiled a Quitoxin Spy's plan to take control of Little Morton. (AUDIO: The Young Lions)

In 2005, Phil Tyson was taken on board the Vandosian ship to be executed for the crimes of Shogalath, whom the Vandos Tribunal believed Phil was the reincarnation of. Phil escaped with the Ninth Doctor and Rose into the TARDIS. Through the Doctor's meddling, the ship, aiming for Great Britain, had its weapons backfire, destroying it. (COMIC: Mr Nobody)

Alternate timelines

The Doctor visited Luminos in an alternate 2005. (PROSE: Spiral Scratch)

Behind the scenes

A number of in-universe websites contain details about 2005.

UNIT website

On 25 January, a memorial service was held at UNIT HQ for those who died 35 years earlier during Project: Waxwork.

On 31 January, UNIT released the news that 13 of their soldiers had died while investigating extreme chemical pollution in Skaniska. The leader of the expedition, Captain Martin Berry, stated that the men had "died heroically saving the local population".

On 12 February, UNIT announced that they would be increasing their presence in New York.

On 27 February, Martin Berry was promoted to Major and took command of Geneva B Company.

On 10 March, UNIT released a statement warning about a file-sharing virus called "RUFFCUT". The statement urged that nobody download any pirate material from the internet as it might be contaminated with the virus. At the time, the virus had shut down a hosptial and three government departments across Europe and brought traffic systems in Lisbon "to a halt".

On 26 March, UNIT released a comment on the then recent Auton invasion of London. The statement attempted to discredit any thoughts that the attackers were extraterrestrial and stated that tests had revealed the attackers were composed of ordinary plastic. The statement ended by suggesting that the attackers were either members of a terrorist organisation wearing disguises or "specially modified robots under the remote-control by an unconventional aggressor".

Whoisdoctorwho.co.uk

During the Auton invasion in March, Clive Finch, the webmaster of Whoisdoctorwho.co.uk was killed. Shortly afterwards, Mickey Smith contacted his wife Maggie and asked if he could assume Clive's mantle.

Mickey Smith's request for help in finding Rose Tyler.

A week after the Auton attack, Mickey posted his first article on the website: "The Doctor was involved in the dummy massacre". In the article, he mentioned that Rose Tyler had been missing since the massacre and asked people to report if they had seen Rose since.

The next week was horrible for Mickey; he was questioned multiple times by the police and each time they refused to believe him that the Doctor was responsible for Rose's disappearance.

The Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler seen in a photo from 1869.

A week after posting his first article, Mickey posted another one. He showed a photo sent to him by Dorothy Stokes of Charles Dickens in 1869 with the Ninth Doctor and Rose in the background. Once again, he asked people to report any sightings of the Doctor and Rose. Mickey also mentioned that MP Joseph Green had recently put on a suspicious amount of weight.

After this post, Mickey took an almost year-long break from Whoisdoctorwho.co.uk.

Torchwood website

On 20 July, an interview with Bilis Manger was released in a Cardiff newspaper. Torchwood Three had this interview in their files on Manger.