Pete's World
"Pete's World" was the Tenth Doctor's name for an alternate universe that was home to Cybermen created by John Lumic, the head of Cybus Industries.
Overview
The Doctor derived the name from Pete Tyler, that universe's version of Rose Tyler's father, who in her universe had died in 1987. Time ran ahead in this universe, compared to the Doctor's universe, so that when it was 2007 in the Doctor's universe it was simultaneously three years later in Pete's World. (TV: Doomsday)
Differences
According to Jackie, in Pete’s World football was played “backwards” and EastEnders didn’t exist. (AUDIO: The Siege of Big Ben)
Historical
Great Britain was a People's Republic with a President as head of state, instead of a monarch. Army blockades and nightly curfews, beginning at 10 PM, were in place for lower-income areas of London. (TV: Rise of the Cybermen) Canticum was a county in the place of Kent, and there was the French Channel instead of the English Channel. (PROSE: The Turning of the Tide) Europe contained the nation of New Germany (TV: Rise of the Cybermen) and South America was unified in a South American State. (WC: Tardisode 5)
The planet had a Bio-Convention, whereby Geneva had to approve any creation of new life forms. (TV: Rise of the Cybermen)
John Lumic's Cybus Industries had a high profile internationally. It created the EarPods; owned Vitex, Pete Tyler's nutritional drink company; owned International Electromatics as a front organisation; and had created CybusNet, the world's premier global information system. Secretly, Lumic had them also create the first Cybermen. (TV: Rise of the Cybermen) Brigadier Krista speculated that the technology that Cybus wielded had led to fewer aliens attacking Earth than had occurred in N-Space. (AUDIO: The Siege of Big Ben)
Even though the Doctor apparently did not exist in this world, or at least didn't travel to Earth in this world, the Torchwood Institute nevertheless existed (TV: Rise of the Cybermen) and Jack Harkness lived in the 21st century. (AUDIO: Poker Face) It was operating publicly to an extent, with reports it issued being mentioned in the news. (TV: Rise of the Cybermen)
Technological
Pete's World had a higher level of technological advancement in general. Such advancements included moving and speaking advertisements, and the EarPod devices which downloaded information straight into human brains. Even the Cyberman technology itself was created by humans, without any apparent use of Mondas technology.
Zeppelins served as a common means of transportation, with one soldier implying that the richest of the city tended to own them.
Automotive and engineering companies such as Mercedes-Benz and Volvo also existed in this universe, with vehicles such as the Mercedes-Benz Actros truck and Volvo BM 425 C hauler being used by Cybus Industries and its subsidiaries. (TV: Rise of the Cybermen / The Age of Steel)
Scientists developed medallions with the power to enable the wearer to cross universes. Later, they invented a dimension cannon for the same purpose. (TV: Doomsday, Journey's End)
People
Peter Tyler, unlike his counterpart, had not died in 1987. Both versions had married Jackie, though this couple did not have children; instead they had a dog named Rose. In stark contrast to his N-Space counterpart, all of Pete's "daft little plans" and get-rich-quick schemes worked out, making him a rich and successful businessman. Pete made a fortune from his company, Vitex, a health drink company which Cybus owned and for which Pete himself acted as spokesman. (TV: Rise of the Cybermen) This version of Jackie underwent cyber-conversion and died. (TV: The Age of Steel) Pete later met and fell in love with the Jackie Tyler of the Doctor's universe. (TV: Doomsday)
Ricky, Mickey Smith's counterpart, led the anti-Cybus Industries activists known as the Preachers with Jake Simmonds. After Ricky died, Mickey decided to stay behind and take his place. (TV: Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel)
Also, Rita-Anne Smith, Ricky's grandmother, did not die of an accident in this world, whereas Mickey's grandmother had. (TV: Rise of the Cybermen)
Harriet Jones, like her counterpart, had a political career, and her rule as President was referred to as a "golden age", (TV: Doomsday) similarly to how the Ninth Doctor had recalled her time as Prime Minister in N-Space. (TV: World War Three)
Yvonne Hartman did not become a Cyberman and crossed over into N-Space to survive. She said that her Jack Harkness was better looking than the one in N-space and had a vague recollection of Ianto Jones, who made bad coffee and worked in administration. (AUDIO: Poker Face)
A counterpart of one of Jackie’s friends, Beryl Thompson, existed in Pete’s World. Jackie became friends with her after settling in Pete’s World though later admitted she’d treated her poorly due to Beryl not being exactly like her friend in N-Space. (AUDIO: The Siege of Big Ben)
History
In 2001, Cybus Industries' profits reached $78 billion. In 2004, South American state reported 265,000 people missing. (WC: Tardisode 5)
Under the codename Gemini, Pete Tyler began supplying information from within Cybus to the Preachers. (TV: The Age of Steel)
On 1 February 2007, the Doctor's TARDIS was catapulted into Pete's World after falling through a crack in reality while travelling through the Time Vortex. The TARDIS was critically drained of energy by the journey and unable to replenish itself due to the incompatibility of the ambient energy of the alternate universe. The Tenth Doctor gave away 10 years of his life to recharge a still-function artron crystal which was then used to restore the TARDIS long enough to enable it to travel back to N-Space. At this time the first Cybermen were created by John Lumic from kidnapped homeless population of London. He had the Cybermen storm Pete Tyler’s house, where they killed the President of Britain who had been attending Jackie’s birthday party, (TV: Rise of the Cybermen) and used the Cybus EarPods to force their wearers to march to a Cybus factory for conversion. The Doctor and his friends worked with Pete and the Preachers to infiltrate the factory in London, managing to compromise the Cybermen’s emotional inhibitors causing the destruction of the factory. Lumic, who been converted into a Cyber-Controller, perished in the destruction of his factory. After meeting his parallel counterpart Ricky Smith and being inspired by his example, Mickey Smith decided to stay in the alternate universe to take the late Ricky's place and help fight the Cybermen. (TV: The Age of Steel) Following the death of the British President, Harriet Jones became the new President of Britain. (TV: Doomsday)
The war against the Cybermen became a global conflict, (GAME: Cyber Assault) with Paris being the centre of a battle. (GAME: Save Paris) Eventually all the Cybermen were successfully sealed in their factories. However, debate raged about whether or not the Cybermen (as former humans) could be saved. As a result of the war, at least five million humans from Pete's World had been converted into Cybermen. (TV: Doomsday)
Whilst the debate on what to do with them went on, the Cybermen infiltrated the Torchwood Institute and used their experiments with a breach in reality to map themselves onto N-Space’s Earth, seemingly disappearing. (TV: Doomsday) Yvonne Hartman happened to be in the right place at the right time and was able to cross over into N-Space to escape the Cybermen. (AUDIO: Poker Face) The People’s Republic eventually discovered Torchwood’s experiments with the breach, which was accelerating global warming, and took control of the Institute. (TV: Doomsday)
Three years after the Cybermen’s disappearance, (TV: Doomsday) Mickey returned to his original world in N-Space in pursuit of the Cybermen and, disguised as a lab technician, investigated the Void Ship kept in Torchwood 1's headquarters. (TV: Army of Ghosts) Jake Simmonds and Peter Tyler crossed over into N-Space to stop the Cyberman invasion. That universe's Jackie Tyler met the other version of Pete Tyler for the first time and decided to stay with him. Mickey Smith, Pete, and Jake returned to the other world, taking Jackie and her daughter Rose with them, stranding them after the breach closed. Rose joined the parallel version of the Torchwood Institute. Jackie and Pete conceived a child and Mickey apparently took up residence with the Tylers.
Soon after joining Torchwood and several months after Jackie became pregnant, Rose began receiving what appeared to be a message from the Tenth Doctor. With the support of her family, she travelled to Dårlig Ulv Stranden in Norway, where she briefly made contact with the Doctor so they could say goodbye to each other. (TV: Doomsday)
A dimension cannon was built so Rose could attempt to find the Doctor, which suddenly began working (TV: TV: Journey's End) due Davros' reality bomb, (TV: Journey's End) also known as "the Darkness", (TV: Turn Left) which was causing dimensions across "the whole of reality" to start to collapse. (TV: Journey's End) Rose explored numerous dying parallel universes, guided by Pete, (AUDIO: The Endless Night, The Flood, Ghost Machines, The Last Party on Earth) and eventually returned to the Doctor's universe. (TV: Partners in Crime, The Stolen Earth) Mickey and Jackie followed her, arriving in N-Space in time to save Sarah Jane Smith from three Daleks. After defeating the New Dalek Empire and preventing the reality bomb from detonating, the Tenth Doctor returned Rose and Jackie to the parallel Earth, with Mickey deciding to remain in N-Space as his gran had passed away in Pete’s World too. He also left behind the Meta-Crisis Tenth Doctor, believing Rose could do him good. Due to the disarming of the reality bomb by Donna Noble, the Darkness never occurred at all and this universe was saved from destruction. (TV: Journey's End) The Meta-Crisis Doctor and Rose settled together in Canticum. (PROSE: The Turning of the Tide)
President Harriet Jones merged Torchwood and the Preachers together to create UNIT, headquartered in Big Ben and led by Brigadier Krista Lateef. Pete and Rose joined, whilst the Meta-Crisis Doctor served as a scientific advisor and Jackie worked as a dinner lady. One Tuesday, whilst UNIT were away investigating a reported Cybus factory in Bridlington, Jackie and the Doctor were alone when a group of aliens appeared to attack the base, claiming to be seeking the TARDIS that the Doctor was growing. They claimed to have the UNIT personnel hostage, including Rose and Pete, aboard their zeppelin, leading to the Doctor deciding to blow up Big Ben to deprive them of the TARDIS in hopes of them letting the hostages go. Jackie talked him round, getting him to think properly and discovered the aliens were just images on the camera. Brigadier Krista confronted them, revealing she’d been behind it all to try to travel back in time to save her daughter from cyber conversion. Jackie and the Doctor talked her down, however the Doctor subsequently reported her to Pete despite having promised to keep her actions secret. (AUDIO: The Siege of Big Ben) This incident soured his and Jackie’s friendship, so Pete and Rose arranged for them to go on a trip to Hull. Their zeppelin was attacked by a version of Jackie from another parallel universe, resulting in them having to escape it before it crashed. (AUDIO: Flight Into Hull)
The Cybermen from this universe survived, and later joined the Alliance. This universe, and indeed every universe, was, as the Cyber-Leader put it, "deleted" as a result of total event collapse. (TV: The Pandorica Opens) After reality was rebooted, the collapsed universes such as Pete's World were reinstated. (TV: The Big Bang)
References
Facing the Cybermen on a Mondasian colony ship, the Twelfth Doctor recalled Earth as one of the worlds where he defeated them. (TV: The Doctor Falls)
Behind the scenes
Creatures and Demons
REF: Doctor Who: Creatures and Demons, a non-narrative source, theorised that Pete's World split from the universe occupying N-Space when Queen Victoria still went to Torchwood House in 1879. The Werewolf attacked the house and Queen Victoria was killed in this event.
Cybus Industries website
Cybus Industries had a tie-in website, no longer hosted by the BBC as of July 2013.
The website had a collection of the CEO of Cybus Industries, John Lumic's, thoughts. He mentioned that living in an airship had its "disadvantages", such as if a dissident Cybus executive "accidentally" fell into the Grand Canyon, which in Pete's World was in the United States of Mexico, then they couldn't vote against Lumic again. Lumic corrected himself by saying, "I'm sorry, did I say disadvantages? I meant to say advantages."
The article also mentioned Lumic's dismissal of "unimportant" pressure group like the Preachers in Great Britain, or the Free Information Collectives in New Germany and "Czechoslovenia™", saying that such groups "should simply be ignored".
The website featured an interview with Lumic. When asked what the "best" decision he made was, Lumic answered with, "Assassinating the Prime Minister of the United States of Mexico". When asked the "best" and "worst" things about the BBC, Lumic simply responded that he abolished the BBC after Cybusnet became the sole global information provider. [1]
Footnotes
- ↑ Lohn Lumic - Some thoughts from our CEO. Cybus Industries website. Archived from the original on 23 September 2012. Retrieved on 25 July 2013.
