Operation Mannequin
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An incident known to UNIT as Operation Mannequin (PROSE: Operation Mannequin) — also referred to as The London Incident in a press briefing released by UNIT (PROSE: UNIT's Position on The London Incident, TV: The Runaway Bride) and as the "5 March 2005 incident" in The Secret Lives of Monsters (PROSE: The Secret Lives of Monsters) — was an attempted invasion of Earth, centred in London, mounted by the Nestene Consciousness and the Autons. (TV: Rose, et al.)
UNIT handled the immediate cover-up, where they spread numerous conflicting accounts and misinformation to the press and the public, (PROSE: Operation Mannequin) with the British government declaring the incident as an ill-judged prank played by students that led to civil unrest (PROSE: The Secret Lives of Monsters) and others[who?] declaring it as a terrorist attack. (AUDIO: One Rule) Public awereness of the incident may have been also affected by the phenomenon known as the Mandela Effect. (PROSE: The Mandela Effect, Or Monsters on the Streets of London)
The Ninth Doctor translated to Rose Tyler the invasion was the Consciousness still fighting "the war" during their confrontation with it. (PROSE: Rose)
The invasion took place on 4 March, (PROSE: The Time Traveller's Almanac) 5 March (TV: Aliens of London, AUDIO: One Rule, PROSE: The Secret Lives of Monsters) or on 26 March. (PROSE: UNIT's Position on The London Incident, Operation Mannequin)
From the perspective of Londoner Elton Pope, it marked the point where his "perfectly normal life" had all gone mad. (TV: Love & Monsters) Indeed, several more high-profile alien incursions would appear in London over the following years, threatening the Earth. (TV: Aliens of London, World War Three, The Christmas Invasion) Jackie Tyler also made note of this string of incidents, which began with the arrival of the Ninth Doctor in the life of herself and her daughter Rose. (AUDIO: Wednesdays For Beginners)
Donna Noble, however, was oblivious to the invasion as well as several other alien incidents which occurred over the following years. (PROSE: Rose, TV: The Runaway Bride, The End of Time)
Though most accounts held that the Doctor initially faced this invasion alone before meeting Rose Tyler, (TV: Rose et al.) and that the two were eventually joined on their travels by Captain Jack Harkness, (TV: The Empty Child) one account of this invasion saw Rose meet the Doctor, already accompanied by Captain Jack. (PROSE: Dr. Ninth)
History
Origins
Though they had been involved in the Last Great Time War, (PROSE: Decoy) the Nestene Consciousness chose to abandon its old ways and developed a rapport with the Embodiment of Gris on Nestenia, only for the planet to be ruined when it was caught in the edge of the Time War. Amongst the planets which had been duplicated and used as weapons against it, the Nestene recognised Earth from an "old campaign". (PROSE: Revenge of the Nestene) Indeed, it had invaded at least twice in the 20th century. (TV: Spearhead from Space, Terror of the Autons) Reeling from its wounds, the Nestene deliberately chose that "ridiculous" planet as a target for a new invasion, (PROSE: Revenge of the Nestene) the Ninth Doctor being aware that its food stock had been destroyed "the war", with all its protein planets rotting, and that the Earth's smoke and oil, combined with toxins and dioxins in the air, would have made the perfect source of food for the Nestene. To achieve its purpose, the Nestene infiltrated Earth using warp shunt technology and based itself in London. (TV: Rose)
Invasion
On 4 March 2005, the Ninth Doctor was in London pursuing the Nestene Consciousness. His investigations took him to Henrik's department store. Though H.P. Wilson had already been killed by the Autons, the Doctor was able to save Rose Tyler. He then blew up the building. (TV: Rose, Aliens of London)
On the following day, Rose Tyler investigated the Doctor, talking to conspiracy theorist Clive Finch about his website on the Doctor at whoisdoctorwho.co.uk. Rose's boyfriend, Mickey Smith, was abducted by the Autons and replaced with an Auton duplicate. Using the head of this Auton, the Doctor tracked the Nestene Consciousness' signal to the London Eye.
Addressing the Nestene Consciousness according to Convention 15 of the Shadow Proclamation, the Doctor intended to resolve the situation peacefully, though he brought a vial of anti-plastic with him as a precaution. The Nestene Consciousness, however, detected the Doctor's anti-plastic as well as the presence of the Doctor's TARDIS, which terrified the Nestene to the point of commencing a full-scale invasion, taking control of all plastic objects from London, (TV: Rose) and then satellites above the Earth allowing Autons to activate in a thousand cities including Beijing, Barcelona, Reykjavik, Rio, Sydney, San Francisco, (PROSE: Rose) and Cardiff. (AUDIO: One Rule) The signal also worked as a cross-frequency jamming wave, disrupting the functionality of global communication and cameras, which one UNIT lieutenant speculated was due to signals, such as radio signals, potentially causing harm to the Consciousness; (PROSE: Operation Mannequin) indeed, the Eleventh Doctor told an Auton duplicate of Rory Williams that Autons were weak to radio signals. (TV: The Big Bang)
During this commotion, Cardiff's city centre was brought to its knees. (AUDIO: One Rule)
In London, Clive Finch was killed when he was shot in the head by an Auton. (TV: Rose, PROSE: Rose) Elton Pope was out shopping in the city centre at the time, and survived the incident. (TV: Love & Monsters) Jackie was also in the city centre at the time, survived the incident and when Rose rung to check on her after it was over, she warned Rose not to go out. (TV: Rose)
The Nestene Consciousness planned to absorb the Ninth Doctor, so it could gain knowledge on how to pilot the TARDIS, so they could invade other planets. (PROSE: Rose) However, Rose Tyler managed to defeat the Nestene by knocking the anti-plastic solution that one of the Autons had confiscated from the Doctor into the vat of molten plastic which housed the main bulk of the Consciousness, causing it to explode. (TV: Rose)
Aftermath
Surviving in an Auton, the last fragment of the Nestene merged itself with a blond haired politician, becoming one. (PROSE: Revenge of the Nestene)
Cover-up
Later on the night of 5 March, Rose Tyler joined the Ninth Doctor in the TARDIS as his companion, travelling through time and space. (TV: Rose) She was considered one of many people who went missing after the invasion, though the fact that her disappearance was reported the following day was noted as being interesting. (PROSE: The Secret Lives of Monsters) The Doctor and Rose's first trip was to Platform One to witness Earth Death in the year 5,000,000,000. There, the Doctor converted Rose's mobile phone into a superphone, enabling her to call an oblivious Jackie Tyler from the future. (TV: The End of the World) According to one account which placed the invasion on the night of 4 March, this call was received by Jackie on the morning of 3 March. (PROSE: The Time Traveller's Almanac) After witnessing the destruction of Earth, the Doctor and Rose made a brief trip back to London in 2005, where they got chips. (TV: The End of the World, PROSE: The Time Traveller's Almanac)
Several UNIT officers coordinated clean-up efforts shortly after the attack: Staff Sergeant A. Frederick and Capt Panos Karpidas dealt with information-based clean-ups, both using misinformation other similar tactics, with Frederick focusing on the press and Karpidas on the public; Lt David Judd focused on preventing any footage captured being shared on the internet; and Sgt Catherine Petts and her personnel focused on physical clean-up to the damage caused by the "mannequins" and the Consciousness. Frederick tried seed a false theory to the press, that the mannequins only appeared to move due to the mannequins being made from faulty plastic with bubbles inside, leading the air inside to expand in reaction to a gas explosion, (PROSE: Operation Mannequin) and she also filed an embargoed press briefing to 28 March, which evasively ignored the allegations of the attack being mounted by terrorists or robots, and completely denied that it was in any way evidence of alien life existing. (PROSE: UNIT's Position on The London Incident, TV: The Runaway Bride)
The official government response to the invasion, which claimed it occurred in London and other large parts of England, was that it had been an ill-judged prank played by students, given that April Fools' Day was coming in less than a month, that had gone out of control, resulting in the property damage, injuries, and deaths caused during the attack and following state of emergency. Additionally, the prime minister stated there was collective misconception and mass hysteria surrounding the incident. Thus, the government stated there was no further need for public concern. Nevertheless, one national newspaper asked its readers to send in photos of the scariest window shop dummies they could. (PROSE: The Secret Lives of Monsters)
The invasion would also be covered up as a "terrorist attack". Barry Jackson used the attack to cover up his murder of the Lord Mayor of Cardiff, Roy Llewellyn. (AUDIO: One Rule)
Eventually, Rose stopped back at her home in the Powell Estate, where the Doctor told her she had only been gone for twelve hours. However, due to an error on the Doctor's part, she had actually been absent for twelve months, returning in March of 2006. Incidentally, they had returned on the day of the London UFO crash, leading the Doctor and Rose to thwart the Passameer-Day Slitheen's plot to start World War III. (TV: Aliens of London/World War Three) Her reappearance put a stop to her missing case. (PROSE: The Secret Lives of Monsters)
Legacy
Shortly following his regeneration, the Tenth Doctor reminded Rose Tyler of their first encounter "surrounded by shop window dummies" at Henrik's, correctly recalling that the first thing he said to her was one word, "run". It was from this that Rose realised that he was the same man as the Ninth Doctor. (TV: Children in Need Special)
In late 2006, Mickey told his readers to remember the shop dummies and the aliens invading London. (PROSE: Mars)
On Christmas Eve 2007, the Tenth Doctor used his sonic screwdriver to speedily scroll past many websites whilst searching for H.C. Clements, and one of the websites he went past was the UNIT website; specifically the page that had the press briefing on the London Incident. (TV: The Runaway Bride)
In February 2021, Josh commented on a post on Into The Unknown suggesting this incident as an example of the Mandela Effect, as he could remember it despite no-one else appearing to. He claimed his father could recall a similar incident involving shop dummies from the 1970s. (PROSE: The Mandela Effect, Or Monsters on the Streets of London)
Parallel universe
In a parallel universe, Rose Tyler found that the invasion never occurred. As a result, that universe's Clive Finch was not killed. (AUDIO: The Endless Night) She later determined that the invasion did not occur in at least one other universe. (AUDIO: The Last Party on Earth)
Behind the scenes
- In the video game NOTVALID: K9: Deja Who, it is K9 who thwarts the Auton invasion instead of the Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler. To that end, he fights through the Autons in London. After defeating the Auton Mickey Smith, K9 acquired the anti-plastic vial and used it to destroy the Nestene Consciousness.
- Absence of the Daleks, the draft for Dalek before the use of the Daleks had been secured, would have established the cause of this invasion being that the Nestenes were among the civilisations decimated along with the Daleks by mysterious spheres from the future, later revealed to be humans, who had attacked the Time Lords.[1]
- While giving no solid confirmation, The Rings of Akhaten reveals Ellie Oswald, the mother of Clara Oswald, died on 5 March 2005, raising the possibility that she was killed during the invasion.
