End of the universe
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The end of the universe was an event that took place far off into the future in which the universe, or N-Space, collapsed in on itself due to being a closed system and entropy constantly building up. It was also known as "Event Two", (PROSE: The Infinity Doctors) the "Big Crunch" (PROSE: Timewyrm: Apocalypse, Millennial Rites, Sometime Never..., The Big Crunch) the end of time, (TV: Listen, Hell Bent) and the "Blue Shift". (PROSE: Timewyrm: Revelation, Special Occasions: 2. Do You Love Anyone Enough?)
According to Straxus, travelling to the end of the universe was forbidden to the Time Lords. (AUDIO: The Great War)
Interference with fixed points in time had the potential to endanger entire universes. (TV: The Wedding of River Song) Indeed, on 11 June 2022, the reader of a guide for time travellers dropped their breakfast and the toast landed butter-side down. The author noted this as a fixed point in time and warned the reader to not attempt to avert it or they could destroy the universe. (PROSE: Time Traveller's Diary [+]Loading...["Time Traveller's Diary (novel)"]) In one alternate timeline in which this occurred, a portent of the end of the universe was the appearance of stars being closer in the sky than they were supposed to, a result of time and space contracting. (AUDIO: The Death of Captain Jack)
Projected dates
Long before 1981, the universe had already passed the point of total collapse. Having discovered this, the Logopolitans created Charged Vacuum Emboitements which opened N-Space into other universes, notably E-Space, allowing entropy out of N-Space and into other universes. Though Logopolis was destroyed in 1981, a single CVE was rebooted and continued to feed entropy from N-Space into E-Space. (TV: Logopolis)
The end of the universe was projected to occur in varied times, including the years 60,000,000,000 AD, (AUDIO: Zagreus) 100,000,000,000,000 AD (TV: Utopia) and, in an alternate universe, 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (One hundred nonillion, 1032) AD. (PROSE: The Infinity Doctors)
The Mandelbrot Set informed the Grey Man and Bernice Summerfield that, due to the actions of Gabriel and Tanith in 1994, the universe would now end "several metacenturies" earlier than projected. (PROSE: Falls the Shadow)
Near misses
In 1981, the Tremas Master nearly ended the universe when he disrupted the Logopolitans' Block Transfer Computations which closed the CVEs they created. As a result, an entropy wave formed which caused heat death as it spread through the universe. The Fourth Doctor prevented the total destruction of N-Space by reopening the last remaining CVE which dissipated this accumulated entropy by releasing it into E-Space. (TV: Logopolis)
Dimensional transference was a theoretical phenomenon caused by a black light explosion that would threaten the stability of the entire universe. Intrigued by the uniqueness of this, Drathro allowed his black light converter to fail before he was stopped by the Sixth Doctor. (TV: The Mysterious Planet)
The collision of two versions of the TARDIS piloted by the Fifth and Tenth Doctors respectively had the potential to open up a black hole strong enough to swallow the entire universe. However, this was averted by the Tenth Doctor, who remembered how to do so from the perspective of his fifth incarnation. (TV: Time Crash)
Donna Noble prevented the Daleks from eradicating all things, in both N-Space and the rest of creation, using their reality bomb. (TV: Journey's End) The Tenth Doctor later stopped the Time Lords from transcending into creatures of pure consciousness, as a means of escaping the end of the universe they tried to cause via the Ultimate Sanction. (TV: The End of Time)
The universe was put at risk after the end of the Long Song, as Akhaten awoke and attempted to consume all of existence. With the help of Clara Oswald and her leaf, the Eleventh Doctor was able to put Akhaten to sleep for good. (TV: The Rings of Akhaten)
When the Thirteenth Doctor learned that she was the Timeless Child and had many incarnations before her "first", her memories of which had been redacted following her service to a Time Lord organisation called the Division, (TV: The Timeless Children) she went searching for any trace of her past that she could find. (TV: The Halloween Apocalypse) Tecteun, who was once the foster parent of the Child and had been the one to discover the secret of regeneration in her first incarnation, had since become the de facto leader of the Division since the destruction of Gallifrey by the Spy Master. She engineered a spatial event called the Flux to destroy the universe and protect the existence of the Division from the Doctor's "hounding". (TV: Survivors of the Flux) Suspecting that it may not be enough, however, she also "reintroduced" the Ravager siblings, Swarm and Azure to act as a "temporal poison", (TV: Once, Upon Time) who went on to disrupt the Temple of Atropos by disintegrating two of the Mouri, causing time to run wild (TV: War of the Sontarans) and unleashing the Time Force across the universe in an event called the Great Disruption. (TV: Once, Upon Time) The universe was saved by the Doctor, who thwarted the Flux by throwing her TARDIS in front of it, (TV: The Halloween Apocalypse) and fixed the Temple of Atropos by disguising two Mouri within a Passenger form. (TV: Once, Upon Time) Eventually Swarm and Azure seized Division Control and sought to release a second and final Flux event; however, realising that the Flux was made of anti-matter, which could be slowed by matter, the Doctor used one of the Ravagers' Passengers to "hoover" up the Flux, saving the universe from total destruction. (TV: The Vanquishers)
In an alternate timeline where the Cybermen conquered all of time and space, in the final days of the universe, Rassilon and the Cybermen, after invading Gallifrey, nearly ended the universe by harvesting regenerative energy from captured Time Lords via looms and feeding it into the Eye of Harmony. Rassilon intended to rebirth the universe and become the god of the new reality, however the Cybermen betrayed him immediately afterwards, their Cyber-Controller revealing the Cybermen's plan to forge the new universe into the "Age of the Cyberiad", a universe dominated by an ultimate evolution of Cybermen from its very beginning. They were defeated by the Twelfth Doctor and Rassilon, who used the regenerative energy stored inside the Eye of Harmony, combined with the Cyberiad's existence across all of time and space, to revert the universe back to its form before Rassilon encountered the Cybermen after his exile by the Doctor. (COMIC: Supremacy of the Cybermen)
Actual ends
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The Kovarian Chapter of the Silence (TV: The Time of the Doctor) caused the universe to undergo total event collapse when they destroyed the Doctor's TARDIS, causing every star to explode at every moment in history. (TV: The Pandorica Opens) The Eleventh Doctor was able to "reboot" the universe using a restoration field. (TV: The Big Bang)
The Silence, again trying to kill the Doctor, trapped River Song in a space suit at Lake Silencio, a still point in time, where she would be made to shoot the Doctor. Refusing to do so, however, River altered a fixed point in time, causing all of time to occur simultaneously in a "bubble of time" and the outside universe to collapse. The damage was undone when the Doctor and River made contact during their wedding, saving the universe and restoring the proper flow of time in the process. Unknown to everyone except River, the Doctor actually survived their encounter by using the Teselecta to mimic his appearance. He then erased himself from databases across the universe, and laid low to avoid detection by the Silence. (TV: The Wedding of River Song)
In an altered timeline in which John Hart became King of the British Empire, he inadvertently caused the end of the universe by allowing Jack Harkness, a fixed point in time, to die after he used distilled rift energy to rob him of his immortality. As a result, John found that everyone had disappeared bar himself, trapped in a universe of his own making while history, as Jack put it, went back to "how it should be." (AUDIO: The Death of Captain Jack)
In an aborted timeline, the universe was consumed by an entropy wave unleashed by the Saxon Master. When the wave finally consumed the surviving incarnations of the Master it caused a paradox, as the wave was the Master’s final form, which erased these events. (AUDIO: Masterful)
Species at the end
At the beginning of the end, many planets and systems still remained, and civilizations continued to function even as it became clear the end was nearing. The Final Gallery was an institution of these civilizations, collecting and selling notable artworks with the ultimate hope that their physical Gallery could outlast the universe's end and persist in the next, all while its artwork retained their values.
The Curator, his exact journey to the end unknown, took up residence in the time period, forgoing curation to become "the Artist", memorializing forgotten dying worlds with one last piece of artwork each. Unfortunately, his artwork was targeted by the Final Gallery, which collected each piece he made before destroying the planets they were made on to preserve their values. Accepting it as a curse, the Curator continued creating as his works led to many destructions, including the Eye of Orion, before the Doctor and Jenny helped him discover the Gallery's actions. He was then able to make the Final Gallery destroy itself by drawing a sketch while inside it, turning its harvesting technology on itself in an attempt to collect it. After that he was free to continue his work. (AUDIO: The Artist at the End of Time)
The Institue of Time would ultimately last to the end of the universe, though the psychological effects would be too much for the members who remained. Fearing they had no place in the next universe, the Institute members Radregh, Hactrix, The Hive, Kom, and Reesha all took their own lives. (PROSE: The End)
The Panjistri created the God Machine in an attempt to prevent the end of the universe. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Apocalypse) Captain Jack Harkness believed that the Daleks would be able to survive until the end of the universe itself. (Webcast: Monster File: Davros)
The Divergence almost emerged into the universe at the end of time, but were defeated by Walton Winkle and the animatronic residents of Winkle's Wonderland, which had been built over the ruins of Rassilon's Foundry. (AUDIO: Zagreus)
The Ministers of Grace lived at the end of time. (PROSE: The Duke of Dominoes) It was rumored that, somewhere at the end of time, there was an "elephants' graveyard" full of TARDISes, all of which had thrown themselves into the Time Vortex out of grief after losing their operators. (AUDIO: Omega)
Most of the people of the universe were relocated to the Needle. The Emperor was ruler of the universe, but was assassinated. His daughter was taken to the 20th century and named Miranda Dawkins. (PROSE: Father Time) She later returned to her own time and became Empress. (COMIC: Miranda)
The planet Endpoint, inhabited by a human-descended species called Endpointers and ruled by Silver, a human from the year 3006, was visited by the Eighth Doctor. (PROSE: Hope) The inhabitants of Ember attempted to survive the end by using the Somnus Foundation on 21st century Earth to transform humanity into a gestalt entity. They were defeated by the Fifth Doctor and Turlough. (AUDIO: Singularity)
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The Toclafane, with the aid of the Saxon Master, attempted to survive as well by travelling to 21st century Earth and murdering their ancestors. They were defeated by the Tenth Doctor and Martha Jones. (TV: The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords)
The Council of Eight existed in the Vortex Palace at the end of time. (PROSE: Sometime Never...) According to legend, the Sycorax would be one of the last three races left when the universe died, (COMIC: Agent Provocateur) while bug-like creatures nicknamed bookworms fed on the debris at the Big Bang and the collapse of the universe. (COMIC: Hunger from the Ends of Time!)
The Time Lords existed at "the end of the universe, give or take a star system", having moved Gallifrey there for protection when they emerged from the pocket universe (TV: Hell Bent) the Doctor had placed it in to survive the final battle of the Last Great Time War. (TV: The Day of the Doctor) Further on, at five minutes before "Hell", Me was found by the Twelfth Doctor, waiting in the Cloisters in the bowels of the Capitol for the end of the universe. In her own words, she had been watching the stars die to pass the time until the end. However, she eventually left with Clara Oswald to drop the Doctor off in Nevada, and then to take Clara back to Gallifrey "the long way round." (TV: Hell Bent) Romana regenerated into their fourth incarnation on a world orbiting the last sun in the universe. (PROSE: Tomb of Valdemar)
Somewhere beyond Gallifrey, an asteroid colony of Cybermen continued to survive even in the universe's final days. Sometime after being exiled from Gallifrey, Rassilon found the Cybermen's colony and, inspired by their resilience to survive in a dead universe, assisted them in a mission to conquer all of time and space, and ultimately, create a new universe from the ruins of N-Space. This alternate timeline was eventually erased by the Twelfth Doctor and Rassilon, after the Cybermen betrayed the latter. (COMIC: Supremacy of the Cybermen)
A book about the history of the universe claimed that, mere moments before the universe reached its heat death, all that was left was the “starless void” space had become, several scattered individuals who had immortality, and Gallifrey. The book described the planet as being alone in space but also “watching, waiting, and ready.” (PROSE: The Whoniverse)
Visiting the end
The First Doctor once visited the end of the universe, discovering the Institue of Time's ruins and its deceased members. There he also found his future self, a founder of the Institute who had specifically sought out its fate. The younger Doctor consoled his older, weary successor that there was still plenty of worlds to travel to, even in a finite universe, renewing his spirits. They then went their separate ways, the elder Doctor choosing not to tell the past Institute members what he saw. (PROSE: The End)
Numerous advanced civilizations used the end of the universe as a dumping ground for dangerous items. The Third Doctor took Sergeant Kandula's body and the Tipping Device to the end of the universe and left them there. (PROSE: Midnight in the Café of the Black Madonna)
The Fourth Doctor and Romana II watched the universe end from some unknown vantage point. As the dimensions collapsed, the Doctor gave Romana the last Rolo in the universe. (PROSE: Special Occasions: 2. Do You Love Anyone Enough?)
Shocked by the death of Alex Campbell and Lucie Miller, the Eighth Doctor attempted to go to the end of the universe to watch things "in perspective". However, his TARDIS was remotely shut down by Straxus and the Time Lords because he was not supposed to visit that age. (AUDIO: The Great War)
In an alternate universe, the Doctor escorted General Sontar and an ambassador of the Rutan Host to the far future, several years before the actual end, only to discover a lifeless grey void. (PROSE: The Infinity Doctors) Faction Paradox's The Book of Lies claimed a "greyness" would fall over the universe, and the Boy gleefully told this to the Eighth Doctor. (PROSE: Unnatural History) After the War, the Klade would accuse Miranda's father, the Emperor, and his kin of draining the universe of energy and bringing its end too early. (COMIC: Miranda)
River Song said that she and the Doctor had been to the "end of the universe" together. (TV: Forest of the Dead)
Amidst his degeneration crisis, the Doctor, as his fifth incarnation, traveled to the end of the universe to find Jenny, who had ended up there when her travels "bounced" her away from the Time War. Being there and seeing the end of worlds inadvertently caused by the Curator, particularly that of the Eye of Orion, he became wistful about his legacy and what his actions accomplished in the long run. Ultimately though, stopping the Final Gallery's efforts motivated him to continue on with his efforts. (AUDIO: The Artist at the End of Time)
During the Last Great Time War, to prevent the Time Lords from deploying the Tear of Isha into the Tantalus Eye, which would wipe out twelve planets in the Tantalus Spiral, the War Doctor hijacked Commander Partheus' TARDIS and travelled to the end of the universe. Cinder deployed the Tear into the last star in existence, a red giant, and it collapsed, causing no harm to anyone. (PROSE: Engines of War)
Orson Pink was sent to the end of the universe after taking part in a 22nd century time travel experiment that sent him too far. The Twelfth Doctor found him trapped on the last planet in existence. (TV: Listen)
To purge his TARDIS of the Plant, the Twelfth Doctor brought it to a point in time after all stars had ceased to exist. The lack of solar radiation led to the Plant's death. (COMIC: Petals)
When the Doctor emerged from his confession dial on Gallifrey, (TV: Heaven Sent) he was at "the end of the universe, give or take a star system", Gallifrey having been moved there for its own protection. He later visited Me in the same location, five minutes to the end of the universe. She had been able to reside there through use of a reality bubble in a ruined section of the Cloisters from Gallifrey, where she watched the stars go out and found it to be both sad and beautiful. The Doctor and Ashildr left the bubble and returned to Gallifrey before the bubble gave out and the final remnants of the universe collapsed. (TV: Hell Bent)
Other information
The Black Guardian was most powerful at the end of the universe, where his counterpart, the White Guardian, could not interfere. (PROSE: The Well-Mannered War)
River Song noted a theory for the SporeShips' origin, that they slipped back in time from the end of the universe as an example of a time paradox. (AUDIO: Signs)
The Eighth Doctor once remarked that the term "end of the universe" could take many forms, most notable spatially, temporally, and personally. (AUDIO: Time's Horizon)
The Tenth Doctor noted that one could potentially sit out both the end of the universe and the "start of the next" within a Void Ship. (TV: Army of Ghosts) He later acknowledged to Lady Christina de Souza that he himself had visited both the creation and the end of the universe. (TV: Planet of the Dead)
Rory Williams incorrectly refered to House, a sentient planetoid in a bubble universe, as a "scrapyard at the end of the universe", to which the Eleventh Doctor clarified that it was actually outside the universe. (TV: The Doctor's Wife)
Footnotes
- ↑ According to the episode The Sound of Drums, Martha Jones' present day during series 3 of Doctor Who takes place over a six-day period, with the Saxon Master being elected three days after Smith and Jones, and the Toclafane invading Earth five days after Smith and Jones. However, sources differ on which dates these stories are set. According to PROSE: The Paradox Moon, the Toclafane invasion happens on 23 June 2007, placing the events of Smith and Jones on 18 June. According to AUDIO: Hysteria, Smith and Jones takes place in 2008, with a UNIT mission log in AUDIO: Recruits referring to the recovery of moon rocks from Royal Hope Hospital in March 2008. A newspaper clipping in PROSE: The Secret Lives of Monsters places Smith and Jones on a Sunday 4 June, thus placing the Toclafane invasion on Friday 9 June. In the real world, these dates do not fall on a Sunday and Friday in either 2007 or 2008.