Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event
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The K-T extinction event, (PROSE: Prehistory Repeating Itself [+]Loading...["Prehistory Repeating Itself (feature)"], GAME: Dinosaurs on a Clockwork Spaceship [+]Loading...["Dinosaurs on a Clockwork Spaceship (game)"]) also simply known as the Extinction Event, (PROSE: The Whoniverse [+]Loading...["The Whoniverse (novel)"]) was a collision of a foreign object with Earth that rendered the dinosaurs extinct.
This occurred around 65 million BC, with the Third Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith acknowledging the Tyrannosaurus rex as one of the species which died out. (TV: Invasion of the Dinosaurs [+]Loading...["Invasion of the Dinosaurs (TV story)"]) It marked the transition from the Cretaceous to the Paleocene. (PROSE: Prehistory Repeating Itself [+]Loading...["Prehistory Repeating Itself (feature)"])
History[[edit] | [edit source]]
Anticipation[[edit] | [edit source]]
The impact was anticipated by some of the Earth Reptiles.
The Sea Devils who lived on Earth during this time survived the extinction event by plunging their aquatic colonies into a state of hibernation. (COMIC: Clara Oswald and the School of Death [+]Loading...["Clara Oswald and the School of Death (comic story)"]) Other accounts presented the Silurians going into hibernation in anticipation of the coming of the Moon, (COMIC: Clara Oswald and the School of Death [+]Loading...["Clara Oswald and the School of Death (comic story)"]) and in other eras preceeding the evolution of homo sapiens. Historians observed that different tribes of Silurians entered cyrogenic suspension at different times to avoid numerous disasters over the millennia, (PROSE: The Monster Vault [+]Loading...["The Monster Vault (novel)"]) with account suggesting that the Silurians and some dinosaurs survived the impact event. (PROSE: A History of the Universe [+]Loading...["A History of the Universe (short story)"], AUDIO: The Adolescence of Time [+]Loading...["The Adolescence of Time (audio story)"])
Impact[[edit] | [edit source]]
When the Neomorph Cybermen attempted to bombard Earth with Briggs's freighter in 2526, Adric tried to change the freighter's course but the control system was damaged by a Cyberman. Adric had no choice but to redirect the freighter through time to crash it into prehistoric Earth rather than 26th century Earth. (TV: Earthshock [+]Loading...["Earthshock (TV story)"]) By one account, Adric was rescued at the last minute by the Tremas Master, who later tried to use the captive Adric as leverage in a revenge scheme against the Doctor. (PROSE: The Cyber Files [+]Loading...["The Cyber Files (novel)"])
Madame Vastra believed that the Myrka had gone extinct during this time, but they had in fact survived and would be utilised by surviving Silurian tribes. (COMIC: The Lost Dimension [+]Loading...["The Lost Dimension (comic story)"]) She also recalled having last seen the Crimson Horror, which had plagued the Silurians during this time. After finding one in 1893, the Eleventh Doctor suggested returning it to the Jurassic era. (TV: The Crimson Horror [+]Loading...["The Crimson Horror (TV story)"])
Aftermath[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Main article: Palaeocene
After his death, Adric's consciousness was put in the Nethersphere by Missy. (PROSE: Seb [+]Loading...["Seb (short story)"], The Secret Diary of the Master [+]Loading...["The Secret Diary of the Master (short story)"])
By an account by which Adric was saved by the Master, the Celestial Intervention Agency interviewed him as a firsthand witness of the extinction event. (GAME: City of Gold [+]Loading...["City of Gold (game)"])
At some point in his life, Jack Harkness had to survive on dinosaurs, which he recalled were the "only source of pre-killed food protein after the asteroid crashed". (TV: Fragments [+]Loading...["Fragments (TV story)"])
The impact cracked open the planet and released "forces, powers, things that had been trapped in the Earth since the beginning". As a result, the Earth Reptiles gained psychic powers, wild fields formed in the skies which allowed for floating islands, and the Wyrm was released from the centre of the Earth. While the Silurians and Sea Devils remained on the surface, the Chicxulub fled to the skies to avoid the Cloud which choked the planet. (AUDIO: The Adolescence of Time [+]Loading...["The Adolescence of Time (audio story)"])
Other realities[[edit] | [edit source]]
In the 19th century, the Fifth Doctor attempted to use Block Transfer Computation to redirect his TARDIS to him. He subconsciously appeared to Adric on the freighter as a ghost just before he died and fed him numbers for entry into the computer, creating a bubble universe in which Adric survived the freighter's descent to Earth.
Adric tamed the giant scorpions on prehistoric Earth and built and ruled a City of Excellence using Block Transfer. He extended his own life and lived for five hundred years, hoping to get revenge on the Doctor for not saving him as well as to take Nyssa as his wife. When the Doctor and Nyssa finally arrived, the scorpions turned against Adric to prevent him from leaving, and thus destroying, the bubble universe. Adric learnt his lesson and, after helping Thomas Brewster pilot the TARDIS back to the Doctor and Nyssa, finally died. (AUDIO: The Boy That Time Forgot [+]Loading...["The Boy That Time Forgot (audio story)"])
Legacy[[edit] | [edit source]]
The Fifth Doctor told Tegan Jovanka that her ancestors were at a "very primitive" evolutionary stage when the dinosaurs died out. (TV: Earthshock [+]Loading...["Earthshock (TV story)"]) With the dinosaurs extinct, the creatures that would eventually become homo sapiens continued to develop and evolve. (PROSE: The Whoniverse [+]Loading...["The Whoniverse (novel)"])
The Twelfth Doctor once corrected a history book at Coal Hill School which had a couple of pages "giving all sorts of daft theories" including "stuff about meteors and asteroids and comets" which were "all complete rubbish". He replaced this with the story of Adric's death. (PROSE: A History of Humankind [+]Loading...["A History of Humankind (novel)"])
In 2367, the Eleventh Doctor noted that the dinosaurs aboard the Silurian Ark, then in the possession of Solomon, would be very valuable given their supposed extinction. (TV: Dinosaurs on a Spaceship [+]Loading...["Dinosaurs on a Spaceship (TV story)"])
