Great hibernation
The great hibernation was the event in which the Silurians retreated into hibernation to survive an incoming cataclysm. (PROSE: The Scales of Injustice [+]Loading...["The Scales of Injustice (novel)"]) According to the findings of historians, there had in fact been multiple retreats as different triads or tribes of Silurians went into hibernation to avoid numerous disasters (PROSE: The Monster Vault [+]Loading...["The Monster Vault (novel)"]) including the origin of the Moon, (TV: Doctor Who and the Silurians [+]Loading...["Doctor Who and the Silurians (TV story)"]) infestations of the red leech, (PROSE: The Monster Vault [+]Loading...["The Monster Vault (novel)"]) and the extinction of the dinosaurs. (COMIC: Clara Oswald and the School of Death [+]Loading...["Clara Oswald and the School of Death (comic story)"])
History[[edit] | [edit source]]
Hibernations[[edit] | [edit source]]
A Silurian leader told the Third Doctor that the Silurians discovered a small planet which was approaching the Earth, calculating that it would draw off the atmosphere, destroying all life. In order to survive, the Silurians entered suspended animation until the atmosphere would return. The Doctor understood that this small planet was the Moon, and that the catastrophe anticipated by the Silurians had never happened. (TV: Doctor Who and the Silurians [+]Loading...["Doctor Who and the Silurians (TV story)"])
Soon after, the Doctor encountered the Sea Devils, who claimed to have lived alongside apes. These Sea Devils also recalled that their astronomers predicted that a great catastrophe would end all life on Earth. The Doctor likewise informed them that the catastrophe they predicted never happened, adding that the apes they left behind on the surface to die became humans. (TV: The Sea Devils [+]Loading...["The Sea Devils (TV story)"])
The Third Doctor repeated the claim to Marc Marshall that the Silurians built the shelters when they thought the planet would "suck away" Earth's atmosphere as it rushed by. (PROSE: The Scales of Injustice [+]Loading...["The Scales of Injustice (novel)"]) Conversely, the Fifth Doctor recalled that the Silurian astronomers predicted that Earth was about to be "struck" by the planet at the time. (PROSE: Warriors of the Deep [+]Loading...["Warriors of the Deep (novelisation)"])
Following the Fifth Doctor, (PROSE: Warriors of the Deep [+]Loading...["Warriors of the Deep (novelisation)"]) the Eleventh Doctor recalled that Silurian astronomers predicted a planet heading to Earth on a crash course. The Silurians then built life underground and put themselves to sleep for millennia in order to avert what they thought was the apocalypse, when in reality it was the Moon coming into alignment with the Earth. The Doctor revealed to Malohkeh that he knew this through his earlier encounter with the Silurians. (TV: Cold Blood [+]Loading...["Cold Blood (TV story)"])
A Silurian family were prepared to go into suspended animation due to the Moon coming into alignment with the Earth, which was misinterpreted as a threat. Kaya, a young Silurian, was upset when her her father told her that she could not bring her pet orangutan Leefa under the surface due to Eldane's orders, and she spent the next few weeks playing with Leefa and attempting to teach Leefa to talk. On the day of their hibernation, her father and his friend Malokeh made sure she was safe as she went into hibernation. (PROSE: The Little Planet [+]Loading...["The Little Planet (TBB short story)"])
Bleytal recorded that the Silurian Ark had gone far enough to avoid the "destructive impact" which had been forecast for the Earth. (TV: Dinosaurs on a Spaceship [+]Loading...["Dinosaurs on a Spaceship (TV story)"]) The Ark itself was launched on 4 June 100,000,000 BC. (PROSE: Time Traveller's Diary [+]Loading...["Time Traveller's Diary (novel)"])
Having lived through the so-called age of the Dinosaurs, the warrior-class Sea Devils survived the extinction event which wiped out their prey 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)"])
Aftermath and legacy[[edit] | [edit source]]
With the absence of the Silurians, the primitive apes whom they saw as pests evolved into humans. (TV: Doctor Who and the Silurians [+]Loading...["Doctor Who and the Silurians (TV story)"], The Sea Devils [+]Loading...["The Sea Devils (TV story)"]) Nevertheless, stories of the Silurian Empire spread through the universe, with many alien species considering 21st century humanity to be insignificant compared to Silurians. (PROSE: UNIT History [+]Loading...["UNIT History (short story)"])
In 1835, Charles Darwin noted that there was no record of Silurian fossils or traces of their cities. The Sixth Doctor answered with Monkton's Theorum, "any reasonably intelligent lifeform [was] not going to leave a fossil". As for the cities, the Doctor noted that the oldest human structures were barely ten millennia old, and rhetorically asked Darwin if manmade buildings would last in excess of a million years. (AUDIO: Bloodtide [+]Loading...["Bloodtide (audio story)"])
A renegade faction of Silurians around the region which would become Southeast Asia refused to hibernate and instead maintained a culture which persisted for some time. They eventually died out, leaving behind technology which would be collected by the Black Archive, Shanghai World Financial Centre. (GAME: The Black Archive [+]Loading...["The Black Archive (game)"])
Locations of hibernating Homo Reptilia[[edit] | [edit source]]
There were various locations around the world where Silurians went into hibernation.
United Kingdom[[edit] | [edit source]]
Vastra came from the hibernating city Vambrace, (PROSE: The Big Sleep [+]Loading...["The Big Sleep (short story)"]), located beneath London. (TV: A Good Man Goes to War [+]Loading...["A Good Man Goes to War (TV story)"]) Vekkis was the leader of a city below London. (GAME: The Eternity Clock [+]Loading...["The Eternity Clock (video game)"])
Okdel's tribe hibernated below Wenley Moor. (TV: Doctor Who and the Silurians [+]Loading...["Doctor Who and the Silurians (TV story)"])
A Silurian nest was below Scafell in Cumbria. (AUDIO: Call to Arms [+]Loading...["Call to Arms (audio story)"])
One Silurian city was below Cwmtaff in Wales. (TV: Cold Blood [+]Loading...["Cold Blood (TV story)"])
A Sea Devil community hibernated below Raven Peninsula. (COMIC: Clara Oswald and the School of Death [+]Loading...["Clara Oswald and the School of Death (comic story)"])
A Silurian city was below L'Ithe in the Channel Islands. (PROSE: The Scales of Injustice [+]Loading...["The Scales of Injustice (novel)"])
A group of Sea Devils hibernated below the English Channel. (TV: The Sea Devils [+]Loading...["The Sea Devils (TV story)"])
The city Deep Crag was located somewhere in the UK. (GAME: Asteroid Day [+]Loading...["Asteroid Day (game)"])
Africa[[edit] | [edit source]]
A Silurian and Sea Devil city was in Egypt. (COMIC: City of Devils [+]Loading...["City of Devils (comic story)"])
Asia[[edit] | [edit source]]
A Silurian city was below Mumbai. (GAME: The Black Archive [+]Loading...["The Black Archive (game)"])
A Silurian city was beneath Sakhalin Island in Russia. (PROSE: The Master and Margarita [+]Loading...["The Master and Margarita (short story)"])
A small Silurian city was in northern Kazakhstan. (GAME: Soviet Silurian Rocketry [+]Loading...["Soviet Silurian Rocketry (game)"])
North America[[edit] | [edit source]]
A small Silurian city hibernated in Nebraska. (GAME: Cowboys & Dinosaurs [+]Loading...["Cowboys & Dinosaurs (game)"])
South America[[edit] | [edit source]]
The Silurian city Antolsta hibernated below Venezuela. (GAME: City of Gold [+]Loading...["City of Gold (game)"])
Other[[edit] | [edit source]]
Tulok's tribe hibernated below the Galápagos Islands. (AUDIO: Bloodtide [+]Loading...["Bloodtide (audio story)"])
A Sea Devil colony was in the ocean near Atlantis. (GAME: Lost in Time [+]Loading...["Lost in Time (video game)"])
A hibernating Sea Devil city was below Ascension Island. (AUDIO: Tidal Wave [+]Loading...["Tidal Wave (audio story)"])
Lord Barset discovered a hibernating Silurian colony in Antarctica. (COMIC: City of Devils [+]Loading...["City of Devils (comic story)"], AUDIO: Frozen Time [+]Loading...["Frozen Time (audio story)"]) The Eleventh Doctor discovered a separate Silurian and Sea Devil colony hibernating below the South Pole. (PROSE: The Silurian Gift [+]Loading...["The Silurian Gift (novel)"])
Horlak's tribe hibernated on an island in the Pacific Ocean. (COMIC: The Lost Dimension [+]Loading...["The Lost Dimension (comic story)"])
A group of Sea Devils hibernated off the coast of Jamaica. (GAME: Down and Away Below [+]Loading...["Down and Away Below (game)"])
