Last Great Time War
- For Time Wars in general, see Time War.
The Last Great Time War was the war between the Time Lords and the Daleks, which destroyed Gallifrey and left few survivors.
History
Origins of the War
The facts of the Time War are mostly a mystery, but its origins are slightly more clear. At one point, the Time Lords predicted that in one possible timeline, the Daleks would make themselves the dominant life form in the universe. A Time Lord, who did not give his name at the time but later named as Ferrain (NA: Lungbarrow), sent the Doctor on a mission to Skaro during the Thousand Year War with certain objectives:
- If possible, to avert the creation of the Daleks
- Otherwise to alter their development and make them less aggressive
- Find some intrinsic flaw or weakness to exploit in the Daleks
The Doctor believed he managed only to, perhaps, set back the history of the Daleks for a thousand years. (DW: Genesis of the Daleks)
Later developments
Subsequently, Daleks planned to infiltrate the High Council of the Time Lords with duplicates (DW: Resurrection of the Daleks). One of the Dalek Puppet Emperors opened declaration of hostilities; although the Daleks claimed that these were merely in retaliation for the Time Lords sending the Doctor back in time to prevent their creation.
The Etra Prime Incident (BFA: The Apocalypse Element) began an escalation of hostilities. Lady President Romana made diplomatic overtures (NA: Lungbarrow). She later initiated a Dalek-Time Lord peace treaty under the Act of Master Restitution. (DWA: 2006 Doctor Who Annual)
- This Act enabled the Doctor to safely visit Skaro to retrieve the Master's remains. (DW: Doctor Who: The TV Movie)
The Main War
- For more information see Battle of Gallifrey (Time War)
Weapons used by the Time Lords included Bowships, Black Hole Carriers and N-Forms. The Daleks, wielding the full might of the Deathsmiths of Goth, launched a massive fleet into the Time Vortex. This war lasted for years and took place throughout space and time. As the doctor said, "A war with the Daleks against the Time Lords, and the whole of creation at stake." One of the known theatres was Arcadia, where the Doctor fought on the front lines and which eventually fell to the Daleks. (DW: Doomsday) Towards the end of the war the Daleks sent a capsule to 70 AD Earth in order to spread the Dalek Factor amongst Humans. The capsule's engine exploded, and the Dalek was killed soon after impact. It was only able to release a small amount of the Dalek Factor, leading to only one in a half a million Humans having it. (TDA: I am a Dalek)
Conclusion
The final manoeuvres of the Time War are unknown, all that is known is that both the Time Lords and Daleks, as well as their respective planets, Skaro and Gallifrey, burned. The Doctor has implied that he played a part in destroying both Gallifrey and the Daleks. (DW: Dalek) As well, the Beast called the Doctor "killer of your own kind". (DW: The Impossible Planet).
- Additionally, the Doctor almost used a delta wave to kill both Humans, and Daleks, this might indicate that the Doctor used an unrefined delta wave to end the Time War, killing Time Lords, and Daleks in the process. (DW: The Parting of the Ways). Or it is possible, that Doctor didn't technically destroyed Gallifrey, but leaving them behind to destruction
Other battles
Aftermath and aftershocks
The war was mostly invisible to "lower species", but devastating to the time-aware "higher" ones.
The Nestene Consciousness justified its 2005 invasion of Earth by claiming that its "protein planets" had been destroyed in the war (DW: Rose). The Forest of Cheem also knew of the war and its effects on the Time Lords (DW: The End of the World). The Gelth lost their bodies because of the war, reduced to gaseous forms (DW: The Unquiet Dead). The Eternals apparently fled this reality in despair, never to be seen again, and the Animus died in the conflict. (DWA: Doctor Who Annual 2006)
The destruction of the Time Lords created a vacuum that may have left history itself more vulnerable to change. The Doctor told Rose that time was in flux and history could change instantly-- a big change from the way it had been. (DW: The Unquiet Dead)
The most dramatic demonstration of this was when Rose created a Temporal paradox by crossing her own time stream to save her father's life just before his intended death in a traffic accident. This summoned the Reapers, who descended to sterilize the "wound" in time by devouring everything in sight. The Doctor stated that if the Time Lords had been still around, they could have prevented or repaired the paradox. (DW: Father's Day)
- The consequences of creating a paradox were also why the Doctor could not go back in time and save the Time Lords.
As well, the Doctor noted that when the Time Lords were around, travel between parallel universes was less difficult. With their demise, the paths between worlds were closed. (DW: Rise of the Cybermen)
The survivors and their fates
Time Lords
- The Doctor survived. He stated that if any other Time Lords lived, he would have sensed their presence. (DW: Dalek)
- The Doctor's survival may have entailed a regeneration. Though he did not say so categorically, he implied unfamiliarity with his new face when he first met Rose Tyler.
- The Master (or rather a version of the Master created or revived or resurrected by the Time Lords) survived by turning himself into a Human and by escaping to the end of the universe, beyond the furthest reaches of the Time Lords and Daleks. His transformation meant that the Doctor could not sense his existence, but the Face of Boe could. (DW: Gridlock, Utopia)
- The Face of Boe knowing of the Master's survival can be attributed to the theory that Boe is infact the Doctor's companion Captain Jack Harkness having aged 5 billion years. This would mean that the Face of Boe would already have witnessed the Master's return first hand.
Daleks
- A lone Dalek survived and crashed onto the Ascension Island on Earth in 1962 (DW: Dalek)
- The Dalek Emperor also lived, although he had fallen through time to approximately the 2,000th century and set about re-building an army from the DNA of Humans. (DW: Bad Wolf) Transformed temporarily into the Bad Wolf entity, Rose stated, "the Time War ends now", and obliterated every Dalek in the universe. (DW: The Parting of the Ways, TDA: I am a Dalek)
- The Cult of Skaro and the Daleks imprisoned within the Genesis Ark escaped the attentions of the Bad Wolf, having left the universe for the Void before the end of the war. Except for the Cult of Skaro members who escaped via temporal shift, the Daleks were sucked back into the Void. (DW: Doomsday) Dalek Sec, after he had become a Human-Dalek hybrid, was killed when he sacrificed himself to save the Doctor. Daleks Thay and Jast were killed when they were exterminated by the Human-Daleks, leaving Dalek Caan the only surviving Dalek, who in turn activated another temporal shift. (DW: Evolution of the Daleks)
