Time Destructor Incident
The Time Destructor Incident was the Time Lord designation (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual) for the attempted Dalek conquest of Earth's solar system in the year 4000. (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan) It was regarded as the Dalek Masterplan incident in the Dalek Survival Guide, (PROSE: Dalek Survival Guide) and remembered by the Fourth Doctor as the Daleks' Masterplan. (AUDIO: The False Guardian [+]Loading...["The False Guardian (audio story)"], The Perfect Prisoners [+]Loading...["The Perfect Prisoners (audio story)"])
Under the leadership of the Black Dalek, members of the Dalek Empire attempted to construct a superweapon, the Time Destructor, to aid their planned invasion of Earth's solar system. They allied with various powers from Outer Galaxies towards this goal and worked with the Guardian of the Solar System Mavic Chen, who was actually exploiting the alliance to realise his ambitions to rule the universe. Their plans were disrupted by the interference of the First Doctor. (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan)
History[[edit] | [edit source]]
Background[[edit] | [edit source]]
Over the course of the five hundred years leading up to the year 4000, the Daleks were known by Earth to have seized control of over seventy planets in Ninth Galactic System and forty more in the constellation of Miros. (TV: Mission to the Unknown) Human historians postdating the Last Great Time War understood what the limited observation technology of the Earth Empire did not, that the Daleks had conquered the Second, Third and Ninth Galaxies in a war across the Outer Galaxies. (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe)
In the 40th century they turned their attention back to Earth, coming into frequent conflict with the Space Security Service (SSS) charged with maintaining humanity's security. (PROSE: The Outlaw Planet, COMIC: Sara Kingdom: Space Security Agent, AUDIO: The Destroyers) This included an invasion of Earth which met with defeat due to the actions of SSS agent Sara Kingdom. (COMIC: The Brain Tappers)
Scrutinising Dalek history, the Time Lords became aware of early studies of humanity's skirmishes with the Daleks including the SSS, which they corroborated with the SSS's known involvement in the 4000 incident. "Meticulous research" into the available documentation revealed to them types of Daleks faced by the SSS, including a red Dalek leader and a subordinate with a red dome. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual)
In 3950, (AUDIO: Neverland) Mavic Chen was elected Guardian of the Solar System. He began a secret mining operation of taranium, a rare mineral found on Uranus, (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan) as he was seeking a replacement source of energy for space travel, as Earth's empire was currently dependent on the Great Clock which bent spacetime to aid travel. In 3999, the Great Clock was destroyed due to the meddling of the First Doctor, Steven Taylor and Sara Kingdom, who had time travelled from a later point in the conflict to come. This hastened Chen turning to more radical means. (AUDIO: The Guardian of the Solar System)
By one account, the Time Destructor Incident and the later Human Factor Incident took place following the Dalek Civil War between the Supreme Dalek and Davros, who had created a new race of Daleks on Necros. (PROSE: The History of the Daleks) Most other accounts indicated that the civil war postdated these events. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks, PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe, PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual)
Conflict[[edit] | [edit source]]
Formation of the alliance[[edit] | [edit source]]
In 4000, Space Security Service agent Marc Cory travelled to Kembel to investigate reports of Dalek presence at the planet, without informing his superiors of his suspicions. He discovered the Daleks were forming an alliance, known as the Galactic Council, with various powers from Outer Galaxies. Overseen by the Black Dalek, the alliance targeted Earth with the intent of invading the solar system. Marc recorded a message for Earth warning of his discovery but was found and exterminated before he could send it. (TV: Mission to the Unknown) The Celestial Intervention Agency believed that the Daleks had a long term plan that called for an attack on Gallifrey sometime after the fall of the Earth. (PROSE: The Dalek Problem)
Guardian of the Solar System Mavic Chen agreed to join the Daleks' alliance in secret, supplying taranium that the Daleks needed to construct the Time Destructor. Chen planned to betray the Daleks as soon as he had the superweapon, intending to send a fleet at Venus to destroy the alliance. Chen believed he would have an inevitable rise to greatness as "First Ruler of the Universe", and had allies on Earth supporting his scheme, including the head of the SSS, Karlton.
Six months after Marc Corey's discovery, Chen travelled to Kembel to deliver the taranium to the Galactic Council, with his arrival coinciding with two SSS agents, Bret Vyon and Kert Gantry, crash landing on the planet after travelling there in search of Corey. Kert fell victim to a Dalek patrol whilst Bret escaped, encountering the First Doctor who had just arrived on the planet in his TARDIS along with Steven Taylor and Katarina. Despite the Daleks' efforts to flush out the intruders by setting Kembel's jungle alight, the Doctor and Bret were able to infiltrate their city. Whilst Bret, Steven and Katarina went to hijack a ship so Bret could reach Earth, the Doctor posed as delegate Zephon, who Bret had incapcitated, at the Galactic Council meeting where Chen presented the taranium core. The Doctor stole it and escaped with his companions in Chen's own ship, the Spar. The Daleks subsequently exterminated Zephon for his failure. (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan)
Pursuit of the Doctor[[edit] | [edit source]]
The Daleks pursued the Spar, using randomiser to disable the controls of the ship and eventually force land it on Desperus with a Dalek ship in hot pursuit. Despite an attempt by prisoners stuck on the planet to hijack the vessel, the Doctor and Bret managed to effect repairs takeoff again. A prisoner from Desperus, Kirksen, revealed himself onboard however and held Katarina at knifepoint to force them to travel to the nearest planet, Kembel, ignoring their protests of the danger there. Katarina opened the airlock she and Kirksen were standing in front of, sending herself and her captor out into space, sacrificing herself to ensure the others might reach Earth. (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan) Katarina's body was eventually recovered from space by River Song. (AUDIO: Companion Piece)
The Spar subsequently escaped the Daleks in pursuit, so the Black Dalek ordered the pursuing forces be killed for their failure, with Chen now ordered to use his influence on Earth to intercept the trio.
Reaching Earth, the Doctor, Steven and Bret sought out a friend of Bret's, Daxtar, who they discovered was actually involved in the conspiracy leading to Bret killing him. With Chen having branded the trio traitors, Karlton assigned Bret's sister, Sara Kingdom, and her partner Borkar to hunt them down. Tracing them to the facility where Daxtar worked, Sara gunned down Bret and pursued the Doctor and Steven, following them into a molecular dissemination experiment which teleported them to Mira. Chen reported the development to the Daleks, pretending this was intentional as Mira was closer to Kembel, who sent a salvage team to Mira.
On Mira, the Doctor and Steven were able to convince Sara of their innocence and fended off attacks by the invisible Visians. The Dalek forces sent to capture them also came into conflict with the Visians, enabling the trio to steal their ship. The Daleks attempted to use the autopilot to direct the hijacked vessel to Kembel, only for Steven to rip it out forcing them to use a magnetised beam to pull the ship instead. Whilst en route the Doctor and Sara worked together to fashion a fake taranium core. Steven's attempt to help using the ship's gravity field left him in a walking vegetative state with a force field around him, which the Doctor decided to use to their advantage on Kembel. Having Sara stay behind Steven, the Doctor bargained with Chen and the Daleks to give them the core at his TARDIS. Outside his ship he handed over the fake and then fled inside, shielded from the Daleks' attempt to exterminate him by Steven's forcefield, with the firepower also returning Steven to normal.
Together the Doctor, Steven and Sara fled Kembel in the TARDIS, with the real taranium core still in their possession, (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan) and subsequently spent months travelling together in time and space. (PROSE: The Mutation of Time) These travels included brief trips to 1965 Liverpool and 1921 Hollywood, (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan) a collision with an experimental Space-time vessel, (AUDIO: The Anachronauts) an encounter with Chen in the recent past at the Great Clock, (AUDIO: The Guardian of the Solar System) an attempt to aid colonists stranded on an asteroid, (AUDIO: The Drowned World) investigations of the house in Ely (AUDIO: Home Truths) and alterations to the Battle of the Somme, (AUDIO: Men of War) a period stranded in the 1950s, (AUDIO: An Ordinary Life) and an encounter with the Sontarans and the SSS in the past. After learning of their trickery and flight on Kembel from interrogating Steven, the Sontaran commander, Slite, was intrigued though deemed their actions cowardly. (AUDIO: The Sontarans)
Skirmish in Ancient Egypt[[edit] | [edit source]]
The Daleks prepared to test the Time Destructor, (AUDIO: The Sontarans) only to discover the taranium core was a fake. The Black Dalek sent for a Dalek time machine, (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan) commanded by a Red Dalek, (PROSE: The Mutation of Time) to hunt down the Doctor and ordered that Chen accompany them. The Daleks located the time travellers in Ancient Egypt and forced the Monk, who was in the midst of attempting to exact his own revenge on the Doctor, to help them.
Capturing Steven and Sara, the Daleks forced the Doctor to handover the taranium core to save his friends. The barter was interrupted by ancient Egyptians, enabling the Doctor, Steven and Sara and the Monk to flee, though Chen was able to seize the core first. The Daleks attempted to hunt down the Doctor, however mistakenly targeted the Monk's TARDIS instead as the Doctor had changed its appearance to match his ship's exterior. After the Monk dematerialised, the Daleks returned to Kembel with the core. Using a directional unit he'd stolen from the Monk's TARDIS, the Doctor piloted his TARDIS to Kembel in pursuit. (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan)
The Red Dalek was destroyed by the Egyptians who bombarded him with rocks, taking out his gunstick and eyestalk and damaging the casing beyond his ability to move. The Egyptians buried the Dalek beneath a mound of stone. Chen and the rest of the squad returned to Kembel. (PROSE: The Mutation of Time) He was among numerous Daleks lost in the attack. (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe) The Egyptians were reluctant to leave the pile of rocks on the site of the Great Pyramid lest it displease the spirit of the Pharaoh Khufu, but neither did they want to release the Red Dalek. To placate the Pharaoh, Khepren decided his masons would carve the rocks into a Guardian of the Pyramid, inspired by the legend of the Sphinx. (PROSE: The Mutation of Time)
Human historians in the post-Time War universe believed that this incident was the earliest recorded appearance of Daleks in the linear history of Earth. Little evidence of this first incursion on Earth remained, save for the fragmentary accounts of two survivors, written in hieratic script, and the images of a Dalek travel machine and the Doctor's TARDIS engraved on a stone tablet as part of an ancient warning. (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe)
However, the earlier Dalek Survival Guide presented a record of a Dalek in the Palaeolithic preceding the appearance of Daleks in hieroglyphic script in the Great Pyramid. An interesting additional discovery was that of an anachronistic monk's habit. The guide suggested that the Daleks knew the pyramids to be burial structures and so brought with them a Dalek duplicate of a religious figure, but misjudged the time period. (PROSE: Dalek Survival Guide)
Final confrontation[[edit] | [edit source]]
On Kembel, the Daleks and Chen turned on the Galactic Council delegates, sealing them in a room to be destroyed in the first test of Time Destructor, and began preparing the five thousand-strong invasion force. Having becoming separated from the Doctor in the dense jungle, Steven and Sara infiltrated the Dalek city and freed the delegates, who now swore to rally their forces against the Dalek invasion.
After the delegates left in their ships, Chen found Steven and Sara and held them at gunpoint, forcing them to move deeper into the Dalek base, now believing they were seeking to replace him as the Daleks' ally. Chen presented them to the Daleks however the Black Dalek turned on him and ordered his extermination, with Chen delusionally proclaiming his immortality as they killed him.
The Doctor emerged from hiding during the distraction and ordered Steven and Sara back to the TARDIS whilst he seized the Time Destructor and activated it, using it as a shield to prevent the Daleks killing him. Sara disobeyed and came back to aid him as he tried to retreat back to his TARDIS, now struggling with the accleration of time caused by the Time Destructor. Sara herself succumbed to the effects, ageing to death in moments, as the jungle around them withered. The Doctor finally collapsed outside the TARDIS and was helped to safety by Steven. From within the ship they watched as the Destructor continued to devastate Kembel, killing the Daleks frantically trying to destroy it and reducing the landscape to a wasteland. (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan) The Dalek invasion fleet was destroyed. (PROSE: The Mutation of Time) Finally the Destructor destroyed itself, enabling the Doctor and Steven to exit the ship and survey the devastation, noting their struggle was finally at an end, at a terrible cost. (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan)
On Earth, Marc Corey's message was discovered among Bret Vyon's possessions, exposing the treachery of Chen and Karlton. Karlton was arrested whilst SSS agents made their way to Kembel in pursuit of Chen, though only found a lifeless planet. (PROSE: The Mutation of Time) The exposure of the Daleks' plot triggered the Great War. (PROSE: The Evil of the Daleks)
Aftermath[[edit] | [edit source]]
The Incident was a huge failure for the Daleks. The Dalek Prime regarded the invasion fleet and Black Dalek as irreplaceable. (PROSE: The Mutation of Time [+]Loading...["The Mutation of Time (novelisation)"]) By one account the dying Black Dalek’s casing was taken by the First Doctor who had returned to Kembel in a polluted capsule after being taken out of time by his people. He used the casing to impersonate the Supreme so he could use the Daleks’ time machine to reclaim his TARDIS. (AUDIO: Fugitive of the Daleks [+]Loading...["Fugitive of the Daleks (audio story)"]) According to another account written by human historians, the Black Dalek was recovered alive by attendants, though was badly damaged and in critical condition, and returned to Skaro. (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe [+]Loading...["Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe (short story)"]) Dalek survivors of Kembel were also among the inmates of the Dalek Asylum's intensive care, as they'd been driven mad after their encounter with the Doctor. (TV: Asylum of the Daleks [+]Loading...["Asylum of the Daleks (TV story)"])
According to one account, the failure of the 4000 invasion attempt led the Dalek Supreme to return to Skaro and order that Dalek forces retreat from "the human galaxy", preparing a new strategy as the Daleks expanded their empire across the Outer Galaxies. The Dalek Wars ended, for a time, though further conflicts awaited in the Dalek-Movellan War, the Imperial-Renegade Dalek Civil War and the Last Great Time War. (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe [+]Loading...["Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe (short story)"]) By another account it was the Great War that ensued from the Incident, which saw many further losses sustained by the Daleks and culminated in the Dalek Civil War instigated by the Second Doctor. (PROSE: The Evil of the Daleks [+]Loading...["The Evil of the Daleks (novelisation)"])
In the aftermath of the Incident, the SSS fought the Daleks in a war. Sara's true fate remained a mystery, however her service did inspire her niece, Anya Kingdom, to join the SSS. (AUDIO: The House of Kingdom [+]Loading...["The House of Kingdom (audio story)"]) In the course of her service Anya would become an associate of the Fourth, (AUDIO: The Perfect Prisoners [+]Loading...["The Perfect Prisoners (audio story)"]) and Tenth Doctors. (AUDIO: Buying Time [+]Loading...["Buying Time (audio story)"]) The Tenth Doctor dated the "old saying" "never turn your back on a dead Dalek" to "about 4000". (PROSE: I Am a Dalek [+]Loading...["I Am a Dalek (novel)"]) Visiting Station 7 during the 41st century conflict between the SSS and the New Dalek Paradigm, the Eleventh Doctor told Tranter, the station commander, that he had worked with Bret Vyon and Sara Kingdom, prompting the commander to comment that the Doctor had impeccable credentials but must have started fighting Daleks at a young age. (COMIC: The Only Good Dalek [+]Loading...["The Only Good Dalek (comic story)"])
According to the Celestial Intervention Agency's files, the Monk, who they believed to be the sixth incarnation of the Renegade Time Lord known as the Master, was found by the Daleks soon after allying with them and exterminated for his failure to aid them in their master-plan, forcing him to regenerate. (PROSE: CIA File Extracts [+]Loading...["CIA File Extracts (novel)"]) Other accounts, however, put this Monk as being the first incarnation (PROSE: The Mutation of Time [+]Loading...["The Mutation of Time (novelisation)"]) of another Renegade Time Lord (AUDIO: The Bekdel Test [+]Loading...["The Bekdel Test (audio story)"], Divorced, Beheaded, Regenerated [+]Loading...["Divorced, Beheaded, Regenerated (audio story)"]) who met a different fate. (PROSE: No Future [+]Loading...["No Future (novel)"])
The surviving members of the Galactic Council and their heirs later formed the Syndicate, though Zephon's son was denied membership, (AUDIO: Time's Assassin [+]Loading...["Time's Assassin (audio story)"]) aiming to control Earth and get revenge on the Doctor. They were systematically eliminated by Anya Kingdom who manipulated the Fourth Doctor using the sleeper persona of Ann Kelso. The Doctor discovered Anya had been brainwashed to do this by Zaal, head of the SSS and a member of the Syndicate, who was using Anya to eliminate his rivals. The Doctor freed Anya and tricked Zaal into confessing. (AUDIO: The Perfect Prisoners [+]Loading...["The Perfect Prisoners (audio story)"])
The losses sustained in the Incident had a profound impact on the Doctor. The Gwanzulum attempted to exploit his sentiment towards Katarina and Sara by assuming their forms to manipulate the Seventh Doctor to helping them escape Adeki. (COMIC: Planet of the Dead [+]Loading...["Planet of the Dead (comic story)"]) Whilst inside the inner landscape of the Seventh Doctor's mind, Ace came across ghosts of Katarina and Sara. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Revelation [+]Loading...["Timewyrm: Revelation (novel)"]) The Seventh Doctor was later subjected to visions of Katarina and Sara, amongst other past guilts, (COMIC: The Last Word [+]Loading...["The Last Word (comic story)"]) and the Tenth Doctor was reminded of them by the Lost whilst discussing his losses. (AUDIO: The Lost [+]Loading...["The Lost (audio story)"]) The incident was hinted through Mavic Chen's name by the Fifteenth Doctor as one many memories which weighed on the Fourteenth Doctor when convincing him to go into rehabilitation on Earth. (TV: The Giggle [+]Loading...["The Giggle (TV story)"]) Steven was equally affected, having nightmares about Sara and Katarina's deaths, (PROSE: Ash [+]Loading...["Ash (short story)"]) and almost leaving the TARDIS after confronting the Doctor about their recent losses following the death of Anne Chaplet. (TV: The Massacre [+]Loading...["The Massacre (TV story)"]
The devastated Kembel was later settled on by Zephon's son, Zephon. Following his rejection by the Syndicate he set up a resort in a force field around a newly-created jungle enclosure. He attempted to kill the Fourth Doctor there when he arrived with Ann Kelso, but was killed by Anya Kingdom after Ann reverted back to her persona. (AUDIO: The False Guardian [+]Loading...["The False Guardian (audio story)"], Time's Assassin [+]Loading...["Time's Assassin (audio story)"]) Centuries later, a faction of Daleks returned to Kembel during the Dalek-Movellan War, seeking to regain lost Dalek knowledge in time travel. After an Earth Protection Corps ship transporting Davros crashlanded there with the Movellan prime rocket in pursuit, the Corps sent an invasion force which destroyed the Kembel faction. (AUDIO: The Dalek Defence [+]Loading...["The Dalek Defence (audio story)"], The Triumph of Davros [+]Loading...["The Triumph of Davros (audio story)"])
During the Last Great Time War, the Incident was among the Doctor's encounters with the Daleks which were tactically assessed by the Time Lords, who sought to prevent the Daleks creating another Time Destructor by locating and securing all potential sources of taranium. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Loading...["Dalek Combat Training Manual (reference book)"]) Nevertheless, the Daleks did wield a working Time Destructor in the war, with which they destroyed the Nestene homeworld and several other planets, with the shockwave affecting numerous other systems. (PROSE: Natural Regression [+]Loading...["Natural Regression (short story)"]) The Time Lords also deployed a Time Destructor against the Daleks, with the War Doctor using it to destroy a Dalek time fleet, then the largest ever assembled, which was approaching Gallifrey. (AUDIO: The Innocent [+]Loading...["The Innocent (audio story)"])
In the post-Time War universe, this incident was covered as a part of known Dalek history in The Dalek Conquests, a documentary which was itself produced following the Van Statten Incident on Earth in 2012. (AUDIO: The Dalek Conquests [+]Loading...["The Dalek Conquests (audio story)"])
Centuries before the Twelfth Doctor's regeneration, the Daleks lost their copy of the Daleks' master plan. The Doctor, on the other hand, kept a copy that had been recorded on a VHS tape. (PROSE: Twice Upon a Time [+]Loading...["Twice Upon a Time (novelisation)"]) The eponymous master plan infact referred to the Daleks' attempt to develop the Time Destructor on Kembel, which they and the Doctor thought of as "the Daleks' masterplan". (PROSE: Mission to the Unknown [+]Loading...["Mission to the Unknown (novelisation)"], The Mutation of Time [+]Loading...["The Mutation of Time (novelisation)"], The Evil of the Daleks [+]Loading...["The Evil of the Daleks (novelisation)"]) Indeed, the Time Lords were aware that the Supreme Dalek who pursued the First Doctor through time went on to oversee the master plan. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Loading...["Dalek Combat Training Manual (reference book)"])
Alternate timeline[[edit] | [edit source]]
In an alternate timeline accidentally created when the Second Doctor's TARDIS collided with that of the First Doctor in the Time Vortex, the First Doctor never arrived on Kembel, instead crashlanding on Urbinia. This resulted in the Daleks successfully developing the Time Destructor, which they deployed to devastating success during the Harvesting of Urbinia. The Second Doctor negated these events by using his TARDIS to avert the collision. (AUDIO: Daughter of the Gods)
Behind the scenes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Terry Nation's initial outline for The Daleks' Master Plan set its events in the year 1,000,000.
- The Terrestrial Index (1991) identified the 4000 Dalek attack as the "Fourth Dalek War", which was followed a century or so later by the Dalek Civil War.
- The Discontinuity Guide claimed the Dalek Civil War, far from following the Time Destructor Incident, took place before even the 2150s Dalek invasion of Earth. The 4000 event itself was, from the Daleks' perspective, their last recorded encounter with the Doctor before the Fourth Doctor's interference with their creation[1] created a whole new timeline in which Davros survived, such that this event would have occurred vastly differently if it happened at all.[2]
- The Dalek Handbook claims that the Time Destructor Incident was followed by Operation Human Factor and the Dalek Civil War in the 41st century. After this the Dalek hierarchy was changed with silver Dalek drones being replaced by grey Daleks, with this new version of the Dalek Empire travelling back and attempting to overwrite their own history beginning with the Time Paradox Incident and Operation Divide and Conquer.
