Last Great Time War
- You may be looking for the general concept of a time war.
The Last Great Time War (TV: Dalek [+]Loading...["Dalek (TV story)"]) — originally known as the Great Time War, (PROSE: Engines of War [+]Loading...["Engines of War (novel)"], TARDIS Type 40 Instruction Manual [+]Loading...["TARDIS Type 40 Instruction Manual (reference book)"]) declared as the Pa-Jass Vortan in Dalek, (PROSE: The Slyther of Shoreditch [+]Loading...["The Slyther of Shoreditch (short story)"]) better known simply as the Time War (TV: The Unquiet Dead [+]Loading...["The Unquiet Dead (TV story)"]) and remembered with the epithet of "The War to End All Wars" (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (TV story)"]) — was the temporal war fought between the Time Lords and the Daleks "for the sake of all creation". (TV: Gridlock [+]Loading...["Gridlock (TV story)"]) In a linear sense, it lasted for 400 years. Fought throughout countless time periods and even alternate timelines, however, it more accurately lasted an eternity as both sides fought across space and time, opening up new fronts as the Daleks seeded themselves in different epochs. (PROSE: Engines of War [+]Loading...["Engines of War (novel)"])
At the heart of the War, millions were killed and brought back to life every second, (TV: The End of Time [+]Loading...["The End of Time (TV story)"]) on account of both sides' manipulations. (AUDIO: Legion of the Lost [+]Loading...["Legion of the Lost (audio story)"]) The colossal death toll made the Doctor's TARDIS remember the Time War as "a war against Death". (PROSE: What the TARDIS thought of "Time Lord Victorious" [+]Loading...["What the TARDIS thought of \"Time Lord Victorious\" (short story)"]) In the final battle alone, the Daleks numbered in the quintillions (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (TV story)"]) and fielded a fleet of ten million flying saucers. (TV: Dalek [+]Loading...["Dalek (TV story)"]) The Time Lords used over a million Battle TARDISes (PROSE: Peacemaker [+]Loading...["Peacemaker (novel)"]) and other ships Time Scooped from their past, (PROSE: Meet the Doctor [+]Loading...["Meet the Doctor (DWAN 2006 short story)"]) throwing their own people into the suffering as disposable soldiers and pilots (AUDIO: The Conscript [+]Loading...["The Conscript (audio story)"]) who would be resurrected from death to be sent back into the fray. (AUDIO: Legion of the Lost [+]Loading...["Legion of the Lost (audio story)"])
By the end of the War, the Daleks had pushed the Time Lords back to their homeworld of Gallifrey (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (novelisation)"]) and launched a full-scale assault on the planet. Ultimately, the Last Great Time War was marked by unprecedented destruction and carnage across time and space, and culminated with the Fall of Gallifrey (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (TV story)"]) and ruination of Skaro, (PROSE: Meet the Doctor [+]Loading...["Meet the Doctor (DWAN 2006 short story)"]) seemingly leaving only three Time Lords (TV: Utopia [+]Loading...["Utopia (TV story)"], AUDIO: Divorced, Beheaded, Regenerated [+]Loading...["Divorced, Beheaded, Regenerated (audio story)"]) and a small number of Daleks as survivors. (TV: Dalek [+]Loading...["Dalek (TV story)"], Doomsday [+]Loading...["Doomsday (TV story)"], et al.)
Origins of the War[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Main article: Origins of the Last Great Time War
The Time Lords became aware of their future involvement in the Time War a long time before it began, with many war prophecies, stories and legends being generated around the idea. (TV: Heaven Sent [+]Loading...["Heaven Sent (TV story)"]) In everyday life, however, the idea of there being a new time war was regarded as an impossibility. (PROSE: Damaged Goods [+]Loading...["Damaged Goods (novel)"]; AUDIO: Damaged Goods [+]Loading...["Damaged Goods (audio story)"], et. al) The War would grow out of the rivalry between the Time Lords and the Daleks of Skaro. (PROSE: The Whoniverse [+]Loading...["The Whoniverse (novel)"]) Ultimately, the Last Great Time War had many simultaneous origin points across the histories of both groups, beginning at the very start of the Daleks' existence (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords [+]Loading...["A Brief History of Time Lords (novel)"]) due to a Time Lord attempt to avert or alter their creation. However, while, from the perspective of the Daleks, this event occurred at the start of their timeline, the individual tasked with the mission, the renegade Time Lord known as the Doctor, did not experience it until their fourth incarnation. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks [+]Loading...["Genesis of the Daleks (TV story)"])
Thanks to their repeated stands against the Dalek race, the Doctor became their greatest enemy. (TV: The Chase [+]Loading...["The Chase (TV story)"], Victory of the Daleks [+]Loading...["Victory of the Daleks (TV story)"], et al.) In light of his early encounters with the Daleks, the Second Doctor brought them to the Time Lords' attention during his trial for violating their rule of non-interference, as he told them that they were the most dangerous of all the foes he had stopped on his travels. (TV: The War Games [+]Loading...["The War Games (TV story)"]) Seeing the danger they posed, Time Lords began to bend their rules of non-interference, (AUDIO: The Dalek Conquests [+]Loading...["The Dalek Conquests (audio story)"]) helping the Third Doctor arrive at the Spiridon campaign to stop a Dalek army. (TV: Planet of the Daleks [+]Loading...["Planet of the Daleks (TV story)"])
The Time Lords totally put aside their policy of non-interference (AUDIO: The Dalek Conquests [+]Loading...["The Dalek Conquests (audio story)"]) after "foresee[ing] a time when [the Daleks would] have destroyed all other lifeforms and become the dominant creature in the universe." Selecting the Fourth Doctor to carry out a mission to avert this future, the renegade and his companions were redirected to Skaro during the Thousand Year War that gave rise to the Daleks. Given his mission by a Time Lord messenger, the Doctor's mission had certain objectives:
- If possible, to avert the creation of the Daleks
- Otherwise to alter their development and make them less aggressive
- To find some intrinsic flaw or weakness to exploit in the Daleks (TV: Genesis of the Daleks [+]Loading...["Genesis of the Daleks (TV story)"])
After failing to convince the Daleks' creator, Davros, to change the mutants into a force for good, the Doctor had the chance to avert the Daleks' existence but faltered after being unable to wipe out the entire species. As the Daleks and Davros began to take control of the Kaled government, the Doctor returned to finish the deed, but his work was cut short. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks [+]Loading...["Genesis of the Daleks (TV story)"]) The Daleks eventually learned of the Time Lords' attempt to subvert their development, which they henceforth viewed as the Gallifreyans having launched a pre-emptive strike and act of aggression, so the Daleks planned to strike back at Gallifrey. Thus, while it was the total opposite of the Time Lords' intention, (PROSE: The Slyther of Shoreditch [+]Loading...["The Slyther of Shoreditch (short story)"]) the incident had generated Dalek hostilities towards the Time Lords and would eventually lead to the War. (WC: Monster File: Daleks [+]Loading...["Monster File: Daleks (webcast)"], AUDIO: The Dalek Conquests [+]Loading...["The Dalek Conquests (audio story)"], The Innocent [+]Loading...["The Innocent (audio story)"], The Eternity Cage [+]Loading...["The Eternity Cage (audio story)"])
The mission was thus regarded as the "first shot" of the War. (PROSE: Meet the Doctor [+]Loading...["Meet the Doctor (DWAN 2006 short story)"], COMIC: Hunters of the Burning Stone [+]Loading...["Hunters of the Burning Stone (comic story)"], et. al) As revenge for the Time Lords' plot to destroy them, (AUDIO: The Dalek Conquests [+]Loading...["The Dalek Conquests (audio story)"]) the Daleks aboard the Supreme's Battlecruiser later attempted to create a duplicate of the Fifth Doctor to send to Gallifrey and assassinate the High Council of the Time Lords, only for the beginning of the Imperial-Renegade Dalek Civil War and the Doctor's actions to destroy the warship. (TV: Resurrection of the Daleks [+]Loading...["Resurrection of the Daleks (TV story)"])
The next Dalek attempt to attack the Time Lords (AUDIO: The Dalek Conquests [+]Loading...["The Dalek Conquests (audio story)"]) took place as this civil war was ongoing, involving use of the Hand of Omega by Davros, who intended to use it to grant his Imperials mastery over time to become the new Lords of Time. The Seventh Doctor tricked Davros into using the Hand of Omega to destroy Skaro. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks [+]Loading...["Remembrance of the Daleks (TV story)"]) This incident was largely seen as a cause of the War. (PROSE: The Stranger [+]Loading...["The Stranger (short story)"]; AUDIO: In Remembrance [+]Loading...["In Remembrance (audio story)"])
During that incident, the Doctor also encountered the same Time Lord operative who had given him the mission to alter Dalek history. The messenger's department had since taken specific focus on the Daleks and learned they were preparing for a time war against Gallifrey. As he explained, the War was already spreading "its tendrils" through space and time in concerning ways that not even Gallifrey understood. He warned that the Doctor that they were "destined" to soon meet again. (PROSE: The Slyther of Shoreditch [+]Loading...["The Slyther of Shoreditch (short story)"])
Following Skaro's apparent destruction and rebirth, the newly-elected Lord President Romana II made negotiations with the Daleks (PROSE: Lungbarrow [+]Loading...["Lungbarrow (novel)"]) in an attempt to calm the rising tensions between the Daleks and Time Lords. (PROSE: Meet the Doctor [+]Loading...["Meet the Doctor (DWAN 2006 short story)"]) However, this peace treaty, the Act of Master Restitution, was broken when the Master survived his execution on Skaro. (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords [+]Loading...["A Brief History of Time Lords (novel)"]) The ensuing Dalek invasion of Gallifrey during the Etra Prime incident (AUDIO: The Apocalypse Element [+]Loading...["The Apocalypse Element (audio story)"]) in Rassilon Era 2796.8 (AUDIO: Neverland [+]Loading...["Neverland (audio story)"]) formally marked the end of any peace talks. (PROSE: Meet the Doctor [+]Loading...["Meet the Doctor (DWAN 2006 short story)"]) It was also "an early warning of the Time War to come". (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords [+]Loading...["A Brief History of Time Lords (novel)"])
Indeed, the Time Lords began foreseeing the future Time War during the Eighth Doctor's later life (AUDIO: Deeptime Frontier [+]Loading...["Deeptime Frontier (audio story)"], Fugitives [+]Loading...["Fugitives (audio story)"], The Crucible of Souls [+]Loading...["The Crucible of Souls (audio story)"]) as tensions rose between them and the Daleks. (AUDIO: X and the Daleks [+]Loading...["X and the Daleks (audio story)"], et al.) The Time Lord Padrac of the High Council tried and failed to prevent the War with the Doom Coalition. (AUDIO: Stop the Clock [+]Loading...["Stop the Clock (audio story)"]) The Daleks, meanwhile, formed the Cult of Skaro in preparation for the conflict (PROSE: Birth of a Legend [+]Loading...["Birth of a Legend (short story)"]) and began to attack Gallifrey's allies, the Temporal Powers, (AUDIO: Celestial Intervention [+]Loading...["Celestial Intervention (audio story)"]) to isolate their foes. (GAME: Lost in Time [+]Loading...["Lost in Time (video game)"]) The Time Lords became convinced the war was unavoidable, with President Livia establishing the War Council. In secret, the War Council began Project Revenant to resurrect deceased Time Lords from the Matrix. (AUDIO: Celestial Intervention [+]Loading...["Celestial Intervention (audio story)"]) They convinced Rassilon, the founder of Time Lord society, to return for the War. (PROSE: Engines of War [+]Loading...["Engines of War (novel)"])
History[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Main article: History of the Last Great Time War
Following the Destruction of Phaidon, President Livia officially declared a state of hostilities between Gallifrey and the Dalek Empire. (AUDIO: Celestial Intervention [+]Loading...["Celestial Intervention (audio story)"]) Initially the Time Lords did not regard it as a true war, rather a series of skirmishes. (PROSE: The Third Wise Man [+]Loading...["The Third Wise Man (short story)"]) Two months into the conflict, Rassilon was resurrected as the War Council had planned and inaugurated as Lord President Eternal. (AUDIO: Desperate Measures [+]Loading...["Desperate Measures (audio story)"])
The war lasted for centuries in a linear sense, however it more accurately lasted an eternity as both sides fought across time and space. (PROSE: Engines of War [+]Loading...["Engines of War (novel)"]) In the course of the conflict numerous races were caught in the crossfire. Among the War’s victims were the Zygons, whose homeworld was destroyed, (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (TV story)"]) the Gelth, who lost their physical forms, (TV: The Unquiet Dead [+]Loading...["The Unquiet Dead (TV story)"]) and the people of Ysalus, who were erased from history. (AUDIO: Collateral [+]Loading...["Collateral (audio story)"]) Some third parties formed during the conflict fighting for their own ends, such as the resistance against Rassilon, seeking to combat both the Daleks and the Time Lord regime, (AUDIO: Deception [+]Loading...["Deception (audio story)"]) and the Third Power, a group of freed robotised Time Lords working to their own goals. (AUDIO: Morbius the Mighty [+]Loading...["Morbius the Mighty (audio story)"])
The Eighth Doctor tried to help where he could whilst not partaking in fighting himself, but after being mortally wounded in a spaceship crash on Karn the Sisterhood of Karn persuaded him he needed to regenerate and accept his fate as a warrior. (TV: The Night of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Night of the Doctor (TV story)"]) The War Doctor joined the fighting, as a free agent and sometimes under the direction of Commodore Tamasan and Cardinal Ollistra. (AUDIO: Only the Monstrous, Warbringer) Though he was popular with the front line soldiers, (TV: Hell Bent [+]Loading...["Hell Bent (TV story)"]) in the later days of the war the Doctor began to turn against his own people, officially being branded a traitor following his actions in the Battle for the Tantalus Eye. (PROSE: The Whoniverse [+]Loading...["The Whoniverse (novel)"]) In the wake of the battle the Doctor swore to finally end the war in honour of his fallen friend Cinder, declaring there would be “no more”. (PROSE: Engines of War [+]Loading...["Engines of War (novel)"])
A number of other Renegade Time Lords were active in the conflict including the Union, who developed a degeneration weapon, (AUDIO: The Union [+]Loading...["The Union (audio story)"]) the Barber-Surgeon, who created abominations from lifeforms in the Time Vortex and unleashed them against both sides, (AUDIO: The Horror [+]Loading...["The Horror (audio story)"]) and Morbius, who used the conflict as an opportunity to seek revenge on the Doctor, destroying numerous worlds in the process. (AUDIO: Morbius the Mighty [+]Loading...["Morbius the Mighty (audio story)"]) The War Master initially sought to exploit the conflict to his own ends until his attempt to rewrite the universe using the Heavenly Paradigm went awry and gave the Dalek Emperor control of the Cruciform. He fled and used a Chameleon Arch to hide as a human at the end of the universe. (AUDIO: The Heavenly Paradigm [+]Loading...["The Heavenly Paradigm (audio story)"]) The Monk similarly fled the conflict by hiding on Earth. (AUDIO: Divorced, Beheaded, Regenerated [+]Loading...["Divorced, Beheaded, Regenerated (audio story)"])
The Tenth Doctor claimed the final days of the war were “hell”, with the Skaro Degradations, Horde of Travesties, Nightmare Child, and Could've Been King among the horrors involved. (TV: The End of Time [+]Loading...["The End of Time (TV story)"]) The Time War finally culminated in the Fall of Gallifrey, with the entirety of the Dalek race laying siege to the Time Lord homeworld. The War Doctor planned to destroy both sides with the Moment to finally end the war but was persuaded otherwise by a meeting with two of his future selves arranged by the sentient weapon. They devised an alternate plan to remove Gallifrey to a pocket universe, destroying the Daleks in their own crossfire. (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (TV story)"])
Some accounts indicated however the planet was actually destroyed by the Doctor using the Moment (COMIC: Sky Jacks [+]Loading...["Sky Jacks (comic story)","Sky Jacks"], PROSE: Doctor Who and the Time War [+]Loading...["Doctor Who and the Time War (short story)","Doctor Who and the Time War"]) with some alleging that the planet had only later been saved after the Doctor's later selves broke the laws of time and rewrote history to do so. (PROSE: Big Bang Generation [+]Loading...["Big Bang Generation (novel)","Big Bang Generation"], TARDIS Type 40 Instruction Manual [+]Loading...{"chaptname":"The Desktop Theme","page":"91","chaptnum":"V","1":"TARDIS Type 40 Instruction Manual (reference book)"}, Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Loading...{"chaptname":"The Time War","chaptnum":"XII","1":"Dalek Combat Training Manual (reference book)"})
Aftermath[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Main article: Aftermath of the Last Great Time War
Recognition[[edit] | [edit source]]
Some accounts indicated the destruction of Gallifrey was indeed genuine (COMIC: Sky Jacks [+]Loading...["Sky Jacks (comic story)","Sky Jacks"]) and that the salvation of Gallifrey was a rewriting of the original course of events. (PROSE: Big Bang Generation [+]Loading...["Big Bang Generation (novel)","Big Bang Generation"], TARDIS Type 40 Instruction Manual [+]Loading...{"chaptname":"The Desktop Theme","page":"91","chaptnum":"V","1":"TARDIS Type 40 Instruction Manual (reference book)"}, Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Loading...{"chaptname":"The Time War","chaptnum":"XII","1":"Dalek Combat Training Manual (reference book)"})
Nonetheless according to most accounts, although many incarnations of the Doctor saved Gallifrey, due to the timelines being out of sync, the first eleven would forget this act. This caused the Doctor to reject his war incarnation until the memories of saving Gallifrey caught up with the Eleventh Doctor. (TV: The Day of the Doctor) After regenerating from his war incarnation, the Ninth Doctor was left with the belief that he had in fact activated the Moment, so, to deal with his guilt, he returned to his mission of helping people in need throughout the universe. (PROSE: The Whoniverse) His repentance was indeed sincere, as he brought love and help to wherever the TARDIS brought him. (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor) Believing all the Time Lords bar himself to be dead, (TV: Dalek [+]Loading...["Dalek (TV story)"]) the Doctor indicated to Liv Chenka that he did not expect to see the Master, the Monk, the Rani or the Eleven again. (AUDIO: Flatpack [+]Loading...["Flatpack (audio story)"])
The Tenth Doctor, as well, believed Gallifrey had been destroyed after he returned to his place in the timeline after its salvation. (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (TV story)"]) He remembered Gallifrey's fall as a legitimate destruction, (PROSE: The Eyeless [+]Loading...["The Eyeless (novel)"]) though his memory was similar to the Eighth Doctor's attempted aversion of the War in Heaven. (PROSE: The Gallifrey Chronicles [+]Loading...["The Gallifrey Chronicles (novel)"], The Eyeless [+]Loading...["The Eyeless (novel)"]) A historical account stated he lived hundreds of years before he learned he was not the last Time Lord. (PROSE: The Whoniverse [+]Loading...["The Whoniverse (novel)"]) The knowledge of Gallifrey's survival brought joy to the Eleventh Doctor, (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (TV story)"]) but the horrors of the Time War were still burned into the Doctor's mind; the Twelfth Doctor once remarked that he heard "more screams than anyone could ever be able to count" every time he shut his eyes and that the War taught him "no one else" deserved to live through the pain of war. (TV: The Zygon Inversion [+]Loading...["The Zygon Inversion (TV story)"]) The war was mentioned 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)"])
Though there was now silence on what had been the war front, those in the universe who knew of the War were left unsure of how the conflict had ended. One account claimed the only certainty about its end was that the Doctor alone had walked away from the wreckage of Skaro and Gallifrey, (PROSE: Meet the Doctor [+]Loading...["Meet the Doctor (DWAN 2006 short story)"]) but others thought that all of the Time Lords were destroyed. When such people met the Doctor, only then were they left with the belief that he was the last of his kind. (TV: The End of the World [+]Loading...["The End of the World (TV story)"]) The Curator claimed that the various species and cultures of the no longer war-torn universe eventually forgot about the great conflict, (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (novelisation)"]) but there were actually numerous species who remembered the War, with Clara Oswald once stating that "everyone" hated the Time Lords because of it. Although such groups and species continued to remember it, (TV: Hell Bent [+]Loading...["Hell Bent (TV story)"], The Time of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Time of the Doctor (TV story)"]) the Curator's book continued to claim that no one in the universe discussed the War unless they looked into the Doctor's eyes and questioned what had hurt the traveler. (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (novelisation)"])
In 3764, Gleda Ley-Sooth Marka Jinglatheen promoted what appeared to be the Ninth Doctor, who had offered his services as a keynote speaker for the Raxas Alliance peace conference on Clix, as the man who brought the Last Great Time War to a close. (COMIC: Doctormania [+]Loading...["Doctormania (comic story)"]) Still, there were species that did not even know of the War at all; as observed by surviving Gelth that appeared in 1869, the Time War's effects were "invisible to smaller species but devastating to higher forms". (TV: The Unquiet Dead [+]Loading...["The Unquiet Dead (TV story)"]) With the War now sealed off in its own timeline through the time lock, (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)"]) the conflict was finally over and had stopped the universe from being a battleground. (TV: Rose [+]Loading...["Rose (TV story)"], et. al) Of the species that knew of the War, many that had suffered during it blamed the Doctor. (PROSE: The Whoniverse [+]Loading...["The Whoniverse (novel)"])
The blast of Gallifrey's apparent destruction was so powerful that the universe convulsed as planets, systems and galaxies were obliterated. (COMIC: Agent Provocateur [+]Loading...["Agent Provocateur (comic story)"]) The Skrawn homeworld, Kolox, was reduced to the Kolox Nebula by the time winds at the end of the Time War. (COMIC: The Skrawn Inheritance [+]Loading...["The Skrawn Inheritance (comic story)"]) The Eye of Time, long possessed by the Time Lords on Gallifrey, vanished from the universe during the fall of the Homeworld, (GAME: City of the Daleks [+]Loading...["City of the Daleks (video game)"]) as did the Cruciform, which fell when Gallifrey vanished at the War's end. (COMIC: The Forgotten [+]Loading...["The Forgotten (comic story)"]) Ruins of the Time War, described as "a junkyard stretching across eternity" by the Ninth Doctor, were visited by the man. Amongst the destroyed remnants of the War are ruined Dalek casings, a dead Time Lord who had been reduced to bone, a destroyed Mechanoid, a surviving Cyber-Scout, a wrecked Dalek drill ship, and Sontaran helmets. (WC: The Ninth Doctor vs the Cybermen [+]Loading...["The Ninth Doctor vs the Cybermen (webcast)"])
The surviving Osirans, who were in the process of leaving the universe behind and ascending to another, higher one at the time the Time War was fought, remembered it simply as a "petty squabble" between the Time Lords and the Daleks, (COMIC: Sins of the Father [+]Loading...["Sins of the Father (comic story)"]) even though the Osiran Court was not as powerful as the Great Houses (AUDIO: The Ship of a Billion Years [+]Loading...["The Ship of a Billion Years (audio story)"]) of Gallifrey. (PROSE: Lungbarrow [+]Loading...["Lungbarrow (novel)"], et. al) Following the Time War's end, the Tenth Doctor stated that the Axis was gone, with the disappearance of the Time Lords and Gallifrey from N-Space. (COMIC: Old Girl [+]Loading...["Old Girl (comic story)"]) The Eye of Orion became a shrine to the Time War, with a single human-sized stone in a meadow as a memorial to the uncountable casualties. (PROSE: Martha Jones' MySpace blog)
On the Masque Magestrix, The Saga of the Time Lords portrayed the history of Gallifrey. However, those who made the show were unsure how the war ended, only knowing that Gallifrey disappeared mysteriously. (PROSE: He's Behind You [+]Loading...["He's Behind You (short story)"]) Alternatively, far away from the Earth on Crafe Tec Heydra, a mountain face contained crude depictions of the so-called "invisible war" between a species of metal (representing the Daleks) and a species of flesh (representing the Lords of Time). These carvings and hieroglyphs depicted the end of the Time War as a great explosion, which one stranger, representing the Doctor, walked away from. However, under this, the phrase "you are not alone" was written. (PROSE: Meet the Doctor [+]Loading...["Meet the Doctor (DWAN 2006 short story)"]) Indeed, the Doctor did go on to encounter other survivors of the War, the first being the "Metaltron" Dalek, (TV: Dalek [+]Loading...["Dalek (TV story)"]) but this exact phrase was known to the Face of Boe as well, who used it to warn the Tenth Doctor of the survival of the War Master. (TV: Gridlock [+]Loading...["Gridlock (TV story)"])
Following the War, the Doctor confided his experiences to a number of his human companions such as Rose Tyler, (TV: The End of the World [+]Loading...["The End of the World (TV story)"]) Jack Harkness (TV: The Parting of the Ways [+]Loading...["The Parting of the Ways (TV story)"]) Martha Jones, (TV: Gridlock [+]Loading...["Gridlock (TV story)"]) Clara Oswald, (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (TV story)"]) and Bill Potts. (COMIC: The Clockwise War [+]Loading...["The Clockwise War (comic story)"]) Danny Pink recognised the Twelfth Doctor's character as that of a military officer, calling him a man who "[lit] the fire" of war. (TV: The Caretaker [+]Loading...["The Caretaker (TV story)"]) In some cases, the Doctor revealed the War or its impact on them to others. (TV: Dalek [+]Loading...["Dalek (TV story)"], The Zygon Inversion [+]Loading...["The Zygon Inversion (TV story)"]) Rose would use her awareness of the Time War as leverage in an attempt to keep her, Mickey Smith and Rajesh Singh alive when facing the Cult of Skaro. (TV: Doomsday [+]Loading...["Doomsday (TV story)"])
By the 2000s,[nb 1] the Sontaran General Staal heard of legends which told of the Doctor leading battles in the Time War, bitterly noting that the Sontarans were forbidden from participating in the conflict. (TV: The Sontaran Stratagem [+]Loading...["The Sontaran Stratagem (TV story)"]) Following the Planetary Relocation Incident, (TV: Journey's End [+]Loading...["Journey's End"]) the Xylok known as Mr Smith was aware of the "feud" between the Daleks and the Time Lords, which he likened to the conflict between the families Slitheen and Blathereen of Raxacoricofallapatorius and the long-lasting war between the Sontarans and the Rutan Host. (TV: SJAF 4 [+]Loading...["SJAF 4"]) Andrea Quill, a Quill, was aware of the Time War, and that the destruction of the Imperial Dalek fleet at the hands of the Seventh Doctor contributed to it. (AUDIO: In Remembrance [+]Loading...["In Remembrance (audio story)"]) However, Time Agent Jack Harkness, a native of the 51st century (TV: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang [+]Loading...["Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang (TV story)"]) at first believed the Time War to be a legend before learning the truth from the Doctor. He was, however, aware that the Dalek ships were meant to have been all destroyed by 200,100. (TV: The Parting of the Ways [+]Loading...["The Parting of the Ways (TV story)"])
Just prior to the destruction of Earth in 5,000,000,000, Jabe of the Forest of Cheem had believed the Time Lords to be extinct, and was shocked to find the Ninth Doctor was one. Confiding her discovery with the Doctor, Jabe offered him her condolences. (TV: The End of the World [+]Loading...["The End of the World (TV story)"]) The Testimony later recorded the War Doctor's actions during the conflict in its data banks, specifically noting how it earned him the title "the Doctor of War". (TV: Twice Upon a Time [+]Loading...["Twice Upon a Time (TV story)"]) When they met the Twelfth and First Doctors, they played footage of the War Doctor arranging for Daleks to be shot down, for the Advent of Woe to be closed, making arrangements against the Nightmare Child, (PROSE: Twice Upon a Time [+]Loading...["Twice Upon a Time (novelisation)"]) and confronting the Dalek drone he pushed back with the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors. (TV: Twice Upon a Time [+]Loading...["Twice Upon a Time (TV story)"])
Lord Cardinal Romana was believed to have perished with the fall of Gallifrey, but UNIT personnel hoped, should they somehow have survived, they would prove a valuable ally in Operation Time Fracture. (PROSE: Lord Romanadvoratrelundar [+]Loading...["Lord Romanadvoratrelundar (feature)"]) The historical account of N-Space mentioned above claimed that, "millennia" after the Doctor regenerated from his war incarnation, the true fate of Gallifrey was finally revealed. (PROSE: The Whoniverse [+]Loading...["The Whoniverse (novel)"]) During the Siege of Trenzalore, "half the universe" fought to prevent the return of the Time Lords after learning the message that had brought them to Trenzalore was of Gallifreyan origin. (TV: The Time of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Time of the Doctor (TV story)"]) According to the book The Secret Lives of Monsters, "some" considered the Siege of Trenzalore to have been the last battle of the Time War. (PROSE: The Secret Lives of Monsters [+]Loading...["The Secret Lives of Monsters (short story)"]) Additionally, human historians dubbed the Siege of Trenzalore the final defeat of the Daleks, but, given the many other loses previously assumed to be their final end, they were not fully convinced. Indeed, they were aware that 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)"]) which had been restored by the Daleks, (TV: The Witch's Familiar [+]Loading...["The Witch's Familiar (TV story)"]) persisted behind an invisible barrier. (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)"])
Consequences[[edit] | [edit source]]
The Twelfth Doctor once said that, even though it was over, the Time War could still kill someone due to that being the nature of a temporal paradox. However, he then claimed people should not worry and forget that warning, stating it would never happen. (PROSE: The Dangerous Book of Monsters [+]Loading...["The Dangerous Book of Monsters (novel)"]) It was possible for individuals from the post-Time War universe to encounter combatants for whom the War was still going, as was the case when River Song and Kate Stewart's UNIT had encounters with the War Master. (AUDIO: Concealed Weapon [+]Loading...["Concealed Weapon (audio story)"], Master of Worlds [+]Loading...["Master of Worlds (audio story)"]) River also met the Eighth Doctor whilst he was in the midst of the conflict on two occasions. (AUDIO: The Rulers of the Universe [+]Loading...["The Rulers of the Universe (audio story)"], Lies in Ruins [+]Loading...["Lies in Ruins (audio story)"]) The Tenth Doctor's TARDIS was once pulled back into the conflict's time lock by a telepathic summons from the War Master and he had to rapidly depart to prevent himself becoming trapped there. (AUDIO: The Last Line [+]Loading...["The Last Line (audio story)"]) In an aborted timeline, the Saxon Master was able to use a Time Scoop to collect his previous incarnation whilst he was fighting the Time War. (AUDIO: Masterful [+]Loading...["Masterful (audio story)"])
The disappearance of the Time Lords created a vacuum that may have left history more vulnerable to change. The Ninth Doctor explained to Rose Tyler, (TV: The Unquiet Dead [+]Loading...["The Unquiet Dead (TV story)"]) the Tenth to Donna Noble (TV: The Unicorn and the Wasp [+]Loading...["The Unicorn and the Wasp (TV story)"]) and the Eleventh to Clara Oswald (TV: Cold War [+]Loading...["Cold War (TV story)"]) that time was in flux and history could change instantly. One demonstration of this was when Rose created a temporal paradox by saving her father, Pete, just before his death in a traffic accident. This summoned the Reapers, who descended to sterilise the "wound" in time by devouring everything in sight. The Ninth Doctor said that if the Time Lords had been still around, they could have held back the Reapers and prevented or repaired the paradox. (TV: Father's Day [+]Loading...["Father's Day (TV story)"])
According to the Tenth Doctor, certain areas like the Null Zone became "tricky" places for time travel. (COMIC: Supremacy of the Cybermen [+]Loading...["Supremacy of the Cybermen (comic story)"]) As well, the Tenth Doctor noted that when the Time Lords were around, travel between parallel worlds was far less difficult. With their disappearance, the barriers between worlds closed. (TV: Rise of the Cybermen [+]Loading...["Rise of the Cybermen (TV story)"]) With a sudden power vacuum without the Daleks and Time Lords in the universe, many of the races that had suffered during the War wanted to exploit the vacuum, managing to rise to prominence with only the Doctor left to keep them in line. (PROSE: The Whoniverse [+]Loading...["The Whoniverse (novel)"]) The end of the fighting also created a power vacuum specific to the Stellian Galaxy, which was consumed by centuries of war. (COMIC: Fugitive [+]Loading...["Fugitive (comic story)"])
Additionally, the Time Lords' position as keepers of the Web of Time was fought over by many time-active races, including the Sontarans, the Cybermen, and the Unon. (COMIC: Weapons of Past Destruction [+]Loading...["Weapons of Past Destruction (comic story)"]) The Hajor too, after their dimension was damaged by a shockwave caused by the Time War ripping through their realm, attempted to become the new Lords of Time. (COMIC: The Futurists [+]Loading...["The Futurists (comic story)"]) It was the Time Agency that asserted itself as the new protectors of history. (COMIC: Weapons of Past Destruction [+]Loading...["Weapons of Past Destruction (comic story)"]) Time Agent Jack Harkness, however, initially believed the Time War to be merely a legend. (TV: The Parting of the Ways [+]Loading...["The Parting of the Ways (TV story)"])
Due to the actions of Daleks near the end of the Time War, the Dalek Factor was left within the genetics of one in half a million humans, though dormant. When a Dalek casing was uncovered in England, the Dalek Factor became active in Kate Yates whose Dalek personality grew a new Dalek within the casing. The Dalek intended to travel forward to the year 500,000,000, knowing that the "impure creatures" of that time knew nothing of war or the Daleks, and use humanity's resources to rebuild its race but failed when Kate's human personality resurfaced and set the Dalek's Time Ring to self-destruct. The self-destruct caused a warp implosion that atomised the Dalek and made the Dalek Factor go dormant again in humanity. (PROSE: I Am a Dalek [+]Loading...["I Am a Dalek (novel)"])
The entire chain of Hotel Historia was left destroyed. (COMIC: Hotel Historia [+]Loading...["Hotel Historia (comic story)"]) The Kin, locked away aeons ago by the Time Lords, escaped their temporal prison due to the Time War's mutilation of Time, Space and Matter. (PROSE: Nothing O'Clock [+]Loading...["Nothing O'Clock (short story)"]) The Time Lords had left behind the Time Sentinels, who grew concerned that the Tenth Doctor's actions could damage the Time War's time lock. They allied with the Red TARDIS and attempted to lock the Doctor in an alternate timeline. After the Sentinels were corrupted by the Red TARDIS, the Osiran Anubis made the Circle of Transcendence collapse, destroying the Sentinels. (COMIC: The Good Companion [+]Loading...["The Good Companion (comic story)"])
As a result of the Time War, paradox eaters such as Reapers, Chronovores and Gramoryans ran wild. (AUDIO: Divorced, Beheaded, Regenerated [+]Loading...["Divorced, Beheaded, Regenerated (audio story)"]) The Discordia discovered time travel technology on their home planet and began to spread chaos throughout time, with no one left to oppose them. (AUDIO: Time in a Bottle [+]Loading...["Time in a Bottle (audio story)"]) Many Utopia windows were spread across the cosmos as flotsam and jetsam. (AUDIO: I Was Churchill's Double [+]Loading...["I Was Churchill's Double (audio story)"])
The Encyclopedia Gallifreya dealt with the Time Lords now not existing by changing its settings so that all surviving Encyclopaedias auto-updated, each constantly encoding data from their owner and linking with others of their kind. Some Time Lords (who did things like taking over the universe) complained about this causing issues with privacy; the Doctor had forgotten their Encyclopaedia and thus was not really affected. If he had checked with his Encyclopaedia, he would have realised that he was not the only Time Lord left. (PROSE: Citation Needed [+]Loading...["Citation Needed (short story)"])
The "chronological complications" brought about by the War and Gallifrey's apparent destruction resulted in Gallifrey and other artefacts native to its home universe landing within the universe of New Eden for a brief time. Inhabitants of New Eden's universe followed these artefacts on a path that brought them into conflict with Daleks, who had also arrived within New Eden. (GAME: The Interstellar Convergence [+]Loading...["The Interstellar Convergence (video game)"]) From his bubble universe, House had lured many TARDISes in order to feed on them, killing Time Lords such as the Ninth Corsair in the process. After some time without new arrivals, House lured the Eleventh Doctor, who identified himself as the last Time Lord with the last TARDIS, to his universe, where the TARDIS resisted his attempt to consume her. (TV: The Doctor's Wife [+]Loading...["The Doctor's Wife (TV story)"])
Survivors[[edit] | [edit source]]
Most of the inhabitants of Gallifrey at the end of the War survived in stasis in another universe. (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (TV story)"]) The Doctor believed himself to be the only remaining Time Lord in the universe, (TV: The End of the World [+]Loading...["The End of the World (TV story)"], Dalek [+]Loading...["Dalek (TV story)"], The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (TV story)"]) but in his tenth incarnation he encountered the the Rani (COMIC: Untitled [+]Loading...["Untitled (10DY3 12 comic story)"]) and the War Master, who survived disguised as a human using the Chameleon Arch. (TV: Utopia [+]Loading...["Utopia (TV story)"]) After he had left the War, the Master sent his TARDIS away, allowing it to survive. (AUDIO: The Heavenly Paradigm [+]Loading...["The Heavenly Paradigm (audio story)"]) The Master's Mark 212 was traumatised by his actions during the War, but this TARDIS was later reclaimed by Missy. (AUDIO: The Broken Clock [+]Loading...["The Broken Clock (audio story)"])
The Monk also survived, by utilising a similar plan to the Master. (AUDIO: Divorced, Beheaded, Regenerated [+]Loading...["Divorced, Beheaded, Regenerated (audio story)"]) K9 Mark I travelled through time to the year 2050 some point before the disappearance of Gallifrey. (TV: Regeneration [+]Loading...["Regeneration (TV story)"]) Leela survived the conflict but ended up in the captivity of the now-restored to power Z'nai, who tortured her for information about the Time Lords. Without the Time Lords to sustain her youth, she also rapidly aged. (AUDIO: The Catalyst [+]Loading...["The Catalyst (audio story)"]) When the Eleventh Doctor visited Shada following the Time War, the artificial intelligence who ran the planet noted that it had several Time Lord criminals in stasis. (COMIC: The One [+]Loading...["The One (comic story)"])
A single Dalek survived and crashed on the Ascension Islands on Earth in 1962. (TV: Dalek [+]Loading...["Dalek (TV story)"]) The Dalek Emperor also survived by falling through time to approximately the 2,000th century. (TV: The Parting of the Ways [+]Loading...["The Parting of the Ways (TV story)"]) The Cult of Skaro and the Daleks imprisoned in the Genesis Ark left the universe for the Void before the end of the war. (TV: Doomsday [+]Loading...["Doomsday (TV story)"]) UNIT encountered a heavily damaged elite Dalek. (AUDIO: The Dalek Transaction [+]Loading...["The Dalek Transaction (audio story)"]) Other Dalek survivors of the Time War[source needed] included an army of Daleks that was weakened and fell through time to 70 million years before the 21st century, where they were destroyed by dinosaurs, (PROSE: The Ryukyu Isles Mystery [+]Loading...["The Ryukyu Isles Mystery (short story)"]) a group of Daleks that massacred the pirate fleet of Captain Jack Lawrence in late September 1697, (PROSE: Pirates from the Sky! [+]Loading...["Pirates from the Sky! (short story)"]) and the complement of a Dalek ship that crashed in an island in the western part of the North Atlantic Ocean. The Daleks there caused a disturbance in human vehicles, leading to the mysterious disappearances of aircraft and surface vessels throughout what became known as the the Bermuda Triangle. (PROSE: Bermuda Triangle Incident [+]Loading...["Bermuda Triangle Incident (short story)"])
A sentient Dalek time machine created by the Cult of Skaro survived the War, and later plotted against the ascendant Resurrected Dalek Empire. (AUDIO: Didn’t You Kill My Mother?)
Though Davros was believed by the Doctor to have been killed in the war (consumed by the Nightmare Child), Dalek Caan temporal shifted into the war and rescued him. (TV: The Stolen Earth [+]Loading...["The Stolen Earth (TV story)"]) The Advocate escaped following Caan's path. (COMIC: Fugitive [+]Loading...["Fugitive (comic story)"], Don't Step on the Grass [+]Loading...["Don't Step on the Grass (comic story)"]) In the 22nd century, the Tenth Doctor would encounter a group of Daleks who attempted to capture the rare Krikoosh species and destablise humanity. Believing they were unworthy to survive, the Daleks would destroy themselves after their failure. (COMIC: Carnage Zoo [+]Loading...["Carnage Zoo (comic story)"], Extermination of the Daleks [+]Loading...["Extermination of the Daleks (comic story)"])
A Time Lord veteran of the Eternal War survived through the Time War trapped in a time loop with the Qwerm. (PROSE: River of Time [+]Loading...["River of Time (short story)"]) Several Daleks who had survived various pre-Time War encounters with the Doctor on the planets Kembel, Spiridon, Exxilon, Aridius and Vulcan would be encountered by the Eleventh Doctor in the Dalek Asylum. (TV: Asylum of the Daleks [+]Loading...["Asylum of the Daleks (TV story)"]) A Dalek that had been captured by fibre-optic cables during the Cloister Wars remained in captivity within the Cloisters on Gallifrey as late as the coup against Rassilon. (TV: Hell Bent [+]Loading...["Hell Bent (TV story)"])
Several races which were erased from existence during the war persisted as echoes displaced from time on a plane of non-reality, banding together to become the Bygone Horde. (AUDIO: The Other Side [+]Loading...["The Other Side (9DC audio story)"]) Eve was the only one of her species to escape being wiped out in the Last Great Time War due to their abilities to see timelines. (TV: SJAF 2)
Based on what they told the Ninth Doctor, the Gelth survived but lost their physical bodies, reduced to a gaseous state. (TV: The Unquiet Dead [+]Loading...["The Unquiet Dead (TV story)"], et. al) The Twelfth Doctor later noted that, as the Gelth "lied about a lot of things", he wasn't convinced that their claims that they had "come from another dimension after losing their bodies in the Great Time War" were true. (PROSE: A History of Humankind [+]Loading...["A History of Humankind (novel)"]) However, he also treated the claim that they had lost their planet in the conflict as true in his monster guide, which was later copied in a book by the Thirteenth Doctor. (PROSE: A Short History of Everyone [+]Loading...["A Short History of Everyone (novel)"]) Other historical texts also treated the idea that the Gelth had lost their bodies in the War as true. (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)"], The Whoniverse [+]Loading...["The Whoniverse (novel)"]) Alternatively, the Monster Vaults book claimed the War presented "the perfect opportunity" for the Gelth; according to it, the Gelth simply took advantage of time rifts the conflict created, entering new star systems and claiming themselves to be "higher forms" who'd been hurt in the conflict. (PROSE: The Monster Vault [+]Loading...["The Monster Vault (novel)"])
The Zygon homeworld apparently burned in the first days of the war. The Zygon race survived this attack. (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (TV story)"]) The Skrawn, which were lucky to have survived their planet's destruction, were left drifting aimlessly, bitter and vengeful, (COMIC: The Skrawn Inheritance [+]Loading...["The Skrawn Inheritance (comic story)"]) whilst Perganon and Ascinta also fell. (TV: School Reunion [+]Loading...["School Reunion (TV story)"], PROSE: Doctor Who: The Encyclopedia)
A temporal mine survived due to waiting in a pocket dimension throughout the War's duration, unable to find a big enough target. (PROSE: Keeping up with the Joneses [+]Loading...["Keeping up with the Joneses (short story)"]) Millions of war seed-created soldiers loyal to the Time Lords survived. Without orders or an enemy to fight, they returned to the planets they'd originated from. A war seed which had failed to blossom survived on Earth, being experimented on for his undying abilities, and was eventually tracked down by Missy who disposed of him. (AUDIO: War Seed [+]Loading...["War Seed (audio story)"])
Nyssa of Traken, who provided assistance during the War, (AUDIO: A Heart on Both Sides [+]Loading...["A Heart on Both Sides (audio story)"]) pursued fallout from the conflict in the post-War universe, catching up with the Tenth Doctor. (AUDIO: The Stuntman [+]Loading...["The Stuntman (audio story)"])
Using the erased days of Viola Wordsmith's timeline that his eighth incarnation had preserved, the Ninth Doctor was able to restore her to existence and by extension her home planet Gernica which had fallen victim to the Time War. (AUDIO: Death Will Not Part Us [+]Loading...["Death Will Not Part Us (audio story)"])
Access to the original timeline[[edit] | [edit source]]
After the War's conclusion, it was sometimes still possible for time travellers to arrive in the universe as it had been prior to the Time War's outbreak. On two occasions, the Tenth Doctor found himself in the pre-Time War universe. Once when his TARDIS jumped a time track, resulting in it arriving in the midst of pre-Time War era Second Dalek War, (PROSE: Prisoner of the Daleks [+]Loading...["Prisoner of the Daleks (novel)"]) and again as an accidental side effect of the temporal catastrophe caused by the Nun's meddling with George Sheldrake's time tunnels, which required the Tenth Doctor to abduct his own past self to rectify. (AUDIO: The Wrong Woman [+]Loading...["The Wrong Woman (audio story)"])
River Song became embroiled in the pre-Time War timeline during her involvement with the Doom Coalition, even visiting Gallifrey. (AUDIO: Songs of Love [+]Loading...["Songs of Love (audio story)"]) Whilst a captive of the Nine after helping the Eighth Doctor foiling the Coalition, she was forced to help him kidnap the Doctor's companions. She suggested Bliss as a candidate for capture, however upon her capture Bliss proved to have no experience with the Doctor as in the pre-Time War era her timeline had yet to be altered such that she met the Doctor. (AUDIO: Companion Piece [+]Loading...["Companion Piece (audio story)"])
The Eleventh Doctor made visits to the pre-Time War Dalek Empire, arranging a series of truces with Davros so the two could meet during Christmas on various worlds. He sought to teach the Dalek creator that words like "Christmas," or even a word that Darvos related to like "father," could have many meanings across cultures, while "Dalek" would only ever relate to the hatred present within the mutants, only for Davros to reject his offers to change the Dalek species and accept that the exterminators would never see him as a father. After the Doctor helped Krillitane rebels on Gryphon's Reach work out a form of cloaking technology, which helped the rebels to beat back a Dalek invasion overseen by Davros, the creator met with him for another Christmas on Alacracis IV, where the Doctor admitted he was scared of what their future clashes would lead to. Nonetheless, Davros used the encounter as a trap to try to kill the Time Lord, only for the Daleks, which Davros had designed cloaking technology for, to fail. One day later, the Daleks declared the Time War. (PROSE: Father of the Daleks [+]Loading...["Father of the Daleks (short story)"])
Other realities[[edit] | [edit source]]
In general[[edit] | [edit source]]
Across the multiverse, iterations of Davros and the Doctor were responsible for respectively instigating and concluding the Last Great Time War in every universe it occurred in. Alternate counterparts of the Doctor who fought in their realities' versions of the Time War included the Warrior, the Pilgrim, the Wanderer, the Nameless One and Colin. In one universe in which the Time War occurred, a version of the Doctor who sounded identical to the Sixth Doctor of the Doctor's universe contemplated whether he would regenerate or not, (AUDIO: The Key To Key To Time) in an identical manner to the Fifth Doctor of the Doctor's universe after he began regenerating into the Sixth Doctor as a result of spectrox toxaemia poisoning. (TV: The Caves of Androzani)
The Collective Victorious was comprised of individuals who had survived the destruction of their universes as a result of said universes' iterations of the Last Great Time War. Over at least thousands of years, they destroyed countless universes in a bid to win every version of the Time War, with the end goal of eradicating all of existence. Multiple iterations of the Warrior joined the Collective, and an iteration of Romanadvoratrelundar who joined the Collective originated from a version of the Warrior's universe. The Collective was ultimately defeated when the Warrior and Davros trapped them, along with themselves, outside of existence within the Great Lock of Time. Within the Lock, the Warrior was able to directly experience every iteration of the Time War. (AUDIO: The Key To Key To Time)
The Age of the Cyberiad[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Main article: Redundant timeline (Supremacy of the Cybermen)
In a redundant timeline created when Rassilon gave the Cybermen the ability to conquer all of history, (COMIC: Supremacy of the Cybermen [+]Loading...["Supremacy of the Cybermen (comic story)"]) the Last Great Time War was fought between the Time Lords and the Cybermen, (COMIC: Prologue: The War Doctor [+]Loading...["Prologue: The War Doctor (comic story)"]) at least partly because of the Cybermen's erasure of the Daleks from history. (COMIC: Prologue: The Fifth Doctor [+]Loading...["Prologue: The Fifth Doctor (comic story)"]) In this timeline, the War Doctor used the Moment to destroy Gallifrey and the Cybermen, (COMIC: Prologue: The War Doctor [+]Loading...["Prologue: The War Doctor (comic story)"]) although the Cybermen would ultimately survive the Time War and exploit leftover Time Lord portal technology to conquer the galaxy of Sontar during the 24th century. This timeline was eventually erased when, at the end of the universe, the Twelfth Doctor and a betrayed Rassilon used the Eye of Harmony on Gallifrey to regenerate the universe. (COMIC: Supremacy of the Cybermen [+]Loading...["Supremacy of the Cybermen (comic story)"])
The Daft Dimension[[edit] | [edit source]]
In the Daft Dimension, when he met Rose Tyler, the Ninth Doctor had just "returned from the Time War". The Twelfth Doctor and Clara Oswald's travels occurred ten years later "in Earth terms", but "more like a thousand years" later by the Doctor's subjective timeline. (COMIC: The Daft Dimension 485) Davros later recalled the Time War while facing the Twelfth Doctor. (COMIC: The Daft Dimension 486)
The Warrior's reality[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Main article: Time War (The Warrior's universe)
In the Warrior's universe, the Time War began after the Fourth Doctor carried out his mission to destroy the Daleks at their creation, (AUDIO: Dust Devil [+]Loading...["Dust Devil (audio story)"]) as his actions inadvertently inspired the Unified Skaroan Alliance between Thals, Kaleds and Daleks, who obtained time travel from the time ring he'd left behind. (AUDIO: Aftershocks [+]Loading...["Aftershocks (audio story)"]) The mortally-wounded Fourth Doctor was retrieved from Skaro by Narvin who supplied him with an elixir to enable him to regenerate, with the Doctor choosing to become a warrior. In his new incarnation, the Warrior arranged the termination of an aberrant Sixth Doctor, existing due to the millions of timelines created by his interference. (AUDIO: Dust Devil [+]Loading...["Dust Devil (audio story)"])
An outcome of this Time War was the Skaroan Alliance ruling time, bending the Celestial Intervention Agency to their will, but this timeline was sealed in a Carrisent Particum by the Warrior, guided by the Master, shortly after his regeneration. (AUDIO: Aftershocks [+]Loading...["Aftershocks (audio story)"])
As the War raged, the Warrior became President of Gallifrey and had to order the Difference Office to terminate Time Lords who attempted to travel back in time to stop their younger selves committing atrocities in the Time War. Working with Romana, the Warrior defended Gallifrey from an invasion by Kraals who were part of the Dalek alliance. (AUDIO: The Difference Office [+]Loading...["The Difference Office (audio story)"])
The War ultimately ended when the Warrior used the power of the Key to Time to avert the conflict, returning a part of him back to his fourth incarnation who now did not cross the wires in the incubation room on Skaro. (AUDIO: The Key To Key To Time [+]Loading...["The Key To Key To Time (audio story)"])
Other universes and timelines[[edit] | [edit source]]
In one possible future which was glimpsed by the Eighth Doctor before he became embroiled in the Time War, (PROSE: The Tomorrow Windows [+]Loading...["The Tomorrow Windows (novel)"]) a "listless looking" Ninth Doctor was engaged to be married to his companion Emma, his intention being to retire. Having been bested by the Doctor on Tersurus, the Master joined forces with the Daleks, who captured the Doctor and Emma and brought them aboard their spaceship, where the Master revealed he had granted the Daleks the secret of the zectronic energy beam, which would have enabled the Daleks to conquer the universe within minutes. However, the Zectronic Beam Controller was inadvertently damaged by the Daleks when the Doctor attempted to convey their intent to exterminate the Master, endangering the ship. The Doctor's attempts to repair it caused successive regenerations leading to the Twelfth Doctor, whose apparent final death led both the Master and the Daleks present to openly renounce their evil ways before he regenerated into the Thirteenth Doctor. (TV: The Curse of Fatal Death [+]Loading...["The Curse of Fatal Death (TV story)"])
In another possible future seen by the Eighth Doctor, (PROSE: The Tomorrow Windows [+]Loading...["The Tomorrow Windows (novel)"]) an alien race was responsible for killing nearly every Time Lord on Gallifrey, including the Lord President's daughter. The aliens were defeated by a "pale aristocrat" Ninth Doctor and the Master, though the Master's final physical body was destroyed in the process, resulting in him inhabiting an android body within the Doctor's TARDIS. After the Time Lords retreated into the Matrix, (PROSE: Doctor Who - The Ninth Doctor [+]Loading...["Doctor Who - The Ninth Doctor (short story)"]) they sent the Doctor and the Master on dangerous missions as punishment for the death of (WC: Scream of the Shalka [+]Loading...["Scream of the Shalka (webcast)"], PROSE: Scream of the Shalka [+]Loading...["Scream of the Shalka (novelisation)"]) the Lord President's daughter. (PROSE: Doctor Who - The Ninth Doctor [+]Loading...["Doctor Who - The Ninth Doctor (short story)"])
In the Unbound Universe, a Great War across the universe caused the extinction of the Time Lords, leaving the Doctor as the last survivor and thus the Ruler of the Universe, (AUDIO: The Library in the Body [+]Loading...["The Library in the Body (audio story)"]) though the Master had also survived. (AUDIO: The Emporium at the End [+]Loading...["The Emporium at the End (audio story)"]) This universe was left dying as a result of the War, (AUDIO: The Library in the Body [+]Loading...["The Library in the Body (audio story)"]) though the Doctor did succeed in creating a safe zone for the survivors using the Apocalypse Clock. (AUDIO: The True Saviour of the Universe [+]Loading...["The True Saviour of the Universe (audio story)"])
When the Dalek Time Strategist anchored every version of Davros from across the multiverse to a parallel Davros to make him into a replica of the N-Space scientist, one of the voices the counterpart heard was a version of Davros announcing in horror that the Nightmare Child was approaching. The modulated voice of this Davros sounded somewhat similar (AUDIO: Palindrome [+]Loading...["Palindrome (audio story)"]) to the voice of N-Space Davros when speaking through his Imperial Emperor casing. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks [+]Loading...["Remembrance of the Daleks (TV story)"], AUDIO: Terror Firma [+]Loading...["Terror Firma (audio story)"])
In one possible timeline shown by a Dalek continuity bomb, the War Doctor became a Dalek Slave. (COMIC: Four Doctors [+]Loading...["Four Doctors (comic story)"]) Sibling Different and Sibling Same visited a timeline where, during the Battle of the Game Station, the Daleks and Bad Wolf entity fused. (PROSE: The Paradox Moon [+]Loading...["The Paradox Moon (short story)"])
Participants[[edit] | [edit source]]
Gallifrey[[edit] | [edit source]]
Time Lord forces[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Main article: Armed forces of Gallifrey
Led by Lord President Rassilon, Time Lord society was opposed to the Dalek Empire during the War, (TV: The End of Time [+]Loading...["The End of Time (TV story)"]) with the previously peaceful and virtuous Lords of Time becoming cruel over the course of the conflict. (PROSE: How to be a Time Lord [+]Loading...["How to be a Time Lord (novel)"]) Even before the war, the Eighth Doctor admitted to Davros that he held "a bit" of shame towards his own people, that half of "[his] lot" were "crazy or corrupt" whilst the other half were "duller than you can possibly imagine", and that only his companions kept him from returning to Gallifrey "to collect dust with the rest of them". (AUDIO: Terror Firma [+]Loading...["Terror Firma (audio story)"]) During the War, however, the Time Lords changed almost completely into a destructive force. (TV: The End of Time [+]Loading...["The End of Time (TV story)"])
During the War, the Time Lords became as vengeful and willing to slaughter as the Daleks were. (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (novelisation)"]) Leela once reflected that many Time Lord officials had different outlooks on the War; while some Time Lords believed they were helping the weak of the universe, there were others who spent their time absorbed in bureaucracy and debate, with Leela feeling those who failed to act were sentencing worlds across time to destruction. She also admitted that some Time Lords only wanted their race to survive the conflict, (WC: Gallifrey War Room [+]Loading...["Gallifrey War Room (webcast)"]) with all of the High Council, aside from two detractors, adopting that outlook by the end of the War. (TV: The End of Time [+]Loading...["The End of Time (TV story)"])
Becoming one of the most warlike races in the universe (TV: Before the Flood [+]Loading...["Before the Flood (TV story)"]) in the name of stopping the Daleks, the armed forces of Gallifrey were headed by Rasslion, who adopted brutal methods as the War ground on to try to ensure his people survived. (PROSE: Engines of War [+]Loading...["Engines of War (novel)"]) The High Council and officers on the War Council also helped lead the War effort. While the latter council was based out of the War Room, (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (TV story)"]) its members would occasionally leave Gallifrey to personally lead missions. (AUDIO: Allegiance, Manoeuvres) The Master claimed that as the War rewrote time there had been many iterations of the War Council. He was equally dismissive of all of them. (AUDIO: Runtime [+]Loading...["Runtime (audio story)"]) A major leader in the Council was Cardinal Ollistra, who, in her War incarnation was given special dispensation to conduct her own operations. (AUDIO: Assassins [+]Loading...["Assassins (audio story)"]) In her absence from Gallifrey, her previous incarnation was resurrected as a Matrix projection to work in the War Room. (AUDIO: The Passenger [+]Loading...["The Passenger (audio story)"], The Last Days of Freme [+]Loading...["The Last Days of Freme (audio story)"]) Her role presiding over the War Room met with some opposition from Cardinal Rasmus. (AUDIO: The Passenger [+]Loading...["The Passenger (audio story)"], Ambition's Debt [+]Loading...["Ambition's Debt (audio story)"]) There was also an "inner circle" to the War Council, who briefed the War Doctor on his mission to assassinate the Barber-Surgeon and did not identify themselves. (AUDIO: The Mission [+]Loading...["The Mission (audio story)"]) By the end of the Time War, the Eleventh General appeared to be the overall leader of the War Council. (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (TV story)"])
Lesser ranking officers held command over forces like armadas, (PROSE: Decoy [+]Loading...["Decoy (short story)"], The Third Wise Man [+]Loading...["The Third Wise Man (short story)"]), taskforces, (AUDIO: A Mother's Love [+]Loading...["A Mother's Love (audio story)"]) and armies. (PROSE: The Whoniverse [+]Loading...["The Whoniverse (novel)"], et. al)
Time Lord soldiers were trained and deployed to the frontlines despite Dalek technology possessing regeneration inhibitors. (AUDIO: The Conscript [+]Loading...["The Conscript (audio story)"]) The Time Lords actively looked for ways to resurrect their dead soldiers to throw them back into the War (AUDIO: Legion of the Lost [+]Loading...["Legion of the Lost (audio story)"]) while also conscripting new Gallifreyans into the military. (AUDIO: The Conscript [+]Loading...["The Conscript (audio story)"]) Time Lord troops were re-engineered, becoming bio-engineered soldiers as a result of having time-sensitive weaponry and surveillance equipment transplanted onto them. Hard drives were also placed into (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords [+]Loading...["A Brief History of Time Lords (novel)"]) a small portion of their brains, with a head camera recording everything they saw but editing footage too gruesome for children. (TV: The Last Day [+]Loading...["The Last Day (TV story)"]) When soldiers started to report premonitions concerning their deaths and the destruction of the Time Lords (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords [+]Loading...["A Brief History of Time Lords (novel)"]) after first receiving implants, (TV: The Last Day [+]Loading...["The Last Day (TV story)"]) High Command claimed these were merely hallucinations, (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords [+]Loading...["A Brief History of Time Lords (novel)"]) but word spread through the ranks. (TV: The Last Day [+]Loading...["The Last Day (TV story)"])
Some of the Time Lord military forces that fought in the War included the Ninth Prydonian Guard under Captain Dolios, (COMIC: The Clockwise War [+]Loading...["The Clockwise War (comic story)"]) a fleet under General Artarix, (PROSE: Decoy [+]Loading...["Decoy (short story)"]) the Fifth Time Lord Battle Fleet, (PROSE: Engines of War [+]Loading...["Engines of War (novel)"]) the Third Patrex Battalion, (AUDIO: Echoes of War [+]Loading...["Echoes of War (audio story)"]) and the Red seven squad based on Gallifreyan Military Moon Base. (AUDIO: The Conscript [+]Loading...["The Conscript (audio story)"]) Gallifreyan shock troops like the 5th Gallifreyan Infantry were fielded, (AUDIO: Assets of War [+]Loading...["Assets of War (audio story)"]) while the Thirteenth Vexillatio were considered Gallifrey's best troops until their deaths. (COMIC: The Organ Grinder [+]Loading...["The Organ Grinder (comic story)"]) The Great Houses of Gallifrey were still active during the War, with families like House Mirraflex or the House of Brightshore retaining their illustrious reputations despite the many changes to Gallifreyan society. (AUDIO: The Conscript [+]Loading...["The Conscript (audio story)"]) The mutated Time Lords dubbed the "Interstitial" were left abandoned in the Death Zone. (PROSE: Engines of War [+]Loading...["Engines of War (novel)"])
Before the War, Gallifrey established the Joint Council to help oversee affairs, (AUDIO: Celestial Intervention [+]Loading...["Celestial Intervention (audio story)"]) while the Chancellery Guard had defended the Lord President and the Capitol from threats for many years, even fighting the Daleks in pre-War skirmishes like the Etra Prime incident. (AUDIO: The Apocalypse Element [+]Loading...["The Apocalypse Element (audio story)"]) Nonetheless, Rassilon dissolved the Guard through the ancient Drylands Precedent without needing to consult the Joint Council, reassigning the Guard's resources and members to his newly established the Interior Defence Unit, which in practice served as a secret police force, under Cardinal Mantus. The position of Castellan thus became redundant without the Guard, so the current Castellan, Bovari, was reassigned to the Hall of Records, becoming an administrator. (AUDIO: Havoc [+]Loading...["Havoc (audio story)"])
Rassilon later did the same for the Celestial Intervention Agency, thus giving the CIA's jurisdiction and resources to his secret police force, (AUDIO: Assassins [+]Loading...["Assassins (audio story)"]) although the Eighth Doctor and Susan Foreman suspected the CIA was not truly dissolved. (AUDIO: The Shoreditch Intervention [+]Loading...["The Shoreditch Intervention (audio story)"]) Indeed, the CIA was active again by the Battle for the Tantalus Eye, as was the Chancellery Guard. During this time, the position of Castellan also existed once again, but the then-current Castellan grew disillusioned with the horrific methods his people were employing to win the Time War, although Lord Cardinal Karlax came to suspect as such and warned Rassilon of the Castellan's possible treachery. (PROSE: Engines of War [+]Loading...["Engines of War (novel)"])
Those who served the Time Lords' war effort included Raston Warrior Robots, (AUDIO: The Mission [+]Loading...["The Mission (audio story)"]) Gallifreyan time agents, transduction operatives, Weapons Architects, the tactical team, the psi division and the psyche evaluation teams, the technical division and the technical teams. Panopticon Scholars worked on scrutinising Dalek history. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Loading...["Dalek Combat Training Manual (reference book)"])
Although the Eighth Doctor had rejected the idea of fighting in the Time War, he chose to regenerate into the War Doctor to save the universe. (TV: The Night of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Night of the Doctor (TV story)"]) During his years of combat, he earned the love of the Time Lord military and horrified the Daleks. He made it his mission to fight for the sake of the Gallifreyan soldiers, especially those who were inspired by him. His contribution to Gallifrey's war effort was even acknowledged by Rasslion. (PROSE: Decoy [+]Loading...["Decoy (short story)"]) He was reluctant to take on companions, though individuals like Cinder ended up joining him on his wartime travels and helped him fight. (PROSE: Engines of War [+]Loading...["Engines of War (novel)"]) At the end of the War, by most accounts, multiple incarnations of the Doctor joined together to prevent the Fall of Gallifrey. (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (TV story)"])
Tasked with leading his own army (PROSE: The Whoniverse [+]Loading...["The Whoniverse (novel)"]) as a general, (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)"]) two incarnations of the Master fought in the Time War, (AUDIO: The Devil You Know [+]Loading...["The Devil You Know (audio story)"], COMIC: Fast Asleep [+]Loading...["Fast Asleep (comic story)"]) although the second managed to write out most of his involvement. (COMIC: The Judas Goatee [+]Loading...["The Judas Goatee (comic story)"]) To demonstrate how time worked differently during the War, he once briefly became the "UNIT era" incarnation again. (COMIC: Kill God [+]Loading...["Kill God (comic story)"]) Ultimately, the second War Master would accidently undo his own existence, resulting in only one incarnation of the Master fighting in the Last Great Time War. (COMIC: Fast Asleep [+]Loading...["Fast Asleep (comic story)"]) As such, he believed himself superior to all his previous-selves, feeling as though none of them could face the horrors he had; he went as far as to claim that, had they "allowed" him to come into existence earlier, he may have prevented the war altogether. (AUDIO: Masterful [+]Loading...["Masterful (audio story)"])
One Time Lord tactic was Pattern nocturne, which entailed a strike force being cautious. Another was Pattern daylight, which ordered the strike force to show itself to draw out and wipe out their foes. (PROSE: The Third Wise Man [+]Loading...["The Third Wise Man (short story)"])
According to one account, the Time Lords drafted their own degradations from alternate timelines as shock troops in opposition to (GAME: A Brief History of Space and Time [+]Loading...["A Brief History of Space and Time (game)"]) the Skaro Degradations employed by the Daleks. (PROSE: Engines of War [+]Loading...["Engines of War (novel)"])
A Time Lord resistance against both Rassilon and the Daleks arose and suffered greatly. (AUDIO: Deception [+]Loading...["Deception (audio story)"])
Time Lord allies[[edit] | [edit source]]
In the build-up to the War, the Emperor of the Restoration foresaw a time when the Time Lords would "unite all life-forms" in their efforts to destroy the Daleks. (PROSE: Mission to the Known [+]Loading...["Mission to the Known (short story)"])
Initially the Time Lords were allied with the Temporal Powers, many of whom had been attacked by the Daleks prior to the War's official start. (AUDIO: Desperate Measures [+]Loading...["Desperate Measures (audio story)"]) These powers, including the Monans and Phaidons, suffered great losses during the War, with the last of their battleships left amongst ruins on Karn. (AUDIO: Light the Flame [+]Loading...["Light the Flame (audio story)"]) Indeed, the Daleks targeted many species who could have been allies to the Time Lords, wiping them out to prevent their enemies from receiving that aid, (GAME: Lost in Time [+]Loading...["Lost in Time (video game)"]) even though the Time Lords behaved in a similar fashion, in imprisoning the Compassionate. (AUDIO: The Bleeding Heart [+]Loading...["The Bleeding Heart (audio story)"])
The General believed that TARDISes should be considered allies of the Time Lords rather than simple vessels. He was of the belief that they did not enjoy the conflict, even somewhat sympathising with the Daleks they killed as they were horrific fusions of organic and metal. (PROSE: The Third Wise Man [+]Loading...["The Third Wise Man (short story)"])
Over time the Time Lords became more ruthless in recruiting allies. After coming to power, Rassilon decreed that anyone who refused to help Gallifrey's war effort was to be considered an enemy. (AUDIO: Havoc [+]Loading...["Havoc (audio story)"]) One of Gallifrey's neighbours, Raeve, did refuse an alliance and as a result was targeted by Time Lord terrorist attacks. (AUDIO: A Heart on Both Sides [+]Loading...["A Heart on Both Sides (audio story)"]) The Time Lords forcibly recruited the people of Derilobia into the War by militarily occupying the planet and setting up a collaboration regime. This was done on Commander Carvil's orders, with his superiors believing he'd intervened to save the planet from the Daleks. (AUDIO: The Lords of Terror [+]Loading...["The Lords of Terror (audio story)"]) The Time Lords brainwashed humans who lived close to No.24 Marigold Lane on 1970s Earth to protect the Research and Development Repository, making them into sleeper agents who would attack any who got too close to it. (AUDIO: The Heavenly Paradigm [+]Loading...["The Heavenly Paradigm (audio story)"])
The Time Lords were willing to change history so they had a long-standing relationship with other species they needed assistance from, reasoning the Daleks were willing to change history so they needed to do so as well. They did this to help Susan Foreman's mission to get the aid of Sensorites, sending diplomats back in time to establish a history of diplomatic relations between the Sense Sphere and Gallifrey. (AUDIO: Sphere of Influence [+]Loading...["Sphere of Influence (audio story)"])
The Time Lords worked with old foes of the Daleks including the Thals, (AUDIO: Temmosus [+]Loading...["Temmosus (audio story)"]) and the Anti-Dalek Force. (AUDIO: The Uncertain Shore [+]Loading...["The Uncertain Shore (audio story)"]) The Thals came to resent the Time Lords commanding them, having been fighting Daleks in their own right throughout their history, and relations between the allies remained tense, even when the War Doctor organised the gifting of a new warship to the Thals. (AUDIO: Temmosus [+]Loading...["Temmosus (audio story)"]) Additionally, Thals from the period of the Thal-Dalek battle (TV: The Daleks [+]Loading...["The Daleks (TV story)"]) refused to help the Time Lords due to their pacifist nature, refusing to provide the secrets of the anti-radiation drug because it was designed to be medicine, not a weapon. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Loading...["Dalek Combat Training Manual (reference book)"])
The Time Lords also collaborated with local resistance fighters, such as working with the resistance on Uzmal during an investigation of the Daleks' interest on the planet, (AUDIO: Jonah [+]Loading...["Jonah (audio story)"]) and arming the resistance on Florana. (AUDIO: The Uncertain Shore [+]Loading...["The Uncertain Shore (audio story)"]) The War Doctor organised the natives of Fergil into shield teams to fight off a Dalek attack. However, the Daleks then returned to Beltox to destroy the world. (AUDIO: Pretty Lies [+]Loading...["Pretty Lies (audio story)"])
The Sisterhood of Karn, who were responsible for resurrecting and enabling the deceased Eighth Doctor to regenerate into the War Doctor, (TV: The Night of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Night of the Doctor (TV story)"]) fought with the Time Lords during the War, including against the Morlontoa. (COMIC: The Clockwise War [+]Loading...["The Clockwise War (comic story)"]) Rassilon appointed a Visionary from the Sisterhood to the War Council, (AUDIO: Homecoming [+]Loading...["Homecoming (audio story)"]) though one text instead claimed she was actually a Time Lady. (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords [+]Loading...["A Brief History of Time Lords (novel)"]) Despite the alliance between the Time Lords and Sisterhood during the War, (COMIC: The Clockwise War [+]Loading...["The Clockwise War (comic story)"]) Rassilion was annoyed to find they were still active at the end of the universe when Gallifrey was returned. (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords [+]Loading...["A Brief History of Time Lords (novel)"])
Another ally, recruited by Rassilon, was the Nestene Consciousness, which provided an Auton copy of the War Doctor for a trap. The actual War Doctor noted that Rassilon could have had an entire army of Autons made, though the Lord President argued the Daleks would have detected the lack of lifeforms. (PROSE: Decoy [+]Loading...["Decoy (short story)"]) The Nestenes later abandoned conflict altogether only to be embroiled in the War again when an extradimensional battle briefly spilled out into the region of space occupied by Nestenia and its food planets, destroying them in an instant, driving the Consciousness insane with vengefulness. (PROSE: Revenge of the Nestene [+]Loading...["Revenge of the Nestene (short story)"]) The temporal stress mutated the Consciousness. (PROSE: Meet the Doctor [+]Loading...["Meet the Doctor (DWAN 2006 short story)"])
The Voord worked with the Time Lords against the Daleks on Marinus. Despite cooperating with the Time Lords, they still feared that after the War had ended the Time Lords would forcibly revert their timeline to how it had been prior to the War. (COMIC: Four Doctors [+]Loading...["Four Doctors (comic story)"])
The Time Lords made an agreement with the Technomancers for them to resurrect deceased Time Lords. Horrified at this, the War Doctor also discovered the Technomancers were exploiting this arrangement to bring the Horned Ones into existence and wiped them out with the Annihilator. (AUDIO: Legion of the Lost [+]Loading...["Legion of the Lost (audio story)"])
Cardinal Ollistra once ordered the opening a rift to the home dimension of the Time Lords' old enemies, the Great Vampires, in a bid to wipe out a Dalek fleet. (COMIC: The Bidding War [+]Loading...["The Bidding War (comic story)"])
Individuals from other species also aided the Time Lords' cause including Biroc, a Tharil who worked as a spy, (AUDIO: Lion Hearts [+]Loading...["Lion Hearts (audio story)"]) Fey Truscott-Sade, who was a fusion of human and Shayde and was recruited by the War Doctor, (COMIC: The Clockwise War [+]Loading...["The Clockwise War (comic story)"]) human Dalek Killer Abslom Daak, who had been sent into the conflict from the future after the Time War by the Eleventh Doctor, (COMIC: Physician, Heal Thyself [+]Loading...["Physician, Heal Thyself (comic story)"]) and Dorium Maldovar, a Crespallion who was recruited by the War Doctor to assist him in destroying the weapons factories on Villengard before the Daleks could take control of them. (COMIC: The Whole Thing's Bananas [+]Loading...["The Whole Thing's Bananas (comic story)"]) Two human residents of Gallifrey, Ace and Leela, took part in the War. (AUDIO: Celestial Intervention [+]Loading...["Celestial Intervention (audio story)"]) Ace was later removed from the War by Irving Braxiatel as he fled the conflict. (AUDIO: Soldier Obscura [+]Loading...["Soldier Obscura (audio story)"]) After affiliating with the resistance, Leela was forcibly drafted into the war effort by Rassilon, (AUDIO: Homecoming [+]Loading...["Homecoming (audio story)"]) but promised to have her revenge against them for taking away so many of her beloved friends, such as Ace. (WC: Gallifrey War Room [+]Loading...["Gallifrey War Room (webcast)"])
The Time Lords did refuse to ally with the Sontarans, as did the Daleks, with Ollistra believing them not capable of temporal warfare. (AUDIO: The Eternity Cage [+]Loading...["The Eternity Cage (audio story)"])
Skaro[[edit] | [edit source]]
Dalek forces[[edit] | [edit source]]
As the entirety of the Dalek Empire was involved in the Last Great Time War, (TV: The Parting of the Ways [+]Loading...["The Parting of the Ways (TV story)"]) the entire Dalek race took part in the conflict. In fact, a quintillion units fought in the final battle of Gallifrey alone. (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (TV story)"]) The war effort was led by the Dalek Emperor, (PROSE: The Whoniverse [+]Loading...["The Whoniverse (novel)"]) though several accounts existed as to the precise identity of this head of state. By one account, it was the second ruler of the Imperial Daleks, (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)"]) but his advisor, the Prime Strategist, heavily considered taking his place to lead the empire into war. (PROSE: Exit Strategy [+]Loading...["Exit Strategy (short story)"]) Additionally, another account depicted the Dalek Prime as the Dalek Emperor, having been resurrected to lead the empire through the struggle. (AUDIO: Restoration of the Daleks [+]Loading...["Restoration of the Daleks (audio story)"])
The standard infantry force of the Dalek Empire was the Dalek drones. During the Time War, drones were fielded in bronze casings as soldiers, (TV: Dalek [+]Loading...["Dalek (TV story)"]) guards, (PROSE: Engines of War [+]Loading...["Engines of War (novel)"]) and pilots. Beyond the countless drones deployed during the War, (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (TV story)"]) variant units like the Spider Dalek, (AUDIO: He Who Fights With Monsters) the Disruptor Dalek, (AUDIO: The Lady of Obsidian [+]Loading...["The Lady of Obsidian (audio story)"]) the Emperor's Personal Guard, (WC: Gallifrey War Room [+]Loading...["Gallifrey War Room (webcast)"], et. al) Dalek hunter drones, (AUDIO: The Conscript [+]Loading...["The Conscript (audio story)"]) and Hunter Daleks saw use. (AUDIO: Dissolution [+]Loading...["Dissolution (audio story)"]) An Assault Dalek took part in the Battle of the Game Station. (TV: The Parting of the Ways [+]Loading...["The Parting of the Ways (TV story)"]) Berserker Daleks were deployed on simpler tasks, which required nothing more than extermination of a population, as they were incapable of strategy due to their lower intelligence. (AUDIO: Rewind [+]Loading...["Rewind (audio story)"])
Special Weapons Daleks also saw use in the War. (AUDIO: The Mission [+]Loading...["The Mission (audio story)"], The Horror [+]Loading...["The Horror (audio story)"]) In fact, the Time Lords foresee that a new line of Special Weapons Daleks would be created in the Norvis galaxy before they destroyed it. (AUDIO: Collateral Victim [+]Loading...["Collateral Victim (audio story)"]) Diamond Daleks, Special Weapons Daleks, and the Fifth Skaro Devastation's spider forms were seen at the Neverwhen. (AUDIO: The Neverwhen [+]Loading...["The Neverwhen (audio story)"]) The Time Eradicator Dalek was a central figure to a Dalek plot to assassinate vital enemy troops before they brought about Dalek defeats. (AUDIO: The Shadow Squad [+]Loading...["The Shadow Squad (audio story)"]) The Dalek Scientific Division was active in the War. (AUDIO: Remnants [+]Loading...["Remnants (audio story)"])
Working under the Emperor was the Dalek Time Strategist, serving as an advisor (AUDIO: Desperate Measures [+]Loading...["Desperate Measures (audio story)"]) and frontline commander. (AUDIO: The Lady of Obsidian [+]Loading...["The Lady of Obsidian (audio story)"], et al.) The Strategist's position by the Emperor's side was coveted by other Dalek commanders. (AUDIO: Temmosus [+]Loading...["Temmosus (audio story)"]) Supreme Daleks were active under the Emperor and the Strategist, with a Dalek either being appointed as a Supreme by the Time Strategist (AUDIO: Desperate Measures [+]Loading...["Desperate Measures (audio story)"]) or being named as such after its creation by an overseer, who scanned each newly "born" mutant. (PROSE: Dalek [+]Loading...["Dalek (novelisation)"]) Other leaders included Dalek High Command (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (TV story)"]) and Black Daleks. (TV: Doomsday [+]Loading...["Doomsday (TV story)"]; AUDIO: Planet of the Ogrons [+]Loading...["Planet of the Ogrons (audio story)"])
.jpg)
Black Daleks were identified with the title of "commander," (TV: Evolution of the Daleks [+]Loading...["Evolution of the Daleks (TV story)"]) although there were Bronze Daleks known as commanders as well. (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)"]) Upon creation, most Dalek mutants became mere Dalek drones, beginning a simple life of obeying orders instead of giving them. There was a one in one hundred thousand chance a Dalek would be named a Commander, while the chance of becoming a Supreme was one in one billion. (PROSE: Dalek [+]Loading...["Dalek (novelisation)"]) Upon questioning the Emperor, a Dalek Supreme was executed and then replaced by a technician, who was upgraded into a new Supreme. (AUDIO: Homecoming [+]Loading...["Homecoming (audio story)"])
Other specific Supreme Daleks active in the War included a Supreme who led the attack on Project Revenant, who then needed to be replaced upon destruction, (AUDIO: Desperate Measures [+]Loading...["Desperate Measures (audio story)"]) a Supreme who passed on orders from the Emperor, (AUDIO: Dissolution [+]Loading...["Dissolution (audio story)"]) a Supreme in command of a harvester ship, (AUDIO: Saviour [+]Loading...["Saviour (audio story)"]) a Supreme who led the hunt for the War Doctor, (COMIC: Ambush [+]Loading...["Ambush (comic story)"]) a Supreme who led the attack on Space Station Zenobia, (AUDIO: A Genius for War [+]Loading...["A Genius for War (audio story)"]) and a Supreme who battled the Master. (TV: The Witch's Familiar [+]Loading...["The Witch's Familiar (TV story)"]; AUDIO: The Good Master [+]Loading...["The Good Master (audio story)"]) Other officers included the Admiral, (AUDIO: Jonah [+]Loading...["Jonah (audio story)"]) the Prime Dalek, (AUDIO: The Thousand Worlds [+]Loading...["The Thousand Worlds (audio story)"]) and the commander of the Red Fleet. (AUDIO: Temmosus [+]Loading...["Temmosus (audio story)"]) Black Daleks active in the War included Dalek Sec (TV: Doomsday [+]Loading...["Doomsday (TV story)"]) and the Overseer. (AUDIO: Planet of the Ogrons [+]Loading...["Planet of the Ogrons (audio story)"])
Shaped identically to their subordinates, Red Daleks led bronze Daleks up to the last day of the Time War. Also participating in the attack on Gallifrey were silver Daleks with black sense globes, (WC: The Final Battle [+]Loading...["The Final Battle (webcast)"]) like the earlier Type V Daleks, (TV: Death to the Daleks [+]Loading...["Death to the Daleks (TV story)"], PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Loading...["Dalek Combat Training Manual (reference book)"]) At least one of these silver Daleks wielded a claw manipulator. (WC: The Final Battle [+]Loading...["The Final Battle (webcast)"])
Specific Dalek units that were involved in Time War battles included Theta Squad, which was organised to have a commander and Sub-Leader under a Dalek Taskforce Commander, and Delta Squad. (AUDIO: Pretty Lies [+]Loading...["Pretty Lies (audio story)"]) The Eleventh Doctor once mentioned "Bob the Nasty Dalek" as a candidate for the greatest murderer of the Last Great Time War. (COMIC: The Then and the Now [+]Loading...["The Then and the Now (comic story)"]) The Daleks had multiple secret orders dedicated to furthering the war effort in new ways. The Cult of Skaro, led by Dalek Sec, was a secret Dalek society designed to think like their enemies. There were only four Daleks in the Cult, each adopting a unique name, and the Doctor initially believed them to just be a legend. (TV: Doomsday [+]Loading...["Doomsday (TV story)"]) Other councils were the Volatix Cabal, a sect of Daleks with creativity, (COMIC: The Organ Grinder [+]Loading...["The Organ Grinder (comic story)"]) and the Eternity Circle. (PROSE: The Whoniverse [+]Loading...["The Whoniverse (novel)"])
The Daleks committed untold crimes during the Time War. (PROSE: Wanted! Daleks [+]Loading...["Wanted! Daleks (feature)"]) Initially underestimating the exterminators as a lesser species that could not contend with them, the Time Lords were not prepared to face the Daleks in war. The Daleks responded to everything the Time Lords did with hatred. In fact, it forced the Time Lords to alter their tactics; normally, they would disguise their TARDISes as local ships whenever they entered a time zone, yet the Daleks, frenzied by the war but still simple in their hatred, fired on any ship that came by. Thus, the Time Lords needed to disguise their ships as debris or other such things. (PROSE: The Third Wise Man [+]Loading...["The Third Wise Man (short story)"]) Susan Foreman noted the Daleks had changed the tactics during the Time War, favouring slaughter instead of taking slaves. (AUDIO: The Uncertain Shore [+]Loading...["The Uncertain Shore (audio story)"])
The Time Lords believed that the Daleks' Spiridon army was still frozen. Recognising the threat of the Daleks excavating this army for use against Gallifrey, it was recommended that reconnaissance TARDISes make regular sweeps of the Spiridon system, and that any increase in Dalek activity on the planet be reported to the War Council immediately so that appropriate action could be taken. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Loading...["Dalek Combat Training Manual (reference book)"])
Daleks of questionable purity[[edit] | [edit source]]
Asked to join the conflict by his creations, (PROSE: Father of the Daleks [+]Loading...["Father of the Daleks (short story)"]) Davros was promised his own legion in return for creating the Nightmare Child, (PROSE: The Third Wise Man [+]Loading...["The Third Wise Man (short story)"]) only to seemingly die in the jaws of the beast during the first year of the conflict. (TV: The Stolen Earth [+]Loading...["The Stolen Earth (TV story)"]) Though Davros had described the Nightmare Child as the "perfect Dalek," he willingly sacrificed himself to stop it from feasting upon the rest of the Dalek Empire, considering them "his true children." (PROSE: The Third Wise Man [+]Loading...["The Third Wise Man (short story)"])
As the War persisted, the Dalek ideals of racial purity, (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords [+]Loading...["A Brief History of Time Lords (novel)"]) a concept so ingrained into them it had caused a civil war between different factions, (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks [+]Loading...["Remembrance of the Daleks (TV story)"]) were weakened. A Brief History of Time Lords claimed the Cult of Skaro were a result of this, (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords [+]Loading...["A Brief History of Time Lords (novel)"]) though the members of the cult were known to be "pure" Daleks. (TV: Daleks in Manhattan [+]Loading...["Daleks in Manhattan (TV story)"]) A group of the Dalek Scientific Division sought to restore the Daleks to a humanoid form, ignoring orders to stop over concerns of purity. (AUDIO: A Thing of Guile [+]Loading...["A Thing of Guile (audio story)"]) Impure Dalek Hunter-Killers were sent into battle and tested by the Time Strategist. (AUDIO: The Mission [+]Loading...["The Mission (audio story)"], The Horror [+]Loading...["The Horror (audio story)"]) The people of Orrison were mutated into Berserker Daleks. (AUDIO: Ambition's Debt [+]Loading...["Ambition's Debt (audio story)"])
To create more soldiers, humans were captured and forced into glass incubators, turning them into Dalek mutants. Still seen as being inferior lifeforms by the rest of the empire, these Daleks of human origin, taking orders the same as any other Dalek, were then fielded as expendable soldiers, often dying as cannon fodder because the wider empire was not concerned for their safety. Other abnormal variants came with the Skaro Degradations, such as the Spiders and Glider Daleks. The Eternity Circle also attempted to convert the War Doctor into the Predator Dalek. (PROSE: Engines of War [+]Loading...["Engines of War (novel)"]) After the War, the Emperor's new Dalek army was created from humans, though he claimed to have purged all human elements, leaving nothing but "pure and blessed Dalek" to the point that he took Rose Tyler's observation that they were "half-human" as blasphemy. (TV: The Parting of the Ways [+]Loading...["The Parting of the Ways (TV story)"])
Dalek allies[[edit] | [edit source]]
Though the Time Strategist once claimed the Daleks did not require alliances, stating as such when it declined an alliance with Sontaran General Fesk, (AUDIO: The Eternity Cage [+]Loading...["The Eternity Cage (audio story)"]) the Daleks made a number of alliances, with the Squire recalling that they led an "axis of dark powers" in the War. (COMIC: Pull to Open [+]Loading...["Pull to Open (comic story)"]) The Time Lords identified a secondary command structure in the Dalek hierarchy, which was composed of non-Daleks. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Loading...["Dalek Combat Training Manual (reference book)"])
The Daleks made alliances with the Taalyens, (AUDIO: The Innocent [+]Loading...["The Innocent (audio story)"]) the Temporal Inquisition, (AUDIO: The Kicker [+]Loading...["The Kicker (audio story)"]) the Cyclors, (COMIC: The Organ Grinder [+]Loading...["The Organ Grinder (comic story)"]) and the Morlontoa. (COMIC: The Clockwise War [+]Loading...["The Clockwise War (comic story)"]) They also deployed the "full might" of the Deathsmiths of Goth. (PROSE: Meet the Doctor [+]Loading...["Meet the Doctor (DWAN 2006 short story)"]) The Daleks made use of an ambassador, Lady Sumultu, in order to gain access through a gateway to the Stagnant Protocol, using a potential alliance as a front so they could invade. (AUDIO: Unfinished Business [+]Loading...["Unfinished Business (audio story)"])
The Daleks conscripted enslaved species to fight as front line soldiers. (AUDIO: Dreadshade [+]Loading...["Dreadshade (audio story)"]) The Ogrons were enslaved by the Daleks during the Time War. The Dalek Overseer conducted an experiment by retroactively adding Ogrons to the Daleks‘ history from before the Time War, though found it made no difference to the events' outcomes. (AUDIO: Planet of the Ogrons [+]Loading...["Planet of the Ogrons (audio story)"]) Some Ogrons were robotised by the Daleks, which enhanced their intelligence. (AUDIO: The Uncertain Shore [+]Loading...["The Uncertain Shore (audio story)"]) During the War, the Daleks continued to use Slythers as guards and created Robomen out of humanoids. (AUDIO: The Horror [+]Loading...["The Horror (audio story)"]) Indeed, Dalek harvest ships were deployed to turn humanoid populations into cyborgs with Dalek conditioning. The people of Carter Baross were targeted to become cyborgs, such as the berserker-class cyborg Case. (AUDIO: Saviour [+]Loading...["Saviour (audio story)"])
The adult population of Amperica Nova was targeted by the Daleks with nanobots, intending to turn them into a mirror of Gallifrey. (AUDIO: Consequences [+]Loading...["Consequences (TWDB audio story)"]) The War Master also believed the Daleks wanted to turn the people of the Stagnant Protocol into immortal, Dalek-like beings. (AUDIO: Unfinished Business [+]Loading...["Unfinished Business (audio story)"]) Dalek duplicates (AUDIO: Fugitive in Time [+]Loading...["Fugitive in Time (audio story)"]) and Varga plants were also used by the Daleks during the Time War. (AUDIO: Legion of the Lost [+]Loading...["Legion of the Lost (audio story)"]) A Brancheerian served as an agent for the Daleks to protect their people. (AUDIO: The Uncertain Shore [+]Loading...["The Uncertain Shore (audio story)"]) The Squire was a sleeper agent. (COMIC: Fast Asleep [+]Loading...["Fast Asleep (comic story)"])
The Daleks recruited human agents during the War, including Lara Zannis. When the War impacted 1961 Germany, the Soviet Union attempted to ally with the Daleks, dispatching Vladimir Kavarin to serve as a liaison. He offered their army and nuclear weapons, which one Dalek stated could make the Earth a second Skaro if the human race became Daleks. The Time Strategist had Kavarin exterminated after revealing they wanted what Kavarin had offered in addition to their destruction. (AUDIO: The Shadow Vortex [+]Loading...["The Shadow Vortex (audio story)"]) During their occupation of Moldox, the Daleks used Jocelyn Harris as their puppet leader before using her as a test subject, firing a Temporal Cannon at her. (PROSE: Engines of War [+]Loading...["Engines of War (novel)"])
The Daleks made contact with the Enigma, a being from a different universe, and tried to convince it to wipe out the Time Lords. It initially did so, but relented and eventually decided to leave the War alone. (AUDIO: The Enigma Dimension [+]Loading...["The Enigma Dimension (audio story)"])
Other combatants[[edit] | [edit source]]
Cybermen fought in the Time War; the husk of a giant Cyberman was left in the wreckage of a Dalek mothership on Veestrax. While the Eleventh Doctor did not explain what side the Cybermen fought for when visiting the wreckage, (COMIC: Outrun [+]Loading...["Outrun (comic story)"]) the Time Lords, despite having observed them as a potential threat to the universe before the war, (PROSE: The Cyber Files [+]Loading...["The Cyber Files (novel)"]) had actively sought an alliance with the cyborgs, having seen that they shared a common enemy in the Dalek Empire. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Loading...["Dalek Combat Training Manual (reference book)"]) Such was similiar to the alternate War in Heaven seen by the Sixth Doctor, in which the Cyberlords were the Time Lords' greatest ally against the Daleks, though history was later rewritten to turn the Cyberlord Hegemony to the side of the Dalek Empire. (PROSE: The Quantum Archangel [+]Loading...["The Quantum Archangel (novel)"]) Following the war, however, the Time Lords were wary of the Cybermen and ordered that any potential instance of their use of temporal technology be reported to the Celestial Intervention Agency. (PROSE: TARDIS Type 40 Instruction Manual [+]Loading...["TARDIS Type 40 Instruction Manual (reference book)"])
Different and Same of Faction Paradox took part in the Time War. (PROSE: The Paradox Moon [+]Loading...["The Paradox Moon (short story)"]) Gommen was active in the War as a criminal. (AUDIO: The Stuntman [+]Loading...["The Stuntman (audio story)"])
A union of over one thousand planets known as the Confederation waged war with the Daleks. While the Confederation ultimately crumbled, the War Master infiltrated one of its diplomatic missions during its "dying days". (AUDIO: The Players [+]Loading...["The Players (audio story)"]) The War Master tricked the Code Purgers of Chift into losing their neutrality. (AUDIO: The Walls of Absence [+]Loading...["The Walls of Absence (audio story)"])
Though the Sontarans, who previously formed part of Rassilon's Alliance of Races, (COMIC: Terrorformer [+]Loading...["Terrorformer (comic story)"]) were aware of the War, they were not allowed to take part, much to their dismay. (TV: The Sontaran Stratagem [+]Loading...["The Sontaran Stratagem (TV story)"]) However, they did try to get involved, including by pursuing sites of temporal battles (AUDIO: The Sontaran Ordeal [+]Loading...["The Sontaran Ordeal (audio story)"]) and at one point holding two strategists from both sides, Cardinal Ollistra and the Dalek Time Strategist, hostage to try to prove their worthiness. The Time Strategist claimed the Sontarans were not able to join the Time War because of biology, stating they lacked the strength and intelligence needed for time battles. (AUDIO: The Eternity Cage [+]Loading...["The Eternity Cage (audio story)"])
The Graxnix were one of the lowest races to take part. (COMIC: Hotel Historia [+]Loading...["Hotel Historia (comic story)"])
The High Vectors kidnapped the Master to make him stand trial for his crimes. (AUDIO: The Players [+]Loading...["The Players (audio story)"]) While he and the Tenth Doctor knew the Time Lords respected the ancient beings, the Master believed the Vectors would have turned their courts against Gallifrey for its War-time actions. In order to escape their courts, he arranged for the destruction of the entire Vector species and the current sector of spacetime with a paradox. (AUDIO: The Last Line [+]Loading...["The Last Line (audio story)"])
Many in the universe were opposed to both the Time Lords and Daleks; Cass Fermazzi served in a gunship that openly battled the Daleks, but they also found themselves combated by the Time Lords. Indeed, Cass herself hated the Lords of Time, knowing of their actions during the War and accordingly viewing them to be the exact same as the Dalek Empire. (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (novelisation)"]) Similarly, a resistance against the Daleks arose on the occupied world of Moldox, with its membership ranging from adults to even children. However, the resistance also demonstrated hostility towards the Time Lords. (PROSE: Engines of War [+]Loading...["Engines of War (novel)"])
Bystanders[[edit] | [edit source]]
Even as the Time War was fought, most species were unaware of the crisis due to being lower on the "evolutionary ladder." These lesser species were even unable to tell if their planet's timeline was altered by the rupturing Time Vortex because they themselves became part of the change. Thus, only the "higher species" (PROSE: Meet the Doctor [+]Loading...["Meet the Doctor (DWAN 2006 short story)"]) were devastated by the War. (TV: The Unquiet Dead [+]Loading...["The Unquiet Dead (TV story)"]) One account credited this to being a result of the War being fought beyond the sight of the ordinary species, (PROSE: Meet the Doctor [+]Loading...["Meet the Doctor (DWAN 2006 short story)"]) but other accounts showed the Time War could also be fought in sight of such beings if the conflict spread into their galaxy or onto their planet. Thus, lifeforms like human beings could be aware of the War as a result of events like the Battle for the Tantalus Eye. (PROSE: Engines of War [+]Loading...["Engines of War (novel)"])
The Eighth Doctor was once imprisoned along with a Sea Devil and a Malmooth named Chantir. (COMIC: The Forgotten [+]Loading...["The Forgotten (comic story)"]) Many Crespallions were on Villengard when the War Doctor visited the planet. He recruited Dorium Maldovar to help him. (COMIC: The Whole Thing's Bananas [+]Loading...["The Whole Thing's Bananas (comic story)"])
Before the War officially started, but at a time when the Daleks showcased they were ready to fight, the War Master encountered Ood used as slaves on Callous, which he placed under his control to slaughter the colony so he could collect Swenyo ore for the Time Lord War-effort. (AUDIO: Sins of the Father [+]Loading...["Sins of the Father (audio story)"]) The Ood of the Ood Sphere traded with the Sensorites during the War. Trade discussions with the Ood meant First Elder was unable to greet a Time Lord delegation sent to the Sense Sphere. (AUDIO: Sphere of Influence [+]Loading...["Sphere of Influence (audio story)"]) The War Doctor guessed the Ood or another telepathic race created the Anima device. (AUDIO: A Thing of Guile [+]Loading...["A Thing of Guile (audio story)"])
Nyssa, a Trakenite survivor, provided assistance during the Time War. (AUDIO: A Heart on Both Sides [+]Loading...["A Heart on Both Sides (audio story)"])
Amongst the "untold" crimes committed by the Daleks during the War (PROSE: Wanted! Daleks [+]Loading...["Wanted! Daleks (feature)"]) were genocides and massacres committed to various peoples. (AUDIO: Berserker [+]Loading...["Berserker (audio story)"], et. al) The Daleks laid waste to a Brancheerian colony on Donnahee's Moon, taking prisoners. (AUDIO: The Uncertain Shore [+]Loading...["The Uncertain Shore (audio story)"]) The Daleks deployed a fleet to attack the Vantross feeding hives, (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (novelisation)"]) almost entirely wiped out the people of Sunspire, (AUDIO: Berserker [+]Loading...["Berserker (audio story)"]) devastated Lacuna with a Berserker Dalek invasion, (AUDIO: Rewind [+]Loading...["Rewind (audio story)"]) wiped the Vildarans from time due to their intellectual and artistic ideals, (AUDIO: Legion of the Lost [+]Loading...["Legion of the Lost (audio story)"]) destroyed civilian Space Station Delta 49, even after its leadership proclaimed they had surrendered, and attacked the planet Beltox to destroy it. (AUDIO: Pretty Lies [+]Loading...["Pretty Lies (audio story)"]) Eve's peaceful species (WC: Alien File: Eve [+]Loading...["Alien File: Eve (webcast)"]) were, as recalled by Eve, "exterminated" because they could read timelines. (TV: The Mad Woman in the Attic [+]Loading...["The Mad Woman in the Attic (TV story)"])
During the conflict, the Time Lords sought to gain the formula for the anti-radiation drug to use against the Daleks, knowing it could be lethal to the mutants. However, the Thals, as a result of their pacifist nature, refused to explain how to create the drug. At the time of publication of the Dalek Combat Training Manual, the Time Lords were also attempting to contact the Exxilons at an earlier, more advanced period of their history in the hope that they could provide technical assistance in the construction of a device which would drain Dalek casings of their power just as the Great City of the Exxilons did during the Exxilon Gambit. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Loading...["Dalek Combat Training Manual (reference book)"])
After it had abandoned the conflict for peace, the Nestene Consciousness developed a rapport with the Embodiment of Gris, but, like the Nestene, it was ravaged by fallout from the war during the fall of Nestenia. (PROSE: Revenge of the Nestene [+]Loading...["Revenge of the Nestene (short story)"]) Long before the war, the Daleks had aided Zephon in overthrowing the Entity Gris in the Fifth Galaxy as part of the Daleks' master plan. (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)"])
The Great Old One and Lloigor known (PROSE: All-Consuming Fire [+]Loading...["All-Consuming Fire (novel)"], PROSE: The Dark Path [+]Loading...["The Dark Path (novel)"]) as the "Greater Animus" was destroyed during the Time War, with its Carsenome Walls crumbling to dust as well.
The Forest of Cheem witnessed the War and wept at the bloodshed. It was also claimed the Eternals watched the War unfold (PROSE: Meet the Doctor [+]Loading...["Meet the Doctor (DWAN 2006 short story)"]) until they finally decided to abandon the universe (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords [+]Loading...["A Brief History of Time Lords (novel)"]) when they despaired of it, running from their "hallowed halls." Though one account claimed the Eternals were never seen again, (PROSE: Meet the Doctor [+]Loading...["Meet the Doctor (DWAN 2006 short story)"]) the Tenth Doctor later warned the Hervoken about the Eternals, (PROSE: Forever Autumn [+]Loading...["Forever Autumn (novel)"]) and Zellin remained in the universe to rescue Rakaya. (TV: Can You Hear Me? [+]Loading...["Can You Hear Me? (TV story)"])
The Code Purgers of Chift attempted to remain neutral in the conflict, however the Master manipulated them into violating that neutrality. (AUDIO: The Walls of Absence [+]Loading...["The Walls of Absence (audio story)"]) The entity who went by the name "Bilis Manger", (COMIC: Broken [+]Loading...["Broken (comic story)"]) alternatively known as "the Regulator" to the Time Lords, did not take part in the War because it did not interest him. However, he did encounter the Master on one occasion. (AUDIO: The Sublime Porte [+]Loading...["The Sublime Porte (audio story)"])
Iptheus became embroiled in the War on three occasions. In the first two the Doctor intervened to save the planet, however on the third he failed to arrive and the population was wiped out in crossfire between the two sides after the Time Lords unleashed empathetic weather on Iptheus. (AUDIO: Broken Hearts [+]Loading...["Broken Hearts (audio story)"])
Technology[[edit] | [edit source]]
Described by the Eighth Doctor as an arms race, (AUDIO: The Conscript [+]Loading...["The Conscript (audio story)"]) many great and terrible weapons were used during the Last Great Time War. (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (TV story)"], et al.) Chronon mines saw use during the conflict. (AUDIO: The Rulers of the Universe [+]Loading...["The Rulers of the Universe (audio story)"]) Douglas Henderson was created as a living weapon during the War. (COMIC: The Big, Blue Box [+]Loading...["The Big, Blue Box (comic story)"]) Because both sides had space-time vessels, (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (novelisation)"]) time itself was a weapon in the War, (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (novelisation)"], COMIC: The Clockwise War [+]Loading...["The Clockwise War (comic story)"]) with some accounts literally showing that years and other temporal terms were offensive weapons. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Time War [+]Loading...["Doctor Who and the Time War (short story)"], Revenge of the Nestene [+]Loading...["Revenge of the Nestene (short story)"]) The General once reflected that "time [was] lost one moment and then gained the next" during the War. (WC: Gallifrey War Room [+]Loading...["Gallifrey War Room (webcast)"])
Additionally, planets like the Earth, Gallifrey, and Skaro were multiplied, becoming bullets to be fired in the vast battles. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Time War [+]Loading...["Doctor Who and the Time War (short story)"], Revenge of the Nestene [+]Loading...["Revenge of the Nestene (short story)"]) While watching a meteor storm, the War Master promised his companion Cole Jarnish that it was "just rocks," feeling insulted that Jarnish had implied he could not "tell the difference between benign cosmic debris and apocalyptic weaponry". Jarnish defended himself by claiming "one light in the sky [looked] much the same as another." (AUDIO: Boundaries [+]Loading...["Boundaries (audio story)"]) Both the Daleks and Time Lords engaged in genetic manipulation to make new warriors, with both sides even splicing creatures together in the Time Vortrex itself. (AUDIO: Concealed Weapon [+]Loading...["Concealed Weapon (audio story)"])
Technology known to have been used by the Time Lords[[edit] | [edit source]]
Spacecraft[[edit] | [edit source]]
The Time Lords fielded all TARDISes at their disposal, (AUDIO: Sphere of Influence [+]Loading...["Sphere of Influence (audio story)"]) including the Type 90, Type 91, Type 93, Type 94, (PROSE: The Third Wise Man [+]Loading...["The Third Wise Man (short story)"]) Type 120, (AUDIO: Echoes of War [+]Loading...["Echoes of War (audio story)"]) Type 560, (AUDIO: The Devil You Know [+]Loading...["The Devil You Know (audio story)"]) and any model in storage, such as the older Diplomatic TARDIS used to reach the Sense Sphere. (AUDIO: Sphere of Influence [+]Loading...["Sphere of Influence (audio story)"]) The older Type 50 and Type 55 were similarly used, having been re-commissioned for the war effort. (AUDIO: Assassins [+]Loading...["Assassins (audio story)"]) The Mark 212 was a new type of TARDIS the Master used, (AUDIO: The Broken Clock [+]Loading...["The Broken Clock (audio story)"]) though he was also known to have used his own TARDIS. (COMIC: The Judas Goatee [+]Loading...["The Judas Goatee (comic story)"], et al.) The Doctor, as always, used his Type 40 TARDIS. (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (TV story)"], et al.)
Despite being used, with new Battle TARDISes even being designed, throughout the conflict, the TARDISes did not want to fight. They were living compatriots to the Time Lords, yet they deployed the craft like mere vehicles or simple animals. (PROSE: The Third Wise Man [+]Loading...["The Third Wise Man (short story)"]) Additionally, as the conflict continued, the Daleks got better and better at getting through TARDIS shielding, even that of specific military models, (AUDIO: Sphere of Influence [+]Loading...["Sphere of Influence (audio story)"]) until they were experts at fighting the time capsules. (TV: Journey's End [+]Loading...["Journey's End (TV story)"]) Though over a million Battle TARDISes were deployed by the Time Lords, (PROSE: Peacemaker [+]Loading...["Peacemaker (novel)"]) with some on Gallifrey hoping the new generation fielded before the Nightmare Child incident could prove their superiority, (PROSE: The Third Wise Man [+]Loading...["The Third Wise Man (short story)"]) they could not stop the invasion of Gallifrey by the Dalek Empire. (COMIC: Sky Jacks [+]Loading...["Sky Jacks (comic story)"])
The Time Lords deployed bowships, which were ancient craft last used in the Eternal War against the Great Vampires, during the Last Great Time War. (PROSE: The Whoniverse [+]Loading...["The Whoniverse (novel)"]) Also Time Scooped from their past to serve in their fleet were the Black Hole Carriers. (PROSE; A Brief History of Time Lords [+]Loading...["A Brief History of Time Lords (novel)"]) The Time Lord war effort also made use of warships, (AUDIO: Day of the Master [+]Loading...["Day of the Master (audio story)"]) and dreadnoughts. (AUDIO: Hostiles [+]Loading...["Hostiles (audio story)"], The Passenger [+]Loading...["The Passenger (audio story)"]) A prison ship kept secret from public knowledge was the Genesis Ark, a dimensionally transcendental ship used to imprison millions of Daleks. (TV: Doomsday [+]Loading...["Doomsday (TV story)"]) Time torpedoes were used by ships in space combat. (PROSE: Engines of War [+]Loading...["Engines of War (novel)"])
Space Station Zenobia and Space Station Zenobia II were used as space station bases used during the War, (AUDIO: A Genius for War [+]Loading...["A Genius for War (audio story)"], The Passenger [+]Loading...["The Passenger (audio story)"]) the former having been displaced from time before it was destroyed to be used in the War effort. (AUDIO: A Genius for War [+]Loading...["A Genius for War (audio story)"])
Superweapons[[edit] | [edit source]]
Time Lord superweapons included N-Forms, which were reactivated by the War Council, (AUDIO: Desperate Measures [+]Loading...["Desperate Measures (audio story)"]) the Anything Gun, (PROSE: The Third Wise Man [+]Loading...["The Third Wise Man (short story)"]) Timonic Fusion Devices, (AUDIO: Restoration of the Daleks [+]Loading...["Restoration of the Daleks (audio story)"]) planet killers, (AUDIO: The Last Days of Freme [+]Loading...["The Last Days of Freme (audio story)"]) empathetic weather, which was designed to turn the Daleks' rage against them, (AUDIO: Broken Hearts [+]Loading...["Broken Hearts (audio story)"]) and the Neverwhen, which forced those who were affected by it into time phasing. (AUDIO: A Thing of Guile [+]Loading...["A Thing of Guile (audio story)"]) Oubliette devices were used to erase targets from history, even an entire galaxy. (AUDIO: Collateral Victim [+]Loading...["Collateral Victim (audio story)"])
The Time Lords used all the forbidden weapons of the Omega Arsenal, (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (TV story)"]) including the Tear of Isha, (PROSE: Engines of War [+]Loading...["Engines of War (novel)"]) the anima device (AUDIO: The Neverwhen [+]Loading...["The Neverwhen (audio story)"]) and the Orphaned Hour, which was lost and ended up with the corrupt leaders of Zoline until the Eleventh Doctor took it. (COMIC: Strange Loops [+]Loading...["Strange Loops (comic story)"]) Though some accounts depicted an unnamed superweapon (PROSE: The Eyeless [+]Loading...["The Eyeless (novel)"]) or a De-mat Gun modified with the Great Key of Rassilon, (COMIC: The Forgotten [+]Loading...["The Forgotten (comic story)"]) most accounts stated the Moment was an Omega Arsenal superweapon the War Doctor stole (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (TV story)"], et al.) from Time Vault Zero (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (novelisation)"]) on the last day. (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (TV story)"], et al.)
One Gallifreyan "high house" created atmosphere destroyers during the War, as part of their attempt to warp reality to their design amidst the shifting timelines. (AUDIO: Her Own Bootstraps [+]Loading...["Her Own Bootstraps (audio story)"])
Handheld weapons[[edit] | [edit source]]
Along with a personal communicator, Time Lord soldiers were armed with a fusion blaster or a larger-looking gun. (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (TV story)"]) They could also be equipped with pulse grenades. (AUDIO: Legion of the Lost [+]Loading...["Legion of the Lost (audio story)"]) Hypercube and temporal flares were used as distress signals, (AUDIO: One Life [+]Loading...["One Life (audio story)"]) Quantum shields, (AUDIO: The Shadow Vortex [+]Loading...["The Shadow Vortex (audio story)"]) staser cannons, (AUDIO: The Conscript [+]Loading...["The Conscript (audio story)"]) and temporal grenades, (AUDIO: Planet of the Ogrons [+]Loading...["Planet of the Ogrons (audio story)"], Hostiles [+]Loading...["Hostiles (audio story)"]) and proximity mines also saw use. (PROSE: Decoy [+]Loading...["Decoy (short story)"]) Time pendants allowed Gallifreyan shock troops to stay ahead of their foes by ten nanoseconds. (AUDIO: The Rulers of the Universe [+]Loading...["The Rulers of the Universe (audio story)"], Assets of War [+]Loading...["Assets of War (audio story)"])
Lord President Rassilon wielded his gauntlet, (AUDIO: Assassins [+]Loading...["Assassins (audio story)"]) which possessed De-mat technology. (PROSE: Engines of War [+]Loading...["Engines of War (novel)"])
Though the War Doctor carried his sonic screwdriver instead of a gun, (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (TV story)"]) he used weapons like chronic tripwire (COMIC: Four Doctors [+]Loading...["Four Doctors (comic story)"]) and a Time Destructor during the conflict. (AUDIO: The Innocent [+]Loading...["The Innocent (audio story)"]) He intended to use the Psilent songbox against the Cyclors. (COMIC: Kill God [+]Loading...["Kill God (comic story)"]) He used a Paradox Shield to protect Marinus (COMIC: Four Doctors [+]Loading...["Four Doctors (comic story)"]) and a molecular fruit bomb to transform the Villengard factories into a banana grove. (COMIC: The Whole Thing's Bananas [+]Loading...["The Whole Thing's Bananas (comic story)"])
The War Master wielded a laser screwdriver. (AUDIO: The Heavenly Paradigm [+]Loading...["The Heavenly Paradigm (audio story)"], et al.)
Other[[edit] | [edit source]]
Time Lord biological weapons included an anti-Dalek virus, a less serious strain of which would be used in the Stagnant Protocol by Calantha, (AUDIO: Unfinished Business [+]Loading...["Unfinished Business (audio story)"]) and the war seeds developed by the War Master. (AUDIO: War Seed [+]Loading...["War Seed (audio story)"]) The Hush was seemingly created as a weapon for use in the War. (AUDIO: Dead Air [+]Loading...["Dead Air (audio story)"])
Raston Warrior Robots built of validium were used by the Time Lords. (AUDIO: The Mission [+]Loading...["The Mission (audio story)"])
Sky trenches and the transduction barriers were used to defend Gallifrey. (TV: The Last Day [+]Loading...["The Last Day (TV story)"], PROSE: Engines of War [+]Loading...["Engines of War (novel)"])
Other forms of transport used by the Time Lords during the war included submarines, like the Bloodhound and the Peacemaker which saw use in underwater environments, (AUDIO: Jonah [+]Loading...["Jonah (audio story)"]) and blue portals, to quickly deploy soldiers. (COMIC: Supremacy of the Cybermen [+]Loading...["Supremacy of the Cybermen (comic story)"])
Mind probes were used during interrogations, although not all Time Lords agreed with the practice. (PROSE: Engines of War [+]Loading...["Engines of War (novel)"]) A compliance collar was fitted on Leela to force her obedience, (AUDIO: The Last Days of Freme [+]Loading...["The Last Days of Freme (audio story)"]) and the War Doctor was once forced to follow orders by Ollistra with a artron leash. (AUDIO: A Thing of Guile [+]Loading...["A Thing of Guile (audio story)"])
Rassilon created the possibility engine out of former President Borusa. (PROSE: Engines of War [+]Loading...["Engines of War (novel)"]) Thanks to technology available to the Saxon Master and a White-Point Star, Rassilon arranged for a connection to 2000s[nb 2] Earth until his defeat. (TV: The End of Time [+]Loading...["The End of Time (TV story)"])
Technology known to have been used by the Daleks[[edit] | [edit source]]
Dalek casing[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Main article: Casing
Standard Dalek drone mutants piloted bronze motor casings (TV: Dalek [+]Loading...["Dalek (TV story)"]) seen in previous conflicts like the Second Dalek War (PROSE: Prisoner of the Daleks [+]Loading...["Prisoner of the Daleks (novel)"]) and Dalek-Movellan War. (TV: The Pilot [+]Loading...["The Pilot (TV story)"]) Black Dalek officers had similar casings but in black. (TV: Doomsday [+]Loading...["Doomsday (TV story)"]) A bigger red and gold casing, which the Time Lords dubbed the "Type E" Supreme casing, (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Loading...["Dalek Combat Training Manual (reference book)"]) saw use for Supreme Daleks. (COMIC: Ambush [+]Loading...["Ambush (comic story)"]; AUDIO: A Genius for War [+]Loading...["A Genius for War (audio story)"]) The Time Strategist had a similar purple casing, (AUDIO: The Shadow Vortex [+]Loading...["The Shadow Vortex (audio story)"]) while the Emperor possessed a much larger bronze casing. The Emperor's Personal Guards had black domes but bronze casings. (TV: The Parting of the Ways [+]Loading...["The Parting of the Ways (TV story)"])
Berserker Daleks could rebuild themselves with nearby material. (AUDIO: Berserker [+]Loading...["Berserker (audio story)"]) Indeed, the Dalek variant had several different appearing casing models, (AUDIO: Berserker [+]Loading...["Berserker (audio story)"], Ambition's Debt [+]Loading...["Ambition's Debt (audio story)"]) one which featured treads, a repeating blaster, and a saw on a casing that was much larger than the average Dalek drone. (AUDIO: Ambition's Debt [+]Loading...["Ambition's Debt (audio story)"]) Another casing was similar in design to the average Dalek, but with various alternate bladed weapons. (AUDIO: Berserker [+]Loading...["Berserker (audio story)"])
Dalek casings were capable of flight, able to absorb artron energy from a time traveller, and could burn anyone who touched them. On their weapons platforms, Daleks were armed with a gunstick for a ranged attack, (TV: Dalek [+]Loading...["Dalek (TV story)"]) which could also be equipped with a regeneration inhibitor to instantly kill Time Lords. (AUDIO: The Conscript [+]Loading...["The Conscript (audio story)"]) Most Daleks were also equipped with a suction cup-tipped manipulator arm, though other attachments existed. (TV: The Parting of the Ways [+]Loading...["The Parting of the Ways (TV story)"]) Dalek casings could also self-destruct, (TV: Dalek [+]Loading...["Dalek (TV story)"]) implement a temporal shift, and had a force field. (TV: Doomsday [+]Loading...["Doomsday (TV story)"]) The Time Lords investigated their potential vulnerability in regards to a reliance on static electricity which had been demonstrated in the earlier Thal-Dalek battle and the Vulcan Incident, however, technical examination of captured Dalek casings failed to find a fault that they were able to exploit. It also became apparent that the Daleks had developed an immunity to the Movellan virus. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Loading...["Dalek Combat Training Manual (reference book)"])
Dalek ships[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Main article: Dalek ship
The primary vessel of the Dalek Fleet was the flying saucer, a craft with a compliment of over two thousand Daleks. (TV: Bad Wolf [+]Loading...["Bad Wolf (TV story)"]) The Dalek Empire had over ten million of these ships, (PROSE: The Whoniverse [+]Loading...["The Whoniverse (novel)"]) which were equipped with time travel technology and various armaments, including missiles and lasers. (TV: The Parting of the Ways [+]Loading...["The Parting of the Ways (TV story)"], The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (TV story)"], Victory of the Daleks [+]Loading...["Victory of the Daleks (TV story)"]) The fleet operated under the flag of the Emperor's command ship, a vessel that dwarfed the other saucers in their armada. (TV: The Parting of the Ways [+]Loading...["The Parting of the Ways (TV story)"]) Another saucer variant was the Dalek mothership. (COMIC: Outrun [+]Loading...["Outrun (comic story)"]) The Twelfth Doctor speculated a Dalek harvest ship had been taken "out of the mothballs" for the War. (COMIC: Harvest of the Daleks [+]Loading...["Harvest of the Daleks (comic story)"])
Massive mega-saucers were one model of flying saucer used by the Daleks during the fighting. (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)"]) One account classified the flying saucers (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (TV story)"]) involved in the Fall of Gallifrey as "Dalek warships." (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Time War [+]Loading...["Doctor Who and the Time War (short story)"]) While still recognisable as Dalek ships to those who had knowledge of pre-War Daleks, (TV: Bad Wolf [+]Loading...["Bad Wolf (TV story)"], The Parting of the Ways [+]Loading...["The Parting of the Ways (TV story)"], COMIC: Outrun [+]Loading...["Outrun (comic story)"]) the specific generation of saucer fielded into the Time War was built specifically for the conflict. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Loading...["Dalek Combat Training Manual (reference book)"])
Davros had his own command saucer before it was destroyed by the Nightmare Child. (TV: The Stolen Earth [+]Loading...["The Stolen Earth (TV story)"], PROSE: The Third Wise Man [+]Loading...["The Third Wise Man (short story)"]) Other craft in the Time War-era fleet were Dalek Battlecruisers, (AUDIO: Day of the Vashta Nerada [+]Loading...["Day of the Vashta Nerada (audio story)"]) bizarre craft of varying designs called never-ships, (PROSE: Decoy [+]Loading...["Decoy (short story)"]) Dalek stealth ships, (PROSE: Engines of War [+]Loading...["Engines of War (novel)"]) and the Time capsule that carried the Dalek factor. (PROSE: I Am a Dalek [+]Loading...["I Am a Dalek (novel)"]) A smaller ship known as the Dalek Attack Ship was fielded by being deployed from saucers. At least three variants existed; a grey variant seen by the Fall of Arcadia, a bronze variant seen in the later days of the War, and a variant that closely resembled the Emperor. (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (TV story)"], PROSE: The Whoniverse [+]Loading...["The Whoniverse (novel)"]) Daleks also flew hoverbouts during the Time War, (PROSE: The Stranger [+]Loading...["The Stranger (short story)"]) operated drill-equipped ships, (AUDIO: The Thousand Worlds [+]Loading...["The Thousand Worlds (audio story)"]) and used deep sea battle submarines for underwater operations; (AUDIO: Jonah [+]Loading...["Jonah (audio story)"]) before the War, the Dalek Survival Guide had been aware of rumours concerning the planned development of Dalek submarines. (PROSE: Dalek Survival Guide [+]Loading...["Dalek Survival Guide (novel)"])
By assessing the Time Paradox Incident, the Time Lords deduced that the Daleks' time technology was based on their own, presumably as a result of them having captured, or having had ample time to study, a Gallifreyan time capsule, much to their concern. Their technical division postulated that it may be possible to retroactively insert a "Trojan Horse" program into dematerialisation circuits at a time period prior to the Daleks' acquisition of the technology, thus giving the Time Lords a shut-down option that would deprive the Daleks of time travel capability. Whilst the War Council agreed that it would be an effective defense, the possibility was recognised that the Daleks could discover such a program and potentially use it against the Time Lords. A subcommittee looked into the ramifications of this course of action and was to report back once its findings had been analysed. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Loading...["Dalek Combat Training Manual (reference book)"])
The Dalek Overseer placed the brains of Ogrons into the telepathic circuits of captured Battle TARDISes, turning the TARDISes into highly dangerous Dalek-fielded time machines. (AUDIO: The Lords of Terror [+]Loading...["The Lords of Terror (audio story)"])
Other weapons[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Main article: Dalek weaponry
The Daleks created temporal mines to use against the Time Lords, which would sit and wait in another dimension before destroying what they deemed a large enough fleet. The Time Lords captured many of the mines and repurposed them to attack Dalek fleets instead. (PROSE: Keeping up with the Joneses [+]Loading...["Keeping up with the Joneses (short story)"]) They also employed continuity bombs, explosives that would rewrite an individual's history and make them a Dalek Slave, (COMIC: Four Doctors [+]Loading...["Four Doctors (comic story)"]) and the entropy engine, which would encase a planet in a bubble and age it to dust. (COMIC: Weapons of Past Destruction [+]Loading...["Weapons of Past Destruction (comic story)"]) The quantum causality generator, (AUDIO: One Life [+]Loading...["One Life (audio story)"]) the Primary Weapon, (AUDIO: Eye of Harmony [+]Loading...["Eye of Harmony (audio story)"]) dark matter bombs, (AUDIO: Eye of Harmony [+]Loading...["Eye of Harmony (audio story)"]) mind probes, (AUDIO: Jonah [+]Loading...["Jonah (audio story)"]) the reversal wave, (AUDIO: One Life [+]Loading...["One Life (audio story)"]) the Shadow Vortex, and Paradox Shielding also saw use. (AUDIO: The Shadow Vortex [+]Loading...["The Shadow Vortex (audio story)"]) A tracker beacon could track TARDISes. (COMIC: Ambush [+]Loading...["Ambush (comic story)"])
The Dalek-Sensorite parasite was a biological weapon. (AUDIO: Sphere of Influence [+]Loading...["Sphere of Influence (audio story)"]) The Dalek Overseer was a master of genetic manipulation and experimented on the Ogrons, with captured Time Lords on rare occasions being given over to it for experimentation. (AUDIO: Planet of the Ogrons [+]Loading...["Planet of the Ogrons (audio story)"])
In order to populate newly conquered areas of the universe, the Daleks deployed Progenitors, boosting their numbers to a level that the Time Lords could not contend with and opening up new fronts. (PROSE: Engines of War [+]Loading...["Engines of War (novel)"]) After the War, the Ironside Daleks noted that, even though thousands of Progenitors had been created, all but one had been lost. (TV: Victory of the Daleks [+]Loading...["Victory of the Daleks (TV story)"]) This final Progenitor had managed to survive the Time War. (PROSE: A History of Humankind [+]Loading...["A History of Humankind (novel)"])
The Daleks worked on building a retcon bomb out of a Battle TARDIS and temporal interocitors. (AUDIO: Previously, Next Time [+]Loading...["Previously, Next Time (audio story)"]) They also plotted to use epoch bombs to remove Gallifrey from history. (PROSE: Decoy [+]Loading...["Decoy (short story)"]) They created the Annihilator, which could wipe entire races from time while keeping the overall timeline stable, meaning the rest of the universe would remember them; as the War Doctor noted, that meant the targeted species would feel itself being erased. (AUDIO: Legion of the Lost [+]Loading...["Legion of the Lost (audio story)"]) Despite the Time Lords' efforts to locate and secure all potential sources of taranium, (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Loading...["Dalek Combat Training Manual (reference book)"]) the Daleks deployed Time Destructor superweapons, (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)"]) Some Time Lords gave the Daleks the Null Zone weapon in a failed bid to end the fighting. (AUDIO: The Thousand Worlds [+]Loading...["The Thousand Worlds (audio story)"])
Another superweapon came with the development of the Temporal Cannon, a massive De-mat weapon made with the energies of the Tantalus Eye. Additionally, a new Dalek variant, fittingly known as Temporal Weapon Daleks, was equipped with smaller versions of the cannon. When fired, the cannons had the ability to wipe non-Dalek targets from history. Operations in the Tantalus Eye were conducted from the command space station. (PROSE: Engines of War [+]Loading...["Engines of War (novel)"])
Behind the scenes[[edit] | [edit source]]
Doctor Who's great conflict[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Published before the Time War was established in Doctor Who lore, The Terrestrial Index claimed that the Doctor successfully rid the Time Lords of the Dalek threat when the Dalek Civil War was instigated by the Second Doctor and became the Final End of the Daleks' timeline following the Hand of Omega Incident, the Dalek Emperor that fell being none other than Davros himself.
- The Discontinuity Guide made the claim that, originally, Davros was killed and forgotten, and that the Fourth Doctor's interference with the creation of the Daleks created a new timeline where Davros survived. As a result, whilst the Daleks originally had a solid, cohesive empire, always with one purpose, Davros' presence reduced them to "a mess of squabbling factions" which were "incapable of the unity needed to develop dimensionally transcendental time travel. The Discontinuity Guide went on to claim that "whilst Davros lives the Daleks will remain disorganised, and will never become the threat that the Time Lords so feared."[1]
- Absence of the Daleks, the draft for Dalek before the use of the Daleks had been secured, would have established that mysterious spheres from the future, later revealed to be humans, had attacked the Time Lords among all other sentient species they could find, with the Nestenes and the Daleks among the civilisations decimated. Ultimately, the Time Lords trapped the spheres on Gallifrey, where they sacrificed themselves in an act of mutually assured destruction to eliminate the spheres, leaving only the Doctor and one known surviving sphere.
- Though a frequent theme in the entirety of the RTD era, the Time War itself was not depicted until 2013's The Last Day and The Day of the Doctor. Until then, the audience was only treated to brief, scattered mentions. The End of Time did depict Gallifrey and the actions of the High Council during the last days of the Time War but nothing of the fighting against the Daleks.
- A 2005 faux-documentary produced by BBC Radio, The Dalek Conquests, attempts to put the Time War into context with the Doctor's recurring conflicts with the Daleks over the years.
- A long-running story arc featured in the BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures book series concurrent with the return of Doctor Who to television in 2005 featured another Time War, the War in Heaven, which also ended in the Doctor's destruction of Gallifrey. However, Russell T Davies clarified in DWM 356 that, though fans were free to invent their own interpretations, the BBC's merchandise regulations meant that there could be no official connection between the Time War of the novels and the Time War of the television show.
- The "Mission Complete" message of the video game The Last Dalek deems that the Time War is ended when the eponymous Dalek exterminates the Ninth Doctor, the last Time Lord, and his TARDIS, the last TARDIS, thus making the Daleks the new Lords of Time, fulfilling the ambition of Davros as stated in TV: Remembrance of the Daleks.
- In AHistory, Lance Parkin reveals a deleted line from his 2009 novel The Eyeless would have revealed that the Eighth Doctor was betrayed by his companions during the Time War, leading him to ending his life alone.
- The cover of Gallifrey: War Room 1: Allegiance featured new Time War-era Dalek models rendered by James Johnson,[2] the Dalek Commander and the Reconnaissance Dalek. Ahead of release, Johnson released a closer look at his designs.[3] He clarified that the accompanying text wasn't in any way official, and that he added it "just for fun".[4]
Canon-welding and explaining the unexplainable[[edit] | [edit source]]
- As early as episodes like Dalek and The Parting of the Ways, the War was assumed to end with an "inferno". Similarly, a narrative trailer for Series 1, The Trip of a Lifetime, depicted the Ninth Doctor running away from an explosion. The Dalek Handbook later used this to depict the end of the War.
- In the audio story The Reaping a surviving Cyber-Leader is noted to have found a TARDIS "abandoned on a planet ruined by fire". Though the damage to this planet is comparable to the effects of the Time War, the presence of a TARDIS would further that potential connection, and The Reaping was released over a year after Series 1 and its mentions of the War, no source has drawn a connection between the conflict and this world.
- In a deleted scene from Return of the Cybermen, the Time Lord messenger from Genesis of the Daleks was to reappear and warn the Doctor that his failure on Skaro may have instigated a time war. This was also used as a way of explaining various narrative continuity discrepancies, such as how the events of Return of the Cybermen and Revenge of the Cybermen could coincide, the occurrence of both the novel and televised versions of Human Nature, and the contradictions in the stories of companions such as Liz Shaw and Mary Shelley. Although the scene was never recorded, John Dorney shared the extracts of the script on Twitter.[5]
- John Dorney also addressed the Time War's relation to the rest of the Doctor Who universe with the following[6]
But in terms of the Doctor's timeline (and that of the Time Lords and Daleks) there clearly is a universe in which they're not fighting the Time War (the classic series), and a universe when the Time War is over and done (the new series) and the Doctor has crossed from one to the other (despite this basically being borderline impossible). So the Doctor can literally be in the exact same time and place but on different sides of the war. If that's a little confusing, I'd argue that's exactly how it should be as the Time War is a battle fought by beings who live four dimensionally and shouldn't be wholly comprehensible to those of us who have to limit ourselves to three.
- The War is also the subject of WC: He Who Fights With Monsters, a narrative trailer for the audio box set of the same name.
- Within, the War Doctor realised that the War was spreading into his own past, bringing him more questions about what his values and legacy should be. Having seen other War-era combatants be corrupted by the fighting, the Doctor believed he was also on such a path but resolved to be just as brutal in battle as the Daleks in order to stop them.
- In The Horror, the Barber-Surgeon claims he met "a version" of the Doctor who met Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright differently than how the War Doctor recalls. As such, the War Doctor's remark in the trailer that the War is spreading into his own past can be read as foreshadowing this moment, implying the Time War is responsible and is reaching back as far back as the First Doctor's first adventure.
- Within, the War Doctor realised that the War was spreading into his own past, bringing him more questions about what his values and legacy should be. Having seen other War-era combatants be corrupted by the fighting, the Doctor believed he was also on such a path but resolved to be just as brutal in battle as the Daleks in order to stop them.
- The Ninth Doctor tells Jack Frost that he is the last of the Winter Lords in Break the Ice, which could imply the Winter Lords were destroyed in the War.
Information from invalid sources[[edit] | [edit source]]
Non-narrative stories[[edit] | [edit source]]
Non-narratives are valid
- The Doctor Who website featured an image, a modification of one depicting the Dalek Fleet over Earth during the Battle of the Game Station, of multiple Dalek saucers engulfed in flames over a burning planet, consistent with one account of the fall of Gallifrey.
- The Dalek invasion of pop culture, published as part of Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe, claims that "the true beginning of the Time War" was depicted in a 1977 Weetabix commercial called Secret Message from Time Lords. In the commercial, a Supreme Dalek orders all Daleks to find and exterminate all packs of Weetabix containing secret messages from the Time Lords.
- In WC: Strax Field Report: The Doctors, Strax mentions the Time War as "the greatest war in history" and claims the Sontaran Empire never encountered the "dark warrior" who was the War Doctor, implying the wider Sontaran Empire remained unaware of the Eighth Battle Fleet's encounter with that incarnation because they were destroyed by the Daleks upon trying to enter the Time War, as depicted in AUDIO: The Eternity Cage.
Parodies[[edit] | [edit source]]
- For April Fool's Day 2020, Big Finish released a spoof CD cover, for a story called The War Pescatons, featuring the wartime Eighth Doctor with Pescatons and Dalek battle subs.[7]
- Within PROSE: The Doctor of War, a parody script written by Steven Moffat set during the Time War, a kindly villager approaches the War Doctor after he mysteriously arrived and saved their village from the War. The Doctor refused to answer the man' questions about his name, only for the villager to realise the War Doctor had also taken on the name "Mister Moody." Embarrassed, the Doctor explained that name had not been as formidable in battle as he expected it to be.
- Written during the Doctor Who: Lockdown! event as a parody by Robert Shearman, Dalek: Spoof Scenes offers supposed but fake original ideas for scenes within Dalek, therefore offering humorous alternate versions of the Last Great Time War.
- In one alternate scene, it is said the Time War was fought between the Time Lords and the Taran wood beasts, which had the power to mildly irritate and scratch their foes. According to the Ninth Doctor, he brought the War to an end when he destroyed Tara, wiping out the wood beasts, Count Grendel of Gracht, and even Princess Strella. However, he encounters a surviving wood beast in Henry van Statten's collection, taking the place of the "Metaltron" Dalek.
- In the second scene, the Dalek is replaced by the Myrka, which attacks Statten's soldiers and tries to tempt the commander into hand-to-hand combat to electrocute him.
- This scene does not establish whether the Myrka on their own were the enemy to the Time Lords during the War, or if the Earth Reptiles, such as the Silurians and Sea Devils, they served under also fought. The concept of Earth Reptiles being an enemy in a Time War was joked about in the novel The Taking of Planet 5, with the Eighth Doctor speculating that the Enemy of the War in Heaven could be "eighty-seventh-century Earth Reptiles" that managed to turn Tyrannosaurus rexs into time machines.
- The third and final scene proposed a Time War where the Time Lords fought the Drashigs. After the Drashig that took the place of the Metaltron killed hundreds in the Battle of Geocomtex, the Doctor confronts it and Rose Tyler, proclaiming he needs to destroy it to avenge the Time Lords. He notes that some of the Time Lords who were killed during the War included the Monk, Castellan Spandrell, Drax, and "my old friend Damon from Arc of Infinity". Having changed, the Drashig sheds its skin, revealing the hand of its puppeteer, and beckons the Doctor and Rose forward, though they are appalled.
Time Fracture[[edit] | [edit source]]
- The Time War is a major part of one of the paths to the Time Fracture immersive experience that began in 2021. In the stage play, Rassilon is said to be resurrected towards the end of the War, a new incarnation of Romanadvoratrelundar is depicted, and the character of Zoria is established to be a Time Lady who helped in the plan to resurrect Rassilon. Davros leads a Dalek attack on Gallifrey, killing Rassilon and the High Council in the process, but the invasion is then fought off by the audience, who entered the conflict via Operation Time Fracture.
Doom of the Daleks[[edit] | [edit source]]
Doom of the Daleks has the Eighth Doctor injured by a Temporal Exterminator after having escaped death via the Daleks "a thousand times" since the beginning of the Time War.
When the Daleks went to war against the Time Lords of Gallifrey for mastery of time, the Doctor was their most important target. On him they lavished their most advanced weapons, their most perfect hate. And when the Doctor dodged and tricked and cheated his way out of certain death a thousand times, they hated him all the more.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Footnotes[[edit] | [edit source]]
Citations[[edit] | [edit source]]
- ↑ BBC.co.uk 'Discontinuity Guide' article on Dalek History: Part Two in the original series of Doctor Who
- ↑ Tom Newsom on Twitter
- ↑ Reconnaissance Daleks and Dalek Commander closer look
- ↑ James Johnson on twitter
- ↑ John Dorney on Twitter: Very, very silly...
- ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/gallifrey/comments/ok03dm/comment/h59hnvo/
- ↑ "COVER REVEAL! Click http://bgfn.sh/timewar4 to see cast and story details for #DoctorWho Time War 4, due for release in September 2020." @bigfinish Twitter (Archive)
Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- ↑ The present day of Doctor Who's fourth series is not consistently dated, with TV: The Fires of Pompeii, TV: The Waters of Mars, and AUDIO: SOS setting the present of the 13 regular episodes in 2008, and PROSE: Beautiful Chaos setting them in about April to June 2009.
- ↑ Both Planet of the Dead and The End of Time are referred to in dialogue as taking place after the end of Journey's End, which is set in either 2008, according to TV: The Fires of Pompeii, TV: The Waters of Mars, and AUDIO: SOS, or six weeks after the middle of May 2009, circa June, according to PROSE: Beautiful Chaos. However, the year of The End of Time is unspecified, as is whether or not it is intended to be the Christmas immediately after Journey's End.
