Colonisation of Mars

The planet Mars was officially colonised by humans in 2095. (PROSE: Beige Planet Mars)

History

Prelude

20th century

Mars was a target of a series of British manned space probes overseen by the British Space Centre (a renamed British Rocket Group) and constructed with International Electromatics technology. (PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy) The first Mars landing happened within a few years of the American moon landing. This was a source of pride for the British public but made the national debt worse, and future historians like Bernice Summerfield would remember this as a doomed attempt by Britain to show it could still be a great power. (PROSE: The Dying Days)

Mars Probe 6 and Mars Probe 7 made contact with a group of peaceful, radioactive humanoids. Another spacecraft, Recovery 7, entered Mars orbit to determine what had happened to earlier probes. (TV: The Ambassadors of Death) UNIT's involvement with the missions helped to establish their reputation. (PROSE: UNIT History: Fighting the unknown)

According to one account, an international mission to Mars shortly after led to contact with the Zoltans, which was made public knowledge and led to a media frenzy. (PROSE: Soldiers from Zolta)

In 1977, Britain's Mars Probe 13 astronauts accidentally wandered into the city of the Argyre Clan Ice Warriors and were slaughtered after they spied on a research facility. To appease the Ice Warriors, the British government's representative, Minister Edward Greyhaven, had mission commander Alexander Christian framed for the astronauts' deaths and imprisoned. He agreed to ensure humanity would not return to Mars. For the next two decades, the British secret service spread what was, according to one account, disinformation, that Mars was uninhabitable and sabotaged NASA data in order to discourage Mars missions. This account claimed Mars' atmosphere was breathable, (PROSE: The Dying Days) though other accounts showed Mars to be long-dead with an unbreathable atmosphere to humans and Time Lords by the 21st century. (AUDIO: Red Dawn, TV: The Waters of Mars) Though he was able to breathe on the surface, according to Lord Zzaal, even without the threat of the red dawn, the low temperature and loss of water following the thinning of the atmosphere would mean an Ice Warrior could only survive for a few days. (AUDIO: Red Dawn) Yet another account had the Twelfth Doctor describe Mars' atmosphere as "all but evaporated" and unsuitable for Martians to survive in without help as early as 1881, which Friday agreed with. (TV: Empress of Mars) As a result of Greyhaven's plot, Britain would have little scientific or technological achievements to show for the Mars Probe missions. (PROSE: The Dying Days)

In 1994, Joseph Rennigan, a lone human astronaut marooned on desolate and lifeless Mars, found himself aided by unseen friends, namely the First Doctor and his companions Susan Foreman, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright. (PROSE: Rennigan's Record)

The Probe around Mars. (PROSE: The Dying Days)

In 1997, Britain returned to Mars with the Mars 97 mission — a deliberate plan by Greyhaven and Argyre Clan Lord Xznaal to give the Ice Warriors a pretence for a "retaliatory" conquest of the United Kingdom, with Greyhaven placed in power as a Prime Minister. When it turned out the Ice Warriors were using him for a pretext to wipe out and areoform Earth, Greyhaven wiped out the Argyre's nests on Mars with the Mars 97 Orbiter. Xznaal was defeated soon after by UNIT and the Eighth Doctor. (PROSE: The Dying Days)

At some point, a probe found Martian DNA and took it back to Earth. This helped create the hybrid, Tanya Webster. (AUDIO: Red Dawn)

21st century

Circa the dawn of the 21st century, a space expedition funded by Leo Webster arrived on Mars in the Argosy to find an Ice Warrior and use it to create a clone army augmented by Ice Warrior biology and technology. The Argosy crew arrived in the tomb of Izdaal, whose guards were awoken from suspended animation. Paul Webster tried kidnapping Sub Commander Sstast, but the Argosy was shot down by the Ice Warriors. He tried escaping in the Ice Warriors' rocket with the Fifth Doctor and seventeen-year-old Tanya Webster as hostages. Lord Zzaal allowed the Doctor and Tanya to escape Paul while Zzaal sacrificed himself to the ultraviolet rays of the sun. With Zzaal no longer in mortal danger, Sstast fired a sonic charge at Paul, killing him. Tanya stayed behind on Mars to became an ambassador for Earth. (AUDIO: Red Dawn)

On 31 October 2006, the Guinevere One was launched from Britain for an intended Mars landing on Christmas Day, but was intercepted by the Sycorax. (TV: The Christmas Invasion)

On 31 July 2008, the NASA probe Phoenix confirmed the existence of liquid water on the planet. (TV: The Waters of Mars)

In 2010, a NASA probe landed on Mars. Sarah Jane used Mr Smith to shut it down before it got too close to an Osiran pyramid. (TV: The Vault of Secrets)

In 2017, while the Twelfth Doctor and Bill Potts were visiting NASA, the agency discovered the "God Save The Queen" message hidden under the northern polar ice cap. The discovery prompted the Doctor, Bill and Nardole to travel to Mars in 1881, ultimately causing the chain of events that led to the message being made in the first place. (TV: Empress of Mars)

One version of the Ninth Doctor felt that he found the first man on Mars, circa 2019, to be one of his favourite events in history. (PROSE: Who's After Your Cash)

On 31 December 2020, the Mars rover Leonardo from the European Space Agency, monitored by John Wilcox, uncovered a copy of David Bowie's Life on Mars on the surface of Mars. Wilcox believed it was a prank by his colleagues. (PROSE: Life on Mars on Mars)

On 24 May 2027, it was reported that the British government was conducting further Mars research. (AUDIO: A Death in the Family)

While the Tenth Doctor identified the Bowie Base One colony in 2058 as the "very first humans on Mars", an obituary of Adelaide Brooke mentioned that a three-person team including Brooke landed on Mars in 2041, when Adelaide was 42. (TV: The Waters of Mars)

Bowie Base One. (TV: The Waters of Mars)

Bowie Base One, led by Captain Adelaide Brooke was established in July 2058 as the home of the first official off-world colonists from Earth in history and the first humans on Mars. On 21 November 2059, Bowie Base One was destroyed with all hands, with Adelaide's death being a fixed point in time. When the Tenth Doctor inadvertently arrived on Mars on that day, he eventually decided to interfere with the event and save Adelaide, naming himself the Time Lord Victorious. Bowie Base One had been invaded by the Flood and subsequently self-destructed to prevent the Flood from reaching Earth. However, the Doctor was successful in rescuing Adelaide along with Yuri Kerenski and Mia Bennett, return them to Earth on Davies Street, Adelaide's home. After seeing off Yuri and Mia, Adelaide, who had been told of the fixed nature of her death by the Doctor, challenged his claim as Time Lord Victorious and returned to her house where she committed suicide. As the Doctor understood, history would now proceed on more or less the same course. (TV: The Waters of Mars)

Mars as a colony

As a human colony, Mars was invaded by the Daleks in 2157, the same year they began their ill-fated occupation of Earth. (PROSE: GodEngine, Beige Planet Mars)