Shoreditch Incident
- You may be looking for the book by Hamlet Macbeth.
The Shoreditch Incident, (PROSE: UNIT History [+]Loading...{"page":"11","1":"UNIT History (short story)"}) recorded in the Dalek Survival Guide as the Hand of Omega affair (PROSE: Dalek Survival Guide [+]Loading...["Dalek Survival Guide (novel)"]) and known to the Time Lords as the Hand of Omega Incident, (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Loading...["Dalek Combat Training Manual (reference book)"]) was an event in which Imperial and Renegade Dalek factions battled in Shoreditch in November 1963. The area was evacuated to prevent civilian casualties. At that time, the Daleks were engaged in the Imperial-Renegade Dalek Civil War. Each side tried to procure the Hand of Omega so they could gain the power of the Time Lords.
The course of the conflicts[[edit] | [edit source]]
Preparations by both sides[[edit] | [edit source]]
According to the Dalek Combat Training Manual, the First Doctor was always aware that the Daleks would one day seek the Hand of Omega and thus hiding the stellar manipulator became one of the reasons he fled Gallifrey. After his TARDIS wiped his memory of this, (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Loading...["Dalek Combat Training Manual (reference book)"]) the Doctor was unfamiliar with the Daleks until he encountered them on Skaro. (TV: The Daleks [+]Loading...["The Daleks (TV story)"]) The Doctor's memory of the plan itself would not resurface until his seventh incarnation, who would return to Earth to execute it. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Loading...["Dalek Combat Training Manual (reference book)"]) By other accounts, the Doctor truly had no knowledge of the Daleks until his first encounter with them on Skaro, (TV: Into the Dalek [+]Loading...["Into the Dalek (TV story)"], et. al) meaning he had hid the Hand for other reasons at first. Nevertheless, he eventually knew the Daleks sought the weapon.
A Renegade Dalek faction from approximately the 30th century, according to the Seventh Doctor, and an Imperial Dalek faction arrived in Shoreditch in 1963 to seek the Hand of Omega, which the First Doctor had brought there with him. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks [+]Loading...["Remembrance of the Daleks (TV story)"]) One Renegade Dalek followed the Doctor whilst he was considering where to hide the Hand, however it was foiled by the Seventh Doctor, seeking a disguised segment of the Key to Time in his younger self's possession, who pushed it into the path of an oncoming bus. (COMIC: Time & Time Again [+]Loading...["Time & Time Again (comic story)"]) The First Doctor eventually concealed the Hand in a coffin and left it in the care of an undertaker. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks [+]Loading...["Remembrance of the Daleks (TV story)"])
By August, Renegade Daleks had used robotising technology to control a local gang. They sent them to investigate signs of alien technology, unaware they had been caused by future Daleks from the Last Great Time War who were attempting to manipulate Susan Foreman into leading them to the Hand of Omega. (AUDIO: The Shoreditch Intervention [+]Loading...["The Shoreditch Intervention (audio story)"])
The Imperials set up a concealed transmat in the basement of Coal Hill School to transport themselves there so they could infiltrate the area without being detected. They enslaved the headmaster, H. Parson. The Renegade Daleks employed George Ratcliffe and linked Judith Winters, a schoolgirl, to their Battle Computer so her young imagination could generate ingenious stratagems to defeat the Imperial Daleks. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks [+]Loading...["Remembrance of the Daleks (TV story)"])
On 29 November 1963, the Doctor returned in his seventh incarnation with Ace in tow. From his perspective, several hundred years had passed since his departure, (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks [+]Loading...["Remembrance of the Daleks (TV story)"]) although he was known to have visited the village's 1985 future in the interim. (TV: Attack of the Cybermen [+]Loading...["Attack of the Cybermen (TV story)"])
The course of the conflict[[edit] | [edit source]]
A human military force, the Intrusion Counter-Measures Group, was led by Group Captain Ian Gilmore. Dr Rachel Jensen and her assistant Allison Williams were their scientific advisors. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks [+]Loading...["Remembrance of the Daleks (TV story)"]) Soldiers of the London Regiment also participated in the battle. (PROSE: Rose [+]Loading...["Rose (novelisation)"])
Following Clara Oswald's sacrifice by jumping into the Doctor's time stream to combat the Great Intelligence, (TV: The Name of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Name of the Doctor (TV story)"]) Jensen was replaced by a splinter of Clara. (PROSE: The Runes of Fenric [+]Loading...{"page":"151","1":"The Runes of Fenric (short story)"})
They had arrived to investigate unusual magnetic fluctuations. The troops had a brief battle with a Renegade Dalek at Foreman's Yard. For the most part, however, the group ensured the evacuation of the area to minimise human casualties and allow the Doctor to put his plans into motion. Later the Doctor and Ace discovered the transmat and they destroyed the Dalek guarding it, but the transmat was still working and a small squad of Daleks managed to transport down from the mothership. Ace returned to the school and discovered the Daleks when she went to get her tape deck which she had left behind. She was able to fight the Daleks thanks to her baseball bat which had been augmented by the Hand of Omega, but she was trapped before the Doctor and the Intrusion Counter-Measures Group arrived.
An Imperial shuttlecraft landed in the yard of Coal Hill School. Aided by the Special Weapons Dalek, the Imperial Daleks won their battle on the streets of Shoreditch. The Imperial Daleks took the Hand of Omega, as the Doctor had planned all along. Davros (as "Emperor" of the Imperials) (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks [+]Loading...["Remembrance of the Daleks (TV story)"]) plotted to detonate the second sun of the Daleks' homeworld Skaro, (PROSE: The Stranger [+]Loading...["The Stranger (short story)"]) making it go supernova, and giving the Daleks the power of unlimited time travel. In the Imperial Daleks' time zone, he did so. This action, however, destroyed the planet and the Imperial fleet. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks [+]Loading...["Remembrance of the Daleks (TV story)"]) The Time Lords' time scale of Dalek activity placed the destruction of Skaro as occurring in the far future following the 47th century. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Loading...["Dalek Combat Training Manual (reference book)"])
On Earth, the Doctor talked the last Renegade Dalek, the Black Dalek Leader, into self-destructing. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks [+]Loading...["Remembrance of the Daleks (TV story)"]) However, Judith Winters, the young girl linked to his mind, was broken mentally for the rest of her life. (PROSE: In the Community [+]Loading...["In the Community (short story)"])
Aftermath[[edit] | [edit source]]
Destruction of Skaro[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Main article: Destruction of Skaro
Following the destruction of Skaro, Dalek battlecruisers continued to protect the area of the galaxy where the planet had been, even though it was now desolate. (PROSE: The Ripple Effect [+]Loading...["The Ripple Effect (short story)"])
The Dalek Prime later claimed that it was not Skaro, but another planet, Antalin, that was actually destroyed in its place. However Davros instead reasoned that Skaro had indeed been destroyed, but that the Dalek Prime may then have terraformed some other planet to resemble the Daleks' old home world and then fabricated the story of Skaro's survival. (PROSE: War of the Daleks [+]Loading...["War of the Daleks (novel)"]) The Twelfth Doctor likewise believed Skaro had been destroyed by the Hand. (PROSE: Twice Upon a Time [+]Loading...["Twice Upon a Time (novelisation)"])
Skaro was eventually restored, serving as the home world of the Daleks during the era of the Restoration Empire, (WC: The Sentinel of the Fifth Galaxy [+]Loading...["The Sentinel of the Fifth Galaxy (webcast)"]) and during the Last Great Time War. (AUDIO: The Abyss [+]Loading...["The Abyss (audio story)"], GAME: City of the Daleks [+]Loading...["City of the Daleks (video game)"]) One account theorised that the Daleks manipulated the timelines, making it so, while the planet was destroyed, they reconstituted it, effectively erasing the destruction from time. (PROSE: The Whoniverse [+]Loading...["The Whoniverse (novel)"])
Outcome of the Civil War[[edit] | [edit source]]
The Dalek Survival Guide believed that the Hand of Omega affair and the resultant destruction of Skaro resulted in the entire Imperial Dalek faction being wiped out, leaving only surviving Renegade Daleks.
The Hand of Omega affair was counted by the Dalek Survival Guide as the fifth greatest victory achieved by Special Weapons Daleks, as a single standard-model Imperial Special Weapons Dalek (second class) was responsible for the defeat of an entire Renegade Dalek task force. The Special Weapons Dalek concerned was cited for an award for Extreme Extermination in the Face of Danger, but was unable to attend the ceremony due to the Imperial Daleks being wiped out by the Hand of Omega. The late Special Weapons Dalek was instead granted a posthumous award for services inadvertently rendered by the surviving Renegade Daleks. (PROSE: Dalek Survival Guide [+]Loading...["Dalek Survival Guide (novel)"])
Thirty years following the destruction of Antalin, Davros was retrieved his escape pod in deep space and placed on trial before the Dalek Prime, resulting in a renewed civil war which apparently wiped out his last followers among the Daleks. (PROSE: War of the Daleks [+]Loading...["War of the Daleks (novel)"]) By another account Davros’ escape pod was blown into the Time Vortex where he was retrieved by a Nekkistani timeship. (AUDIO: Terror Firma [+]Loading...["Terror Firma (audio story)"])
By another account the Imperial faction survived, with a Supreme Dalek of the faction proclaiming itself Emperor following the loss of Davros and exterminating the other members of the Dalek Council. The new Emperor went on to establish the Restoration Empire. (PROSE: The Restoration Empire [+]Loading...["The Restoration Empire (short story)"]) Human historians believed the new Emperor pursued Davros’ plans to move against the Time Lords by orchestrating the Etra Prime incident and eventually leading the Daleks into the Last Great Time War. (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe [+]Loading...[" Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe (short story)"])
The Time War[[edit] | [edit source]]
Andrea Quill would claim that the destruction of Skaro at the hands of the Seventh Doctor was a cause of the Last Great Time War. (AUDIO: In Remembrance [+]Loading...["In Remembrance (audio story)"]) According to the Seventh Corsair, the Hand of Omega's destruction of Skaro triggered a "little" time war, which was eventually erased by the greater Time War. (PROSE: One Virtue, and a Thousand Crimes [+]Loading...["One Virtue, and a Thousand Crimes (short story)"])
The Shoreditch Incident briefly became a battleground in the Time War when Dalek agents duped Susan Foreman into returning to August 1963 by following her younger self's path through the time lock protecting Earth from the Time War. Sending a control signal after her to take control of nearby humans, the Daleks attempted to trick her to leading them to the Hand of Omega only for the Eighth Doctor to intervene. He tricked the Daleks into letting him and Susan leave 1963 to deliver the Daleks a fake Hand. Once they discovered the deception, the Daleks attempted to exterminate him however he escaped. (AUDIO: The Shoreditch Intervention [+]Loading...["The Shoreditch Intervention (audio story)"])
Imperial Dalek in 2016[[edit] | [edit source]]
Following the incident, the Doctor and Ace took their leave back to the TARDIS. There, the Doctor picked up signs of temporal abnormality at Coal Hill in 2016, as well as a possible Dalek lifesign. However, before he and Ace could attend to it, they were distracted as the TARDIS was attacked. As recalled by an older Ace to the best of her memory, the attacker may have been a Bandril timeship, but the incident was so far in her past that she could not say so for certain.
Despite the distraction, Ace made a note of the date in 2016. Eventually, after she participated in the Last Great Time War, Ace appeared at Coal Hill where she encountered the Imperial Dalek that had crossed through the temporal anomaly. Charlie Smith fell through the temporal anomaly, and ended up on the periphery of the conflict. He briefly encountered the younger Ace, and some of the Imperial Daleks stationed within Coal Hill.
In 2016, the surviving Dalek downloaded in-depth details of the Shoreditch Incident from the internet and decided that it had to return to 1963 immediately, as the information would be valuable intelligence that could alter the course of the conflict. Quill and Ace were able to work together to lure the surviving Dalek to the chemistry lab, where they damaged it. Quill decided that saving Charlie was the greatest priority and tied Ace up. She repaired the Dalek's casing and took it back to the anomaly. On the other side of the anomaly, in 1963, Quill was able to rescue Charlie from extermination at the hands of the Imperial Daleks in Coal Hill, and return to 2016 with him.
The surviving Dalek, now returned to 1963, attempted to upload the recovered intelligence from the future but it was immobilised by the Counter-Measures Group, alongside the other Imperial Daleks within Coal Hill, via the usage of a device constructed by the Seventh Doctor. It was destroyed using explosives before it could upload the information, thus preserving the course of history.
Though Ace believed that the Doctor had forgotten about the matter at Coal Hill, (AUDIO: In Remembrance [+]Loading...["In Remembrance (audio story)"]) the Twelfth Doctor was aware that time had "worn thin" in the area. (TV: For Tonight We Might Die [+]Loading...["For Tonight We Might Die (TV story)"])
Human reaction[[edit] | [edit source]]
From the viewpoint of many key scientific and military authorities in Great Britain, the conflict constituted undeniable evidence that aliens existed. The conflict was later named "the Shoreditch Incident" by these authorities. (PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy [+]Loading...["Who Killed Kennedy (novel)"]) The Shoreditch Incident was also the title of a book on the incident written by ex-UNIT officer Hamlet Macbeth. (PROSE: The Left-Handed Hummingbird [+]Loading...["The Left-Handed Hummingbird (novel)"], Return of the Living Dad [+]Loading...["Return of the Living Dad (novel)"])
However, the incident was covered up from the general public, with The Evening Star attributing the six official casualties to an unexploded bomb. (PROSE: The Shoreditch Incident [+]Loading...["The Shoreditch Incident (short story)"]) Second Lieutenant Gary Jonathan Finch died in the incident, but it was hushed up by the military, who told his family he had been killed on "manouevres". This inspired his son, Clive Finch, to begin his research on the Doctor. (PROSE: Rose [+]Loading...["Rose (novelisation)"])
In the post-Time War universe, this incident was covered as a part of known Dalek history in The Dalek Conquests, a documentary which was itself produced following the Van Statten Incident on Earth in 2012. (AUDIO: The Dalek Conquests [+]Loading...["The Dalek Conquests (audio story)"])
Legacy[[edit] | [edit source]]
Receiving the Twelfth Doctor in his infirmary on Skaro, Davros replayed footage of the Seventh Doctor ridiculing Davros's ambitions of power amongst other confrontations. (TV: The Magician's Apprentice [+]Loading...["The Magician's Apprentice (TV story)"])
At some point, the Shoreditch Incident was displayed in the Dalek Dome as one of the greatest moments in Dalek history. (COMIC: Liberation of the Daleks [+]Loading...["Liberation of the Daleks (comic story)"])
Alternate timeline[[edit] | [edit source]]
In an alternate timeline where WOTAN succeeded in taking over the minds of large portions of the population, Dalek artefacts from the Shoreditch Incident were recovered by the British, who began to make slight advances in time travel studies and, by 2006, hoped to use it to win World War III, which began as a result of the broken world left behind in WOTAN's wake. Because WOTAN had destroyed many great minds, the only people left to carry out any experiments were, as the First Doctor opined, "idiot[s]".
The First Doctor prevented these studies from taking place in October 1972 of this timeline by transporting the artefacts into the Sun. Nevertheless, the appearance of a Dalek manipulator arm caused alarm for both the Doctor and Susan, who, by this point in their personal timelines, had only encountered the Daleks once before. The Doctor concluded that the Daleks must have visited Earth at some point. The WOTAN-controlled timeline (PROSE: The Time Travellers [+]Loading...["The Time Travellers (novel)"]) was ultimately totally averted when the First Doctor, later in his personal timeline, changed history by defeating WOTAN in 1966. (TV: The War Machines [+]Loading...["The War Machines (TV story)"])
Behind the scenes[[edit] | [edit source]]
The Discontinuity Guide takes the Doctor's words that the Supreme Dalek was "a thousand years from a disintegrated home" literally, while supposing that it is more likely in the future than the past, and so states that Skaro was destroyed around the 30th century in the new timeline where Davros survived,[1] whereas Skaro was known to exist later in the old timeline.[2]
AHistory dates the basetime of the Daleks in the Shoreditch Incident and the apparent destruction of Skaro to c. 4663.
