Fire Trap

The Halvinor tribe of Sycorax used a barren asteroid named Fire Trap from the JX82 system as their space ship. (PROSE: The Visual Dictionary ^[+]Loading...{"page":"82","1":"The Visual Dictionary (2010 reference book)"}) It arrived in Earth's atmosphere on Christmas Day 2006, where the Sycorax attempted to scavenge Earth, but after their leader was defeated in combat by the newly-regenerated Tenth Doctor, the Sycorax fled in their ship, but it was destroyed by Torchwood on the command order of Prime Minister Harriet Jones with a laser taken from scavenged alien technology. (TV: The Christmas Invasion ^[+]Loading...["The Christmas Invasion (TV story)"], etc.)

Nature[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Fire Trap was an asteroid that had been hollowed out by the Sycorax. It contained their Great Hall, which, despite its primitive appearance, contained various pieces of technology, such as a teleporter. The Great Hall was used for tribal meetings, and the hole in the roof was used to allow both lunar and solar light to enter the hall for their ancient rituals. The ship was also fitted with an All Speed Inter-System Type K engine. (PROSE: The Visual Dictionary ^[+]Loading...{"page":"82","1":"The Visual Dictionary (2010 reference book)"})

History[[edit] | [edit source]]

"Many centuries" prior to the 21st century, the Halvinor tribe (PROSE: The Visual Dictionary ^[+]Loading...{"page":"82","1":"The Visual Dictionary (2010 reference book)"}) united with the rest of the Sycorax tribes when a spaceship that crashed on their home planet gave them the "secrets of interstellar craft"; the Sycorax split their home planet into an "armada" of asteroids, with one such asteroid becoming to be known as Fire Trap. (PROSE: The Time Traveller's Almanac ^[+]Loading...{"chaptname":"Everything Changes","page":"78","chaptnum":"3","1":"The Time Traveller's Almanac (reference book)"}) Although, one account indicated the Fire Trap asteroid was hit independently by the spaceship. Either way, the Halvinor tribe salvaged the spaceship's All Speed Inter-System Type K engine to use to power their asteroid and hollowed it out to create the Great Hall around this time. (PROSE: The Visual Dictionary ^[+]Loading...{"page":"82","1":"The Visual Dictionary (2010 reference book)"}) According to another variation of the source, the Sycorax originated on Fire Trap. (PROSE: The Visual Dictionary: Updated and Expanded ^[+]Loading...{"page":"94","1":"The Visual Dictionary: Updated and Expanded"})

Sycorax invasion of Earth[[edit] | [edit source]]

Main article: Sycorax invasion of Earth

On Christmas Day 2006, the Sycorax came to Earth in the spaceship. It was later destroyed by Torchwood on the command order of Prime Minister Harriet Jones with a laser taken from scavenged alien technology. The Tenth Doctor immediately chastised her for this immoral act, seeing it as murder. When Harriet disagreed with the Doctor, calling it an act done to protect humanity from further attack, he brought down her government with a subtle push that snowballed into her removal from power. (TV: The Christmas Invasion ^[+]Loading...["The Christmas Invasion (TV story)"]) After the destruction of the spaceship, UNIT officers were given a directive from the PM's office that the ship blew up of its own accord, despite that not being the case. (PROSE: Project Rooftop ^[+]Loading...["Project Rooftop (short story)"])

Behind the scenes[[edit] | [edit source]]

• The asteroid was never named on television, however both in The Time Traveller's Almanac and The Visual Dictionary, it was named as "Fire Trap"; the latter book also added various details like the backstory of the ship. The 2014 version of the Dictionary instead claimed that the Sycorax originated on Fire Trap.