Vulcan Incident
The Vulcan Incident, recorded as the Vulcan colony incursion in the Dalek Survival Guide, (PROSE: Dalek Survival Guide) was the Time Lord designation for the event in which the Daleks attacked the human colony on the planet Vulcan. (TV: The Power of the Daleks, PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual)
Dating[[edit] | [edit source]]
The Time Lords believed that the Dalek attack on Vulcan took place in the 21st century. In their time scale of Dalek activity, they indicated it followed the 2021 Dalek civil war on Earth, which itself followed several incursions on the planet by Daleks postdating the Time War. However, the Time Lords were aware that Big Bang Two caused subtle changes in Earth's timeline which would remove the memory of incidents such as the 21st century Dalek invasion; as such, humanity at large would remain unaware of the Daleks. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual)
Whilst on Vulcan, the Second Doctor concluded that the invasion in the 22nd century had not yet taken place, apparently explaining why the colonists were unfamiliar with the threat of the Daleks. (PROSE: The Power of the Daleks) Post-Time War historians concurred with this assessment. (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe)
According to one account, the Vulcan colonists were of a sleeper starship which set off set off from Earth in the early 21st century. Upon awakening the crew opted to begin their dating system from the time they entered deep sleep and so acknowledged the year as 2010 despite the passing of several centuries. (PROSE: The History of the Daleks)
History[[edit] | [edit source]]
A day to come[[edit] | [edit source]]
Published on Earth around the turn of the 21st century, the Dalek Survival Guide had future intelligence which foretold the Vulcan colony incursion among other incidents. (PROSE: Dalek Survival Guide)
Prelude[[edit] | [edit source]]
In a transmission recovered and recorded in The Dalek Conquests, a Dalek space capsule was on a course which entailed traversing the orbital path of the planet Vulcan when its engines were hit by a meteor strike, disabling maneuvering controls. As a result, the capsule was caught in Vulcan's gravitational pull. Though the Dalek crew attempted to transmit a distress signal to their home planet, Skaro, they found that their transmitter was non-functional as main power shut down, leading to a crash landing on Vulcan. (AUDIO: The Dalek Conquests)
This space capsule was a factory ship. Dalek factory ships were sent out from Skaro by the thousands in the early days of the Dalek Empire. One ship could theoretically produce hundreds of Daleks within a few hours of planetfall. (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe) During the renewed civil war between the Daleks loyal to the Dalek Prime and those loyal to Davros, the former faction planted a dimensionally transcendental factory ship aboard a Thal ship returning to their own space. This was discovered by the Eighth Doctor who, aware that this would enable the creation of a new Dalek army in enemy territory, used the TARDIS to expel the factory ship through interstitial space, claiming that he had already dealt with it "in another time, and another place." (PROSE: War of the Daleks)
According to another account, the craft was an experimental capsule fielded during the Mechon Wars, fought in the aftermath of the Mechonoid Incident, in order to test time warping on their enemies. Damaged by the Mechanoids, the craft was sent hurtling through time and space to Vulcan. By this account, Vulcan's human colonists were from a sleeper starship which set off from Earth in the early 21st century. Upon awakening the crew opted to begin their dating system from the time they entered deep sleep and so acknowledged the year as 2010 despite the passing of several centuries. (PROSE: The History of the Daleks)
According to the Time Lords' Dalek Combat Training Manual, the capsule was in fact a scout craft used for reconnaissance missions. Intelligence further identified it as a short-range exploratory vessel, explaining its crew's reliance on static electricity. They indicated that, within the Daleks' history, the ship was from some point following the Time Destructor Incident of 4000 but before Operation Human Factor. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual)
The incident[[edit] | [edit source]]
To be added
Aftermath and legacy[[edit] | [edit source]]
By the year 2136, both Vulcan and the Daleks were considered little more than legends by humanity. (PROSE: The Murder Game)
The Fourth Doctor once reminisced on his newly regenerated second incarnation's battle with the Daleks on Vulcan. (AUDIO: The Power of the Daleks)
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)
Human historians following the Siege of Trenzalore observed that the Dalek factory ship that landed on Vega 4 was significantly more advanced than the capsule found on Vulcan, containing the raw materials required to build over 3,000 Daleks. (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe)
The Vulcan Factory Zone was an attraction at the Dalek Dome. (COMIC: Liberation of the Daleks)
Behind the scenes[[edit] | [edit source]]
The trailer included on the Lost in Time box set and press material from the time around the production of The Power of the Daleks states that the Vulcan Incident occurred in the year 2020.[1]
DWM 77's History of the Daleks dates the Vulcan Incident to c. 2249.
Similar to The History of the Daleks, The Terrestrial Index claimed that the Vulcan Incident took place around the year 2220, though the Vulcan colonists kept their original dating system and so recognised the year as 2020. The Dalek capsule had crashed on Vulcan following the First Dalek War.
The Discontinuity Guide claimed that the Dalek ship which crashed on Vulcan was one of those which escaped the destruction caused by the Dalek Civil War on Skaro, arriving on Vulcan in the 21st or early 22nd century, before the 2150s Dalek invasion of Earth.[2] It is further noted that, since the Fourth Doctor inadvertently changed Dalek history so that Davros survived, this event would have occurred vastly differently if it happened at all in the new timeline.[3]
The Dalek Handbook claimed that the capsule was a timeship which fled Skaro in the Civil War, which is dated to the 41st century, before crashing on Vulcan in the past, explaining how the Daleks recognised the newly regenerated Second Doctor but were themselves not recognised by the humans.
Footnotes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- ↑ Parkin, Lance, 2002, AHistory (second edition), Mad Norwegian Press, United States of America, p.234
- ↑ BBC.co.uk 'Discontinuity Guide' article on Dalek History: Part One in the original series of Doctor Who
- ↑ BBC.co.uk 'Discontinuity Guide' article on Dalek History: Part Two in the original series of Doctor Who
