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Time War (Doctor Who)
Encyclopedia
The Time War, more specifically called The Last Great Time War, is a conflict within the fictional universe
of the long-running British science fiction television
series Doctor Who
. The conflict pitted the Time Lord
s against the Dalek
s and culminated in the mutual destruction of both races, caused by the Doctor
.
The war has been frequently mentioned and alluded to since the series return to television in 2005, but the events and progression have never been fully explained. Short comments in various episodes act as hints, but the war was not thoroughly talked about until the 2007 series finale
. The two-part special The End of Time
(2009) provided further information.
s of Gallifrey
pursued a policy of non-intervention but also protected the time vortex
. Under that objective, they intervened in two previous "Time Wars": the first was a skirmish between the Halldons (a race mentioned in the Terry Nation
story We Are the Daleks from the Radio Times
10th Anniversary Special, 1973) and the Eternals (Enlightenment
), the second the slaughter of the Omnicraven Uprising. The Time Lords had also used their time travel to retroactively destroy the Charon race before it even existed.
s themselves against the Dalek
s of Skaro
. The specific incident that sparked the conflict remains unclear, but according to executive producer Russell T Davies, the origins dated back to the encounters of The Doctor
with the Daleks. In Genesis of the Daleks
(1975), the Time Lords – having foreseen the possibility of the Daleks conquering the universe – send the Fourth Doctor
into the past in an attempt to avert the Daleks' creation, or affect their development to make them less aggressive.
In retaliation to this (ultimately unsuccessful) mission, the Daleks attempt to infiltrate the High Council of the Time Lords with duplicates in Resurrection of the Daleks
(1984), followed by an open declaration of hostilities by one of the Dalek Emperors in Remembrance of the Daleks
(1988).
Two specific events led up to the outbreak of the war: A peace treaty was attempted by President Romana
under the "Act of Master Restitution" (a possible reference to the otherwise-unexplained trial of the Master
on Skaro
at the beginning of the 1996 television movie
). This attempt was followed by the "Etra Prime Incident" (The Apocalypse Element
), which some say "began the escalation of events". Weapons used by the Time Lords included Bowships, Black Hole Carriers and N-Forms (the last from Davies' 1996 New Adventures novel Damaged Goods), while the Daleks wielded "the full might of the Deathsmiths of Goth" (from the comic strip story Black Legacy by Alan Moore
and David Lloyd
, in Doctor Who Weekly
#35-#38 (1980), and launched a massive fleet into the vortex (possibly in The Time of the Daleks
).
The Doctor, in his Eighth
and Ninth
incarnations, fought on the front lines and was present at the Fall of Arcadia.
Davros
, the creator of the Daleks, also fought during the war after his creations, which had turned against him during Genesis of the Daleks
, rehabilitated him to a leadership position. In the first year of the War, Davros' command ship was apparently destroyed at the Gates of Elysium after flying into the jaws of the Nightmare Child. Unbeknownst to the Doctor, who had tried to save him, Davros was rescued by Dalek Caan, who had escaped the events of Evolution of the Daleks
(2007) via an emergency temporal shift.
The war resulted in countless millions dying endless deaths, as time travel was used by both sides to reverse battles that caused massive fatalities on both sides. These excesses of time warfare eventually led to the whole of the conflict becoming "time-locked", so that no time traveller could go back into it. The Doctor described the final days of the war as "hell", with "the Skaro Degradations, the Horde of Travesties, the Nightmare Child, the Could-Have-Been King with his army of Meanwhiles and Never-Weres" constituting particularly disturbing developments, all of which have not yet been specified further.
As the war progressed the Time Lords became increasingly aggressive and unscrupulous. At one point, they resurrected the Master
, renegade Time Lord and nemesis to the Doctor, as they believed him to be the "perfect warrior for a time war". In fact, it's implied that they gave him a full new set of regenerations as was done to all Time Lords fighting in the war, and that the eye of harmony could be used as a means to gain more regenerations. However, after the Dalek Emperor gained control of the Cruciform, the Master deserted his post, used the chameleon arch to disguise himself as a human and escaped to a time period shortly before the end of the universe. Genetically a human, he escaped the destruction of all Time Lords as well as detection by the Doctor – who was unaware of his resurrection in the first place. The Master also remained ignorant of the latter phase and outcome of the war.
Leadership among the Time Lords remained vague during the earlier phase of the war. Especially the role of the Doctor's former companion, Romana
– President of the Time Lords according to later novels, audio dramas and comic series – was avoided. Ultimately, Rassilon
himself, founder of the Time Lord Society and its time travel technology, returned from the grave to re-assume leadership (possibly using the resurrection gauntlets where one fell through the rift out of the time lock). Refusing the possibility of his civilisation being destroyed by the Daleks, Rassilon prepared a doomsday scenario, the so-called "Ultimate Sanction". This genocidal scheme included sacrificing all of time itself, thereby destroying the Daleks and all life in the universe. The Time Lords themselves would have transcended into a non-corporeal collective consciousness that would be the only sentient form of life in existence. The Time Lords, apparently hardened by the horrors of war, gave near-unanimous support for this plan.
. Gallifrey is first described as having "burned" like Earth of the far future, and is "rocks and dust" as a result of the war, but then the Doctor admits that Time Lords and Daleks both burned together and that he personally ended the war, in an act which caused the Time Lords, the Daleks and Gallifrey to burn. The Doctor was, therefore, responsible for destroying his home planet. He is called "the killer of his own kind" by the beast of the Pit.
The specifics and what prompted the Doctor to such drastic measures were ultimately revealed in The End of Time
(2009): The Doctor had discovered a way to end the war, described as "the Moment", when he became aware of Rassilon's "Ultimate Sanction". It remains unclear whether "the Moment" would always have resulted in the destruction of both antagonists together or whether the Doctor could have simply used it to destroy the Daleks and chose to destroy the Time Lords as well to prevent Rassilon's scheme. The Ninth Doctor
apparently faced a similar situation in The Parting of the Ways
when he creates a Delta Wave to destroy the Dalek
s. When the wave was charged, The Doctor realised that it would not distinguish between Human and Dalek. Firing the Delta Wave would have resulted in the mutual destruction of both the Daleks and Humans (similar to the situation he faced at "the Moment").
By this point, the entire period of war had become "time locked", so that no time traveller could enter or exit it. In knowledge of this and the threat posed by the Doctor's possession of "the Moment," Rassilon and his fellow councillors tried to escape the Lock by retroactively planting a four note drumbeat (the rhythm of a Time Lord's heart
beats) into the Master's brain (the sound of which eventually drove the Master insane) and use a Whitepoint Star, a diamond only found on Gallifrey, to create a link between the final hours of the Time War and present-day Earth. The Master could therefore bring Gallifrey and the Time Lords out of the Time Lock and into the present. The plan ultimately failed, as the Doctor destroyed the diamond link and the Master apparently sacrificed his life, sending the Time Lords back to their apparent doom.
in the 2005 season finale
, they are still known as a legend by the future inhabitants of Earth. One character in The Parting of the Ways called Rodrick (played by Paterson Joseph
) denies the presence of the Daleks of that episode, claiming that they had "disappeared thousands of years ago". This suggests that the Daleks are yet to appear as a known threat to humanity in its future, though it is possible that he is referencing the events of The Stolen Earth
or The Dalek Invasion of Earth
.
The destruction of the Time Lords also had a profound impact on time travel. In the 2006 episode Rise of the Cybermen
when the Doctor
, Rose Tyler
and Mickey Smith
are trapped in an alternative reality, the Doctor explains that, when the
Time Lords were around, travel between parallel universes was less difficult but, with their demise, the paths between worlds are now closed. The Time Lords also could prevent or repair paradoxes
such as the one created by Rose in an attempt to save her father's life in a traffic accident. After the Time Lords' demise, such a paradox summons the terrifying Reapers, who descended to "sterilise the wound" in time by devouring everything in sight.
The demise of Gallifrey also created a vacuum that may have left history more vulnerable to change. Whereas earlier episodes implied that history was either immutable or capable of being changed only by very powerful beings, the Ninth Doctor
offers a more fluid explanation, stating that time is in flux, and history can change instantly. The Tenth Doctor
's opposing an alien invasion had the side-effect of prematurely bringing down the government of Harriet Jones
, whom the Doctor originally stated would be elected for three terms and become the architect of Britain's "Golden Age". In several episodes, the Doctor states that some points in time, such as the destruction of Pompeii
, are fixed and unchangeable, while other events can be changed. Still, the Doctor has changed fixed points in time before (The Waters of Mars), albeit to virtually no effect.
Because of the destruction of Gallifrey and the Time Lords, the Doctor does not encounter other time-travelling Time Lords. It has been stated in the past that there are locks on TARDISes that prevent travel into Gallifrey's past. The time lock, along with the danger of creating a paradox, also prevents the Doctor from going back in time and saving the Time Lords, the dangers of which the Doctor is acutely aware. There is no evidence that this has changed, despite Time Lords being revived.
He warns another character against trying to alter his own timeline as such meddling would "destroy two-thirds of the universe" and resists an offer by the Skasis Paradigm, which would have given him the ability to reorder the universe and allowed him to stop the war.
encounters a single, dysfunctional Dalek in a museum and later discovers that the Dalek Emperor himself had also survived, and had gone on to build a whole new Dalek race, using the organic material of human cadavers by completely rewriting their DNA. The destruction of the Emperor and his fleet at the conclusion of the 2005 series by a time vortex
-augmented Rose Tyler
is accompanied by her declaration that "the Time War ends".
The elite Cult of Skaro also survived by fleeing into the Void between dimensions and survived the original end of the Time War, taking with them the Genesis Ark, a Time Lord prison ship containing millions of Daleks. The new Dalek army released from the Ark is eventually sucked back into the Void, due to the actions of the Tenth Doctor
, but the specially-equipped cult members use an "emergency temporal shift" to escape that fate. They reappear in 1930 in New York. While three Daleks are killed, the fourth, Dalek Caan, escapes through another emergency temporal shift. He accidentally returns to the Time War and, at the cost of his sanity, rescues the Daleks' creator, Davros. Davros subsequently uses cells from his own body to create a new Dalek Empire
and keeps Caan close at his side because of the latter's prophetic abilities. However, Caan manipulated Davros to help the Doctor and Donna Noble
defeat the Daleks.
One ship however escaped that defeat by accidentally falling through time and resurfaced during World War II
, successfully plotting the resurgence of pure Daleks. These Daleks pretended to be an invention (a weapon to fight Nazi Germany
) but were actually laying a trap for the Eleventh Doctor
to create a new Dalek Paradigm. Exactly how these Daleks survived the events of Journey's End is unknown.
, which calls the Doctor the "last of his kind" but also states that "You are not alone". A similar message was carved on a mountainside on the distant planet Crafe Tec Heydra, indicating that the Doctor was not the sole survivor of the conflict. The cryptic statements are explained when the Doctor encounters a Professor Yana, who is revealed to be the Master
. As the Master had been hiding in human form via the Chameleon Arch, he had escaped both the destruction of all Time Lords and detection by the Doctor, who was unaware of his nemesis' resurrection during the Time War in the first place.
, which lost its homeworld and its protein-source planets, prompting it to another invasion of Earth, the Eternals
, who apparently fled this reality in despair and the Gelth, who lost their physical form and were reduced to gaseous beings. The Gelth described the war's impact as "invisible to lower species but devastating to higher forms", such as the Forest of Cheem, which was distraught at the bloodshed.
has suggested that Earth's destruction by an expanding sun in The End of the World five billion years hence, as opposed to the original depiction of its demise around the year 10,000,000 AD in The Ark
(1966) can be attributed to changes in history due to the War. Steven Moffat
, writer and later executive producer for Doctor Who, has gone further, arguing that "a television series which embraces both the ideas of parallel universes and the concept of changing time can't have a continuity error – it's impossible for Doctor Who to get it wrong, because we can just say 'he changed time – it's a time ripple from the Time War.
is the umbrella title of a series of audio plays by Big Finish Productions
, set on Gallifrey during Romana's tenure as President. In Gallifrey: Panacea
, the final chapter of the third series, the Time Lord Irving Braxiatel
speaks of "rumours out there in the big wide universe – more than rumours, in fact – that something's coming to Gallifrey, something worse than you could possibly imagine".
Because of these rumours, Braxiatel engineers the removal of the Time Lord biodata archive from Gallifrey, in order that the Time Lords might someday be restored after their planet meets its doom. Former Big Finish producer Gary Russell
indicated in a forum posting on Outpost Gallifrey
that this was a reference to the television series' Time War.
The later Companion Chronicles audio story, The Catalyst
, implies that Leela
survived the Time War; she mentions that her adopted homeworld no longer exists and she ages rapidly due to the Time Lords no longer being able to keep her young.
stretching through several of the Eighth Doctor Adventures
, sometime in the Doctor's future, a war is fought between the Time Lords and an unnamed Enemy, the Eighth Doctor
becoming involved in the events of the war during the events of Alien Bodies
, when he unintentionally becomes involved in an auction for the body of his future self due to his biodata codes being the only means of accessing dangerous Time Lord secrets, and The Taking of Planet 5
, where he must stop a group of future Time Lords from releasing the monstrous Fendahl in an attempt to use it as a weapon. In this story arc, Gallifrey is also destroyed as a result of the Eighth Doctor attempting to prevent the war from beginning as the Enemy begin their first assault, believing that it would be better for the Time Lords to die now rather than experience a war that would dehumanise them to the point of becoming monsters which all evidence suggests they could not win (The Ancestor Cell
, 2000). This cataclysm also creates an event horizon
in time that prevents anyone from entering Gallifrey's relative past or travelling from it to the present or future. The last Eighth Doctor Adventures novel, The Gallifrey Chronicles
, establishes that the Doctor has the ability to restore the planet and its inhabitants, having downloaded the contents of the Matrix
into his subconscious mind in the minutes before Gallifrey's destruction, albeit at the cost of his own memories. The novel ends without revealing if he does indeed do this, although the Ninth Doctor
's clear knowledge of his past suggests that he was at least able to restore his memories before his regeneration.
Russell T Davies, executive producer of the series, commented that there is no connection between the War of the books and the Time War of the television series, comparing Gallifrey being destroyed twice with Earth's two World Wars. He also said that he was "usually happy for old and new fans to invent the Complete History of the Doctor in their heads, completely free of the production team's hot and heavy hands".
Despite this unequivocal statement, writer Lance Parkin
speculated in an essay that the two destructions of Gallifrey may be the same event seen from two different perspectives, with the Eighth Doctor present twice (and both times responsible for the planet's destruction). This is supported due to the novels' destruction of Gallifrey involving an evil future version of the Eighth Doctor as the leader of the invading force, with the events leading to Gallifrey's destruction being triggered by the Doctor's attempt to prevent that future from coming to pass.
Another version of the Eighth Doctor Adventures' War, referred to as the "War in Heaven", also appears in the Faction Paradox
novels conceived by Lawrence Miles
.
in 1979, the Time Lords, assisted by The Special Executive
, fight a time war early in their history against the "Order of the Black Sun", based some thirty thousand years in their future.
The first strike of the war, from the Time Lords' point of view, is when a Black Sun agent travels back in time, and attacks the Time Lords just as they are about to turn the star Qqaba into a power source for their time experiments. This also causes the apparent demise of the stellar engineer Omega
. The Time Lords do not know why the Black Sun (whom they had never encountered before the attack) should have wanted to strike at them, and surmise that it was for something they had yet to do. Years later, at a diplomatic conference, a representative of the Order is murdered by the Sontaran
s, and the murder is blamed on the Time Lords. This provides the motivation for the war's beginnings, as from the Order's point of view, the Time Lords are the ones who strike first.
comic miniseries The Forgotten, the Tenth Doctor
recounts to Martha Jones
a story from the Eighth Doctor
's participation in the Time War. The Eighth Doctor was imprisoned by a race of robots for several weeks on a planet in the middle of the war, before teaming up with a Malmooth fellow prisoner and faking his death in order to escape. It is revealed his capture was staged by him so that he could acquire the Great Key he needed to arm a modified De-Mat Gun that could be used to seal the Medusa Cascade. The Tenth Doctor further implies that the Eighth Doctor died, companionless, at the end of the Time War.
Whoniverse
Whoniverse, a portmanteau of the words "Who" and "universe", is a word used to describe the fictional setting of the television series Doctor Who, K-9 and Company, Torchwood, The Sarah Jane Adventures and K-9, as well as other related stories...
of the long-running British science fiction television
Science fiction on television
Science fiction first appeared on a television program during the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Special effects and other production techniques allow creators to present a living visual image of an imaginary world not limited by the constraints of reality; this makes television an excellent medium...
series Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
. The conflict pitted the Time Lord
Time Lord
The Time Lords are an ancient extraterrestrial race and civilization of humanoids in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, of which the series' eponymous protagonist, the Doctor, is a member...
s against the Dalek
Dalek
The Daleks are a fictional extraterrestrial race of mutants from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Within the series, Daleks are cyborgs from the planet Skaro, created by the scientist Davros during the final years of a thousand-year war against the Thals...
s and culminated in the mutual destruction of both races, caused by the Doctor
Doctor (Doctor Who)
The Doctor is the central character in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who, and has also featured in two cinema feature films, a vast range of spin-off novels, audio dramas and comic strips connected to the series....
.
The war has been frequently mentioned and alluded to since the series return to television in 2005, but the events and progression have never been fully explained. Short comments in various episodes act as hints, but the war was not thoroughly talked about until the 2007 series finale
Doctor Who (series 3)
The third series of British science fiction series Doctor Who was preceded by the 2006 Christmas special "The Runaway Bride". Following the special, a regular series of thirteen episodes was broadcast, starting with "Smith and Jones" on 31 March 2007...
. The two-part special The End of Time
The End of Time
The End of Time: The Next Revolution in Our Understanding of the Universe, also sold with the alternate subtitle The Next Revolution in Physics, is a 1999 science book in which the author Julian Barbour argues that time exists merely as an illusion.-Auto-biography:The book begins by describing how...
(2009) provided further information.
Background
According to executive producer Russell T Davies, the Time LordTime Lord
The Time Lords are an ancient extraterrestrial race and civilization of humanoids in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, of which the series' eponymous protagonist, the Doctor, is a member...
s of Gallifrey
Gallifrey
Gallifrey is a fictional planet in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who and is the homeworld of the Doctor and the Time Lords...
pursued a policy of non-intervention but also protected the time vortex
Time vortex (Doctor Who)
In the science fiction television series Doctor Who, the time vortex is the medium that the TARDIS and other time machines travel through...
. Under that objective, they intervened in two previous "Time Wars": the first was a skirmish between the Halldons (a race mentioned in the Terry Nation
Terry Nation
Terry Nation was a Welsh screenwriter and novelist.He is probably best known for creating the villainous Daleks in the long-running science fiction television series Doctor Who...
story We Are the Daleks from the Radio Times
Radio Times
Radio Times is a UK weekly television and radio programme listings magazine, owned by the BBC. It has been published since 1923 by BBC Magazines, which also provides an on-line listings service under the same title...
10th Anniversary Special, 1973) and the Eternals (Enlightenment
Enlightenment (Doctor Who)
Enlightenment is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was originally broadcast in four twice-weekly parts from March 1 to March 9, 1983...
), the second the slaughter of the Omnicraven Uprising. The Time Lords had also used their time travel to retroactively destroy the Charon race before it even existed.
Origins
The Last Great Time War pitted the Time LordTime Lord
The Time Lords are an ancient extraterrestrial race and civilization of humanoids in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, of which the series' eponymous protagonist, the Doctor, is a member...
s themselves against the Dalek
Dalek
The Daleks are a fictional extraterrestrial race of mutants from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Within the series, Daleks are cyborgs from the planet Skaro, created by the scientist Davros during the final years of a thousand-year war against the Thals...
s of Skaro
Skaro
Skaro is a fictional planet from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who created by the writer Terry Nation as the home planet of the Daleks and, at times, the centre of the Dalek Empire....
. The specific incident that sparked the conflict remains unclear, but according to executive producer Russell T Davies, the origins dated back to the encounters of The Doctor
Doctor (Doctor Who)
The Doctor is the central character in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who, and has also featured in two cinema feature films, a vast range of spin-off novels, audio dramas and comic strips connected to the series....
with the Daleks. In Genesis of the Daleks
Genesis of the Daleks
Genesis of the Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who that was originally broadcast in six weekly parts from 8 March to 12 April 1975. It marks the first appearance of Davros, the creator of the Daleks.-Plot:...
(1975), the Time Lords – having foreseen the possibility of the Daleks conquering the universe – send the Fourth Doctor
Fourth Doctor
The Fourth Doctor is the fourth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC British television science-fiction series Doctor Who....
into the past in an attempt to avert the Daleks' creation, or affect their development to make them less aggressive.
In retaliation to this (ultimately unsuccessful) mission, the Daleks attempt to infiltrate the High Council of the Time Lords with duplicates in Resurrection of the Daleks
Resurrection of the Daleks
Resurrection of the Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in two weekly parts between 8 February and 15 February 1984...
(1984), followed by an open declaration of hostilities by one of the Dalek Emperors in Remembrance of the Daleks
Remembrance of the Daleks
Remembrance of the Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 5 October to 26 October 1988....
(1988).
Two specific events led up to the outbreak of the war: A peace treaty was attempted by President Romana
Romana
Romana, short for Romanadvoratrelundar, is a fictional character in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
under the "Act of Master Restitution" (a possible reference to the otherwise-unexplained trial of the Master
Master (Doctor Who)
The Master is a recurring character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. He is a renegade Time Lord and the archenemy of the Doctor....
on Skaro
Skaro
Skaro is a fictional planet from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who created by the writer Terry Nation as the home planet of the Daleks and, at times, the centre of the Dalek Empire....
at the beginning of the 1996 television movie
Doctor Who (1996)
Doctor Who is a television movie based on the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Developed as a co-production amongst Universal Television, BBC Television, BBC Worldwide, and the American network FOX, the 1996 television film premiered on 12 May 1996 on CITV in Edmonton,...
). This attempt was followed by the "Etra Prime Incident" (The Apocalypse Element
The Apocalypse Element
The Apocalypse Element is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It forms the second serial in the Dalek Empire arc, following on from events in The Genocide Machine...
), which some say "began the escalation of events". Weapons used by the Time Lords included Bowships, Black Hole Carriers and N-Forms (the last from Davies' 1996 New Adventures novel Damaged Goods), while the Daleks wielded "the full might of the Deathsmiths of Goth" (from the comic strip story Black Legacy by Alan Moore
Alan Moore
Alan Oswald Moore is an English writer primarily known for his work in comic books, a medium where he has produced a number of critically acclaimed and popular series, including Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and From Hell...
and David Lloyd
David Lloyd (comic artist)
David Lloyd is a British comics artist best known as the illustrator of the story V for Vendetta, written by Alan Moore.-Career:...
, in Doctor Who Weekly
Doctor Who Magazine
Doctor Who Magazine is a magazine devoted to the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
#35-#38 (1980), and launched a massive fleet into the vortex (possibly in The Time of the Daleks
The Time of the Daleks
The Time of the Daleks is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
).
Progression
The 'duration' of the war remains unclear, with figures ranging from at least several years to thirty thousand years, though such numbers are tentative, as time itself was bent and mutilated by the effects of the war. Several races with issues with the Time Lords, e.g. the Sontarans, wished to participate but were forbidden to do so (apparently by the Daleks).The Doctor, in his Eighth
Eighth Doctor
The Eighth Doctor is the eighth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by Paul McGann...
and Ninth
Ninth Doctor
The Ninth Doctor is the ninth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He is played by Christopher Eccleston....
incarnations, fought on the front lines and was present at the Fall of Arcadia.
Davros
Davros
Davros is a character from the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Davros is an archenemy of the Doctor and is the creator of the Doctor's deadliest enemies, the Daleks...
, the creator of the Daleks, also fought during the war after his creations, which had turned against him during Genesis of the Daleks
Genesis of the Daleks
Genesis of the Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who that was originally broadcast in six weekly parts from 8 March to 12 April 1975. It marks the first appearance of Davros, the creator of the Daleks.-Plot:...
, rehabilitated him to a leadership position. In the first year of the War, Davros' command ship was apparently destroyed at the Gates of Elysium after flying into the jaws of the Nightmare Child. Unbeknownst to the Doctor, who had tried to save him, Davros was rescued by Dalek Caan, who had escaped the events of Evolution of the Daleks
Evolution of the Daleks
"Evolution of the Daleks" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast on BBC One on 28 April 2007, and is the fifth episode of Series 3 of the revived Doctor Who series. It is the conclusion of the two-part story begun in "Daleks in...
(2007) via an emergency temporal shift.
The war resulted in countless millions dying endless deaths, as time travel was used by both sides to reverse battles that caused massive fatalities on both sides. These excesses of time warfare eventually led to the whole of the conflict becoming "time-locked", so that no time traveller could go back into it. The Doctor described the final days of the war as "hell", with "the Skaro Degradations, the Horde of Travesties, the Nightmare Child, the Could-Have-Been King with his army of Meanwhiles and Never-Weres" constituting particularly disturbing developments, all of which have not yet been specified further.
As the war progressed the Time Lords became increasingly aggressive and unscrupulous. At one point, they resurrected the Master
Master (Doctor Who)
The Master is a recurring character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. He is a renegade Time Lord and the archenemy of the Doctor....
, renegade Time Lord and nemesis to the Doctor, as they believed him to be the "perfect warrior for a time war". In fact, it's implied that they gave him a full new set of regenerations as was done to all Time Lords fighting in the war, and that the eye of harmony could be used as a means to gain more regenerations. However, after the Dalek Emperor gained control of the Cruciform, the Master deserted his post, used the chameleon arch to disguise himself as a human and escaped to a time period shortly before the end of the universe. Genetically a human, he escaped the destruction of all Time Lords as well as detection by the Doctor – who was unaware of his resurrection in the first place. The Master also remained ignorant of the latter phase and outcome of the war.
Leadership among the Time Lords remained vague during the earlier phase of the war. Especially the role of the Doctor's former companion, Romana
Romana
Romana, short for Romanadvoratrelundar, is a fictional character in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
– President of the Time Lords according to later novels, audio dramas and comic series – was avoided. Ultimately, Rassilon
Rassilon
Rassilon is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. In the backstory of the programme, he was the founder of Time Lord society on the planet Gallifrey...
himself, founder of the Time Lord Society and its time travel technology, returned from the grave to re-assume leadership (possibly using the resurrection gauntlets where one fell through the rift out of the time lock). Refusing the possibility of his civilisation being destroyed by the Daleks, Rassilon prepared a doomsday scenario, the so-called "Ultimate Sanction". This genocidal scheme included sacrificing all of time itself, thereby destroying the Daleks and all life in the universe. The Time Lords themselves would have transcended into a non-corporeal collective consciousness that would be the only sentient form of life in existence. The Time Lords, apparently hardened by the horrors of war, gave near-unanimous support for this plan.
Conclusion
The Time War concluded with the mutual destruction of both belligerents and their respective planets. The Dalek fleet – reportedly ten million ships – was destroyed by the Ninth DoctorNinth Doctor
The Ninth Doctor is the ninth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He is played by Christopher Eccleston....
. Gallifrey is first described as having "burned" like Earth of the far future, and is "rocks and dust" as a result of the war, but then the Doctor admits that Time Lords and Daleks both burned together and that he personally ended the war, in an act which caused the Time Lords, the Daleks and Gallifrey to burn. The Doctor was, therefore, responsible for destroying his home planet. He is called "the killer of his own kind" by the beast of the Pit.
The specifics and what prompted the Doctor to such drastic measures were ultimately revealed in The End of Time
The End of Time
The End of Time: The Next Revolution in Our Understanding of the Universe, also sold with the alternate subtitle The Next Revolution in Physics, is a 1999 science book in which the author Julian Barbour argues that time exists merely as an illusion.-Auto-biography:The book begins by describing how...
(2009): The Doctor had discovered a way to end the war, described as "the Moment", when he became aware of Rassilon's "Ultimate Sanction". It remains unclear whether "the Moment" would always have resulted in the destruction of both antagonists together or whether the Doctor could have simply used it to destroy the Daleks and chose to destroy the Time Lords as well to prevent Rassilon's scheme. The Ninth Doctor
Ninth Doctor
The Ninth Doctor is the ninth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He is played by Christopher Eccleston....
apparently faced a similar situation in The Parting of the Ways
The Parting of the Ways
"The Parting of the Ways" is an episode in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast on 18 June 2005. It was the second episode of the two-part story that featured Christopher Eccleston making his last appearance as the Ninth Doctor...
when he creates a Delta Wave to destroy the Dalek
Dalek
The Daleks are a fictional extraterrestrial race of mutants from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Within the series, Daleks are cyborgs from the planet Skaro, created by the scientist Davros during the final years of a thousand-year war against the Thals...
s. When the wave was charged, The Doctor realised that it would not distinguish between Human and Dalek. Firing the Delta Wave would have resulted in the mutual destruction of both the Daleks and Humans (similar to the situation he faced at "the Moment").
By this point, the entire period of war had become "time locked", so that no time traveller could enter or exit it. In knowledge of this and the threat posed by the Doctor's possession of "the Moment," Rassilon and his fellow councillors tried to escape the Lock by retroactively planting a four note drumbeat (the rhythm of a Time Lord's heart
Heart
The heart is a myogenic muscular organ found in all animals with a circulatory system , that is responsible for pumping blood throughout the blood vessels by repeated, rhythmic contractions...
beats) into the Master's brain (the sound of which eventually drove the Master insane) and use a Whitepoint Star, a diamond only found on Gallifrey, to create a link between the final hours of the Time War and present-day Earth. The Master could therefore bring Gallifrey and the Time Lords out of the Time Lock and into the present. The plan ultimately failed, as the Doctor destroyed the diamond link and the Master apparently sacrificed his life, sending the Time Lords back to their apparent doom.
Demise of the Time Lords
Following the destruction of both Daleks and Time Lords, the Doctor is believed to be the last of his race. Despite speculation in some fan quarters, the war did not erase the Time Lords from history. The Krillitanes as well as Jabe of the Forest of Cheem (as far back as five billion years in the future) know of both the War and the Time Lords, though the latter expresses amazement that a Time Lord still exists, implying that the war had consequences up and down history. Sometimes, the Time Lords are relegated to the realm of legends, e.g. when the members of the Shadow Proclamation express doubts as to the Doctor's identity, calling the Time Lords "the stuff of legend". Similarly, although the Daleks are described as having "vanished out of time and space" by Jack HarknessJack Harkness
Captain Jack Harkness is a fictional character played by John Barrowman in Doctor Who and its spin-off series, Torchwood. He first appeared in the 2005 Doctor Who episode "The Empty Child" and reappeared in the remaining episodes of the 2005 series as a companion of the ninth incarnation of the...
in the 2005 season finale
Doctor Who (series 1)
The new first series of British science fiction series Doctor Who began on 26 March 2005 with the episode "Rose", which marked the end of the programme's 16-year absence from episodic television following its cancellation in 1989, and aired its finale episode "The Parting of the Ways" on 18 June 2005...
, they are still known as a legend by the future inhabitants of Earth. One character in The Parting of the Ways called Rodrick (played by Paterson Joseph
Paterson Joseph
-Career:Born in London. Attended Cardinal Hinsley R.C High School in North West London. Joseph first trained at the Studio '68 of Theatre Arts, London – 1983–85 with Robert Henderson, then at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art . In recent years he has had a high number of roles in...
) denies the presence of the Daleks of that episode, claiming that they had "disappeared thousands of years ago". This suggests that the Daleks are yet to appear as a known threat to humanity in its future, though it is possible that he is referencing the events of The Stolen Earth
The Stolen Earth
"The Stolen Earth" is the twelfth episode of the fourth series and the 750th overall episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The episode was written by show runner and head writer Russell T Davies and is the first of a two-part crossover story; the concluding episode is...
or The Dalek Invasion of Earth
The Dalek Invasion of Earth
The Dalek Invasion of Earth is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in six weekly parts from November 21 to December 26, 1964....
.
The destruction of the Time Lords also had a profound impact on time travel. In the 2006 episode Rise of the Cybermen
Rise of the Cybermen
"Rise of the Cybermen" is an episode in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The episode features the return of Cybermen, where they are created on Earth itself. It is the first part of a two-part story, the concluding part being "The Age of Steel"...
when the Doctor
Tenth Doctor
The Tenth Doctor is the tenth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He is played by David Tennant, who appears in three series, as well as eight specials...
, Rose Tyler
Rose Tyler
Rose Marion Tyler is a fictional character portrayed by Billie Piper in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who, and was created by series producer Russell T Davies...
and Mickey Smith
Mickey Smith
Mickey Smith is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, played by Noel Clarke.Mickey is introduced as the boyfriend of the Ninth and Tenth Doctor's companion Rose Tyler, and a recurring character on the programme...
are trapped in an alternative reality, the Doctor explains that, when the
Time Lords were around, travel between parallel universes was less difficult but, with their demise, the paths between worlds are now closed. The Time Lords also could prevent or repair paradoxes
Physical paradox
A physical paradox is an apparent contradiction in physical descriptions of the universe. While many physical paradoxes have accepted resolutions, others defy resolution and may indicate flaws in theory...
such as the one created by Rose in an attempt to save her father's life in a traffic accident. After the Time Lords' demise, such a paradox summons the terrifying Reapers, who descended to "sterilise the wound" in time by devouring everything in sight.
The demise of Gallifrey also created a vacuum that may have left history more vulnerable to change. Whereas earlier episodes implied that history was either immutable or capable of being changed only by very powerful beings, the Ninth Doctor
Ninth Doctor
The Ninth Doctor is the ninth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He is played by Christopher Eccleston....
offers a more fluid explanation, stating that time is in flux, and history can change instantly. The Tenth Doctor
Tenth Doctor
The Tenth Doctor is the tenth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He is played by David Tennant, who appears in three series, as well as eight specials...
's opposing an alien invasion had the side-effect of prematurely bringing down the government of Harriet Jones
Harriet Jones
Harriet Jones MP is a recurring fictional character played by Penelope Wilton in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. With the revival of Doctor Who in 2005, Jones was introduced in the two-part story "Aliens of London" and "World War Three" as an MP who aids the...
, whom the Doctor originally stated would be elected for three terms and become the architect of Britain's "Golden Age". In several episodes, the Doctor states that some points in time, such as the destruction of Pompeii
Pompeii
The city of Pompeii is a partially buried Roman town-city near modern Naples in the Italian region of Campania, in the territory of the comune of Pompei. Along with Herculaneum, Pompeii was destroyed and completely buried during a long catastrophic eruption of the volcano Mount Vesuvius spanning...
, are fixed and unchangeable, while other events can be changed. Still, the Doctor has changed fixed points in time before (The Waters of Mars), albeit to virtually no effect.
Because of the destruction of Gallifrey and the Time Lords, the Doctor does not encounter other time-travelling Time Lords. It has been stated in the past that there are locks on TARDISes that prevent travel into Gallifrey's past. The time lock, along with the danger of creating a paradox, also prevents the Doctor from going back in time and saving the Time Lords, the dangers of which the Doctor is acutely aware. There is no evidence that this has changed, despite Time Lords being revived.
He warns another character against trying to alter his own timeline as such meddling would "destroy two-thirds of the universe" and resists an offer by the Skasis Paradigm, which would have given him the ability to reorder the universe and allowed him to stop the war.
Remnants of the Daleks
Despite the Doctor's efforts, not all Daleks perished in the war. The Ninth DoctorNinth Doctor
The Ninth Doctor is the ninth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He is played by Christopher Eccleston....
encounters a single, dysfunctional Dalek in a museum and later discovers that the Dalek Emperor himself had also survived, and had gone on to build a whole new Dalek race, using the organic material of human cadavers by completely rewriting their DNA. The destruction of the Emperor and his fleet at the conclusion of the 2005 series by a time vortex
Time vortex (Doctor Who)
In the science fiction television series Doctor Who, the time vortex is the medium that the TARDIS and other time machines travel through...
-augmented Rose Tyler
Rose Tyler
Rose Marion Tyler is a fictional character portrayed by Billie Piper in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who, and was created by series producer Russell T Davies...
is accompanied by her declaration that "the Time War ends".
The elite Cult of Skaro also survived by fleeing into the Void between dimensions and survived the original end of the Time War, taking with them the Genesis Ark, a Time Lord prison ship containing millions of Daleks. The new Dalek army released from the Ark is eventually sucked back into the Void, due to the actions of the Tenth Doctor
Tenth Doctor
The Tenth Doctor is the tenth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He is played by David Tennant, who appears in three series, as well as eight specials...
, but the specially-equipped cult members use an "emergency temporal shift" to escape that fate. They reappear in 1930 in New York. While three Daleks are killed, the fourth, Dalek Caan, escapes through another emergency temporal shift. He accidentally returns to the Time War and, at the cost of his sanity, rescues the Daleks' creator, Davros. Davros subsequently uses cells from his own body to create a new Dalek Empire
Dalek Empire
The Dalek Empire refers to the sphere of influence of the Daleks, a fictional extraterrestrial race of mutants from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Dalek Empire is also a series of audio plays produced by Big Finish Productions, featuring the Daleks. The series begins in...
and keeps Caan close at his side because of the latter's prophetic abilities. However, Caan manipulated Davros to help the Doctor and Donna Noble
Donna Noble
Donna Noble is a fictional character played by Catherine Tate in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. A secretary from Chiswick, London, she is a companion of the Tenth Doctor, appearing in one scene at the end of the final episode of the 2006 series,...
defeat the Daleks.
One ship however escaped that defeat by accidentally falling through time and resurfaced during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, successfully plotting the resurgence of pure Daleks. These Daleks pretended to be an invention (a weapon to fight Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
) but were actually laying a trap for the Eleventh Doctor
Eleventh Doctor
The Eleventh Doctor is the eleventh incarnation of the protagonist of the BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. Matt Smith plays this incarnation, replacing David Tennant's Tenth Doctor in the 2010 episode "The End of Time, Part Two"...
to create a new Dalek Paradigm. Exactly how these Daleks survived the events of Journey's End is unknown.
Survival of the Master
Even after the resurgence of the Daleks, the Doctor is convinced that he is the only surviving Time Lord, saying that he would know of any others if they had survived. That this is not completely accurate is indicated by the last words of the Face of BoeFace of Boe
The Face of Boe is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Not portrayed on-screen by an actor, the Face of Boe is a wholly mechanical effect, resembling in appearance a gigantic, wrinkly human-like head with, in place of hair, numerous tendrils which...
, which calls the Doctor the "last of his kind" but also states that "You are not alone". A similar message was carved on a mountainside on the distant planet Crafe Tec Heydra, indicating that the Doctor was not the sole survivor of the conflict. The cryptic statements are explained when the Doctor encounters a Professor Yana, who is revealed to be the Master
Master (Doctor Who)
The Master is a recurring character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. He is a renegade Time Lord and the archenemy of the Doctor....
. As the Master had been hiding in human form via the Chameleon Arch, he had escaped both the destruction of all Time Lords and detection by the Doctor, who was unaware of his nemesis' resurrection during the Time War in the first place.
Impact on other species
The timelines of other races and planets shifted without the inhabitants of the worlds affected being aware of the changes in history, as they were a part of them (presumably including Humans). Most affected were the Greater Animus, which died, the Nestene consciousnessAuton
The Autons are an artificial life form from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, and adversaries of the Doctor. First appearing in Jon Pertwee's first serial as the Doctor, Spearhead from Space in 1970, they were the first monsters on the show to be presented in colour.Autons...
, which lost its homeworld and its protein-source planets, prompting it to another invasion of Earth, the Eternals
Eternal (Doctor Who)
The Eternals are a race of cosmic beings first introduced in the Doctor Who TV adventure "Enlightenment." One Eternal who called himself Striker explained to the Doctor that he and his people lived outside of time, in the realm of eternity. They considered the mortal inhabitants of the universe to...
, who apparently fled this reality in despair and the Gelth, who lost their physical form and were reduced to gaseous beings. The Gelth described the war's impact as "invisible to lower species but devastating to higher forms", such as the Forest of Cheem, which was distraught at the bloodshed.
The Time War and continuity
The Time War also provides a convenient in-story explanation for any contradictions in series continuity: for example, writer Paul CornellPaul Cornell
Paul Cornell is a British writer best known for his work in television drama as well as Doctor Who fiction, and as the creator of one of the Doctor's spin-off companions, Bernice Summerfield....
has suggested that Earth's destruction by an expanding sun in The End of the World five billion years hence, as opposed to the original depiction of its demise around the year 10,000,000 AD in The Ark
The Ark (Doctor Who)
The Ark is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 5 March to 26 March 1966...
(1966) can be attributed to changes in history due to the War. Steven Moffat
Steven Moffat
Steven Moffat is a Scottish television writer and producer.Moffat's first television work was the teen drama series Press Gang. His first sitcom, Joking Apart, was inspired by the breakdown of his first marriage; conversely, his later sitcom Coupling was based upon the development of his...
, writer and later executive producer for Doctor Who, has gone further, arguing that "a television series which embraces both the ideas of parallel universes and the concept of changing time can't have a continuity error – it's impossible for Doctor Who to get it wrong, because we can just say 'he changed time – it's a time ripple from the Time War.
Time Wars in spin-off media
The Last Great Time War and previous time wars also feature in various Doctor Who spin-off media. The relationship to the ongoing story of the television series is open to interpretation.Gallifrey audio series
GallifreyGallifrey (audio series)
Gallifrey is the umbrella title of a line of audio plays set in the Doctor Who universe, produced by Big Finish Productions, featuring Louise Jameson as Leela, Lalla Ward as President Romana, and John Leeson as two K-9 units, Mark I and Mark II...
is the umbrella title of a series of audio plays by Big Finish Productions
Big Finish Productions
Big Finish Productions is a British company that produces books and audio plays based, primarily, on cult British science fiction properties...
, set on Gallifrey during Romana's tenure as President. In Gallifrey: Panacea
Gallifrey: Panacea
Gallifrey: Panacea is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The series is set on the Doctor's home planet of Gallifrey.- Plot :...
, the final chapter of the third series, the Time Lord Irving Braxiatel
Irving Braxiatel
Irving Braxiatel or Cardinal Braxiatel is a fictional character from the Virgin New Adventures—spin-off novels based on the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who. He subsequently became a regular character in novels and audio dramas in the Bernice Summerfield universe...
speaks of "rumours out there in the big wide universe – more than rumours, in fact – that something's coming to Gallifrey, something worse than you could possibly imagine".
Because of these rumours, Braxiatel engineers the removal of the Time Lord biodata archive from Gallifrey, in order that the Time Lords might someday be restored after their planet meets its doom. Former Big Finish producer Gary Russell
Gary Russell
Gary James Russell is a freelance writer and former child actor. As a writer, he is best known for his work in connection with the television series Doctor Who and its spin-offs in other media...
indicated in a forum posting on Outpost Gallifrey
Outpost Gallifrey
Outpost Gallifrey was a fan website for the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was active as a complete fan site from 1995 until 2007, then existing solely as a portal to the still-active parts of the site, including its news page and forums Outpost Gallifrey was a fan website...
that this was a reference to the television series' Time War.
The later Companion Chronicles audio story, The Catalyst
The Catalyst (Doctor Who audio)
The Catalyst is a Big Finish Productions audiobook based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who.The Companion Chronicles "talking books" are each narrated by one of the Doctor's companions and feature a second, guest-star voice along with music and sound effects...
, implies that Leela
Leela (Doctor Who)
Leela is a fictional character played by Louise Jameson in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Leela was a companion of the Fourth Doctor and a regular in the programme from 1977 to 1978...
survived the Time War; she mentions that her adopted homeworld no longer exists and she ages rapidly due to the Time Lords no longer being able to keep her young.
Eighth Doctor Adventures
In a story arcStory arc
A story arc is an extended or continuing storyline in episodic storytelling media such as television, comic books, comic strips, boardgames, video games, and in some cases, films. On a television program, for example, the story would unfold over many episodes. In television, the use of the story...
stretching through several of the Eighth Doctor Adventures
Eighth Doctor Adventures
The Eighth Doctor Adventures are a series of spin off novels based on the long running BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who and published under the BBC Books imprint. 73 books were published overall...
, sometime in the Doctor's future, a war is fought between the Time Lords and an unnamed Enemy, the Eighth Doctor
Eighth Doctor
The Eighth Doctor is the eighth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by Paul McGann...
becoming involved in the events of the war during the events of Alien Bodies
Alien Bodies
Alien Bodies is an original novel written by Lawrence Miles and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Eighth Doctor and Sam. This story marks the first appearance of Faction Paradox, a time travelling Gallifreyan voodoo cult...
, when he unintentionally becomes involved in an auction for the body of his future self due to his biodata codes being the only means of accessing dangerous Time Lord secrets, and The Taking of Planet 5
The Taking of Planet 5
The Taking of Planet 5 is a BBC Books original novel written by Simon Bucher-Jones & Mark Clapham and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Eighth Doctor, Fitz and Compassion. It is, in part, a sequel to the television serial Image of the...
, where he must stop a group of future Time Lords from releasing the monstrous Fendahl in an attempt to use it as a weapon. In this story arc, Gallifrey is also destroyed as a result of the Eighth Doctor attempting to prevent the war from beginning as the Enemy begin their first assault, believing that it would be better for the Time Lords to die now rather than experience a war that would dehumanise them to the point of becoming monsters which all evidence suggests they could not win (The Ancestor Cell
The Ancestor Cell
The Ancestor Cell is a novel by Peter Anghelides and Stephen Cole, based on the science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Eighth Doctor, Fitz Kreiner, Compassion and Romana III- as well as a brief appearance of the Third Doctor in a ghost-like state due to the Faction's...
, 2000). This cataclysm also creates an event horizon
Event horizon
In general relativity, an event horizon is a boundary in spacetime beyond which events cannot affect an outside observer. In layman's terms it is defined as "the point of no return" i.e. the point at which the gravitational pull becomes so great as to make escape impossible. The most common case...
in time that prevents anyone from entering Gallifrey's relative past or travelling from it to the present or future. The last Eighth Doctor Adventures novel, The Gallifrey Chronicles
The Gallifrey Chronicles (2005 novel)
For the John Peel book of the same name, see: The Gallifrey Chronicles The Gallifrey Chronicles is a BBC Books original novel written by Lance Parkin and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
, establishes that the Doctor has the ability to restore the planet and its inhabitants, having downloaded the contents of the Matrix
Matrix (Doctor Who)
The Matrix, in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who, is a massive computer system on the planet Gallifrey that acts as the repository of the combined knowledge of the Time Lords....
into his subconscious mind in the minutes before Gallifrey's destruction, albeit at the cost of his own memories. The novel ends without revealing if he does indeed do this, although the Ninth Doctor
Ninth Doctor
The Ninth Doctor is the ninth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He is played by Christopher Eccleston....
's clear knowledge of his past suggests that he was at least able to restore his memories before his regeneration.
Russell T Davies, executive producer of the series, commented that there is no connection between the War of the books and the Time War of the television series, comparing Gallifrey being destroyed twice with Earth's two World Wars. He also said that he was "usually happy for old and new fans to invent the Complete History of the Doctor in their heads, completely free of the production team's hot and heavy hands".
Despite this unequivocal statement, writer Lance Parkin
Lance Parkin
Lance Parkin is a British author, best known for writing fiction and reference books for television series, in particular Doctor Who and Emmerdale...
speculated in an essay that the two destructions of Gallifrey may be the same event seen from two different perspectives, with the Eighth Doctor present twice (and both times responsible for the planet's destruction). This is supported due to the novels' destruction of Gallifrey involving an evil future version of the Eighth Doctor as the leader of the invading force, with the events leading to Gallifrey's destruction being triggered by the Doctor's attempt to prevent that future from coming to pass.
Another version of the Eighth Doctor Adventures' War, referred to as the "War in Heaven", also appears in the Faction Paradox
Faction Paradox
Faction Paradox is a fictional time travelling cult/rebel group/organized crime syndicate, originally created by the author Lawrence Miles. The Faction's belief-system as portrayed has some similarities to voodoo, and is sometimes described as such...
novels conceived by Lawrence Miles
Lawrence Miles
Lawrence Miles is a science fiction author known for his work on original Doctor Who novels and the subsequent spin-off Faction Paradox...
.
Doctor Who comic strip
In three comic strip stories written by Alan MooreAlan Moore
Alan Oswald Moore is an English writer primarily known for his work in comic books, a medium where he has produced a number of critically acclaimed and popular series, including Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and From Hell...
in 1979, the Time Lords, assisted by The Special Executive
Special Executive
The Special Executive are a fictional group of time-travelling mercenaries, appearing in Marvel Comics. They come from various other dimensional worlds. The Special Executive appeared in the pages of Doctor Who Monthly and Captain Britain...
, fight a time war early in their history against the "Order of the Black Sun", based some thirty thousand years in their future.
The first strike of the war, from the Time Lords' point of view, is when a Black Sun agent travels back in time, and attacks the Time Lords just as they are about to turn the star Qqaba into a power source for their time experiments. This also causes the apparent demise of the stellar engineer Omega
Omega (Doctor Who)
Omega is a fictional character from the long-running British science fiction television series, Doctor Who. In the context of the series, Omega is known as one of the founding fathers of the Time Lords of the planet Gallifrey, and is a revered figure in Time Lord history together with the equally...
. The Time Lords do not know why the Black Sun (whom they had never encountered before the attack) should have wanted to strike at them, and surmise that it was for something they had yet to do. Years later, at a diplomatic conference, a representative of the Order is murdered by the Sontaran
Sontaran
The Sontarans are a fictional extraterrestrial race of humanoids from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, and also seen in spin-off series The Sarah Jane Adventures. They were created by writer Robert Holmes.-Culture:...
s, and the murder is blamed on the Time Lords. This provides the motivation for the war's beginnings, as from the Order's point of view, the Time Lords are the ones who strike first.
The Forgotten
In the IDWIDW Publishing
IDW Publishing, also known as Idea + Design Works, LLC and IDW, is an American publisher of comic books and comic strip collections. The company was founded in 1999 and has been awarded the title "Publisher of the Year Under 5% Market Share" for the years 2004, 2005 and 2006 by Diamond Comic...
comic miniseries The Forgotten, the Tenth Doctor
Tenth Doctor
The Tenth Doctor is the tenth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He is played by David Tennant, who appears in three series, as well as eight specials...
recounts to Martha Jones
Martha Jones
Martha Jones is a fictional character played by Freema Agyeman in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who and its spin-off series, Torchwood. She is a companion of the Tenth Doctor in Doctor Who, replacing Rose Tyler...
a story from the Eighth Doctor
Eighth Doctor
The Eighth Doctor is the eighth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by Paul McGann...
's participation in the Time War. The Eighth Doctor was imprisoned by a race of robots for several weeks on a planet in the middle of the war, before teaming up with a Malmooth fellow prisoner and faking his death in order to escape. It is revealed his capture was staged by him so that he could acquire the Great Key he needed to arm a modified De-Mat Gun that could be used to seal the Medusa Cascade. The Tenth Doctor further implies that the Eighth Doctor died, companionless, at the end of the Time War.