B00DPX9ST8 EBOK (357 page)

[
548
] Given the sheer number of Time Lord renegades at work in the universe throughout
Doctor Who
, it’s hard to swallow that “all Time Lords are accounted for”, i.e. have been recalled to Gallifrey. Still, the Timescoop used here is powerful enough to snatch in-flight TARDISes - a much greater use of the device than is seen in
The Five Doctors
.

[
549
] Dating
Gallifrey
Series 2 - The opening installment,
Lies
, takes place “six weeks” after
A Blind Eye
.
Spirit
opens “a week” after
Lies
, and the remaining installments of Series Two happen in rapid succession.
Neverland
forecast Romana’s ascension to Imperiatrix. Braxiatel departs Gallifrey in
Pandora
, and appears to experience all of his involvement in the New Adventures and the Bernice Summerfield range between now and his return to Gallifrey in
Mindbomb
(see the Irving Braxiatel vs. Cardinal Braxiatel sidebar).

[
550
] Dating
Gallifrey
Series 3 - The fact that Pandora is Imperiatrix long enough to amass a horde of illegal temporal weapons suggests that some indeterminate time passes between Series 2 and 3, but the episodes of Series 3 themselves occur in rapid succession. Gary Russell, the producer of
Gallifrey
, has confirmed that Series 3 ends shortly before Gallifrey becomes embroiled in the Last Great Time War referenced in the new series. To that end, Arkadian expresses a desire to sell the temporal weapons stockpile to “metal gentlemen of his acquaintance”, presumably meaning the Daleks. The suggestion that Time Lords could be restored from the biodata archive could be a precursor to the Time Lords “resurrecting” their number (particularly the Master, as mentioned in
The Sound of Drums
) for the Time War. The technique might even be a front-runner to the resurrection gauntlets seen in
Torchwood
and
The End of Time
(TV).

[
551
] Dating
Gallifrey
Series 4 - The series picks up immediately after (or near enough) Series 3.

[
552
] Braxiatel’s meet-up with Benny is a dramatisation of their “first” meeting (from Braxiatel’s point of view, not Benny’s) in
Benny: Dragons’ Wrath
- which might suggest that post-
Gallifrey
, Braxiatel is, somehow, living in his own subjective past. One suspects that future Bernice Summerfield audios will address the point.

[
553
]
Dalek

Who Started the Last Great Time War?

In both an essay for the
2006 Doctor Who Annual
and an interview for
Doctor Who Confidential
, Russell T Davies is of the opinion that the Time Lords “fired first” in the Time War by sending the Doctor to intervene in the Daleks’ origins (in
Genesis of the Daleks
). He may well be correct, but this perhaps doesn’t tell the entire story.

By
Genesis of the Daleks
, there can be little doubt regarding the threat that the Daleks pose. In
The Daleks
, they’re initially portrayed as a group of desperate war survivors who cannot even leave their own city, but in rapid succession they’ve conquered Earth (
The Dalek Invasion of Earth
) and developed a crude form of time travel (
The Chase
). As early as Season 3 (with
The Daleks’ Master Plan
), they are an intergalactic power to be reckoned with. The stories to follow have them suffering various defeats and setbacks, but their potential to cause widespread havoc and genocide never diminishes much. Even in
Day of the Daleks
, their comparatively shoddy time-technology has allowed them to alter history and conquer Earth a second time.

Real-life analogies quickly fail when applied to the Daleks. At times they’re compared to the likes of Nazis, but in truth they’re literally lacking of humanity. Even “conquest” as we generally understand the term doesn’t really interest them - sometimes they put foes to work as slaves (as in
Death to the Daleks
), but this is almost inevitably in the interest of facilitating new atrocities and exterminations. The point is that one can (and should) hope to use reason against real-world governments, but there is virtually no chance of diplomacy succeeding against the Daleks Occasionally the Doctor makes a group of Daleks passive - say, by altering their very nature in
The Evil of the Daleks
- but only under unique and limited circumstances. Basically, the Daleks remain united behind one goal: kill everything that isn’t a Dalek (see especially
The Stolen Earth
).

In
Genesis of the Daleks
, the Time Lord that sends the Doctor to Skaro’s past says, “We have foreseen a time when [the Daleks] will have destroyed all other life forms, and become the dominant creature in the universe”. Based on the Daleks’ characteristics and past behaviour, this seems worryingly plausible. Faced with such a scenario - literally a death sentence for everything save Dalek-kind - the Time Lords using their one trump card, their mastery of time, to change the Daleks’ origins might well seem like a risk worth taking. (It should be remembered that it takes something as catastrophic as the War in Heaven for the Time Lords to marshal anything resembling military might. A war-TARDIS isn’t even seen until the fifth Doctor’s era in “The Stockbridge Horror”, so in most periods of history, the Time Lords sending troops to physically contain Dalek advances doesn’t appear to be an option. Time-technology remains the best leverage they have.)

A probable effect of the Doctor intervening in
Genesis
, however, would be to make the Daleks aware of the Time Lords as a rival temporal power. In the stories to follow, both Davros and the Daleks become openly confrontational toward Gallifrey, and even minor races (such as the Cryons in
Attack of the Cybermen
) know of the Time Lords.
Resurrection of the Daleks
has the Daleks plotting to assassinate the Gallifreyan High Council (there’s no evidence that the Time Lords ever learn about this, though).
The Apocalypse Element
has the Daleks directly attacking Gallifrey.
Remembrance of the Daleks
has Davros stating his intention to use the Hand of Omega to wipe out the Time Lords and install the Daleks as the new “Lords of Time” - although it’s the Doctor who arranges Skaro’s destruction, and in so doing probably rouses the Daleks into further hostilities. It’s easy to see how such tit-for-tat escalation might lead to the Time War.

It was probably inevitable - given the Time Lords’ mastery of time and the Daleks’ intention to totally eradicate all other species - that their civilisations would fall into open warfare at some point. Either way, the Doctor intervening in the Kaled bunker might well be the first cross-temporal attack in the conflict, but it’s a bit disingenuous to think the Time Lords were without justification in sending him there.

[
554
]
Bad Wolf

[
555
]
Journey’s End

[
556
]
The Sontaran Stratagem

[
557
] According to Davros in
Journey’s End
.

[
558
] “The Stockbridge Child”

[
559
]
Doomsday

[
560
] “The Forgotten”

[
561
]
The Stolen Earth

[
562
]
The Parting of the Ways
,
Doomsday
,
Utopia
. It’s possible that the Emperor took power after the loss of Davros.

[
563
]
The Unquiet Dead
. There seem to be some races in the middle - the Krillitanes (
School Reunion
) and Cynrog (
The Nightmare of Black Island
) - who were aware of the Time War, but weren’t directly affected by it. In
Bad Wolf
, Captain Jack mentions hearing rumours of the Time War and the Daleks.

[
564
]
Rose

[
565
]
The End of the World

[
566
]
The Unquiet Dead

[
567
]
The Sontaran Stratagem
. There’s no explanation as to who or what blocked the Sontarans’ participation. The Doctor seems to have formally led the Time Lord forces.

[
568
] “The Futurists”

[
569
] “The Age of Ice”

[
570
]
School Reunion

[
571
] The weapon seen in
The Eyeless
may be the device the Doctor talked about in “The Forgotten” that needed the Key, which in turn may be the Moment, the weapon that dooms Gallifrey according to
The End of Time
(TV). If so, this link isn’t explicitly established in any of those stories.

[
572
] “Hotel Historia”

[
573
]
Doomsday

[
574
]
The Sound of Drums.
Mention of the Master being “resurrected” probably covers all contingencies regarding his status prior to the new series. The Dalek Emperor’s presence suggests that this occurs after Davros’ “death” in the Time War.

[
575
]
Doomsday

[
576
] Dating “The Forgotten” (IDW
DW
mini-series #2) - This seems to take place during the Last Great Time War, but it could always be the War in Heaven. We don’t learn the name of the planet or the Doctor’s jailers. The landscape is red, so resembles Gallifrey, but it could be another planet. The Great Key was once part of the De-Mat Gun (
The Invasion of Time
), and the suggestion seems to be that “the Moment” that the Doctor uses to end the Last Great Time War is an extension of it. No explanation is given for why, if the Doctor lost all memory of Chantir, he’s suddenly able to relate the story of how they met.

[
577
]
The Coming of the Terraphiles

[
578
] The Doctor speaking to the Master in
The End of Time
(TV). The Doctor described the stone Daleks in
The Big Bang
as “footprints of the never-were”, and River Song says that the Doctor’s fate if he’s erased from the universe would see him “trapped in the never-space, the void between worlds”, so we might infer the Never-Weres are beings who exist despite being erased from history.

[
579
]
The Beast Below

[
580
]
Journey’s End
. This is possibly a sign that the Doctor had followers on Gallifrey during the War, or perhaps even was formally next in the order of succession.

[
581
] “Fugitive”, “Don’t Step on the Grass”.

[
582
] “The Forgotten”

[
583
] Seen on the first page of “Agent Provocateur”. The Capitol Dome looks intact and no Dalek wreckage is visible, unlike
The End of Time
(TV).