B00DPX9ST8 EBOK (62 page)

On Roma I, Scriptor came to the attention of the Emperor and was commissioned to write the history of the Hercules Bridge that linked Europe to Africa. Following this, he decided to write a history of the Forum in Rome, and learned of the mysterious old man who’d materialised the day he’d been born. He also made many contacts, and married Angela, the daughter of a Scottish merchant.

A few months later, Scriptor tracked down the old man in a Swiss hospital and located his time ring. Scriptor accidentally followed the old man to another universe (Roma II) where Rome never fell, but had not prospered quite as much as his own. Scriptor and his family negotiated trading deals between the two universes, keeping their monopoly on travel between them - and the existence of other Romes - a closely-guarded secret. He soon mapped hundreds of other Romes - Roma III, where Yung Lo had won the coin toss and moved the Chinese court to Rome; Roma IV, where the Christians were a political force; Roma V, where the Mediterranean had been drained to irrigate the Sahara; Rome VI, a matriarchy; and so on. Lacking any understanding of parallel universes, the Roman philosophers believed that each of these Romes orbited a different sun in their own universe.

On Rome CLII, the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs in most universes arrived sixty-five million years late, and wiped out a Roman civilisation that pitted dinosaurs against each other in their arenas. On this ruined world, Scriptor killed a mysterious monster that had been tracking the thirteen Great House members who’d fled their universe, and had murdered seven of them. Scriptor took the seven time rings the monster had collected - now armed with eight such devices, Scriptor’s family expanded the scope of their operations considerably. The existence of other Romes became public knowledge on Roma I.

w - The earliest iteration of Faction Hollywood, an offshoot of Faction Paradox, could be traced back to 1925, although Faction Paradox proper would have little to do with the group after the 1940s.
 [1390]

1925 - “The Futurists”
 [1391]

The tenth Doctor and Rose landed in Milan, because Rose wanted an ice cream. The Futurists were holding a meeting, and a strange green glow heralded the materialisation of a futuristic city - which quickly started to crumble. The TARDIS transported the Doctor and Rose to Cardiff in the late third century.

In 1925, the Doctor stopped the time traveller Studs Maloney importing hooch from the twenty-fifth century.
 [1392]
The American CIA acquired a photo of Jack Harkness that was taken in 1925.
 [1393]

1925 (11th June) - Black Orchid
 [1394]

The explorer George Cranleigh was believed killed by Indians while on an expedition in the Amazon in 1923. Cassell and Company published his book
Black Orchid
. George’s fiancée, Anne Talbot, eventually became engaged to his brother Charles. Yet George hadn’t died. The Kajabi Indians had horribly disfigured George because he stole their sacred black orchid, but the chief of a rival tribe rescued him. George was kept hidden away at Cranleigh Hall. The fifth Doctor, Tegan, Nyssa and Adric were guests at the hall when George broke out, and fell to his death while trying to abduct his former fiancée.

A famous author of boys’ stories for
The Ensign
magazine vanished at his home in 1926.
 [1395]
On 4th June, 1926, the SS
Bernice
inexplicably vanished in the Indian Ocean. The ship had left England in early May, and the last anyone ever saw of it was on 2nd June, when it left Bombay.
 [1396]
The Doctor’s account at the Singapore Hilton went unpaid from 1926 to decades afterwards. He settled the bill, with a gold brick, in 2008.
 [1397]

1926 - “The Gods Walk Among Us”
 [1398]

Archaeologists unearthed the tomb of Sontar in Egypt. The Sontaran within was still alive after fifty-five hundred years, and killed the archaeologists - but their Egyptian bearers dropped a stone slab on the alien, apparently killing it.

1926 (late June) - “Silver Scream” / “Fugitive” / “Final Sacrifice”
 [1399]

The tenth Doctor investigated a static point in space and time connected to Emily Winter, a hopeful starlet. He attended a Hollywood party thrown by Archibald Maplin, and met actor Maximilian Love (the biggest thing to hit Hollywood since Rudolph Valentino) as well as studio-runner Matthew Finnegan. The Doctor learned that an alien Terronite from the future, Leo Miller, was posing as human and using an ancient device to chemically alter people’s rostal anterior cingulate cortexes - the part of the brain that controls optimism. The device let Miller transfer the hopes and dreams of individuals into Love, making him more charismatic and successful. The Doctor thwarted the Terronites and saved Emily’s life - but this changed history, as she was fated to die. A squad of Judoon arrested the Doctor, and took him to the Shadow Proclamation to stand trial.

Upon the Doctor’s return, Emily and Matthew joined him on his travels. Unknown to the travellers, Emily’s older self - passing as Annabella Primavera - had also attended Maplin’s party. The Doctor helped Maplin to secure funding for his films; in future, Maplin would star in
The Fun Fair, The Great Oppressor
and
Future Times
.

1926 - The Magic Mousetrap
 [1400]

Ludovic Comfort served as director of the Hulbrook sanatorium in Switzerland. He was captured by the Celestial Toymaker, and spent ten years playing games including electric shock tiddlywinks and poison-tipped pin the tail on the donkey.

(=) The seventh Doctor, Ace and Hex and other people in the Toymaker’s domain defeated the mandarin, turning him into a wooden doll. The Doctor believed that the Toymaker’s powers and identity would fade if separated for long enough, and had everyone present - save for Ace and Hex - eat one piece of the Toymaker. Everyone believed they’d been transported back to the Hulbrook sanatorium, 1926, but the Toymaker’s realm was mimicing the locale.

Four weeks passed. The still-wooden Toymaker revived and made his foes play games, winning back many splinters of himself. The chess master Swapnil Khan and his daughter Queenie manipulated gameplay until Swapnil and the Toymaker were trapped on an electrocuted board. So long as Swapnil didn’t make his final move, neither of them could leave without burning to death. Theoretically, the board could remain viable for two thousand billion years.

Swapnil mustered enough mental force to return everyone save himself and the Toymaker to the real Hulbrook sanatorium in 1926. The game-losers remained in the shape of toys.

1926 (8th and 19th December) - The Unicorn and the Wasp
 [1401]

The tenth Doctor and Donna arrived at Eddison Manor, where Agatha Christie was just one of the guests of Lady Clemency Eddison. Another guest, Professor Peach, was murdered and suspicion fell on a mysterious jewel thief: the Unicorn, who was after Lady Eddison’s necklace, the Firestone. Soon after, Donna was attacked by a giant wasp - a Vespiform from the Silfrax galaxy.

The Doctor solved the mystery... Reverend Golightly killed Professor Peach when he learned that Golightly was Lady Eddison’s illegitimate son. The Firestone was a Vespiform telepathic recorder which contained Golightly’s true identity - he was also a Vespiform. Golightly abducted Christie, but after a car chase, he drowned. He was mentally tethered to Christie’s mind through the Firestone, and as he died, she lost her memory of these events. The Doctor dropped Christie in Harrogate, knowing that history dictated that she would be found after having gone missing for ten days. It was possible that Christie’s subconscious remembered details of this adventure that would be incorporated into her novels, including the creation of Miss Marple. The Unicorn escaped.

In 1927, the Doctor watched the Cuban grandmaster Capablanca play chess.
 [1402]
In the same year, the second Doctor met Ella’s grandfather in Tibet. From this time, his family became caretakers of the Doctor’s house in Kent.
 [1403]
The Vondrax killed people in Siberia, 1927.
 [1404]
The Doctor was in the movie
Metropolis
(1927).
 [1405]

(=) 1927 - Real Time
 [1406]

The Cybermen succeeded in infecting Earth with a techno-virus that transformed living beings into cybernetic ones. Most of the human race died from shock, and all animals perished. The cybernetic survivors fell under Cybermen domination. Evelyn Smythe was reportedly the virus’ original carrier, having travelled back to this year after being infected in 3286.

1927 (July) - TW: Miracle Day
 [1407]

Jack Harkness met Angelo Colasanto, an Italian immigrant, on Ellis Island after Angelo stole Jack’s visa. The two of them became lovers, and infiltrated bootlegging operations in Little Italy, New York. They fulfilled Jack’s mission by destroying one of the Trickster’s Brigade - a parasite considered as vermin on at least one hundred and fifty worlds, and served as dinner on another. The Trickster had intended that the parasite would lay eggs in Franklin Roosevelt’s brain, driving him mad and changing world history so the Trickster could feed off the resulting chaos. Jack was temporarily shot dead while killing the parasite - he went to Los Angeles, even as Angelo was arrested and sentenced to a year in prison.

The Doctor met Dame Nellie Melba, a noted Australian opera soprano, and learned her party piece: how to shatter glass with your voice.
 [1408]
The Doctor met Sigmund Freud and knew Marie Curie intimately. He met Pucchini
 [1409]
in Milan.
 [1410]
Puccini had a cold.
 [1411]

@ The eighth Doctor had sessions with Freud, hoping to jog his memory.
 [1412]
He told Freud that he had a phobia of silverfish.
 [1413]
Sigmund Freud told his friend the Doctor: “Vell Doctor, ven confronted vis ze unbelievable, ze human brain goes into shock!”
 [1414]
The Doctor had fond memories of Freud’s comfy sofa.
 [1415]

The Doctor watched Babe Ruth hit three home runs for the Yankees in 1926.
 [1416]
The Doctor owned a copy of
Wisden’s Almanac
from 1928.
 [1417]
The tenth Doctor’s runaround with Leo Miller in Hollywood, 1926, inspired director Buster Keaton regarding the filmography of the silent film
Steamboat Bill Jr.
(1928).
 [1418]

1928 - TW: Miracle Day
 [1419]

Jack Harkness reunited with Angelo Colasanto upon Angelo’s release from Sing Sing prison in New York. Angelo believed that Jack’s resurrection powers stemmed from the devil, and turned him over to the superstitious residents of Little Italy. Jack was repeatedly killed in the basement of the Giordano Butcher Shop, coming back to life every time.

A trio of men with the surnames Ablemarch, Costerdane and Frines sensed that Jack represented an opportunity, and embarked on a partnership - they paid $10,000 for the contents of the butcher’s basement. Angelo regretted his actions and freed Jack, but Ablemarch, Costerdane and Frines retained Jack’s spilt blood and formed The Three Families. Jack judged that Angelo would be better off without him, and exited his life. Angelo remained inspired by Jack, and devoted the rest of his life to finding a means of living forever. He monitored Jack for decades to come.

The Three Families went into the world and became shadow players - one family specialised in finance, one in politics and one in the media. They systematically erased all records of their bloodlines, purging the names Ablemarch, Costerdane and Frines from history. Angelo had some early affiliation with the Families, but was ostracised because he had loved a man.

1928 (14th August) - The Glamour Chase
 [1420]

The Tahnn wiped out the English town of Little Cadthorpe while searching for the missing Weave spaceship
Exalted
. They refrained from destroying Earth, fearing the wrath of the Shadow Proclamation.

Aaron Blinovitch formulated his Limitation Effect in the reading room of the British Museum in 1928. He authored
Temporal Mechanics
, and was a member of Faction Paradox.
 [1421]
The Night Travellers recognised that the advent of cinema had numbered the days of their circus shows. They opted to endow themselves onto film containing their images; one such reel wound up in the basement archives of the Electro Cinema in Cardiff.
 [1422]
Jack Harkness once cruised the Kurfurstendamm in Berlin with Christopher Isherwood.
 [1423]