B00DPX9ST8 EBOK

by Parkin, Lance

  Rose’s disappearance prompted the police to search for her. Her boyfriend Mickey Smith was interviewed by the police, who - like Rose’s mother Jackie - assumed that he had murdered her. [1007]

  UNIT Series 1 [1008]

  c 2005 - UNIT: The Coup

  Colonel Brimmicombe-Wood now commanded the UK branch of UNIT; Colonel Emily Chaudhry served as its press officer.

  The fortunes of the UK division of UNIT waned, and it was ordered to cede authority to a new organisation, Britain’s Internal Counter-Intelligence Service (ICIS). The day before the transition, UNIT and ICIS troops battled some Silurians - actually delegates who had been petitioning for months for a peace treaty - near Tower Bridge. Orgath, a Silurian ambassador, approached General Sir Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart for help. Sir Alistair held a press conference and disclosed that UNIT had protected the world from unnatural and extra-terrestrial threats for “nearly forty years”, and had thwarted more than two hundred alien invasions. He then presented Orgath as a Silurian representative. Captain Andrea Winnington of the ICIS was arrested after trying to kill Orgath, which weakened the group’s standing. UNIT’s authority was restored.

  Despite Sir Alistair’s best efforts, the Silurian bid for diplomatic relations was regarded as a hoax, and Orgath taken by some for a man in a rubber suit. [1009]

  c 2005 - UNIT: Time Heals [1010]

  Colonel Brimmicombe-Wood was secretly the head of the ICIS. The group staunchly opposed forces they perceived were weakening Britain’s sovereignty. UNIT announced that it would be moving nuclear weapons across Britain - a cover story to conceal transport of an alien spaceship. A team of ICIS soldiers captured the spaceship and “kidnapped” Brimmicombe-Wood - so he could continue ICIS’ work in secret. Colonel Robert Dalton became UNIT’s acting commanding officer. The ICIS experimented on the captured spaceship - when opened, it released an alien virus. In the weeks to come, it manifested as a deadly flu outbreak.

  Attempts to reverse-engineer the spaceship’s transporter caused freak side-effects. A high-speed train from Lancaster to King’s Cross collided head-on with another train, and bank ATMs disgorged an estimated £70 million. A jet plane crashed into Windsor Castle; rumours variously said that two members of the royal family, or perhaps “the prince and a close friend” had been killed. [1011]

  The reactor aboard the HMS Perthshire was breached; it was buried under millions of tons of rock on offshore continental shelf just before it went critical. The British public suspected the incidents owed to terrorists.

  Sir Alistair aided UNIT’s investigations. Doris was currently away visiting her ailing sister.

  c 2005 (spring) - UNIT: Snake Head

  Colonels Emily Chaudhry and Robert Dalton investigated a series of mysterious deaths near a Saxon burial ground in Southend. They killed a type of vampire - a vrykolaka - that had been used by a crooked restaurateur, Kevin Lee, to eliminate a group of cockle-pickers.

  The deaths were blamed on Goran Dhampir, a self-proclaimed vrykolaka hunter. His arrest increased racial tensions in Southend. [1012]

  c 2005 (spring) - UNIT: The Longest Night

  The Prime Minister signed the Euro Combine treaty to enhance ties between Britain and Europe. Critics said the treaty was a threat to British sovereignty.

  The ICIS had supplied Major Philip Kirby, a sympathiser and the Prime Minister’s press secretary, with alien brainwashing technology. Kirby used this to trigger societal unrest - he made a suicide bomber blow up the Vita Futura nightclub, a symbol of Britain’s multiculturalism. ICIS agents dressed as policemen killed several survivors - including Lt. Will Hoffman of UNIT - to prevent the bomber being identified. The incident was blamed upon Abdul Malik Hassib, a Muslim student.

  The resultant racial tensions, combined with a worsening flu epidemic and further terror incidents, caused a decline in social order. London experienced rioting and an increasing death toll - Albion Hospital was overwhelmed, people took shelter in Westminster Abbey and the government grounded all flights out of the city. The Prime Minister’s deputy, Meena Cartwright, disclosed that her family had been abducted and - in accordance with the kidnappers’ instructions - killed herself on live television. A suicide bomber devastated BBC Television Centre, taking the network off the air.

  A confession obtained from Kirby was broadcast and restored some calm - but he triggered explosives that obliterated himself, Colonel Dalton and 10 Downing Street.

  c 2005 (spring) - UNIT: The Wasting

  The flu epidemic went global. Britain alone had six hundred thousand cases; those afflicted became violent as their flesh rotted. St. Catherine’s was reserved for flu victims. The Prime Minister mobilised the army to maintain order.

  Sir Alistair contacted Harry Sullivan, who was doing secret work for NATO at Deepcastle, to analyse the disease victims. Sullivan’s team determined that the flu virus was an alien food additive designed to make human flesh more palatable for consumption. Silurian scientists aided Sullivan in developing a vaccine. Sir Alistair aided UNIT in dispersing the vaccine into the atmosphere via an old missile facility in the former Soviet Union.

  Chaudhry exposed Brimmicombe-Wood as the head of the ICIS; he was arrested on charges of terrorism and treason, and the ICIS was shut down. UNIT was given new funding. Chaudhry was appointed its new commanding officer, with Sir Alistair serving as an unofficial adviser.

  c 2005 - Death Comes to Time [1013]

  General Tannis, commander of the Canisian armies, conquered the planet Santiny in violation of the Treaty of Carsulae. The seventh Doctor and his companion Antimony arrived to ferment resistance, but were abruptly summoned to the Orion Nebula. There, the Minister of Chance - an old friend of the Doctor - warned him that someone had killed two Time Lord “saints” working on Earth. The Doctor headed there to investigate; the Minister travelled to Santiny.

  The Doctor discovered that a vampire, Nessican, had murdered the Time Lords to cover up their discovery of massive spatial disturbances. He returned to Santiny, where Tannis killed Antimony - who was actually an android - and revealled himself to be a renegade Time Lord. When Tannis killed Sala, a young woman the Minister had become fond of, the Minister unleashed the full force of his Time Lord powers. The Doctor could not act against Tannis, but had to punish the Minister - all part of Tannis’ plan to divide and distract his rival Time Lords. The Doctor stripped the Minister of his powers, but Tannis launched an invasion of Earth.

  Meanwhile, Ace trained to become a Time Lord with a mentor, Casmus, and the mysterious Kingmaker. Reunited, the Doctor and Ace headed for Earth, where they helped Lethbridge-Stewart and UNIT - now with a fleet of shuttles at their disposal - repel the Canisian invasion. The Doctor used his Time Lord powers to destroy Tannis and himself. The Canisians were defeated.

  Felix Mather was the US Secretary of State during the Canisian invasion. [1014] Iris WIldthyme’s companion Panda got a scratch on his nose when a bike-riding George Bush ran over him. [1015]

  2005 (spring) - TW: Fragments [1016]

  Owen Harper’s fiancée, Kate Russell, died when an alien life form incubated in her brain. Jack Harkness covered up the incident.

  c 2005 - “The Flood” [1017]

  The eighth Doctor and Destrii arrived in Camden Market, and quickly discovered that people were over-reacting emotionally. The Doctor also learned that MI6 were in the area. Destrii’s senses registered two advanced Cybermen, who begin to convert the population and captured her. The Doctor worked with MI6, convinced these were the most advanced Cybermen he’d ever seen.

  The Cybermen neutralised British defences, and their mothership materialised over London. They created a rainstorm that soaked the MI6 personnel, and caused extreme emotional reactions - the humans gladly became Cybermen to cure themselves. The Cybermen planned to flood the world in this way.

  Desperate, the Doctor offered to allow the Cybermen to kill him and study his regeneration if the Cybermen returned to their own time - this would allow Cybermen
to convert other races, not just humans, into their own kind. The Doctor freed Destrii, who distracted the Cybermen while he leapt into the mothership’s power source - a fragment of the Time Vortex. He focused the power there and destroyed the Cybership, whereupon he and Destrii went off to their next adventure.

  2005 (June) - The Gallifrey Chronicles [1018]

  The eighth Doctor was lured to Earth by the Time Lord Marnal, who had recently learned of the Doctor’s role in the destruction of Gallifrey. Fitz and Trix left the Doctor to set up home together, but the police approached Trix and attempted to arrest her on suspicion of murder. As they fled the country, Marnal confronted the Doctor and the Eye of Harmony was briefly opened. Like moths to a flame, the insect race the Vore was drawn to Earth. Their moon materialised in Earth orbit and a full scale invasion took place. The Doctor and his companions destroyed the moon, and engaged the surviving Vore.

  Captain Jack Harkness renewed his acquaintance with Estelle, claiming that she had met his father during World War II. [1019]

  Sarah Jane Smith Series 2 [1020]

  Rechauffer, Inc., rebranded itself as Mandrake, Inc. [1021]

  2005 (20th-22nd of the month) - SJS: Buried Secrets [1022]

  Sarah Jane Smith now resided in a cottage on the coast. She hadn’t seen Harry Sullivan since he left for an overseas posting, but went anyway to their annual rendezvous at a restaurant not far from Blackfriars in London. Harry failed to show up, but Sarah instead met Will Sullivan, Harry’s younger step brother. Hilda Winters died while under house arrest; she’d been killed by the Crimson Chapter for going too far in her mission against Sarah Jane. Sarah and Josh went to Italy to help Natalie Redfern, who was working with archaeologists excavating 500-year-old Medici tombs beneath the Church of San Lorenzo. Natalie’s boyfriend Luca, a Crimson Chapter member, tried to obtain some pages from The Book of Tomorrows from a hidden room beneath the basilica of San Lorenzo, but Josh killed Luca when he tried to kill Sarah.

  2005 - SJS: Snow Blind [1023]

  Sarah Jane and Josh visited Nikita Base in Antarctica, as Sarah had used some of Lavinia’s inheritance to fund an operation there. The project was drilling for ice-core samples, hoping to calculate when global warming would reach a tipping point. One of the research team - Morgane Kaditch, a member of the Crimson Chapter - attempted to steal a supply of uranium-235 found beneath the ice, and thereby help fund the Chapter’s operations. She was killed when an accomplice double-crossed her. Sarah secured the uranium.

  2005 (August) - SJS: Fatal Consequences [1024]

  Sir Donald Wakefield warned Sarah that the Crimson Chapter viewed her “emergence” as the human herald mentioned in The Book of Tomorrows as a call to action - and would seek to bring about an apocalypse if none was forthcoming. The Crimson Chapter had used Mandrake, Inc.’s operations, as funnelled through the Pangbourne Research Centre in Reading, to create a powerful variant of the Marburg virus - one that incubated within people in a matter of hours. Sarah and her allies stopped the Chapter from opening vials of the virus in twelve major world cities, an act that would have killed millions. The international media covered the failed plot, and identified the Crimson Chapter as a doomsday group obsessed with aliens.

  Sarah learned that Josh was both Wakefield’s son and a White Chapter agent. Will Sullivan - a Crimson Chapter operative - died in a scuffle with Josh, who also killed the Keeper of the Crimson Chapter.

  2005 (August to 27th September) - SJS: Dreamland

  Sir Wakefield believed that Sarah still had a destiny to fulfill as a human herald, and invited her to join him aboard the maiden voyage of the Dauntless, set for 27th of September at the Dreamland facility (Area 51) in Nevada. Sir Wakefield succumbed to cancer beforehand, and so Josh accompanied Sarah as the Dauntless lifted off. The Dauntless pilot, a Crimson Chapter agent, mutually died with Josh in an exchange of gunfire that ruined the ship’s instrument banks. Sarah was alone as the Dauntless, its life support failing, ventured further into space. She saw a bright light, commented that she’d seen something like it before a lifetime ago, and said goodbye to Earth...

  c 2005 - Red Dawn [1025]

  Backed by the Webster Corporation, the first manned American mission to Mars - Ares One - successfully reached the Red Planet. The crew made planet-fall in the Argosy shuttle just as the fifth Doctor and Peri arrived. The astronauts and the time travellers found the tomb of Izdal, a heroic Martian who sacrificed himself to the Red Dawn - the ultraviolet Martian sunrise.

  The tomb’s guardian, Lord Zzaal, was revived with his Ice Warriors. Zzaal believed the humans had good intentions, but a misunderstanding quickly escalated into conflict. Zzaal sacrificed himself to the Red Dawn to save the Doctor’s life, ending Webster Corp’s plans, but it was hoped his dream of a peaceful existence with Earth could survive. Ares One returned to Earth. Tanya Webster, a human who possessed Martian DNA, remained behind as Earth’s first ambassador to the Martians.

  A Russian general ordered a nuclear strike against Chechnya, killing half a million people in an instant. After leaving the army, the General erased his identity and became the notorious arms dealer known as Baskerville. He lacked an electronic presence of any kind, making him impossible to track. After British Airways went bust, Baskerville bought one of their Concordes and converted it for stealth.

  Nicopills, designed to wean people off tobacco, were marketed as a consumer item in their own right. The pills were less harmful but even more addictive than cigarettes, and thus were more profitable. [1026]

  Jack Harkness recruited Suzie Costello to join Torchwood after she encountered him and Torchwood operative Ben Brown. She helped to contain an alien virus that had been downloaded via some computers into her boss. Brown later died in an unrelated incident. [1027]

  Suzie Costello had been on the run when she joined Torchwood, and used her technical skill to wipe clean all records pertaining to her. She secretly joined Pilgrim - a religious support group and debating society started by Sara Briscoe - and conditioned Max Trazillion to brutally kill the other Pilgrim members if he didn’t see her for three months. [1028]

  On Earth, a reptilian extra-terrestrial set up a business supplying combat divisions to clients on other worlds. Creating armies posed significant problems: Combat computers were only so reliable; artificial intelligences could only be created under certain conditions; remote-control signals could be scrambled; and fully crewed combat vehicles were costly, plus had a high turnover rate.

  As a solution, the alien created heavily armed giant robots, which resembled twentieth-century Earth office complexes on the inside. Humans were kidnapped and brainwashed into thinking that they were simple office workers; in reality, their “paperwork” and office meetings coordinated the robots’ attack patterns.

  One worker, Todd Hulbert, overcame his conditioning and instigated a hostile takeover. The company was renamed Hulbert Logistics, and moved its home office from Ipswich to London.

  A group of Cybermen had settled on the planet Lonsis, the next system over from Shinus. Its people - the Shinx - were traders who disliked aggression because it destabilised their markets. The Gallifreyan CIA sought to eliminate the Lonsis Cybermen, and seeded paranoia into the Shinx’s minds. The Shinx hired Hulbert, whose combat divisions started routing the Lonsis Cybermen in 2005.

  The CIA secretly aided Hulbert by equipping his Telford branch with a quantum crystalliser - a device that splintered the timelines over a small area, then picked the most desirable one as dictated by its programming.

  Elsewhere on Earth, the CIA manipulated history to prevent Karen Coltraine becoming a dictator. Certain negative experiences were eliminated from Coltraine’s history, and she matured into a more agreeable person. [1029]

  The First Environmental Crisis

  By the middle of the first decade of the twenty-first century, it was clear that unchecked industrial growth had wreaked havoc on the environment. Increasing instability in weather patterns subjected Britain to acid rain an
d created turbulence that made air travel less reliable. Shifts in the ozone layer laid waste to Oregon. Traffic had reached gridlock in most of the major cities around the world. Motorcycles superseded the familiar black cabs in London, and many car owners sat in traffic jams working at their computers as they commuted. Predictably, air pollution reached new levels.

  A catalogue of environmental disasters threatened the entire planet. The Earth’s population was spiralling towards eight billion. Low-lying ozone and nitrogen dioxide levels had risen to such an extent that the London air was unbreathable without a face mask on many days, even in winter. Global warming was steadily increasing: by the turn of the century, there were vineyards in Kent. Antarctic waters became hazardous as the icecap broke up in rising temperatures. The rate of ice-flow had trebled since the nineteen-eighties.

  River and sea pollution had reached such levels that the marine environment was on the verge of collapse. Water shortages were commonplace, and even the inhabitants of First World cities like London and Toronto were forced to use standpipes for drinking water and to practise water rationing. The mega-cities of South America saw drought of unprecedented proportions. The holes in the ozone layer were getting larger, causing famine in many countries. Sunbathing, of course, was now out of the question. “The plague”, in reality a host of virulent, pollution-related diseases such as HIV 7, appeared and killed millions.