c 2295 - Whispers of Terror [517]
Despite a dislike of the visual medium, Visteen Krane became acclaimed as the greatest actor of his age. His body of work was chiefly confined to audio recordings and a few photographs. Later, he became a politician and stood for Presidency with his agent, Beth Pernell, as his running mate.
Before the election, Krane seemingly committed suicide in the Museum of Aural Antiquities, an institution dedicated to the study of all things audio. Pernell pledged to run in Krane’s place and continue his policies. The sixth Doctor and Peri discovered that at the moment of his death, Krane used advanced sound equipment to transfer his brainwaves into the sound medium. Krane had become a creature of pure sound, demented from his transformation and outraged at Pernell, who had engineered his murder.
The Krane-creature attempted to endlessly replicate itself and take control of the planet, but the Doctor shocked Krane back to sanity. Pernell’s plans were exposed, and Krane agreed to stay at the Museum to aid Curator Gantman with his research. Pernell fled, but Krane engineered an automobile accident that killed her.
c 2296 - “Dreadnought” [518]
Stacy Townsend was the only survivor when the Cybermen attacked the cargo ship Dreadnought; her fiancé, Bill, was Cyber-converted. The eighth Doctor destroyed the Cybermen, and Stacy joined him on his travels.
The Doctor later brought Stacy’s parents, Christopher and Mary Townsend, through time to attend her wedding in 3999. [519] The Holy Space Squid began attracting acolytes. [520] The colony ship Justinian set off for Ordifica at the end of the twenty-third century. [521]
Circa 2296, Grayvorn abandoned his “Lord Vaughn Sutton” identity and covertly continued his sociopolitical engineering in Excelis. The leaders of Artaris’ city-states secretly signed the Artaris Convention, ending the war between them. Grayvorn found the conflict useful to his industrial efforts and sabotaged the accord. His research culminated in the creation of lumps of biomass named Meat Puppets, his master shock troops. He used the Relic’s abilities to rip the souls from dissidents and infuse the Meat Puppets with life. [522]
The Twenty-Fourth Century
By the twenty-fourth century, the lower half of England had become a vast Central City. [523] Much of what had been West London was covered in forest. [524] Duronite, an alloy of machonite and duralinium, was discovered in the early twenty-fourth century. Influenza had been eradicated. [525] The James Bond films were remade in the twenty-fourth century. [526] Merik’s Theorem was discovered in the twenty-fourth century. [527]
Suspended animation ships were still available in the twenty-fourth century, but they had been superseded by the invention of super light drives. [528] Jonquil the Intrepid destroyed the vampires Lord Jake and Lady Madelaine, but their descendants survived for many thousands of years. [529] On a visit to the twenty-fourth century, the Doctor learnt about the colony at Yemaya. [530] Landor, on the galactic rim, was colonised around now. [531]
Humans colonised Pavonis IV, a verdant planet in the Delta Pavonis system, in the twenty-fourth century. It served as their home for a thousand years, during which time the first Doctor and his three companions saved the colonists from an alien invasion. The Pavonians regarded him as a mythical hero; some parents even named their children after him. [532]
The eleventh Doctor took Amy to Space Florida, a planet with automatic sand. [533]
Elysium ore was found to improve the fuel efficiency of hyperspace vessels by 6 or 7%, and became greatly sought after. Galactic laws gave indigenous populations first claim on mining rights, so the discovery of Elysium on Erratoon made its inhabitants very wealthy. [534]
Early in the twenty-fourth century, a philosopher on a colony world published a monograph, The Myth of the Non-Straight Line. The population had ceased being able to conceive of circles. The planet was quarantined as scientists from a survey ship attempted to work out why. [535] The fourth Doctor and one of his fellow Time Lords, Azmael, met on Jaconda around this time. [536]
Humanity settled a group of forty-nine colony worlds that became cut off from Earth. On Colony 34, a hospital was built in the northern mountains from marnite stone. Colony 48 lacked access to navigable waters. [537] Maurit Guillan discovered the paradise planet of Laylora, but later his ship was found drifting near Draconian space, the location of Laylora lost. The search for the planet went on to inspire a number of explorers. [538]
c 2301 - Excelis Decays [539]
Excelis was now in a permanent state of war. Grayvorn’s ambition started to reach beyond Artaris, and he desired to deploy his Meat Puppet troops through the whole of time and space. The seventh Doctor merged his soul with the Relic, exerting enough power to send Grayvorn’s captured souls to the afterlife and making his Meat Puppets go inert. Rather than accept defeat, Grayvorn activated Excelis’ orbital defence grid and bombarded every major city on Artaris with nuclear missiles. Grayvorn died in the onslaught, but the Doctor escaped.
An entity was trapped in a mirror on an ice planet. [540]
? 2305 - The Slow Empire [541]
The Slow Empire had been founded in a region of space where the laws of physics prohibited faster-than-light travel. Some worlds facilitated trade and communication via Transference Pylons, which transmitted Ambassadors and materials between worlds at light speed. However, the Empire founders had long ago killed themselves through warfare, which helped to plunge the Empire into decay.
The Empire world Shakrath was ruled by a corrupt Emperor who gave visitors generous receptions for posterity, then sent them to the torture chambers. Some centuries previous on Goronos, a slave class had successfully revolted but found themselves unable to function without their masters. They transferred their minds into an elaborate “Cyberdyne” computer reality, and Goronos became an urban wasteland. On Thakrash, some five hundred years previous (as that planet recorded time), a metamorphic Collector crashed onto the planet and ruined its Transference Pylon. The slaves there revolted, forcing Thakrash into isolation.
A disturbance in the Time Vortex prompted some of its inhabitants, the Vortex Wraiths, to flee in fear of their lives. A group of them manifested on the long-dead homeworld of the Empire founders and usurped control of the Pylon system. The Wraiths hoped to manifest their entire race in its billions via the Pylons, and tried to coerce the eighth Doctor, Fitz and Anji’s help by threatening the inhabitants of multiple worlds. The Doctor betrayed the Wraiths by shorting out the main Transference Pylon, both turning the Wraiths into ash and generating a pulse that would, in time, annihilate every Pylon and end the corrupt Empire.
The “detritus, junk and flotsam” of human and extra-terrestrial space travellers sometimes fused into habitable cluster worlds. One of these became the world of Absence. [542] The Doctor saved the life of Rok Soo’Gar, governor of Multiworld. He gave the Doctor a free pass to the facility and access to his tailors, the best in the galaxy. [543]
? 2308 - Graceless: The Sphere [544]
No longer in the service of the Grace, the living Key-tracer Amy tracked her sister Zara to the Sphere - an arrangement in space of hotels and casinos, which doubled in size in a matter of weeks. The Sphere’s technology prevented time rings from operating, and so Zara had fallen in with a rogue named Merak, and become pregnant with his child. Amy - having renamed herself “Abby” - for a time worked for a casino owner named Lindsey, using her mental powers to goad patrons into gambling away their winnings. Her opinion of the people aboard the Sphere became so low that she judged them as unworthy of surviving - and used her telekinesis to remove the pins holding the Sphere together. The subsequent ruination of the Sphere killed a hundred thousand beings, but enabled Abby and Zara to teleport away. Merak survived by happenstance, and pursued the sisters using time technology provided by the space pirate Kreekpolt.
? 2309 - The Mists of Time [545]
A team from the Space Archaeology Group (SAG) found a ruined city of the Memosen - a race obliterated by the Time Lords - on Zion VIII in the Argo Navis Cluster.
A “remembrance” device there, built to replay scenes of Memosen history, started reaching back in time and created interactive projections of people who had died. The third Doctor and Jo were present as a SAG member sought to get rich from the device and killed his colleagues, then was slain by Newton Calder, the sole surviving team member.
? 2310 (August) - The Twin Dilemma [546]
Earth feared attacks by aliens, and the Interplanetary Pursuit Squadrons were established. The mathematical prodigies Romulus and Remus were abducted in the Spacehopper Mk III Freighter XV773, which had been reported destroyed eight months before. Romulus and Remus mysteriously reappeared on Earth shortly afterwards, claiming the gastropod Mestor, who planned to destroy Jaconda and spread his eggs throughout the universe, had kidnapped them. The sixth Doctor, Peri and Azmael (a Time Lord and the former leader of Jaconda) defeated Mestor and killed him, but Azmael died, all of his regenerations having been used up, while doing so.
? 2311 - “When Worlds Collide” [547]
The eleventh Doctor, Amy and Rory visited Multiworld, a holiday destination built on a stabilised fluctuation rift. Different “worlds” could be custom-made to replicate times in Earth history, and populated with holograms and artificial intelligences. A damaged Sontaran ship crashed on Multiworld, and fluronic gas leaking from its warp coil destabilised the wormhole. The Sontarans died on impact, but the Doctor’s old friend, Rok Soo’Gar, sought to exploit the situation to harness the power of the rift and gain godlike powers. Everyone in Multiworld was duplicated, and everyone save the Doctor, Amy and Rory now believed the thirteen worlds to be real. The Sontarans appeared as Nazis, a flying carpet squadron commanded by Caliph Sul’Taran, and a set of Wild West outlaws: Sonny Taran and his men.
The Doctor learned of Soo’Gar’s scheme, and the duplicate Sontarans turned on the governor en masse, evidently killing him and resetting reality. The Doctor placed Lisa Everwell, a vacationing project manager from Basildon, in charge of Multiworld.
Kevin the Tyrannosaur, a robot featured in the Prehistoric Zone, tired of his current occupation and accompanied the Doctor and his friends on their travels.
? 2311 - “Space Squid” [548]
The eleventh Doctor brought Amy, Rory and Kevin the Tyrannosaur to Space Station E11, a.k.a. Nebula Base, where the best granberry (a large thing with spiky ends, that tasted like mince) smoothies in the cosmos were made. The base was built on the edge of a Radion Singularity, and many followers of the Holy Space Squid religion had arrived to witness the coming of their god. The Doctor identified the squid as a brain-sucking Coledian - it had grown to huge proportions because of the radion, and dominated the minds of its followers. Only the Doctor and Kevin were able to resist, and they stunned the creature.
Nebula Base was converted into a tourist trap: the Last Sighting of the Holy Space Squid. Kevin decided to stay on as the base’s new security commander.
Youkali Press published An Eye for Wisdom: Repetitive Poems of the Early Ikkaban Period by Bernice S. Summerfield in 2315. [549] The Smermashi developed alpha-wave-altering crystals that made them exceedingly happy as pollution, disease and other disasters destroyed their world. The famed explorer Andreas Dorpfeld found a Smermashi crystal in 2315, and it kept him constantly full of joy. Dorpfeld cited the crystal as “my prison” on his deathbed, but this was misheard as “my prism”, and so the gem was named after him. A Virabilis mining company took possession of it. [550]
Every six months, one of ten crew of the colony ship Mayflower was woken as part of a crew rota to check ship’s systems - so each crewman woke every five years. Kara McAllista was revived, as planned, on 6th January, 2316. [551]
The Dyson Sphere of the Varteq Veil had begun to break up. [552] Humans arrived on the moon of Akoshemon, on the edge of the Milky Way, in 2319. By this time, there was a Human Sciences Academy on Mars, and a base on Titan. [553]
2321 (7th January) - “Profits of Doom” [554]
Sluglike aliens invaded the Mayflower colony ship. The sixth Doctor, Peri and Frobisher discovered that the cryotubes of the “top drawer”, the elite, had been stolen. The aliens were the Profiteers of Ephte from Ephte Major - a profit-driven race of conquerors. The Doctor accessed the navigational systems and discovered there was nothing at the ship’s destination. Instead, Varley Gabriel was profiting by selling the humans to the Profiteers. The Doctor got the aliens to withdraw by threatening to destroy the ship, and reprogrammed the navigation systems to set course for Arcadia.
The people of Manussa mastered molecular engineering in a zero-gravity environment, and thereby created blue crystals free from all flaws and distortions. Such crystals could convert thought into energy - into matter, even. The largest of these, the Great Crystal, harnessed and amplified the hatred, restlessness and greed of the Manussan people to create a snake creature: the Mara. It caused the end of the Manussan Empire almost overnight, and ruled over the newly formed Sumaran Empire. [555]
The Mindsmiths of Askatan created mind-control technology that let them to possess many of their enemies’ soldiers, but nonetheless lost a “dirty little war”. Cranton, a medical corps worker in a war in 2327, came into possession of a Mindsmith simulation generator. [556] Third Eye released their HvLP, Outta My Way Monkey-boy in 2327. [557] In 2341, a Rutan spy adopted the identity of Sontaran Major Karne. An attack on a Sontaran cruiser was staged, and the Sontarans recovered his escape pod. For decades, the Rutans received top-level Sontaran military secrets. [558]
? 2345 (the first Thursday in December) - Valhalla [559]
The Mars Express was in operation at this time.
The domed city of Valhalla, located on Jupiter’s moon of Callisto, had fallen prey to blight. It cost nothing to arrive at Valhalla, but a fortune to leave, so the city increasingly became home to the dispossessed, space hippies and tourists who arrived on the wrong flight. Immigration services stamped bar codes onto the tongues of everyone in the city. Food and energy cutbacks were introduced, and owing to the shoddy conditions, riots were dutifully held the first Thursday of every month. On such occasions, licensed outlets sold body armour and refreshments.
Genetically engineered termites had grown to massive size on Callisto, and their queen - Our Mother the Fourth - directed her children to take control of Valhalla. Our Mother wanted to facilitate her progeny’s future by selling off Valhalla’s assets and people; a sales catalogue was prepared. The seventh Doctor tricked the termites into thinking that Our Mother had died. This forcibly instigated a new wedding flight as winged termites sought out the new queen, and Our Mother did pass away. Dialogue was opened with the new Queen, and it was hoped she would be more reasonable than her predecessor.
2346 (March) - Terminal of Despair [560]
Terminal 4000, an interchange station for spaceships, serviced companies such as Orion Spaceways. A single flight a year was offered to Callisto. The terminal was put in quarantine owing to an outbreak of Desponds: squat dog-like creatures that fed on the emotion of hope. The eleventh Doctor, Amy and Rory ended the quarantine, and an animal welfare organisation took possession of the Desponds.
In 2350, the Jullatii would have over-run the Earth but for INITEC’s invention of the boson cannon. [561] The cooling agent Phosphane was invented in the mid twenty-fourth century. [562]
c 2350 - “The Seventh Segment” [563]
Humans settled Vyga 3 in 2350, and the eccentric culture that developed defied legal and policing systems. The fourth Doctor, Romana and K9 searched Vyga 3 for a Key to Time segment, but the tracer was confused by an object in a briefcase that a local criminal gang wanted. It wasn’t a segment, but rather a fluctuating chronal wave. When opened, the briefcase aged everyone in the area to death - the Doctor was glad he hadn’t got round to checking it for himself.
? 2350 - Exotron [564]
Human colony planets were sometimes subject to oversight from Earth Authority, which could dispatch security officers as required.
On an unnamed Earth colony, the
Exotron Project was initiated to create a new type of robot for sale to the military. Major Hector Taylor and Ballentyne, the Secretary of the Interior, colluded to further the project, which entailed hardwiring the bodies of mortally wounded soldiers into large Exotron robot shells. The soldiers remained alive in a state of pain, but their neural networks enabled the Exotrons to function.
Two years after the research team’s arrival, a form of indigenous life - the hyena-like Farakosh - came into conflict with the Exotrons. Taylor died, but Ballentyne triggered the research facility’s self-destruct. The troopers within the Exotrons regained some independence, and saved everyone by smothering the blast with their own bodies. The fifth Doctor and Peri expected that Ballentyne would be hounded from office.
2351 - Recorded Time and Other Stories: “A Most Excellent Match” [565]
The showman Cranton used a Mindsmith generator to offer patrons mental simulations based upon the books of Jane Austin and other works of literature. Peri tried out Cranton’s device at the 2351 Galaxy Fair, but the last remaining Mindsmith, whose consciousness was in the machine, attempted to possess her. The sixth Doctor tried to coax Peri out of the simulation by competing for her hand in marriage as “Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy” of Pride and Prejudice. Tilly, an AI within the machine, saved the Doctor and Peri and terminated the simulation-scape, killing the Mindsmith.
Around 2361, the Mayflower arrived to colonise Arcadia. [566]
? 2366 - The Macra Terror [567]
The crab-like Macra had infiltrated a human colony, using indoctrination techniques to force the colonists to extract a deadly gas that the Macra breathed. The colonists were kept in a state of complacent happiness. Eventually, the second Doctor, Jamie, Ben and Polly exposed the Control - the colony’s propaganda spokesperson - as a giant Macra. The Doctor directed Ben to destroy the Marca’s gas pumps, which slew the invaders.
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