4398 (Christmas Eve) - A Christmas Carol [1317]
The eleventh Doctor left Amy and Rory to honeymoon aboard a galaxy-class starship, but they summoned him back when the ship went out of control near Sardicktown, a human colony world surrounded by a cloud bank. The ship could only be guided to safety by a machine operated by Kazran Sardick - but Sardick was a cruel man, and refused to help. The Doctor travelled back to Kazran’s childhood and altered his history to make him a better person. When this failed, he brought Kazran’s 12-year-old self to this time to see his future. The elder Kazran relented, but his history had been altered so much that the cloud-controlling machine no longer recognised him. The Doctor and Kazran woke Abigail Pettigrew for one last time, and she used her voice to create harmonics that controlled the clouds and saved the spacecraft.
The forty-fifth century was an era of technocrats and machine-driven life. One race engineered a biological-temporal link that enabled them to forge a mental connection with their machines. Some members of the species became biologically advanced enough to place themselves in metallic shells and time travel by simply willing the process. One such traveller was Celia Fortunaté, who would arrive in another time period at the Needle, a biomechanical living complex. The Needle’s overseeing computer, Whitenoise, installed a chip in Celia to curb her of all violence, but this corrupted Whitenoise’s systems and led to a string of murders. [1318]
c 4411 - “Body Snatched” [1319]
The eleventh Doctor brought Amy and Rory to the Trans-Universal Union to collect his mail, which included a letter that had been sent two hundred years earlier from the Horse Lord of Khan. They went back in time to help.
c 4500 - “Keepsake” [1320]
By this time, a musical had been made about the Orion War. Millions of self-repairing robots from Orion were still performing menial tasks.
The seventh Doctor stopped at Reclaim Platform Juliet-November-Kilo, the largest reclaim station on its side of the Easto Cluster, to acquire spare parts for the TARDIS. He encountered a servo robot containing the last vestiges of his android friend Sara’s consciousness, and thereby learned of her fate.
The forty-sixth century saw the development of Dirty Rip engines, time machines that punched holes in time and were prone to both exploding and increasing the vortex pressure on users until they also exploded. [1321]
? 4500 - Here There Be Monsters [1322]
Humanity now treated mathematics like art; if an equation was beautiful and symmetrical, it was regarded as true.
On Earth, genetic manipulation was used to develop sentient vegetative lifeforms that could entwine their branches and leaves throughout a spaceship’s interior. Such lifeforms could pilot spaceships, fight small wars and expand the human empire’s boundaries, allotting humanity more time for pursuits such as sculpture and music. The lifeforms’ memories were contained in seed pods, and they were genetically engineered to avoid boredom; they’d be content spending one hundred million years performing tasks and reaching for synthesized light.
Three hundred and thirty-eight years after these lifeforms were created, humanity also developed “benchmarking” - a means of using gravitational singularities contained in a Klein bottle to create a navigational system. Seven singularities were used in concert - one would puncture the fabric of space-time every tenth of a light-year; the remaining six would encode each “hole” with navigational information. The Earth Benchmarking Vessel (EBV) Nevermore, captained by the vegetative lifeform Rostrum, was intended as the first of many ships that would benchmark entire sectors of space. Spaceships would consequently always know their location, and which direction they needed to go.
The first Doctor, accompanied by Ian, Barbara and Susan, insisted to Rostrum that ravenous “things” lived in the “deep space” beneath space, and that the benchmarking process would give them access to our universe. A traveller from this “deep space” crossed over and adopted a human form - as benchmarking was laying waste to vast tracts of his reality - and said that while deep space contained lifeforms whose energy and matter were antithetical to humanity, it was also home to many intelligent, ethical civilisations. The traveller sealed the breach created by the Nevermore, which killed Rostrum and everything within half a light year. The traveller also perished, but only after recording a message warning humanity of the dangers of benchmarking.
c 4500 - Tomb of Valdemar [1323]
The Second Empire fell after three centuries, following a revolution that began with a declaration that the oppressed masses would no longer tolerate idle cruelty. The ruling class was aristocratic and decadent. The New Protectorate established the New Parliament on Earth, based on “the rigours of Puritanism applied to a purely materialistic philosophy”. This was led by the Virgin Lady High Protector, the Civil Matriarch, who had the Elite’s palaces destroyed with Immolator Six capsules. A Duke named Paul Neville fled to Terra and became a powerful magician, the head of a cult dedicated to the dark god Valdemar. The Protectorate located Neville, forcing him to flee to the ends of the collapsing Empire. Neville sought the planet Ashkellia, which he believed contained the palace of the Old Ones - Valdemar was the last of their kind.
Neville attempted to resurrect Valdemar through an adolescent psionic named Huvan, but the fourth Doctor and Romana defeated his plans. Huvan nearly punctured the higher dimensions, which could have destroyed the universe, but the Doctor and Romana convinced Huvan that he lacked the maturity for such power. Huvan agreed to erase his memory and assume a new identity. He became a trapper named Ponch on the planet Janus Forus. Fifteen years later, Romana returned to help him remember his past. She regenerated at this time.
The New Protectorate lasted around a century or two before burning itself out.
The Davros Era [1324]
? 4500 - Destiny of the Daleks [1325]
The Daleks realised that their dependence on logic made it impossible for them to win a war against another logical machine race, the Movellans. Their battlecomputers suggested that they should turn to their creator, Davros, for help. The Supreme Dalek dispatched a force to Skaro to recover Davros from the ruins of the Kaled bunker. Mining operations started up, and the Daleks discovered their creator, who had survived in suspended animation for centuries.
A Movellan party was sent to Skaro to investigate Dalek operations. As they arrived, the Daleks’ slaves broke free, helped by the fourth Doctor and the newly regenerated Romana. Before a Dalek ship could arrive from Supreme Command, the slaves had overpowered the Movellans and defeated the small Dalek force. Davros was captured by the human force, who returned to Earth in the Movellan ship.
Before this time, Arcturus won the Galactic Olympic games, with Betelgeuse coming a close second. The economy of Algol was subject to irreversible inflation.
The Movellans were built by the Daleks, and the entire war was faked as part of their plan to prevent the destruction of Skaro. [1326] Human authorities put Davros on trial. Humanity had abandoned the death penalty, so Davros was placed in suspended animation aboard a prison station in deep space. Without Davros’ help, the Daleks were helpless. They lost the war when the Movellans released a virus that only affected Dalek tissue. Weakened, the Daleks were forced to rely on hired mercenaries and duplicates: conditioned clones produced by their genetic experiments, and generated from humans snatched from many timezones. [1327]
Humanity discovered a cure for Becks Syndrome. [1328] Following another Dalek War with humanity, the Daleks were not active in the galaxy for a century. [1329] On Riften-5, the fifth Doctor saw archives of genetic tests on Daleks after the War of Sharpened Hearts. [1330]
& 4590 - Resurrection of the Daleks [1331]
One Supreme Dalek came up with an audacious plan that would strengthen the Daleks’ position. Davros would be released from prison, and use his scientific genius and understanding of the Daleks to find an antidote for the Movellan virus. Dalek duplicate technology would be used to strike on twentieth-century Earth, while a second group, composed of
duplicate versions of the fifth Doctor and his companions, would assassinate the High Council of Gallifrey. The plan totally failed.
Once Davros was released, he attempted to usurp control of the Dalek army and completely re-engineer the race. This met from resistance from those loyal to the Supreme Dalek, and the two factions began fighting. The Duplicates rebelled, destroying the prison station and the Dalek battlecruiser. Davros escaped.
The parents of Geoff, who was later a member of Davros’ science team, died in the Kensington disaster of ’97. [1332]
c 4600 - Davros [1333]
Arnold Baines, head of the TAI corporation (which sold everything from foodstuffs to recreational narcotics to laser cannons), tracked down Davros’ body. The sixth Doctor saw Davros revive. Baines hired both the Doctor and Davros to develop business strategies to help mankind spread to other galaxies. Davros secretly developed a computer model that could accurately predict the galactic stock market. With it, he planned to destroy capitalism in favour of a system that placed the entire galaxy’s economy on a permanent war footing. He launched a coup against Baines, but failed. Davros escaped in Baines’ spacecraft with a hostage, Kim, who killed herself - allowing the Doctor to crash the ship. The Doctor suspected that Davros survived.
Collectors were looking for Dalek regalia at this time. Some historians, like Lorraine Baines, offered revisionist histories where the Daleks were seen as victims, not aggressors, and Davros was hailed as a visionary. The Treaty of Parlagon prevented individuals from having nuclear weapons. There was famine in the galaxy, virtually every available planet of which had been colonised by humanity.
The Daleks reoccupied Skaro, and a new Supreme Dalek came to power. The Daleks developed biomechanoid computers that interfaced with human brains to provide the Daleks with raw creativity, and they began to reassert their power. [1334]
? 4615 - Revelation of the Daleks [1335]
A human President now ruled the galaxy, which was becoming overpopulated. Famine was a problem on worlds across known space. Tranquil Repose on Necros had been established for some time as a resting place for the dead of the galaxy - literally, as they were kept in suspended animation there until whatever killed them was cured by medical science. The “rock and roll years” of twentieth century Earth were extremely popular. The grandfather of a DJ on Necros purchased some genuine records from Earth on a visit there.
Davros went into hiding on Necros and formed an alliance with Kara, a local businesswoman. He took control of Tranquil Repose, and secretly began to break down the corpses there into a foodstuff. This ended famine across the galaxy, and Davros gained a reputation as “the Great Healer”. Kara discovered that Davros was also growing a new army of genetically re-engineered Daleks from the corpses, and planned to use them to take effective control of her company. She hired Orcini, an excommunicated member of the Grand Order of Oberon, to assassinate Davros.
Davros had been keeping track of the Doctor’s movements - when one of the Doctor’s friends, the agronomist Arthur Stengos, died, Davros prepared for the Doctor to attend the funeral. Orcini, the sixth Doctor and Peri thwarted Davros’ plans, although Orcini died in the process. The Daleks were summoned from Skaro and captured their creator. The Doctor suggested that protein from a commonplace purple flower could alleviate the famine.
? 4615 - The Davros Mission [1336]
The Daleks took Davros to Skaro and put him on trial for plotting against them and creating “impure” Daleks. En route, a Thal named Lareen snuck into Davros’ cell and - thinking she had convinced Davros to redeem himself by destroying his creations - provided him with a vial of super-concentrated Movellan virus. Had Davros released this, it would have killed all Daleks on Skaro and broken the spine of their empire. Instead, Davros convinced the Daleks that his refraining from destroying them demonstrated that they owed him their allegiance. The Daleks concurred, pledged to make Davros their Emperor and exterminated Lareen...
? 4620 - The Juggernauts [1337]
Davros crashed on the planet Lethe, where mining engineers excavated a group of Mechanoids. Davros attempted to build an army of Mechanoids (re-named “the Juggernauts”) that incorporated human tissue, but the grey Daleks tracked him down. The sixth Doctor and Mel sabotaged the Juggernaut production lines, and Davros’ body was severely injured in the fighting. His life-support chair self-destructed, which obliterated the colony, the grey Daleks and the Juggernauts, although the colonists themselves evacuated.
Earth had passed mandatory organ donation laws.
The sixth Doctor and Peri encountered the Daleks on Mandusus. [1338]
? 4625 - “... Up Above the Gods” / “Emperor of the Daleks” [1339]
The Daleks put Davros on trial - he had replaced his destroyed hand with a claw, and started to persuade some Daleks that they could learn from him. Nonetheless, the Emperor sentenced him to execution. Before the sentence was carried out, a giant asteroid entered the Skaro system.
The sixth Doctor and Peri arrived on Skaro. While the Daleks were occupied with the asteroid (which the Doctor had sent their way), the Doctor infected the Dalek computers with a virus, then kidnapped Davros in the TARDIS. The Daleks vowed revenge.
A year later, the Daleks tricked Abslom Daak into bringing the seventh Doctor to Skaro (along with the other Star Tigers and Benny, from the mid-twenty-sixth century), Daak fought a pitched battle with the Daleks, but he and his allies were subdued. The Daleks demanded that the Doctor take them to Davros, and used a Psyche Dalek to place the others in a hypnotic trance.
A Dalek battle fleet under the command of the Black Dalek was dispatched to Spiridon, where they were met by Davros and an army of four million white-and-gold upgraded Daleks. The Psyche Dalek was destroyed, and the Doctor’s friends were released from hypnotic control. Routed, the Black Dalek withdrew his forces and ordered the orbiting fleet to destroy Davros - but the energy was reflected back and destroyed all but one ship, which was also blown up.
Davros had won the battle, and had not - as he had promised the Doctor - given his upgraded Daleks a conscience. Davros’ fleet set course for Skaro, planning to reactivate the Doctor’s computer virus and seize control. Davros’ forces landed, and he watched as the former Emperor was exterminated. However, Daak sliced through Davros with his chainsword before being forced to withdraw by the other Star Tigers. A nuclear blast devastated the Dalek city, and finally destroyed Taiyin’s body.
Davros had a new survival chair built only four days after his arrival, but a bitter civil war was underway between the Dalek factions. Davros was now Emperor of the Daleks. [1340] The Thals had relocated from Skaro by this point, and the Daleks did not normally enter their region of space, which included Spiridon.
Abel Gantz revived the lost science of alchemy when he discovered paracelsium, a catalyst that could transmute metals. [1341]
c 4635 - “Kane’s Story” / “Abel’s Story” / “Warrior’s Story” / “Frobisher’s Story” [1342]
Skeletoids invaded outposts on Vega and Sigma IV, meaning they were only weeks from the Sol system. The Skeletoids were armoured humans from the Vespin system, but their armour had gradually become so sophisticated, the humans inside had become redundant components. They swept through five systems in a year - either converting any humanoids they conquered, or wiping out races they couldn’t convert (such as the Daleks and Cybermen). The Skeletoids were now at the gates of the Planetary Federation. The Draconians were their next targets, and the powers of the galaxy arranged a summit on Ankara III.
The sixth Doctor, Frobisher and Peri learned of the threat and headed for Xaos, the oldest planet in the galaxy - as did Abel Gantz, the Draconian Emperor’s bodyguard Kaon (who the Doctor and Frobisher had met some years from now), and Kane Borg of Kaltarr. They were the champions of six worlds, and they travelled in the TARDIS to the Vespin system to take the fight to the Skeletoids. Abel sacrificed himself, destroying the Skeletoid command centre. The menace to the galaxy ended, and the Doctor
and the surviving champions arrived at the galactic summit to tell the delegates they’d had a wasted trip.
c 4650 - The Story of Martha: “The Weeping” [1343]
Agelaos had become an icy planet following the failure of its terraforming. The last of the colonists, Waechter, had guarded the quarantine there and lived for centuries thanks to a slowed metabolism. Waechter found that he would die if ever he left Agelaos, and the tenth Doctor and Martha helped him to attain his last wish: that he be mutated into a creature like his fellow colonists, so he would never be alone.
? 4663 - Remembrance of the Daleks [1344]
Upon returning to Skaro, Davros usurped control from the Supreme Dalek and declared himself an Emperor Dalek. With his body now wasted, Davros was reduced to little more than a disembodied head. He fashioned a new casing for himself. Most Daleks supported Davros, who genetically re-engineered the race and oversaw a complete revamp of Dalek technology. These “Imperial Daleks” were given new cream and gold livery, improved weapons, sensor plates and eyestalks. As always, some Daleks dissented: this “Renegade Dalek” faction followed the Black Dalek and fled Skaro using a Time Controller.
Both factions had learned of the Hand of Omega, a powerful Gallifreyan device that could manipulate stars. They converged to its location on Earth in 1963. Davros acquired the Hand, but was unable to control the device. On the seventh Doctor’s instructions, the Hand travelled to Skaro in Davros’ native time and made its sun go supernova, obliterating the planet. Davros escaped, but his flagship was obliterated and the Dalek homeworld was seemingly destroyed.
(=) In 4688, Chiyoko, the “child of time”, transported a Vorlax Regeneration Drone from the war planet Grakktar back to 2011. [1345]
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