by Scott, Cavan
THE NEMESIS COMET
‘Listen, Ace. The Nemesis generates destruction. It affects everything around it.’
The Doctor, Silver Nemesis
In 1638, the Doctor launched the Validium statue known as the Nemesis Comet into space on a rocket-sled. Unfortunately, its orbit then brought it near to Earth every 25 years, causing trouble on the planet with every pass. Known effects influenced by the statue’s proximity to the planet include:
1913: The eve of the First World War
1938: Adolf Hitler’s annexation of Austria
1963: The assassination of President John F. Kennedy
1988: the attempted rise of the Fourth Reich and a Cyber invasion.
CELEBRITY CULTURE
Everybody from newsreaders to pop stars wants to appear in Doctor Who. Here’s a rundown of the real-life celebrities of planet Earth that have appeared as themselves in the series.
NOT QUITE THEMSELVES
Although many celebrities from the real world have appeared in Doctor Who, there’s a handful of famous figures that have appeared – but perhaps not exactly as themselves:
Anne Robinson – The laser-tongued presenter lent her voice to the Anne-Droid, the literally laser-tongued metallic presenter of a futuristic edition of quiz show The Weakest Link. (Bad Wolf)
Davina McCall – As the voice of Davinadroid, the presenter presided over the Game Station’s version of Big Brother in the year 200,100, where the Doctor was forced to be a housemate. (Bad Wolf)
Trinny Woodall and Susannah Constantine – In the 21st century they were the presenters of What Not To Wear, but by 200,100 they were Trine-e and Zu-Zana, intent on giving Captain Jack a permanent make-over. (Bad Wolf)
Barbara Windsor – There was no Peggy Mitchell in residence in Albert Square when the TARDIS landed there in 1993’s Dimensions in Time, but in 2006 Barbara Windsor finally appeared in Doctor Who – within an episode of EastEnders. Jackie Tyler was glued to a storyline in which Peggy tells a ‘ghost’ of Den Watts to ‘get out of my pub’. (Army of Ghosts)
MEDICAL ESTABLISHMENTS ON EARTH
‘I thought you were a doctor!’
The Doctor, Doctor Who
If all hospitals on Earth are full, Who-ology recommends you try Ward 26 of the New New York Hospital on New Earth (New Earth), or the Bi-Al Foundation on asteroid K4067, near the Saturn moon of Titan. Robot dogs and invading alien swarms a speciality. (The Invisible Enemy)
THE MYSTERIOUS WORLD OF DOCTOR WHO
‘They seemed so secure and died out virtually overnight.’
The Doctor, Earthshock
The Doctor has had a hand in some of the Earth’s greatest mysteries…
WHY DID THE DINOSAURS DIE OUT?
A cataclysmic event brought about the extinction of the dinosaurs about 65 million years ago. Accepted scientific theory suggests a large celestial object collided with the Earth.
Mystery solved: The Cybermen intended to use a large space freighter to impact with the Earth in the year 2526 to destroy a peace conference. The freighter did impact with the Earth, but not in the far future. Thanks to the interference of the Doctor’s companion Adric, the freighter travelled back in time some 65 million years. The rest is history. As is Adric. (Earthshock)
ATLANTIS
First mentioned by Plato, Atlantis was a legendary city believed to have been lost beneath the waves. According to the philosopher it sank in ‘a single day and night of misfortune’. But what was that misfortune?
Mystery solved: Atlantis was destroyed around 1500 AD when the Master unleashed the being known as Kronos. (The Time Monster) Simple. Or it would have been if Azal hadn’t claimed that the Daemons destroyed Atlantis as a failed experiment. (The Daemons) Either way, Atlantis was rediscovered by Professor Zaroff in the latter half of the 20th century. (The Underwater Menace)
HOW DID ANCIENT MAN BUILD THE PERUVIAN TEMPLES?
Archaeologists have long been puzzled by complex temples dating from thousands of years ago. How had primitive man built such intricate buildings?
Mystery solved: Visitors from the planet Exxilon came to Earth and taught the locals how to build, mirroring the structures on their own planet. (Death to the Daleks)
THE MYSTERY OF THE MARY CELESTE
On 5 November 1872, American merchant ship Mary Celeste set sail from New York City, bound for Italy. On 4 December, the ship was discovered adrift, with the crew having mysteriously vanished without trace.
Mystery solved: Trying to elude pursuit by the Daleks, the Doctor landed the TARDIS aboard the Mary Celeste, the Daleks arriving soon after in their own time machine. When faced with the horror of the Daleks, the crew sensibly threw themselves overboard. Along with a Dalek. (The Chase)
THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN
The world’s most famous crypto-zoological mystery is that of the Yeti – aka the Abominable Snowman. Possibly bear-like, the ‘Wild Man of the Snows’ is said to inhabit the Himalayan mountain region near Tibet, and fleeting sightings have been made since the 19th century.
Mystery solved: The Yeti were in fact the robot slaves of the Great Intelligence, a malevolent entity that inhabited a Tibetan monastery for about 200 years. Professor Edward Travers took one back to England after his expedition near the Det-Sen monastery (The Abominable Snowmen / The Web of Fear)
THE LOCH NESS MONSTER
Since the 6th century, there have been reported sightings of a strange creature in and around Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands. Known as Nessie, this creature could be the last surviving example of a plesiosaur or other prehistoric creature. Many have searched, but Nessie has never been found…
Mystery solved: The Loch Ness Monster is a Skarasen, a cyborg hybrid creature that was released into the loch in the 12th century by the Zygons. From their ship deep beneath the loch, the aliens used the savage creature as a weapon towards their goal of world domination. (Terror of the Zygons)
Or
Nessie is the deformed Borad, banished by the Doctor through the Time-lash from the planet Karfel. With luck, the Skarasen may have eaten him. (Timelash)
THE GREAT FIRE OF LONDON
In the early hours of Sunday 2 September 1666, a fire broke out at a bakery on Pudding Lane in the city of London. The fire raged for three days, gutting much of the capital. Was it the carelessness of a tired baker, or something more sinister that started the fire?
Mystery solved: In the Fifth Doctor’s final confrontation with the alien Terileptils in the bakery at Pudding Lane, a dropped torch started a small fire during a struggle, causing a Terileptil energy weapon to overload and explode. The fire soon spread to the adjacent buildings. (The Visitation)
Or
Perhaps the Fourth Doctor had a hand in the Great Fire… As he and Sarah left the burning priory belonging to the Scarman family, he said he didn’t want to be blamed for starting a fire. ‘I had enough of that in 1666,’ he complained. (Pyramids of Mars)
THE MOVING EARTH
‘The TARDIS is still in the same place, but the Earth has gone. The entire planet. It’s gone.’
The Doctor, The Stolen Earth
The Earth has a habit of not staying in a fixed orbit
2009 – The Daleks dragged the Earth light years away to the Medusa Cascade where it and 26 other planets were used to power Davros’s Reality Bomb. After Davros’s defeat, the Doctor used the TARDIS to tow the planet back to its normal position in the Solar System. (The Stolen Earth / Journey’s End)
2157 – A near thing, but the Earth actually stayed put. The Daleks invaded Earth and used the world’s population as slave workers to mine the planetary core and replace it with a power system so they could pilot it around the universe. Thankfully the Doctor pitted his wits against them and defeated them – it’s only out of politeness that he didn’t stop to ask them why. (The Dalek Invasion of Earth)
2,000,000 – It isn’t just the Daleks that have a desire to get the keys to the planet and take it for a spin. To cover up an embarrassing
theft of secrets from the Matrix, the Time Lords used a Magnetron to move Earth two light years away, destroying the surface in a firestorm, renamed it Ravolox, and hoped nobody would notice. (The Trial of a Time Lord: The Mysterious Planet)
c.5 billion – When solar flares finally forced the population to flee the Earth, the National Trust held back the expanding sun with gravity satellites to preserve the uninhabited planet for posterity. Once Earth was finally destroyed by the sun, New Earth was established in the M87 galaxy on a planet that had the same orbit and size as the original. Humans just hate change. (The Ark, The End of the World, New Earth, Gridlock)
TARDIS LOG
Roll up, roll up for a grand tour of the universe. Let us follow the footsteps of the Doctor as we visit the more notable celestial bodies, planets and moons that feature in the TV series. That madman in a box really gets around doesn’t he?
Skaro
Marinus
The Sense-Sphere
Dido
Vortis
Xeros
Aridius
Mechanus
Unnamed planet in Galaxy Four
Kembel
Desperus
Mira
Tigus
Kembel
Refusis II
Unnamed planet (The Savages)
Mondas
Vulcan
The Moon
Unnamed colony world (The Macra Terror)
Telos
Dulkis
Unnamed planet (The Krotons)
Ta
Unnamed planet (The War Games)
Gallifrey
Uxarieus
Peladon
Solos
Omega’s antimatter world
Inter Minor
Draconia
Ogron home world
Spiridon
Metebelis III
Exxilon
Voga
Zeta Minor
Mars
Oseidon
Karn
Kastria
Unnamed planet (The Face of Evil)
Unnamed planet (The Robots of Death)
Titan
Asteroid K4067 (the Bi-Al Foundation)
Pluto
P7E planetoid
Ribos
Zanak
Calufrax
Tara
Third moon of Delta Magna
Atrios
Zeos
Chloris
Skonnos
Crinoth
Argolis
Tigella
Zolfa-Thura
Alzarius
Unnamed planet (State of Decay)
Traken
Logopolis
Unnamed Phylox planet in Andromeda (Castrovalva)
Deva Loka
Manussa
The Eye of Orion
Frontios
Sarn
Androzani Minor
Androzani Major
Titan III
Jaconda
Varos
Karfel
Necros
Thoros Beta
Lakertya
Unnamed planet (Paradise Towers)
Toll Port G715
Svartos
Terra Alpha
Segonax
Unnamed planet of the Cheetah People (Survival)
New Earth
Krop Tor
Malcassairo
The Ood-Sphere
Messaline
The Library
Midnight
Shan Shen
Shadow Proclamation
San Helios
Alfava Metraxis
Planet One
Ember
Zaruthstra
Demon’s Run
Apalapucia
Calisto B
Tree farm planet (The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe)
Vegas 12
Dalek Asylum
SOLAR SYSTEM STORIES
Doctor Who stories that take place in or around the planets of the Solar System.
* Although no stories are set on Venus, it has featured heavily in the mythos of Doctor Who. The popular Mars-Venus Games were broadcast across the Solar System in the year 4000 (The Daleks’ Master Plan). The First Doctor and Susan once saw the metal seas of Venus (Marco Polo). The Dalek alliance planned to conquer Venus (Mission to the Unknown). Mavic Chen ordered Carlton to take a party (of soldiers presumably) to Venus (The Daleks’ Master Plan). Duggan had floating flower seeds from Venus (The Wheel in Space). The Third Doctor knew Venusian measurements and proverbs (The Time Monster), said you should ‘never trust a Venusian shanghorn with a perigosto stick’ (The Green Death) and was well versed in Venusian aikido and lullabies. The Fourth Doctor had a pilot’s licence for the Mars-Venus rocket run (Robot). Venus was the first obstacle in the race for Enlightenment (Enlightenment). The Tenth Doctor had a toothbrush containing Venusian spearmint (The Shakespeare Code).
** Home planet of the Fendahl. The Time Lords placed the planet in a time loop, its existence wiped from history.
*** Uranus was the source of the rare mineral Taranium, mined by Guardian of the Solar system Mavic Chen to power the Daleks’ Time Destructor.
WELCOME TO GALLIFREY
‘Oh, you should have seen it, that old planet. The second sun would rise in the south, and the mountains would shine. The leaves on the trees were silver, and when they caught the light every morning, it looked like a forest on fire. When the autumn came, the breeze would blow through the branches like a song.’
The Doctor, Gridlock
The visitor’s guide to the Shining World of the Seven Systems.
LOCATION
The constellation of Kasterborous, some 250 million light years from Earth
Nowhere near Ireland
10-0-11-00 by 02 from Galactic Zero Centre
PLANET
At least twice the size of Earth
Orange-tinted atmosphere
Twin suns
FLORA & FAUNA
Silver-leaved trees
Flutterwing (a flying insect)
Mice
Cats
Small fuzzy creatures, no bigger than a thumbnail, live in the snow of Gallifrey’s mountains. These Plungbolls cling to any source of heat and can only be removed by anti-Plungboll spray. According to the radio series The Paradise of Death, anyway.
NEIGHBOURING WORLDS
Karn and the Five Planets (well, a couple of million parsecs away at least)
ECONOMY
Considered Grade Three in market surveys due to low potential of commercial development
LANDMARKS
The Capitol or Citadel of the Time Lords, located on the Continent of Wild Endeavour in the Mountains of Solace and Solitude
The Tower of Rassilon, found in the Death Zone
Mount Perdition, the red grass-lined childhood home of notorious Gallifreyan criminal, the Master
SOCIAL SERVICES
Maternity service, recognised by the sign of the crossed computers
Bureau of Ancient Records, former employer of President Romanadvoratrelundar
POPULATION
The Lords of Time – aristocratic rulers and temporal engineers
Outsiders – Gallifreyans who lived in the plains outside the Time Lord Capitol, choosing a primitive existence, hunting for food with simple bows and arrows
Shobogans – Gallifreyan vandals, the blight of the Chancellery Guard
NOTABLE TIME LORDS
Rassilon played by Richard Mathews and Timothy Dalton
Engineer and architect. Founded Time Lord society. Mostly regarded as a hero but considered a tyrant by his opponents. Was resurrected to lead his Time Lord descendants in the fight against the Daleks in the Last Great Time War. Willing to create a paradox so strong that all creation would be destroyed and the Time Lords would elevate to beings of higher consciousness. Completely bonkers.
Omega played by Ian Collier, Stephen Thorne and Peter Davison The father of Gallifreyan tim
e travel. As Rassilon’s Solar Engineer, Omega piloted a ship into the heart of a nearby sun, transforming it into a black hole that was harnessed using the Eye of Harmony to power Gallifrey’s mastery over time. Thought lost in the initial supernova, Omega was revered. In reality was lost in an anti-matter universe where he spent millennia plotting his revenge. Completely bonkers.
Borusa played by John Arnatt, Angus MacKay, Leonard Sachs and Philip Latham
The Doctor’s tutor at the Time Lord Academy and later Lord President of Gallifrey. Strict but possessing a keen mind, Borusa would ultimately be corrupted by his high office. Longing for immortality so he could rule Gallifrey as President Eternal, risked the planet’s safety by opening the long-forbidden Death Zone and forcing four of the Doctor’s incarnations to search for the fabled Ring of Rassilon. Achieved his goal when he was trapped for all time as a statue in the Tomb of Rassilon. Completely bonkers.
The Master played by Roger Delgado, Peter Pratt, Geoffrey Beevers, Anthony Ainley, Gordon Tipple, Eric Roberts, Derek Jacobi, John Simm and William Hughes
The Doctor’s best enemy. As friends since childhood, the two Time Lords attended the Academy together but would follow very different paths. Whereas the Doctor left Gallifrey to explore and help the people of the universe, the Master left to enslave others to his will. An expert at mesmerism and disguise, the Master was driven mad the day he was made to stare into the Untempered Schism. From that day on, the Master would endure the constant sound of drumming in his mind. He would later learn that Rassilon himself was responsible for his unending torment and that from birth he was destined to aid Gallifrey’s return from the Time War. Completely bonkers (and then some).
The Rani played by Kate O’Mara
Born the same year as the Doctor, the Rani was exiled from Gallifrey after accidentally accelerating the growth patterns of her laboratory mice. The now monstrous-sized rodents rampaged through the Capitol, eating the President’s cat and mauling the Lord President himself. A brilliant if amoral scientist, the Rani conquered Miasimia Goria, but her experiments on its populous removed their ability to enter R.E.M. sleep. Later, she conquered the peaceful world of Lakertya with a mercenary band of Tetraps from the planet Tetrapyriarbus. Completely bonkers.