The first Doctor and Susan met Archimedes, and the Doctor acquired his business card. [123] The third Doctor visited Athens and spent time with Archimedes. [124] The Doctor taught the playwright Eratosthenes at least some of his craft. [125] The Doctor wrote many of the Greek Classics. [126] He judged that Zephyrus, the Greek god of the west wind, was “a lovely bloke, bit of a swinger. Should have seen what he did to poor old Hyacinth”. [127]
430 BC - Benny: The Oracle of Delphi [128]
Benny and Jason travelled back in time to ancient Greece, hoping to consult with the Oracle of Delphi pertaining to future events concerning the Braxiatel Collection. The Oracle, a.k.a. Lady Megaira, had gained the gift of prophecy from the Stone of Barter. She unleashed a plague upon Athens as vengeance against the patriarchy for their treatment of women, but herself fell victim to the illness. Benny and Jason distributed a plague-vaccine, and returned home. During these events, Benny met Socrates and Plato.
Benny thought that Plato was a “miserable old git who talked a lot of rubbish”. [129]
The Doctor met the real Sybil, “a hell of a woman” who could dance the Tarantella and had “nice teeth”. She had a bit of a thing for the Doctor, but when he told her it could “never last”, she replied, “I know.” [130]
A spaceship fell onto the planet Kasagrad. Rablev, the chief engineer of King Hieronimes, tried to harness its power and capture the throne, but the ship’s atomic stacks overloaded, killing thousands if not millions. The people believed Rablev’s arrogance had offended the gods, and sealed him in the ship. His lost tomb became legendary. [131]
Jack Harkness once fled a lava flow emanating from Mount Etna on a goat cart. [132] The Doctor met Aristotle, who whittered on about bees. [133]
323 BC (May to 13th June) - Farewell, Great Macedon [134]
The first Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Susan met Alexander the Great during his final days. One of Alexander’s generals, Antipater, tired of Alexander’s refusal to return home to Macedon and led a conspiracy to eliminate the king and replace him with another general, Selecus. The conspirators’ actions led to the deaths of those in line to succeed Alexander: Cleitus, Calanus and Hephaestion. The Doctor’s party was implicated in the deaths, but Alexander judged them innocent - especially after the Doctor and Ian respectively proved their worthiness by walking barefoot on hot coals and winning a wrestling match.
Alexander fell ill (or was poisoned) and refused treatment upon learning from the Doctor’s group that his dream of uniting the entire world was destined to fail. Antipater’s plot was exposed, and Selecus killed Antipater to keep his own treachery secret. Within minutes of Alexander’s death, his remaining generals started squabbling over his throne. Ptolemy aided the Doctor and his friends in making their getaway, and pledged to improve upon the city of Alexandria - and to build an immense library there in Alexander’s honour.
The Thousand Year War on Skaro
On the planet Skaro, the Thals and the Kaleds went to war. During the first century of the conflict, chemical weapons were used, and monstrous mutations developed in the Thal and Kaled gene pool. To keep their races pure, all Mutos were cast out into the wastelands that now covered the planet. As the war continued, resources became more scarce for the foot soldiers - plastic and rifles gave way to animal skins and clubs, but both sides developed ever-more potent missiles. The war would last for a thousand years until there were only two cities left, protected by thick domes. [135]
Ancient China
The Great Wall of China was built around 300 BC. [136] As a young boy, Qin Shi Huang found a spaceship bearing an alien: Meng Tian. Huang used Meng Tian’s knowledge to unite China’s warring states and become its first emperor. [137] At the time the Ch’in dynasty ruled in China, the Eternals kidnapped a crew of Chinese sailors. [138] At some point, the Celestial Toymaker’s games became interwoven into the fabric of Imperial China. [139]
c 210 BC - The Emperor of Eternity [140]
The TARDIS materialised in space, and deflected a meteor toward China. Li Si, a chancellor to the Emperor Qin Shi Huang, regarded the meteor landing as a bad omen and had the people of Dongjun put to death lest they speak of it. The second Doctor, Jamie and Victoria arrived in the village ten days later. Li Si captured the travellers and the TARDIS, but Qin - who had been masquerading as a monk - was saddened to learn the atrocities committed in his name and gave the Doctor’s party permission to leave.
In 210 BC, an alien intelligence copied the minds of Qin Shi Huang and two of his generals into a stone engram. They would remain dormant until 1865 AD. [141]
c 210 BC - “The Immortal Emperor” [142]
The tenth Doctor and Donna saw the Great Wall of China, and found that Emperor Qin Shi Huang’s first general - Meng Tian - was an alien who had built an army of terracotta robots. Following an assassination attempt, Meng Tian had given the Emperor an artificial body. The Emperor learned of Meng Tian’s plans to conquer Earth and slew him - but in doing so became inert and destroyed his palace.
The Jex brutally subjugated the Canavitchi, killing two-thirds of them. The Canavitchi successfully revolted, and swore to eradicate their former masters. [143] Two thousand years ago, Varan Tak from the Anthropology Unit on Oskerion was marooned in the asteroid belt when his spacecraft was damaged. He began collecting specimens from Earth. [144] The Star Abacus of Beta Phoenii 9 was destroyed by the Paragon Virus in 87 BC. [145]
Ancient Rome
101 BC (January) - 100: “100 BC” [146]
The sixth Doctor and Evelyn, mistakenly thinking they’d gone forward to 100 BC instead of backwards to 101 BC, arrived as the parents of Julius Caesar hailed the birth of a girl, Julia. The travellers wrongly concluded their “previous visit” had altered Julius’ conception, causing him to be born with two X chromosomes. They attempted to “go back” in time, hoping to put history back on course.
101 BC (October) - 100: “100 BC” [147]
The sixth Doctor and Evelyn happened to meet Senator Gaius Julius Caesar the elder and his wife Aurelia - the parents of Julius Caesar - and left upon realising that love was in the air.
They returned after an erroneous trip back in time, convinced that their presence had delayed Julius’ conception, causing him to be born a girl. They eventually realised that they’d witnessed the birth of Caesar’s sister, and that Julius hadn’t been born yet. Aurelia, suitably in the mood, lured her husband into bed.
The Doctor met Julius Caesar. [148] The eighth Doctor, Fitz and Trix defeated Thorgan of the Sulumians. He had been planning to prevent the signing of the Treaty of Brundusium. [149] At the height of the Roman Empire, the War Lords lifted a Roman battlefield. [150] The Celestial Toymaker abducted a Roman legionary. [151] The second Doctor, Jamie and Victoria attended a gladiator fight in ancient Rome, and Victoria was appalled by the violence. [152]
One of the splinters of Scaroth was a man of influence in Ancient Rome. [153] The Doctor visited Rome, met Hannibal and Cleopatra, and was very impressed by the swordsmanship of Cleopatra’s bodyguard. [154] The captain of Cleopatra’s guard was a “friend of a friend” to Ace, and taught her the art of sword fighting. [155] The tenth Doctor mentioned meeting Cleopatra. [156] and was familiar with the size of Cleopatra’s bedchamber. [157] According to the Doctor, Cleopatra was a pushover. [158] with “the grace of a carpet flea”. [159] Iris Wildthyme’s companion Panda said Cleopatra was an “incorrigible woman”. [160]
10 BC - State of Change [161]
After watching Cleopatra’s barge on the Nile in 41 BC, the sixth Doctor and Peri had decided to travel a little way into the future to follow the history of Rome. The Rani compelled a Vortex entity, Iam, to copy the Doctor’s TARDIS console, but this also duplicated a section of the Earth around 32 BC, creating a flat disc-shaped world. The TARDIS console was duplicated and came to rest on the copied Earth, where it was regarded as an Oracle.
With information from this Oracle, the Roman Empire made great advancements. The battle of Actium wen
t against Octavian and Agrippa because they faced opponents with steamships. Electric lighting, airships and explosives were developed. The culmination of this technology was Ultimus, the Roman Empire’s atomic bomb programme. Capable of kiloton yields, Ultimus could destroy any known city. Cleopatra’s three children - Cleopatra Selene, Alexander and Ptolemy - ruled as a triumvirate.
The Doctor defeated the Rani’s plans, and convinced Iam to relocate Terra Nova into the real universe. It settled into an unoccupied sector of space.
Anno Domini
The Doctor claimed he was at the original Christmas, and “got the last room” at the inn. [162] The Doctor took Leonardo da Vinci back to the very first Christmas in Bethlehem, so Leo could study the local light and colour for his adoration painting. Leonardo was fearful of visiting Christ’s manager, so he and the Doctor had a slap-up dinner before returning to the fifteenth century. [163]
27 AD - TW: Exit Wounds [164]
Jack Harkness’ brother, Gray, forced Captain John Hart to bury the immortal Jack beneath the future site of Cardiff. He would remain trapped until 1901.
The Doctor remembered the original Easter. [165] Joseph Liebermann, who would encounter the seventh Doctor in 1888, claimed to be the Wandering Jew of legend. [166]
The Doctor visited the court of Caligula. [167] The Meddling Monk and his companion Lucie Miller met Caligula. [168]
c 39 AD - Iris: The Two Irises [169]
Iris Hilary Wildthyme - a projection of Iris’ bus - and Panda visited Caligula’s Rome for a toga party and some tai chi.
In the spring of 43, the Romans invaded Britain. They were led by Emperor Claudius, who was in Britain for a total of sixteen days. [170]
46 AD (winter) - Demon Quest: The Relics of Time [171]
The fourth Doctor and Mrs Wibbsey arrived on the trail of the TARDIS’ spatial geometer. A group of Celts considered Mrs Wibbsey a soothsayer, and she went into a trance, displaying knowledge she couldn’t possibly possess. This convinced them to attack a rival tribe, which had a “wizard” and “monster”. The next morning, the Doctor and Wibbsey went to the village and discovered that the monster was an elephant and the wizard was a disguised Emperor Claudius, who had run away from his army for a quiet life. Except... “Claudius” was not the genuine article, but the shapechanging Demon luring the Doctor and Wibbsey through time. [172] As the two British tribes made their peace, “Claudius” entered a dematerialisation chamber in his dwelling and vanished. The Doctor rescued the elephant from the hungry Celts, and the TARDIS headed for its next destination: the Moulin Rouge.
The Iceni, a Celtic tribe led by Boudicca, razed many Roman-occupied British towns to the ground. [173] Roundstone Wood in England always “stayed wild”; in ancient times, it was considered bad luck to collect wood there. The Romans in Britain stayed clear of it. [174]
Iris Wildthyme claimed that Salome did the fan dance with the Doctor’s scarf. [175] A great earthquake in Vesuvius in 62 AD released some of the Pyroviles from their ancient slumber. The eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD caused a rift in time that retroactively gave some of the young girls of Pompeii the gift of prophecy. Some of their number formed the Sybiline Cult. The TARDIS’ arrival was foretold in the Thirteenth Book of the Sybiline Oracles. [176] The Pyroviles were unable to return to their homeworld, Pryovillia, because it had been stolen by the Daleks for their reality bomb. [177]
Pliny the Elder gave the Doctor some smelling salts. [178] The Celestial Toymaker took some inspiration for his games from the Roman Coliseum. [179]
64 AD - The Rescue [180]
The TARDIS landed on the side of a hill and toppled from it.
64 AD - Byzantium! [181]
The TARDIS had materialised just outside Byzantium. The Romans mistook Ian for a contemporary Briton and granted him some respect as a citizen of the Empire. Ian helped the Roman General Gaius Calaphilus and his political opponent, city praefectus Thalius Maximus, to settle their differences. Calaphilus and Maximus united efforts to purge corruption from the city, instigating a period of reform.
The first Doctor met the scribes Reuben, Rayhab and Amos, and helped them to translate the Gospel of Mark into Greek, producing a version that complemented the writings of Matthew the tax-gatherer.
Returning to the TARDIS, the travellers discovered that the Roman Germanicus Vinicius has found the TARDIS and taken it to his villa near Rome. They followed it there...
64 AD (June to July) - The Romans [182]
The first Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Vicki spent nearly a month at a deserted villa just outside Rome. Becoming bored by the lack of adventure, the Doctor and Vicki travelled to the capital. Captured by slave traders, Ian and Barbara were sold at auction. Ian escaped, but ended up as a gladiator in Rome. Barbara became the servant of the Emperor Nero’s wife, Poppea, and the object of the Emperor’s attentions. The Doctor, meanwhile, was posing as the musician Maximus Pettulian (despite a complete lack of musical ability). When the Doctor accidentally set fire to Nero’s plans to rebuild Rome, the Emperor was inspired. As Rome began to burn, the four time travellers returned to the TARDIS.
A Dalek arrived in Roman Britain from the Time War, with orders to imprint the population with the Dalek Factor. Its capsule malfunctioned, and it was only able to release a tiny amount of the Factor before being buried. [183]
Volcano Day
79 AD - The Fires of Vulcan [184]
The seventh Doctor and Mel arrived in Pompeii, just as Mount Vesuvius became active. The TARDIS was trapped in the rubble of a collapsed building, preventing their escape. The Doctor managed to antagonise the gladiator Murranus by beating him in a dice game. The Doctor and Mel escaped to the TARDIS just as the volcano erupted, destroying Pompeii and the surrounding area.
(=) Temporal distortion resulted in an alternate history where Vesuvius took much longer to erupt, and the city’s populace evacuated in their boats. [185]
The tenth Doctor and Martha had some “unlucky business” at Mount Vesuvius. [186] Valnaxi refugees hid themselves and some of their works of art in a warren on Earth, to prevent destruction by their enemy, the Wurms. [187]
79 AD (22nd-23rd August) - The Fires of Pompeii [188]
The tenth Doctor and Donna arrived in what they thought was Rome, but which turned out to be Pompeii, the day before the great eruption. The Doctor told Donna that Vesuvius erupting was a fixed point in time, and so they couldn’t save the doomed people. They learned that the Pyroviles intended to convert all of humanity into stone creatures, and so used the Pyroviles’ own technology to engineer the historic eruption of Vesuvius, destroying them.
Twenty thousand people died in Pompeii, but Donna persuaded the Doctor to save the family of Lobus Caecilius, a marble trader.
(=) Had the Doctor and Donna not intervened, the Pyroviles would have created a Pompeii-based empire that would have overthrown Rome and encompassed the whole world. [189]
Six months after the eruption, Caecilius and his family had set themselves up in Rome, and had an altar dedicated to the Doctor, Donna and their temple: the TARDIS. [190]
102 - The Pandorica Opens / The Big Bang [191]
Projections made by a number of alien races indicated that the Doctor’s TARDIS would explode in such a way that would destroy history. All universes were threatened. A coalition of alien races, brought together using the Cracks in Time for travel, sought to prevent this and laid a trap that the Doctor couldn’t resist. Psychic blueprints were taken from Amy Pond’s house in 2010, and used to construct a vault under Stonehenge - Underhenge - in 102 AD. Within the vault was placed the Pandorica: a fabled prison rumoured to contain “a nameless, terrible thing, soaked in the blood of a billion galaxies”, but which was actually patterned from one of Amy’s childhood storybooks, The Legend of Pandora’s Box.
The alliance against the Doctor included the Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans, Terileptils, Nestenes and their Autons, Drahvins, Chelonians, Slitheen, Sycorax and their roboforms, Haemo-goths, Zygons, Atraxi, Draco
nians, Hoix, Judoon, Uvodni, Blowfish, Weevils and Silurians. Autons posed as Roman soldiers, as patterned from The Story of Roman Britain. The conspirators also used Amy’s psychic residue to bring Rory Williams back to life as an Auton - he was unaware that he wasn’t human.
The Underhenge broadcast a signal: “The Pandorica is opening.” Per instructions that Vincent van Gogh left on the painting The Pandorica Opens, River Song arrived at Stonehenge and posed as Cleopatra. She summoned the eleventh Doctor and Amy, and they all examined Underhenge and the Pandorica.
A vast fleet of diverse starships appeared above the Earth - a Dalek fleet (a minimum of twelve thousand Dalek battleships), Cyberships and four Sontaran battlefleets. River attempted to relocate the TARDIS to aid the Doctor, but was taken to the year 2010 instead. Rory’s Auton programming activated, and he mortally wounded Amy. The Doctor insisted that he wasn’t responsible for the destruction of the TARDIS, but the leaders of the alliance sealed him in the Pandorica. The TARDIS exploded in 2010 anyway.
The Doctor travelled back from 1996, and had Rory free his past self from the Pandorica. They put Amy’s body in his place, knowing that the Pandorica would keep her in stasis, healing her when it obtained a sample of her future DNA. Rory remained behind to guard the Pandorica - he would do so for nearly two thousand years, spurring the legend of the Lone Centurion.
In 118, the Pandorica was taken back to Rome under armed guard. [192] The Vondrax killed many in Syria, the second century AD, while retrieving one of their Orbs. [193]
120 - The Stone Rose [194]
The tenth Doctor and Rose arrived in Rome, hoping to explain how a statue of Rose from the second century ended up in the British Museum in the twenty-first. They discovered a GENIE from the year 2375 and captured it, preventing the damage its reality-altering powers could cause.
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