B00DPX9ST8 EBOK

by Parkin, Lance

  (=) The eleventh Doctor, Amy and Rory photographed a Roman-built road in England that had been diverted around Swallow Woods. [195]

  Jack Harkness attempted to sell tickets to horse racing in second century Rome to the Cephalids, but they didn’t understand the concept. [196] On a visit to Condercum, the Doctor debated military ethics with a group of Romans fighting the Caledonians. [197] A group of third-century Romans was kidnapped by Varan Tak. [198] The Romans drove the Celts from their lands. Gallifreyan intervention allowed King Constantine to pass into the parallel world of Avalon. Even while sleeping, Constantine ruled Avalon for two thousand years. [199]

  A Roman legionary fell through the Rift to arrive in twenty-first century Cardiff. [200] The planet Quagreeg developed in the Sirius system as a marsh world that was a source of the rare metal telmonium, and was home to a race of unpleasant reptilians. One reptilian - later named the Sepulchre, after St. Sepulchre’s Church - developed within its mental landscape overlapping recreations of London in various time periods. The Sepulchre used dimensionally transcendental beams to transport various humans into the London-recreations within its mind, and did so with a Roman legion. [201] Ptolemy was immune to the Doctor’s psychic paper, meaning he was a genius. [202]

  = On one parallel Earth, later designated Roma I, the Roman Empire enjoyed a golden age as successive Emperors Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antonius Pius, Marcus Aurelius, Avidius Cassius, Septimus Severus, Publius Septimus, Claudius Gothicus, Domitius Aurelianus and Diocletian ruled wisely. The Rhine and Danube were crossed, and the Germanic peoples fled East; they spent centuries fighting the Huns, Vandals and Ostrogoths. Rome was free to concentrate elsewhere. Constantine conquered Asia. [203]

  Around 200, the Doctor defeated a silicon-based life form called the Ogre of Hyfor Three - its foot ended up in the British Museum. [204]

  The Demon Melanicus was a native of Althrace, a member of the race of Kalichura. He sought to conquer the advanced culture, generating legends of gods and demons. His armies were defeated and Melanicus fled to third century Earth, where he came in a dream to the tyrant king Catavolcus. Melanicus bestowed great power on him and the secrets of time travel. [205]

  c 275 - “The Futurists” [206]

  Valente and Secundus, two Roman soldiers fighting in Wales, saw a green fire in the sky. The energy enveloped Valente. Shortly afterwards, the tenth Doctor and Rose arrived from 1925 and defeated the alien Hajor, who were attempting to master Time.

  The Doctor challenged Fenric to solve a chess puzzle. Fenric failed, and the Doctor imprisoned him in a flask, banishing him to the Shadow Dimensions. [207] By the end of the third century, the Old Silk Road to and from Cathay had been opened. [208] The Cult of Demnos had apparently died out by the fourth century. [209]

  (=) In a potential timeline, the Daleks used time machines to invade Roman Britain in 305. [210]

  (=) 305 - Seasons of Fear [211]

  The Roman Decurion Gralae worshipped Mithras, and had made contact with the Nimon, who posed as his god. They granted Gralae eternal life in return for his making sacrifices to them.

  The eighth Doctor met Gralae at this time. Between now and his next meeting with the Doctor, seven hundred and fifty years later, Gralae would become known as “Grayle” and spend eighty years repenting with monks. He married twelve times, all his wives dying of old age while he stayed young.

  The eighth Doctor sent some Nimon from 1806 to here, and rallied the Roman troops to wipe them out. He then rewrote history by buying out Gralae’s commission before he met the Nimon.

  A time warp briefly sent a Roman soldier to the late twentieth century. [212]

  325 (May) - The Council of Nicea [213]

  The Roman Emperor Constantine held a conference in Nicaea so bishops could settle issues of dispute within the Christian Church. Among other concerns, the assembled council sought to decide the matter of Christ’s divinity. The deacon Athanasius believed Christ was divine, but the presbyter Arius held that Christ was subordinate to God. Erimem found Arius to be honourable and aided his cause, threatening to derail history. Tensions mounted, but the fifth Doctor encouraged Constantine to defuse the situation with his oratory skills. In accordance with history, the Council adopted Athanaisus’ views.

  The Doctor was ejected from the staff at the Library of Alexandria after he misshelved the Dead Sea Scrolls. [214] Iris Wildthyme paid a visit to the library at Alexandria. [215] The Doctor saved two Aristophanes plays from the destruction of the Great Library of Alexandria. [216] The Rani kidnapped Hypatia to become part of her Time Brain. [217]

  In 375, Mongol hordes swept into central Europe... and were wiped out by Nazi tanks. [218] The Doctor suggested that the joke “What’s the most ruthless thing in the bakery… Attila the Bun!” was much funnier if you had known the man. [219] Venice was founded by refugees from Attila the Hun. [220] In 420, the Pandorica was taken from Rome during a raid by the Franks. [221] The Roman Empire fell; both the Doctor and Rory Williams witnessed it. [222]

  The world of the Omnim was lost when the resonances they created shattered it. Remnants of the Omnim’s mental energies existed in a few fragments, one of which became rogue asteroid D35XQ2. [223] The original colonists of the planet Karagula found the heat of its twin suns unbearable - some went underground and became the Darksmith Collective, practitioners of the dark arts. They learned to break and reassemble reality, moulding time and space much like a child would play with wet sand. For centuries, the Darksmiths accepted commissions to make “impossible, wonderful frightening things”. [224]

  Energy beings, the Pyralis, swarmed throughout the constellation of Kasterborous and were defeated after a century-long war. They were imprisoned within a temporal void for millennia, even as their obelisk-shaped dimensional gateways remained dormant on some worlds. [225]

  In 514 AD, warfare broke out on the planet Q’ell. The Recruiter, a device created to destroy the Ceracai race, extended the war as part of its programming. The conflict would last until the twentieth century, and cause at least 2,846,014,032 casualties. [226]

  = On Roma I, Roman Emperor Justinian was crowned Emperor of India. By the time of his death, he was also Emperor of America. The Romans had discovered the continent and the Native Americans, like so many previous civilisations, were keen to be togafied. [227]

  In the seventh century, Lord Roche’s TARDIS crashed in England and died on impact. One of the Furies trapped within starved to death, but the other survived until the Ship was discovered in 1999. [228]

  c 600 - TW: “Rift War” [229]

  The Cardiff Rift briefly transported Jack Harkness and Gwen Cooper back in time. Their duplicitous ally Vox went through the Rift and guided them back home.

  The Doctor caught a huge salmon in Fleet and shared it with the Venerable Bede (who “adored fish”). [230] Bede made the Doctor the Dean of Westminster Abbey. [231] The Necronomicon was written by Abdul Al-Hazred, a mad poet of Sanaa, in Damascus around 730. [232] Around this period, Monarch left Urbanka for the last time. [233] The Rani visited Earth during the so-called “Dark Ages”. [234]

  The Galactic Heritage Foundation emerged as an organisation to halt alien property development on planets with indigenous populations. In the eighth century, the third princess Tabetha of Cerrenis Minor spent a weekend in Lewisham. Despite her finding it all a bit gauche, Earth was accorded a low-level ranking of Grade 4, which put it under the Foundation’s protection.

  With planets under such development bans selling for cheap, the Frantige Two native named Martin purchased a hundred or so worlds for next to nothing. Among his acquisitions, he bought the planet Earth for a few thousand Arcturan ultra-pods from a Navarino time-share salesman going through a messy divorce. The Navarino threw in the rest of Earth’s solar system for free. [235]

  The Doctor defeated the Tzun at Mimosa II in 733. [236]

  = “Sideways in time” on an Earth where the truth about King Arthur was closer to the myths of our world, a future incarnati
on of the Doctor was known as Merlin. During the eighth century, Arthur and Morgaine fought against one another, despite their childhood together at Selladon. The Doctor cast down Morgaine at Badon with his mighty arts.

  Eventually, though, Morgaine was victorious and Arthur was killed. The Doctor placed Arthur’s body and Excalibur in a semi-organic spaceship, and transferred it to the bottom of Lake Vortigern in our dimension. Morgaine imprisoned the Doctor forever in the Ice Caves, and went on to become Empress of the solar system. [237]

  Godric, a swordsman in the age when Arthur ruled, found the Holy Grail in a freshwater spring. A wood dryad seduced Godric into her tree, where he slept until 1936. The Doctor claimed to have taught Lancelot how to use a sword at King Arthur’s court. [238]

  The Birth of the Daleks

  The planet Skaro was the birthplace of the Kaleds and the Thals, and had formerly been home to such wiped-out races as the Tharons and the Dals. Skaro had two moons: Falkus and Omega Mysterium. [239]

  & 683 - I, Davros: Innocence [240]

  The Kaleds and Thals had warred with each other for centuries, and neither side remembered what started their conflict. Davros was born to an influential Kaled family - his mother was Lady Calcula, a personal assistant to Councillor Quested, and his father was acknowledged as Nasgard, a senior military officer. Quested was actually Davros’ biological father. Davros’ half-sister, Yarvell, was in the Military Youth. A House of Congress governed the Kaleds.

  When Davros was 16, Calcula murdered her husband and his sister, Tashek, to keep secret the truth about Davros’ parentage. Brogan, a major, was framed for the crime and executed. Davros’ interest in science grew, and he brutally subjected his tutor, Magrantine, to radiation to understand its effect on living tissue. He also killed Quested in a domestic dispute.

  & 696 - I, Davros: Purity [241]

  The Kaled-Thal war experienced a hiatus that some called the Unsigned Truce. The increasing chemical pollutants and radioactivity on Skaro mutated the Varga plants: flesh-eating vegetation that was formerly rooted in the ground, but now gained the ability to walk and hunt its prey. The name “Varga”, as deciphered from old cave paintings, came from the old Dal word for “devourer”.

  Davros had enlisted in the military because his family’s long tradition of service demanded it, but he longed to join the Scientific Corps. To win reassignment, he complied with the wishes of the Supremo, a high-ranking Kaled official, that he investigate an advanced Thal weapons facility. Davros’ team destroyed the facility, but Davros alone survived the mission. Calcula discovered that Yarvell, now a peace supporter, feared Davros’ potential for destruction and had warned her allies about his mission. Seeing her daughter as a threat to Davros’ advancement, Calcula drowned her. A Thal infiltrator was blamed for Yarvell’s death, and Davros joined the Scientific Corps.

  & 709 - I, Davros: Corruption

  The environment on Skaro took a turn for the worse. There hadn’t been a summer for three years, nearly all animal life was extinct, and what little wildlife survived was in the Lake of Mutations, formerly known as Drammakin Lake. Now established within the Scientific Elite, Davros developed a blast ray with a range of three miles - its use consumed enough energy to power the Kaled city for seventy-three years, but a shot from it obliterated a fortified Thal command facility.

  The Supremo became wary of Davros’ ascent and desire to eradicate the Thals entirely, and sent an underling - Section Leader Fenn - to wreck his equipment and kill Calcula. She stopped Fenn by subjecting them both to fatal doses of radiation. Davros learned of the Supremo’s involvement in his mother’s death, and blackmailed him - henceforth, the Kaled Science Division would have autonomy, and the Elite could requisition any and all resources. Councillor Valron was framed for Calcula’s murder.

  Fifty years before the end of the war between the Thals and the Kaleds on Skaro, the Kaleds set up an Elite group, based in a secret bunker below the Wasteland. It was run by chief scientist Davros, the greatest mind Skaro had ever seen. [242]

  & 709 - Davros / I, Davros: Corruption [243]

  Although he continued to develop weapons - one of which sunk the entire Thal Navy in a day - Davros had come to realise the war was futile. Prolonging the war with the Thals and using increasingly deadly weapons would mean that soon Skaro would become a dead planet. He believed that no other world could support life, and it was impossible to end the fighting, as both races would inevitably compete to exploit the same ecological niche. Logically, the Kaled race could not possibly survive.

  One of his research students, Shan, came up with what she called The Dalek Solution, a plan to reengineer the Kaled race to survive the pollution on Skaro. Fearing that Shan would become a more brilliant scientist than him, Davros framed her for treason and had her hanged.

  Davros was greatly injured, and the only survivor, when the Thals shelled his laboratory. He was given a poison injector to kill himself, as none of the Kaleds could bring themselves to put Davros out of his misery. At that moment, Davros realised how weak the Kaleds were and how true power was being able to grant life and death. [244]

  Davros was crippled, but survived by designing a life support system for himself. He created energy weapons, artificial hearts and a new material that reinforced the Kaled Dome. [245]

  & 759 - I, Davros: Guilt [246]

  Lieutenant Nyder successfully rescued Davros when the Thals briefly captured him, and thereby became his trusted aide.

  Davros demanded that the ruling Council of Twelve make all Kaled children the property of the state, so his biological experiments had access to the widest available stock. The Councillors unanimously voted against Davros, and so he killed them, attributing their deaths a faulty heat exchanger. Davros took charge until a new legislative body could be elected, and instigated a mandatory “child protection program” to oversee any Kaled younger than five.

  Davros successfully developed a Mark I travel machine - based upon his own life-support chair - that would house the form he believed the Kaleds would eventually mutate into. He and Nyder looked on as the first “Dalek” - a Dal word meaning “gods” - switched on and came to life.

  ? 760 - Genesis of the Daleks [247]

  Davros succeeded in selectively breeding an intelligent creature that could survive in the radiation-soaked, environmentally desolate world of Skaro. Using the Mark III Travel Machines, the Daleks could live in virtually any environment. The Time Lords foresaw a time when the Daleks had become the supreme power in the universe, and sent the fourth Doctor, Sarah and Harry back to the Daleks’ creation. They gave the Doctor three options: avert the Daleks’ creation; affect their genetic development so they might evolve in a less aggressive fashion; discover some inherent weakness that could be used against them. The Doctor destroyed the Daleks’ incubator room and entombed them in their bunker; he reckoned he had set Dalek development back a thousand years. He believed the existence of the Daleks would serve to unite races against them.

  The Doctor’s interference on Skaro spared thousands of worlds from enduring the Dalek wars. The Time Lords calmed the resulting time disruption. [248] At some point, at least a thousand years later, the Daleks developed space travel and began their galactic conquests. [249]

  The Hornet Swarm, a hivemind of tiny insects ruled by a powerfully telepathic Queen, drifted through space. In the early ninth century, the Swarm accidentally ended up on Earth. They would develop plans to conquer it. [250]

  c 800 - “Doctor Conkerer!” [251]

  The seventh Doctor invented the game of conkers.

  The Book of Kells - a collection of manuscripts including the four Gospels, and which would become regarded as Ireland’s greatest national treasure - was created in an abbey founded by St. Columbia on the island of Iona. Vikings raided the abbey, and the monks fled to Ireland and Scotland, taking the Book with them. [252] The Vikings regarded the alien Vostok - who came to sleep beneath the polar icecap - as “the gods of the ice age”. [253]
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br />   The first Doctor was present when a fire ravaged Charlemagne’s library. [254]

  = On Roma I, the Roman Emperor Carolus Magnus, that Earth’s Charlemagne, defeated the Vikings. [255]

  The tenth Doctor rescued Charlemagne from the clutches of an insane computer. [256] The Catholic Church founded the Library of St John the Beheaded in the St Giles Rookery, a notorious area of Holborn, London. The library contained unique, suppressed and pagan texts, including information on “alternative zoology and phantasmagorical anthropology”. [257]

  The imprisoned Fenric still had influence over the Earth and the ability to manipulate the timelines. He summoned the Ancient One - a powerful Haemovore - from half a million years in the future. Over the centuries, the Ancient One followed the flask containing Fenric. It was stolen from Constantinople; Viking pirates took it to Northumbria. Slowly, the Ancient One followed it to Maiden’s Bay.

  By the tenth century, a nine-letter Viking alphabet was in use, although the later Vikings used a 16-letter version. Carvings in the earlier alphabet claimed that the Vikings were cursed, and they buried the flask in a burial site under St Jude’s church. [258]

  Merlin banished the Demon Melanicus from our universe. Melanicus waited a thousand years for an opportunity to escape the black, formless void. [259] Viking legends referred to the Timewyrm as Hel. [260] The seventh Doctor, Ace and Bernice were at an Angle settlement when the Vikings attacked it. [261] The Doctor met the Anglo-Saxon king Alfred the Great and his cook Ethelburg, “a dab hand at bear rissoles”. [262] The Doctor became known as Shango the thunder god of the Yoruba tribe when he demonstrated static electricity. [263]