A History of the Whoniverse

The Twenty-fifth Century (2401-2500)

Early in this century, large numbers of colonies were becoming independent of the corporations and [temporarily] from Earth. Humanity was in a phase of consolidation rather than colonisation. Whilst Earth and the Corporations were, for the moment, politically weak, the Adjudicators were increasingly important.

Decalog 4 (page 110).

c. 2401

A Prison Colony is established on the planet Justice Prime. Starting with the SCAT-House, a prison for aliens that attempts to use their intellect to drive forward human science, the prison would grow until the entire Justicia system was one big prison.

Dennel mentions the "Governor's centenary shake-up" on page 32 of The Monsters Inside (set 2501). It's unclear whether this refers to the prison he's in or the entire Justicia prison system. Given its location on the edge of the galaxy, I'm inclined to go for the second option.

2405

DECALOG 4: BURNING BRIGHT

On Vance's Planet, a world controlled by Mesotech, there are widespread water riots, connected to the drug scop and the disease Cholera X. At the same time, there are breakdowns in the weather control system. The 24 weather satellites are sabotaged. This makes them leave orbit, and burn up in the atmosphere. The riots stop immediately after this.

There is no date to this story. Page 110 suggests that this happens in the late 24th or early 25th century. As the rest of the book seems to be one story per century, I've chosen to place it in the 24th century.

2407

George Lichbergh writes an account of Menaxan actor Hagan.

The account is seen on page 134 of Theatre of War.

2413

The Elysium colonists discovered the Artefact in their system.

About 100 years before Parasite.

2417

In the midst of a war with the Draconians, IMC set up the Mecrim project. This aimed to create a genetically engineered super-killer. The project was closed down when a Mecrim gut microbe proved fatal to the researchers.

The Menagerie.

2420

The police in the Uva Beta Uva system break up the Nisbitt firm, who were responsible for a large portion of organised crime in the system.

Five years before The Romance of Crime.

2421

Gustav Ernst publishes his book Being an Account of my Discovery of the Unnameable Secrets of Sakkrat. Its publishers are the Magick Quarterhouse Computer Press, Glastonbury.

The details and an extract are seen in The Highest Science (page 1).

The Doctor meets a Stigorax.

The Happiness Patrol. This happened sometime in the 25th century.

2422

Xais is vaporised. Shortly beforehand, the artist Menlove Stokes takes a Helicon cast of her face.

Three years before The Romance of Crime.

2425

28th February

A mining survey on Uva Beta Uva 11 ends when everyone involved is mysteriously killed.

21st-22nd April 2425

THE ROMANCE OF CRIME

The Nisbitt brothers attack the Rock prison. During the course of events, the High Archon and chief of security are killed. After this, planet 11 is declared out of bounds due to some kind of contamination.

It's 150 years after the mining gold rush (page 8), but nearly 200 years after the founding of Uva Beta Uva (page 128). The exact date is stated on page 46.

The detective Spiggot writes an account of the Nisbitt Brothers' attack on the Rock prison. The account portrays Spiggot as the hero, and the artist Stokes as a bumbling fool. Stokes takes exception to this, and sues Spiggot for a share of the royalties. Stokes is ruined, and goes on a drinking binge, where he meets the Black Guardian. Stokes then books himself into the Dozing Decades cryo-mort on Fridgya, demanding that he is only woken when his work is re-evaluated and properly appreciated.

According to Stokes in The Well Mannered War chapter 3, pages 36-37 and chapter 12, pages 11-12.

c. 2436

A new distress frequency comes into use.

According to the Doctor in The Murder Game (page 7) the frequency won't come into use "for another three centuries" from 2136 (page 6).

? 2450s

Dobtcheff's race is in dire need of military aid. They send several ships to Earth to ask for help. The humans mistakenly believe that the aliens are an invasion force, and destroy them.

This is "hundreds of years" after Short Trips and Side Steps: Reunion (page 196), and Dobtcheff subsequently travels back over 800 years (page 197), which is an unknown number of generations before the late 1990s. I speculate that Reunion takes place at about the midway point between those two times.

By the mid-25th century, Earth was showing the first signs of empire. Earth's population had reached 100 billion. Most of them lived in 300-storey floating islands, the forerunners of the later overcities. The central government was authoritarian, and turned a blind eye to abuses of power by corporations such as IMC. Minerals and food supplies were often supplied from plundered alien worlds. Despite the pressure for living space, there were still relics of earlier human history, [maintained solely to keep the population happy]. These included a Beatles museum in Liverpool [or at least what used to be Liverpool] and at least one medieval castle. Other local attractions in that area included the Campus Manor Theme Park, The Beatles Memorial Theatre [possibly that was the museum], The Saint Francis of Fazakerley Museum, the Karl Jung Dream Tour, Post Industrial Land, and a number of Cathedrals. Liddell Towers in New London gave a history that [to some] seemed to consist primarily of the story of Alice in Wonderland and the Daleks' invasion of Earth. Education was more advanced than ever before. Ten-year-olds now knew physics, medicine, chemistry, and computer science. Clothes were now of higher quality, being able to self-clean, repel dirt and avoid creasing. One major city was New London, where ambient lighting made the stars almost impossible to see. One form of education was the UK-201's didactomatic box.

This is the background to Colony in Space and The Rescue. The bit about New London's lighting is taken from Byzantium! pages 33-34. Some details about Liverpool come from Short Trips Companions: Apocrypha Bipedium page 35.

2468

Flowers is born.

She muses that she will be 40 in three years time on page 119 of The Monsters Inside.

2471

The Blathereen family led by Don Arco begin investigating the possibility of gravity warps in the Justicia system.

Thirty years before The Monsters Inside page 205.

March 2472

COLONY IN SPACE

On the planet Uxarius, there is a dispute between its new colonists and IMC. An Adjudicator eventually rules in the colonists' favour. In the course of events, an ancient native city is destroyed. This leads to increased crop yields, as native machinery had been pumping out pollutants.

We see a calendar for this year, though the days of the week are wrong. The colonists left Earth in 2171. In the prologue to Face of the Enemy, (page 2) Jo remembers this trip as having taken her 'five hundred years' into the future.

2473

SET PIECE

A number of spacecraft mysteriously disappear from a particular space lane. A third of these ships are later discovered without their crew and passengers. The cause is never discovered.

This is the 25th century (page 33).

2475

The Uva Beta Uva system is surveyed, and planet 11 is found to be just a piece of rock.

Fifty years after The Romance of Crime (page 246).

About this time, humans discovered and colonised the planet Solos.

About 500 years before The Mutants.

2479

Vicki is born. She lives in Liddell House on the South Circular Road in New London.

She is 14 in Byzantium! (page 27). Details of her home come from page 35.

WAR OF THE DALEKS: INTERLUDE 3

The Daleks attack the planet Hesperus, which is inhabited by Mechanoids - sent to prepare the world for human habitation.

The Mechanoids arrived 275 years ago according to page 213. I assume they were sent out around the same time as those seen in The Chase, which was the early 23rd Century.

2481

Dennel is born.

According to The Monsters Inside, page 33. He was 13 when he was incarcerated, which was seven years before the story.

2486

TOMB OF THE CYBERMEN

An archaeological expedition arrives on Telos, looking for the remains of the Cybermen. They discover the hidden CyberTombs. Their activity re-activates the tombs, but fortunately for them, they are able to reseal them.

This story is an unspecified time before Attack of the Cybermen - and, presumably, all the Cyberman stories from Earthshock onwards - due to the design of the Cybermen. Professor Parry believes that the Cybermen died out 500 years ago. Humans and Cybermen were in conflict up until about 2200, so that would place this story in 2700. However, Earthshock is set in 2526. Perhaps the earlier CyberWars were forgotten in this time period and Parry is referring to the destruction of Mondas. This solution, widely adopted in chronologies (including this one), has a major flaw. Basically, there is no reason for people to go looking for CyberTombs if you don't know that there were Cybermen who had left Mondas.

Shortly after this, the Telosian Cybermen are discovered by a group of CyberNomads. [Possibly, the awakened Telosian Cybermen sent out a coded signal, which attracted the CyberNomads]. The two groups pool technologies and create a new race of CyberNeomorphs.

This was first suggested in David Banks' Cybermen. It explains the radical change in the appearance of Cybermen from Earthshock onwards; and is widely accepted as an established fact in histories. It has to happen sufficiently before Earthshock for the Cybermen to have completely overhauled their design.

c. 2490

SHAKEDOWN

The Sontarans discover a Rutan secret - there is a wormhole between Ruta III and the planet Sentarion, built to provide an escape route should Ruta III ever be in danger. The Sontarans attempt to travel down the wormhole, but it collapses and they are trapped.

According to the Rutan, "Karne died long ago" (page 66), but he is still a recent memory. However, in Mean Streets, (set in the late 26th Century) these events are just about within living memory.

Vicki's mother dies.

This was when she was 11, according to Byzantium! page 96.

2493

THE RESCUE

The UK-201 crashes on the planet Dido. The only survivors are a young girl called Vicki and a man called Bennett. When Bennett is killed by the Didonians, Vicki is rescued by the Doctor.

Vicki says that the ship left Earth in 2493. There's no indication that this is much later than that.

Don Arco moves to the Justicia System, beginning the process of infiltrating the prison system.

He has spent eight years in the field by page 205 of The Monsters Inside.

2494

Dennel is imprisoned in the Justicia system on a "minor charge" of arson. He had set fire to empty buildings as a distraction whilst his father was robbing the bank round the corner.

Seven years before The Monsters Inside page 33.

Flowers begins a ten-year contract at the SCAT house on Justicia.

Seven years before The Monsters Inside page 119.

2495

Rizwana Mani is imprisoned on Justicia when her mother is caught out as a benefit cheat - claiming for four more children than she actually had.

Six years before The Monsters Inside page 45.

2499

Flowers creates a chart of the Justicia System based on her own observations.

Two years before The Monsters Inside page 100.

2500

The Doctor meets a Legion.

The Crystal Bucephalus. This was said to have been in the 25th century, as well as shortly before the Second Dalek War (which happened in the mid-26th century). I, therefore, place it at the end of the century. This is an attempt to reconcile the two statements without having to resort to the (admittedly established) argument that people in the 26th Century have several calendars - one of which says that they're in the 25th Century.