A History of the Whoniverse

Early Human Civilisation

8,000-6,000 BC

The Osirans carve the Sphinx out of living rock.

The Doctor claims that this was "between eight and ten thousand years" before The Sands of Time page 234 (instalment 9, page 17).

5,519 BC

The Urbankans returned to Earth. They kidnapped a number of Chinese people, including the Mandarin Lin Futu and a number of dancers. This was during the mythical Futu dynasty.

Four to Doomsday.

c. 5,000 BC

Egyptian civilisation was thriving by this time. Their gods included Khnum (a Dæmon) and Scaroth's third segment, who posed as both a god and a Pharaoh responsible for some of the pyramids. Scaroth had had some contact with the Osirans, who convinced him that the Pyramids would help push human evolution in the way that he needed, so he oversaw the construction work for them.

Khnum is mentioned in The Dæmons, Scaroth in City of Death. The link between Scaroth and the Osirans is mentioned by the Doctor in The Sands of Time pages 241-242 (instalment 9, page 25).

Egypt was visited by the Osirians, as was Mars. Sutekh, the typhonian beast, and his sister Nephthys captured Osiris and sent him into space in a capsule without life support. They tracked the capsule to Egypt and destroyed it. However, Osiris managed to transfer some of his mind into another body, creating his son Horus. Sutekh went on to devastate half the galaxy, becoming known as Set, Sadok, and Satan. Eventually Horus and 740 other Osirians tracked Sutekh and Nephthys to Earth. They imprisoned him in a pyramid and her in a mummified human body, with her mind fragmented and stored in a canopic jar. They built the pyramid of Mars to house the Eye of Horus and set up a warning message. They were worshipped by the Egyptians. This Osirian influence unified the two Egyptian kingdoms and genetically modified the Egyptians to be taller and smarter.

The Osirians come from The Pyramids of Mars and The Sands of Time. Details are mentioned on pages 135, 141-142 and 188-189 (instalment 5, pages 20 and 28 and instalment 7, pages 14-15). The cult of Sutekh appears in Set Piece. This happened around about 5000 BC, according to The Sands of Time page 1 (instalment 1, page 2).

c.5000 BC

THE SANDS OF TIME

A group of priests, including Rassul, mummify a girl who is still alive.

The date is given on page 1 (instalment 1, page 2).

? 4,000 BC

An unknown alien species begins a racial war, the difference between the two races being so small that it required a blood test to tell the difference. One side launched robots into space to infiltrate the other side's bunkers. One of these robots missed its target, and eventually landed on Earth, possibly thousands of years after both its launch and the end of the war.

This is mentioned in Bunker Soldiers pages 251-252. The Doctor speculates that the robot was launched thousands of years ago on page 252, and that the war ended a ago on page 246.

? 3200 BC

Qataka is born on the planet Anu. Her people live for almost a thousand years, but she covets the long lifespans of the legendary Time Lords. She enhances herself with cybernetics, and learns to replace her brain tissue by stealing it from others, linking her mind to a computer system to keep her memories. She implants receivers in the minds of others so that, when she is executed for her crimes, the backup computer takes control of these slaves. She uses them to escape Anu and destroy the planet with a cobalt bomb. However, a large number of people survive on a craft built by Utnapishtim. Utnapishtim creates a computer virus to destroy Qataka, and their two ships battle throughout space.

This is Utnapishtim's account given on pages 172-175 of Timewyrm: Genesys. On page 62, Ishtar claims that she was born hundreds of years ago. The exact date is arbitrary.

c. 2714 BC

Ninani is born in Kish.

She is fourteen in Timewyrm: Genesys (page 51).

c. 2713 BC

En-Gula is born in Kish.

She is thirteen in Timewyrm: Genesys (page 64).

c. 2706 BC

En-Gula becomes an orphan. She is taken into the temple of Ishtar.

When she was seven, according to Timewyrm: Genesys page 64.

c. 2701 BC

En-Gula becomes a priestess (temple prostitute) of Ishtar.

A year before Timewyrm: Genesys page 64.

c.2700 BC

The songsmith Avram meets and talks to the Guardians near Utnapishtim's ship.

A few weeks before Timewyrm: Genesys page 168.

c. 2700 BC

TIMEWYRM: GENESYS

Qataka's and Ishtar's ships fight their final battle in Earth's solar system. Ishtar's ship is destroyed, but she uses an escape pod to land on Earth. There, she poses as the goddess Ishtar. Gilgamesh, king of Uruk encounters Ishtar and rejects her attempts to lure him - however, she soon enslaves the high priest of the rival city of Kish. Meanwhile, Utnapishtim's ship has to make an emergency landing, and chooses a spot well away from local cities. The crew prove unable to repair the ship.

The gods Aya (goddess of the dawn) and Ea (god of wisdom) help Gilgamesh against some soldiers from Kish. They join Gilgamesh and his companion Enkidu in investigating Ishtar's hold on Kish. Aya and Gilgamesh journey a week to the mountains to meet Utnapishtim, believed to be a survivor of the great flood. Utnapishtim gives them aid against Ishtar, who is defeated.

Gilgamesh marries Ninani, daughter of Agga, king of Kish, and the songsmith Avram marries En-Gula, a priestess of Ishtar. In a couple of years, Enkidu will die of a wasting disease causing Gilgamesh to tire of Ninani, invade Kish, and enslave its people.

The ship crashed in the prologue, which was 2 days before page 7. This, in turn, is a matter of weeks before page 24. Ishtar has been in Kish for up to 40 days by page 103, and Ace and Gilgamesh's journey to find Utnapishtim takes a week. What happens in a couple of years is the Doctor's account of history from pages 218-219.

c. 2650 BC

THE DALEKS' MASTERPLAN

During a pursuit of the first Doctor, the Daleks arrived in Egypt whilst a pyramid was being built. There was a pitched battle recorded between the Daleks and the Egyptians. Records of this were detailed enough to enable Ace to identify the Daleks some 13 centuries later.

The Pyramid may be that of Cheops, which was completed about this time. Ace examines the records in Set Piece.

The Doctor claimed to have offered advice on tomb paintings to the ancient Egyptians.

Decalog 3: UNITed we fall. He was looking at the Temple of Dendur in the Metropolitan Museum, New York at the time. As I don't have a clue what date the exhibition is supposed to be from, I've assigned an arbitrary Egyptian date.

c. 2500 BC

The Atlanteans acquired the Kronos crystal, [possibly from the Dæmons]. The crystal turned one of king Dalios' friends into a Minotaur, resulting in a total ban on all uses of the crystal.

The Time Monster. 537 years before the fall of Atlantis.

c. 2350 BC

The Uxarians utilised genetic engineering to become a psychic super-race. They also created a Doomsday Weapon, which was capable of making stars go nova. This was, presumably, along the same lines as the Hand of Omega. [Did a renegade Time Lord help them to build it?] After they tested the weapon (creating the crab nebula), radiation leakage from its power source poisoned the soil, reducing the Uxarians to primitives. [This may have been partly due to intervention by the Time Lords.]

Colony in Space.

c. 2300 BC

Scaroth's fourth segment may have helped create the first astronomical measurements in China.

City of Death. The phrase "causing the heavens to be mapped" could instead refer to the development of astronomy in 17th century Europe.

c. 2000 BC

THE SANDS OF TIME

Tomb robbers break into the pyramid containing the evil impulses of Nephthys. The robbery results in the breaking of the jar containing her evil impulses.

The date is on page 57 (instalment 2, page 18).

c. 1900 BC

The secret exit from the palace of concubines is built.

Erimem estimates it to be nearly 500 years old in The Eye of the Scorpion episode 2.

c. 1700 BC

THE SANDS OF TIME

A woman appears at a particular time and place to fulfil a prophecy. She is taken to be the perfect sacrifice to Horus. She is mummified whilst still alive, and placed into a very deep metabolic coma.

This is "many hundred" years after the jar was cracked on page 93 (instalment 3, pages 22-23).

THE TIME MONSTER<

At around the same time, Atlantis was destroyed. Ancient records are unsure about the exact cause, but some early records tell this story: A man claiming to be an emissary of the gods arrived on Atlantis. King Dalios claimed him a liar, but queen Gallia plotted with him to steal the Crystal of Kronos. The visitor proclaimed himself king on the death of Dalios. Gallia ordered the man's arrest, but the man released Kronos, causing Atlantis to sink beneath the waves.

A number of Atlanteans managed to survive beneath the ocean, off the coast of the Azores.

The Doctor states that it is 4,000 years before the UNIT era. We see the survivors in The Underwater Menace. Mortimus obtained a video record of this event in No Future, probably through a time-space visualiser or suchlike - there's no way he was following the Doctor with a video camera.

Around this time, Cessair of Diplos arrived on Earth seeking refuge from the Megara justice machines. She subsequently took the role of many powerful women throughout history in order to live on the planet. Her ship remained in hyperspace above Boscombe Moor. At the same time, the stone circle later known as the Nine Travellers was set up.

The Stones of Blood. It was 4,000 years ago according to both the Doctor and Megara.

c. 1500 BC

SHORT TRIPS: THE PEOPLE'S TEMPLE

The Great Bear and the Deer Man conquered huge areas of Britain so they could rebuild the Great Temple (Stonehenge) in stone. Their plans were put back some time by the intervention of the Eighth Doctor and Sam.

The earliest parts of Stonehenge were built around 2800 BC. This final building activity was 1600-1400 BC. On page 300, the Doctor reckons it's about 4,500 years before Sam's time (so c. 2,500 BC), but he later finds out that its not the exact period he thought it was. It's 10 days before the winter solstice on pages 292 and 317.

Mortimus' diary recorded that he had helped build Stonehenge with gravity lifts.

The Time Meddler. Although this fits better with the building phase seen in The People's Temple, that story covers most of the building of what we see today. Perhaps Mortimus helped with an earlier wooden structure similar to the stone structure with which we are familiar.

Possibly about the same time, the stone containing the Ragman lands on Earth. It is incorporated into a stone circle at Cirbury.

According to Rags page 160.

c. 1500 BC

This was the Ikkaban Period of Yemayan history.

SLEEPY (page 102).