A History of the Whoniverse

The Intergalactic Era

After the final collapse of the Federation and its successors, the Galaxy entered a Dark Age with little, if any, association between different solar systems.

12,000

Scientists on Earth predicted that extreme Solar flares were about to render Earth uninhabitable for 5000 years. The Minister and Earth Council of the World Executive sent carefully screened humans in Star Pioneer ships to places like Colony 9 and the Andromeda Galaxy. The ancient space beacon Nerva, from the 29th Century, was converted into an Ark - containing 100,000 of the 'cream of humanity'. It also contained a comprehensive microfilm store of human knowledge. These people were placed in suspended animation, waiting the end of the solar flares. Those who were not selected for the Ark or Star Pioneers were forced to hide in the Thermic Shelters [and were probably not even told about the Ark]. [Almost] every one of these people perished in the flares.

The date of the Solar Flares is unknown. It is thousands of years after Revenge of the Cybermen, and 10,000 years before The Ark in Space and The Sontaran Experiment. I have placed it here to tie in with Birthright. I suggest that the Ark is awakened soon after the Charrl leave Earth, and that there were a handful of survivors from the bunkers who become the Hairies we see in Birthright.

12,005

The New Roman Empire existed at this time.

The Doctor mentions this, and the year, in the pre-title sequence to The End of the World

Whilst those on the Ark slept, the colonists established new human societies and empires, [contributing to rebuilding the Galactic Community]. They retained legends of Nerva as 'a lost colony', but few believed in its existence. [This was probably exacerbated by wild claims of explorers who tried to find Nerva - believing it to be a colony on a planet.] By the time Earth was habitable again (17,000), the colonies were not interested in returning to Earth. Even talking about "Mother Earth" was frowned upon. [The colonies were, after all, free of Earth's historic dominance over the human race. They believed that a recolonised homeworld would be a potential danger to their independence.]

This is the background to The Sontaran Experiment.

When the Star Pioneers reached Andromeda, they exhibited the same arrogance that humans had shown during the Empire period. Within 1,000 years of arrival, they had destroyed every one of the Wirrn breeding grounds. The extinction of this native race, enabled them to colonise [a large portion] of Andromeda. One Wirrn Queen escaped the purge, and headed towards Earth.

This is the background to The Ark in Space.

c. 15300

A Time Lord Cardinal tries building a powerbase on Drornid/Dronid, putting together an army in the vain hope of overpowering the High Council and setting himself up as a rival President. He is eventually dragged back to Gallifrey, possibly having been dealt with by the Time Lords ignoring him.

This is mentioned on page 153 of Alien Bodies as having been a couple of generations before 15367, local time, and is also mentioned in Shada.

15364

Sanjira is born on Dronid.

He is 50 on page 110 of Alien Bodies.

15367

ALIEN BODIES: MR QIXOTL'S STORY

Rumours start circulating on the planet Dronid (aka Drornid) that the Time Lords are coming back to the planet in order to fight the first battle in a war. They ally themselves with the Gabrielideans, who send a fleet towards the planet. At this time, Mr Qixotl tries to obtain a dematerialisation circuit for his timeship.

The local year is stated on page 151. I am arbitrarily assuming that the Dronid calendar matches ours.

The Time Lords fight the first battle of the War in Heaven on the planet Dronid. They would subsequently attempt to cover their tracks and, in the process, devastate the planet.

Nearly 50 years before Alien Bodies page 111, but clearly after the section dated 15367.

15372

Cousin Sanjira arrives from his personal future and kills his infant self.

When he was eight, according to Alien Bodies page 117.

15397

Justine is born, probably on Earth.

She is seventeen on page 110 of Alien Bodies

15414

ALIEN BODIES: THE FACTION'S STORY

Faction Paradox recover the relic, a coffin containing the body of a Time Lord. Not realising its significance, they cast it into the vortex with a dematerialisation rite.

The local year is said to be 15414 on page 109. I arbitrarily assume that this corresponds with our calendar.

c. 17,000

Muldwych arrives on Earth, to await the arrival of the Charrl

The TARDIS sends him 15,000 years into the future from 1909 in Birthright (page 210).

18,500

The insect-like Charrl travelled to Earth to escape solar flares on their own world. They named Earth Anthykhon, [apparently unaware of its history].

This was 3497 years before Birthright.

21,997

BIRTHRIGHT

The Charrl implemented a plan to take over Earth as it was in its verdant past. They were aided in this by the time traveller known as Muldwych. Their plan was unsuccessful, but they were able to leave the planet.

Ace claims that it is 20,000 years in her future (so about 21987) on page 134. The Charrl started their scheme 2959 years after arriving (page 1), and finish it almost 500 years later, in 2497 [calendar dated from their arrival] (page 109) - presumably the last figure is a misprint which should read 3497.

22,000

THE ARK IN SPACE

The humans on board the Ark are woken up, 5,000 years after they were intended to. They discover that the Ark has been infested by the Wirrn. The humans manage to defeat the Wirrn, and prepare to recolonise Earth.

THE SONTARAN EXPERIMENT

The Sontarans had decided that both Earth and humanity were of strategic value in the Rutan war. They lured a GalSec vessel to the abandoned Earth to investigate human abilities. The Sontaran conducting the experiment is, however, killed.

These two stories are to be dated together, as The Sontaran Experiment follows on immediately from The Ark in Space. In The Ark in Space, Harry says that they're 10,000 years after the Solar Flares. The Doctor gives the same information in The Sontaran Experiment. I have dated the stories to fit with my date for the Solar Flares.

c. 22,000

SPEED OF FLIGHT

On the artificial planet Nooma, an expedition travels to the artificial sun.

It is said to be 20,000 years after the UNIT era on page 23.

c. 23,000

By this time, the ventilation shafts in the Great Pyramid will line up exactly with the constellation of Orion.

This will happen in 21,000 years time, according to the Doctor in The Sands of Time on page 122 (instalment 5, page 5)

Date Unknown

THE RIBOS OPERATION

At this time, there was a political entity called the Cyrrhenic Alliance. Its members included Cyrrhenis Minima, Levithia, Stapros, and the protectorate of Ribos. It was involved in a number of frontier wars, and was located three light centuries from the Magellenic Clouds. Several years after the Frontier Wars, the Graff Vynda-K attempted to seize power, but was unsuccessful.

The date is never stated. The fact that Ribos is near the Magellenic Clouds suggests that it is an era of intergalactic travel. However, Sydney Opera House is still in existence. I have arbitrarily set the story here.

Archaeologists arrive on the planet Fridgya, and unearth several suspended animation capsules. Their superstitions lead them to cast these capsules into space.

This was many, many thousand years after 2660, according to Stokes in The Well Mannered War chapter 3, page 37.

Date Unknown

The expanding Haddron Republic builds a series of border fortresses on asteroids. One of these, Santespri, contains a Stardial Chamber - which shows every star under Haddron rule. When the Empire expands beyond these borders, the Stardial Chamber ensures that Santespri is the only such fortress to survive.

According to Dreams of Empire, pages 85-86 and 89.

Date Unknown

At this time, the Haddron Republic, also known as the Haddron Empire, was beginning to wane. Governor Kesar ruled a minor colony, but won a reputation at home for political acumen and perspicacity, which eventually led to him becoming Consul General. At around the same time, his old friend Lieutenant Milton Trayx took command of a legion at the frontier post of Tolokabad. He arrested his colonel for dishonouring Haddron by trying to retreat from the Mezzanyre Hordes. Although outnumbered by five to one, Trayx attacked their lead ship, killing their leader and throwing their forces into disarray. This destroyed their power in the quadrant. Trayx was immediately promoted to General. Within three years, he was General in Chief, and shortly afterwards became a Consul.

According to Dreams of Empire, pages 71-72.

Date Unknown

Haddron's Fifth Legion, a robotic fighting force, is sent to put down a rebellion on the Rim, the frontier of the Haddron Republic. They crush the rebellion and disappear, having been called into reserve by General Cruger.

Shortly before the events of Dreams of Empire Chapter One. These events are also mentioned on pages 221 and 229-230.

Date Unknown

On Haddron, Consul General Hans Kesar declares himself Consul for life. Soon after this, Consul Trayx hears that Kesar has lost the Fifth Legion, and moves a motion to impeach Kesar. This leads to a bloody civil war.

Dreams of Empire pages 1-12 and 64. This was nearly two years before the Doctor arrives (page 64).

Date Unknown

Kesar's troops win the battle of Tembraka. During this battle, Darkling, a troop on Trayx's side, kills Haden's brother.

According to Dreams of Empire pages 85, 90-91. Given the outcome, this was probably very early in the war.

Date Unknown

Trayx's forces win the Battle of Trophinamon and Kesar surrenders after a year of Civil War and a million casualties, not counting robotic troops.

Dreams of Empire pages 12-14, 220-221, 275. This was one year into the war.

Date Unknown

Hans Kesar is tried, and convicted, for starting the war. Immediately afterwards, he is severely maimed by a bomb attack. He is removed as Consul General and Senator Matheson becomes a new Consul. Kesar is imprisoned on the fortress of Santespri. En route, someone attempts to assassinate him by blasting an asteroid into the ship's path. Over the next year, there are 3 more assassination attempts, including an attempt to poison him.

According to Dreams of Empire pages 14-16, 65-68, 77-78, 108.

Date Unknown

DREAMS OF EMPIRE

A legion of VETAC troops attack Santespri in an attempt to undermine the Republic. Thanks to Milton Trayx, who was visiting, they are defeated. However, most of the garrison and all of the prisoners - including Hans Kesar - are killed resisting them.

The date is impossible to state. Although the Haddrons clearly look human, the Doctor points out that they may not be on page 61. If they are human, then this is the far future.

Date Unknown

DECALOG 2: VORTEX OF FEAR

At this time, the Second Empire was flourishing. It started from a small Earth colony on the far side of the Galaxy [from Earth]. The empire was characterised by decadent building and had a very definite class structure. On one of its worlds, Dephys 49, tax laws allow tax avoidance if people spend twelve months outside legal jurisdiction. Initially, this allowed people to spend the time in space or outside the planet's influence. When the laws were changed, this became possible only by spending time in the Space-Time Vortex. An organisation called The Agency had learnt to suspend objects in the Vortex, and used this to create a luxury hotel for tax evasion purposes. One group of tax evaders was stranded in the vortex when the device shielding them from its effects was sabotaged.

The Doctor says that the Second Empire is a long way in Zoe's future on page 11.

37,166

PLANET OF EVIL

The Morestrans were in the grip of an energy crisis. It sent an expedition to Zeta Minor, where a new form of Anti-Matter, protected by dangerous anti-matter creatures. The expedition failed, and its sole survivor, Professor Sorenson, returned to Morestra. He initiated a scheme to extract energy from planetary motion.

The grave marker contains the date 37,166, though this is unlikely to be a human dating system. The Dimension Riders and Infinite Requiem suggest that the Morestrans are not human. The Doctor also says that they have overshot contemporary London by about 30,000 years.

38,696

On Morestra, the Science Law is passed, outlawing unauthorised research. From this time on, research is [officially] limited to the Energy Tower project. This leads to the formation of the Cult of Science, who continued clandestine research.

This was 1530, according to the calendar we see in Zeta Major.

38,775

The Second Great Technology War is fought between the Cult of Science and the Morestran Church and/or Imperium.

This was in 1609, according to the calendar we see in Zeta Major.

39th Century

At this time there are proto-humanoid Gloobi hybrids living in the wastes of Tarsius. One of them made a mistake with Captain Jack.

According to Jack's Data-Record on page 90 of Only Human.

39,165

ZETA MAJOR

Sorenson's project had initiated a vast Energy Tower scheme, which was taken over by a new Church. This took 2,000 years to complete. However, as it neared completion, it became apparent that the tower was not going to work. The Church resorted to mining Zeta Minor anti-matter, at the cost of many lives. Events spiral into a massive civil war, in which the ships of the Imperium and the Church destroy each other and the Tower is destroyed.

Tegan says that it's 30,000 years after her time (page 33). It's said to be 2,000 years after Planet of Evil on many occasions. The new Morestran dating system is used repeatedly, and the year is '99 - so it's 1999 years later.

42nd Century

Mad King Gary of Kiev performs some notorious experiments that prove you can lock kids in a room with only TV and food aged two and they'll come out sort of fully socialised, if insane, aged fourteen.

According to Jack's Data-Record on pages 91-92 of Only Human.

42,000

By this time, a new generation of Zamps was expected to be ready to [attempt to] conquer the universe.

According to Zamper page 249.

As the centuries went by, Earth's Galaxy went through a series of rises and falls in civilisation. The overall trend, however, was positive. Eventually, this galaxy became part of an expanding intergalactic community. Contact was established with a number of neighbouring galaxies, in a generally expanding community. Most of the time it was common to speak of 'the five galaxies', or 'the twelve galaxies'. Throughout this period of expansion, humanity played a major role.

This is the general picture suggested by the stories from this point on.

c. 43,002

THE IMPOSSIBLE PLANET / THE SATAN PIT

In this era, there was a [human] empire, and the Ood were a slave race. Bases were prefabricated, including SanctuaryBases - for space exploration. The Torchwood Archive sent a ship to investigate Krop Tor, a planet orbiting a black hole and generating an impossible gravity field which could fuel the empire. The team investigating lost much of their crew on landing, and several more when a being imprisoned in the planet aeons ago awakens due to their explorations. The gravity field subsequently collapsed, and only four of the crew escaped - all the Ood being trapped on the planet when the field collapsed.

All the deaths are recorded as "43K 2.1" - which was intended to mean the year 43,002. Making this the least arbitrary date.

46th Century

Dirty Rip Engines were used for time travel in this period. Other features of the period included prongs, pods, and people without hair and without both legs.

Jack mentions this date for Rip Engines on page 28 of Only Human, and the Doctor expands on it on page 77.

c. 50,000

DELTA AND THE BANNERMEN

The Chimerons were invaded by the Bannermen. Their queen, Delta, attempted to escape on a Nostalgia Trips visit to 1950's Earth. She was, however, followed by a number of Bannermen. Events in the past led to the defeat of the Bannermen, and Delta was able to repopulate her planet with the help of a transformed human from the 1950s.

The date is completely arbitrary, but Nostalgia Trips is notorious throughout the five Galaxies.

SHORT TRIPS: WISH YOU WERE HERE

A number of tourists disappear from the pleasure planet of Nestra. The disappearances are eventually traced to a badly programmed robot.

The date is, again, arbitrary. There is a reference to the Five Galaxies, so it seems safe to place it at the same time as Delta and the Bannermen.

The Collectors put all the stuff they've plundered over the centuries into The Big Huge and Educational Collection of Old Galactic Stuff. One of the exhibits placed in the bit about 20th Century Earth is K9 Mark II, who had been collected Centuries before. However, K9 is stolen by the Doctor and Romana.

This is tens of thousands of years beyond the 20th century, according to Heart of TARDIS page 24.

c. 63,000

Earth at this point is sparsely populated, when the Parachnids invade. The invasion wipes out the vast majority of the population. A couple of million people survive in a hidden suspended animation complex called the Line.

The invasion happened seven decades before More Short Trips: Moon Graffiti.

c. 63,070

MORE SHORT TRIPS: MOON GRAFFITI

The Line is discovered by the Parachids left on Earth. The security robots narrowly defeat them.

The Doctor says that this is tens of thousands of years in Peri's future. The exact date is arbitrary.

c. 199,909

Station 5 starts broadcasting.

In The Long Game Cathica says that Station 5 started broadcasting 91 years ago.

c. 199,997

Cathica first applies for promotion to floor 500.

She says that she's been applying to floor 500 for 3 years in The Long Game

c. 200,000

There are various threats from alien beings leading to tighter immigration controls, the price of spacewarp doubles, and the government of Travic 5 collapses. There are sandstorms on the new Venus Archipelago, leaving 200 dead. The Glasgow water riots were into their third day. Sunspot activity closes Space Lane 77. On the Bad Wolf Channel, the Face of Boe announces that he is pregnant, expecting the baby Boemina.

The first sentence are the reasons Cathica gives for there being no aliens onboard the station in The Long Game. The rest are the news stories seen during that story.

c. 200,000

THE LONG GAME

This was the era of the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire. Earth was covered with megacities, five moons, and a population of 96 billion. Its galactic empire stretched across a million planets and a million species. The Kronkburger was a popular food. Satellite 5 broadcast the Empire's news - 600 channels broadcasting everywhere. Information was gathered and processed through human brains using chips inserted into human brains. Technology allows nanoturbines to be installed in someone's throat to freeze anything an individual throws up. The Freedom Foundation discovers information that the news coming through Satellite 5 is being tampered with, and sends a covert agent in to investigate. The agent disappears at the same time as there is a major systems failure on Station 5, causing chaos amongst its inhabitants.

The Doctor tells Rose that "it's 200,000". The Doctor's knowledge of history tells him that technology has been held back by about 90 years.

When the news channels shut down overnight, the lack of information causes everything to freeze. The governments and economy fall apart, allowing the Bad Wolf Corporation to seize control whilst Earth slips deeper into trouble. Bad Wolf take over Satellite 5, and rename it Gamestation. It begins broadcasting entertainment shows where the contestants are killed - usually by disintegration. The world organises itself into new shapes, areas such as Europa, Pacifica, Australasia, and the New American Alliance are now major areas of the world.

c. 200,080

The Great Atlantic Smog Storm begins.

In Bad Wolf, Lynda says that this was 20 years ago.

200,100

BAD WOLF / THE PARTING OF THE WAYS

By this time, the Bad Wolf Corporation broadcasts 10,000 channels, including such shows as The Weakest Link, a makeover show with robot duplicates of Trinny and Susannah from early 21st Century TV, and multiple versions of Big Brother. During a case of interference caused by solar flares, the station shuts down as usual. When the flares finish, the station goes offline again. There is a warning from the station that a fleet of Daleks - thought long extinct - is poised to attack Earth, but the station's license to broadcast is revoked. Not long after that, the Daleks invade both Earth and the station. Whole continents are bombed out. Then, suddenly, the entire Dalek fleet is destroyed. One survivor was Captain Jack Harkness, a man about whom no records exist.

The Doctor says that it is 200,100, and both he and Lynda date The Long Game as being 100 years earlier (though this could be an estimate).

c. 275,742

ALIEN BODIES

The Eighth Doctor travels to Quiescia with the Relic (which he believes to be his own dead body) and buries it in the grave he had previously dug for Laika. He then blows it up.

This is at least a hundred million nights after he buried Laika (page 5).

309,906

THE WAR GAMES

A race called the War Lords attempted to create the greatest fighting force ever, by taking representatives from various species across the galaxy and throughout history. They used stolen Time Lord technology - dubbed SIDRATs. They eventually settled on using humans, and kidnapped humans from 10 different time zones, pitting them against each other. Their plan was defeated when the Time Lords intervened.

[The zones they kidnapped humans from were as follows: World War I ("1917"); The Russo-Japanese War ("1905"); The Boxer Uprising (1900) and the Boer War (1899-1902); The Franco-Prussian War (1870-1); The Mexican Uprising (1867); The American Civil War ("1862"); The Crimean War (1853-6); The Napoleonic Wars ("1812"); The Jacobite Rebellion ("1745"); The 30 Years War (1618-48) and English Civil War (1642-6); the Roman Empire ("2000 years before 1917"); The Ancient Greeks (c.500BC). Unfortunately, there are supposed to be 10 zones, but 14 are referred to. A couple can be grouped together, as they were going on simultaneously - the 30 years war and English Civil War being the most obvious. Dates mentioned onscreen are in quotes. I suspect the Romans and Greeks are grouped together, and the Mexican uprising and US Civil War are grouped together - maybe the Mexican Uprising happened a few years earlier in the Whoniverse.]

The date is not stated, though humans have been killing themselves for half a million years before this story. However, The Deadly Assassin mentions this date for the Doctor's trial, so it's as good a guess as any.

THE EIGHT DOCTORS

The Eighth Doctor arrives in the middle of the War Games and meets his second self just before making the decision to call in the Time Lords. He advises his previous self to call the Time Lords.

This happens in the middle of The War Games.

SHORT TRIPS: WAR CRIMES

After this, the Time Lords returned the humans and the other species the War Lords had experimented with to their native time.

The TARDIS briefly escapes to one of the planets from which the War Lords had taken specimens. The date is arbitrary.

c. 436,000

There is a massive space battle in Monoceros between Kallix Grover and the Sine Wave Shrine of Shillitar and Earth gets caught in the crossfire. A massive reef of magnetic energy misses its target and drifts billions of miles off course at about a million times the speed of light and smacks into Earth wiping every computer on the planet. The state of technology was such that there was a computer in everything, and the vast grid of nanotechnology curled up and died in under a second. There was fire, plague, famine, and war, and the planet was cut off from its colonies. This was known as The Great Retrenchment. The after-effects of the reef meant that humanity turned to analogue technologies. Chemistry and Biology became the main sciences during this time, with humans learning to do anything with, and to, the body.

According to the Doctor on page 101 of Only Human.

438th Millennium

Humans stop going to the toilet.

A thousand years before Only Human page 86.

438,526

Chantal Osterburg is born.

She is seven in the year 438,533 on page 7 of Only Human.

2nd October 438,533

Seven-year old Chantal Osterburg writes an essay entitled My Weekend in which she describes her modification of the family cat Dusty.

Dated on page 7 of Only Human.

438,543

Chantal Osterburg's mother, a pharma-tech, implants an experimental patch designed to increase intelligence exponentially into Chantal. She worked on hundreds of different bio-projects, patching out her empathy with other humans because it kept getting in the way. At some point, she will patch out her conscience.

According to Only Human pages 211 and 213-214, the patch was on her 17th birthday.

439th Millennium

Lene and Jacob become partners

Ninety years before Only Human page 59.

Quilley joins the Refusers, a group who refuse to take the chemicals which regulate the brains of humans on Earth in his era.

Twenty years before Only Human page 106.

Chantal Osterburg takes control of the time travel project, and takes 100 people back to 29,185 BC.

The time travellers arrived in the past 49 days before Only Human page 80. We don't know how old Chantal is by this point, so an exact date is impossible.

c. 446,000

Earth begins to emerge from the Dark Age caused by The Great Retrenchment.

The Doctor says this was 10,000 years after c. 436,000 on page 101 of Only Human.

802,601

The Third Doctor, Jo, and [Mike Yates] visit the planet Karfel.

This happened some time before Timelash. The novelisation suggests that it was about 100 years beforehand. Speed of Flight suggests that the third (unnamed) companion of the Doctor mentioned in Timelash was Mike Yates.

802,701

TIMELASH

On Karfel, the Borad attempts to start a war with the Bandrils, aiming to wipe out the rest of Karfel's population. He is defeated by the time traveller who visited Karfel some time ago, and thrown into the Timelash, fated to arrive in Loch Ness 1179.

The date is never stated. Lance Parkin dates this story as 802,701 - the year mentioned in Wells' The Time Machine. Though I hate to borrow an arbitrary date from just one other history, this is the least arbitrary choice of date.

1,000,000

INFINITE REQUIEM

The Pridka Dream Centre, a relaxation world run by a telepathic race, was taken over by the Sensopath Jirenal. Jirenal was defeated by the intervention of a Time Lord known as the Doctor and Kelzen, another third of the Sensopath that Jirenal was. The two merged, and died a few days later.

The date is said to be Beyond Common Era of Earth Calendar (page 83).

Date Unknown

THE WEB PLANET

On the planet Vortis in the Isop Galaxy, the Animus had taken control. It controlled the native Zarbi, previously mindless herd animals. With them, the Animus was able to force the sentient Menoptra into a retreat on the moons. The Menoptra were, however, able to fight back. They used a device called the Iso-Tope to destroy the Animus, or so they thought...

The Animus claims that it wants to 'take from man his mastery of space'. Therefore, this story must be set in the far future when humanity is a major intergalactic space power. There is no other indication of the date.

Date Unknown

TWILIGHT OF THE GODS (Missing Adventure)

Centuries after the defeat of the Animus, Vortis drifted into an inhabited star system. The Rhumon, who lived there, had long been divided into two warring factions. The Imperial Rhumon followed an Emperor and had a monotheistic religion and a hierarchical society. The Republican Rhumon were nominally egalitarian, and advocated reason above everything. The two forces both claimed Vortis as their own. The forces landed on the planet were soon abandoned and left in a war of attrition. The war provided the Animus, still alive, with an opportunity to seize control again. Only the intervention of a space traveller defeated the Animus and began to bring the two Rhumon factions together.

This happened centuries after The Web Planet.

Date Unknown

PLANET OF THE SPIDERS

A human colony ship crashed on Metebelis III in the Aceton Galaxy. Some spiders from the ship found their way to a cave of Blue Crystals. They mutated into the giant "Eight-Legs", gaining vast intelligence and psychic abilities. They ruled over the "Two-Legs". Four hundred and thirty three years after the crash, they established a link to 20th Century Earth, and attempted to take it over. Their plan failed, and they were defeated.

The date of this story is never stated. It is, however, in an era of intergalactic travel, as Metebelis III is in the Aceton Galaxy.

During the 10th segment of time, humanity was involved in the Primal Wars. During these wars, all knowledge of the common cold, including its cure, was lost. This was not a major concern, as the disease had long been eradicated.

This is what we know from The Ark. Some details are reading between the lines.

Date Unknown

A great space plague hits the area of space including Inter Minor. The plague leads to Inter Minor standing alone for thousands of years.

Thousands of years before Carnival of Monsters episode 3.

Date Unknown

A battlethruster lands on one of the satellites of Grundel for emergency repairs. It has a crew of 50 and all the latest armaments. The crew think that they can hold off the native Drashigs. A scout orbiter is sent to check on them, and the pictures show that the Drashigs have only left a few scraps of the reactor ventricle uneaten.

This was "many years" before Carnival of Monsters episode 3.

c. 2,000,000

CARNIVAL OF MONSTERS

President Zarb decrees that Lurmans would be the first alien visitors to Inter Minor. The first two visitors are an entertainer called Vorg and his assistant Shirna. They bring a miniscope to entertain the natives, but their miniscope is shut down by the Doctor..

There is no date to this story. Three things would suggest a date. Firstly, anti-magnetic cohesion is in existence, having been invented in the 30th Century. Secondly, intergalactic travel is now taking place. Thirdly, the fact that Glitz comes across a miniscope in Goth Opera suggests that this story might be set around the same time as Glitz.

THE TRIAL OF A TIME LORD - THE MYSTERIOUS PLANET

Andromedans, based on Earth, stole secrets from the Gallifreyan Matrix. In retaliation, the High Council moved Earth two light years away, and renamed it Ravalox. This devastated the planet. A few inhabitants, however, survived the crisis. The Andromedan Sleepers survive, still in possession of the stolen secrets. They are guarded by a subterranean society. The intervention of a Time Lord destroys the sleepers, leaving Ravalox in the hands of primitive tribes who roam its surface.

The Doctor tells Peri that they are 2,000,000 years in her future.

DRAGONFIRE

On the Iceworld colony, Kane was creating an army loyal to him, consisting of soldiers with wiped memories. He had been exiled there from Proammon three thousand years ago, and planned to return. He attempted to take the Dragonfire, a source of energy within a powerful Biomechanoid. He committed suicide when he discovered that Proammon had been destroyed two thousand years earlier.

This is after The Trial of a Time Lord in Glitz's timeline. There's a reference to the "twelve Galaxies", which nicely fits with this time period. Dating this story is, however, complicated by Mission: Impractical. Mission: Impractical is supposed to happen between The Trial of a Time Lord and Dragonfire in Glitz's timeline. In that book, Glitz and Dibber were transported back in time a few million years by the Master. However, Mission: Impractical contradicts Goth Opera as, in the former, Dibber is killed, but in the latter, set after Dragonfire, Dibber is still alive. I have, therefore, chosen to omit Mission: Impractical from this chronology until I can find a half-decent way round the problem, and I am assuming that the DWM stories featuring Frobisher contradict the TV series.

GOTH OPERA

Glitz abandoned Mel on the planet Avalone, following a failed banking scam. He teamed up with Dibber again, and came into possession of a miniscope.

Glitz abandoned Mel a year after Dragonfire. These events are also referred to in Head Games.

During the 27th segment of time, humans undertook time travel experiments. These were unsuccessful [due to Time Lord intervention].

According to The Ark.

Date Unknown

THE SUN MAKERS

Earth had finally exhausted its natural resources. When its population were on the brink of disaster, the Usurians offered them a lifeline. In return for serving the Company, they would be relocated to Mars and provided with livelihoods. The company eventually relocated them from Mars to Pluto, before Time Lord intervention caused their operations to collapse.

The date is never stated. Contemporary publicity material suggested this was millions of years in the future. It is suggested that Earth has had time to regenerate its mineral wealth, though that does not really pin down any date other than very far into the future.

Date Unknown

The first Doctor leaves the Cold on Pluto, giving it a chance to live without having to compromise with the humans.

According to Time and Relative page 108, this was in the far future.

c. 10,000,000

FRONTIOS

A colony ship from Earth fled Earth for the Veruna system. The colonists spent 10 years creating their colony, before [unexpected] meteorite showers began, The colonists quickly realised that they were being targeted, but were unable to do anything about it. After 30 years, the intervention of some travellers defeated the enemy - an insect race called the Tractators, ruled by the Gravis.

The date is not stated, but the colonists left Earth in identical circumstances to those in The Ark. However, the TARDIS appears to have reached about as far as it possibly can into the future. This is a problem that the Fourth Doctor is worried about in The Sun Makers and The Well-Mannered War, but which does not seem to occur to the First Doctor in The Ark, The Savages, and Decalog 3: Tarnished Image, or the Second Doctor in Decalog 3: Aliens and Predators, or the Seventh Doctor in Timewyrm: Apocalypse. Perhaps the presence of the Hand of Omega in the TARDIS is significant and has a lasting effect, which has worn off by the Fourth Doctor's era, but is renewed in Remembrance of the Daleks.

c. 10,000,000

THE ARK

Scientists on Earth realised that the Sun would go Nova, destroying the Earth. Humanity laboured to build a vessel that would take them to a new home. They stored everything they could, including every animal and plant species on Earth. They also took with them the Monoids, a species that had settled on Earth and integrated themselves into the community. The ship was, however, infected with the common cold by a space traveller.

This is said to be in the 57th segment of time, which the Doctor claims to be about 10,000,000 years in the future.

c. 10,000,700

THE ARK

The spacecraft fleeing Earth reached its destination, Refusis II. During the 700-year voyage, the Monoids had taken control, as the cold had weakened the humans. Both species were surprised to discover that Refusis already had inhabitants, the invisible Refusians. The Refusians allowed the humans and Monoids to live on their world, but enforced a peace between the two.

This is 700 years after the TARDIS first visited the Ark.

c. 10,001,000

DECALOG 3: TARNISHED IMAGE

The Azmec corporation had, for centuries, ruled over the human colony on Tarron. They claimed that they had been given the right to rule by the earliest colonists. A series of murders related were traced to a cult from the early days of the colony, brought forward in time by the Corporation's holoprobe. This led to a collapse of the society, as the Azmec corporation's mandate to rule was revealed as a fraud.

The colony has been established for centuries, and there is a reference to the first segment of time. The destruction of Earth is described as being 10 centuries ago.

c. 10,002,650

DECALOG 3: ALIENS AND PREDATORS

The last generation of humans knew they were dying. They gathered every available relic of human culture and placed it in a ship named Hope. They had detected a signal, which they believed gave the location of their long-lost homeworld of Earth. They sent six robotic Guardians in the vast ship to ensure it reached the destination safely, and seed the world with human DNA, to ensure the race continued. The ship was repeatedly attacked by a race known as the Other, the most deadly and dangerous race known to history. The Other had once been human. They wanted to gain access to pure human DNA so that they could revitalise their race. The death of the Guardians in several attacks by the Other triggered the self-destruct mechanism. This destroyed vast numbers of Other who had boarded the ship.

It is said to be 100 generations between the solar flares that forced an evacuation of Earth and receiving the location of Earth. This was 42 years before the mission began, which was 80 years ago. Humanity is said to have been major players in the Universe for tens of thousands of years, and Earth is located far away from the inhabited hub of the Universe.

c. 20,000,000

The Doctor estimated that semi-opposable thumbs would evolve on a dog around this time.

In Evolution, on page 40.

Date Unknown

Boekind becomes extinct, the only survivor being the Face of Boe.

This was "long ago" before New Earth.

Date unknown

Trees descended from the tropical rainforest are transplanted onto other worlds, and evolve into a sentient species that could pass for humanoid.

This is the history of Jabe's people according to The End of the World

The National Trust purchase Earth. They restore Earth's continents to their classic configuration and, for millions of years, their gravity satellites keep it safe from the expanding sun.

This is the background to The End of the World.

Cassandra, the last purebred human is born to a Texan father and a mother from the Arctic desert. Their house is built into the Los Angeles Crevasse. Cassandra will later change his/her sex from male to female.

This is an unknown time before The End of the World, though as Cassandra says that she doesn't look a day over 2,000 it must be significantly more than 2,000 years beforehand.

The peace treaty five point four slash cup slash 16 (5.4/cup/16) is signed

The Steward mentions it in The End of the World, though there is no indication how long it has been around.

c. 5,000,000,000

NEW EARTH

The Lady Cassandra is at a party for the Ambassador of Thrace when she is told by a stranger that she is beautiful. The stranger then drops dead in front of her.

This is when Cassandra still looked human, and almost certainly well before she became "the last human".

c. 5,000,000,000

THE END OF THE WORLD

The corporation Station One is moved to Earth's solar system to watch the destruction of Earth, as the National Trust's money has run out, and its gravity satellites are slated to fail. However, there is sabotage on the station, caused by Lady Cassandra, the last purebred human, who is amongst the guests. She teleports away, believing that her sabotage will kill the other guests. However, they manage to repair the damage and reverse her teleportation. Because of the change of environmental conditions, she dries out and dies.

The Doctor says that this is the year five point five slash apple slash 26 (5.5/apple/26), which he explains is 5 billion years in Rose's future.

c. 5,000,000,023

NEW EARTH

The Sisterhood of Plenifold on New Earth is exposed for their practice of discovering cures for diseases by growing a human species in tanks and giving them every known disease. The "flesh" as the sisterhood called them is released, cured of their diseases, are accepted as a new species of human, whilst the sisterhood are taken into custody.

The Doctor gives the date when he steps out of the TARDIS.

c. 5,000,001,023

The cure for Petrifold Regression is discovered.

The Doctor says that the cure isn't due for a thousand years after New Earth.

The Chelonian Seventieth Column is swept up by a timestorm to the planet Barclow, thousands of years in their future. These Chelonians originated on an abandoned Chelonian colony. One of them carried a dagger dating back thousands of years ago.

This was millennia before The Well Mannered War chapter 12, page 6. The dagger is mentioned in chapter 1, page 11.

The first settlers arrive on Metralubit. Every two thousand years, civilisation falls apart in a killing frenzy. One of the civilisations to fall was called the Yelphaj - which fell within a month.

The settlers arrived 10,000 years before The Well Mannered War chapter seven page 8. The Yelphaj are mentioned in Chapter 6 (page 14), though it's unclear which civilisation they were.

The Helducc civilisation on Metralubit had been unchanged for almost 2,000 years. They are incredibly long-lived and well-travelled in non-technological standards. Conflict between the two greatest leaders of the Helducc Council, Hethros and Gyal, spark violent conflicts where two million people - three quarters of the population - are slaughtered.

According to The Well Mannered War Chapter 6 (page 10). This was 2,000 years before Chapter 7 page 9.

The population of Metralubit use early space-travel technology to retrieve a life-support capsule containing Menlove Stokes. Stokes' memories are used to derive technology, including the femdroids - androids based on memories of the internal workings of K9.

According to The Well Mannered War chapter 10, pages 20-21. This was several years before the creation of the Femdroids.

Galatea is created.

She is said to be 135 years old in The Well Mannered War (chapter 2, page 3).

The Chelonian Seventieth Column arrives on the worthless planet of Barclow. The Metralubian Government claims that Barclow is a colony of theirs, and starts a brief war.

The Chelonians are said to have arrived 126 years ago in The Well Mannered War (chapter 3, page 54).

The Femdroids realise that the humans are part of a feeding cycle. They secretly construct a gigantic transmat and transport most of the population of Metralubit to Regus V, a couple of solar systems away. They condition the remaining humans to believe that the population is still there, and manipulate the Chelonian Seventieth Column, who were intending to leave their outpost on Barclow, into staying for a war. All this would create a trap for the insects who had been feeding on the Metralubians.

According to recordings by Galatea in The Well Mannered War chapter 10 (pages 23-26).

The Phibbs committee, based on the island of Borea, begins debating the situation on Barclow.

They have been sitting for one hundred and twenty nine years, eight months by The Well Mannered War chapter 2, page 5.

The war between Metralubit and the Chelonian Seventieth Column over the worthless world of Barclow rests.

This was 125 years before The Well Mannered War (chapter 1, pages 5 and 7 and chapter 2, page 5).

The population of Metralubit leaves.

K9 estimates this was 121 years before The Well Mannered War chapter 10 page 8.

Dolne is born.

He is forty five by The Well Mannered War chapter 2 page 13, or fifty two by chapter 10 page 11. The context of the two references makes the later date more convincing.

Admiral Inness loses a couple of men in section 63T on Barclow.

This was 50 years before The Well Mannered War chapter 1 page 45.

Dolne begins his military service in the Metralubian Armed Forces.

Thirty years before The Well Mannered War chapter 1 page 2.

The Barclow Government cuts health spending by 11%, diverting the money into localised programmes.

In the last two years of the government before Harmock took power, according to The Well Mannered War chapter 2 page 2.

Premier Harmock comes to power on Metralubit. He reallocates the money spent on localised programmes back into centralised health. This begins 14 years of bungles, scandals, and economic mishaps.

Fourteen years before The Well Mannered War chapter 2 pages 1-2.

Fritchoff, an administrator on Metralubit, realises that Harmock is lining his own pockets, and pouring the rest of the planet's money into the war. He travels to Barclow to join a group of rebel militants, only to discover that they had already left.

Seven years before The Well Mannered War chapter 7 page 9. However, this is also said to have been shortly after Stokes arrived on Metralubit.

The Femdroids bring Stokes back to life.

Three years before The Well Mannered War chapter 10 page 17.

Admiral Dolne has lunch with Dezka

A fortnight before The Well Mannered War chapter 4, page 9.

c. 10,000,000,000 AD

THE WELL MANNERED WAR

On Metralubit, the committee responsible for the Phibbs report announces that it will publish its mammoth report. At the same time, weapons systems on both sides malfunction. This leads to full-scale hostilities on Barclow. The conflicts are stopped when space travellers, including the new president elect, intervene and trap some sentient flies who had been exacerbating the situation. However, the civilisation on Melatrubit is revealed as a fraud.

The Doctor and Romana say that it is the end of the Humanian Era, after the destruction of Earth, at the end of the Time Spiral in Chapter 1, page 27. This is, apparently, as far into the future as it is possible for a TARDIS to travel. It is the 58th segment of time in Chapter 3. page 25. The Doctor estimates that it's around 10 billion AD in Chapter 7, page 10.

Date Unknown

THE SAVAGES

In the far future, the Elders maintained an apparently utopian society. They had unlimited energy and no material needs. They could even track travellers through the Time-Space Vortex. Their society was, however, based on exploitation. They drained life energy from the Savages who lived outside their city. The intervention of "the traveller from beyond time" changed this and his companion, Steven Taylor, guided their society along a more civilised path.

The Doctor says that they have landed at a distant point in time, and the Elders are happy to describe themselves as human.

c. 14,000,000,000

The last CVE closes.

This CVE was created in Logopolis, and lasted for 'several more billion years' according to Timewyrm: Apocalypse page 3.

Date Unknown

THE ALSO PEOPLE

In a distant galaxy, a society known as The People had built a giant Worldsphere around a White Dwarf star. They built a utopian society, integrating biological and artificial lifeforms. They were "ruled" by a tremendously powerful AI called God, who oversaw the Worldsphere. They were so advanced, that they had a non-aggression pact with the Time Lords. The Gallifreyan renegade known as The Doctor visited them at a time when the first murder in several hundred years had taken place.

Mention is made of a sub-gas giant which had broken up 62 billion years previously. The Whoniverse appears to be about 15 billion years old in the present day, which places this story at least 50 billion years in the future. This, however, makes some of the Time Lord concerns in signing the treaty irrelevant. In particular, they want to keep the People away from Gallifrey and, more importantly, Earth. However, Earth has long gone by this point, as has Gallifrey, according to the New/Missing adventures consensus. However, the Benny Books portray this story as having happened in or around the 26th Century.

? 14,999,995,000 AD

A highly telepathic girl called Lilith meets the second Doctor and is infected with the Timewyrm.

In Timewyrm: Apocalypse this is said to have happened 5,000 years ago (page 164).

? 14,999,995,000 - 14,999,995,500

Lilith "takes the veil" - renouncing all worldly pleasures and relations - to join the Panjistri. Four centuries later, she was still able to smell the incense from the gold censers at the beginning of her novitiate. Following that, she was initiated into the deeper mysteries of the Panjistri and eventually, five hundred years after taking the veil, she was elected Matriarch (only the second female head of the order).

According to the Matriarch in Timewyrm: Apocalypse (page 53).

? 14,999,997,000

The Matriarch first moves onto the moon-sized spacecraft Kandasi.

According to Timewyrm: Apocalypse page 52, this was over 3,000 years ago.

? 14,999,999,400

The Grand Matriarch and 84 other Panjistri arrive on Kirith and create the planet's civilisation. Amongst the things they provide is the staple food known as Zavát - actually the remains of the subjects of the Panjistri's genetic experiments. They also create the artificial ruins of a civilisation destroyed by nuclear weapons. The ruins are claimed to be from an earlier civilisation on Kirith, and said to be around 5,000 years old.

The Doctor carbon dates the runs to 600 years before Timewyrm: Apocalypse on page 75. The Kirithons' history claims the Panjistri arrived 3833 years ago (page 49). However, other information (especially Miríl - aged only 250 - being unable to remember his childhood) tells us that this clearly happened at most a few hundred years before. On the other hand, Reptu claims it was 1,000 years ago.

? 14,999,999,750

Miríl is born.

He is 250 in Timewyrm: Apocalypse (page 60, 70). However, he doesn't remember his childhood, youth, or parents.

? 14,999,999,800

A group of Rills visit Kirith. They join the Brotherhood of Kandasi before the natives learn anything from them.

According to the records, this happened almost 200 years before Timewyrm: Apocalypse page 33.

? 14,999,999,950

Fetch begins working for the Matriarch.

Fifty years before Timewyrm: Apocalypse pages 97 & 122.

? 14,999,999,974 - 14,999,999,990

On Kirith, twins called Daríen and Kareena are born. Two years later, their friend Raphael is born. Kareena is a brilliant dancer and Daríen a brilliant musician. At five, Daríen is a master of the koríntol (a complicated musical instrument). At six, he is performing his own compositions. Aged twelve, he is invited to join the Brotherhood of Kandasi, but his mother refuses. At sixteen he joins the Brotherhood and forgotten by all who knew him. Kareena had joined the Brotherhood at an earlier age.

This is all stated in chapter one of Timewyrm: Apocalypse. On page 24, it is established that Daríen joined the Brotherhood happened ten years ago, when Raphael was 14.

? 15,000,000,000 AD

TIMEWYRM: APOCALYPSE

Billions of years in the future, the universe was rapidly approaching its end. The last CVE had long been closed, and the guardians of the universe - including the Time Lords - were long extinct. The Panjistri had created a civilisation called the Kirithons. They maintained them in a passive society, taking those with any flair to create a being capable of preventing the end of the universe. They were unaware that their efforts were being controlled by the Timewyrm. When they finished the creature, it decided to destroy them and itself to ensure that the universe came to its proper end.

Slightly before the creature was finished, the supplies of food to Kirith were interrupted. This caused severe unrest amongst the people, until the Panjistri arrived to put down the rebellion - and killed many of the protesters.

This happens billions of years in the future (page 3), and ten billion years before the end of the universe (page 178). Earth is described as a 'long-dead world' on page 54. My date is conjecture. Kirith's galaxy was mistaken for a Quasar by 1990s astronomers. If they had been were right, then current theory suggests that it would thus be 15 billion years old. I suggest that because this is due to Artron energy, it has been travelling backwards, rather than forwards - so this is 15 billion years in the future.

During the last days of the universe, there will be the 'Blue Shift', a final inrush of matter. The Green and Black Books of Gallifrey record something of this. They claim that the Timewyrm will devour the first and last of the Time Lords. They also state that Rassilon will be crushed in the Timewyrm's jaws during the last moments of the Blue Shift. However, they also predict that the Timewyrm will completely unravel reality, and may well be wrong.

According to Timewyrm: Revelation pages 65-66 and 197.

14th February [? 25,000,000,000 AD] - the end of the universe.

SHORT TRIPS AND SIDE STEPS: SPECIAL OCCASIONS 2: DO YOU LOVE ANYONE ENOUGH?

The Doctor and Romana watch the end of the universe, and the Doctor offers Romana his last Rolo - ever.

The Doctor wishes Romana 'Happy Valentines Day'. The date is 10 billion years after Timewyrm: Apocalypse, as that story is 10 billion years before the big crunch (page 178).

After the current universe, there will be another. This one will have very different physical rules, and will be the domain of Saraquazel.

According to Millennial Rites.