A History of the Whoniverse

The Earth Reptile Era

c. 45,000,000 BC

The Earth Reptiles had evolved by this point. Their civilisation, living in vast crystal cities, was made up of a number of distinct clans, the most obvious being the elite Sea Devils. Their most sacrosanct belief was in the purity of the different clans. Inter-breeding was punishable by death. The "Silurians" had psychic powers channelled through their third eyes. These could be used for telepathic communication, telekinesis, hypnosis, building cities, or as weapons. Their language combined telepathy, speech, and body language. Much of their technology was operated telepathically and had organic components.

Despite the apparent extinction of dinosaurs, the Silurians still kept a number of dinosaur species, which they used as work animals. It is possible that these were reconstructed from DNA fragments or that a few survived the disaster believed to have made them extinct. They were also able to genetically engineer the Myrka, a dinosaur-like creature. They also controlled a number of early primates around this time, using a virus to prevent them from raiding crops. The Silurians remained as a dormant race memory up until at least the twenty-sixth century amongst humans.

Air transport was achieved by airships and controlled Pterosaurs, and sea transport was by deep-sea craft, and certain dinosaur species were used for riding. Although their culture did not have literature, it did have music, including the hag'jat.

Earth Reptile technology included particle suppressors; genetic engineering; the disperser, which was capable of dispersing the van Allen belt (which was not yet as extensive as it was in the 20^th Century) and the technology to create a graviton. Their law prohibited offensive wars, but the elite Sea Devil warrior caste had significant amounts of military equipment.

The Earth Reptiles worshipped the Great Old Ones, particularly Dagon, and wrote the Necromonicom, a tome that set down much about them. They inherited this religion from gargantuan beasts that ruled Earth 100,000 years before them.

The end of Earth Reptile civilisation occurred when Silurian astronomers detected a large planetoid approaching Earth. Led by the Triad of Icthar, Scibus (his Second), and Tarpok (the Scientific Advisor), the Earth reptiles planned a way to survive the near-contact with this planetoid, entombing themselves until it had passed. Despite their expectations, the planetoid went into orbit around Earth, becoming the moon. After its arrival, the van Allen radiation belt formed round the planet, creating a lower temperature then the reptiles had expected, hence their automatic revival systems failed to wake them up as they had planned.

The primates survived the catastrophe and began evolving into humans.

Earth Reptile history is first told in The Silurians. They appear again in The Sea Devils, Warriors from the Deep, The Scales of Injustice and Blood Heat, which all contribute to our understanding of their culture. They are also mentioned in Love and War, Transit, The Crystal Bucephalus and Original Sin. The Necronomicon is mentioned in White Darkness and Dagon and their religion in All Consuming Fire. The date is that of the beginning of the Eocene era. And yes, there are no primate fossils in the Eocene strata - but then the most notable feature of the fossil record is the huge gaps it contains.

The Mondasians

Earth had a twin planet, Mondas, where a race almost identical to humanity had evolved. The Mondasians had developed sophisticated mechanical and electronic technology. When the moon arrived in Earth's orbit, Mondas was thrown out of its orbit towards the edge of the solar system. Its people were able to survive in underground shelters. [Possibly, they slept like the Silurians for much of that time.] As the centuries passed, the Mondasians began to realise that their fertility was declining and that they needed cybernetic augmentation to survive. As they gradually replaced parts of their bodies and brains, the Cybermen split into two groups. The Mondasians wanted only as much cybernetisation as was necessary for survival. The Faction decided that the only logical path was to become fully cyborg and eventually leapt across to planet 14, the outermost planet of the Solar System.

In The Tenth Planet, the Doctor says that "millions of years ago there was a twin planet to Earth". A History of the Universe dates Mondas' departure from orbit to this time. In Iceberg, Mondasian flesh carbon dates to 10,000 BC. The Terrestrial Index and Cybermen also date this to about 10,000 BC. However, Cybermen dates the arrival of the moon to 10,000 BC - and blames this for the departure of Mondas. It also proposes that the Mondasians had a 14 planet solar system, counting the moon (originally twin planet to Mercury), the Fendahl Planet (time looped c.12,000,000 BC) and two beyond Pluto. I suggest that this cosmology is correct, but that it requires the departure of Mondas to occur before the Fendahl's planet is timelooped. The Faction/Mondasian split was proposed in Cybermen and confirmed in Iceberg.

As Mondas began drifting back towards the sun, the Mondasians developed a planetary propulsion drive. Its use contributed to the drain of energy that was beginning to plague the Mondasians. They planned to pilot Mondas back to its original orbit and drain Earth of its energies. Meanwhile the CyberFaction, having encountered the second Doctor, were beginning to exhaust planet 14's resources. They planned to launch a space fleet to planet 13 until they noticed Mondas' planetary drive. This prompted them, instead, to attempt to take Earth before Mondas arrived and thus reunite the CyberRace.

The propulsion drive is mentioned in Attack of the Cybermen. The rest is supposition, based on ideas from Cybermen. It is likely that the CyberFaction efforts either happened after, or were suspended during, the Armageddon Conference seen in The Empire of Glass (1589 - 1609).

c. 25,000,000 BC

The rocks on which Atlantis was later built were formed.

The Underwater Menace.

c. 15,000,000 BC

Cthulu arrives on Earth and inspires carvings in Haitian caves.

The carvings are at least fifteen million years old by White Darkness, page 142. Cthulu is named in All-Consuming Fire. It's unclear who or what made these carvings, as humanity had not evolved by then, and the Earth Reptiles were all in their shelters.

The Fendahl

c. 12,000,000 BC

On a nameless planet, that no longer exists (the "5th" planet of our solar system), a lifeform evolved which absorbed the energy wavelengths of life itself. The Time Lords intervened, destroying its home planet, the remains of which became the asteroid belt. The Fendahl escaped the time loop, attacked Mars, and reached Earth. [The Ice Warriors somehow managed to survive the catastrophe, possibly by going underground]. The Fendahl was buried in a skull but still able to exude a biological transmution [biomorphic] field, which altered any lifeform coming within the field into a suitable form for the Fendahl to use. The Fendahl almost certainly affected the evolution of humanity, feeding certain instincts and abilities into the RNA of individuals.

Image of the Fendahl.

Other Developments

c. 12,000,000 BC

The owl evolves at around this time

Just War, page 239.

c. 6,000,000 BC

The earliest "humans" evolve. Their genetic destiny is affected by both the Fendahl and the Time Lords.

According to Image of the Fendahl and No Future.

? 5,500,000 BC

A near-collision between a comet and an asteroid leaves the asteroid rotationally locked to its sun, and covered with certain carbon compounds. This causes an electrical current and, possibly over millions of years, leads to the creation of an analogue of a neural cell. This intelligence will eventually cause problems on the nearby world of Arden.

This is the Doctor's speculation on the origin of the Umbra in Shadowmind (page 224). He claims that the process could have taken millions of years.

c. 5,000,000 BC

Antarctica had a tropical climate at this time.

The Seeds of Doom.

Mars probably had little green men at this time.

According to Benny in The Dying Days chapter 2.

c. 3,639,878 BC

GENOCIDE

A group of Tractite Resistance Fighters travel back in time to destroy the human race before they evolve. They are unsuccessful, all being killed by companions of the Doctor.

On page 184, the Doctor estimates that he's travelling back by another 1 million years (from .2,569,878 BC). On page 244, it's down as 1.07 million.

2,569,878 BC

GENOCIDE

Jacob Hynes attempts to inject some Homo Habilines (ancestors of humanity) with a virus that will wipe out not just humanity, but almost all mammals.

According to Rowena on page 142, they must have travelled back at least two and a half million years, because that's when australopithecines became extinct. The TARDIS gives the precise date.

c. 2,000,000 BC

At this stage, Homo Sapiens were primitive hominids roaming the plains of Africa.

According to the Doctor in Timewyrm: Apocalypse, changing into a technologically advanced society from this took 2 million years (page 57), and this was over 1 million years before the dawn of human civilisation (page 49). The Doctor was there to see these "humans".

c. 1,000,000 BC

The Hoothi enslaved the natives of the planet later known as Heaven, giving them the ability to turn Heaven into a beautiful garden world as the first phase of their plan to hit back at the Time Lords. The Hoothi would harvest part of the Heavenite population periodically in an event called the "Resurrection Dance". The Heavenites believed that the Hoothi were their gods, and that it was a good thing to be part of the half of the population that went with the gods. Each time it happened, the Hoothi showed the Heavenites how to remake their world. One of the last generations of Heavenites used Hoothi technology to build an observatory, chaining herself in it when the Hoothi arrived for the final Resurrection Dance and leaving a message on the walls to warn future generations about the Hoothi.

They began planning one million years before Love and War page 91. Further information is provided on page 128 and pages 168-169.

At this time, the Ice Warriors had space travel.

According to The Dying Days chapter 7, Benny discovered documents proving this when she excavated on Mars.

By this time, humans were committing genocide

According to Hynes in Genocide (page 22).

c. 500,000 BC

The Thal civilisation had started writing by this time.

In The Daleks, their records date back half a million years.

c. 500,000 BC

The first Homo Sapiens appear in the fossil record.

According to Genocide page 41, Homo Sapiens skulls can date back half a million years. According to Evolutionary Theory, these would not be Homo Sapiens Sapiens, but an ancestor species. However, this is said to be based on a very small number of skeletons.

c. 250,000 BC

The monks of Felsecar begin preserving some of the most dangerous objects and information in the universe.

The Doctor says this was a quarter of a million years before Love and War page 123.