Doctor Who [2]

Sharp Norc, sharp!

Incidentally-

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Flesh and Blood

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edit add- are you watching all of series 5 or just the ones on the list?- that list is the essentials- but if you find yourself with the time I would still recomend the ones I left off as they all have some important element to them somewhere. Its just thinking of time to watch I had to be brutal and narrow it down.

No1 in the UK Charts 1988- I think it probably says something about the nations love of Who!

I am watching it all

Victory of the Daleks

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erm. Dalek view (must remember naming the spoilers )

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suspenders? that sounds a bit iffy. and my first Doctor was the blonde one with Leela, cant even remember their names it was rubbish. I liked Paul McGann though, he reminds me of Sirius Black. and I remember Silvester McCoy and Baker, vaguely. Its all so long ago that Eccleston has become the Doctor for me now.

I dunno what it's called in english! I blame google translate and Monty Python!

The Dalek voice is of course a product of 1960's technology when they were first thought up- thing is after 50 years thats what Daleks sound like to a Brit- its in our national psyche- same goes for the sink plunger for that matter- if they changed either there would be outrage from a lot ofans- and there is something about the original Dalek design- for all its cost cutting- which has struck a chord- there is something about them, something that is hard to define.

They were very much a representation originally of the Nazis and I think something of that flavour is what makes them seem so terrible.
To a modern viewer I imagine its hard to find them scary but I was so terrified of them as an 8 year old child that when my parents, whilst on our yearly family holiday in Blackpool, took my brother and I to a Who Exhibtion I freaked out. There was a Dalek outside, going up and down the steet.
I screamed the place down when I realised my parents were apparently taking me to it.
I thought they had gone mad- it was a FUCKING Dalek! It would exterminate us all without a second thought.
They had to take me away and I wouldnt go back. Didnt go the exhibition until 3 years later.

The idea of something which wanted to kill you just because you werent like it was completely horrific to me (still is). I think thats their power.


Mrs Figg- suspenders is American for braces- poor Norc is picking up Americanism instead of proper English. Norc- in 'proper' English supsenders are um, I'll let Mrs Figg explain.

Leela was a Baker companion- brown curly hair- offhand I cant remember if she was around when he regenreated into Davidsons Doctor (he was blonde) will need to check. Davidson was the one with the cricket jacket and the celery attached to his jacket (Celery has medicenal properties to a Timelord- keep your ears peeled in the Hungry Eart two-parter for a brief celery reference!)

yes, I can imagen the Daleks being scary. I'm a bit too old to freak out about them, but if I were younger I'de probably would be mentally scared for life.

Pettytyrant101 wrote:
Mrs Figg- suspenders is American for braces- poor Norc is picking up Americanism instead of proper English. Norc- in 'proper' English supsenders are um, I'll let Mrs Figg explain.

as I said. I blame google translate and Monty Python. And youtube. In the hobbit literally trailer, they sing "flip suspenders" or something while showing Bilbo fiddling with his braces and then in the lumberjack song he sings "suspenders and a braaaaaah!" and I thought it might have something to do with underwear, but as lumberjacks also wore braces it stuck with me. adn as braces to me is the things you have on your teeth to correct your smile . so there. I do try to learn proper english. I know the difference between grey and gray, elevator and lift, ground floor and first floor and ground zero and trousers, pants and knickers.

Ok this is all background, just to flesh out the Whoniverse for you. Its not essential to watching and enjoying Who inany way but it will give a greater context for Who and occasionaly may even let you pick up on the occasioanl more obscure refrences that can be dropped in for us old Whocian to enjoy.

This is also really, long, so no need to read in one go, dip in now and again.
All info from the Tardis Index File.

History.

The Dark Time

The Dark Time (also known as the Old Times or the Age of the Pythias) was the earliest known period in the history of Gallifrey home planet of the Timelords.
It consisted of two eras, the Time of Empires and the Time of Chaos. (NA: Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible)

The Time of Empire

The Gallifreyans were an ancient species. They evolved before the Dark Times of the Universe (IDW: Agent Provocateur), and were one of the first humanoid species to evolve. (NA: Lucifer Rising, DW: The Beast Below) They were known as the Shadow People in this era, caught between the warm darkness of magic and the cold light of science. Magic dominated Gallifreyan culture for a long time. (NA: So Vile a Sin) A Time Lord said that they had perfected the transmat beam when the universe was less than half its present size. (DW: Genesis of the Daleks) Before the Sol system formed, the Gallifreyans led the Fledgling Empires in an interstellar war against the Racnoss Empire. (DW: The Runaway Bride)

Their early empire was huge, with colonies across the galaxy. Slave trading was common, though some protested. Gallifrey was ruled by the Pythia, a line of female seers. They predicted the future and controlled all power on Gallifrey. They also perpetuated mysticism on Gallifrey, and were against the use of reason. After the Intuitive Revelation, telepathy was used instead of speech. All communication was telepathic and few individuals kept their own personality or secrets. (NA: Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible) The Game was a deadly spectator sport played in the Death Zone on Gallifrey, a time-fractured nightmare realm, for which beings were kidnapped out of time using Time Scoops and forced to fight. (DW: The Five Doctors)

Many Gallifreyans worshipped the Menti Celesti during this time. (NA: Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible) Gallifreyan religious classes, including priests, monks and wardens of the church, had a high place in Gallifreyan society until after the rise of the Time Lords. (EDA: Interference - Book Two)

Early research into time travel was performed. The first time machine, the Time Scaphe, was powered psychically rather than technologically. (NA: Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible)

The Time of Chaos

The power of the Pythia declined in the Time of Chaos. The Neo-Technologists, led by Rassilon, rose to power. The last Pythia lost her power of prediction, cursed Gallifrey with sterility and killed herself. Surviving members of the Pythian order fled to Karn, where they became the Sisterhood. After the collapse of the Pythia, war and chaos threatened the empire. An ice age began and Gallifrey's colonies demanded their freedom. (NA: Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible) The validium statue Nemesis spoke to Lady Peinforte of this time. (DW: Silver Nemesis)

The early days of the Time Lords

The Time Lords had two founders: Rassilon and Omega. Some dubious sources describe four more: the Other, Apeiron, Pandak, and possibly Eutenoyar. (PDA: The Infinity Doctors, EDA: The Ancestor Cell)
If the dubious sources are true, it may explain the cultural significance of hexagonal objects in later Time Lord society.

The Age of Rassilon

Rassilon instituted changes to deal with the problems of the Empire. He ordered the creation of genetic looms to permit the Gallifreyan race to reproduce. The Great Houses were formed to stabilise society. (NA: Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible)

The Time Lords began research into black holes, the first race to do so. (DW: The Satan Pit) One of Rassilon's early attempts to create a black hole accidentally punched a hole into the Yssgaroth's Universe. The Yssgaroth escaped and caused mass destruction. The Time Lords, led by Kopyion Liall a Mahajetsu, tried to stop them, leading to the thousand year Eternal War. They eventually pushed the Yssgaroth back into their own universe. Kopyion Liall a Mahajetsu guarded the final opening. (NA: The Pit)

Omega used two stellar manipulators, the 'hands' of Omega, to detonate a star (DW: Remembrance of the Daleks, PDA: The Infinity Doctors) known as Qqaba, to create a black hole from which the Time Lords drew the power for time travel. Omega was himself cast through the black hole into an anti-matter universe and was presumed dead. (DW: The Three Doctors, DWM: Star Death, BFA: Omega) Rassilon eventually retrieved the Eye of Harmony and stored it in a vault beneath the Time Lord capitol as a source of power. (PDA: The Infinity Doctors)
The Eye of Harmony may have been a different black hole than the one created by Omega.
At this point, after the damage that had been done by the Time Lords to other species, the Non-interference policy was instituted. (DW: Underworld, PDA: The Quantum Archangel)
Rassilon's rule saw the war with the Great Vampires (DW: State of Decay) and the end of the games in the Death Zone. (DW: The Five Doctors) During the Millennium War 150 million years BC, Rassilon defied the non-interference policy and led the Time Lords against the Mad Mind of Bophemeral. (PDA: The Quantum Archangel)
One legend says that despite his great achievements, the Time Lords rebelled against Rassilon and imprisoned him in the Dark Tower in the Death Zone. (DW: The Five Doctors)

Later History
Millennia of isolation induced a complacency among the Time Lords. Their technology and power stagnated, even as other races became more powerful and dangerous. (DW: The Deadly Assassin)

The following events may have occurred before the First Doctor left Gallifrey, though their specific order is unknown.

-The High Council dissolved the monasteries and churches of Gallifrey. (EDA: Interference - Book Two) This may have been during or shortly after the time of Rassilon.
-Mawdryn and a group of scientists tried to steal the secrets of Regeneration from Gallifrey, stealing a metamorphic symbiosis regenerator, but they were unsuccessful and they became stuck in a cycle of never-ending mutated regeneration. (DW: Mawdryn Undead)
-The Doctor attempted to ban the Miniscope as a cruel practice. The Time Lords set aside their non-interference policy to have the Miniscopes recalled. (DW: Carnival of Monsters)
-The Time Lords developed a chemical that could turn vertebrate blood into acid, but the Doctor successfully campaigned for it to be banned. (ST: The Age of Ambition)
-The Time Lords tried to prevent human researches centered on the USS Eldridge, which was tearing a hole in space. Though they succeeded, the ship was believed to be lost. (BFA: The Macros, VG: Shadows of the Vashta Nerada)

The Doctor's Era

During the lifetime of the Doctor, several crises occurred which brought to light the vulnerabilities of the once-omnipotent Time Lords. Testimony at the Second Doctor's malfeasance tribunal revealed many marauding races had emerged in the Universe after the Time Lords adopted their isolationist policies. (DW: The War Games)

When the Doctor was very young his father, Ulysses, was told by Larna, a Time Lady from the future, that the fate of Gallifrey was mixed with that of the Doctor and that the Doctor would have a part to play in its downfall. (EDA: The Gallifrey Chronicles)
The Time Lords were easily rendered helpless when Omega began to drain energy from Gallifrey, and were only saved by the intervention of the Second and Third Doctor. (DW: The Three Doctors)
The ease with which the Master was able to alter records in the Archives and manipulate the Matrix was due largely to the fact that the technology behind the Matrix's APC Net had been surpassed on other worlds. On those worlds the technology would, according to the Doctor, be considered "prehistoric junk".
The Time Lords faced "the most dangerous crisis in their long history" when the Master arranged the President's assassination as part of a plan to take control of the Eye of Harmony. The Eye was thought mythical, but in reality it resided underneath the Panopticon and continued to power all of Gallifrey's technology. The Fourth Doctor saved Gallifrey and left. (DW: The Deadly Assassin)
The Doctor's departure left Gallifrey in the midst of a constitutional crisis. Due to a legal technicality exploited by the Doctor, he was now technically President, the only other candidate, Goth, having been killed. For a time, Gallifrey seemed to have no President. The Doctor eventually returned to claim the title as part of a plot to defeat a Vardan invasion. This invasion was a front, however, for a Sontaran invasion of Gallifrey. Although defeated, these invasions exposed weaknesses in Gallifrey's defences. (DW: The Invasion of Time)
Later, the High Council decided to physically move Earth in order to preserve secrets stolen from the Matrix. (DW: The Mysterious Planet)
These revelations caused a revolution on Gallifrey. (DW: The Ultimate Foe)

Destruction of Gallifrey
First Destruction

In a now defunct future, the Time Lords went to war with a foe known only as the Enemy. The war was temporal in nature and cracks appeared throughout the Web of Time. They ran backwards through time, affecting the past. (EDA: Alien Bodies) The war with the Enemy raged for an undefinable time, but eventually temporal events reached a critical level. The Eighth Doctor attacked openly, destroying Gallifrey, and averting the war ever happening. (EDA: The Ancestor Cell)
At some point after this, Gallifrey was restored. (EDA: The Gallifrey Chronicles, The Tomorrow Windows)

Last Great Time War

The Time War — or, as the Tenth Doctor specified to Martha Jones in New New York, the Last Great Time War — was the war between mighty races, including the Time Lords and the Daleks "for the sake of all creation". It resulted in the destruction of Gallifrey, leaving only two Time Lords and a small number of Daleks as survivors.

The war
Origins

The Time Lords predicted that in one possible timeline, the Daleks would "destroy all other life forms and make themselves the dominant creature in the universe." The Time Lord Ferain sent the Fourth Doctor on a mission to Skaro during the Thousand Year War with certain objectives:

-If possible, to avert the creation of the Daleks
-Otherwise to alter their development and make them less aggressive
-To find some intrinsic flaw or weakness to exploit in the Daleks

The Doctor believed he might have set back the history of the Daleks for a thousand years. (DW: Genesis of the Daleks)

Several key events occurred even before the Fourth Doctor's interference. These, including the Daleks' achievement of time travel with the TARDIS-esque Dalek time machine (DW: The Chase) and the Time Lords helping the Third Doctor navigate his TARDIS to Spiridon, (DW: Planet of the Daleks) were early shots fired in the Time War. (BBCR: The Dalek Conquests)

The Daleks learned of the Time Lords' efforts and planned to use duplicates of the Fifth Doctor and his companions to assassinate the High Council of the Time Lords. These duplicates were killed when the station they were on was destroyed. (DW: Resurrection of the Daleks) One of the Dalek Puppet Emperors declared hostilities, although the Daleks claimed these were in retaliation for the Time Lords sending the Fourth Doctor back in time to prevent their creation.
Later, the Seventh Doctor used the Hand of Omega to apparently destroy the Dalek homeworld of Skaro. (DW: Remembrance of the Daleks)

The first Dalek attack on Gallifrey, known as the Etra Prime Incident, began an escalation of hostilities. (BFA: The Apocalypse Element) Lady President Romana made diplomatic overtures. (NA: Lungbarrow) She initiated a Dalek-Time Lord peace treaty under the Act of Master Restitution. (DWAN: 2006 Doctor Who Annual)
The Daleks launched over a thousand ships into the Time Vortex, These forces were stopped by the Eighth Doctor, who left them trapped there. (BFA: The Time of the Daleks) The Daleks later made a deal with the Time Lords that allowed the Dalek fleet to leave the Time Vortex. (BFA: Neverland)

The conflict

The main force was made of a fleet of Dalek Flying Saucers. The Time Lords used over a million Battle TARDISes. (NSA: Peacemaker) They also used Bowships, Black Hole Carriers and N-Forms. (DWAN: Doctor Who Annual 2006)
The Eighth Doctor joined the Time Lords in the fight against the Daleks after witnessing the death of a child at the hands of a Dalek. (ST: Museum Peace) The Sontarans told legends of the Doctor leading Time Lords into battle. (DW: The Sontaran Stratagem)

In the first year Davros was killed at the Gates of Elysium when his command ship flew into the jaws of the Nightmare Child. The Doctor tried to save him, but failed. Eventually, Caan, the last survivor of the Cult Of Skaro time shifted back into the war and saved Davros from the time-locked event at the cost of his own sanity, bringing him into the post-war universe. (DW: The Stolen Earth, Journey's End)

During the war, the entire chain of Hotel Historia was destroyed (DWM: Hotel Historia); the Nestene Consciousness's protein planets were destroyed (DW: Rose), including Polymos; (TDL: The Dust of Ages) Kolox was destroyed, leaving behind the Kolox Nebula. (DWA: The Skrawn Inheritance) Another of the battlefields was Arcadia, where the Doctor fought. (DW: Doomsday) At the heart of the war, millions died every second. (DW: The End of Time)

The Time Lords resurrected the Master, believing him an excellent soldier. The Master was at the Cruciform, but when the Dalek Emperor took control of it, he ran in fear. (DW: The Sound of Drums) Later in the war, Rassilon was President and led the battle to save Gallifrey. (DW: The End of Time)

Toward the end of the war the Daleks sent a capsule to Earth in the year 70 to spread the Dalek Factor amongst humans. The capsule's engine exploded and the Dalek was killed soon after impact. It released only a small amount of the Dalek Factor, leading to only one in five hundred million humans having it. (QR: I am a Dalek)

By the end of the war, President Rassilon was so desperate he proposed the Ultimate Sanction. The Time Lords would become creatures of pure consciousness and all of creation would be destroyed. Other horrors and terrors seen in the final days of the war (including the Daleks) were the Deathsmiths of Goth, the Skaro Degradations, the Horde of Travesties, the Could've Been King and his Army of Meanwhiles and Neverweres and the Nightmare Child. The Tenth Doctor called the war in its final days "hell." (DW: The End of Time)

In the final days of the War, the Eighth Doctor tried to regain the Great Key, which had been stolen by unknown forces. After being imprisoned for a month, with the help of Chantir he overpowered the guards and escaped with the key. With the key, he believed that the De-mat Gun could be replicated and the Medusa Cascade closed. The Doctor planned to modify the gun so instead of it removing an individual from time and space, it would remove millions. (IDW: The Forgotten) This modified De-Mat Gun became the Moment, the weapon that would destroy Gallifrey. (DW: The End of Time, IDW: Don't Step on the Grass) The Doctor destroyed Gallifrey because Lord President Rassilon planned to destroy time so the Time Lords could become non-corporeal beings, existing without time. (DW: The End of Time) With the exception of a very few survivors, the Time Lords and the Daleks disappeared from time and space. (DW: Dalek, The Parting of the Ways, Army of Ghosts/Doomsday)

Gallifrey was destroyed in a silent flash as bright as a sun. Its annihilation was so profound it stretched deep into the past and far into the future. (NSA: The Eyeless) The Cruciform fell when Gallifrey was destroyed. (IDW: The Forgotten) The blast was so powerful the universe convulsed as planets, systems and galaxies were obliterated. (IDW: Agent Provocateur)

When the Doctor used the Moment, the war was time-locked (IDW: Don't Step on the Grass), making it (in theory, or at least according to the Tenth Doctor) impossible to revisit the events; Dalek Caan, however, somehow entered, albeit at the cost of his sanity. (DW: The Stolen Earth) The Time Lord High Council tried to escape the Time Lock by implanting a signal in the mind of the Master when he was a boy and sending a White Point Diamond to late 2009 Earth. On the last day of the war, five Time Lords including Rassilon and the Woman escaped to Earth in 2009. They were defeated by the Tenth Doctor and the Master, who saved the Doctor when he realised how he had been manipulated. (DW: The End of Time)

According to the Tenth Doctor, the time-lock prevented him going back and saving his people. (DW: The Fires of Pompeii). This may have been an excuse; while he hinted that the idea occurred to him (DW: Father's Day), he also said that the Time War changed his people beyond recognition and he felt forced to stop them after learning about Rassilon's Ultimate Sanction (DW: The End of Time).

Aftermath Edit

The war was mostly invisible to "lower species", but devastating to time-aware "higher" ones. The Time Lords were thought of as myths by higher species like the Forest of Cheem. (DW: The End of the World, The Stolen Earth)

The Nestene Consciousness justified its 2005 invasion of Earth by the loss of its protein planets. (DW: Rose)
The Gelth lost their physical bodies because of the war. They were reduced to gaseous forms. (DW: The Unquiet Dead)
The Eternals apparently fled this reality in despair, never to be seen again. The Greater Animus died in the conflict. (DWAN: 2006 Doctor Who Annual)
Though the Sontarans were aware of the war, they weren't allowed to take part (DW: The Sontaran Stratagem), as opposed to the Graxnix who were one of the lowest races to take part. (DWM: Hotel Historia)
It is possible that Eve's species was wiped out in the Last Great Time War; she mentioned two races (possibly the Time Lords and the Daleks) and her planet being "Exterminated", which is what Daleks would say, because her people were time-sensitive. (SJA: The Mad Woman in the Attic)

The destruction of the Time Lords created a vacuum that may have left history more vulnerable to change. The Ninth and Tenth Doctors explained to Rose Tyler and Donna Noble that time was in flux and history could change instantly -- a big change from the way it had been. (DW: The Unquiet Dead, The Fires of Pompeii)

The most dramatic demonstration of this was when Rose created a temporal paradox by crossing her own time stream to save her father just before his death in a traffic accident. This summoned the Reapers, who descended to sterilise the "wound" in time by devouring everything in sight. The Ninth Doctor said that if the Time Lords had been still around, they could have held back the Reapers and prevented or repaired the paradox. (DW: Father's Day)

As well, the Tenth Doctor noted that when the Time Lords were around, travel between Parallel worlds was less difficult. With their demise, the paths between worlds were closed. (DW: Rise of the Cybermen)

and now I will give you some REALLY useful knowledge Norc,
Braces are what men use to hold their trousers up, and braces are also used on the teeth. suspenders are what ladies use to keep up their stockings, and scare men with. Ground floor is on the er, ground, and first floor is I think one floor above ground. Knickers are your undercrackers, or if you are German and a man, a thong. I think Americans call knickers panties, and I hate that word, its yucky. and a fanny is in English a ladies front bottom and an Americans bottom. confused? me too.

"Nickers" is actually originally an American word. It's short for Knickerbocker, a reference to Diedrich Knickerbocker, a parody of early Dutch New Yorkers by Washington Irving. In Victorian times, American women adopted a full length undergarment that looked something like baggy Dutch trousers which they called Knickerbockers. The Knickerbocker name for the undergarment got changed to bloomers about the time the Baseball team the New York Knickerbockers (who's uniform included baggy trousers)became famous, but the Knicker name had already been exported to England.

In the American post WWI era when women were increasingly involved in sports, the need for a modest trousers arose, and baggy trousers were designed based on the NY baseball uniforms, called knickerbockers or just knickers. This term quickly spread to all women's trousers, particularly short trousers of the plus-four type, and then by analogy it became a term for any short trousers, unfortunately including historical knee breaches. As a result we now find references to our Founding Fathers going forth to meet the Red Coats in their stockings and knickers....

Meanwhile "pantaloons" went through a similar evolution on both sides of the pond, becoming "pants" as an undergarment in Britain and "pants" as an outer garment in America, and also "panties" which were originally short pantaloons.

My grandmother who lived through much of this period explained all this to me once upon a time. I was so traumatized that I've since renounced underwear entirely.

thank you for that really useful information, Mrs Figg ;D might come in handy (though I new about the ground floor thing). David, that was quite interesting reading, that sort of history knowledge is the kind I really like. True and silly but good to know.

Petty, I may skim through that on a rainy day some time in the future.

so Strider goes commando?

love that. if only it really happened? maybe if they do a Christmas special?

THAT MADE ME TEAR UP LIKE A BIG GIRL!!!!!!!!

this ones good too.

geez, it would be so fun if they did something like that!!!

I was so traumatized that I've since renounced underwear entirely- David

Wise David, wise.

You had the chance to catch the second part of silence in the library yet Eldo? Not too scared I hope?!

cold blood.

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I'm telling you nothing Norc But I feel your pain.

edit add- Cold Blood

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An original Silurian-