B00DPX9ST8 EBOK (218 page)

The Knights of Jeneve emerged as a military power. Their founder, Vazlov Baygent, was assassinated in 2276, but the Knights eliminated Baygent’s killers and protected his son.
 [505]
The terraforming of Raghi was completed.
 [506]
The Mutant Rights Act was passed in 2278. Uva Beta Uva III was at the centre of a belzite rush unparalleled in human history around this time.
 [507]

On Earth, the fallout of the “Sphinx-giftwrapping” incident reached its conclusion when war broke out. The Leaning Tower of Pisa was destroyed - along with Pisa itself - by a mis-aimed half-ton asteroid. The economy’s focus became weapons and transport, and the preservation of national monuments became less of a priority.
 [508]

c 2285 - Vengeance on Varos
 [509]

The Galatron Mining Corporation and the Amorb prospect fought over mineral rights on the planets of the galaxy, often with little concern for local populations. One such place was Varos, a former prison planet (pop. 1,620,783) in the constellation of Cetes. An officer elite ran Varos and lived in relative luxury, although everyone was confined to enclosed domes with artificial atmospheres. A majority of the people had the constitutional right to vote for the Governor’s execution. Until traces were detected on the asteroid Biosculptor, Varos was long thought to be the only source of zeiton-7 ore, a fuel for space/time vehicles.

In the late twenty-third century, Galatron and the government of Varos entered negotiations for the zeiton-7 ore. Galatron had a stranglehold over Varos because it supplied the colony with food, and so kept the price of zeiton-7 down to seven credits a unit. Successive Governors had developed an entertainment industry, Comtech, that sold footage of the executions, tortures and escape attempts of prisoners to every civilised world. This acted as a deterrent for potential rebels, and kept the population entertained.

Eventually, the sixth Doctor and Peri helped one Governor to negotiate the fair price of twenty credits a unit for Varos’ zeiton, besting the efforts of Galatron’s agent, Sil.

c 2287 - Mission to Magnus
 [510]

Humans had settled on the planet Magnus. The Seven Sisterhoods came to rule there when a virus killed off most of the male population; a few males were kept below the planet’s surface for progenitor harvesting. The Ice Warriors triggered a series of nuclear explosions that moved Magnus into a colder orbit, hoping to alter the climate to their liking.

The Mentor Sil, trying to atone for his failure on Varos, was poised to reap a profit by selling warm garments and other goods to the Magnus inhabitants. Sil had previously met Anzor, a representative of the High Council on Gallifrey, on Thoros Beta. The sixth Doctor dealt with Anzor’s interference by sending him and his TARDIS on a slow trek into the distant past.

(=) Rana Zandusia - the leader of the Sisterhoods - and Sil came into possession of the Doctor’s TARDIS, travelled a few hours into the future and saw that Magnus had been devastated.

The Doctor and Peri reclaimed the TARDIS, and triggered a second series of explosions that moved Magnus back into a warmer orbit. The men of Salvak offered to become husbands to the Sisterhoods.

2290 - The Leisure Hive
 [511]

By 2290, it was clear that the Leisure Hive on Argolis was in trouble. Last year’s bookings had fallen dramatically, and advance bookings for 2291 were disastrous. Argolis now faced competition from other leisure planets such as Abydos and Limus 4. The West Lodge of the Foamasi offered to buy the planet, but the board refused and instead pinned their hopes on tachyon experiments conducted by the Earth scientist Hardin. The fourth Doctor and Romana were present when agents of the Foamasi government arrested two members of the West Lodge, who were attempting to establish a power base on Argolis, and it was discovered that the Tachyon Recreation Generator could rejuvenate the Argolin. The Argolin and Foamasi governments re-opened negotiations.

Checkley’s World, “The Horror Planet”, was settled in 2290 and selected as the best location for a scientific research station. The laboratories were released from state control a decade after the planet was colonised, and the facilities were funded by a number of empires and corporations, including the Arcturans, Riftok and Masel. Earth Government remained the major partner. Weapon systems such as compression grenades, Freire’s gas and the Ethers - genetically engineered ghost-troops - were developed.
 [512]

Human colonists discovered Selonart.
 [513]
The residents of the planet Perfecton determined that their sun would go supernova. Unable to escape, they encoded their entire culture onto a missile that could recreate their civilisation with quantum fluctuations. Humanity didn’t know why the Perfectons had vanished, and quarantined Perfecton.
 [514]
The leaders of the Slav and Russian colonists on the planet Vishpok advocated genetic purity - the “Visphoi Ideal”. A series of emperors and empresses ruled Vishpok until it fell under a military dictatorship.
 [515]

2294 - The Stones of Venice
 [516]

After overthrowing yet another reign of terror, the eighth Doctor and Charley arrived in Venice on the eve of its destruction. The gondoliers of Venice, now amphibians with webbed hands and toes, eagerly awaited the chance to claim the city once it sank beneath the waves.

A series of tremors struck the city, but the Doctor discovered that the “late” Estella, now posing as a city resident named Eleanor Lavish, had once owned an alien device capable of altering reality. The device had kept Estella and Duke Orsino alive for a century by draining Venice’s life force, leading to its present decay. The Doctor recovered the device, and Orsino proposed that he and Estella end their lives for Venice’s sake. Estella agreed out of continued love for Orsino, and the device turned them into ash, saving the city. The high priest of the Cult of Estella made off with their ashes.

c 2295 - Whispers of Terror
 [517]

Despite a dislike of the visual medium, Visteen Krane became acclaimed as the greatest actor of his age. His body of work was chiefly confined to audio recordings and a few photographs. Later, he became a politician and stood for Presidency with his agent, Beth Pernell, as his running mate.

Before the election, Krane seemingly committed suicide in the Museum of Aural Antiquities, an institution dedicated to the study of all things audio. Pernell pledged to run in Krane’s place and continue his policies. The sixth Doctor and Peri discovered that at the moment of his death, Krane used advanced sound equipment to transfer his brainwaves into the sound medium. Krane had become a creature of pure sound, demented from his transformation and outraged at Pernell, who had engineered his murder.

The Krane-creature attempted to endlessly replicate itself and take control of the planet, but the Doctor shocked Krane back to sanity. Pernell’s plans were exposed, and Krane agreed to stay at the Museum to aid Curator Gantman with his research. Pernell fled, but Krane engineered an automobile accident that killed her.

c 2296 - “Dreadnought”
 [518]

Stacy Townsend was the only survivor when the Cybermen attacked the cargo ship
Dreadnought
; her fiancé, Bill, was Cyber-converted. The eighth Doctor destroyed the Cybermen, and Stacy joined him on his travels.

The Doctor later brought Stacy’s parents, Christopher and Mary Townsend, through time to attend her wedding in 3999.
 [519]
The Holy Space Squid began attracting acolytes.
 [520]
The colony ship
Justinian
set off for Ordifica at the end of the twenty-third century.
 [521]

Circa 2296, Grayvorn abandoned his “Lord Vaughn Sutton” identity and covertly continued his sociopolitical engineering in Excelis. The leaders of Artaris’ city-states secretly signed the Artaris Convention, ending the war between them. Grayvorn found the conflict useful to his industrial efforts and sabotaged the accord. His research culminated in the creation of lumps of biomass named Meat Puppets, his master shock troops. He used the Relic’s abilities to rip the souls from dissidents and infuse the Meat Puppets with life.
 [522]

The Twenty-Fourth Century

By the twenty-fourth century, the lower half of England had become a vast Central City
.
 [523]
Much of what had been West London was covered in forest.
 [524]
Duronite, an alloy of machonite and duralinium, was discovered in the early twenty-fourth century. Influenza had been eradicated.
 [525]
The James Bond films were remade in the twenty-fourth century.
 [526]
Merik’s Theorem was discovered in the twenty-fourth century.
 [527]

Suspended animation ships were still available in the twenty-fourth century, but they had been superseded by the invention of super light drives.
 [528]
Jonquil the Intrepid destroyed the vampires Lord Jake and Lady Madelaine, but their descendants survived for many thousands of years.
 [529]
On a visit to the twenty-fourth century, the Doctor learnt about the colony at Yemaya.
 [530]
Landor, on the galactic rim, was colonised around now.
 [531]

Humans colonised Pavonis IV, a verdant planet in the Delta Pavonis system, in the twenty-fourth century. It served as their home for a thousand years, during which time the first Doctor and his three companions saved the colonists from an alien invasion. The Pavonians regarded him as a mythical hero; some parents even named their children after him.
 [532]

The eleventh Doctor took Amy to Space Florida, a planet with automatic sand.
 [533]

Elysium ore was found to improve the fuel efficiency of hyperspace vessels by 6 or 7%, and became greatly sought after. Galactic laws gave indigenous populations first claim on mining rights, so the discovery of Elysium on Erratoon made its inhabitants very wealthy.
 [534]

Early in the twenty-fourth century, a philosopher on a colony world published a monograph,
The Myth of the Non-Straight Line
. The population had ceased being able to conceive of circles. The planet was quarantined as scientists from a survey ship attempted to work out why.
 [535]
The fourth Doctor and one of his fellow Time Lords, Azmael, met on Jaconda around this time.
 [536]

Humanity settled a group of forty-nine colony worlds that became cut off from Earth. On Colony 34, a hospital was built in the northern mountains from marnite stone. Colony 48 lacked access to navigable waters.
 [537]
Maurit Guillan discovered the paradise planet of Laylora, but later his ship was found drifting near Draconian space, the location of Laylora lost. The search for the planet went on to inspire a number of explorers.
 [538]

c 2301 - Excelis Decays
 [539]

Excelis was now in a permanent state of war. Grayvorn’s ambition started to reach beyond Artaris, and he desired to deploy his Meat Puppet troops through the whole of time and space. The seventh Doctor merged his soul with the Relic, exerting enough power to send Grayvorn’s captured souls to the afterlife and making his Meat Puppets go inert. Rather than accept defeat, Grayvorn activated Excelis’ orbital defence grid and bombarded every major city on Artaris with nuclear missiles. Grayvorn died in the onslaught, but the Doctor escaped.

An entity was trapped in a mirror on an ice planet.
 [540]

? 2305 - The Slow Empire
 [541]

The Slow Empire had been founded in a region of space where the laws of physics prohibited faster-than-light travel. Some worlds facilitated trade and communication via Transference Pylons, which transmitted Ambassadors and materials between worlds at light speed. However, the Empire founders had long ago killed themselves through warfare, which helped to plunge the Empire into decay.

The Empire world Shakrath was ruled by a corrupt Emperor who gave visitors generous receptions for posterity, then sent them to the torture chambers. Some centuries previous on Goronos, a slave class had successfully revolted but found themselves unable to function without their masters. They transferred their minds into an elaborate “Cyberdyne” computer reality, and Goronos became an urban wasteland. On Thakrash, some five hundred years previous (as that planet recorded time), a metamorphic Collector crashed onto the planet and ruined its Transference Pylon. The slaves there revolted, forcing Thakrash into isolation.