Shoreditch Incident

The Shoreditch Incident was an event in which Imperial and Renegade Dalek factions battled in the eponymous area of London in 1963, which was evacuated to prevent civilian casualties. At that time, the Daleks were engaged in the Imperial-Renegade Dalek Civil War, each side attempting to procure the Hand of Omega.

Preparations by both sides
A Renegade Dalek faction (from approximately the 30th century, according to a statement made by the Seventh Doctor) and a Imperial Dalek faction arrived in Shoreditch in 1963 from the future. (DW: Remembrance of the Daleks) Before the first incarnation of the Doctor had even left Earth with Susan, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright, at least one Renegade Dalek had come to London to seek out the Hand of Omega. (DWM: Time & Time Again)

The Doctor left Earth and, in his seventh incarnation, returned. The Imperials had set up a transmat concealed in the basement of Coal Hill School to transport themselves there and made a slave of the Headmaster. The Renegades had meanwhile employed the use of Ratcliffe and linked Judith Winters, a schoolgirl, to their battle computer, so that her young imagination could serve as a generator of ingenious stratagems to defeat the Imperials. (DW: Remembrance of the Daleks)

The course of the conflict
A human military force, the Intrusion Countermeasures Group, led by Group Captain Gilmore, with Dr. Rachel Jensen and her assistant Allison Williams as their scientific advisors. The troops had a brief battle with a Renegade Dalek at Totter's Yard. For the most part, however, the group ensured the evacuation of the area in order to minimise human casualties and allow the Doctor to put his plans into motion. (DW: Remembrance of the Daleks)

Aided by the Special Weapons Dalek, the Imperials won their battle on the streets of Shoreditch. An Imperial shuttlecraft landed in the school yard of Coal Hill School. The Imperials won the Hand of Omega which the Doctor had planned all along. Davros (as 'Emperor' of the Imperials) plotted to make the sun of the Dalek homeworld Skaro go supernova, giving the Daleks the power of unlimited time travel. In the Imperials' time zone, he did so. This action, however, destroy both the planet and the Imperial fleet. (DW: Remembrance of the Daleks)

The Dalek Prime would later claim that it was not Skaro, but another planet, Antalin, that was actually destroyed. (EDA: War of the Daleks)

On Earth, The Doctor convinced the last remaining Renegade, the Supreme Dalek into self-destructing. (DW: Remembrance of the Daleks) However, Judith Winters, the young girl linked to his mind, remained mentally broken for the rest of her life. (BE: In the Community)

Human reaction
From the viewpoint of many key scientific and military authorities in Great Britain, the conflict constituted undeniable evidence that aliens did exist. The conflict was later named "the Shoreditch Incident" by these authorities. (MA: Who Killed Kennedy)


 * At least one organisation, the Torchwood Institute, however, almost certainly already had proof of extraterrestrial life.

The Shoreditch Incident was also the title of a book on the incident written by ex-UNIT officer Hamlet Macbeth. (NA: The Left-Handed Hummingbird, Return of the Living Dad)


 * This event almost certainly contributed to the existence of UNIT, though it would take more events of this kind before its actual creation.