World War III


 * For the TV story of the same name, see World War Three.

World War III or the Third World War, was a conflict that broke out at some point during the history of planet Earth. During the second half of the 20th century and into the 21st century, fear of a third world war was usually connected to it being a potentially civilization-destroying conflict involving nuclear warfare.

The Doctor prevented this war from breaking out prematurely on several occasions (DW: The Mind of Evil, Robot), most notably when he prevented individuals from an alternate timeline in which the war did occur in the late 20th century from making it happen (DW: Day of the Daleks; see also "Alternative timelines", below).

Adam Mitchell claimed he nearly caused World War III when, in the late 1990s, he hacked into American Department of Defense computers. (DW: Dalek) The Slitheen family tried to cause World War III in the first decade of the 21st century so they could sell the Earth's radioactive remains as fuel. (DW: Aliens of London / World War Three)

Among politicians on Earth in the early 21st century, there is conflicting opinion as to whether conflicts such as the Cold War, the Persian Gulf War of 1991, and the War on Terrorism, which began in 2001, might actually in retrospect constitute a third world war (contemporary accounts).

It is known that at some point in Earth's history, a conflict known as World War III did occur, followed by a fourth, as a World War V took place on Earth prior to the year 5000. (DW: The Talons of Weng-Chiang) The exact nature of the conflict has yet to be chronicled, although human civilization clearly did not end as a result.

Alternative timelines
In one timeline, Shura, a 22nd century anti-Dalek resistance fighter, traveled back to the late 20th century and set off a dalekanium bomb which destroyed the World Peace Conference. World War III started as various global factions accused each other. In the aftermath, the Daleks took over Earth, ruling over the survivors, resulting in the world Shura tried to prevent. However, he un-did the damage by ensuring that when the bomb went off, the delegates had left safely. (DW: Day of the Daleks)