Dark Times

The Dark Times, (PROSE: The Five Doctors, The Pit, TV: The Runaway Bride, The Infinite Quest) or Dark Time, (PROSE: The Eight Doctors, Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible, TV: The Infinite Quest) were a time of chaos and monsters that predated the Doctor's reality. (TV: The Infinite Quest) In terms of universal history, the Dark Times were billions of years before the 21st century. (TV: The Runaway Bride) Some accounts placed the Dark Time as being synonymous with the Old Time, (PROSE: Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible) but others indicated they were distinct eras. (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords)

Additionally, some perspectives viewed this era as the pre-universe, (PROSE: Christmas on a Rational Planet) a time of chaos that not only predated Time Lord history, but was also "before there was any such thing as History", and where the laws of Time and reality of the later universe did not apply. (AUDIO: The Enemy of My Enemy)

The Dark Times were a prehistoric period in Gallifreyan history. (PROSE: Introduction) Rassilon created the Time scoop in the Dark Times, (PROSE: The Five Doctors, The Eight Doctors) and his rise to power and foundation of Time Lord civilisation ended the Dark Times, (PROSE: Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible, A Brief History of Time Lords) with the anchoring of the thread and Time Wars eradicating the monstrous creatures of the era and creating the Web of Time. (PROSE: The Infinity Doctors, So Vile a Sin, et al.) After this, it was believed Time Lords were unable to time travel to the Dark Time, (PROSE: No Future, Goth Opera) but the Master (AUDIO: Lesser Evils) and multiple incarnations of the Doctor would do just that. (COMIC: Old Girl, PROSE: The Guide to the Dark Times)

Beings of the Dark Times
The Hond were speculated by the Tenth Doctor to be one of the first species, as "the primordial ooze" given sentience. He suggested they’d been created in constant pain as a result of "the universe not quite knowing what life was like yet." (COMIC: Defender of the Daleks) The Kamishi, also known as the First Race, were one of the earliest known civilisations. (AUDIO: The Rulers of the Universe)

Species that flourished in the Dark Times included the Dæmons, Eternals, Gods of Ragnarok, (PROSE: No Future) Racnoss, (TV: The Runaway Bride, et al.) Nestene, (TV: The Infinite Quest) Qwerm, Narlok, (PROSE: River of Time) Osirans, (COMIC: Old Girl, PROSE: River of Time) Jagaroth, and Kastrians. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen) The Mandragora Helix also originated from the Dark Times. (PROSE: Beautiful Chaos)

At the "dawn of the universe", the Carrionites waged a war with the Hervoken. (PROSE: Forever Autumn) The Eternals were present during this time period, banishing both the Carrionites and the Hervoken to the Deep Darkness, although some of them escaped. (TV: The Shakespeare Code, PROSE: Forever Autumn)

Among the first species in the universe were the Kotturuh, who laid low for “a millennium or two” and then set out to distribute mortality to the beings of the universe, (PROSE: The Guide to the Dark Times) starting on the planet Birinji. (PROSE: The Dawn of the Kotturuh) They drew their power from a realm accessible via their homeplanet Mordeela. (PROSE: The Knight, The Fool and The Dead) This began the Kotturuh crisis. (PROSE: The Guide to the Dark Times)

As the Kotturuh spread, various races responded in different ways. The Eternals fled, losing the ability to live their own lives in the process. The Osiran Sutekh bargained with them and gained the gift of death for himself. The Daemons tried to fight back, resulting in them eventually being driven to extinction. (PROSE: The Guide to the Dark Times) The Master witnessed a Kotturuh woman at work on the planet Alexis and attempted to influence her decision. (AUDIO: Lesser Evils)

The Great Old Ones were present in the universe at this time. It was during this time period, too, that the legendary spaceship Infinite was created. (TV: The Infinite Quest)

The elder books of the Dark Times, created by elder powers such as the Dæmons, Eternals, and Gods of Ragnarok, had details on how to capture and harness a Chronovore. Part of the necessary ritual, according to the books, involved spheres from the Sisterhood of Karn and a pentancle drawn in the blood of five species who "had their genetic destinies changed by the Capitol": Minyans, Silurians, Daleks, Humans, and Mandrels. (PROSE: No Future)

Gallifreyans in the Dark Times
Gallifrey was "born before the Dark Times". (COMIC: Agent Provocateur)

In the Dark Times, (COMIC: The Wishing Well Witch) Gallifreyans evolved under the influence of the Untempered Schism. (COMIC: Old Girl) The Tenth Doctor once encountered an amalgam of young Gallifreyans who had been thrown into the Schism during the Dark Times. (COMIC: The Wishing Well Witch) He and Cindy Wu later visited this era of Gallifrey, which was billions of years before the Doctor's native era and "before Rassilon and his Black Scrolls, before time travel was even invented". (COMIC: Old Girl)

Gallifreyans examining their own future wrote the Green Book of Gallifrey and the Black Book of Gallifrey, which foretold the Timewyrm devouring Rassilon at the end of the universe (PROSE: Timewyrm: Revelation) and the Event. (PROSE: The Ancestor Cell) Another Gallifreyan prophecy from the Dark Times said that a Vampire would survive on "a world that will be called Ravolox". (PROSE: Goth Opera)

According to one account, Tecteun was one of the first explorers to leave Gallifrey. (TV: The Timeless Children)

Under the rule of the Pythias, a line of female seers, Gallifrey built an interstellar empire. (PROSE: Cat’s Cradle: Time’s Crucible)

The Kotturuh visited Gallifrey and, aware of the eventual rise of the Time Lords, judged its people as having much to offer. (PROSE: The Knight, The Fool and The Dead) They imposed death, which the Gallifreyans called “the Ultimate”. (COMIC: Monstrous Beauty)

According to differing accounts, Gallifreyans caused the release of the Great Vampires into N-Space. (AUDIO: Project Twilight, PROSE: The Pit, Interference) The Great Vampires caused mass destruction and chaos throughout the cosmos. (TV: State of Decay) River Song believed they were forced to adopt a lifestyle of feeding on mortal beings as part of a deal with the Kotturuh to keep their immortality. (PROSE: The Guide to the Dark Times) The Eternal War began between Gallifrey and the Great Vampires, with Gallifreyan commanders leading the fight including Kopyion Liall a Mahajetsu (PROSE: The Pit) and Rassilon. (COMIC: Monstrous Beauty)

Time Scoops were created in the Dark Times. (PROSE: The Eight Doctors, World Game)

The Kotturuh crisis escalates
The Tenth Doctor travelled back into the Dark Times via the time fracture, arriving on the planet Andalia. He witnessed a demonstration of Professor Fallomax’s lifeshroud technology on Estinee, which was disrupted by the intervention of Brian who was contracted to test the technology’s efficacy. The Kotturuh arrived on Andalia and judged the natives, to the Doctor’s horror, and took Estinee with them back to Mordeela. He and Brian followed them and witnessed Estinee being rescued by Fallomax. Learning Fallomax was developing the lifeshrouds to resist the Kotturuh, the Doctor decided to help. He spent days working in vain on the lifeshrouds, discovering they only appeared to work in demonstrations because of Estinee’s natural immunity to the Kotturuh, only succeeding in making the Mordeela crystals they depended on last a couple of hours longer. The Doctor realised he had a physical sample from a Kotturuh who had made physical contact with him and used that and data collected from Andalia to reverse-engineer their power as necrotic virus to inflict a lifespan on them. Brian took control of mercenary forces as he worked, believing the Doctor was effectively going to war with the Kotturuh. The Kotturuh confronted the Doctor on Andalia, attempting to force Estinee into killing him until she chose to take her own life to stop them. Infuriated, the Doctor unleashed his virus on them and sentenced them to a lifespan of fifteen minutes. (PROSE: The Knight, The Fool and The Dead)

The Doctor’s actions in the Dark Times caused fluctuations in time, (PROSE: The Guide to the Dark Times) rewriting the timelines of entire planets in the future including Atharna and Wrax (AUDIO: He Kills Me, He Kills Me Not, The Enemy of My Enemy) and rewriting the Dalek Restoration Empire so they never fought the Last Great Time War. (COMIC: Defender of the Daleks) Investigating the temporal anomalies in the future led to the Eighth Doctor and a Dalek Time Squad travelling back to the Dark Times to find the source. (AUDIO: The Enemy of My Enemy) At the same time the Ninth Doctor and Rose arrived in the midst of the Eternal War. After helping Vampire slaves liberate themselves from the Sisters who’d turned them, the Doctor stayed with them aboard their coffin ship whilst Rose stayed on a moon to recover from briefly becoming a Vampire. (COMIC: Monstrous Beauty) The Time Squad’s investigation into the source of the alterations and the Ninth Doctor feeling something was wrong with the Dark Times led both factions to Mordeela. (PROSE: All Flesh is Grass)

As the Kotturuh died, the Doctor led the mercenary forces to Mordeela, intending to seal off the Kotturuh’s power source. His fleet was confronted by the arrival of a Dalek saucer, carrying the Eighth Doctor, and the coffin ship, commanded by the Ninth Doctor. Both of them pleaded with him to stop but he dismissed them as tricks and ordered his fleet to open fire, (PROSE: The Knight, The Fool and The Dead) destroying Mordeela. Whilst the younger Doctors were shocked, the Daleks and Vampires attacked, beginning the Battle of Mordeela. Despite the Doctors’ efforts to rein their forces, the Battle escalated and resulted in the destruction of the Tenth Doctor’s forces save his flagship. The Tenth Doctor managed to use the ruins of Mordeela to seal the gateway to the Kotturuh power source as intended, using that to mask his ship’s escape. (PROSE: All Flesh is Grass)

The Tenth Doctor continued wandering the Dark Times in the surviving mercenary ship, connecting his TARDIS to its damaged engines, accompanied by Brian. (AUDIO: The Minds of Magnox) The Tenth Doctor went to a desert planet alone and was feasted by ghosts, who fooled him into believing he’d saved a species. He was found by Brian who revealed the truth and destroyed the ghosts. (COMIC: Tales of the Dark Times) The Doctor took their ship to Magnox, where he sought to ask the Council of Minds if he’d done the right thing taking on the Kotturuh whilst Brian was embroiled in a plot to assassinate the Minds. A Kotturuh ship led by Avkhan arrived, demanding the Minds tell them how to survive the Doctor’s judgement or they would wipe out the planet. Brian assassinated the Minds before he could met them, forcing the Doctor to organise a hasty evacuation of Magnox before the Kotturuh reduced it to ruins. The survivors of Magnox settled on Islos. (AUDIO: The Minds of Magnox)

The Dalek Time Squad, believing they had failed to correct history, began a back-up plan of harvesting lifeforms unique to the Dark Times to weaponise them. (PROSE: Mission to the Known) The Squad harvested the population of Velosia under the pretence of saving their best minds from the coming of the Kotturuh. (COMIC: Tales of the Dark Times) The Eighth Doctor found himself excluded from the Daleks’ schemes, as they only needed him to ensure their eventual departure from the Dark Times, but was allowed to join their explorations, (PROSE: All Flesh is Grass) including of an abandoned spaceship they discovered. The Doctor realised it had been left by a species wiped out by the Kotturuh as a reminder of their civilisation. The Daleks found a source of Huon energy aboard and attempted to absorb it, requiring assistance by the Doctor when it went wrong. (COMIC: Tales of the Dark Times)

The Ninth Doctor continued to help the Free Undead search for a planet to settle on, (PROSE: All Flesh is Grass) visiting Parvanna with Ikalla where they were hunted by an invisible creature, which the Doctor held off by setting a sonic stake alight. (COMIC: Tales of the Dark Times) His coffin ship was targeted by the Daleks, seeking a Vampire for their experiments, however the Eighth Doctor forewarned the Vampires so they could evacuate and escaped with the Ninth Doctor in his TARDIS. (PROSE: All Flesh is Grass) After the Doctor left the Daleks. the Time Commander and Executioner received pre-recorded orders from the Emperor, ordering them to target Gallifrey to avert the creation of the Time Lords. (PROSE: Mission to the Known) Meanwhile the Strategist and Scientist continued the experiments, seeking to create a more biologically efficient form of Dalek - the Symbiont. (PROSE: All Flesh is Grass)

Together, the Eighth and Ninth Doctors went in search of the Time Lord Victorious, travelling to the planet  Hoolan. They discovered a malfunctioning time machine bridging the future to the Dark Times, after its  pilot h ad attempted to witness the Big Bang. They fixed her time machine and sent her back to her home time period. ( COMIC :  Tales of the Dark Times ) The two Doctors eventually tracked their future self to Entranxis, where he was meeting the Death Brokers to procure new weapons for his ship. They rescued Ikalla, who had been captured after the evacuation, from the Brokers however the Daleks attacked, seeking to capture her. The Ninth Doctor escaped with her back to his TARDIS whilst the other two Doctors returned to the Tenth Doctor’s ship. They reunited in orbit, however the Ninth Doctor was angered by his other selves’ lack of concern for the dying Kotturuh and left with Ikalla to help them. Their target lost, the Daleks wiped out Entranxis by setting its atmosphere alight, horrifying the Eighth and Tenth Doctors who resolved to stop them.

The Ninth Doctor and Ikalla’s search led to them Birinji where they met Inyit, now the last of the Kotturuh. Meanwhile the Eighth and Tenth Doctors discovered a coffin ship the Daleks had attacked and convinced a surviving Bloodsman to help them and Brian infiltrate the Dalek saucer. There the Tenth Doctor witnessed the creation of the Symbiont using Great Vampire DNA and the Eighth learned the Daleks had been killing off the Kotturuh, including dispatching a scout ship to Birinji, in preparation for attacking the “Ultimate End”. A power drain caused by the experiments enabled them to escape, leaving Brian behind, and they had their ship destroy the scout ship attacking Birinji, where they reunited with the Ninth Doctor and met Inyit. Brian contacted them to reveal he’d hidden in the saucer’s engine room, having attached himself to an explosive to protect himself from the Daleks, and that their destination was Gallifrey. The Doctors went to mount a defence of their homeworld, leaving Ikalla to look after Inyit, with the Tenth Doctor rescuing Brian on the way. His rescue caused the Strategist to realise the Doctors knew their plan, so had the Drones enhanced with Symbiont DNA to counter their defences. Whilst the army of undead Daleks battled the Doctors’ ship and three coffin ships who’d answered Ikalla’s summons, the original Symbiont was sent to kill Inyit. She issued the final judgement on it, wiping out it and all the Drones sharing its DNA. This threw the Daleks’ assault into chaos, as they panicked that the judgement may spread to pure Dalek DNA, enabling the Eighth Doctor to board the saucer and trigger Brian’s explosive, forcing the ship into the Time Vortex and out of the Dark Times.

The Ninth and Tenth Doctors returned to Birinji where they witnessed Inyit’s death. The Tenth Doctor finally conceded he’d gone too far and reconciled with his past self, agreeing to end his rewriting of history. As the free Vampires settled on Birinji, Brian decided to stay with them and the Tenth Doctor departed the Dark Times. (PROSE: All Flesh is Grass) The Ninth Doctor returned to Rose and, when she recovered, likewise left the Dark Times. (COMIC: Monstrous Beauty)

30 years after the end of the Kotturuh crisis, the Eleventh Doctor visited the ruins of Magnox and recovered a data drive. He took it to Islos, where the survivors had started a new archive of knowledge. (AUDIO: The Minds of Magnox)

End of the Dark Times
The Dark Times ended with Rassilon’s overthrow of the Pythia and the foundation of Time Lord civilisation on Gallifrey. (PROSE: Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible, A Brief History of Time Lords) Rassilon decided to make the universe rational, (PROSE: So Vile a Sin) resulting in the anchoring of the thread (PROSE: The Book of the War) and the creation of the Web of Time. (AUDIO: Neverland) All of the monstrous species of the Dark Times eventually died out. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen) After the Time Lords developed the bowship, the Eternal War ended in the deaths of all the Great Vampires, save the King (PROSE: The Multi-Faceted War) who escaped into E-Space. (TV: State of Decay)

The Racnoss were wiped out by the Time Lords' Fledgling Empires in the Racnoss Wars, which the Fifth Doctor characterised as “a long and bloody affair”. (AUDIO: Empire of the Racnoss) Two Webstars were known to have survived with their occupants in hibernation: those of the Empress and her children. The children’s Webstar arrived in the Sol system and became the first rock in the formation of Earth. (TV: The Runaway Bride)

The Jagaroth were among the last of this era's species to survive, but eventually they too went extinct when Scaroth hunted down Racnoss energy signals to Earth. (PROSE: City of Death)

A herd of War TARDISes once suggested to Compassion that one monstrous force survived: the Rassilon Imprimatur. From the TARDISes' perspective, the Imprimatur lived in the blood of the Time Lords and controlled them, "dancing to the old agenda of the Dark Times." (PROSE: The Taking of Planet 5)

The Dark Times were followed by the Old Time. (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords) During the creation of the Hand of Omega, Omega's body was muscular and wide-shouldered, leading some Gallifreyan it differed from the regenerative norm because it was a "genetic memory" from the Dark Time. (PROSE: Remembrance of the Daleks)

Artifacts of the Dark Times
The Black Scrolls of Rassilon were relics of the Dark Times. (PROSE: The Five Doctors, Divided Loyalties)

The Valeyard claimed that The Doctor's Black Scrolls contained knowledge from the Dark Times that the Doctor used to extend their life and create the Valeyard. (AUDIO: Trial of the Valeyard)

Returning to the Dark Times
During the Fifth Doctor's presidency, Scandrius once stole a TARDIS and accidentally sent it hurdling backwards in history, beyond even the Dark Time, where it created a paradox threatening the existence of Gallifrey. (AUDIO: Time in Office)

The Timewyrm once tried to return to the Dark Times to see the composition of the Green and Black books of Gallifrey, but was blocked by "fierce security and powerful temporal baffles". (PROSE: Timewyrm: Revelation)

The Monk mentioned to Ace that the Dark Times were "where none can visit". (PROSE: No Future)

Ruath once attempted to force the Fifth Doctor to pilot his TARDIS to the Dark Times to meet Rassilon and save the Great Vampires, but the Doctor thought that was impossible. (PROSE: Goth Opera)

Brian ended up in the Dark Times (PROSE: The Knight, The Fool and The Dead) after falling into the Time Vortex whilst trying to board the Eighth Doctor’s TARDIS (AUDIO: He Kills Me, He Kills Me Not) and being given “a little nudge“ by the Tenth Doctor‘s TARDIS. (PROSE: What the TARDIS thought of “Time Lord Victorious“)

The Daleks were unable to penetrate the barrier around the Dark Times. (PROSE: Mission to the Known) However the Eighth Doctor allowed the Dalek Time Squad to travel back to the Dark Times by linking his TARDIS to the Dalek timeship’s engines. (AUDIO: The Enemy of My Enemy)

A woman attempted to use a time machine to witness the Big Bang but hit the temporal barriers protecting the Dark Times. This resulted in her time machine becoming stuck on the planet Hoolan, now bridging between her present and the Dark Times. This catastrophe was resolved by Eighth and Ninth Doctors. (COMIC: Tales of the Dark Times)

When the Tenth Doctor and Cindy Wu visited Dark Times Gallifrey, the Doctor speculated that the time lock did not apply to pre-Time Lord Gallifrey. (COMIC: Old Girl) The Tenth Doctor would later access the Dark Times again via a time fracture. (PROSE: The Knight, The Fool and The Dead)