Last Contact

Last Contact was the event in which the enemy destined to destroy Gallifrey would become known and the War in Heaven would become inevitable. Larna told Ulysses, Mister Saldaamir, and Penelope Gate about Last Contact and the prophecy.

At date index 309456/4756.7RE/1213GRT/100447TL, a Matrix projection predicted that the Vore, who in the "first draft" of history had evolved to become an advanced, benevolent race, had become a swarming and aggressive force in the "redraft" caused by the destruction of the cicatrix. It predicted that in a possible final stand between the Time Lords and the Vore, fatalities would include 20-40% of the Time Lord population. As a result, the Supreme Council mandated that no Time Lord was to come within one parsec or one century of the Vore, since this was a potential Last Contact. (PROSE: The Gallifrey Chronicles)

Saldaamir, who had charged himself with ensuring that the timeline continued to exist, was scared of Last Contact. (PROSE: Mr Saldaamir) He and the Doctor's father often talked about wars, great projects, and other big things that needed to be taken care of. (PROSE: Unnatural History)

After being visited by a version of Bernice Summerfield, Danny the Fish feared that the Doctor may have been "compromised" by "Contact". This version of Benny had been in a relationship with the Eighth Doctor for ten years (NC: Fishy Business) since their meeting at Allen Road; rather than leaving her on Dellah, (PROSE: The Dying Days) the Doctor had accompanied her (NC: Fishy Business) through her adventures on Apollox 4 (PROSE: Beyond the Sun) and with the Grell on Perfecton. (PROSE: Oh No It Isn't!) In the 46th century, some archaeologists knew a legend that the Doctor and Benny had 13 half-immortal children; (PROSE: Paydirt) the Infinity Doctor also remembered Bernice being pregnant. (PROSE: The Infinity Doctors)

Danny the Fish conveyed his fears to Saldaamir, who was in San Francisco with, then destroyed his priceless collection except for a book bound in reptile hide. (NC: Fishy Business) Saldaamir later observed Benny on Mars in 2595 and told her that he was going to San Francisco. Benny recognised Saldaamir but couldn't remember where she had met him. (PROSE: Beige Planet Mars) Someone Danny the Fish called "the Leader" was also in San Francisco; (NC: Fishy Business) notably, San Francisco was also where Daniel Joyce led the Advanced Research Project. (PROSE: Unnatural History)

The Eighth Doctor and the Klade were present during Last Contact; when they encountered each other again during the Klade's hunt for the Last One, it was in the Klade's past, but the Doctor did not remember it, either because of his memory loss or because it had not actually happened to him yet. (PROSE: Father Time) The Ship told Lolita that its pilot had gone into his future and identified the enemy, but later erased the information from his memory. (PROSE: Toy Story)

Behind the scenes
Last Contact was central to Lance Parkin's picture of the War in Heaven.
 * Last Contact occurred in Parkin's rejected BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures pitch Enemy of the Daleks. In the story, the Klade of the Needle were introduced as part of a massive intergalactic alliance that was dedicated to fighting the enemy and led by the Doctor's father from his laboratory in Berkeley (a reference to Daniel Joyce from Unnatural History, who was identified with Ulysses in Parkin's later book The Gallifrey Chronicles). When the Eighth Doctor accidentally sent the space-time coordinates of Dalek Space Command to the enemy, he established Last Contact and condemned the universe to its death. The events of this story were referenced in Father Time.
 * In Parkin's reference guide AHistory, which presupposed that the War in Heaven was the same as, or another facet of, the Last Great Time War, Last Contact was redefined as the First Doctor's first meeting with the Daleks as seen in The Daleks.