Break-out

The Break-out was the mass migration of humans from Earth across interstellar space in the galaxy of Mutter's Spiral that began in the closing years of the 21st century.

Early history
The Eleventh Doctor acknowledged the role the Silents played in the human race "spread[ing] out among the stars". The Silents, who claimed to have "ruled" the Earth "since the wheel and the fire", influenced humanity to eventually invent the spacesuit, their intention being for Melody Pond to use a modified suit to kill the Eleventh Doctor at Lake Silencio, which would become a fixed point in time in the war against the Doctor, a plot which ultimately failed. (TV: Day of the Moon, The Wedding of River Song)

Around 1959, an alien species had landed on the Moon and sent a transmission to Earth. They requested a meeting with humans so as to share technology. The American government intercepted the transmission and started NASA's moon project to meet them. (PROSE: Blue Moon) In popular culture, the Moon landing had much to do with the Americans' rivalry with the Soviet Union and was known as the "Space Race". (PROSE: Blue Moon)

Apollo 11, an American spacecraft landed on the Moon on 20 July 1969, which was regarded by humans as the first Moon landing. The Eleventh Doctor interfered with the transmission of the landing, with the help of Canton Everett Delaware III and the relay that he had installed aboard Columbia. At the crucial moment that Neil Armstrong set foot on the Moon, they inserted footage of a Silent, ordering for its kind to be killed on sight, forcing the Silents off Earth. (TV: Day of the Moon)

21st century
As alien incursions occurred on Earth with increasing frequency, Jack Harkness was aware that the 21st century was when "everything changes" and that mankind had to be ready; (TV: Everything Changes) he had been told this by Alex Hopkins who, having seen the future using Object 1 on 31 December 1999, believed that mankind was not ready. (TV: Fragments, AUDIO: The Torchwood Archive)

The Twelfth Doctor credited the moon crisis of 2049 as a point in the mid-21st century where humankind "start[ed] creeping off into the stars", spreading its way through the galaxy to the very edges of the universe, enduring up to the end of time. "And it does all that because one day in the year 2049, when it had stopped thinking about going to the stars, something occurred that make it look up, not down. It looked out there into the blackness and it saw something beautiful, something wonderful, that for once it didn't want to destroy. And in that one moment, the whole course of history was changed."

- The Twelfth Doctor.

The Tenth Doctor also credited Adelaide Brooke with the later Break-out. Adelaide was the captain of Bowie Base One, established in July 2058 as the home of the first official off-world colonists in history and the first humans on Mars. Adelaide's death on 21 November 2059 was a fixed point in time; it was for this reason that the Doctor believed that, as a child, Adelaide's life was spared by a Dalek during the Planetary Relocation Incident of 2009. Susie Fontana Brooke, Adelaide's granddaughter who was only a baby when her grandmother died, would be the pilot of the first lightspeed ship to reach Proxima Centauri thirty years later, having been inspired by Adelaide. "Imagine it, Adelaide, if you began a journey that takes the human race all the way out to the stars. It begins with you, and then your granddaughter, you inspire her, so that in thirty years Susie Fontana Brooke is the pilot of the first lightspeed ship to Proxima Centauri. And then everywhere, with her children, and her children's children forging the way. To the Dragon Star, the Celestial Belt of the Winter Queen, the Map of the Watersnake Wormholes. One day a Brooke will even fall in love with a Tandonian prince, that's the start of a whole new species. But everything starts with you, Adelaide. From fifty years ago to right here, today. Imagine."

- The Tenth Doctor.

When the Doctor inadvertently arrived on Mars on that day, he eventually decided to interfere with the event and save Adelaide, naming himself the Time Lord Victorious. Bowie Base One had been invaded by the Flood and subsequently destroyed to prevent the Flood from reaching Earth. However, the Doctor was successful in rescuing Adelaide along with Yuri Kerenski and Mia Bennett, return them to Earth on Davies Street, Adelaide's home, where the Doctor suggested that she may inspire her granddaughter directly. After seeing off Yuri and Mia, Adelaide, who had been told of the fixed nature of her death by the Doctor, challenged his claim as Time Lord Victorious and returned to her house where she committed suicide. As the Doctor understood, history would now proceed on more or less the same course, including the role of Adelaide's granddaughter in humanity's push to space. (TV: The Waters of Mars)

Break-out
The introduction of Ven Kalik's Break-out to Empire: Essays on the Third Millennium acknowledged and challenged a "misconception" that the Break-out was the result of intolerable conditions within the solar system with various causes of widespread dissatisfaction being suggested. This was attributed to the necessity of avoiding cognitive dissonance ensuring that all colonies each developed a tradition that, however harsh the conditions on their newly settled planet, things had been worse on the homeworld. By the time a hundred new worlds had been explored there were a hundred different myths about the "appalling" situation from which the colonists had escaped, which went on to be accepted as the truth and was reiterated in academic works published not only by human historians but also by Draconians and Arcturans. Scholars entered into heated debates over the principal cause of the migration, from overpopulation to environmental degradation or alien invasion.

While Earth was supporting a population that seemed barely credible by contemporary standards at the time of publication, the worst of the overcrowding was over. Earth's population had been in decline since the early 21st century due to a combination of plagues, birth control measures, and - most importantly - the development of instant transport systems that allowed for the rapid colonisation of the other planets and moons in the solar system. Although the Earth's oceans and atmosphere were badly polluted the situation had stabilised by the middle of the 21st century, and thereafter most pollution indicators showed a gradual improvement.

While humankind had already been menaced by hostile alien species, retrospect tended to telescope history so that the popular view of pre-Break-out Earth was a planet permanently besieged. In fact at the time of the Break-out, humankind was at peace with its neighbours: threats from the Cybermen and then from the Ice Warriors had past; and the near-destruction of human life on Earth in the early stages of the First Dalek War was still almost a century in the future.

At the time of the Break-out warp ship technology was almost untried; the ships' owners were Earth-based corporations whom demanded extortionate payment for every outbound berth, their wealth and power already beyond the control of government. Ven Kalik's postulation lay in the perception of poverty; wealth differentials were vast and, more importantly, had never been so visible. Mass commmunications enveloped the solar system whilst transportation was almost instant. The majority of the population on every inhabited planet lived in relative poverty, depending on state benefits, short- term menial employment, and the proceeds of crime. However even the poorest could afford the radio and video links that provided a non-stop display, of flaunted wealth and glamour, and could afford the Transmat fare to the retail palaces in the floating domes of Venus or to the marble halls of the government offices on Earth. For the majority of humans, the solar system at the end of the 21st century seemed a taunting prison whilst a trip to the stars, however costly and risky, would have seemed an escape. (PROSE: Prelude Deceit)

Aftermath and legacy
In the mid-22nd century, humanity was subject to attacks on its colonies by the Daleks, (PROSE: Lucifer Rising) who successfully conquered the Earth and were only repelled after a decade of rule. (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth) Human historians understood that, even in the event of a reprisal invasion some two decades later, Earth eventually flourished in the aftermath, with humanity finally heading out to the stars to establish its own Empire. (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe)

From the persepective of the late 26th century, humanity encountered hundreds of alien species as it spread out into the galaxy colonising world after world. Remarkably, for the first few centuries this contact had been mostly rather peaceful, leading to nothing but cultural exchanges and trading links. There were a number of reasons for this, and every student of galactic history had written at least one essay or answered an exam question on the topic. There had been exceptions, of course. A few alien species made atttempts at invasion, only to be swiftly beaten back, with one exception being the 2157 Dalek invasion. (PROSE: Beige Planet Mars)

By the beginning of the 26th century, the frontiers of Human Space began to encroach on the territory of some of "the big galactic players". For the first half of the century, Earth Intelligence thought that the greatest threat was from the Draconian Empire, which was slightly bigger and a lot more established than Earth's. In truth, the unexplored sectors beyond Draconian space were home to war-like races that had ruled their vast empires for thousands of years. (PROSE: Beige Planet Mars)

The Break-out was covered in Break-out to Empire: Essays on the Third Millennium, edited and published by Federation Archivist Ven Kalik. (PROSE: Prelude Deceit)

A much larger Break-out, the Great Breakout, occurred in 5000. (TV: The Invisible Enemy)