| Last Great Time War | Appearances | Talk |
- You may be looking for the general concept of a time war.
The Last Great Time War (TV: Dalek [+]Robert Shearman, adapted from Jubilee (Robert Shearman), Doctor Who series 1 (BBC One, 2005).) — originally known as the Great Time War, (PROSE: Engines of War [+]George Mann, BBC New Series tie-in novels (BBC Books, 2014).) declared as the Pa-Jass Vortan in Dalek, (PROSE: The Slyther of Shoreditch [+]Mike Tucker, The Target Storybook (BBC Books, 2019).) better known simply as the Time War (TV: The Unquiet Dead [+]Mark Gatiss, Doctor Who series 1 (BBC One, 2005).) and remembered with the epithet of "The War to End All Wars" (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, 50th Anniversary Specials (BBC One, 2013).) — was the temporal war fought between the Time Lords and the Daleks "for the sake of all creation". (TV: Gridlock [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 3 (BBC One, 2007).) In a linear sense, it lasted for 400 years. Fought throughout countless time periods and even alternate timelines, however, it more accurately lasted an eternity as both sides fought across space and time, opening up new fronts as the Daleks seeded themselves in different epochs. (PROSE: Engines of War [+]George Mann, BBC New Series tie-in novels (BBC Books, 2014).)
At the heart of the War, millions were killed and brought back to life every second, (TV: The End of Time [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2009 and New Year Special 2010 (BBC One, 2009-2010).) on account of both sides' manipulations. (AUDIO: Legion of the Lost [+]John Dorney, Infernal Devices (The War Doctor, Big Finish Productions, 2016).) The colossal death toll made the Doctor's TARDIS remember the Time War as "a war against Death". (PROSE: What the TARDIS thought of "Time Lord Victorious" [+]James Goss, Time Lord Victorious (2020).) In the final battle alone, the Daleks numbered in the quintillions (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, 50th Anniversary Specials (BBC One, 2013).) and fielded a fleet of ten million flying saucers. (TV: Dalek [+]Robert Shearman, adapted from Jubilee (Robert Shearman), Doctor Who series 1 (BBC One, 2005).) The Time Lords used over a million Battle TARDISes (PROSE: Peacemaker [+]James Swallow, BBC New Series Adventures (BBC Books, 2007).) and other ships Time Scooped from their past, (PROSE: Meet the Doctor [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who Annual 2006 (Panini UK, 2005).) throwing their own people into the suffering as disposable soldiers and pilots (AUDIO: The Conscript [+]Matt Fitton, The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume One (The Eighth Doctor: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2017).) who would be resurrected from death to be sent back into the fray. (AUDIO: Legion of the Lost [+]John Dorney, Infernal Devices (The War Doctor, Big Finish Productions, 2016).)
By the end of the War, the Daleks had pushed the Time Lords back to their homeworld of Gallifrey (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, adapted from The Day of the Doctor (Steven Moffat), Target novelisations (Target Books, 2018).) and launched a full-scale assault on the planet. Ultimately, the Last Great Time War was marked by unprecedented destruction and carnage across time and space, and culminated with the apparent destruction of Gallifrey (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, 50th Anniversary Specials (BBC One, 2013).) and ruination of Skaro, (PROSE: Meet the Doctor [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who Annual 2006 (Panini UK, 2005).) seemingly leaving only three Time Lords (TV: Utopia [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 3 (BBC One, 2007)., AUDIO: Divorced, Beheaded, Regenerated [+]John Dorney, Missy: Series One (Missy, Big Finish Productions, 2019).) and a small number of Daleks as survivors. (TV: Dalek [+]Robert Shearman, adapted from Jubilee (Robert Shearman), Doctor Who series 1 (BBC One, 2005)., Doomsday [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 2 (BBC One, 2006)., et al.)
Origins of the War[]
- Main article: Origins of the Last Great Time War
The Time Lords became aware of their future involvement in the Time War a long time before it began, with many war prophecies, stories and legends being generated around the idea. (TV: Heaven Sent [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 9 (BBC One, 2015).) In everyday life, however, the idea of there being a new time war was regarded as an impossibility. (PROSE: Damaged Goods [+]Russell T Davies, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1996).; AUDIO: Damaged Goods [+]Jonathan Morris, adapted from Damaged Goods (Russell T Davies), Novel Adaptations: Volume 2 (Novel Adaptations, Big Finish Productions, 2015)., et. al) The War would grow out of the rivalry between the Time Lords and the Daleks of Skaro. (PROSE: The Whoniverse [+]George Mann and Justin Richards, BBC Books (2016).) Ultimately, the Last Great Time War had many simultaneous origin points across the histories of both groups, beginning at the very start of the Daleks' existence (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords [+]Steve Tribe, BBC Books (2017).) due to a Time Lord attempt to avert or alter their creation. However, while, from the perspective of the Daleks, this event occurred at the start of their timeline, the individual tasked with the mission, the renegade Time Lord known as the Doctor, did not experience it until their fourth incarnation. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 12 (BBC1, 1975).)
Thanks to their repeated stands against the Dalek race, the Doctor became their greatest enemy. (TV: The Chase [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 2 (BBC1, 1965)., Victory of the Daleks [+]Mark Gatiss, Doctor Who series 5 (BBC One, 2010)., et al.) In light of his early encounters with the Daleks, the Second Doctor brought them to the Time Lords' attention during his trial for violating their rule of non-interference, as he told them that they were the most dangerous of all the foes he had stopped on his travels. (TV: The War Games [+]Terrance Dicks and Malcolm Hulke, Doctor Who season 6 (BBC1, 1969).) Seeing the danger they posed, Time Lords began to bend their rules of non-interference, (AUDIO: The Dalek Conquests [+]Nicholas Briggs, BBC Audio (2006).) helping the Third Doctor arrive at the Spiridon campaign to stop a Dalek army. (TV: Planet of the Daleks [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 10 (BBC1, 1973).)
On the orders of Gallifrey, the Fourth Doctor nearly destroyed the Daleks in their infancy. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 12 (BBC1, 1975).)
The Time Lords totally put aside their policy of non-interference (AUDIO: The Dalek Conquests [+]Nicholas Briggs, BBC Audio (2006).) after "foresee[ing] a time when [the Daleks would] have destroyed all other lifeforms and become the dominant creature in the universe." Selecting the Fourth Doctor to carry out a mission to avert this future, the renegade and his companions were redirected to Skaro during the Thousand Year War that gave rise to the Daleks. Given his mission by a Time Lord messenger, the Doctor's mission had certain objectives:
- If possible, to avert the creation of the Daleks
- Otherwise to alter their development and make them less aggressive
- To find some intrinsic flaw or weakness to exploit in the Daleks (TV: Genesis of the Daleks [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 12 (BBC1, 1975).)
After failing to convince the Daleks' creator, Davros, to change the mutants into a force for good, the Doctor had the chance to avert the Daleks' existence but faltered after being unable to wipe out the entire species. As the Daleks and Davros began to take control of the Kaled government, the Doctor returned to finish the deed, but his work was cut short. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 12 (BBC1, 1975).) The Daleks eventually learned of the Time Lords' attempt to subvert their development, which they henceforth viewed as the Gallifreyans having launched a pre-emptive strike and act of aggression, so the Daleks planned to strike back at Gallifrey. Thus, while it was the total opposite of the Time Lords' intention, (PROSE: The Slyther of Shoreditch [+]Mike Tucker, The Target Storybook (BBC Books, 2019).) the incident had generated Dalek hostilities towards the Time Lords and would eventually lead to the War. (WC: Monster File: Daleks [+]Justin Richards, Captain Jack's Monster Files (2008)., AUDIO: The Dalek Conquests [+]Nicholas Briggs, BBC Audio (2006)., The Innocent [+]Nicholas Briggs, Only the Monstrous (The War Doctor, Big Finish Productions, 2015)., The Eternity Cage [+]Andrew Smith, Agents of Chaos (The War Doctor, Big Finish Productions, 2016).)
The mission was thus regarded as the "first shot" of the War. (PROSE: Meet the Doctor [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who Annual 2006 (Panini UK, 2005)., COMIC: Hunters of the Burning Stone [+]Scott Gray, DWM Comics (2013)., et. al) As revenge for the Time Lords' plot to destroy them, (AUDIO: The Dalek Conquests [+]Nicholas Briggs, BBC Audio (2006).) the Daleks aboard the Supreme's Battlecruiser later attempted to create a duplicate of the Fifth Doctor to send to Gallifrey and assassinate the High Council of the Time Lords, only for the beginning of the Imperial-Renegade Dalek Civil War and the Doctor's actions to destroy the warship. (TV: Resurrection of the Daleks [+]Eric Saward, Doctor Who season 21 (BBC1, 1984).)
The next Dalek attempt to attack the Time Lords (AUDIO: The Dalek Conquests [+]Nicholas Briggs, BBC Audio (2006).) took place as this civil war was ongoing, involving use of the Hand of Omega by Davros, who intended to use it to grant his Imperials mastery over time to become the new Lords of Time. The Seventh Doctor tricked Davros into using the Hand of Omega to destroy Skaro. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks [+]Ben Aaronovitch, Doctor Who season 25 (BBC1, 1988).) This incident was largely seen as a cause of the War. (PROSE: The Stranger [+]Gary Russell, Heroes and Monsters Collection (Heroes and Monsters Collection, 2015).; AUDIO: In Remembrance [+]Guy Adams, Class: The Audio Adventures: Volume Two (Class: The Audio Adventures, Big Finish Productions, 2018).)
During that incident, the Doctor also encountered the same Time Lord operative who had given him the mission to alter Dalek history. The messenger's department had since taken specific focus on the Daleks and learned they were preparing for a time war against Gallifrey. As he explained, the War was already spreading "its tendrils" through space and time in concerning ways that not even Gallifrey understood. He warned that the Doctor that they were "destined" to soon meet again. (PROSE: The Slyther of Shoreditch [+]Mike Tucker, The Target Storybook (BBC Books, 2019).)
Following Skaro's apparent destruction and rebirth, the newly-elected Lord President Romana II made negotiations with the Daleks (PROSE: Lungbarrow [+]Marc Platt, adapted from Lungbarrow, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1997).) in an attempt to calm the rising tensions between the Daleks and Time Lords. (PROSE: Meet the Doctor [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who Annual 2006 (Panini UK, 2005).) However, this peace treaty, the Act of Master Restitution, was broken when the Master survived his execution on Skaro. (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords [+]Steve Tribe, BBC Books (2017).) The ensuing Dalek invasion of Gallifrey during the Etra Prime incident (AUDIO: The Apocalypse Element [+]Stephen Cole, Main Range (Big Finish Productions, 2000).) in Rassilon Era 2796.8 (AUDIO: Neverland [+]Alan Barnes, Main Range (Big Finish Productions, 2002).) formally marked the end of any peace talks. (PROSE: Meet the Doctor [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who Annual 2006 (Panini UK, 2005).) It was also "an early warning of the Time War to come". (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords [+]Steve Tribe, BBC Books (2017).)
Indeed, the Time Lords began foreseeing the future Time War during the Eighth Doctor's later life (AUDIO: Deeptime Frontier [+]Matt Fitton, Ravenous 3 (The Eighth Doctor Adventures: Ravenous, Big Finish Productions, 2019)., Fugitives [+]Nicholas Briggs, Dark Eyes (The Eighth Doctor Adventures: Dark Eyes, Big Finish Productions, 2012)., The Crucible of Souls [+]John Dorney, Doom Coalition 3 (The Eighth Doctor Adventures: Doom Coalition, Big Finish Productions, 2016).) as tensions rose between them and the Daleks. (AUDIO: X and the Daleks [+]Nicholas Briggs, Dark Eyes (The Eighth Doctor Adventures: Dark Eyes, Big Finish Productions, 2012)., et al.) The Time Lord Padrac of the High Council tried and failed to prevent the War with the Doom Coalition. (AUDIO: Stop the Clock [+]John Dorney, Doom Coalition 4 (The Eighth Doctor Adventures: Doom Coalition, Big Finish Productions, 2017).) The Daleks, meanwhile, formed the Cult of Skaro in preparation for the conflict (PROSE: Birth of a Legend [+]Justin Richards, Doctor Who Files (2007).) and began to attack Gallifrey's allies, the Temporal Powers, (AUDIO: Celestial Intervention [+]David Llewellyn, Time War: Volume One (Gallifrey: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2018).) to isolate their foes. (GAME: Lost in Time [+]Doctor Who video games (Eastside Games, 2022).) The Time Lords became convinced the war was unavoidable, with President Livia establishing the War Council. In secret, the War Council began Project Revenant to resurrect deceased Time Lords from the Matrix. (AUDIO: Celestial Intervention [+]David Llewellyn, Time War: Volume One (Gallifrey: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2018).) They convinced Rassilon, the founder of Time Lord society, to return for the War. (PROSE: Engines of War [+]George Mann, BBC New Series tie-in novels (BBC Books, 2014).)
Beginning of the Time War[]
Fighting breaks out[]
Declaration of the War[]
- Main article: Declaration of the Last Great Time War
The rivalry between the Time Lords and the Daleks, regarded as the two most powerful species in N-Space, (PROSE: The Whoniverse [+]George Mann and Justin Richards, BBC Books (2016).) eventually hit a boiling point, (AUDIO: Desperate Measures [+]Matt Fitton, Time War: Volume One (Gallifrey: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2018).) with the Daleks, believing themselves to be the rightful supreme power of the universe, having grown eager to overthrow Gallifrey (WC: Gallifrey War Room [+]Sophie Iles, Gallifrey: War Room (YouTube, 2022).) to become the new Lords of Time and finally have revenge on the Gallifreyans for their attack on their origins. According to some historians, before properly beginning the conflict, the Dalek Emperor led the Dalek Empire out of space and time, going into the Time Vortex to prepare for the War, (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe [+]George Mann, Justin Richards and Cavan Scott, Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe (Ebury Publishing, 2017).) but another account held that the Daleks only deployed their "awesome fleet" into the Time Vortex when the War finally began. (PROSE: Meet the Doctor [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who Annual 2006 (Panini UK, 2005).) No matter the true circumstances, from the perspective of humanity, the Daleks suddenly disappeared "thousands of years" prior to the Battle of the Game Station in 200,100.
The start of the War. (COMIC: Agent Provocateur [+]Gary Russell, IDW series named Doctor Who (IDW Publishing, 2008).)
As recalled by Jack Harkness, a former Time Agent from the 51st century, the Daleks vanished from time and space, even though they were the "greatest threat in the universe", (TV: The Parting of the Ways [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 1 (BBC One, 2005).) thus ending the Tenth Dalek Occupation. (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords [+]Steve Tribe, BBC Books (2017).) The Doctor would later state that the Daleks had "gone off to fight a bigger war", that being the Time War. (TV: The Parting of the Ways [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 1 (BBC One, 2005).) When the Daleks emerged to begin the fighting, their forces were at a scale never before seen, making it clear that they were on a war footing. (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe [+]George Mann, Justin Richards and Cavan Scott, Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe (Ebury Publishing, 2017).) According to the War Doctor, combatants of the War came to forget how it had actually started. In effect, the start of the conflict became "ancient history," even as the fighting continued to rage throughout space and eternity. (AUDIO: The Innocent [+]Nicholas Briggs, Only the Monstrous (The War Doctor, Big Finish Productions, 2015).)
While Dalek historians would claim that "no one is certain" if it was the Time Lords or Daleks who committed the act of aggression that made their tensions reach a boiling point, (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe [+]George Mann, Justin Richards and Cavan Scott, Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe (Ebury Publishing, 2017).) one account held that the breaking point was hit after the extermination or near-extermination of such allied Temporal Powers as the Monans, the Sunari and the Nekkistani. (AUDIO: Desperate Measures [+]Matt Fitton, Time War: Volume One (Gallifrey: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2018).) When a temporal crisis allowed him to get knowledge from his future incarnations, the Fourth Doctor told Leela that "in the early days of the Time War, the Daleks sought to isolate Gallifrey — they wiped out whole planets, just so they wouldn't be allies of the Time Lords".
One of their targets during this phase were the Minyans who, after reaching Minyos II and rebuilding their civilisation using the race bank, were predicted to align themselves with the Time Lords in recognition of the Fourth Doctor's role in saving them. A small party of Daleks went back in time to board the Minyan ship on its way to Minyos II, claiming they only wanted to borrow the race bank for "study". They actually intended to alter the genetic codes with a Mutation Device so that the new Minyans would become a slave-race instinctively loyal to the Daleks. However, the Doctor and Leela foiled this attempt at interference. (GAME: Lost in Time [+]Doctor Who video games (Eastside Games, 2022).)
After the Daleks committed these massacres, the Time Lords prepared to formalise hostilities against the Dalek Empire. Following the fall of Phaidon, President Livia decided the time had come. On the eve of war, a dispute broke out the between the Celestial Intervention Agency and the War Council on whether to allow the surviving Warpsmiths to be granted asylum on Gallifrey, as the Council demanded their full secrecy in return for the asylum policy. Frustrated, Coordinator Romana, who was still in her second incarnation (AUDIO: Celestial Intervention [+]David Llewellyn, Time War: Volume One (Gallifrey: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2018).) thanks to Irving Braxiatel's alterations to the timeline, (AUDIO: Enemy Lines [+]David Llewellyn, Gallifrey (Big Finish Productions, 2016).) sent agent Leela to investigate the Death Zone facility and discovered Project Revenant.
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Upon the declaration of the War, the Daleks approached Davros for his aid in the conflict. (PROSE: Father of the Daleks [+]Dave Rudden, The Wintertime Paradox (2020).)
Housed within a pocket universe, the project was designed to restore the greatest minds of Gallifreyan history from the Matrix to help defeat the Dalek Empire, with Rassilon secretly amongst those to be restored. Livia shutdown the dispute between the CIA and War Council. That evening, she issued the formal declaration of war on the Daleks. (AUDIO: Celestial Intervention [+]David Llewellyn, Time War: Volume One (Gallifrey: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2018).) The Daleks then made their own formal declaration of hostilities. Upon the official outbreak of the War, the Daleks contacted Davros on Alacracis IV, asking for his help in the conflict. Filled with pride at his children, he accepted. (PROSE: Father of the Daleks [+]Dave Rudden, The Wintertime Paradox (2020).) The War between the Daleks and Time Lords first exploded into active battle within the Time Vortex and Ultimate Void. (PROSE: Lua error in Module:Cite_source at line 420: attempt to index a nil value.)
When the War suddenly began, a bright light began to shine in the Kasterborous system and towards Gallifrey, catching the attention of the Gallifreyans on the planet, though their reactions were not universal; some were shocked and showed signs of fear at the start of the conflict, while at least one Time Lord outside the Capitol looked up in anger. (COMIC: Agent Provocateur [+]Gary Russell, IDW series named Doctor Who (IDW Publishing, 2008).) Shortly after the official start of hostilities a massive Dalek fleet took out the Unvoss and Sunari in one hit, (AUDIO: Desperate Measures [+]Matt Fitton, Time War: Volume One (Gallifrey: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2018).) and fleets of Dalek flying saucers were dispatched to invade the Gallifreyan homeworld, forcing Gallifrey and the fleet it came to gather to start the War on the defensive. (PROSE: The Whoniverse [+]George Mann and Justin Richards, BBC Books (2016).) While all of Gallifrey was shielded by its transduction barriers, (PROSE: Engines of War [+]George Mann, BBC New Series tie-in novels (BBC Books, 2014).) sky trenches were established around vital Gallifreyan cities like Arcadia and the Capitol in case the Daleks broke through. (TV: The Last Day [+]Steven Moffat, 50th Anniversary arc 50th Anniversary Prequel 2 (2013)., The Day of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, 50th Anniversary Specials (BBC One, 2013).)
Nonetheless, Gallifrey was largely able (AUDIO: Homecoming [+]Matt Fitton, Time War: Volume Four (Gallifrey: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2021).) to remain on the "furthest edge" of the fighting throughout the conflict. (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords [+]Steve Tribe, BBC Books (2017).) The Gallifreyans started out the War overconfident, believing that shows of their power could deter the Dalek advance, (PROSE: The Third Wise Man [+]Dave Rudden, Twelve Angels Weeping (2018).) but they eventually came to fear that they were merely holding back the inevitable, believing that the Daleks would, eventually, break through even Gallifrey's awesome military might and destroy the planet's civilisation in its entirety. (PROSE: Engines of War [+]George Mann, BBC New Series tie-in novels (BBC Books, 2014).) Furthermore, the ensuing conflict between the Daleks and Time Lords was so devastating it was contained within a time lock by the post-War universe; (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe [+]George Mann, Justin Richards and Cavan Scott, Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe (Ebury Publishing, 2017).) while the Great Time War was known to have spread into every time zone in existence, (PROSE: Engines of War [+]George Mann, BBC New Series tie-in novels (BBC Books, 2014).) the time lock around it meant that those trapped in the War found themselves unable to escape the fighting, (TV: The End of Time [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2009 and New Year Special 2010 (BBC One, 2009-2010).) with the new time zones they travelled into almost always simply becoming new fronts that the other side would respond to. (PROSE: Engines of War [+]George Mann, BBC New Series tie-in novels (BBC Books, 2014)., AUDIO: The Sontaran Ordeal [+]Andrew Smith, Classic Doctors and New Monsters: Volume One (Classic Doctors, New Monsters, Big Finish Productions, 2016)., et. al)
It was said every action in the War between the Daleks and Gallifreyans was written and rewritten by the two time travelling factions. (PROSE:A Brief History of Time Lords [+]Steve Tribe, BBC Books (2017).)
As the battles of the War spread throughout eternity, (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, adapted from The Day of the Doctor (Steven Moffat), Target novelisations (Target Books, 2018)., et al) there would be many accounts of the conflict that appeared to contradict each other; the identity of the Dalek Emperor of the War, (PROSE: Exit Strategy [+]James Goss, Time Lord Victorious (Eaglemoss Collections, 2020)., AUDIO: Restoration of the Daleks [+]Matt Fitton, The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume Four (The Eighth Doctor: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2020).) the precise events of and temporal placement for the "death" of Davros, (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe [+]George Mann, Justin Richards and Cavan Scott, Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe (Ebury Publishing, 2017)., The Third Wise Man [+]Dave Rudden, Twelve Angels Weeping (2018)., AUDIO: Restoration of the Daleks [+]Matt Fitton, The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume Four (The Eighth Doctor: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2020).) whether or not the Eighth Doctor regenerated into the War Doctor, (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Time War [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who: Lockdown! (2020)., TV: The Night of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Specials minisode (BBC One, 2013).) the War Doctor's mindset after that regeneration, (COMIC: The Clockwise War [+]Scott Gray, DWM Comics (Panini Comics, 2018)., AUDIO: Light the Flame [+]Matt Fitton, Forged in Fire (The War Doctor Begins, Big Finish Productions, 2021).) and even the precise way the War ended were all examples of details that had varying, disagreeing accounts. (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, 50th Anniversary Specials (BBC One, 2013)., PROSE: Doctor Who and the Time War [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who: Lockdown! (2020).)
However, such incongruity in accounts of the Time War was natural for the conflict; (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords [+]Steve Tribe, BBC Books (2017).) even though it was thought events trapped within a time lock were impossible to rewrite, (AUDIO: One Life [+]John Dorney, The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume One (The Eighth Doctor: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2017).) both the Time Lords and Daleks had access to space-time vessels (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, adapted from The Day of the Doctor (Steven Moffat), Target novelisations (Target Books, 2018)., et al) and took advantage of history, changing it to their will whenever possible. (AUDIO: Sphere of Influence [+]Eddie Robson, Susan's War (Big Finish Productions, 2020).) It was possible for Dalek and Time Lord forces to travel from a later point in the War back to an earlier moment, attempting to alter the course of the conflict. (PROSE: The Stranger [+]Gary Russell, Heroes and Monsters Collection (Heroes and Monsters Collection, 2015).; AUDIO: Havoc [+]David Llewellyn, Time War: Volume Two (Gallifrey: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2019).) As noted by one post-War Time Lord author, it was impossible to know what had exactly happened in the War, writing that every action in the conflict "has happened, then not happened at all, then happened again but at a different time entirely": In the end, having been fought "through every time and no time", the struggle between the Time Lords and Dalek Empire would leave the universe in a constant state of temporal flux. (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords [+]Steve Tribe, BBC Books (2017).)
The conflict begins[]
Dubbed the "Great Time War" despite those living through it simply calling it "Hell", (PROSE: Engines of War [+]George Mann, BBC New Series tie-in novels (BBC Books, 2014).) the savage and endless conflict fought between the Time Lords and Daleks (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, adapted from The Day of the Doctor (Steven Moffat), Target novelisations (Target Books, 2018).) was fought for "the sake of all creation", (TV: Gridlock [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 3 (BBC One, 2007).) becoming the most all-consuming and brutal conflict ever inflicted upon the universe. Due to its nature as a temporal war, it was nearly impossible for post-Time War individuals to deduce its proper and logical chronology, (PROSE: The Whoniverse [+]George Mann and Justin Richards, BBC Books (2016).) leaving those who survive to only know it to be a cataclysmic period of universal history. (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe [+]George Mann, Justin Richards and Cavan Scott, Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe (Ebury Publishing, 2017).) As much of the War's history was overwritten and rewritten during the fighting, (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe [+]George Mann, Justin Richards and Cavan Scott, Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe (Ebury Publishing, 2017)., The Whoniverse [+]George Mann and Justin Richards, BBC Books (2016).) with the opposing factions each undoing the actions of the other again and again, it was hard to figure out what had even happened, at least within the terms of the post-War timeline. Additionally, much of the Time War's history would become shrouded in mystery, inaccessible, and time locked. (PROSE: The Whoniverse [+]George Mann and Justin Richards, BBC Books (2016).)
Understanding the history of the Last Great Time War, as the pictured book claimed to, (TV: Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS [+]Steve Thompson, Doctor Who series 7 (BBC One, 2013).) was nearly impossible. (PROSE: The Whoniverse [+]George Mann and Justin Richards, BBC Books (2016).)
One account stated that the physical war was fought in the Time Vortex and Ultimate Void, (PROSE: Meet the Doctor [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who Annual 2006 (Panini UK, 2005).) with the Nestene Consciousness perceiving the Time War as being able to breach into the "normal universe", only to disappear as soon as it came. (PROSE: Revenge of the Nestene [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who: Lockdown! (2020).) However, many other accounts did indeed show that the conflict could be fought on terrain or in normal space (COMIC: The Clockwise War [+]Scott Gray, DWM Comics (Panini Comics, 2018)., PROSE: Engines of War [+]George Mann, BBC New Series tie-in novels (BBC Books, 2014)., et. al) in addition to being fought through "time battles" that lesser species could not comprehend. In effect, the Daleks and Time Lords faced each other on both physical and temporal fronts. (AUDIO: The Eternity Cage [+]Andrew Smith, Agents of Chaos (The War Doctor, Big Finish Productions, 2016).) With battles opening up in the known universe, unknown universe, partly known universe, and the countless epochs that made up history, (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, adapted from The Day of the Doctor (Steven Moffat), Target novelisations (Target Books, 2018)., Engines of War [+]George Mann, BBC New Series tie-in novels (BBC Books, 2014).) the universe was filled with conflict; large and small-scale engagements were fought everywhere and anywhere, (PROSE: Engines of War [+]George Mann, BBC New Series tie-in novels (BBC Books, 2014).) with "all of time and space" becoming available for use as a battleground, while less comprehensible engagements like "time battles" were waged beyond the understanding of lesser beings. (AUDIO: The Eternity Cage [+]Andrew Smith, Agents of Chaos (The War Doctor, Big Finish Productions, 2016).)
The War even spread into alternate realities, which only made uncovering its proper chronology harder, (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe [+]George Mann, Justin Richards and Cavan Scott, Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe (Ebury Publishing, 2017).) and the Twelfth Doctor later reflected that the War shattered entire dimensions. (COMIC: The Clockwise War [+]Scott Gray, DWM Comics (Panini Comics, 2018).)
When they saw the Daleks emerge from the shadows on a war footing, (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe [+]George Mann, Justin Richards and Cavan Scott, Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe (Ebury Publishing, 2017).) the Time Lords had sent an activation signal to any N-Forms laying dormant throughout history. (AUDIO: Desperate Measures [+]Matt Fitton, Time War: Volume One (Gallifrey: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2018).) The Seventh Doctor, Chris Cwej, and Roz Forrester encountered one reactivated N-Form in 1987 Britain and stopped it from destroying the Earth. During a confrontation, the N-Form told the Doctor that its reactivation signal came from the future, taunting him by asking if Gallifrey had forgot to warn him that "the War's started all over again." (PROSE: Damaged Goods [+]Russell T Davies, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1996)., AUDIO: Damaged Goods [+]Jonathan Morris, adapted from Damaged Goods (Russell T Davies), Novel Adaptations: Volume 2 (Novel Adaptations, Big Finish Productions, 2015).) The Doctor later confirmed that a deliberate reactivation impulse had been sent from the future to dormant N-Forms throughout time, with another N-Form being responsible for the destruction of the Quoth homeworld. He faintly traced parts of the signal to the 30th century, (PROSE: Damaged Goods [+]Russell T Davies, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1996).) where he discovered that the Brotherhood of the Immanent Flesh had some responsibility for the N-Forms. (PROSE: So Vile a Sin [+]Ben Aaronovitch and Kate Orman, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1997).)
Having taken them from their own history, the Time Lords were now equipped with a fleet of N-Forms, bowships, and Black Hole Carriers. (PROSE: Meet the Doctor [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who Annual 2006 (Panini UK, 2005).) As all these ships were swiftly assembled in response to the Dalek war footing, (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe [+]George Mann, Justin Richards and Cavan Scott, Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe (Ebury Publishing, 2017).) it was this fleet of craft that met the Dalek Emperor and his forces at the start of the War, (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords [+]Steve Tribe, BBC Books (2017).) defending Gallifrey from the vast Dalek fleets sent against the planet during the first days of the War. (PROSE: The Whoniverse [+]George Mann and Justin Richards, BBC Books (2016).) To counter the Time Lords' forces, (PROSE: Meet the Doctor [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who Annual 2006 (Panini UK, 2005).) the Daleks fielded an army of extremely powerful bronze Dalek drones, (TV: Dalek [+]Robert Shearman, adapted from Jubilee (Robert Shearman), Doctor Who series 1 (BBC One, 2005)., Doomsday [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 2 (BBC One, 2006)., et al.) deployed a fleet of over ten million flying saucers, (PROSE: The Whoniverse [+]George Mann and Justin Richards, BBC Books (2016).) and unleashed the "full might" of the Deathsmiths of Goth, who were released by the Emperor Dalek himself. ((PROSE: Meet the Doctor [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who Annual 2006 (Panini UK, 2005)., A Brief History of Time Lords [+]Steve Tribe, BBC Books (2017).)
Countless Bronze Daleks were fielded to battle Time Lords (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, 50th Anniversary Specials (BBC One, 2013).) in countless epochs. (PROSE: Engines of War [+]George Mann, BBC New Series tie-in novels (BBC Books, 2014).)
Soon after the Time Lords assembled their fleet, the devastating conflict officially erupted into the universe, (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe [+]George Mann, Justin Richards and Cavan Scott, Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe (Ebury Publishing, 2017).) yet, according to the General's reflections, his people did not consider the conflict a war at first; the Time Lords thought the Daleks were simply acting out of line and, even as the Daleks continued their attacks, hoped the fighting would end as a series of mere skirmishes. Whenever Daleks gathered in millions for battle during this early period, the Lords of Time, arrogantly believing they did not need to meet the Daleks as an equal force, would force the star nearest to the assembled Dalek armada to explode in an attempt to wipe out the assembled force, only for the Dalek Empire to assemble another attack group and reattack. Whilst the Time Lords once thought themselves superior to the Daleks, (PROSE: The Third Wise Man [+]Dave Rudden, Twelve Angels Weeping (2018).) the General came to realise his people were not prepared to do battle with the exterminators. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).)
Furthermore, the ancient vessels the Time Lords had plundered from their past were little compared to the Dalek Fleet; massive Dalek mega-saucers and void-tanks could easily outperform the ancient craft, even when they were fielded as massive fleets, (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe [+]George Mann, Justin Richards and Cavan Scott, Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe (Ebury Publishing, 2017).) and Time Lord soldiers came to realise that one Dalek drone was a big enough threat to wipe out an entire Gallifreyan city. (TV: The Last Day [+]Steven Moffat, 50th Anniversary arc 50th Anniversary Prequel 2 (2013).) Having also pulled Battle TARDISes from their past (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe [+]George Mann, Justin Richards and Cavan Scott, Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe (Ebury Publishing, 2017).) to join the number already at Gallifrey's disposal in the present, thanks to the Doom Coalition having restarted the Battle TARDIS program, (AUDIO: The Crucible of Souls [+]John Dorney, Doom Coalition 3 (The Eighth Doctor Adventures: Doom Coalition, Big Finish Productions, 2016).) entire fleets of Battle TARDISes of various models were deployed into the fighting, with the Time Lords even developing new generations of Battle TARDISes designed specifically to better fight Daleks. (PROSE: The Third Wise Man [+]Dave Rudden, Twelve Angels Weeping (2018).) However, though they were once thought impossible to breach, the Daleks improved in their ability to break through TARDIS force fields, even the shields of Battle TARDISes, as the fighting carried on. (AUDIO: Sphere of Influence [+]Eddie Robson, Susan's War (Big Finish Productions, 2020).)
One of the first Time Lord victories was at Keetol, where the Daleks wanted to mine the planet for its weapons-grade rocks, which was achieved with the aid of the War Master. This victory was later negated when the Master later used the Heavenly Paradigm. (AUDIO: The Heavenly Paradigm [+]Guy Adams, Only the Good (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2017).) The Time Lords quickly assembled great battleships in the Quantum Yards for an assault on Seriphia, including Dreadnought Septima. (AUDIO: Hostiles [+]David Llewellyn, Time War: Volume Three (Gallifrey: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2020).) The fateful battle of Seramiphius V was fought between a Time Lord force, made up at least in part by ancient vessels, and Dalek fleet of void-tanks and mega-saucers. Additionally, Grey Daleks were deployed into space during the battle, helping the fleet attack the Gallifreyan force. When the engagement at Seramiphius V was mentioned in a text written by Dalek historians, it was mentioned towards the start of the book's section on the War, imply it to be an early battle. (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe [+]George Mann, Justin Richards and Cavan Scott, Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe (Ebury Publishing, 2017).)
The Time Lords called on the Eighth Doctor for aid, but he refused to join their conflict. (AUDIO: All Hands on Deck [+]Eddie Robson, Short Trips (Big Finish Productions, 2017)., Soldier Obscura [+]Tim Foley, Time War: Volume One (Gallifrey: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2018).) He was initially nowhere to be found in the Time War. (AUDIO: Master of Worlds [+]Matt Fitton, Cyber-Reality (UNIT: The New Series, Big Finish Productions, 2018).) Nonetheless, stories of the Doctor's stands against the Daleks brought hope to the Time Lords, even during the early days of the War when he refused to battle. Furthermore, there were moments when the War Doctor could be found in the wartime before his regeneration during the Fifth Segment, as he could travel back into the days of the Eighth Doctor if the fighting called for it. (PROSE: The Stranger [+]Gary Russell, Heroes and Monsters Collection (Heroes and Monsters Collection, 2015).) For example, Cass Fermazzi, who would die during the life of the Eighth Doctor, had bore witness to the massacre at Skull Moon that the War Doctor led. (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, adapted from The Day of the Doctor (Steven Moffat), Target novelisations (Target Books, 2018).)
The Zygons lost their homeworld of Zygor during the War, resulting in them looking for new worlds like Earth to conquer. (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, 50th Anniversary Specials (BBC One, 2013).)
The Zygons, who once had formed part of Rassilon's Alliance of Races in the distant past, (COMIC: Terrorformer [+]Robbie Morrison, Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor (Titan Comics, 2014).) were involved in the Time War. (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, 50th Anniversary Specials (BBC One, 2013)., et. al) While one account credited the Xaranti war with its destruction, (PROSE: The Bodysnatchers [+]Mark Morris, BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures (BBC Books, 1997).) most accounts agreed that the Zygon homeworld of Zygor was destroyed during the War. Specifically, most accounts held that Zygor was destroyed in the "first days" (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, 50th Anniversary Specials (BBC One, 2013).; PROSE: The Monster Vault [+]Jonathan Morris and Penny CS Andrews, The Monster Vault (Penguin Group, 2020).) of the first year of the Time War. (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, adapted from The Day of the Doctor (Steven Moffat), Target novelisations (Target Books, 2018).) Even so, one historical account of the universe claimed Zygor was destroyed during a time when the conflict had "intensified even further". (PROSE: The Whoniverse [+]George Mann and Justin Richards, BBC Books (2016).) No matter the case, Zygor was destroyed in a stellar explosion, (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Loch Ness Monster [+]Terrance Dicks, adapted from Terror of the Zygons (Robert Banks Stewart), Target novelisations (Target Books, 1976).) described as a "stellar catastrophe" by one group of researchers, (PROSE: The Monster Vault [+]Jonathan Morris and Penny CS Andrews, The Monster Vault (Penguin Group, 2020).) that "burnt" the planet. (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, 50th Anniversary Specials (BBC One, 2013).)
The post-War Dalek Caan claimed the world's destruction was one of the sights he saw after breaking back into the conflict. (PROSE: Dalek Caan [+]Jonathan Morris, The Blogs of Doom (2020).) Many Zygons survived the destruction of their home planet and began to hunt for a new home. (PROSE: The Bodysnatchers [+]Mark Morris, BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures (BBC Books, 1997).) According to researchers, the Zygons lost their peaceful ways after the destruction of their world. They based themselves into a mobile refugee fleet, within which millions of Zygons slumbered as embryos, as the hunt for a new homeworld carried on. There was disagreement amongst the Zygons, however, on whether to conquer worlds or to live amongst the local population, although most colonisation attempts ended up being attempted conquests. (PROSE: The Monster Vault [+]Jonathan Morris and Penny CS Andrews, The Monster Vault (Penguin Group, 2020).) During the War, they became adept at making structures which couldn't be breached by TARDISes. (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, adapted from The Day of the Doctor (Steven Moffat), Target novelisations (Target Books, 2018).) During his attempted invasion of Earth in the 20th century, Broton claimed that Zygor was lost in a "recent catastrophe", (TV: Terror of the Zygons [+]Robert Banks Stewart, Doctor Who season 13 (BBC1, 1975).) but he was not following human time-scale. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Loch Ness Monster [+]Terrance Dicks, adapted from Terror of the Zygons (Robert Banks Stewart), Target novelisations (Target Books, 1976).)
The Time Lords had hoped to scare the Daleks away, failing to understand the enemy they were facing and that they would be met with the Daleks' special brand of hate. Time and time again, this was showcased, yet the Time Lords failed to understand; Harlan Castellos made Daleks fall like they were hail during the Spiral Furl when he turned the death of his TARDIS into an electromagnetic extinction event, yet the Daleks did not stop; the Anything Gun was used and crumpled space-time, yet the Daleks did not stop; the fighting overturned the universe as if it was mere dirt, yet the Daleks did not stop. (PROSE: The Third Wise Man [+]Dave Rudden, Twelve Angels Weeping (2018).) At some point, the vicious sky battle of Thusk was fought in the upper atmosphere of the colony, with Time Lord pilots crashing to the surface of Thusk, forcing refugees to rush to their rescue. (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe [+]George Mann, Justin Richards and Cavan Scott, Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe (Ebury Publishing, 2017).)
Ace and Irving Braxiatel in the Obscura. (AUDIO: Soldier Obscura [+]Tim Foley, Time War: Volume One (Gallifrey: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2018).)
Irving Braxiatel initiated a plan to lure a Dalek fleet into a trap at the Obscura, taking Ace along with him. He told Ace there was a weapon there, which was actually a lie he was using to bring the Daleks. On arrival they discovered Daleks had already made multiple efforts to reach the Time Lord station at the heart of the Obscura and the old soldier assigned to guard the station, Danna, had lost her accuracy due to old age, jeopardising Braxiatel's plan which depended on her making a vital shot at the right moment. Braxiatel killed Danna and worked with Ace to improvise a new plan when the Dalek fleet he'd lured arrived, exposing the station to the forces of the Obscura as they boarded and making the shot himself. As he returned to his TARDIS, Ace revealed she knew what he'd done to Danna and accused him of being a coward.
Infuriated, Braxiatel wiped Ace's mind of all knowledge of the War and left her on 20th century Earth. (AUDIO: Soldier Obscura [+]Tim Foley, Time War: Volume One (Gallifrey: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2018).) Safe behind the time lock around Earth, (AUDIO: Assassins [+]Matt Fitton, Time War: Volume Two (Gallifrey: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2019).) Ace eventually founded A Charitable Earth, (AUDIO: In Remembrance [+]Guy Adams, Class: The Audio Adventures: Volume Two (Class: The Audio Adventures, Big Finish Productions, 2018)., TV: Death of the Doctor [+]Russell T Davies, The Sarah Jane Adventures series 4 (CBBC, 2010).) and later had contact with Time Lords from long before the Time War. (AUDIO: Dark Universe [+]Guy Adams, Main Range (Big Finish Productions, 2020).) Braxiatel abandoned the Time War, sending a message to Romana warning that invasion was imminent, (AUDIO: Soldier Obscura [+]Tim Foley, Time War: Volume One (Gallifrey: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2018).) and altered Ace's timeline as far back as her travels with the Seventh Doctor to prevent him being traced. (AUDIO: Assassins [+]Matt Fitton, Time War: Volume Two (Gallifrey: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2019).)
Early escalation[]
The Time War escalated; the first battles saw the Time Lords flotillas combating large fleets of the invading Dalek flying saucers, only for the Lords of Time to turn towards fighting these brief incursions with increasingly inventive strategies (PROSE: The Whoniverse [+]George Mann and Justin Richards, BBC Books (2016).) due to the ruthless relentlessness of the Daleks. (PROSE: The Third Wise Man [+]Dave Rudden, Twelve Angels Weeping (2018).) The Time Lords turned away from governing established history and protecting the Web of Time, and instead threw all their resources into battling the Daleks and their allies. (PROSE: Ghost of Christmas Past [+]Scott Handcock, Twelve Doctors of Christmas (2016).) As the Fisher King later recalled, the Time Lords, who once appeared to be nothing more than "cowardly, vain curators" to the rest of the universe, "suddenly remembered they had teeth". (TV: Before the Flood [+]Toby Whithouse, Doctor Who series 9 (BBC One, 2015).) The Time Lords achieved victories in the Nevarra Cluster and the Prylus system. (AUDIO: Desperate Measures [+]Matt Fitton, Time War: Volume One (Gallifrey: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2018).)
A Time Lord soldier, (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, 50th Anniversary Specials (BBC One, 2013).) many of whom were regular Time Lord citizens drafted into the armed forces and deployed throughout time (AUDIO: The Mission [+]Robert Valentine, He Who Fights With Monsters (The War Doctor Begins, Big Finish Productions, 2022).) as Gallifreyan society was corrupted into a darker culture (TV: Before the Flood [+]Toby Whithouse, Doctor Who series 9 (BBC One, 2015)., et. al)
In the early stages of the War, the War Council built munitions factories beneath the surface of Gallifrey, where Gallifreyan children worked, (PROSE: The Stranger [+]Gary Russell, Heroes and Monsters Collection (Heroes and Monsters Collection, 2015).) and began the development of deception fields, designed to entrap enemy time vessels. The CIA looked into the project, concerned that non-combatants could also fall prey to them. (AUDIO: Deception [+]Lisa McMullin, Time War: Volume Four (Gallifrey: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2021).) The CIA sponsored Lord Vibax to research new weapons. (AUDIO: Assets of War [+]Lou Morgan, Susan's War (Big Finish Productions, 2020).) When the Lords of Time turned towards increasingly inventive strategies, the Daleks adapted their tactics as well. As such, the War spread to encompass many new temporal fronts, (PROSE: The Whoniverse [+]George Mann and Justin Richards, BBC Books (2016).) and the Daleks even came to overlook their ideals of racial purity to form new cabals that could formulate new plans. (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords [+]Steve Tribe, BBC Books (2017).)
A secret society of Daleks that possessed creativity, (COMIC: The Organ Grinder [+]Si Spurrier, Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor (Titan Comics, 2016).) the Volatix Cabal was active since the beginning of the Time War. (COMIC: Downtime [+]Si Spurrier, Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor (Titan Comics, 2016).) The Cult of Skaro was also active in the War, thinking in non-Dalek ways to find new ways to kill and survive. (TV: Doomsday [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 2 (BBC One, 2006)., Daleks in Manhattan [+]Helen Raynor, Doctor Who series 3 (BBC One, 2007).) Another Dalek council that served in the conflict was the Eternity Circle, which was tasked with making new, unpredictable strategies and weapons. (PROSE: The Whoniverse [+]George Mann and Justin Richards, BBC Books (2016).) The Overseer was designed, using various other species, to be a genius in the field of genetic manipulation and given a black casing with multiple arms. (AUDIO: Planet of the Ogrons [+]Guy Adams, The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume Two (The Eighth Doctor: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2018).)
Threatening every moment of the time continuum, the War did not only spread across space, but forwards and backwards through time. (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, adapted from The Day of the Doctor (Steven Moffat), Target novelisations (Target Books, 2018).) Itself a battlefront, (PROSE: Meet the Doctor [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who Annual 2006 (Panini UK, 2005).) the damage to the Time Vortex by the fighting caused chrono storms, (AUDIO: The Scaramancer [+]Lisa McMullin, Hearts of Darkness (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2020).) and the rupturing of the Vortex rewrote the history of whole worlds. (PROSE: Meet the Doctor [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who Annual 2006 (Panini UK, 2005).) As the universe began to crumble under the weight of the conflict, the War quickly boiled out of control, raging throughout the universe, destroying entire epochs of time, and causing collateral damage to whole species. (PROSE: The Whoniverse [+]George Mann and Justin Richards, BBC Books (2016).) As recorded by a post-War group, the Daleks committed "untold Time War crimes" over the course of the conflict. (PROSE: Wanted! Daleks [+]Paul Lang, Doctor Who The Official Annual 2024 (Penguin Group, 2023).) The Daleks laid waste to a Brancheerian colony on Donnahee's Moon, taking prisoners from whom they recruited at least one agent. (AUDIO: The Uncertain Shore [+]Simon Guerrier, Susan's War (Big Finish Productions, 2020).) Eve's peace loving species was caught up in the middle of the war (WC: Alien File: Eve [+]Sarah Jane's Alien Files.) and was exterminated due to their ability to read timelines. (TV: The Mad Woman in the Attic [+]Joseph Lidster, The Sarah Jane Adventures series 3 (BBC One, 2009).)
As both sides threw an ever-increasing number of resources into crushing the other, new fronts would open in new epochs as the Daleks seeded themselves into different time zones, as the progenitor devices that cloned new Dalek mutants could be dropped into current fronts and uncontested time zones alike. While the Time Lords showed contempt for the Daleks seeding themselves through time with "their infernal progenitors," (PROSE: Engines of War [+]George Mann, BBC New Series tie-in novels (BBC Books, 2014).) a history of the universe noted that the Time Lords seeded new "colonies", which increased their numbers and opened up new temporal fronts, throughout time as well. (PROSE: The Whoniverse [+]George Mann and Justin Richards, BBC Books (2016).) Indeed, the "Gallifreyan Planetbirth Nursery" existed during the conflict. (COMIC: Outrun [+]Rob Williams, Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor (Titan Comics, 2015).)
The Daleks seeded themselves into new epochs to establish new armies to throw against the Time Lords. (PROSE: The Whoniverse [+]George Mann and Justin Richards, BBC Books (2016).)
With the terrible conflict raging throughout all of time and space, (PROSE: The Secret Lives of Monsters [+]Justin Richards, BBC Books (2014).) the new Dalek and Gallifreyan colonies were created to grow new armies into upcoming epochs (PROSE: The Whoniverse [+]George Mann and Justin Richards, BBC Books (2016).) or the epoch they were dropped into. (PROSE: Engines of War [+]George Mann, BBC New Series tie-in novels (BBC Books, 2014).) Both factions also tried to impede the development of the other race, (PROSE: The Whoniverse [+]George Mann and Justin Richards, BBC Books (2016).) yet the Daleks established a time lock around Skaro to prevent another mission into their past. The Time Lords did the same for Gallifrey in an attempt to protect their history, (AUDIO: Legion of the Lost [+]John Dorney, Infernal Devices (The War Doctor, Big Finish Productions, 2016).) yet the Daleks nonetheless found a way to attack the Time Lords throughout their timeline; (PROSE: Engines of War [+]George Mann, BBC New Series tie-in novels (BBC Books, 2014).) by the final phases of the War, (PROSE: The Whoniverse [+]George Mann and Justin Richards, BBC Books (2016).) every part of Gallifreyan history was under attack by the Daleks.
One of these assaults into the Time Lords' past included at least one attempt by the Daleks to prevent the Time Lords from ever evolving by trying to exterminate the primitive beings of prehistoric Gallifrey. While that attempt failed, the siege of Gallifreyan history continued, leaving Lord Cardinal Karlax to feel as though every epoch of Time Lord history was blurring together. The Dalek forces grown from progenitors, which could grow entire Dalek legions to lie in wait, played a role in this siege of Gallifreyan history; if not sent as reinforcements to seemingly-depleted Dalek attack groups active at another front in the War, the new legions would suddenly begin to attack unsuspecting Gallifreyan strongholds located in any of the chaotic eras of Gallifrey's history, if not being deployed to open new fronts elsewhere in time and space. (PROSE: Engines of War [+]George Mann, BBC New Series tie-in novels (BBC Books, 2014).)
One of the battles of the Last Great Time War (PROSE: The Whoniverse [+]George Mann and Justin Richards, BBC Books (2016).)
As the War spread across the history of the cosmos, the universe started to fall apart, being pulled apart at its seams as its very origins were being rewritten. (PROSE: The Whoniverse [+]George Mann and Justin Richards, BBC Books (2016).) Battles between the Daleks and Time Lords raged in countless epochs, (PROSE: Engines of War [+]George Mann, BBC New Series tie-in novels (BBC Books, 2014).) with the conflict further muddled whenever Daleks or Time Lords from later periods of the Time War went back into earlier Wartime events to try and change them to their benefit. (PROSE: The Stranger [+]Gary Russell, Heroes and Monsters Collection (Heroes and Monsters Collection, 2015).; AUDIO: Havoc [+]David Llewellyn, Time War: Volume Two (Gallifrey: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2019).) Days became battlelines as fronts opened up throughout time and the universe. Additionally, centuries turned against each other and divergent streams of time fought each other to survive. After the War, Ohila, who referred to it as the deadliest conflict time would ever know, reflected on the Time Lord attempt to use their time travel to avert the existence of the Daleks. Because they failed and the Daleks, using their own time machines, tried to do the same to the Time Lords, she stated time had become "a weapon in a war that could never end." (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, adapted from The Day of the Doctor (Steven Moffat), Target novelisations (Target Books, 2018).)
Fighting in the conflict and seeing how the Time Lords became just as vile as the Daleks, Cass Fermazzi saw how the Time War destroyed creation in its wake. (TV: The Night of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Specials minisode (BBC One, 2013).; PROSE: The Day of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, adapted from The Day of the Doctor (Steven Moffat), Target novelisations (Target Books, 2018).)
Despite their war resulting in the entire whole history of the cosmos being to be remade and torn apart, (PROSE: The Whoniverse [+]George Mann and Justin Richards, BBC Books (2016).) battles between the Daleks and Time Lords, whether they be engagements fought through armies, (PROSE: Meet the Doctor [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who Annual 2006 (Panini UK, 2005).) massive fleets, or agents infiltrating and rewriting major parts of the opposing side's history, continued to rage. (PROSE: The Whoniverse [+]George Mann and Justin Richards, BBC Books (2016).) It was said that, if one was a soldier fighting in the Time War, they could die a thousand times in a single day, only, during the next day, to learn they had never been born at all. (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, adapted from The Day of the Doctor (Steven Moffat), Target novelisations (Target Books, 2018).) The Time Lord Carvil lost his family to the Daleks. (AUDIO: The Lords of Terror [+]Jonathan Morris, The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume Two (The Eighth Doctor: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2018).) The Time Lord Tandeeka was injured in battle by temporal distortion, which aged her hundreds of years. She was taken away from the front and placed as the guardian of the Research and Development Repository. (AUDIO: The Heavenly Paradigm [+]Guy Adams, Only the Good (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2017).)
At the age of fourteen, Cass Fermazzi stowed away on a star freighter to see the wonders of the universe to find that there were no wonders left. One day, whilst helping an old man to die in a crater of mud snakes under a burning moon, she realised there was nowhere left to hide. The following morning, the medtech who closed the man's eyes gave Cass his bandolier. Cass took the bandolier, tightened it around herself, and decided to start running in the opposite direction. The medtech involved was actually the Thirteenth Doctor. Within three months, Cass had found and joined the crew of a gunship, setting the stage for her to experience much over the course of, in her personal timeline, four years. At one point, she fought in the remains of a location known as the Ulterium. (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, adapted from The Day of the Doctor (Steven Moffat), Target novelisations (Target Books, 2018).)
Bronze Dalek drones on the march, as pictured in the Dalek Combat Training Manual (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).
The Daleks and Time Lords fought over Saracassar, a gateway to fifteen hidden galaxies. This resulted in the Siege of Saracassar, a battle so horrible mere words could not describe in. In the end, the Daleks prevailed and the entire population was wiped out or fled, contaminated with pulse energy from pulse waves used in the battle. The Master visited the battle to see the sights, meeting Lyric who he rescued, though he forced her to leave her sister behind if she chose to come with him. (AUDIO: The Scaramancer [+]Lisa McMullin, Hearts of Darkness (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2020).) The Master cruelly forced Lyric to relive the siege multiple times until she became numb to the grief, at which point he became bored with her and left her on an ice planet. Lyric subsequently sought fellow survivors of Saracassar, (AUDIO: The Cognition Shift [+]Lisa McMullin, Hearts of Darkness (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2020).) and eventually turned to space piracy, becoming known as the Scaramancer. (AUDIO: The Scaramancer [+]Lisa McMullin, Hearts of Darkness (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2020).)
According to one source, the planet Saturnyne was a forgotten casualty of the Time War. The planet had been a water world until it was hit by a shockwave of the War's temporal disruption; the world went from a planet filled with sealife to one where its inhabitants, the Saturnyne, evolved without natural laws of evolution. They became strange looking beings that could move from the darkest depths of the seas to dry land. Upon looking at their new forms, the unnatural creatures cursed those who were responsible for their new, semi-humanoid forms. (PROSE: The Monster Vault [+]Jonathan Morris and Penny CS Andrews, The Monster Vault (Penguin Group, 2020).) Indeed, the Saturnyne matriarch Rosanna Calvierri knew of Gallifrey and the Time War. (TV: The Vampires of Venice [+]Toby Whithouse, Doctor Who series 5 (BBC One, 2010).)
The Master's exploits[]
Info from Rogue Encounters [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW. needs to be added
The War Master during the Time War, (AUDIO: The Good Master [+]Jay Harley, Only the Good (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2017).) a conflict that he regarded as proof that life was only possible thanks to death. (AUDIO: Darkness and Light [+]David Llewellyn, Rage of the Time Lords (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2019).)
To the War Master, the conflict was proof that the universe was built on destruction and chaos, fulfillinvg his belief that "life is only made possible by death". (AUDIO: Darkness and Light [+]David Llewellyn, Rage of the Time Lords (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2019).) Throughout the War, the War Master saw horrible things (AUDIO: Masterful [+]James Goss, Masterful (audio anthology) (Big Finish Productions, 2021).) and killed many. While he worked with the Time Lords, (AUDIO: Darkness and Light [+]David Llewellyn, Rage of the Time Lords (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2019)., et. al) he truthfully served no greater power than himself. (AUDIO: Beneath the Viscoid [+]Nicholas Briggs, Only the Good (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2017)., The Wrath of Medusa [+]Rochana Patel, Escape from Reality (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2022).) Eager to see if he could use War-time inventions to conquer the universe, (AUDIO: Darkness and Light [+]David Llewellyn, Rage of the Time Lords (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2019).) he only wanted to end the War to give himself another chance to take over the cosmos. (AUDIO: The Heavenly Paradigm [+]Guy Adams, Only the Good (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2017).) To act as diversions from himself during the war, the Master duplicated himself multiple times and gave the duplicates his real memories. (AUDIO: The Kicker [+]Trevor Baxendale, Solitary Confinement (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2023).)
The Master was present at the Siege of the Chronotide. There he found himself screaming for the General's mercy when the Multiform closed in. (PROSE: Lords and Masters [+]Cavan Scott, The Missy Chronicles (2018).)
The War Master with Kate Stewart and an alternate dimension Cyberman. (AUDIO: Master of Worlds [+]Matt Fitton, Cyber-Reality (UNIT: The New Series, Big Finish Productions, 2018).)
While "exploring possibilities", the War Master became stranded in a parallel dimension. When the dimension was invaded by weapons-grade Cybermen of the Cyber-Mainframe seeking to conquer the multiverse, the Master saw an opportunity to obtain technology to repair his TARDIS and return to his universe. The Cybermen proceeded to invade the Master's universe via virtual reality technology spread by the Auctioneers on 2010s Earth. The Master followed the Cybermen back to his home universe, where the Cybermen — influenced by Petronella Osgood — took his TARDIS and attempted to cyber-convert him. He reluctantly collaborated with Kate Stewart and Sam Bishop and managed to destroy the Cybermen by overloading them with power from infinite dimensions, syphoning some of it off to give his TARDIS enough energy to return to "the fray" of the War. (AUDIO: Master of Worlds [+]Matt Fitton, Cyber-Reality (UNIT: The New Series, Big Finish Productions, 2018).) He left behind several Wirrn eggs as a "parting gift", leading to a Wirrn invasion UNIT then needed to battle. (AUDIO: Hosts of the Wirrn [+]Chris Chapman, Revisitations (UNIT: The New Series, Big Finish Productions, 2018).)
The Master was part of the Time Lords' Project Blackstar, which involved the destruction of the planet Hydrosa in a weapons test. During the destruction, one native, Illya, saw him up close. (AUDIO: The Edge of Redemption [+]David Llewellyn, Hearts of Darkness (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2020).) The Time Lords also destroyed the homeworld of Severine's people, leaving Severine and her mother the only survivors, on the order of the Master. He would later confess he had not understood the extent of their telepathic powers then, revealing he would have tried to exploit them instead if he had. (AUDIO: The Last Line [+]Lizzie Hopley, Self-Defence (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2022).)
During the War, a Confederation was fighting against the Daleks as well. Wanting to learn about the brainwashing techniques being pioneered on the planet Thabus, the Master moved to infiltrate the world by posing as a Confederation emissary, only for his lie to be revealed. As such, he was tortured by Cato, the inventor of the very techniques he want to study. However, his meddling had allowed Cato's political rival Gallia to begin gaining power. Gallia then freed the Master. The Confederation ultimately collapsed. (AUDIO: The Players [+]Una McCormack, Self-Defence (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2022).)
A Dalek assault squad followed the War Master into the Land of Fiction (AUDIO: The Wrath of Medusa [+]Rochana Patel, Escape from Reality (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2022).)
Whilst scavenging battlefield wreckage, the Master fell into a Dalek trap. To escape a Dalek assault squad, he took his TARDIS outside time and space into the Land of Fiction. There he sought the impossible weapons unique to fiction, first by obtaining the Greek Gods' gifts to Perseus and helping Medusa overthrow them, in return directing her to the Land's exit where she destroyed the Daleks following him. (AUDIO: The Wrath of Medusa [+]Rochana Patel, Escape from Reality (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2022).) Using Mount Olympus as a base, the Master subsequently pillaged the works of Hans Christian Andersen, encountering his own sentient shadow in the process, (AUDIO: The Shadow Master [+]Lizzie Hopley, Escape from Reality (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2022).) and then sought the fragments of the Encyclopaedia Omnia, which were split across multiple variations of Professor James Moriarty. (AUDIO: The Adventure of the Deceased Doctor [+]Alfie Shaw, Escape from Reality (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2022).) Finally the Master targeted Dorian Gray, planning to transfer his immortal lifeforce into himself, however his plan failed due to Sibyl Vane betraying him. Wounded, the Master decided he'd lingered long enough in fiction and returned to face reality. (AUDIO: The Master of Dorian Gray [+]David Llewellyn, Escape from Reality (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2022).)
The Master embroiled the neutral Code Purgers of Chift in the Time War, by deliberately infecting his own brain with self-duplicating code. In an attempt to cure him to save his mind, purger Mendrix wiped the code out across the universe, in doing so slightly shifting the outcome of numerous battles between ships using the code. With their neutrality broken, the Master departed, anticipating Chift would soon be targeted for an attack. (AUDIO: The Walls of Absence [+]James Goss, Solitary Confinement (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2022).)
The Master's TARDIS was drawn off course by a temporal beacon upon landing on Mehr Kee, which had previously been caught in a battle in the Time War as both sides had been drawn there by the beacon. The Master sailed to the beacon to recover his ship with the aid of a captain, travelling back through time as they approached it. They arrived before it was activated, and so the Master lit it so it would draw his TARDIS to him, in doing so instigating the battle which would devastate Mehr Kee. (AUDIO: The Long Despair [+]Tim Foley, Solitary Confinement (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2022).)
The Master exploited an AI tool, Maisu, to build his influence over a planet's population. When one developer, Alexander Bennett remained resistant to it, the Master personally manipulated events in his life to break him and make him controllable. (AUDIO: The Life and Loves of Mr Alexander Bennett [+]Alfie Shaw, Solitary Confinement (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2022).)
The Master discovered one of his duplicates had infiltrated the Crane Institute in a sector he was now interested in. He tipped off a Dalek ally, the Temporal Inquisition, and when they failed to dispose of the duplicate, he arrived personally to kill him. (AUDIO: The Kicker [+]Trevor Baxendale, Solitary Confinement (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2023).)
New forms of biological warfare[]
Time Lord genetic experiments[]
As noted by the War Master, both sides investigated gene splicing and manipulation to create new creatures for use in the Time War, (AUDIO: Concealed Weapon [+]Scott Handcock, The Diary of River Song: Series Five (The Diary of River Song, Big Finish Productions, 2019).) with the Time Lord military also coming to look for ways to revive their soldiers from death (AUDIO: Legion of the Lost [+]John Dorney, Infernal Devices (The War Doctor, Big Finish Productions, 2016).) and applied bio-technology to them. (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords [+]Steve Tribe, BBC Books (2017).)
The Celestial Intervention Agency augmented a highly psychic Time Lord, Quarren Maguire, to have reality-changing abilities. Quarren saw too much potential for his power to be abused by the Time Lords so used his abilities to erase all evidence of his existence from the timelines and then used a Chameleon Arch to hide as a human, unaware of his true nature. (AUDIO: One Life [+]John Dorney, The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume One (The Eighth Doctor: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2017).)
Eager to get involved in the War's new forms of biological warfare and experimentation, (AUDIO: Concealed Weapon [+]Scott Handcock, The Diary of River Song: Series Five (The Diary of River Song, Big Finish Productions, 2019).) the Master was commissioned by the Time Lords to create the ultimate biological weapon, so he established a facility on Xenotopia and personally recruited all the scientists to work there. (AUDIO: Darkness and Light [+]David Llewellyn, Rage of the Time Lords (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2019).) He spent years collecting samples from across the universe, (AUDIO: The Missing Link [+]Tim Foley, Rage of the Time Lords (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2019).) beginning with Alice Pritchard, a Chronopsycho who had fallen to Earth in the 20th century and been adopted in England, (AUDIO: The Survivor [+]Tim Foley, Rage of the Time Lords (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2019).) before acquiring Giuseppe Sabatini from 1890s America (AUDIO: The Coney Island Chameleon [+]David Llewellyn, Rage of the Time Lords (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2019).) and secretly incubated an extinct ancient species in two members of River Song's expedition on the Utorpy, only her for to stop him from gaining control over the creature, forcing him to flee with her in an escape pod. (AUDIO: Concealed Weapon [+]Scott Handcock, The Diary of River Song: Series Five (The Diary of River Song, Big Finish Productions, 2019).)
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The Eighth Doctor and the War Master when the latter was making new biological weapons. (AUDIO: Rage of the Time Lords [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)
For the final component of his creature, the Master tricked Alice into using her psychic abilities to lure the Eighth Doctor to his facility. Unknowingly Alice psychically drained the Doctor as he sought to rescue her, resulting in him collapsing whilst confronting the Master. The Master then extracted cells from the Doctor, which were useful as they had been exposed to the Time Vortex more than any other. (AUDIO: The Missing Link [+]Tim Foley, Rage of the Time Lords (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2019).) The result of the Master's experiment was the Rage, but it was let loose prematurely when a Time Lord agent, who was embedded among the Master's employees, attempted to extract it. The Master arranged the Doctor's escape, intending that the Rage would absorb him and thus make itself controllable, only for the Rage to absorb him as well. Together the Doctor and Master broke free, destroying the Rage, and the Master fled, activating a device he'd implanted in the Doctor to wipe his memory of the incident as he did so. (AUDIO: Darkness and Light [+]David Llewellyn, Rage of the Time Lords (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2019).)
The Time Lords also developed a virus for use against Daleks, of which the Master was aware. (AUDIO: Unfinished Business [+]James Goss, Killing Time (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2021).) At the same time as the Master's work, the Daleks and Time Lords alike had begun to splice different alien species together within the Time Vortex itself, all in the name of winning the War despite their efforts creating impossible and mindless creatures. (AUDIO: Concealed Weapon [+]Scott Handcock, The Diary of River Song: Series Five (The Diary of River Song, Big Finish Productions, 2019).) On behalf of the Time Lords, the Master also created war seeds, humanoid weapons based on himself, and sent them to worlds with a proven aptitude for war to convert the people there into the perfect warriors loyal to the Time Lords. One was sent to Earth in 1985 but failed to blossom after nuclear war didn't break out, becoming weak and amnesiac. (AUDIO: War Seed [+]Johnny Candon, Missy and the Monk (Missy, Big Finish Productions, 2021).)
Dalek genetic experiments[]
Looking for new weapons with which to win the War, (AUDIO: Concealed Weapon [+]Scott Handcock, The Diary of River Song: Series Five (The Diary of River Song, Big Finish Productions, 2019).) the Dalek Emperor asked Davros to build a new Dalek mutant to use against the Time Lords. Inspired by how the Doctor disliked his own kind but helped them nonetheless, Davros created the Nightmare Child and dubbed it "the perfect Dalek". This resulted in a creature that completely hated the Daleks and as a result its own form, prompting it to massacre Daleks. The Daleks committed resources to hunting it down, resulting in the Time Lords experiencing weeks of silence on the front, until Davros successfully lured it to the Gate of Elysium where there was antimatter that could destroy it, at the apparent cost of his own life. (PROSE: The Third Wise Man [+]Dave Rudden, Twelve Angels Weeping (2018).)
The Dalek Overseer, itself a product of genetic slicing, was designed to be a genius in the field of genetic manipulation, additionally being assigned command over operations on the Ogron homeworld because the simple biology of the Ogrons made them effective test subjects for its efforts. Although most captured Time Lords were sent for interrogation, there were rare times when the Overseer had a chance to experiment and work on captured Gallifreyans.
The primitive Ogrons became pawns of the Dalek Empire, which used them as disposable muscle. (TV: Day of the Daleks [+]Louis Marks, Doctor Who season 9 (BBC1, 1972).)
The Overseer found it was in need of foundational data to begin its experiments on the Ogrons, resulting in the Dalek inserting the primitive humanoids into past Dalek campaigns (AUDIO: Planet of the Ogrons [+]Guy Adams, The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume Two (The Eighth Doctor: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2018).) like the Time Paradox Incident and Operation Divide and Conquer. (TV: Day of the Daleks [+]Louis Marks, Doctor Who season 9 (BBC1, 1972)., Frontier in Space [+]Malcolm Hulke, Doctor Who season 10 (BBC1, 1973).) The Overseer found their presence had no impact on the events' outcomes.
Creating "crab gods" that fought past the "rock gods" guarding the Ogrons, the Overseer ordered the capture of Ogrons who lived near its base. The Overseer became particularly interested in developing soldiers who were immune to fallout from temporal energy, working past "the very laws of nature" because the experiment would deny entropy and, theoretically, allow the genetically-restructured cells to ignore the years that temporal fallout would normally inflict upon on someone. On one occasion, after forcing an Ogron through the pain of a complete genetic restructure, the Overseer subjected it to a bombardment of temporal energy and watched as the Ogron aged to dust, teaching the Overseer to adapt its experiments as it ordered a new Ogron to arrive with cleaning equipment. Another of the Overseer's experiment involved duplicating other lifeforms into some test subjects. (AUDIO: Planet of the Ogrons [+]Guy Adams, The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume Two (The Eighth Doctor: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2018).)
The Daleks tested a weapon which rendered the people of the Stagnant Protocol immortal, though still able to be wounded fatally, and sterile. The Master speculated this was an attempt to make them more like Daleks. (AUDIO: Unfinished Business [+]James Goss, Killing Time (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2021).) The Time Lords, who the people of the Protocol believed were responsible for the weapon, responded to the development by confining the entire Protocol in a time lock. (AUDIO: The Sincerest Form of Flattery [+]James Goss, Killing Time (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2021).)
The Master's final plans[]
The Cognition Shift[]
Daleks were linked to each other through the pathweb, (TV: Asylum of the Daleks [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 7 (BBC One, 2012).) which the War Master hoped to exploit. (AUDIO: The Cognition Shift [+]Lisa McMullin, Hearts of Darkness (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2020).)
The Master planned to use the Cognition Shift to transfer his mind into the Dalek pathweb to take control of the Daleks for himself. He obtained the Infinity Chip from Skaro, hiding it on Redemption, (AUDIO: The Cognition Shift [+]Lisa McMullin, Hearts of Darkness (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2020).) and recovered the body of Cardinal Magos, deliberately leaving an artron energy trail for the Eighth Doctor to follow. In Magos' old laboratory on Kurnos 5, the Master spent decades seeking a descendant of Magos into who he could resurrect the Cardinal's mind. He finally succeeded, learning the Cognition Shift was hidden in the Lehar system, just as the Doctor arrived. Knowing the Lehar system was Dalek territory carefully monitored by the Time Lords, he used Magos' technology to swap his and the Doctor's minds and stole the Doctor's TARDIS to reach Lehar.
As he'd anticipated, the Celestial Intervention Agency detected the presence of two TARDISes on Kurnos 5, only to find the Doctor in the Master's body. (AUDIO: The Castle of Kurnos 5 [+]David Llewellyn, Hearts of Darkness (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2020).) After multiple "diabolical" adventures in the Doctor's body, the Master eventually used his reputation to create a refugee camp on Nastrum, where the Cognition Shift was located, and manipulated the refugees to obtain technology he needed for him. He employed Dorada to fetch the Infinity Chip. (AUDIO: The Cognition Shift [+]Lisa McMullin, Hearts of Darkness (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2020).) In the Master's body, the Doctor persuaded Narvin to release him from CIA custody and let him track down the Master in the Lehar system. (AUDIO: The Castle of Kurnos 5 [+]David Llewellyn, Hearts of Darkness (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2020).) Narvin furnished him with a million credits which the Doctor used to hire a pilot, Morski, and assembled a crew to reclaim Morski's ship. (AUDIO: The Edge of Redemption [+]David Llewellyn, Hearts of Darkness (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2020).)
The War Master and the Eighth Doctor amid the former's plot in the Lehar system (AUDIO: Hearts of Darkness [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)
Headed for the Lehar system, the Doctor discovered Dorada had stowed away to return to Nastrum and encountered the Scaramancer, (AUDIO: The Scaramancer [+]Lisa McMullin, Hearts of Darkness (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2020).) who he convinced of his true identity. On Nastrum, the Master prepared the Cognition Shift, testing it on Dorada whose mind he transferred into a bird revealing his true identity to her. The Doctor and the Scaramancer reached him in time and sabotaged his scheme, with the Doctor manipulating the Shift to swap their minds back and using the Scaramancer's lingering pulse energy to neutralise the whole device. His scheme foiled, the Master hypnotised Morski to take him back to his TARDIS on Kurnos 5. (AUDIO: The Cognition Shift [+]Lisa McMullin, Hearts of Darkness (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2020).)
Subversion of Dalek history[]
The War Master planted his agent Crazlus in the Celestial Intervention Agency on Gallifrey as part of a long-term plan to obtain the Anti-Genesis Codes. (AUDIO: He Who Wins [+]Nicholas Briggs, Anti-Genesis (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2019).) Crazlus infiltrated the CIA for a considerable period, becoming a confidante of Acting Coordinator Narvin. The Master used Crazlus to reach Gallifrey, by fatally poisoning himself so he would be dead upon arrival on the planet until Crazlus revived him under the pretence of disposing of his body on Narvin's instructions. The Master then had Crazlus trick Narvin into checking the security of the Anti-Genesis codes, allowing him to bypass said security and steal the codes right in front of the Coordinator.
The War Master interferes with the creation of the Daleks on Skaro. (AUDIO: Anti-Genesis [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)
Using the Codes, the Master interfered with the creation of the Daleks on Skaro, arranging the death of Davros in a Thal bombardment, (AUDIO: From the Flames [+]Nicholas Briggs, Anti-Genesis (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2019).) and supplanting his place in the Scientific Elite. He created his own variant of the Daleks and accelerated their rise to power. President Livia and Narvin assigned Lamarius to travel to Skaro to stop him, but she was unsuccessful. Having seen to the extermination of the Thals and mutation of the Kaleds, the Master kept his Daleks entombed in the bunker and left them for a few years to develop. (AUDIO: The Master's Dalek Plan [+]Alan Barnes, Anti-Genesis (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2019).) He returned a few years later and arranged for his Daleks to ambush and exterminate the Fourth Doctor and his companions upon their arrival on Skaro.
A temporal shockwave was unleashed by the Master's alterations, threatening the existence of both sides of the Time War. Aboard the last Dalek timeship, the Dalek Time Strategist recruited the Master of a parallel universe. As the temporal shockwave altered Gallifrey's history repeatedly, the Strategist and parallel Master sought to identify the progenitor, however every candidate they found and exterminated proved incorrect and the timeship's power was limited as the original Daleks disappeared from existence. (AUDIO: Shockwave [+]Alan Barnes, Anti-Genesis (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2019).)
The War Master and a Dalek on Gardezza (AUDIO: Beneath the Viscoid [+]Nicholas Briggs, Only the Good (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2017).)
The Master's Daleks conquered the altered universe. The triumphant Master visited Gallifrey and found the shockwave had left the planet home to simple farmers, who he deemed "quite pathetic". The parallel Master and Time Strategist began stoking the Master's paranoia that his Daleks would inevitably turn on him and eventually he was convinced to undo this timeline. The Master took them back in time to the moment he had decided to have Krazlus infiltrate the CIA, with the two Masters urging the younger Master to abandon his Anti-Genesis plan. The past Master was reluctant, however the Strategist simply exterminated Crazlus and all the events which had resulted from Crazlus' infiltration were undone. The Master fled in his TARDIS, with the Time Strategist ordering the restored Daleks to pursue and capture him. (AUDIO: He Who Wins [+]Nicholas Briggs, Anti-Genesis (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2019).) The Master was pulled out of his TARDIS by transmat, leaving his ship to crash on Gardezza. (AUDIO: Beneath the Viscoid [+]Nicholas Briggs, Only the Good (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2017).)
Conscripted by the CIA[]
After Coordinator Romana was informed of Ace's "death", she decided to get the help of the Master. (AUDIO: Soldier Obscura [+]Tim Foley, Time War: Volume One (Gallifrey: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2018).) The Master was on Gardezza when he received the summons to Gallifrey, posing as the Doctor to gain the trust of the Gardezzans and access the TARDIS he'd been separated from (AUDIO: Beneath the Viscoid [+]Nicholas Briggs, Only the Good (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2017).) after an encounter with a parallel Master and an annulled future self. (AUDIO: He Who Wins [+]Nicholas Briggs, Anti-Genesis (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2019).) After betraying the Gardezzans and the Daleks he'd temporarily allied with, the Master retrieved his TARDIS and used it to return to Gallifrey. (AUDIO: Beneath the Viscoid [+]Nicholas Briggs, Only the Good (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2017).)
Leela and the War Master with Finnian Valentine. (AUDIO: The Devil You Know [+]Scott Handcock, Time War: Volume One (Gallifrey: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2018).)
Romana sent the Master and Leela to interrogate Finnian Valentine for the location of a power source that could fuel the Time Lord energy banks, (AUDIO: The Devil You Know [+]Scott Handcock, Time War: Volume One (Gallifrey: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2018).) the Heart. (AUDIO: The Good Master [+]Jay Harley, Only the Good (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2017).) They discovered Valentine has been split in two separate beings by a temporal weapon he'd deployed. Discovering the Heart was on Arcking, the Master killed both Valentines. He subsequently betrayed Leela on the return flight by expelling her into the Time Vortex and headed to Arcking by himself. (AUDIO: The Devil You Know [+]Scott Handcock, Time War: Volume One (Gallifrey: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2018).)
Leela was saved from the Vortex by the Trell who brought her to their dimension, Nateus. Leela subsequently foiled a War Council agent, Lady Zeno, who was attempting to infiltrate Nateus, preventing the War spreading into that dimension. (AUDIO: Mother Tongue [+]Helen Goldwyn, Time War: Volume Three (Gallifrey: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2020).) Leela subsequently travelled to Njagilheim, which had been the site of a battle in the Time War leaving temporal storms in the skies, where she inadvertently created a time loop. (AUDIO: Nevernor [+]Lou Morgan, Time War: Volume Three (Gallifrey: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2020).) Leela eventually reached Unity. (AUDIO: Unity [+]David Llewellyn, Time War: Volume Three (Gallifrey: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2020).)
Rescuing Cole Jarnish[]
The Master had in fact hatched a plan to alter history with a Time Lord weapon known as the Heavenly Paradigm, which needed a great deal of temporal power to function. As such, the weapon had yet to be used against Skaro to rewrite Dalek history. However, the Master hoped to use the paradigm to rewrite universal history, preventing the War and giving him a chance to rule over the universe. (AUDIO: The Heavenly Paradigm [+]Guy Adams, Only the Good (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2017).) The Master tried multiple times to steal the Heart from Arcking, bringing the War to its temporal grace sanctuary, where a hospital had been established by non-combatants. When Arcking was eventually overrun by a Dalek invasion force that was pursuing him, the Master saved Cole Jarnish's life by taking him on as a companion as he made his escape, having also promised the young man a chance to save those affected by the War. (AUDIO: The Good Master [+]Jay Harley, Only the Good (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2017).) Having saved Cole from his original fate of being killed by the Daleks, the Master had made him a walking paradox and the key to his plan to power the Heavenly Paradigm. (AUDIO: The Heavenly Paradigm [+]Guy Adams, Only the Good (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2017).)
Cole Jarnish working to help a planet suffering from the Time War's effects. (AUDIO: The Sky Man [+]James Goss, Only the Good (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2017).)
After travelling together for a while, avoiding helping others from the War, the Master offered Cole a challenge: to pick out a planet in peril and try and save its people from destruction with whatever means he saw fit. Cole choose a primitive farming planet, and the Master, claiming he could not interfere because he was a Time Lord, left him to his own devices, establishing a vineyard. (AUDIO: The Sky Man [+]James Goss, Only the Good (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2017).) They developed a reputation as the "Sky Men" who promised to save the world, but the Master still made no effort to help Cole in such War-related matters. As he established his vineyard, the Master and Cole took a night to watch a meteor storm, which the Master assured Cole had nothing to do with the War, as an attempt to forget about the conflict and relax. Later, the Master and a local woman named Fenice discovered an alien entity, which he continued to claim was not related to the War, had fallen to the planet in the storm and was now spreading, transforming the landscape to a new form. He overwhelmed the entity after feigning letting it have him, with it unable to cope with his mind, destroying it. (AUDIO: Boundaries [+]Lizbeth Myles, Self-Defence (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2022).)
Shortly afterwards, the Master was abducted by the High Vectors to face their justice for what he had done in the War. (AUDIO: The Players [+]Una McCormack, Self-Defence (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2022).) The Master knew the Vectors as a race so old even the Time Lords respected them, but the Master believed they would eventually turn on Gallifrey for his people's recent actions. (AUDIO: The Last Line [+]Lizzie Hopley, Self-Defence (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2022).) First, he was placed in the Forest of Penitence as a chance for forgiveness by becoming part of the trees, but he rejected the Forest's influence and so was placed on trial, (AUDIO: The Forest of Penitence [+]Lou Morgan, Self-Defence (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2022).) telling the court of his visit to Thabus and recent defeat of the entity as his defence. The Vectors demanded a witness to verify his account of his character, so he suggested the Doctor. (AUDIO: The Players [+]Una McCormack, Self-Defence (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2022)., Boundaries [+]Lizbeth Myles, Self-Defence (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2022).) A telepathic summons was sent, embroiling the Tenth Doctor from the post-Time War universe by dragging him through the time lock.
Driven by the chance to save the Master, who by his time was dead, after he was sentenced to erasure, the Doctor played into the Master's hand by buying him time in a failed attempt to rescue him from erase by paradox inhibitors and forcing the High Vectors' telepath servant, Severine, to split her efforts containing him too. The Master was able to connect his mind to the Vector generator defining the High Vectors' reality and warp it to chaos, returning all the criminals they had erased from time at once to create a paradox that would destroy the Vectors. As the entire sector of spacetime began to implode thousands of times, destroying the entire Vector species in the process, he escaped in the Doctor's TARDIS, returning briefly to collect the Doctor himself, and then located his own TARDIS. Unwilling to face the Time War again as the timelines began to reset, the Doctor escaped before the time lock closed instead of chasing after the Master. (AUDIO: The Last Line [+]Lizzie Hopley, Self-Defence (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2022).)
Targeting the Stagnant Protocol[]
Whilst running his vineyard, the Master targeted the Stagnant Protocol under the guise of a Time Lord ambassador. His initial attempts to find allies in the Empress' court were all rebuffed and he encountered a rival in Calantha. The Master finally convinced Prince Gardam he could rise to Emperor as a champion of the people, but a plague started by Calantha caused crisis which she exploited to have Gardam banished and to rise to Empress. The Master conceded defeat in his battle, but vowed to win the War. (AUDIO: The Sincerest Form of Flattery [+]James Goss, Killing Time (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2021).)
The War Master and former companions of the Doctor. (AUDIO: Killing Time [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)
Recognising the plague was a weaker form of a Time Lord virus designed to attack Daleks, (AUDIO: Unfinished Business [+]James Goss, Killing Time (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2021).) the Master obtained a vial of the plague from UNIT by manipulating Jo Grant and exploited Nyssa's research station to experiment on the plague. (AUDIO: A Quiet Night In [+]Lou Morgan, Killing Time (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2021)., The Orphan [+]Lou Morgan, Killing Time (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2021).) He returned to the court and unleashed the true plague on the Stagnant Protocol homeworld, creating a crisis which forced Calantha to appoint him Regent Chancellor and enabled him to grow his influence in court. After he created a cure but refused to reveal its composition, Calantha moved against him and had him imprisoned, claiming to the public he'd retreated to seclusion. Whilst she tortured the Master, Calantha was approached by an emissary of the Daleks, Lady Sumultu, who promised her masters would work on reversing the damage done by the weapon in return for the Master's gateway into the time lock being widened so Dalek forces could pass through the Protocol.
Calantha agreed and, after the Master faked his death, planned to reveal the deal at his public funeral. The Master revealed himself and exposed the Daleks' true involvement in the weapon and that they were intending to invade. As a Dalek fleet descended, he used his control of the gateway to narrow it to destroy them and revealed Calantha's initial releasing of the plague to the furious public. With Calantha forced to flee, the Master assumed control of the Protocol as Emperor, but promised to leave them to their own devices for the most part as their terror would keep the nobility obedient. (AUDIO: Unfinished Business [+]James Goss, Killing Time (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2021).)
The Heavenly Paradigm[]
Meanwhile, Cole repeatedly tried to bring hope to the farming world, even as the population began to suffer from the impact of Temporal Decay caused by debris from the War. Ultimately, his final attempt to save the peaceful population of the planet backfired when he inadvertently turned them into a race of warlike semi-robotic creatures (AUDIO: The Sky Man [+]James Goss, Only the Good (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2017).) who spread into the wider universe seeking retribution. Like Cole, the people of the planet were supposed to have been killed by the War, thus meaning that Cole, himself a paradox, had created a paradox. (AUDIO: The Heavenly Paradigm [+]Guy Adams, Only the Good (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2017).) The Master rescued Cole in his TARDIS and assured Cole that he would help him to undo his mistake. (AUDIO: The Sky Man [+]James Goss, Only the Good (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2017).)
The Master and Cole at No. 24 Marigold Lane. (AUDIO: The Heavenly Paradigm [+]Guy Adams, Only the Good (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2017).)
The Master and Cole travelled to No.24 Marigold Lane, where the Time Lord Tandeeka kept the Heavenly Paradigm and protected it with brainwashed residents. Using Cole's paradoxical temporal energy to power the paradigm, the Master sacrificed his companion to try and create his better timeline without the War. The plan backfired, however, and the Master unintentionally caused both the Time Lords and Daleks to win several battles they had once lost. Because of this, he then saw the Dalek Emperor take control of the Time Lords' Cruciform, taking it from a secret Time Lord base. Knowing it to be a power far worse than even the Heavenly Paradigm, the Master believed the Time War was lost if the Cruciform was under Dalek control, (AUDIO: The Heavenly Paradigm [+]Guy Adams, Only the Good (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2017).) even foreseeing that he would be killed by the Emperor if he stayed. (PROSE: The Whoniverse [+]George Mann and Justin Richards, BBC Books (2016).) The Master's diary claimed the Time Lords had specifically sent him to the Cruciform to stop the Dalek Emperor. (PROSE: The Secret Diary of the Master [+]James Stoker, 2015.)
Achieving control over the Cruciform was considered a turning point in the War for the Daleks. With the Cruciform under their control, the Daleks were able to take the conflict to Gallifrey itself, (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).) which came to be the final battlefront of the War. (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, adapted from The Day of the Doctor (Steven Moffat), Target novelisations (Target Books, 2018).) At the same time as the Master's mission to the Cruciform, the Doctor was tasked with sealing the rift of the Medusa Cascade; (PROSE: The Secret Diary of the Master [+]James Stoker, 2015.) which the Master learned the Doctor achieved singlehandedly. (TV: Last of the Time Lords [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 3 (BBC One, 2007).) A post-Time War Dalek Caan, having entered the War to rescue Davros from the Gates of Elysium, watched as the Doctor did so. (PROSE: Dalek Caan [+]Jonathan Morris, The Blogs of Doom (2020).)
The Dalek Emperor who reigned during the Time War (TV: The Parting of the Ways [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 1 (BBC One, 2005).) was the being that took control of the Cruciform. (AUDIO: The Heavenly Paradigm [+]Guy Adams, Only the Good (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2017)., et al.)
Tired of the fighting and fill with fear (AUDIO: The Heavenly Paradigm [+]Guy Adams, Only the Good (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2017).) upon witnessing the Dalek Emperor take control over the Cruciform, (TV: The Sound of Drums [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 3 (BBC One, 2007).) the Master fled the War, escaping in his TARDIS to the Silver Devastation towards the end of the universe to hide. After ensuring his TARDIS dematerialised to a random point in time, the Master used a Chameleon Arch to turn himself into a human infant named Yana, (AUDIO: The Heavenly Paradigm [+]Guy Adams, Only the Good (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2017)., TV: Utopia [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 3 (BBC One, 2007).) hoping the disguise would ensure neither side could find him. (TV: The Sound of Drums [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 3 (BBC One, 2007).) Believing the War was still a great chance to make plans, the Master, from inside the arch, told the infant that, once the War was over, the universe would need him to return. (AUDIO: The Heavenly Paradigm [+]Guy Adams, Only the Good (The War Master, Big Finish Productions, 2017).) Later in the Time War, the War Doctor was tasked with finding his old friend but failed. (PROSE: Engines of War [+]George Mann, BBC New Series tie-in novels (BBC Books, 2014).)
Return of Rassilon[]
Two months into the War, the Daleks discovered Project Revenant and thought it would be a way to convert Time Lords into Daleks, launching an assault into its pocket dimension. At the same time, Livia tended her resignation as President in favour of Admiral Valerian. Fearing he was a War Council puppet, Romana challenged the succession to an election. During the campaign, Romana used a back-channel setup by Braxiatel to secretly negotiate with the Dalek Emperor to try and get him to stop the conflict as she knew that both sides would be utterly destroyed in the conflict, but failed to make it see reason. This act caused her to lose the presidential election when Valerian exposed it at the presidential debate. The CIA managed to stop the Daleks from using Project Revenant against them or to access Gallifrey by arranging the pocket dimension's destruction, killing the Dalek Supreme and the rest of its taskforce.
The resurrected Rassilon as Lord President Eternal. (AUDIO: Time War: Volume Two [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)
Learning of the Supreme's death, the Emperor demanded the fleet chose a new Dalek to hold the title, while the Dalek Time Strategist began to devise a new plan for victory. Despite the destruction of the rest of Project Revenant and the loss of the Thirteenth Fleet, Time Lord agent Karla went rogue and took the resurrection engine's core into the Matrix. Upon Valerian's connection to the Matrix in the presidential inauguration, the War Council enacted their true scheme and used the power in the core to retrieve one of the oldest imprints from the Matrix: Time Lord founder Rassilon. Valerian was forced to regenerate, with his body being possessed by Rassilon. Resurrected, Rassilon was declared Lord President Eternal. (AUDIO: Desperate Measures [+]Matt Fitton, Time War: Volume One (Gallifrey: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2018).)
Being part of a conflict full of ever-rewritten events, even post-War Time Lords were actually unable to place when they had resurrected their founder, with one author merely writing that he was restored "at some stage" of the War. (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords [+]Steve Tribe, BBC Books (2017).) Towards the end of the conflict, the War Doctor knew that the Time Lord founder had been resurrected in "the early days" of the fighting, (PROSE: Engines of War [+]George Mann, BBC New Series tie-in novels (BBC Books, 2014).) while post-War Dalek historians placed his return to life after the War Doctor's regeneration (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe [+]George Mann, Justin Richards and Cavan Scott, Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe (Ebury Publishing, 2017).) in the Fifth Segment. (PROSE: The Stranger [+]Gary Russell, Heroes and Monsters Collection (Heroes and Monsters Collection, 2015).) Rassilon established a new regime, making Livia his Prime Minister, and pardoned Romana from the charges of treason she'd faced for negotiating with the Emperor. Rassilon announced the establishment of an Interior Defence Unit, commanded by Cardinal Mantus, to replace the Chancellery Guard. At this time a future incarnation of General Trave arrived on Gallifrey, killing a Guard on arrival, and warned his past self that Rassilon's regime would lead to Gallifrey's fall. He attempted to deliver a warning to Narvin too, but perished in the process. Trave was held accountable for his future self's crimes and publicly executed on Rassilon's orders. (AUDIO: Havoc [+]David Llewellyn, Time War: Volume Two (Gallifrey: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2019).)
By Rassilon's reign, the the General, the Ollistra, and Harlan had all been sent away from Gallifrey to the front lines. (AUDIO: Assassins [+]Matt Fitton, Time War: Volume Two (Gallifrey: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2019).) While his ideology was outdated and brutal, it made Rassilon the prefect president to lead the Time Lords through the greatest battle they had ever faced. A historical chronicle recounted that great heroes rose and fell during the War, with it considering Rassilon among those who rose. (PROSE: The Whoniverse [+]George Mann and Justin Richards, BBC Books (2016).) In the first year of the War, Rassilon wiped out the Tharils, the Porfue and the Krajonnu so that they didn't threaten the Time Lords' supremacy; (PROSE: Lords and Masters [+]Cavan Scott, The Missy Chronicles (2018).) the Tharils, who were encountered by the Fourth Doctor and Romana, (TV: Warriors' Gate [+]Steve Gallagher, Doctor Who season 18 (BBC1, 1981).) had come to be treated as "valued allies" with their own embassy on Gallifrey after Romana became President in the pre-war period. (PROSE: Lungbarrow [+]Marc Platt, adapted from Lungbarrow, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1997).) The Daleks eventually began to refer to Rassilon by a name that would horrify even his own guards. (PROSE: Decoy [+]George Mann, The Target Storybook (2019).)
The War Doctor travelled back to the First Segment to stop Daleks from killing Gallifreyan children. (PROSE: The Stranger [+]Gary Russell, Heroes and Monsters Collection (Heroes and Monsters Collection, 2015).)
Several months into the Time War, in 0.71 of the First Segment, Daleks from the future tunneled through Gallifrey to find the War Council's underground munitions factories, intending to kill the children working in the factories and prevent future generations of Time Lords from ever fighting. The Daleks destroyed one such factory beneath the Mountain of Serenity, but the War Doctor, who had travelled back in time from the Fifth Segment, helped the children escape to the skimmer port with the assistance of Rojan. Senior Tahl sacrificed his life by creating an explosion which entombed this group of Daleks, saving the children's lives. (PROSE: The Stranger [+]Gary Russell, Heroes and Monsters Collection (Heroes and Monsters Collection, 2015).)
The planet Ysalus became embroiled in the War after both the CIA and War Council targeted it for interventions to ensure it did not fall into the hands of the Daleks, due to it having resources vital to fuel the Daleks' time machines. The missions were intended to turn the tide of the civil war to a more desirable outcome, but they instead caused the civil war on the planet to escalate, forcing the CIA to freeze Ysalus in a time freeze to prevent its devastation. (AUDIO: Partisans [+]Una McCormack, Time War: Volume Two (Gallifrey: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2019).) Rassilon subsequently decided to make an example of Ysalus, arranging for its destruction by intentionally breaching the time freeze to attract scavengers, thus forcing the War Council to erase the planet from time to ensure the resources wouldn't reach the Daleks.
After being contacted by Ysalus native Kynla Shen, General Dalia worked with the CIA to organise an evacuation, with agent Eris working with Kynla for a year to gather citizens. They saved a handful of citizens from erasure, but were too late for Kynla herself. Afterwards Romana discovered Eris had helped Kynla send a signal across Time calling for a resistance against the Time Lords. She had the signal preserved from erasure and helped Eris flee Gallifrey, believing he'd done the right thing. After the incident Narvin noticed Dalia had disappeared. He was told by Mantus that there was no Dalia on the War Council or on Gallifrey anymore.
The Sicari collective received Kynla's signal and accepted her call to arms, mobilising to Kasterborous. They targeted Rassilon, (AUDIO: Collateral [+]Lisa McMullin, Time War: Volume Two (Gallifrey: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2019).) beginning incursions on Gallifrey which were fought off by the IDU.
After learning he'd arranged the destruction of Ysalus, Romana began planning an assassination of Rassilon, receiving support from Livia who'd become disillusioned with him. They supplied with Gallifreyan technology to the Sicari to aid their breaches of Gallifrey's defences and manipulated the incursions to get Rassilon alone. At the same time, Rassilon and Mantus attempted to win round Narvin to their side by promising to restore his regeneration cycle, however he realised what Romana had been plotting and interrupted the process to go to her aid. The Sicari succeeded in wounding Rassilon's current incarnation, however failed to kill him completely. As Guards reached him, Rassilon was delighted that this generation's Time Lords were as cunning as his era and accepted Livia back into the fold, whilst Mantus arranged for Romana and Narvin to leave Gallifrey as exiles in a stolen TARDIS, believing executing them would only make them martyrs, and the CIA was subsumed into the IDU. To reinforce his power, Rassilon's regeneration was broadcast across Gallifrey. Narvin and Romana resolved to begin searching for Leela. (AUDIO: Assassins [+]Matt Fitton, Time War: Volume Two (Gallifrey: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2019).)
Narvin and Romana during their exile. (AUDIO: Time War: Volume Three [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)
Operation Fury was subsequently initiated to study the Sicari. Dreadnought Septima was dispatched back in time to the Capristan system, identified as their origin point, to capture and study as many Sicari as possible. One Sicari captured during the incursions was kept as a control subject however began to mutate after exposure to the Time Vortex, gaining abilities to manipulate time and naming himself Qatal. An attack by ships from Capristan IV detonated the Dreadnought's core however Qatal froze the implosion in time to save Science Officer Trellick. He and Trellick were the sole survivors and fought each other endlessly.
In their exile, Romana and Narvin first arrived in the Capristan System and found the aftermath of Operation Fury. They ended the fight between Trellick and Qatal. (AUDIO: Hostiles [+]David Llewellyn, Time War: Volume Three (Gallifrey: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2020).) They then encountered the Orrovix in the time loop on Njagilheim. (AUDIO: Nevernor [+]Lou Morgan, Time War: Volume Three (Gallifrey: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2020).)
The Doctor in the crossfire[]
Hunt for Quarren[]
Continuing to have no part in the Time War, the Eighth Doctor began travelling with a human companion, Sheena. However, with reality shifting around them due to the War, he could not remember how they met nor how long they had known each other. (AUDIO: The Starship of Theseus [+]John Dorney, The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume One (The Eighth Doctor: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2017).)
Surrounded by War, the Eighth Doctor became involved in the conflict he hated. (AUDIO: The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume One [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)
The discrepancy in the timelines caused by Quarren Maguire erasing himself was noticed by the Chancellor, who assigned Aymor to trace the erased weapon and either claim or neutralise it. (AUDIO: One Life [+]John Dorney, The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume One (The Eighth Doctor: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2017).) Quarren and his wife Rupa went on the luxury spaceliner which the Eighth Doctor and Sheena happened to be investigating disappearances on, bringing the Time War to the Doctor. Aymor located Quarren yet was pursued and wounded by Daleks, so resolved to kill him to prevent him falling into the enemy's hands. Sheena, meanwhile, continued to lose herself to the War's shifts in reality, with her name constantly changing until she nor the Doctor could remember what it was.
Aymor arrived on the Theseus but died before he could shoot Quarren. As the spaceliner was approached by Daleks who had been following Aymor, local history was rewritten so that the Doctor's companion ceased to exist and the cruise ship became a refugee ship from the Time War. The Doctor escaped the Daleks aboard one of their time machines with Quarren, Rupa, Bliss, and Jefferson. (AUDIO: The Starship of Theseus [+]John Dorney, The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume One (The Eighth Doctor: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2017).) They crashed on a jungle planet ravaged with temporal distortion, and were guided to a safe zone by a wounded Dalek which had amnesia. In the safe zone they found wreckage from the Theseus, including the Doctor's TARDIS. Time Lord forces, commanded by Cardinal Ollistra, arrived on the planet as part of a trap for a Dalek fleet, initiating the battle which caused the distortion. After the wounded Dalek was destroyed, she had the Doctor and his companions captured, intending to press him into service. (AUDIO: Echoes of War [+]Matt Fitton, The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume One (The Eighth Doctor: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2017).)
They were taken to a base on the Moon of Tenacity where the Doctor was enrolled in training program of Commander Harlan, whilst his companions were held for processing. The Doctor proved a disruptive influence, in spite of Harlan‘s best efforts to maintain discipline. A Dalek hunter drone arrived on the Moon and identified the Time Lord presence, prompting a full evacuation as the Daleks launched an invasion, (AUDIO: The Conscript [+]Matt Fitton, The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume One (The Eighth Doctor: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2017).) kicking off the Battle of Tenacity. (AUDIO: The Lords of Terror [+]Jonathan Morris, The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume Two (The Eighth Doctor: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2018).) The Doctor was allowed to return to his TARDIS and reunited with his companions, however before they could leave he was confronted by Ollistra who threatened to force the Doctor's regeneration in hopes of his next incarnation being more compliant. (AUDIO: The Conscript [+]Matt Fitton, The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume One (The Eighth Doctor: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2017).) Before she could carry out her threat, the Daleks landed on the Moon forcing her to flee with the Doctor and his companions in his TARDIS, which was still recovering from exposure to distortion.
Quarren Maguire attempted to flee from the Time Lords and ended up in the crosshairs of the Daleks. (AUDIO: One Life [+]John Dorney, The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume One (The Eighth Doctor: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2017).)
As the Doctor navigated his struggling ship through the reversal wave the Daleks had unleashed on the Tenacity system to break the Time Lord base's defences, Ollistra identified Quarren as the missing weapon. He refused to return to his Time Lord identity however. The Doctor's TARDIS escaped Tenacity and crashed on Jedris in the 53rd Segment of Time, where Ollistra summoned Time Lord forces via a hypercube. The Time Lords engaged the pursuing Daleks, accelerating time on Jedris. As the landscape shifted, the Doctor and his TARDIS were lost and Ollistra used a temporal flare to attract a Battle TARDIS to escape with his companions. Quarren refused to let the Doctor die and returned to his previous identity to save him. Quarren rescued the Doctor and his TARDIS, leaving Bliss aboard as he thought he'd like to keep her as a companion, and then completely erased himself from existence. (AUDIO: One Life [+]John Dorney, The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume One (The Eighth Doctor: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2017).)
Travels with Bliss[]
Information from The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume Three [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW. needs to be added
Travelling together, Bliss and the Doctor visited her home planet Derilobia to inform her family she was safe. They discovered Derilobia had been taken over by Time Lords led by Commander Carvil, with its recent history rewritten, causing Bliss' family to be erased. Carvil had placed each city in domes, each building a single rocket to strike back against the Daleks. The Doctor confronted Carvil and his superior, Major Tamasan, who had regenerated from her fourth incarnation during the Battle of Tenacity. It was exposed that Carvil had lied about there being a Dalek attack on Derilobia in the past in order to have an excuse to take over the planet and its vast mineral deposits. He was blinded by his hatred of the Daleks after losing his family and orchestrated the takeover to create new missiles, which could wipe out the Dalek ships, in the vast planetary factory he'd turned the world into.
The Doctor refused to believe sacrificing a whole world was worth defeating the Daleks and rejected Carvil's attempts at explaining himself. At the same time, a Dalek agent managed to make contact and warn her masters about the Time Lords' arsenal on Derilobia. As the Daleks invaded, Tamasan organised an evacuation of Time Lord forces, leaving Carvil trapped in his TARDIS in the atmosphere as a distraction, with Tamasan also robbing power from Carvil's TARDIS to power the wider Time Lord force's escape. (AUDIO: The Lords of Terror [+]Jonathan Morris, The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume Two (The Eighth Doctor: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2018).) Carvil nonetheless survived and later re-emerged as the leader of the Clock-People. (PROSE: Out of the Box [+]Aristide Twain, Out of the Shadows (P.R.O.B.E., Arcbeatle Press, 2021).) The Doctor and Bliss, who was furious that her entire past no longer existed because of the Time Lords, fled the planet as well. (AUDIO: The Lords of Terror [+]Jonathan Morris, The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume Two (The Eighth Doctor: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2018).)
The Doctor and Bliss encountered the Salvage Train which was picking up refugees from the conflict in hopes of finding somewhere safe. They helped stabilise and camouflage it so the train could continue its travels in secrecy. (AUDIO: Salvage [+]Max Kashevsky, Short Trips: Volume 12 (Short Trips, Big Finish Productions, 2023).)
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The Dalek Overseer enslaved the Ogrons and served as an expert in the field of genetic manipluation, but it was hated by its fellow Daleks for impurity. (AUDIO: The Lords of Terror [+]Jonathan Morris, The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume Two (The Eighth Doctor: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2018).)
The Doctor and Bliss were again embroiled in the War when the Twelve approached them to help investigate the arrival of Doctor Ogron on Gallifrey in the Doctor's TARDIS. The two Time Lords discovered the experiments that the Dalek Overseer had been carrying out in a Dalek base on the Ogron homeworld, including how it was inserting Ogron brains into captured Battle TARDISes. After uncovering the paradoxical creation of Doctor Ogron, who the Doctor let leave in his TARDIS to complete the loop, Doctor Ogron and Bliss inspired the Ogrons and their "crab gods" to overthrow the Daleks. Before they could leave, however, the Doctor, Bliss and Twelve were captured by a Dalek force that had been sent to relieve the Overseer of command, due to his experiments being seen as an abomination to Dalek purity.
Meanwhile, two Daleks from the Overseer's command cornered the officer and claimed it was "an insult to the Dalek race", ignoring the Overseer's rebuttals by exterminating the "impure" scientist. After the Dalek base on the Ogron homeworld was destroyed by a temporal grenade, (AUDIO: Planet of the Ogrons [+]Guy Adams, The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume Two (The Eighth Doctor: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2018).) the Doctor, Bliss and the Twelve were held in the Dalek camp on Sangrey, with their memories being suppressed whilst on the surface and only returning when they were periodically teleported to the Dalek ship in orbit for interrogation. With the aid of her other personalities, the amnesiac Twelve was able to devise an escape plan and teleport herself, Bliss and the Doctor to the ship whilst the Daleks were transported to the surface. The Twelve then called for Time Lord forces to rescue them. (AUDIO: In the Garden of Death [+]Guy Adams, The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume Two (The Eighth Doctor: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2018).)
The Eighth Doctor, Bliss and the Twelve were imprisoned on the garden world of Sangrey by the Dalek Empire. (AUDIO: In the Garden of Death [+]Guy Adams, The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume Two (The Eighth Doctor: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2018).)
Ollistra discovered the Daleks had been interrogating the Twelve about her past visit to Uzmal, which the Daleks under the command of the Dalek admiral ravaged and occupied. She recruited the Twelve and the Doctor and Bliss to lead the native resistance, consisting of two submarines, in investigating the Daleks' interest. The Time Lords and resistance discovered the Daleks were attempting to unearth the Ouarshima, a mythical creature which would see possible futures and which the Twelve had made contact with on her last visit, though she struggled to remember it. As the Daleks and submarines battled to reach the creature first, the Twelve began behaving more erratically, which the Doctor realised was actually the Ourashima attempting to communicate through her.
The Daleks were unable to understand the Ourahshima, so decided to kill it at the cost of their entire task force. As it died, the entity offered to confer its powers to the Time Lords, but the Doctor refused, believing they should not have such power, to Ollistra's fury. (AUDIO: Jonah [+]Timothy X Atack, The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume Two (The Eighth Doctor: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2018).) The Doctor and Bliss subsequently retrieved his TARDIS from Gallifrey, and Ollistra warned the Doctor about suspicious irregularities in Bliss' timeline before he left. (AUDIO: State of Bliss [+]Matt Fitton, The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume Three (The Eighth Doctor: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2019).) After reading Ollistra's report on Uzmal, the General placed the Twelve in stasis in the Omega Arsenal. (AUDIO: Dreadshade [+]Lisa McMullin, The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume Four (The Eighth Doctor: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2020).)
Destruction and rebirth of the Daleks[]
The Valeyard was reconstituted from the Eighth Doctor when he used a transmat to leave Thellian. (AUDIO: Fugitive in Time [+]Roland Moore, The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume Three (The Eighth Doctor: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2019)., The War Valeyard [+]John Dorney, The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume Three (The Eighth Doctor: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2019).) Major Tamasan retrieved him after hearing of his existence and the High Council debated what to do with him, some favouring his execution owing to his past attempt to assassinate them. It was decided to stabilise his existence in return for the Valeyard fighting for the Time Lords in the Time War. Armed with all the Doctor's experience but without his morality, the Valeyard won many battles for the Time Lords by not hesitating to sacrifice people, planets or star systems when necessary, as the Doctor never would.
The Valeyard, convinced that he himself is the Doctor. (AUDIO: The War Valeyard [+]John Dorney, The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume Three (The Eighth Doctor: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2019).)
The Valeyard was sent on a mission to Dalek-occupied Grahv to secure a superweapon that completely erased species from existence by removing all memory of them, which the Daleks had developed but not deployed due the weapon's effects causing them to forget its existence. After fighting his way into the Dalek fortress, the Valeyard was able to successfully turn the weapon on the Daleks, but with the cost of damaging his own memory, along with the deaths of all the native Grahvians. (AUDIO: The War Valeyard [+]John Dorney, The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume Three (The Eighth Doctor: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2019).) The Dalek Time Strategist escaped into a dimensional portal, which it had created to look for alternative forms of Davros, (AUDIO: Palindrome [+]John Dorney, The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume Four (The Eighth Doctor: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2020).) through a multidimensional temporal irregularity, (AUDIO: The Famished Lands [+]Lisa McMullin, The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume Three (The Eighth Doctor: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2019).) promising the Valeyard that the Daleks would return stronger and that they would "rain fire" on the Time Lords. The Time Lords subsequently placed Grahv in a time lock, trapping the Valeyard there. (AUDIO: The War Valeyard [+]John Dorney, The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume Three (The Eighth Doctor: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2019).)
Across the universe, battle fronts fell silent as the Daleks disappeared and conscripted soldiers surrendered to the Time Lords, unable to recall who their superiors had been. The influx of prisoners overwhelmed the Time Lords' prisoner of war camps. Shortly before the Daleks vanished, (AUDIO: Dreadshade [+]Lisa McMullin, The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume Four (The Eighth Doctor: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2020).) the Time Lord Rasmus regenerated on a battlefield (AUDIO: Light the Flame [+]Matt Fitton, Forged in Fire (The War Doctor Begins, Big Finish Productions, 2021).) but, like the rest of his species, was suddenly unable to remember who the enemy had been. Although the seemingly-over Time War had shifted or removed entire planets, the Time Lords began to decommission the remainders of their War effort, with Rasmus helping in that decomission effort. (AUDIO: Dreadshade [+]Lisa McMullin, The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume Four (The Eighth Doctor: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2020).)
The Doctor and Bliss continued travelling together into post-Time War peacetime, but the Doctor eventually received a psychic vision from the Valeyard. After learning what had happened to the Valeyard from Tamasan, the Doctor and Bliss stole Tamasan's TARDIS to break through the time lock. On Grahv, they discovered the Valeyard was repeating his original mission against recreations of Daleks created from his memories, with his repeated firing affecting his memory so much he believed himself to be the Doctor, and that the Dalek Time Strategist had been there and had escaped. The Doctor and Bliss followed the Strategist through the portal, with the Valeyard deciding to remain trapped on Grahv as in the cycle there he could keep on being the Doctor. (AUDIO: The War Valeyard [+]John Dorney, The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume Three (The Eighth Doctor: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2019).)
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A parallel Davros merging with his alternate universe selves. (AUDIO: Palindrome [+]John Dorney, The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume Four (The Eighth Doctor: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2020).)
The Doctor and Bliss found themselves in a parallel universe where Kaleds and Thals lived in peace and Davros had never created the Daleks; their legends claimed their two species had joined together to fight off the Time Lords when they arrived in the distant past. Despite the Doctor and Bliss's efforts, the Time Strategist was able to manipulate Davros into agreeing to recreate the Daleks by merging his universe's Kaleds with echoes of their many parallel selves, which were mostly Daleks. Davros himself began merging with his alternatives, steadily becoming more and more like the Davros of the Doctor's universe. With the Daleks reborn, the Doctor and Bliss escaped back to their universe, intending to warn the Time Lords. (AUDIO: Palindrome [+]John Dorney, The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume Four (The Eighth Doctor: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2020).)
From the perspective of the Daleks, their universe's original Davros had already been lost (AUDIO: Palindrome [+]John Dorney, The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume Four (The Eighth Doctor: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2020)., Restoration of the Daleks [+]Matt Fitton, The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume Four (The Eighth Doctor: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2020).) to the Nightmare Child, yet at least one account established that event had yet to happen for the Doctor. (PROSE: The Third Wise Man [+]Dave Rudden, Twelve Angels Weeping (2018).) The alternate Davros was subsequently used as an anchor by the Time Strategist to generate Daleks from all possible universes, a process he found painful. Davros abandoned the Daleks and arrived in the Doctor's universe via the Gulf of Ithon, arriving on the planet Cosca where he set himself up as a scientist and began converting 40,000 natives into a new form of warrior, a cybernetic gestalt driven by hatred. The Time Strategist later returned to him to extract biodata from him as necessary to create more Daleks. (AUDIO: Restoration of the Daleks [+]Matt Fitton, The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume Four (The Eighth Doctor: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2020).)
Upon arriving on Gallifrey, the Doctor and Bliss found their recent memories lost and fell victim to the side-effects of erasure of the Daleks that was affecting the Time Lords, being unable to recall who the enemy in the Time War had been. The Doctor worked with the General and Cardinal Rasmus to investigate, with him and the General deciding to interrogate the Twelve and Rasmus and Bliss going to a prisoner of war camp. The Doctor and General discovered the Twelve had escaped stasis in the Omega Arsenal by manipulating a Dreadshade and she attempted to force her way onto the High Council with it. The Twelve eventually lost control of the Dreadshade after reminding it of the Daleks, which also restored the Time Lords' memories. After Bliss calmed the Dreadshade, the Doctor took it away from Gallifrey only to finally remember the warning he and Bliss had gone there to give. (AUDIO: Dreadshade [+]Lisa McMullin, The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume Four (The Eighth Doctor: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2020).)
With a new Davros, the Dalek race was restored. (AUDIO: The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume Four [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)
He and Bliss managed to warn the Time Lords as the Dalek armies began to manifest at the Gulf of Ithon. Whilst Rasmus and Tamasan organised an offensive against the Daleks, the Doctor and Bliss travelled to the nearby planet Cosca to warn the natives. They discovered Davros there and witnessed the Time Strategist arrive and extra biodata from him, with the Doctor being pulled back into its enclave outside of the universe when it departed. The Time Lords' assault was rendered useless by every Dalek loss being instantly replenished from the Multiverse and the Strategist used his latest extract to resurrect the Dalek Emperor, who appeared on a saucer above Cosca to Davros' horror.
As they observed events from its enclave, the Strategist made the captive Doctor an offer that if he destroyed Gallifrey, as the Strategist believed the War would culminate in, he could have a version of his deceased great-grandson Alex Campbell, who the Strategist had found in the Multiverse. Bliss contacted Rasmus and he came to take Davros into custody, just as Davros unleashed the converted people of Cosca on the invading Daleks. Davros offered this power to the Time Lords, however Rasmus rejected it. The Strategist countered Davros' warriors by sending an infinitely replenishing Dalek force to carve a line through them, but his planning was interrupted when his enclave was infiltrated by Tamsan, who attached a bomb to his controls. The Doctor used the opportunity to order Bliss and Rasmus to abandon Davros, correctly assuming the Emperor would have Davros brought before him.
The ensuing confrontation caused a brief civil war among the Daleks, paralysing the Strategist with all the variables it had to calculate. This enabled the Doctor and Tamsan to flee in her TARDIS, carrying the cryogenic chamber containing Alex, and detonate the bomb. With moments to spare before the enclave's destruction, the Strategist settled for stabilising the Dalek Empire's existence and escaped, losing the power of the Multiverse. The Emperor regained control of the Daleks and had the now-dimensionally unstable merged Davros kept on Falkus, believing he may still be of use in the Time War. With the Time War recommencing, the Doctor and Bliss departed the Time Lords with Alex, who the Doctor awoke onboard his TARDIS. (AUDIO: Restoration of the Daleks [+]Matt Fitton, The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume Four (The Eighth Doctor: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2020).)
Travels with Alex and Cass[]
The Doctor travels with Alex and Cass Fermazzi during the War (AUDIO: Cass [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)
Due to a shift in the timelines, (AUDIO: Vespertine [+]Lou Morgan, Cass (The Eighth Doctor: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2023).) Bliss disappeared leaving the Doctor travelling with just Alex, without any memory of Bliss having existed. The pair discovered fractures in time and eventually traced the source to the EC-141. With the assistance of the ship's engineer, Cass Fermazzi, they discovered the cause was a diplomat from the Council of the End, who was carrying out smuggling under guise of diplomacy, and resolved the temporal crisis. Feeling the need to fill a void on the TARDIS, the Doctor invited Cass to join them. (AUDIO: Meanwhile, Elsewhere [+]Tim Foley, Cass (The Eighth Doctor: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2023).) On her first trip, they found the preserved form of the Vespertine and encountered its captain, Hudson Sage, who had been kept alive for centuries in a time lock. Alex discovered Hudson's memories included an encounter with the Doctor and Bliss, though still neither he nor the Doctor could place the name, only able to speculate about a shift in time which Hudson's time lock might have protected him from. (AUDIO: Vespertine [+]Lou Morgan, Cass (The Eighth Doctor: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2023).)
Crash landing on an uninhabited planet due to disturbances in time, the Doctor, Alex and Cass discovered a group of Daleks building a retcon bomb out of a captured battle TARDIS to rewrite the galaxy's history so they always ruled it. The Doctor attempted to destroy it, but the Daleks pre-empted him and self-destructed the facility, throwing the trio back in time a year just before the Daleks' arrival. They discovered the temporal disaster had retroactively created a civilisation on the planet and sought to help them survive the Dalek onslaught, though the Doctor realised preventing the Daleks succeeding would paradoxically erase the civilisation too as their creation depended on the Daleks' bomb a year later, but saw no other option. Hijacking a disabled Dalek casing, he reached their ship and stole the battle TARDIS, which he set to destroy itself. The civilisation disappeared from time and Cass vanished at the same moment, leaving only the Doctor and Alex. They suddenly remembered Cass moments later, so set off to find out what had happened to her. (AUDIO: Previously, Next Time [+]James Moran, Cass (The Eighth Doctor: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2023).)
Susan in the Time War[]
The Eighth Doctor receives a hypercube. (PROSE: Ghost of Christmas Past [+]Scott Handcock, Twelve Doctors of Christmas (2016).)
The Doctor's TARDIS was caught by some temporal turbulence caused by a small skirmish between the Temporal Powers, sending him away from the War to Earth at Christmas. After receiving a hypercube from Susan Foreman, the Doctor was able to fix the TARDIS and return to the War. (PROSE: Ghost of Christmas Past [+]Scott Handcock, Twelve Doctors of Christmas (2016).)
Published during a time in the War when the Chancellery Guard still existed, the Dalek Combat Training Manual, a guide to the Daleks for Gallifreyan recruits written at least in part by General Kenossium, was published with information within taken from the Doctor's memories as well as the Matrix, including events from the Doctor's relative future. The General claimed these memories were willingly shown by the Doctor and that the exploitations of the future were to be taken as mere possibilities instead of straight facts. At this point in the War, the Time Lords were attempting to locate Susan, recognising her actions in the first 22nd century Dalek invasion, and interested in establishing alliances with the Thals, the Cybermen, the Humanised Daleks if any survived, and the early Exxilons. They also hoped to reprogram Mechanoids to serve as an anti-Dalek defense. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).)
Seeking to enlist Susan, the Time Lords sent Hypercube messages to her home in Shoreditch, where she lived following the second 22nd century Dalek invasion. Though the Doctor attempted to distract her and intercept the messages, Susan ultimately discovered a Hypercube and, believing she could be of help due to her experience fighting the Daleks, decided to accept the Time Lords' request and join the war despite the Doctor's protest, with a TARDIS arriving to collect her. (AUDIO: All Hands on Deck [+]Eddie Robson, Short Trips (Big Finish Productions, 2017).) The Battle TARDIS was immediately boarded in flight by Daleks who killed the anyone aboard, including the final incarnation of Strato, save Commander Veklin and Susan, who escaped by jettisoning the console room. The Daleks used the captured TARDIS to drain power from the Eye of Harmony and countered every attempt the Time Lords made it to remotely trigger its self-destruct, materialising a Dalek Battlecruiser in the Vortex around the captured TARDIS.
Susan Foreman and Ian Chesterton reunited for a diplomatic mission to the Sense Sphere. (AUDIO: Susan's War [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)
Cardinal Rasmus had Susan and Veklin recovered from the Time Vortex. Susan suggested the Time Lords recruit the Sensorites to trigger the captured TARDIS' self-destruct with their advanced telepathy. Rasmus agreed and had Ian Chesterton picked up from Earth to accompany Susan on a diplomatic mission to the Sense Sphere. With the War Council having sent agents back in time to create a centuries-long diplomatic relationship with the Sense Spuere, Susan, Ian and Veklin travelled to hold talks for an alliance. They found the Sensorites gripped by a sense of paranoia, making some react hostilely, which spread to Veklin herself. Discovering the source was a Dalek-Sensorite parasite implanted in the Interior of the Sense Sphere, Susan and Ian neutralised it after which the Sensorites agreed to dispatch warriors to Gallifrey. The warriors succeeded in telepathically triggering the TARDIS' self-destruct, ending the power drain. Ian was returned to Earth, wishing Susan well in the War. (AUDIO: Sphere of Influence [+]Eddie Robson, Susan's War (Big Finish Productions, 2020).)
Working with Veklin, Susan tracked down the Dalek agent who had infiltrated the Sense Sphere to Florana which about to be invaded by Dalek forces. Working with agents of the Anti-Dalek Force, she and Veklin found the spy, an enslaved Brancheerian, as an army of robotised Ogrons invaded to collect her, wiping out the natives. Susan and Veklin brought her back to Gallifrey and learnt from Rasmus there were 94 survivors of the massacre, who the Time Lords would now supply to fight behind the enemy's lines. (AUDIO: The Uncertain Shore [+]Simon Guerrier, Susan's War (Big Finish Productions, 2020).)
Rasmus brought Susan to Oreseia to use her telepathic abilities to assess Lord Vibax's project to weaponise Orrovix. When the Orrovix were set loose by Gallifreyan traitor Rennis Susan convinced them to stay put and helped Veklin capture Rennis. Afterwards Susan intended to recommend the War Council against Vibax's project and, though Rasmus and Veklin wanted to bring him back to Gallifrey for trial, left Rennis exiled on Njagilheim. (AUDIO: Assets of War [+]Lou Morgan, Susan's War (Big Finish Productions, 2020).)
The Hand of Omega was hidden in London, 1963, (pictured) by the First Doctor. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks [+]Ben Aaronovitch, Doctor Who season 25 (BBC1, 1988).)
Susan was manipulated by a Dalek duplicate into using a time ring to follow her past self's trail through Earth's time lock to 1963 to retrieve the Hand of Omega from where the First Doctor had hidden it. The Daleks sent a signal in Susan's wake to take control of a group of bikers and followed her as she sought the Hand, only for her to be rescued by the Eighth Doctor, paradoxically summoned by a message she'd yet to send. After a failed attempt to leave due to a local Susan had befriended being threatened, and an encounter with Renegade Dalek agents in the time period, he tricked the Daleks into allowing him and Susan to deliver them a decoy Hand. When the Daleks discovered the trick, they exterminated the Doctor but he escaped using Susan's time ring. Though the Doctor still refused to take up arms, he returned Susan to Gallifrey where Rasmus informed her that President Eternal Rassilon wished to speak with her. (AUDIO: The Shoreditch Intervention [+]Alan Barnes, Susan's War (Big Finish Productions, 2020).)
Fifth Doctor in the Time War[]
The Fifth Doctor finds himself involved with the future. (AUDIO: Shadow of the Daleks 1 [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)
The Fifth Doctor accidently became involved in the Time War. His TARDIS crashed into a Dalek time machine. The only reason he had crashed into the space-time vessel was because the timeship was designed to break time, as the ship itself was a temporal bomb, with the four Daleks aboard on a suicide mission to destroy Gallifrey's past, present, and future. When the crash occurred, it created four Kaleds who were temporal echoes of the Daleks aboard. "Pre-incarnations" of these four and the Dalek weapon were sent throughout time, which was what even led the Doctor to make these events happen.
Speaking with the three surviving Kaleds after the death of Maran, which caused the death of her Dalek counterpart, the Doctor assumed the Dalek mission was revenge for the Time Lords mission to alter the creation of the Daleks, though he then recalled learning of a war. However, it remained "outside of [his] understanding." In order to save Gallifrey's timeline, thus protecting the Doctor from being erased from history, the three Kaleds then sacrificed themselves by confronting their Dalek counterparts, with each extermination resulting in the death of each Dalek as well. The Doctor and the Kaleds believed their destruction would leave the rest of the Dalek Empire without any understanding as to how the mission failed, meaning they would never try the strategy again. The Fifth Doctor then departed from the Time War, still not truly certain on the context for the events that had just taken place. (AUDIO: Effect and Cause [+]John Dorney, Shadow of the Daleks 2 (Main Range, Big Finish Productions, 2020).)
The Doctor joins the Time War[]
Twilight of the Eighth Doctor[]
Despite doing everything he could to try to help others, the Eighth Doctor eventually was forced to see that that he needed to become a warrior. (COMIC: Dead Man's Hand [+]Tony Lee, Doctor Who (2012) (IDW Publishing, 2013).)
Though some accounts suggested that the Eighth Doctor lived until the end of the Time War, (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Time War [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who: Lockdown! (2020)., COMIC: The Forgotten [+]Tony Lee, IDW mini-series and one-shots (IDW Publishing, 2008-2009).) later accounts agreed that he refused to fight in the war, claiming he was "a good man" and instead "helped out" when he could, until his eventual regeneration into the War Doctor (TV: The Night of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Specials minisode (BBC One, 2013).) within the first year of the Time War. (PROSE: The Third Wise Man [+]Dave Rudden, Twelve Angels Weeping (2018).) The Doctor quickly found that because of the nature of the Time War, timelines shifted about frequently, sometimes causing the people he rescued to never have been born, leaving him no one to save. (PROSE: Ghost of Christmas Past [+]Scott Handcock, Twelve Doctors of Christmas (2016).) The Eighth Doctor considered the Time War to be cruel and senseless. (AUDIO: The Sontaran Ordeal [+]Andrew Smith, Classic Doctors and New Monsters: Volume One (Classic Doctors, New Monsters, Big Finish Productions, 2016).)
The Doctor had wanted to only help those in need and the casualties of the conflict, as well as stop as much collateral damage as he could. However, as the Daleks and Time Lords employed ever more brutal tactics, the need for his involvement became apparent to him. (PROSE: The Whoniverse [+]George Mann and Justin Richards, BBC Books (2016).) Ultimately, the Doctor, during a visit to a Velyshaan museum and questioning whether to get involved, decided to become part of the Time War after watching a child die at the hands of a Dalek. (PROSE: Museum Peace [+]James Swallow, Short Trips: Dalek Empire (Short Trips short stories, 2006).)
Surrounded by War, the Eighth Doctor and his TARDIS displayed the strain of the crossfire. (TV: The Night of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Specials minisode (BBC One, 2013).)
During the period of helping, the Eighth Doctor attempted to save a group of sentient suns from falling into another universe. (PROSE: Osskah [+]Gary Owen, Short Trips: Snapshots (Short Trips short stories, 2007).) During the War, while trying to help people, the strain of the fighting started to show on the Eighth Doctor, as his TARDIS was shown to have scorch marks from laser fire, due to escaping the warzones. His outfit was becoming increasingly battered, degrading from tidy to scruffy. (TV: The Night of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Specials minisode (BBC One, 2013).)
The Daleks employed the Time Destructor, wiping out Polymos, its shockwave affecting systems from Grantaginus to Mellandrova, and from the Farflung Rift to the Wolf's Heart Nebula. The Eighth Doctor was also caught in the temporal wave, causing him to land on Rontan 9 to find mercury that would repair his TARDIS' fluid links. Whilst on Rontan 9, he found a group of scientists and relocated them to a new home, away from the War. (PROSE: Natural Regression [+]Justin Richards, The Scientific Secrets of Doctor Who (2015).)
While cleaning up the "mess" of the war, the Eighth Doctor was lured to the party ship of the Rulers of the Universe using knowledge from River Song's diary in order to get him to help them take control of a Sanukuma spore ship. Their plan backfired when the Sanukuma themselves also arrived, wishing to join the Time War. Using a chronon mine he recovered from the war, the Doctor managed to defeat them by banishing them to the early years of the universe while he escaped using a "souvenir" pendant of the type carried by Gallifreyan shock troops, and with the help of River, also defeated the Rulers. River contacted him only remotely, so as not to reveal her true identity to him. (AUDIO: The Rulers of the Universe [+]Matt Fitton, The Diary of River Song: Series One (The Diary of River Song, Big Finish Productions, 2015).)
The Doctor travelled to the paradise of Drakkis, only to witness its timeline be devastated by a skirmish between the Time Lords and Daleks. On the planet now consumed by war, the Doctor discovered the Ninth Sontaran Battle Fleet had followed the Daleks and Time Lord forces in an attempt to join the War. Joined by Sarana Teel, a Drakkian dressmaker who had become a skilled soldier, the Doctor assisted Sontaran Commander Jask in surviving his Ordeal and to expose General Stenk's corruption. In return, Jask led the Sontarans away from Drakkis. Though the Doctor then helped Teel broker peace between fighting cities, she had learned the effect the War had on her planet would never allow ceasefires to last. Refusing to make up with him, she demanded he never return after revealing she would warn her people to never trust the Time Lords. (AUDIO: The Sontaran Ordeal [+]Andrew Smith, Classic Doctors and New Monsters: Volume One (Classic Doctors, New Monsters, Big Finish Productions, 2016).)
Used for Dalek casings (PROSE: The Monster Vault [+]Jonathan Morris and Penny CS Andrews, The Monster Vault (Penguin Group, 2020).) and battlecruisers, Dalekanium metal was the target for a new breed of Vashta Nerada. (AUDIO: Day of the Vashta Nerada [+]Matt Fitton, Classic Doctors and New Monsters: Volume Two (Classic Doctors, New Monsters, Big Finish Productions, 2017).)
The Doctor followed a distress signal to Synthesis Station, though arrived before it had been sent. His arrival coincided with a visit by Cardinal Ollistra to inspect genetically-engineered Vashta Nerada that the station had been developing for the Time Lords to use against Dalekanium. Dendry, a disgruntled employee, caused a system-wide shutdown whilst he attempted to abscond with Vashta Nerada to sell for himself. This allowed Vashta Nerada to escape, causing the crisis which the Doctor's TARDIS has picked up the distress signal from. The Doctor and Ollistra managed to reach his TARDIS, as the Battle TARDIS she'd arrived in was contaminated by Vashta Nerada released when her Guards confronted Gendry, along with Eva Morrison and Commander Roxita.
Vashta Nerada snuck aboard the TARDIS in Roxita's staser, forcing them to abandon the TARDIS in spacesuits whilst the Doctor programmed it to dump them in the Time Vortex. Roxita died initiating the programming and Eva was killed by Vashta Nerada hidden in her suit. Saddened at his failure to save lives, the Doctor dropped Ollistra off at the nearest Time Lord outpost, still refusing her request to join the War effort. Before falling victim to the Vashta Nerada, Dendry had planned to visit Maldovar's bar; (AUDIO: Day of the Vashta Nerada [+]Matt Fitton, Classic Doctors and New Monsters: Volume Two (Classic Doctors, New Monsters, Big Finish Productions, 2017).) it would be in the final months of the War that Dorium Maldovar was advised to open a bar by the aged War Doctor. (COMIC: The Whole Thing's Bananas [+]Richard Dinnick, The Many Lives of Doctor Who (Titan Publishing Group, 2018).)
The Doctor heard of the destruction of a hospital ship named after its owner's home planet. Fearing this may be the Traken, commanded by his old companion Nyssa, the Doctor travelled back in time and joined the Traken's crew as "Doctor Foster" for several months. The Traken travelled to Reave, one of Gallifrey's neighbours, which was victim to a Time Lord bombing campaign after it refused to ally with them. Exposure to praxis gas there wounded the Doctor, exposing him as a Time Lord and leading to suspicion that he was the terrorist. However, he and Nyssa worked out the true Time Lord agent was Doctor Isherwood, who had removed her second heart to be unaffected by the gas, and foiled her attempt to bomb the Traken whilst it was treating victims of a previous bombing. Content the Traken was now safe, the Doctor left without revealing his true identity to Nyssa. (AUDIO: A Heart on Both Sides [+]Rob Nisbet, Short Trips (Big Finish Productions, 2017).)
The Doctor investigated timeline alterations centring on Gernica, a planet destroyed by the Time Lords to prevent Dalek influence there. He discovered a native, Viola Wintersmith, had obtained a temporal weapon powered by the user's own past in the final battle and had been using it to attempt to prevent the destruction of her world, however had simply been manipulated by a Time Lord agent into attacking Dalek agents. He exposed this to Viola, who used the last of her past to kill the agent. The Doctor preserved the last fragments of her timeline in the hopes he could one day use them to restore her, and by extension Gernica, once the fighting had stopped. (AUDIO: Death Will Not Part Us [+]Alfie Shaw, Short Trips: Volume 11 (Short Trips, Big Finish Productions, 2022).)