- You may be looking for star system or Short Trips: The Solar System.
The Solar System was a star system located on the star called Sol in the galaxy known as the Milky Way or Mutter's Spiral. It was known to extrasolar civilisations as the Constellation of Sol. (TV: On Through the 80's!)
Structure[]
The Solar System contained eight widely recognised planets: Mercury (PROSE: Mercury) Venus, (PROSE: Venus) Earth, (TV: The Invasion of Time) Mars, (TV: Mission to the Unknown) Jupiter, Saturn, (COMIC: Invasion of the Daleks) Uranus, (PROSE: Uranus) and Neptune. (PROSE: Neptune)
Other planets[]
According to one account, the solar system had 11 planets: Vulcan, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, and Omega. In 2400, Skaro also entered the Sun's orbit, placing itself at an elliptical orbit cutting those of Uranus and Jupiter. (COMIC: Invasion of the Daleks)
ArcHivist Farazea developed the 14 Planet Theory, which included Mercury, the Moon, Venus, Mondas, Earth, Mars, Asteris, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Charon and Planet 14. (AUDIO: Origins of the Cybermen)
Mondas was the twin planet of Earth until it drifted away to "the edge of space". Its return and destruction in 1986 (TV: The Tenth Planet) was covered up (PROSE: Mondas Passing) as the "Mondas asteroid" going supernova. (PROSE: The Indestructible Man)
Planet 5 was removed from the Sol system by the Time Lords in 12,000,000 BC and was placed in a time loop. The asteroid belt subsequently occupied the orbit of the planet between Mars and Jupiter. (TV: Image of the Fendahl)
The planet Voga was captured by Jupiter, thus becoming one of its moons. (TV: Revenge of the Cybermen)
Pluto was considered the ninth planet (TV: The Sun Makers) in the 20th century but became classified as a dwarf planet by Steven Taylor's time. (AUDIO: The Anachronauts) However, some still called it a planet in later eras. (TV: The Sun Makers)
Micawber's World was an artificial planet built around an asteroid located between Pluto and Cassius. (PROSE: Placebo Effect)
The tenth planet Cassius was discovered in 1994. (TV: The Sun Makers, PROSE: Iceberg)
Sedna was discovered in 2003. (PROSE: Sedna)
Other features[]
The small terrestrial planets like Earth and Mars comprised only a tiny fraction of the mass of Solar System. The system also contained larger gas giants, which were not as dense. (AUDIO: Feast of Fear)
Also in constant orbit around the Sun was the cometary cloud of rock and ice which was the origin point of many of the solar system's comets. Counting this cloud, the solar system extended to a distance of about 1 and a half light-years or 40 billion miles from the Sun. (AUDIO: Origins of the Cybermen)
History[]
Early history[]
The First Doctor was unfamiliar with the solar system prior to his departure on Gallifrey. However, his granddaughter Susan Foreman learned of its existence and that of Earth in her spatial cartography lessons. (AUDIO: The Beginning)
During the time of the Silurians and Sea Devils, a rogue planet approached the orbit of their homeworld, Earth. The Third Doctor told the Silurians that instead of drawing off the Earth's atmosphere as their scientists had previously calculated, it became the Moon. (TV: Doctor Who and the Silurians)
Mondas, which originally orbited the Sun at the same distance as Earth, was also affected by the rogue planet. (COMIC: The Prodigal Returns) When it arrived, Mondas left orbit and wandered out further into the solar system. (TV: The Tenth Planet)
Circa 12,000,000 BC the Time Lords placed Planet 5 in a time loop, in effect destroying it. The Fendahl, which came from the Fifth Planet and which the Time Lords had intended to destroy, may have destroyed life on Mars on its way to Earth. (TV: Image of the Fendahl)
Stealing a prototype stellar manipulator, the Eleven concocted an ultimately unsuccessful plot to ignite Sol and destroy the solar system in 1639. (AUDIO: The Satanic Mill)
Human expansion[]
In 1916, a Cyber-conversion planet briefly appeared in the shadow of Earth, with Alexandra Fydorovna calling it a "second moon". This planet was destroyed when the Thirteenth Doctor thwarted the Master's Dalek Plan. (TV: The Power of the Doctor)
In the mid-20th century, the humans of Earth began to explore their solar system via probes and, tentatively at first, with manned missions. The Moon was the first object in the solar system to be visited by humans — at least, according to the official historical record. (TV: Blink, et al.)
Piloted by the CyberMondans, Mondas returned to the solar system in 1986. (TV: The Tenth Planet)
Later, missions to Mars occurred. Accounts differed as to whether the first human landing on Mars was in the 20th century, (TV: The Ambassadors of Death, etc) or in 2041 or 2058. (TV: The Waters of Mars)
Circa 2009, Earth was forcibly relocated to the Medusa Cascade by the Daleks. (TV: The Stolen Earth)
The relocation of Earth seemed to have no lasting effects on the solar system; even Earth's Moon remained in place until the Tenth Doctor and his companions returned Earth to its proper position. (TV: Journey's End)
The end result of the incident was that the general populace of Earth were now aware of the existence of alien life, (TV: Children of Earth: Day One, et al.) ushering in the planet's increased presence in interstellar affairs from the 21st century onward. (TV: The Christmas Invasion, Everything Changes, et al.)
In 2009, the Time Lord homeworld, Gallifrey, briefly materialised near the planet Earth, before being returned to its proper location. (TV: The End of Time)
Around 2089, Susie Fontana Brooke, the granddaughter of Captain Adelaide Brooke piloted the first ever lightspeed ship from Earth to Proxima Centauri. Soon after that, the human race started colonising other star systems. (TV: The Waters of Mars)
According to the Third Doctor, this happened after humans had "sacked" the solar system. (TV: The Mutants)
Later history[]
The planetoid or moon Voga entered the solar system some time after the construction of the Nerva Beacon. (TV: Revenge of the Cybermen)
By 2400, humans had built colonies on Mars and Venus. Fearing that their own planet, Skaro, might be next in line, as it had recently moved into the solar system, the Daleks launched a massive invasion of the solar system with humanity as their first target, ruling that as they were obviously superior to human beings in every respect, the solar system ought to belong to them. (COMIC: Invasion of the Daleks) By 2409, the humans had ended the Daleks' aggression against the solar system. (PROSE: Break-through!)
In the 30th century, a lurgy swept through the solar system. (PROSE: From Wildthyme with Love)
In the late 40th century, the "Big Four" alliance was comprised by the planets Earth, Mars, Venus and Uranus against the Dalek invasions, when it was decided to found the Space Security Service. (PROSE: The Outlaw Planet)
Prior to 4000, Mavic Chen assumed the position of Guardian of the Solar System. Chen's secret allies, the Daleks, at the same time proposed to conquer the solar system. (TV: Mission to the Unknown, The Daleks' Master Plan) Unbeknownst to Chen or the other powers of the Great Alliance, the Daleks did not intend to conquer the solar system. When the Alliance forces would converge on the solar system, the Daleks intended to activate the Time Destructor, killing all opposition in one swoop, before conquering the Outer Galaxies. Their plan was halted by the First Doctor. (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe) The failure of this scheme led to the outbreak of the Great War. Though the Daleks invaded the solar system once again, they failed to secure any territory, their invasions of Mars and Venus ending in failure. (PROSE: The Whoniverse)
In 5000, the Fourth Doctor destroyed Titan Base, located on Saturn's moon Titan, in order to destroy a colony of the Swarm. (TV: The Invisible Enemy)
In anticipation of their invasion of Earth in 200,100, the Dalek Emperor's fleet waited in the dark space at the edge of the solar system, spending centuries harvesting humans for processing into new Daleks. (TV: Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways)
Circa 2,000,000, the Time Lords transported the entire solar system using a magnetron. (TV: The Mysterious Planet)
In the 57th segment of Time the last humans left on Earth evacuated the planet because of the increasing danger that it would fall into the Sun. They fled to planets such as Refusis II and Frontios. (TV: The Ark, Frontios)
The now uninhabited Earth was preserved by the National Trust and over the billions of years following was restored to a 'classic Earth' before it was finally destroyed by the expanding sun in the year 5.5/Apple/26. (TV: The End of the World)
Alternate universes[]
In one reality visited by Rose Tyler in her quest to return to N-Space, an automated mining ship parked itself in the solar system and began teleporting the salt out of the Earth's oceans. The people of this Earth managed to stop the process when they communicated to the ship that life existed on the planet. Clive Finch suspected that the ship had not been sent to Earth but, due to the vanishing stars, had gotten lost. (AUDIO: Saltwater)
Cultural significance[]
After a long struggle both on their own planet, Earth, and with other sentient species in the system, humans became the region's dominant species and led several different inter-planetary governments. (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan, The Monster of Peladon, Bad Wolf)
Indeed, the solar system's significance was largely tied to the fate of humanity, since humans became one of the universe's longest-lived species, continuing on until the universe itself was entering its final stage of development. (TV: The End of the World, Utopia)
Behind the scenes[]
The term solar system can also be a simple synonym for star system in DWU fiction. However, in most instances, solar system—even though uncapitalised—refers to "the star system bound together by Sol".
The television story The Waters of Mars gives two contradictory figures for when humanity first landed on Mars. The first is when the Tenth Doctor refers to the colonists that founded the Bowie Base One colony in July 2058 as the "very first humans on Mars", and the second is an on-screen obituary of Adelaide Brooke (captain of the Bowie Base One colonists), which states she was part of a three-person team on Mars when she was 42 (i.e. in 2041). Neither of these points are especially reconcilable with The Ambassadors of Death. In the television story Empress of Mars, the Twelfth Doctor discovers a human expedition on Mars in the year 1881, but was clearly unaware of them prior to the episode.
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