The Timeline of Gallifrey at, and since the end of the Time War

[Mark_Nguyen]

I've been revisiting certain episodes leading up to "Hell Bent" this weekend, to see what makes sense (and what inevitably will not) regarding the destruction, fake-out, loss, and now re-finding of Gallifrey. Moffatt has been even more coy than usual this year in leaving out the HOW of things, but instead of just accepting it makes sense, I'd like to figure out how we got to this point.

I hadn't realized that the whole Gallifrey arc has been the catalyst for the Doctor's last two regenerations, and was also involved in some way for the three before that. I always figured he'd have to give his life up to get Gallifrey back, so between the last two regeneration stories and all the stuff in "Heaven Sent", it couldn't be more true!

So here's what I've got for a general sequence of events (I hesitate to use the term "timeline", since that's muddled enough as it is) of what happened on Gallifrey at the end of the time war, and how that leads to the events of the current point in the story:

1. On the final day of the end of the Time War, the City of Arcadia falls to the Daleks. The Doctor was there, blasts "NO MORE" into a wall, and heads to the Capitol, where he steals the Moment.

2. Rassilon hears of this. Motivated to NOT DIE when the Doctor will trigger the Moment, he and the High Council use the Master as a pawn in a plan to pull all of Gallifrey out of the time lock and then destroy all of time, leaving the Time Lords as the sole survivors. The Master and the Doctor team up to stop this plan, and the Doctor ultimately regenerates as a result.

3. The (War) Doctor triggers the Moment, destroying Gallifrey and all the Daleks gathered around it. The Time War ends; the Doctor regenerates.

4. Seeing this future happen, the Moment opens a portal bringing the (War) Doctor to meet two of his future selves and bring the three of them to rewrite their own timeline. Gallifrey is saved but trapped in a pocket dimension somewhere. The original timeline is reconciled with these events, leaving things besides Gallifrey generally unchanged except in the memories of the most recent Doctor (and that Curator guy he later meets, who reveals that Gallifrey did in fact survive).

5. Trapped, the Time Lords attempt to reach out to the Doctor to give them the all-clear to come back via a crack in time and space, retroactively created because of the events at Trenzalore. Ultimately, the Doctor dies to keep them there, but the Time Lords grant him a new regeneration cycle.

6. Now trusting the Doctor to let them out when the time is right, they instead craft another test for him to reach them via the confession dial. Thus the events of the current series come to pass.

I'm sure I've missed a couple points and have certainly skimped on the specifics, but overall I think this makes sense. Thoughts?

Mark

 

[JoeZhang]

2. Rassilon hears of this. Motivated to NOT DIE when the Doctor will trigger the Moment, he and the High Council use the Master as a pawn in a plan to pull all of Gallifrey out of the time lock. The Master and the Doctor team up to stop this plan, and the Doctor ultimately regenerates as a result.

I cannot remember the sound of drums so might have mixed this up but if you take that into context with Day of the Doctor - The general makes it clear that the High Council's plan is underway *before* they know the Doctor has stolen the moment.

 

[MikeS]

That was not the Sound of Drums.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

2. Rassilon hears of this. Motivated to NOT DIE when the Doctor will trigger the Moment, he and the High Council use the Master as a pawn in a plan to pull all of Gallifrey out of the time lock. The Master and the Doctor team up to stop this plan, and the Doctor ultimately regenerates as a result.

I cannot remember the sound of drums so might have mixed this up but if you take that into context with Day of the Doctor - The general makes it clear that the High Council's plan is underway *before* they know the Doctor has stolen the moment.

I think that refers to Rassilon's plan to ascend all Time Lords and destroy the universe in the process. Which I think is at least as much responsible for the Doctor's decision to use the moment as the invasion of the Daleks.

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

The General's exchange goes like this:

Androgar: The High Council is in emergency session. They have plans of their own.

General: To Hell with the High Council. Their plans have already failed.

They subsequently discover that the Moment is gone. My view is that the Council found out first, sealed themselves off in their giant nondescript room (basically as shown at the beginning of "The End of Time, Part II") and buggered about throwing jewels through space time holes. Subsequent, or even concurrent to this, the General takes command of the situation.

I think it possible that the consequence of Rassilon's "ultimate sanction" plan either killed the entire High Council, or at least made them unavailable to consult for the stasis plan, leaving the General as the sole authority - but it's not like the Doctor would bother asking Rassilon to do this instead of destroying all of time and space. Furthermore, while Gallifrey appeared to hang on Earth's doorstep for who knows how long in "The End of Time", it could only have taken an instant from the perspective of everyone on the planet (all the Gallifreyan action from that part of the episode was from the point of view of Rassilon and his few cronies).

Perhaps the General observed this. Hell, perhaps he'd just come from the Citadel after executing Rassilon and his gang for being such dicks.

Mark

 

[The Wormhole]

This is, it's while the General and his Time Lord friend are talking that the War Doctor steals the Moment, despite the fact the Time Lord Council is already in session, a meeting we know starts off with Rassilon being informed the Doctor has disappeared and has the Moment. This isn't the most obvious inconsistency, the exterior establishing shot of the Citadel in The End of Time shows it being daylight, relatively clear sky, while in Day of the Doctor it's night with plenty of Dalek saucers in the sky, despite the fact both scenes are supposedly happening simultaneously.

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

This is true - The General and Androgar's scenes occur while the Citadel is under attack, while Rassilon is strolling around a place that isn't. As such, it's not likely that they're happening concurrently. Perhaps Rassilon's bit occured while the Daleks were busy mopping up after Arcadia, and then by the time the General got into it, the pepperpots had reached the Citadel? Either way, the War Doctor had traveled from one city to the other and swiped the Moment before either scene.

Mark

 

[intrinsical]

6. Now trusting the Doctor to let them out when the time is right, they instead craft another test for him to reach them via the confession dial. Thus the events of the current series come to pass.

That is wrong... It seems very few people saw the prologue to The Magician's Apprentice.

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-fFyrxbSes[/yt]

The Doctor sent the Confession Dial to Missy via the Sisterhood of Karn, knowing full well what it signifies. He also asked the Sisterhood to "look after the universe for me", which I took to mean he knew in advance that he will be in the Confession Dial for 2 billion years.

The Confession Dial is not the Timelord's doing. The Doctor is the one who started this chain of events with the explicit aim of returning to Gallifrey "the long way round".

 

[The Wormhole]

This is true - The General and Androgar's scenes occur while the Citadel is under attack, while Rassilon is strolling around a place that isn't. As such, it's not likely that they're happening concurrently. Perhaps Rassilon's bit occured while the Daleks were busy mopping up after Arcadia, and then by the time the General got into it, the pepperpots had reached the Citadel? Either way, the War Doctor had traveled from one city to the other and swiped the Moment before either scene.

Mark

Thing is, both Moffat and official BBC material related to Day of the Doctor state the two are happening simultaneously, and that Androgar's comment about the High Council being in session is in reference to what we saw in The End of Time.

 

[RoJoHen]

One of the women in meeting with the High Council literally says, "The Doctor still possesses The Moment, and he will use it to destroy Time Lords and Daleks alike."

They have to be happening at the same time, at least within the same very small window. Rassilon's plan is likely preparing to vote for the Final Sanction (the End of Time) before the Doctor can destroy them all.

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

This is all true - but "simultaneously" does grant a bit of wiggle room. We know for sure that both sequences happen on the last day of the Time War, but I'm still hesitant to conclude that this means that both are happening at the same exact time. It *does* make a certain amount of sense that the General would be calling the shots if the entire High Council were in closed session and thus unavailable; and it's not like the Eleventh Doctor would encourage the General to get permission from Rassilon since he knows exactly what was going on in there (and the other two Doctors knew that Rassilon and company were not really nice folk at that time). I think it could still be interpreted in several ways.

And I'd forgotten about the confession dial having come from the Doctor in the first place before the current season started proper; however I'm still not sure that the Time Lords had nothing to do with the whole castle thing. Sure, the Doctor seems to have set the whole thing up, but the castle and time loop thing isn't really his style IMO.

Mark

 

[Iamnotspock]

The "wiggle room" is the length of time it takes the War Doctor to walk for "miles and miles" from the TARDIS to the barn.

Both the High Council meeting and the War Room scene take place on the last day of the Time War, but the line, "He still possesses the Moment..." would seem to imply that some time has passed since they learned of its theft. That's supported by the Council meeting seeming to take place in the aftermath of the battle. It makes sense if you imagine that the Council has been in emergency session for some time, deliberating Rassilon's Final Sanction.

1). The Time War has turned into "hell". At its heart, millions die every second, with time itself resurrecting them to die over and over again, and every moment in time and space is burning. The universe is threatened not just by the Daleks, but by the Nightmare Child, the Could-Have-Been-King and his army of Meanwhiles and Never-weres etc. As the Daleks mount their "biggest ever attack" on Gallifrey, the High Council is in emergency session, seemingly for several hours. The Visionary confirms that this is the final day of the Time War - today, Gallifrey falls. They plan to implement the Final Sanction; they will ascend to become beings of consciousness alone, while "creation itself ceases to be."

2). The Artist Formerly Known as the Doctor learns of this; "That's what they were planning, in the final days of the war. I had to stop it!" He declares, "No More", breaks into the Time Vaults, which house the Omega arsenal, and steals the Moment. The War Room detects a security breach and discovers the Moment missing. The High Council presumably learns of this concurrently.

3). The War Doctor parks the TARDIS some distance from his old family barn and walks for "miles and miles", thinking his "No More" speech. The walk takes some time, and meanwhile Rassilon joins/rejoins the Council meeting (maybe he popped to the loo) and demands news of the Doctor, to be informed that he has disappeared. "But we know his intention; he still possesses the Moment, and he'll use it to destroy Daleks and Time Lords alike."

The long and the short is that Rassilon's entrance in 'The End of Time', Part 2 cannot be the beginning of the meeting.

What's harder to reconcile is that the resolution to 'The Day of the Doctor' hinges on Gallifrey disappearing into another universe - "What if the whole planet just disappeared?" - while the Daleks destroy themselves in their own crossfire, making it look to the rest of the universe as if the two sides had annihilated each other. But Gallifrey did "just disappear", when it was brought to Earth in 'TEoT'. The only reconciliation I can think of is that everything surrounding Gallifrey at the time - the Dalek fleet, the Could-Have-Been-King etc. - was brought with it, as the Doctor implies, i.e. the entire battle was transposed to the Sol system temporarily. Perhaps this is what the General and Androgar had been dealing with when they re-enter the War Room at the top of the "Gallifrey Stands!" scene.

If Gallifrey alone were to disappear to wherever it was it ended up, the plan would still work.

So;
4). The battle transfers to the Sol system temporarily, the Tenth Doctor and the Master avert disaster and thwart Rassilon's plans - "The link is broken; back into the Time War, Rassilon!" - and the Master is sucked back to the last day of the War along with the other Time Lords.

5). The battle continues back at Kasterborous, until the 13 incarnations of the Doctor arrive to implement their plan to "freeze Gallifrey". Gallifrey is "lost in another dimension", but wherever it is, it's certainly not frozen, as there's a clear progression of time for the planet; the Master regenerates into female form and finds a way to break back into "our" universe.

6). The Time Lords attempt to use the spacetime crack at Trenzalore to get back to their own universe, and pose the First Question, "Doctor who?", as a Security Question (well, it beats "mother's maiden name?") for the Doctor, to ascertain whether they have the right universe. The question is answered - the Doctor; the only name that matters - and the Doctor is granted a new regeneration cycle before the crack closes.

7). The events of 'Face the Raven'/'Heaven Sent'/'Hell Bent'.

 

[The Mighty Monkey of Mim]

2). The Artist Formerly Known as the Doctor learns of this; "That's what they were planning, in the final days of the war. I had to stop it!" He declares, "No More", breaks into the Time Vaults, which house the Omega arsenal, and steals the Moment. The War Room detects a security breach and discovers the Moment missing. The High Council presumably learns of this concurrently.

There's no reason the "No More" bit couldn't have happened after he broke into the vaults and took the Moment, is there? In fact it might make more sense that he'd announce himself after the fact than beforehand.

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

Off topic, but I'd sure like to see the barn be re-introduced in Big Finish - specifically, during the Old Doctors range. It'd be really neat if that happened, cause then Day would be even more celebrational, in retrospect.

 

[Iamnotspock]

2). The Artist Formerly Known as the Doctor learns of this; "That's what they were planning, in the final days of the war. I had to stop it!" He declares, "No More", breaks into the Time Vaults, which house the Omega arsenal, and steals the Moment. The War Room detects a security breach and discovers the Moment missing. The High Council presumably learns of this concurrently.

There's no reason the "No More" bit couldn't have happened after he broke into the vaults and took the Moment, is there? In fact it might make more sense that he'd announce himself after the fact than beforehand.

No, that's very true.

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

There's no reason the "No More" bit couldn't have happened after he broke into the vaults and took the Moment, is there? In fact it might make more sense that he'd announce himself after the fact than beforehand.

Yes, that's possible - there's no real indication of how long he'd had the Moment. However, "NO MORE" is carved into a wall in Arcadia at the very end of that battle, meaning that to be true, he'd have had the Moment before the battle started, since it apparently wasn't stored under that City. Or, as noted, to have pinched it after the battle. and before he started hiking with it; I'd figure the simpler explanation to be more likely, but this IS Doctor Who...

Mark

 

[Iamnotspock]

There's no reason the "No More" bit couldn't have happened after he broke into the vaults and took the Moment, is there? In fact it might make more sense that he'd announce himself after the fact than beforehand.

Yes, that's possible - there's no real indication of how long he'd had the Moment. However, "NO MORE" is carved into a wall in Arcadia at the very end of that battle, meaning that to be true, he'd have had the Moment before the battle started, since it apparently wasn't stored under that City. Or, as noted, to have pinched it after the battle. and before he started hiking with it; I'd figure the simpler explanation to be more likely, but this IS Doctor Who...

Mark

Agreed entirely. Your quote is mis-attributed to me.

 

[Mr Light]

I was under the impression that the Doctor shooting no more into the wall marked the beginning of him fighting in the Time War, and then he fought for years/centuries/whatever before we get to the final day where he gets the Moment.

 

[The Wormhole]

2). The Artist Formerly Known as the Doctor learns of this; "That's what they were planning, in the final days of the war. I had to stop it!" He declares, "No More", breaks into the Time Vaults, which house the Omega arsenal, and steals the Moment. The War Room detects a security breach and discovers the Moment missing. The High Council presumably learns of this concurrently.

There's no reason the "No More" bit couldn't have happened after he broke into the vaults and took the Moment, is there? In fact it might make more sense that he'd announce himself after the fact than beforehand.

Except the General and Androgar are looking at the No More Carving when the alarms sound indicating the Doctor is stealing the Moment.

I was under the impression that the Doctor shooting no more into the wall marked the beginning of him fighting in the Time War, and then he fought for years/centuries/whatever before we get to the final day where he gets the Moment.

Well, no, the War Doctor was clearly a young man when he began fighting, this is made clear in Night of the Doctor. While the No More carving is done by the older War Doctor. And likewise, the carving was done in Arcadia, on the last day when Arcadia fell.

 

[Mr Light]

Sorry, haven't seen it in awhile