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Invasion Earth

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2023-11 BBC Science Focus p76.jpg

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The Earth of Doctor Who has suffered multiple alien invasions.

The earliest (in the show's history), as depicted in the serial 'City of Death' in 1979, was by a warrior race called the Jagaroth 400,000,000 years ago. A survivor called Scaroth left fragments that deflected the history of Earth and humanity from then on. So, in the Who universe, an engagement with the alien has been woven into our evolution.

A clumsier, but just as devastating, intervention occurred 65 million years ago when, according to the serial 'Earthshock' in 1982, a massive interstellar freighter travelled back in time and crashed to Earth — an impact that wiped out the dinosaurs, as opposed to a rogue asteroid strike as scientists would have it. We can even guess at the dimensions of the freighter given a (real-world) study of the dinosaur event.

The asteroid, which hit with the energy of 4.5 billion Hiroshima bombs, must have been roughly the size and mass of Mount Everest. But a mass of a 1,000 tonnes of antimatter would deliver the same bang — a mass that could propel a 1,000-tonne freighter to Alpha Centauri at close to the speed of light.

We may have seen an alien vessel, or the wreckage of one, wandering through our Solar System in recent years — the anomalous 'Oumuamua object. Its high velocity proved it came from outside the Solar System and its long, thin shape was highly unusual. Probably it was nothing more than an exotic asteroid fragment, but if it had struck Earth... well, it was no 'Earthshock' freighter. At an estimated mass of 40 tonnes and travelling at 40 metres per second, 'Oumuamua would have burned up in Earth's atmosphere.


RIGHT As the last surviving Jagaroth, Scaroth made plans to save his species in the 1979 Doctor Who serial 'City of Death'

BELOW Cybermen come in many forms, but first appeared in the Who Universe living on Mondas, Earth's twin on the edge of the Solar System

Disclaimer: These citations are created on-the-fly using primitive parsing techniques. You should double-check all citations. Send feedback to whovian@cuttingsarchive.org

  • APA 6th ed.: (Nov. 2023). Invasion Earth. BBC Science Focus p. 76.
  • MLA 7th ed.: "Invasion Earth." BBC Science Focus [add city] Nov. 2023, 76. Print.
  • Chicago 15th ed.: "Invasion Earth." BBC Science Focus, edition, sec., Nov. 2023
  • Turabian: "Invasion Earth." BBC Science Focus, Nov. 2023, section, 76 edition.
  • Wikipedia (this article): <ref>{{cite news| title=Invasion Earth | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Invasion_Earth | work=BBC Science Focus | pages=76 | date=Nov. 2023 | via=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=5 December 2024 }}</ref>
  • Wikipedia (this page): <ref>{{cite web | title=Invasion Earth | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Invasion_Earth | work=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=5 December 2024}}</ref>