The Siege of Trenzalore, (TV:The Time of the Doctor^[+]Loading...["The Time of the Doctor (TV story)"],PROSE:Tales of Trenzalore) foretold as theFall of the Eleventh, (TV:The Wedding of River Song^[+]Loading...["The Wedding of River Song (TV story)"]) and recorded by theTime Lords as theTrenzalore Incident, (PROSE:Dalek Combat Training Manual) was a conflict initiated by amessage broadcast throughtime andspace that no one could understand. The siege was viewed by some as the true final battle of theLast Great Time War. (PROSE:The Secret Lives of Monsters)

Dating[[edit] |[edit source]]

The Siege of Trenzalore lasted 900 years. (PROSE:Tales of Trenzalore) According to one account, it came to an end in the50th century. (PROSE:A Perfect Christmas) However,the Church and theKovarian Chapter had participated in theBattle of Demons Run, which took place in the52nd century. In addition, "thePapal Mainframe herself" was invoked atDemons Run. (TV:The Pandorica Opens^[+]Loading...["The Pandorica Opens (TV story)"],A Good Man Goes to War^[+]Loading...["A Good Man Goes to War (TV story)"])Tasha Lem, the lastMother Superious, had died in the siege. (PROSE:A Perfect Christmas)

As recorded in theDalek Combat Training Manual, theTime War-eraTime Lords could not pinpoint thetemporal co-ordinates of the siege. They did, however, indicate in their record of Dalek activity in linear history that the siege fell within the "far future" period of theNew Dalek Paradigm andresurrected Dalek Empire, following the pre-Time WarHand of Omega Incident which itself followed the47th centuryNecros Incident. Within theDaleks' timeline, this incident followed theAsylum Incident and was followed by theDalek invasion of the galaxy. (PROSE:Dalek Combat Training Manual)

History[[edit] |[edit source]]

A day to come[[edit] |[edit source]]

Through the extrapolations ofthe Matrix, theTime War-eraTime Lords foresaw this event from their theoretical future, which was recorded in theDalek Combat Training Manual. Due to the sensitive nature of the information relating to the outcome of the Time War, tactical analysis for this event was suspended. (PROSE:Dalek Combat Training Manual)

Foreshadowing[[edit] |[edit source]]

Towards the end of hisfarewell tour, theEleventh Doctor wished to knowthe Silence's motive for engineering what appeared to be hisfixeddeath atLake Silencio. His search led him toDorium Maldovar, whose severed, still livinghead he found at theOrder of the Headless'Seventh Transept. Explaining to the Doctor that the Silence wished to avert his "dangerous" future, Dorium elaborated by telling him the prophecy,"On the fields of Trenzalore, at the fall of the Eleventh, when no living creature can speak falsely, or fail to answer,a question will be asked. A question that must never, ever be answered." Revisiting Dorium after escaping his death, the Doctor was reminded by Dorium that the future told in the prophecy was still waiting for him. (TV:The Wedding of River Song^[+]Loading...["The Wedding of River Song (TV story)"])

The beginning[[edit] |[edit source]]

Ships amass over Trenzalore. (PROSE:Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe)

ThePapal Mainframe arrived atTrenzalore first and, recognising the significance of the message, created aforce field around theplanet to protect thesmall village there. Unknown to them, theWeeping Angels had already arrived and hid in thesnow on the planet's surface. By the time theEleventh Doctor arrived, hundreds of ships had gathered, includingflying saucers of theresurrected Dalek Empire,Cyber-ships,Sontaran flagships andscout ships,Judoon rockets,Silurian Arks, and ships belonging to theTerileptils,Slitheen,Ice Warriors,Shakri, (TV:The Time of the Doctor^[+]Loading...["The Time of the Doctor (TV story)"])Krynoids, (PROSE:An Apple a Day...) and theMara. (PROSE:The Dreaming,Trenzalore) The Doctor later theorised that theNestene Consciousness also seized a ship from one of the orbiting species. (PROSE:Strangers in the Outland) Mother Superious,Tasha Lem, assisted the Doctor andClara Oswald in reaching the planet.

When the broadcast was revealed to bethe Question, sent fromGallifrey, trapped in apocket universe and emanating through acrack in time and space, the Doctor refused to leave the planet to be destroyed by his enemies in space, all of whom would seek the destruction of theTime Lords. However, he also wouldn't bring the Time Lords back through the crack, fearing theLast Great Time War would start anew. Tasha Lem, changing the faith of the Papal Mainframe into the Church of Silence (to prevent the Doctor saying his name, bringing the Time Lords back and restarting the Time War), initiated the Siege of Trenzalore. (TV:The Time of the Doctor^[+]Loading...["The Time of the Doctor (TV story)"])

TheVoord had heard the Question onMarinus and became convinced that, should the Time Lords return, they would return the universe to what it was before the Time War, stripping the Voord of their new power. As a result, they hid themselves in apocket universe. (COMIC:Four Doctors)

Given that the Siege was one of the few times the Doctor was sedentary,Jenny attempted to reunite with him but found herself unable to penetrate the force field. (COMIC:The Lost Dimension)

The conflict[[edit] |[edit source]]

Attempts to breach the force field[[edit] |[edit source]]

Over the next three centuries, each of the Doctor's enemies tried various means of penetrating the force field created by the Church of Silence, each time defeated by the Doctor's ingenuity. It was during this time that the Kovarian Chapter led byMadame Kovarian broke away from the Church,travelled back along the Eleventh Doctor's time stream and attempted to kill the Doctor so he would never reach Trenzalore. Their first attempt involved them blowing up the TARDIS which the Doctor prevented. However, in doing this, Kovarian and her faction ended up creating the cracks in time in the first place, effectively causing what they sought to prevent. The Doctor called this the Destiny Trap: "You can't change history if you're part of it."

Thefleets above Trenzalore made various attempts to sneak past the force field - such as the Sontarans using aninvisibility cloak and the Cybermen using a low-techwooden unit. (TV:The Time of the Doctor^[+]Loading...["The Time of the Doctor (TV story)"]) This also incuded theIce Warriors burying Christmas through an avalanche, (PROSE:Let it Snow) a blindTsunami Snake, (PROSE:The Dreaming) aKrynoid. (PROSE:An Apple a Day...) and theNestene Consciousness parachuting inAutons. (PROSE:Strangers in the Outland)

The Kovarian Chapter's war against the Doctor[[edit] |[edit source]]

Main article:War against the Doctor

TheKovarian Chapter of the Church broke away from the Silence and embarked on a campaign earlier in the Doctor's timeline to prevent him ever arriving on Trenzalore in the first place. They arranged the destruction of his TARDIS, (TV:The Time of the Doctor^[+]Loading...["The Time of the Doctor (TV story)"]) which triggeredTotal Event Collapse. The younger Doctor was able to avert the destruction of the universe, (TV:The Big Bang^[+]Loading...["The Big Bang (TV story)"]) though "scar tissue" was left behind, resulting in the crack at Trenzalore in the first place.

The Kovarian Chapter's next attempt involved the creation of an assassin. (TV:The Time of the Doctor^[+]Loading...["The Time of the Doctor (TV story)"]) They kidnapped the Doctor's companionAmy Pond who was pregnant with a child conceived during flight through theTime Vortex and replaced her with aFlesh duplicate to prevent the Doctor discovering their act. Amy was held atDemons Run, (TV:A Good Man Goes to War^[+]Loading...["A Good Man Goes to War (TV story)"]) and was finally awakened on the verge of giving birth, when the Doctor had discovered the ruse. (TV:The Almost People^[+]Loading...["The Almost People (TV story)"]) After she gave birth to a child,Melody Pond, the Silence made preparations to defend Demons Run from the Doctor, enlisting an army of clerics led by ColonelManton and allying with theOrder of the Headless. In the ensuingBattle of Demons Run, the Doctor and his allies took the facility however Kovarian escaped with baby Melody by placing a Flesh duplicate with her mother. (TV:A Good Man Goes to War^[+]Loading...["A Good Man Goes to War (TV story)"]) The clerics and Headless Monks abandoned Kovarian after the loss of Demons Run. (AUDIO:The Furies)

Kovarian initially raised Melody atConcorde Dawn, (AUDIO:The Furies) however she was eventually taken to Earth in1969 where she was raised in an orphanage supervised by Silent priests. The Silents infiltrated Earth across time to manipulate the human race to produce the resources they needed, keeping Melody in a modifiedApollo 11space suit. Melody used the suit's communications to ask for help and was put through to PresidentRichard Nixon. Her bizarre calls attracted the attention of the Doctor, who arranged the overthrow of the Silents by conditioning humanity against them using theApollo 11Moon landing broadcast. Melody escaped her captors, eventually regenerating after spending months on the streets. (TV:The Impossible Astronaut^[+]Loading...["The Impossible Astronaut (TV story)"],Day of the Moon^[+]Loading...["Day of the Moon (TV story)"])

In her new incarnation, Melody became the childhood friend of her parents, under the name Mels. Eventually catching up with the Doctor in2011 Mels forced him to take her toBerlin in1938 and attempted to realise her childhood programming by killing the Doctor. Her parents talked her out of it, and she sacrificed her remaining regenerations to save him instead, becoming River Song. (TV:Let's Kill Hitler^[+]Loading...["Let's Kill Hitler (TV story)"]) Despite River rejecting her programming, Kovarian arranged for her to be forced to assassinate the Doctor atLake Silencio as part of afixed point in time it was believed the Doctor could not escape. Unaware he had made arrangements to survive by being inside theTeselecta, River attempted to defy the fixed point resulting in the breakdown of history. In the ensuingalternate timeline, Kovarian and the Silents attempted to kill the Doctor themselves, but were defeated and killed by Amy and Rory of this timeline. The Doctor revealed his ruse to River and married her, compelling her to complete the fixed point and restore history to normal. (TV:The Wedding of River Song^[+]Loading...["The Wedding of River Song (TV story)"])

Still alive in the normal history (TV:The Wedding of River Song^[+]Loading...["The Wedding of River Song (TV story)"]) and now abandoned by the Silents, (AUDIO:The Furies) Kovarian eventually learnt of the Doctor's survival and attempted to useProto-Time Lords created from River's DNA to assassinate theFifth Doctor, withBrooke's first incarnation succeeding. (AUDIO:My Dinner With Andrew) River managed to turn her siblings against Kovarian, withBrooke's second incarnation choosing to alter history to undo her assassination of the Doctor. Kovarian was held captive by the Proto-Time Lords, with River ignoring her pleas for mercy. (AUDIO:The Furies)

The older Doctor at Trenzalore would later reflect that the Kovarian Chapter had fallen into "thedestiny trap", being unable to change history as they were a part of it. (TV:The Time of the Doctor^[+]Loading...["The Time of the Doctor (TV story)"])

Fall of the Mainframe[[edit] |[edit source]]

The Daleks invade the Church and confront the Doctor. (TV:The Time of the Doctor^[+]Loading...["The Time of the Doctor (TV story)"])

Three hundred years into the Siege the Daleks turned their attention to the Church itself. After calling for reinforcements on a daily basis, they assaulted the Mainframe, turned everyone intoDalek puppets and penetrated the field afterwards, followed by the Cybermen and the other fleets. In response, the Doctor allied himself with the Papal Mainframe's soldiers and Confessional Priests (now known as theSilents), and repelled each attack. (TV:The Time of the Doctor^[+]Loading...["The Time of the Doctor (TV story)"]) 750 years into the Siege, theMara entered Christmas and possessed the town's children, trying to force the Doctor to say his name and begin a new Time War, but the Doctor defeated them. (PROSE:The Dreaming)

End of the Siege[[edit] |[edit source]]

The Doctorregenerates, destroying the Daleks (TV:The Time of the Doctor^[+]Loading...["The Time of the Doctor (TV story)"])

Eventually all of Trenzalore's attackers had either been destroyed or had retreated save for the Daleks who continued to attack the village inDalek Attack Ships (TV:The Time of the Doctor^[+]Loading...["The Time of the Doctor (TV story)"]) and theParliament of the Daleks. (PROSE:Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe) Finally, dying of old age after nine hundred years of fighting, the Doctor was ready to admit defeat to his oldest enemies. However, when the Time Lords used the crack to grant him a newregeneration cycle, having been persuaded to do so byClara Oswald, the Doctor was quick to defy the Daleks, (TV:The Time of the Doctor^[+]Loading...["The Time of the Doctor (TV story)"]) using theenergy from his thirteenthregeneration to destroy the Dalek fleet (PROSE:Twice Upon a Time^[+]Loading...["Twice Upon a Time (novelisation)"]) and its ground forces, ending the siege (TV:The Time of the Doctor^[+]Loading...["The Time of the Doctor (TV story)"]) and possibly changing the future he hadpreviously been made aware of. (TV:The Name of the Doctor^[+]Loading...["The Name of the Doctor (TV story)"]) By its end, observers said that238,000 ships had taken part in the siege. (PROSE:Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe)

Aftermath[[edit] |[edit source]]

With the Daleks defeated, the people ofChristmas saved and the crack finally closed by the Time Lords, the Doctor retreated to his TARDIS. Despite being restored to a youthful appearance during his regenerative "reset" on the clock tower, he was still dying of severe old age. Before regenerating, he used theTARDIS telephone to send a parting message to Clara in the near future relative to his regeneration, as a way of easing the stressful experience of adjusting to his new incarnation, then reunited with the present-day Clara. (TV:The Time of the Doctor^[+]Loading...["The Time of the Doctor (TV story)"],Deep Breath^[+]Loading...["Deep Breath (TV story)"])

The Siege of Trenzalore was considered by some to be the true end to the Time War. (PROSE:The Secret Lives of Monsters) Tasha Lem died during the Siege. She was the last Mother Superious of the Papal Mainframe. She was buried in a tomb of ice, which took thirty years to carve, with a TARDIS key as a sign of respect for all she had done. (PROSE:A Perfect Christmas)

Freed from his obligations to both the Time Lords and the people of Christmas, the Doctor set the TARDIS in flight and made good his departure from Trenzalore. After saying an emotional farewell to his companion, he finally succumbed to his advanced age and regenerated into theTwelfth Doctor. (TV:The Time of the Doctor^[+]Loading...["The Time of the Doctor (TV story)"]) The siege also confirmed to the Time Lords they had found their home universe to return to, though, when Gallifrey returned, they placed their home at theend of the universe in order to stay safe. (PROSE:A Brief History of Time Lords) Either the Eleventh orTwelfth Doctor detailed his time protecting Trenzalore inhis diary. (PROSE:The Doctor's Diary^[+]Loading...{"page":"9","1":"The Doctor's Diary (DWAN 2015 short story)"})

The Doctor likened theHyperion invasion ofBritain insummer2015 to the Siege of Trenzalore, and also equated these tothe Blitz and theGulag Apocalptik. (COMIC:The Hyperion Empire) As recorded by theTestimony, the Doctor's participation in the siege earned him theepithet "Beast of Trenzalore." (TV:Twice Upon a Time^[+]Loading...["Twice Upon a Time (TV story)"]) He also told hisfirst incarnation that his recent regenerations had been growing stronger and more volcanic, warning him he had managed to wipe out an entire Dalek fleet at Trenzalore with the regeneration energy. (PROSE:Twice Upon a Time^[+]Loading...["Twice Upon a Time (novelisation)"])

Historians who studied the history of the Dalek race believed that the Daleks had committed the entirety of their military might to the Siege and thus, the Dalek race had finally been destroyed at the Siege's end. However, given the many other final defeats of the Daleks, they had reason to doubt their theory and concluded that, like the Doctor, the Daleks survived the Siege. Indeed, they knew Skaro survived and was home to a number of Daleks in the rebuiltcity. (PROSE:Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe)

Other realities[[edit] |[edit source]]

The Name of the Doctor[[edit] |[edit source]]

In analternate timeline, the Time Lords never gave the Doctor a new regeneration cycle, and the Siege of Trenzalore ended in a victory for the Doctor's enemies with the Doctor himself dying. Trenzalore became a desolate, volcanic wasteland with its moons and rings destroyed and a battlefield graveyard covering the planet's surface for the millions who had died during the battle. The biggest of these graves was the Doctor's in the form ofhis dying TARDIS, which was suffering from what the Doctor called a "size leak".

According to theGreat Intelligence, while, to most involved, the Siege was a massive battle that millions died in, to the Doctor, it was a "minor skirmish" compared to the other bloody battles he had fought in, particularly during theLast Great Time War. (TV:The Name of the Doctor^[+]Loading...["The Name of the Doctor (TV story)"])