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Venus

You may wish to consult Venus (disambiguation) for other, similarly-named pages.

Venus (or Sol II) was the second planet in the Solar system.

Astronomical data[]

Originally, Venus was an inhabitable world, geologically comparable to Earth, with an ocean and two continents. (AUDIO: Voyage to Venus [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW., PROSE: Venusian Lullaby [+]Paul Leonard, Virgin Missing Adventures (Virgin Books, 1994).) Pollution caused by the Cytherians ruined the planet, causing storms of acid rain. It stayed like this for billions of years, until it was terraformed by human colonists. The terraformed Venus was covered in lush jungles, had an oxygen-rich atmosphere and a mauve sky. (AUDIO: Voyage to Venus [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.) While advertising a travel agents, during a commercial break in The Ultimate Challenge, Ace stated the planet was full of "smog, fog and acid rain". (TV: Search Out Space [+]Lambros Atteshlis and Berry-Anne Billingsley, Search Out Science (BBC Two, 1990).)

There were also metal seas on Venus, (TV: "The Singing Sands" [+]Part of Marco Polo, John Lucarotti, Doctor Who season 1 (BBC tv, 1964).) and rubies could be found on the planet. (COMIC: Treasure of the Daleks [+]David Whitaker and Terry Nation, The Dalek World (Dalek annuals, Souvenir Press, 1965).) There was also a mountain range called the Churchill Mountains, which were named after Winston Churchill. (PROSE: Invasion of the Daleks [+]David Whitaker and Terry Nation, The Dalek Book (Dalek annual, Souvenir Press, 1964).)

By the 27th century, Venus had two artificial moons: Eros and Thanatos. (AUDIO: Venus Mantrap [+]Mark Clapham and Lance Parkin, Bernice Summerfield: Single Releases (Big Finish Productions, 2009).)

Venus had an apparent magnitude of -3.5. In 2009, it was about 26 million miles from Earth. (TV: Partners in Crime [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 4 (BBC One, 2008).)

The mean temperature on Venus's surface was 735 Kelvin and the pressure was 92 times that on Earth's surface. One day lasted 116.75 Earth days. (PROSE: Sunset Over Venus [+]Mark Wright, The Scientific Secrets of Doctor Who (2015).)

Native fauna and flora[]

There were at least three species of intelligent natives. One was simply known as the Venusians. (PROSE: Venusian Lullaby [+]Paul Leonard, Virgin Missing Adventures (Virgin Books, 1994).) Another was known as the Thraskin or Cytherians. (AUDIO: Voyage to Venus [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.) The Wispies also lived on the planet. (PROSE: Sunset Over Venus [+]Mark Wright, The Scientific Secrets of Doctor Who (2015).)

A type of Shanghorn lived on the planet. (TV: The Green Death [+]Robert Sloman, Doctor Who season 10 (BBC1, 1973)., PROSE: The War of Art [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW., AUDIO: Voyage to Venus [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.) Other species include the Venusian Night Fish, (PROSE: Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks [+]David Whitaker, adapted from The Daleks (Terry Nation), Target novelisations (Frederick Muller Ltd, 1964).) Klakluk, (AUDIO: The Paradise of Death [+]Barry Letts, BBC Audio Dramas (BBC Radio 5, 1993).) Shrieking Blarosus and the Venusian Sporebeetle. (AUDIO: Voyage to Venus [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.) The Museum of the Last Ones had specimens of extinct species from Venus. (PROSE: The Last Dodo [+]Jacqueline Rayner, BBC New Series Adventures (BBC Books, 2007).)

In its prime, Venus was covered in dense rainforests, (AUDIO: Voyage to Venus [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.) which were partly made up of Bosifghal and Chedhanhig trees. (PROSE: Venusian Lullaby [+]Paul Leonard, Virgin Missing Adventures (Virgin Books, 1994).) Venusian spearmint could be harvested from the planet. (TV: The Shakespeare Code [+]Gareth Roberts, Doctor Who series 3 (BBC One, 2007).) Venusian gulper reached full size mere minutes after the begin of germination. (PROSE: The Secret in Vault 13 [+]David Solomons, BBC Children's Books (BBC Children's Books, 2018).)

History[]

Distant past[]

Although generally believed uninhabited and uninhabitable by the scientists of 20th and early 21st century Earth, in fact several civilisations called the planet home. (PROSE: Venusian Lullaby [+]Paul Leonard, Virgin Missing Adventures (Virgin Books, 1994)., AUDIO: Voyage to Venus [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)

Circa 3 billion BC, the planet was inhabited by a civilisation known as the Venusians. Despite never becoming space-faring, the Venusian civilisation spanned at least 3 million years, including the Alabaster-Age, the era of the Goldenworkers and the Time of the Gardens. Its major regions and cities included Bikugih, Inarihib, Martahig, Conorihib, Burjianit, Ujannonot, and the High Sweet Lands.

The Doctor and Susan once visited Venus, where they befriended Jilet Mrak-ecado and Jikugihi Dharkhig. (PROSE: Venusian Lullaby [+]Paul Leonard, Virgin Missing Adventures (Virgin Books, 1994).) Susan would later recall visiting the metal seas of Venus to Ping-Cho. (TV: "The Singing Sands" [+]Part of Marco Polo, John Lucarotti, Doctor Who season 1 (BBC tv, 1964).)

Decades later, the planet was visited by the First Doctor, Barbara Wright and Ian Chesterton, who were visiting the funeral of Jikugihi Dharkhig. During this time, the sun was getting hotter and making it more and more difficult to live on the surface of the planet. While many Venusians preached acceptance of their inevitable fate, various Anti-Acceptancer factions tried to devise ways of avoiding it, resulting in political conflict.

During the Doctor's visit, the Sou(ou)shi arrived in the skies above Bikugih, where they promised to take the struggling Venusian population to Sol III. In reality, they wanted to consume the flesh of the Venusians. The Sou(ou)shi ship was destroyed when the Anti-Acceptancer faction known as the Volcano People executed their 40,000-year old plan to induce a massive volcanic eruption. The eruption also covered the atmosphere of the planet, which Commander Bismar Mrodtikdhil estimated would give them an extra 5000 years before the end. (PROSE: Venusian Lullaby [+]Paul Leonard, Virgin Missing Adventures (Virgin Books, 1994).)

The planet was eventually ruined by the Cytherians, after they accidentally used up all their fossil fuels and produced too much carbon dioxide, causing a runaway greenhouse effect that caused the collapse of their ecosystem. They were forced to escape the planet or preserve themselves for when the planet was inhabitable again. (AUDIO: Voyage to Venus [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)

Early human era[]

In the 64 AD, Ian Chesterton pointed out two bright lights in the sky of Earth, Venus and Jupiter. Ancient astronomers couldn't tell the difference between stars and planets, so instead planets such as Venus were referred to as "wandering stars". (PROSE: Byzantium! [+]Keith Topping, BBC Past Doctor Adventures (BBC Books, 2001).)

Observing a temporary chronological disturbance based on a sudden instability in Sol in 1639 caused by the Eleven's stolen stellar manipulator, the Time Lords noted Sol II among the first three planets in the solar system to be in immediate danger. (AUDIO: The Satanic Mill [+]Edward Collier, Doom Coalition 1 (The Eighth Doctor Adventures: Doom Coalition, Big Finish Productions, 2015).)

20th century[]

In the 1970s, Professor Logan claimed to have planned and executed a manned mission to Venus, but this was exposed as a fraud. (COMIC: Doctor Who and the Rocks from Venus [+]Alan Fennell, TVC comic stories (Polystyle, 1970).)

Rudolph Steiner devised the Gemini Plan to bring Venus into Earth's orbit, allowing the planet's mineral resources to be economically available. This plan, which would have led to the destruction of Earth, was thwarted by the Third Doctor and Murray Stevens. (COMIC: Gemini Plan [+]Dennis Hooper, Polystyle comic stories (Polystyle, 1971).)

21st century[]

The Transit of Venus occurred in 2004. (PROSE: Time Lapse [+]Naomi Alderman, Thirteen Doctors, 13 Stories (Puffin eshort, Puffin Books, 2019).)

In 2009, Wilfred Mott and Donna Noble gazed at Venus from Wilf's telescope in Chiswick at a magnitude of -3.5. Wilf was certain that humanity would get there one day, and that in a hundred years time, they'd be "striding out amongst the stars, jiggling about with all them aliens". (TV: Partners in Crime [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 4 (BBC One, 2008).)

Around the year 2062, the Eighth Doctor and Charley Pollard found Aristede, an artist, preparing to crash his craft into the planet as an artistic statement. He had planted bombs around the planet which would be detonated by the impact, triggering gas storms which he hoped would last for thousands of years. (PROSE: Venus [+]Stuart Manning, Short Trips: The Solar System (Short Trips short stories, 2005).)

By 2065, there was a human colony on Venus. That July, Hans Beula broke the Universe 100 metres record at the Astra Stadium on Venus. (COMIC: The Penta Ray Factor [+]unclear authorship, The Daleks comics (City Magazines, 1965).)

In 2075, Captain Anastas Thrax and his space pirates hijacked supply ships en route there until he was defeated by the First Doctor, John and Gillian. (COMIC: The Hijackers of Thrax [+]Neville Main, TVC comic stories (1965).)

Space Station W3 had flowers from Venus aboard it, grown by Bill Duggan. (TV: The Wheel in Space [+]David Whitaker, Doctor Who season 5 (BBC1, 1968).)

In the 2090s, Lovell Platform orbited Venus, and the Genetrix probed its atmosphere. The Wispies were nearly killed by the Genetrix's atmospheric sifters, and the Twelfth Doctor and Clara Oswald had to save its crew and the Wispies. (PROSE: Sunset Over Venus [+]Mark Wright, The Scientific Secrets of Doctor Who (2015).)

23rd century[]

In the 23rd century, the Eleventh Doctor bought Bobby Moore's jersey at a Venusian auction. (COMIC: They Think It's All Over [+]Tony Lee, Doctor Who (2011) (IDW Publishing, 2011).)

Also in the 23rd century, Iris Wildthyme and Panda attended a Venusian opera. (PROSE: The Opera of Samhain [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)

24th century[]

Venus was used as a rubbish dump for a time. Humans tried to terraform the planet and the whole atmosphere boiled away into space. (PROSE: To the Slaughter [+]Stephen Cole, BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures (BBC Books, 2005).)

25th century[]

In the year 2400, when Mars was only just being colonised, Venus had the large city of New Paris and the largest oil reserves after Earth. The Stone family — Mary, Jeff and Andy — were residents. The Daleks invaded the solar system, targeting Venus as a way to outflank Earth and capture the needed oil; New Paris was devastated and the inhabitants enslaved, all bar the Stones who had been in the Churchill Mountains. (COMIC: Invasion of the Daleks [+]David Whitaker and Terry Nation, The Dalek Book (Dalek annual, Souvenir Press, 1964)., The Oil Well [+]The Dalek Book (Dalek annual, Souvenir Press, 1964).) The moist climate meant the Daleks needed lead paint to avoid rusting, as well as metal roads to travel on. (PROSE: Red for Danger [+]The Dalek Book (Dalek annual, Souvenir Press, 1964).) Guerrilla warfare by the Stones impaired the Dalek occupation (PROSE: Red for Danger [+]The Dalek Book (Dalek annual, Souvenir Press, 1964)., COMIC: The Oil Well [+]The Dalek Book (Dalek annual, Souvenir Press, 1964).) and caused them to depart Venus in their fleet, allowing the Space Army to wipe them out. (PROSE: The Secret of the Mountain [+]The Dalek Book (Dalek annual, Souvenir Press, 1964).)

26th century[]

The Fourth Doctor had a pilot's license for the Mars-Venus rocket run. (TV: Robot [+]Terrance Dicks, Doctor Who season 12 (BBC1, 1974-1975).; PROSE: The Janus Conjunction [+]Trevor Baxendale, BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures (BBC Books, 1998).)

27th century[]

Bernice Summerfield visited Eros, the artificial moon of Venus. At the time, Eros had a twin moon, the warlike Thanatos. (AUDIO: Venus Mantrap [+]Mark Clapham and Lance Parkin, Bernice Summerfield: Single Releases (Big Finish Productions, 2009).)

Rubies from Venus were among the treasures kept in the Dalek Treasure House on Skaro. (COMIC: Treasure of the Daleks [+]David Whitaker and Terry Nation, The Dalek World (Dalek annuals, Souvenir Press, 1965).)

40th century[]

In the late 40th century, Venus was among the "Big Four" powers in an alliance against the Dalek invasions. It was led by Voccio when the Big Four decided to found the Space Security Service. (PROSE: The Outlaw Planet [+]Brad Ashton and Terry Nation, The Dalek Outer Space Book (Dalek annuals, Panther Books, 1966).)

SSS agent Sara Kingdom spent six months on assignment on Venus in 3999. (AUDIO: The Guardian of the Solar System [+]Simon Guerrier, The Companion Chronicles (2010).)

In the year 4000, Venus was one of the key targets for the Dalek takeover of the Solar system. (TV: Mission to the Unknown [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 3 (BBC1, 1965).)

Roald of Space Security expressed an interest in watching the Venus-Mars games in the year 4000. In the same year, Mavic Chen ordered Karlton to take a party to Venus. (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan [+]Terry Nation and Dennis Spooner, Doctor Who season 3 (BBC1, 1965-1966).)

During the Great War, a fleet from the planet Hyperon intercepted a Dalek invasion of Venus in Space Year 17,000, as the Fourth Doctor recounted to Davros. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 12 (BBC1, 1975)., PROSE: The Whoniverse [+]George Mann and Justin Richards, BBC Books (2016).)

82nd century[]

Josiah W. Dogbolter owned a company called Intra-Venus, Inc. He owned the planet Venus itself, as well as Mars and Jupiter. (COMIC: The Moderator [+]Steve Parkhouse, DWM Comics (Marvel Comics, 1983-1984).)

Later history[]

Long after Earth was barren and lifeless, another group of humans came to Venus and colonised it by modifying themselves. They later called themselves Venusians. Empress Vulpina awoke the Cytherians and after a brief conflict, the Venusians and Cytherians were able to live in peace. (AUDIO: Voyage to Venus [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)

Unknown time periods[]

Venus was the final obstacle on a race course set up by the Eternals for the prize of Enlightenment. (TV: Enlightenment [+]Barbara Clegg, Doctor Who season 20 (BBC1, 1983).)

Susan and the First Doctor visited the metal seas on Venus. (TV: "The Singing Sands" [+]Part of Marco Polo, John Lucarotti, Doctor Who season 1 (BBC tv, 1964).)

In his first and second incarnations, the Doctor visited Venus at least five times. (COMIC: Doctor Who and the Rocks from Venus [+]Alan Fennell, TVC comic stories (Polystyle, 1970).)

When asked about her holiday experiences, Donna Noble listed Venus among the locations which she had visited. (COMIC: The Widow's Curse [+]Rob Davis, DWM Comics (Panini Comics, 2008).)

Venus was one of the Earth Alliance's military strongholds during the Second Great Dalek Occupation. (AUDIO: The Fearless: Part 4 [+]Nicholas Briggs, Dalek Empire (Big Finish Productions, 2007).)

Alternate timeline[]

In an alternate timeline, the Galactic Dutch Company had created domed colonies on Venus by 1983. (AUDIO: The Waters of Amsterdam [+]Jonathan Morris, Main Range (Big Finish Productions, 2016).)

Cultural references[]

Venus was clearly visible from Earth and was considered a star by human astronomers for a long time. (PROSE: Byzantium! [+]Keith Topping, BBC Past Doctor Adventures (BBC Books, 2001).) It was also said (inaccurately) to be the only planet in the solar system named after a woman. (TV: Partners in Crime [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 4 (BBC One, 2008).)

In 1970, a small cult known as the Venus People, led by Arlo, believed that God would return from Venus soon, and bring judgement. (PROSE: The Devil Goblins from Neptune [+]Martin Day and Keith Topping, BBC Past Doctor Adventures (BBC Books, 1997).)

Venus was once the call sign of Mike Yates whilst on a missile convoy mission. (TV: The Mind of Evil [+]Don Houghton, Doctor Who season 8 (BBC1, 1971).)

Behind the scenes[]

External links[]

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