Kill the Moon and Its Importance in Whoniverse History

Guest contributor Conall McCormick explores the events and how they fit in with established Who history.

This episode is perhaps one of the most nostalgic of episodes, one in which it really goes a long way to incorporate (or not) the various events which have occurred both in ‘New Who’ and the classic era. Upon closer inspection and a good grasp of general knowledge it would seem that 2049 is quite a substantial moment in both Earth and possibly universal history in which several links can be drawn.

Earth 2040s-2050s

One of the greatest Easter eggs was the various references to the Tenth Doctor special “The Waters of Mars”. Personally I was unconvinced by this episode however I did direct a great of appreciation in the gaps that were filled in, working as a prequel to The Waters of Mars. Notably, the first point raised is the fact that Lundvik (officially) is the first woman on the moon – Captain Adelaide Brooke became the second British woman to land on the moon from between probably 2049-2056: or the first considering how the old one just hatched!

Also at this stage in human history, space exploration has really ceased as humanity has almost given up in the fact that Lundvik arrived on the moon with a retired ship and a poor choice of crew. It was stated in The Waters of Mars that in the 2040s the world was in a critical state with an “oil apocalypse”, climate change, shrinking ozone etc… Equally in Kill the Moon there is a description of rising sea levels, and changes in climate. This creates the need for space travel for self-preservation: I.e. to stay alive by creating colonies elsewhere from a crippled earth. Mars anyone?

However, at the end of the episode humanity witnesses the greatest moment in its history – the birth of a dragon-being in the hatching of the moon. This creates a need for curiosity again in the universe since we now all think “Wow that was on our doorstep the whole time! I wonder what else is out there” and suddenly you have a more enthusiastic space programme when this is considered in tandem. Of course this then leads onto the growth of individual countries taking to the sky – like Germany who mount a mission to the moon in 2050. During the 2040s manned missions to Mars were occurring at this time as well as the campaign for a colony there by the 2056 in which Adelaide led the expedition. This incredibly small time scale of ten years – from 2049 in the moon hatching to The Waters of Mars incident in 2059 – essentially creates a crucial stage of human evolution as an “intelligent species” and a dominant force in a growing galactic empire by give or take 500 years.

The Moon Egg: 2049-2070

This is a rather divisive issue in which in my own humble opinion have found to be contradictory to the Classic era. However it must be said that arguments can be made in favour of “Kill the Moon” by incorporating Classic Who. It’s up to you, the reader to make your own decision here, so I’ll be as impartial as I can – no promises.

A very important date in the course of 21st human history is 2050 and the creation of a moonbase. Why is it important some of you may ask? Well this particular moonbase was home to the Gravitron – a machine that is capable to control Earth’s weather – although it was not likely to have been fitted for a few years. In 2070 the Cybermen invade this base in the episode “The Moonbase” in which they hoped to abuse its power to destroy the Earth.

Fast forward to the end of the 21st century and this moonbase has been refurbished and made the central T-Mat relay. T-Mat was a teleportation system used by the humanity at this time which was abused by the Ice Warriors this time in The Seeds of Death where they sent poisonous fungi to Earth to decapitate the humans while the invasion fleet arrives. Two extremely good episodes and points in human history were derived from these Second Doctor adventures so definitely worth a watch if you haven’t seen them. So where’s the issue?

• Issue – The fact that the base is made within 1 year of the formation of a whole new moon. This means that new calculations have to be made since the moon will probably not be identical to the old one – it will likely by at a different angle, location, shape, size and mass all of which needs to be accounted for before a moonbase can be constructed. Similarly I think it would take years to actually create a moonbase considering that there were no blueprints already drawn up – nobody expected the moon to hatch! So it would take a long time to build the parts for a new base, even if it seems like a really good idea- which I believe is. Thirdly there is the issue of just building it on the moon itself, a very costly, laborious and difficult task even in the future in my opinion considering how the colonisation of Mars is being considered and there is an oil crisis likely to take its toll on the production of parts and the sending of rockets. Lastly, as described the space programme, in Earth is not wholly successful so difficulties would be present.
• No Issue- The future is far more advanced than we are today and are able to construct an entire base within such a period. Perhaps the calculations themselves are not too difficult or time consuming and do not present a great issue for the project. Similarly it could be Earth’s primary ambition to create a new moonbase considering how the old ones were destroyed with the old moon and that growing climate and weather problems require immediate attention. An argument may also be made that the moonbase itself was not fully functional in 2050 but that production only began at this date.

A touch of brilliance or ignorance – your call (I believe I know the outcome of most already though….).

Everything In-between- Why we love the Moon Egg

Humanity in the Whoniverse should thank the dragon-being’s ancient mum and dad for choosing Earth as its nursery as without it you would either have a banana only diet (unless you already do already) or be a Cyberman. Roughly 100,000,000 years ago the moon entered the earth’s orbit in which had a dramatic impact on Earth’s inhabitants at the time- not us but the Silurians. It should be known that the reason the Silurians hibernated was due to the “asteroid” coming to destroy the Earth which in reality was the moon. This allowed humanity the opportunity to evolve and become the masters of the Earth and essentially steal the Earth so we should thank the moon. Also if it had not been for the moon then our twin planet Mondas would still be right next to us. Considering that Mondas followed the course that it did it would have been easier for the Cybermen to invade and make us Mondas II or obliterate us as was the original plan for energy. In the distant future though we can look forward though to the cases of life upon the moon’s surface by 2367, a colony by 2540 and River Songs graduate from the Luna University in 5123- all to look forward to.

I guess we must wonder why we tried to blow up our best friend.