I believe there was a series of books (or maybe more than one) that involved Gallifrey and the Time Lords going kaboom, but presumably RTD isn't using more than the same basic concept.

I think Matt's right.

In a Wiki [link] it details some semblance of the story, but the page as a whole has spoilers for series 3 of the new Who.

The last great Time War is first alluded to in the first episode of the 2005 series, "Rose". There, the Ninth Doctor explains to his companion, Rose Tyler, that the reason behind the Nestene Consciousness' invasion of Earth was because its food planets were destroyed in "the war". Later in the episode, the Doctor states that he fought in the war, but he was unable to save the Nestenes' planet.

In the following episode, "The End of the World", set five billion years in the future, Jabe of the Forest of Cheem expresses amazement that the Doctor, a Time Lord, still exists, implying that the war had consequences up and down history. At the end of that episode, the Doctor confesses to Rose that the war had destroyed his home planet, leaving him the only surviving Time Lord.

In the third episode, "The Unquiet Dead", the Doctor encounters the ghostly Gelth, aliens from another dimension whose bodies had been destroyed by the war. The Gelth say that the war was unseen by "lower species" but devastating to the "higher" ones.

In "Dalek", the sixth episode, it is revealed that the Time Lords' adversaries in the war were the Daleks. The Doctor claims responsibility for the destruction of ten million Dalek ships but also admits that the Time Lords "burned" with them. What actually started the war was not stated, but executive producer Russell T. Davies commented in an episode of the documentary series Doctor Who Confidential that the origins of the war dated back to the 1975 serial Genesis of the Daleks, where the Time Lords send the Fourth Doctor into the past in an attempt to avert the Daleks' creation or affect their development to make them less aggressive.

Thanks guys. I'd been assuming that RTD (in Daniel's references above) was merely calling back to existing canon. I'd no idea he'd made it all up.

Thanks guys. I'd been assuming that RTD (in Daniel's references above) was merely calling back to existing canon. I'd no idea he'd made it all up.

Same here. Very illuminating!

If you look at the progression from "Genesis of the Daleks" in 1975, all the way to "Remembrance of the Daleks" in 1988, the Time War is a logical extension of all that.

The specifics of which only exist in RTD's mind, though.

If you look at the progression from "Genesis of the Daleks" in 1975, all the way to "Remembrance of the Daleks" in 1988, the Time War is a logical extension of all that.

Are there other series in between those two that you'd consider a part of that progression, or would watching those two cover it?

Man, I really need to get with my backstory. Wish we still had Netflix.

Thanks guys. I'd been assuming that RTD (in Daniel's references above) was merely calling back to existing canon. I'd no idea he'd made it all up.

I forget when I found that out, but it was so odd to find out. Because although I do have vague memories of watching the Eighth Doctor movie, Nine was really my true introduction to Doctor Who, and the Doctor as a character was so defined as being the Last of the Time Lords following the Time War, I couldn't imagine how the character could be as interesting in previous incarnations.

BTW, David Tennant will be a guest on the Graham Norton show on BBCA on Saturday night at 10PM

I was a huge Doctor Who fan when I lived in Madison. They ran marathons every pledge drive because the whovians were the biggest contributers. I saw some of all of the doctors up until the guy nobody liked...number 7 maybe? I saw none of McCoy except in the movie with McGann.