The Great Starship Battle
is a collaborative fanfic written by contributors to the Sci-Fi Wiki. It was created in response to a poll on the wiki where users could vote on which spaceship would survive a battle with other spaceships from throughout the science fiction genre. The TARDIS from Doctor Who was declared the winner and the idea was that the story would explain how that victory came about. The story was updated over the course of ten days in late May 2013 before being abruptly concluded in early June.
This story provides examples of:
- Back from the Dead: Chewbacca is killed when the Borg destroy the Millennium Falcon but is later resurrected by the Infinite Improbability Drive.
- Early-Bird Cameo: The Twelfth Doctor has one line even though the story was written before the contributors knew who would be playing him.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Zaphod Beeblebrox, in a somewhat uncharacteristic move, sacrifices himself to help destroy the Borg.
- No Ending: The story ends with a future incarnation of the Doctor, strongly implied to be the Valeyard, destroying the Borg Cube. However, numerous plot threads and the fates of all the other characters are left unresolved.
- No Name Given: The story was written shortly after the broadcast of "The Name of the Doctor" which revealed John Hurt's previously unknown incarnation of the Doctor. Fans were unsure what to call him which is why to the story refers to him as "the John Hurt Doctor", "John the Doctor" and "the Rogue Doctor". It would not be until the release of "The Night of the Doctor" that his actual name, the War Doctor, would be known.
- Ret-Gone: Grand Admiral Thrawn and his ship get erased from time.
- Round Robin: The story was written by several people taking turns writing each section.
- Take That!: Madame Vastra eats Ender Wiggin offscreen in a not-so-subtle dig at Orson Scott Card for his homophobic views.
- The Unreveal: Due to the abrupt nature of the ending, we never find out who the "mysterious benefactor" is supposed to be.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: None of the plot threads are resolved and we never find out what happens to the surviving characters beyond a vague description of the Doctor's other selves being "destroyed by fire and paradox".
