B00DPX9ST8 EBOK Page 7

  Where Angels Fear (Benny NA #17; 2595)

  “Where Nobody Knows Your Name” (DWM #329; c 8162)

  Whispering Forest, The (BF #137; c 2820)

  “Whispering Gallery, The” (IDW DW one-shot #1; undateable)

  Whispers of Terror (BF #3; c 2295)

  White Darkness (NA #15; 1915)

  White Wolf, The (SJA audiobook #5; 2009)

  Who Killed Kennedy (MA, unnumbered) 1963

  UNIT Year 5

  “Widow’s Curse, The” (DWM #395-398; 2008)

  Wildthyme at Large (Iris audio #1.1; 2005)

  Winner Takes All (NSA #3; 2006)

  Winning Side, The (TimeH #1) 1949

  (=) 1984

  Winter for the Adept (BF #10; 1963)

  Wirrn Dawn (BF BBC7 #3.4; ? 7000)

  Wishing Beast, The (BF #97; undateable)

  Wishing Well (NSA #19; c 2008)

  Witch from the Well, The (BF #154) c 1660

  c 2011

  Witch Hunters, The (PDA #9) 1692

  1954

  Wolfsbane (PDA #62) @ 1936 (November)

  1936 (December)

  “Woman Who Sold the World, The” (DWM #381-384; undateable)

  Wonderland (TEL #7; 1967)

  Wooden Heart (NSA #15; ? 2197)

  Words from Nine Divinities (FP audio #2.4; Gallifrey: The War in Heaven, Year 51)

  World Game (PDA #74) 1794

  1805

  1815

  (=) 1815

  (=) 1865

  Gallifrey: second Doctor era

  “World Shapers, The” (DWM #127-129) The Birth of the Cybermen

  c 1791

  Gallifrey: sixth Doctor era

  World War Three (X1.5; 2006)

  Worldwide Web (BF BBC7 #3.8; 2015)

  Wormery, The (BF #51; ? 1930)

  “Wormwood” (DWM #266-271; c 5220)

  Worst Thing in the World, The (Benny audio #7.3; 2607)

  Wraith World (SJA audiobook #7; 2010)

  Wreck of the Titan, The (BF #134; undateable)

  Y

  Year of Intelligent Tigers, The (EDA #46; c 2185)

  Year of the Pig (BF #90; 1913)

  Year Zero (Benny audio #11.3; (=) ? 1500 BC)

  “Yonder... the Yeti” (DWM #31-34; c 1980)

  “Your Destiny Awaits” (IDW DW Annual 2011; undateable)

  Z

  Zagreus (BF #50; Gallifrey: eighth Doctor era)

  Zamper (NA #41; c 5995)

  Zero Imperative, The (BBV P.R.O.B.E. film #1; 1994)

  Zeta Major (PDA #13; c 39,164)

  Zygon: When Being You Isn’t Enough (BBV independent film; c 2003)

  Zygon Who Fell to Earth, The (BF BBC7 #2.6; 1984)

  Sidebars and Footnote Features

  Abandonment of Earth, The

  Ace’s Early Life

  Ace’s Fate

  Age of the Universe, The

  Alliance, The

  American Presidents in the Doctor Who Universe

  Andromeda

  Arcturus

  Are There Two Dalek Histories?

  Are There Two Human Natures, Now?

  Beatles, The

  Benny’s Birthday

  Blake’s 7

  Brigadier’s Family, The

  Britain’s Missions to Mars

  British Politics in the UNIT Era

  British Space Programme, The

  Cardiff Rift, The

  Continental Drift

  Cracks in Time

  Creation of the Cybermen, The

  Cybermen... Fashion Victims?

  Cyber War, The

  Dalek Emperors, The

  Dalek Hierarchy

  Dalek Wars, The

  Dating River Song is a Complicated Business

  Davros Era, The

  Devil’s in the Detail, The

  Did Liz Shaw Die in 2003?

  Doctor’s Age, The

  Doctor’s Family, The

  Do the Cybermen Ever Have an Empire?

  Earth Empires, The

  Eras

  Eternal War, The

  Event One

  Faction Paradox Terminology

  Fall of Atlantis, The

  First Emperor of China, The

  First Ice Age, The

  Fixed Points in Time

  Forbidden to Interfere

  Four K9s, The

  Future of the United Nations, The

  Great Catastrophe, The

  Great Old Ones, The

  Half Human on His Mother’s Side

  Harriet Jones, British Prime Minister

  Higher Evolutionaries, The

  House at Allen Road, The

  How Many Times Has the Doctor Been Married?

  How Many War Zones are There?

  How Public is Torchwood?

  International Politics in the UNIT Era

  Irving Braxiatel vs. Cardinal Braxiatel

  Is Death Comes to Time Canon?

  Is the Doctor Really a Crystal Skeleton Man from the Future, Now?

  Is Susan the Doctor’s Granddaughter?

  Is The Infinity Doctors Canon?

  Kaldor City Finale, The

  Key, The

  Last Contact

  Last Great Time War, The

  Level Five World, A

  Life on Mars

  Majenta Pryce

  Mazuma Era, The

  Mel’s First Adventure

  Middle Period of Dalek History, The

  Mona Lisas

  Monarch’s Journey

  Monarchy, The

  Muriel Frost

  Naming Planets

  Neutronic War on Skaro, The

  Only One Destruction of Gallifrey?

  Past Lives

  Peri Leaves and Causes Continuity Problems, Take One

  Peri Leaves and Causes Continuity Problems, Two and Three

  Progress of the Sontaran-Rutan War, The

  Quatermass

  Rani’s Time Brains, The

  Reconstruction, The

  “Regeneration... a Complete New Life Cycle”

  Return of the Earth Reptiles, The

  Rigel

  Roz Forrester

  Sarah Jane’s Reunions with the Doctor

  Scaroth of the Jagaroth

  Season 6B

  Second Ice Age, The

  Segments of Time, The

  Shadow Proclamation, The

  Shakespeare

  Sirius System, The

  Solar Flares, The

  Star Trek

  Steven Taylor

  Telos

  Terminology in the Benny Books and Audios

  “There Are Four of Us Now”

  Thirtieth Century, The

  Three Time Wars, The

  Time Lord Presidents

  Unfixed Points in Time

  Valeyard, The

  Vote Saxon

  Vulcan

  War in Heaven, The

  Was Skaro Destroyed?

  Weather Control

  Whatever Happened to Travel-Mat?

  When Did the Silurians Rule the Earth?

  When Did the War in Heaven Start?

  When Do the General Public Accept the Existence of Aliens?

  “When the Universe Was Half Its Present Size”

  When Was Romana Born?

  When Were the Cybermen Created?

  Which Shada, if Any, is Canon?

  Who Rules the Daleks?

  Who Started the Last Great Time War?

  World Wars

  Year Ahead Era (2006-2009), The

  Y5K

  Introduction

  This book seeks to place every event referred to in Doctor Who into a consistent timeline. Yet this is “a” history of the Doctor Who universe, not the “definitive” or “official” version.

  Doctor Who has had hundreds of creators, all pulling in slightly different directions, all with their own vision of what Doctor Who was about. Without that diversity, the Doctor Who universe would no doubt be more in
ternally consistent, but it would also be a much smaller and less interesting place. Nowadays, fans are part of the creative process. Ultimately, we control the heritage of the show that we love. The authors of Ahistory hope people will enjoy this book, and we know that they will challenge it.

  A total adherence to continuity has always been rather less important to the successive Doctor Who production teams than the main order of business: writing exciting stories, telling good jokes and scaring small children with big monsters. This, as most people will tell you, is just how it should be.

  Doctor Who has always been created using a method known as “making it up as they went along”. The series glories in its invention and throwaway lines. When the TV series was first in production, no-one was keeping the sort of detailed notes that would prevent canonical “mistakes”, and even the same writer could contradict their earlier work. It’s doubtful the writer of The Mysterious Planet had a single passing thought about how the story fit in with The Sun Makers... even though they were both authored by Robert Holmes.

  Now, with dozens of new books, audios, comic strips, short stories and a new TV series, not to mention spin-offs, it is almost certainly impossible to keep track of every new Doctor Who story, let alone put them all in a coherent - never mind consistent - framework. References can contradict other references in the same story, let alone ones in stories written forty years later for a different medium by someone who wasn’t even born the year the original writer died.

  It is, in any case, impossible to come up with a consistent view of history according to Doctor Who. Strictly speaking, the Brigadier retires three years before the first UNIT story is set. The Daleks and Atlantis are both utterly destroyed, once and for all, several times that we know about. Characters “remember” scenes, or sometimes entire stories, that they weren’t present to witness, and show remarkable lack of knowledge of real world events or events in Doctor Who that happened after the story first came out.

  “Continuity” has always been flexible, even on the fundamentals of the show’s mythology - The Dalek Invasion of Earth (1964), The War Games (1969), Genesis of the Daleks (1975) and The Deadly Assassin (1976) all shamelessly threw out the show’s established history in the name of a good story. Their versions of events (the Daleks are galactic conquerors; the Doctor is a Time Lord who stole his TARDIS and fled his home planet; the Daleks were created by the Kaled scientist, Davros; Gallifreyan society is far from perfect and Time Lords are limited to twelve regenerations) are now taken to be the “truth”. The previous versions (the Daleks are confined to one city; the Doctor invented the “ship” and his granddaughter named it before their exile; the Daleks are descendants of the squat humanoid Dals, mutated by radiation; the Time Lords are godlike and immortal barring accidents) have quietly been forgotten.

  However, it would be unfortunate to write a book so vague that it becomes useless. Firm decisions have to be made about where stories are placed, so this book contains abundant footnotes that lay out the evidence pertaining to each story, and to explain each story’s placement in this chronology.

  In some cases, this is simply a matter of reporting an exact date spoken by one of the characters in the story (Black Orchid, for example). In others, no firm date is given. In those cases, we attempt to look at internal evidence given on screen, then evidence from the production team at the time (from the script, say, or from contemporary publicity material), then branch out to cross-referencing it with other stories, noting where other people who’ve come up with Doctor Who chronologies have placed it. What we’re attempting to do is accurately list all the evidence given for dating the stories and other references in as an objective way as possible, then weigh it to reach a conclusion.

  For a good example of this process at its most complicated, look for The Seeds of Death or The Wheel in Space. You may not agree with the years we’ve set, it might make your blood boil, but you’ll see how we’ve reached our answer.

  This book is one attempt, then, to retroactively create a consistent framework for the history of the Doctor Who universe. It is essentially a game, not a scientific endeavour to discover “the right answer”.

  All games have to follow a consistent set of rules, and as we attempt to fit all the pieces of information we are given, we have to lay some groundwork and prioritise. If a line of dialogue from a story broadcast in 1983 flatly contradicts what was said in one from 1968, which is “right”? Some people would suggest that the newer story “got it wrong”, that the later production team didn’t pay enough attention to what came before. Others might argue that the new information “corrects” what we were told before. In practice, most fans are inconsistent, choosing the facts that best support their arguments or preferences. The Discontinuity Guide (1995) has some very healthy advice regarding continuity: “Take what you want and ignore what you don’t. Future continuity cops will just have to adapt to your version”.

  Basic Principles

  For the purposes of this book, we have worked from the following assumptions:

  • Every Doctor Who story takes place in the same universe, unless explicitly stated otherwise. The same individual fought the Daleks with Jo on Spiridon (on TV), Beep the Meep with Sharon (in the Doctor Who Magazine comics), the Ice Warriors with Benny in London (in the Virgin novels), became Zagreus in the Antiverse (in the audios), blew up Gallifrey to prevent Faction Paradox taking over the universe (in the BBC Books novels), saved Rose from the Autons and married River Song (on TV, again).

  For legal, marketing or artistic reasons, it should be noted that some of the people making Doctor Who have occasionally stated that they don’t feel this to be the case. However there are innumerable cross references (say, Romana being president of Gallifrey in both the books and the audios) and in-jokes that suggest very strongly that, for example, the eighth Doctor of the books is the same individual as the eighth Doctor of the Big Finish audios - or at the very least, they’ve both got almost-identical histories.

  • The universe has one, true “established history”. Nothing (short of a being with godlike powers) can significantly change the course of history with any degree of permanency within that universe. The Mars attacked by the Fendahl is the Mars of the Ice Warriors.

  • We have noted where each date we have assigned comes from. Usually it is from dialogue (in which case, it’s quoted), but often it comes from behind-the-scenes sources such as scripts, publicity material and the like. It is up to the individual reader whether a date from a BBC Press release or draft script is as “valid” as one given on screen.

  • In many cases, no date was ever given for a story. In such instances, we pick a year and explain our reasons. Often, we will assign a date that is consistent with information given in other stories. (So, it’s suggested that the Cyber War mentioned in Revenge of the Cybermen must take place after The Tomb of the Cybermen, and probably after Earthshock because of what is said in those other stories.) These dates are marked as arbitrary and the reasoning behind them is explained in the footnotes.

  • Where a date isn’t established on screen, we have also included the dates suggested by others who have compiled timelines or listed dates given in the series. Several similar works to this have been attempted, and we have listed the most relevant in the Bibliography.

  • It’s been assumed that historical events take place at the same time and for the same reasons as they did in “real history”, unless specifically contradicted by the television series. Unless given reason to think otherwise, we assume that the Doctor is telling the truth about meeting historical figures, and that his historical analysis is correct. (It has, however, been established that the Doctor is fallible and / or an incorrigible name-dropper.) When there’s a reference in our footnotes to “science”, “scientists”, “history” or “historians”, unless stated otherwise it means scholars and academics from the real world, not the Doctor Who universe (they are usually invoked when Doctor Who’s version of science or events stra
ys a distance from ours).

  • Information given is usually taken literally and at face value, unless there’s strong reason to think that the person giving it is lying or mistaken. Clearly, if an expert like the Doctor is talking about something he knows a great deal about, we can probably trust the information more than some bystander’s vague remark.

  • Ahistory’s version of Earth’s future history is generally one of steady progress, and as such stories featuring similar themes and concepts tend to be lumped together - say, intergalactic travel, isolated colonies, humanoid robots and so on. If the technology, transportation or weaponry seen in story A is more advanced than in story B, then we might suggest that story A is set in the future of story B. We also assume that throughout future centuries, humans age at the same rate (unless told otherwise), so their life spans don’t alter too dramatically, etc. A “lifetime” in the year 4000 is still about one hundred years.

  • All dates, again unless specifically stated otherwise, work from our Gregorian calendar, and all are “AD”. It is assumed that the system of leap years will remain the same in the future. For convenience, all documents use our system of dating, even those of alien civilisations. The “present” of the narrative is now, so if an event happened “two hundred years ago”, it happened in the early nineteenth century. On a number of occasions we are told that a specific date takes place on the wrong day: in The War Machines, 16th July, 1966, is a Monday, but it really occurred on a Saturday.

  • We assume that a “year” is an Earth year of 365 days, even when an alien is speaking, unless this is specifically contradicted. This also applies to terms such as “Space Year” (Genesis of the Daleks), “light year” (which is used as a unit of time in The Savages and possibly Terror of the Autons) and “cycle” (e.g. Zamper).

  • If an event is said to take place “fifty years ago”, we take it to mean exactly fifty years ago, unless a more precise date is given elsewhere or it refers to a known historical event. If an event occurs in the distant past or the far future, we tend to round up: Image of the Fendahl is set in about 1977, the Fifth Planet was destroyed “twelve million years” before. So, we say this happened in “12,000,000 BC”, not “11,998,023 BC”. When an event takes place an undefined number of “centuries”, “millennia” or “millions of years” before or after a story, we arbitrarily set a date.