Now:
Nineteen Seventy-One
Ace of Hearts Short story, published 1998 Doctor: 7
featuring
Ace
Written
by Mike Tucker and Robert Perry.
Takes
place in East Acton, a district of London; self-dated February 1971 CE.
Inheritance
Short story, published 2018 Doctor: 0
Featuring the Lethbridge-Stewart family
Written by Gareth Madgwick.
Informed guess Takes place in Scotland, self-dated 1971
CE.
Into the Fire Short story, published 2021 Doctor: 0
Featuring Lethbridge-Stewart, UNIT,
Benton
Written by Tim Gambrell.
Takes place in London, not long before The
Invasion.
Mechaluchador vs Iguanadios
Short story, published 2011 Doctor: 0
Featuring Senor 105
Written by Jonathan Dennis.
Takes place in and outside Reno, Na; dated the previous week in Are You Loathsome Tonight?
Priceless Junk Short story, published 2009 Doctor: 6
featuring
Peri
Written
by Cavan Scott and Mark Wright.
Takes
place in and above Las Vegas, Na.; self-dated 1971 CE.
Are You Loathsome Tonight? Short
story, published 2011 Doctor: 0
Featuring Senor 105
Written by Blair Bidmead.
Car Wars Short story, published 2021 Doctor: 0
Featuring Lethbridge-Stewart, UNIT,
Benton
Written by John Peel.
Takes place in London, between Into the
Fire and The Invasion.
The Invasion TV story, broadcast 1968 Doctor: 2
featuring the Cybermen, Lethbridge-Stewart, Jamie, Zoe,
UNIT, Tobias Vaughan, Benton, with the Moon (glimpse) and the Travers family
(informative mention)
Written
by Derrick Sherwin, script edited by Terrance Dicks.
Informed guess Takes place in London and nearby; in “the seventies” (Iceberg). I suggest that
Lethbridge-Stewart thinks it is four years since he met the Doctor as it has
been a very busy two and a bit years.
Things
That Doctor Who Writers Who Want To Set Things In “The Present” Should Find
Difficult To Ignore. Though Quite Likely They’ll Just Pile More Stuff In.
VIRTUALLY
EVERYBODY IN THE WORLD IS UNCONSCIOUS FOR A COUPLE OF HOURS ONE MORNING.
The Isos Network Audio Drama, released 2016 Doctor: 2
Featuring the Cybermen, Jamie, Zoe
Written by
Nicholas Briggs.
Takes
place on Isos II, immediately after The
Invasion.
Martha, the Mechanical Housemaid Comic story, published 1969 Doctor: 2
featuring
Jamie, the Quarks
Illustrated
?and written by John Canning.
informed guess Takes place in the USA; self-dated 1971 CE.
Things
That Doctor Who Writers Who Want To Set Things In “The Present” Should Find
Difficult To Ignore. Though Quite Likely They’ll Just Pile More Stuff In.
QUARKS
RUN AMOK IN THE USA, AND THE DOCTOR COMES OUT OF IT SO WELL THAT THERE IS
MOVEMENT TO NOMINATE HIM AS PRESIDENT (IN OBVIOUS CONTRAVENTION OF THE
CONSTITUTION, AS HE WAS NOT BORN IN THE USA OR, INDEED, AT ALL).
In Machina Exspiravet Short story, published 2018
Doctor: 0
featuring Unbound Lethbridge-Stewart
Written by Anthony Robertson.
Takes place in the British
Republic, not long before its version of Project Inferno.
’48 Crash Short story, published 2017 Doctor: 0
Featuring Lethbridge-Stewart
Written by Mark Carton.
Green Eyed and Grim Novella, published 2013 Doctor: 0
Featuring Senor 105
Written by Selina Lock.
Informed guess Takes place in Mexico, after The Secret Santa as published.
Spearhead from Space TV story, broadcast 1970 Doctor: 3
featuring
Lethbridge-Stewart, UNIT, Liz, the
Nestene Consciousness, with the Time Lords (informative mention)
Written
by Robert Holmes, script edited by Terrance Dicks, with additional material by
Malcolm Hulke.
Takes
place in Essex and London; a few months after The Invasion. It is dated October in The Scales of Injustice and Who
Killed Kennedy. All stories in which the Doctor is retained by UNIT as
their scientific adviser fall into one of nine phases. The first begins in this
story, with the High Council dumping the Doctor in Oxley Woods, and includes a
Christmas (The Christmas Dimension).
The second, and briefest, begins with Liz leaving UNIT in Country of the Blind. The third begins with Jo joining UNIT in Terror of the Autons and includes a
Christmas (UNIT Christmas Parties:
Christmas Truce). The fourth begins on a Mayday when UNIT captures the
Master in The Daemons. The fifth
begins with the High Council revoking the Doctor’s exile in The Three Doctors. The sixth begins with
Jo’s departure from UNIT in The Green
Death. The seventh begins with the Doctor meeting Sarah Jane in The Time Warrior. The eighth, and I
shall argue much the longest, begins with the Doctor’s third regeneration in Planet of the Spiders and includes the
Doctor’s absence from Earth in the autumn of 1976 CE (No Future), a new year (Death
Flower) and Lethbridge-Stewart’s absence from UNIT, teaching at Brendon
School, in the summer of 1977 CE (Mawdryn
Undead). The ninth begins with Lethbridge-Stewart again at UNIT, summoning
the Doctor to Loch Ness and with Harry’s decision to stop travelling with the
Doctor (Terror of the Zygons). It
ends with the Doctor’s decision to stop travelling with Sarah Jane (The Hand of Fear), so that he no longer
has to observe chronological linearity in his visits to Earth, although he had
not always been punctilious about this anyway (Interesting Times, The Pescatons and, I shall argue, The Android Invasion)
Things
That Doctor Who Writers Who Want To Set Things In “The Present” Should Find
Difficult To Ignore. Though Quite Likely They’ll Just Pile More Stuff In.
THE
UK IS OVERRUN BY KILLER SHOP-WINDOW DUMMIES.
Lourdwater Cottage
Hospital: Case Summary Fictional Document, published 1972 Doctor: 3
Written
by Terrance Dicks and Malcolm Hulke.
Takes
place during Spearhead From Space.
Skullduggery Charity
short story, published 2001 Doctor: 4
featuring
Liz, Romana (informative mention)
Written
by Keith Topping and Suzanne M Campagna.
Takes
place in the UK; self-dated October 1971 CE.
The Arkwood Experiments Comic story, published 1970 Doctor: 3
featuring
Lethbridge-Stewart, UNIT
Written
by Roger Noel Cook.
informed guess Takes place in the UK, after Spearhead From Space but, it would appear, before the Doctor has
acquired Bessie.
Caught in the Web Illustrated short story, published 1970 Doctor: 3
featuring
Lethbridge-Stewart, UNIT, Liz
Written
by the World Distributors 1971 Annual crew.
informed guess Takes place partly and imaginatively in Libya, in
acknowledgement that UNIT is an international organisation; Liz is examining
material pertaining to the Nestene incursion in Spearhead From Space.
Undercover Comic story, published 1970 Doctor: 3
featuring Lethbridge-Stewart, UNIT
Written by Roger Noel Cook.
Foreshadowing Audio short
story, released 2015 Doctor: 8
Featuring Yates, Charley, with Lethbridge-Stewart,
UNIT (informative mention)
Written by
Julian Richards.
Takes place near Inverness, the northernmost city of Scotland, shortly before Vengeance of the Stones.
Michael Yates, known as Mike, is a Tellurian; going by his rank in this story, he would appear to have been born in the 1940s CE.Charlotte
Pollard, known as Charley, is a
Tellurian born in 1912 CE.
Vengeance of
the Stones Audio Drama,
released 2013 Doctors: 3, with 11 (glimpse)
Featuring Lethbridge-Stewart, UNIT, Benton, Yates
Written by
Andrew Smith.
Doctor Who and the Silurians TV story, broadcast 1970 Doctor: 3
featuring
Lethbridge-Stewart, UNIT, Liz, the Earth
Reptiles, with the Moon (informative mention)
Written
by Malcolm Hulke, script edited by Terrance Dicks.
Takes
place in Derbyshire and London; as broadcast; dated six months previously in The Scales of Injustice, which also
places Spearhead From Space eight
months previously, and late November in The
Last Post.
UNRECONCILED
UNIT DATING
See,
thing is, Candy Jar Books’ concept of Folded Time to explain UNIT dating
discrepancies is all very well, because a one-dimensional timeline might look
like anything from outside, but WE’RE NOT OUTSIDE IT. From our point of view,
inside it, the timeline should be an unforced, uninterrupted cascade of cause
and effect. And in truth discrepancies are no unusual thing for any
chronologist. Ambiguity, misapprehension and mendacity are always riddling the
evidence with contradictions. These must be reconciled with logic and delicacy,
and where we can go no further with reconciliation, we must signpost it clearly
and move on. In this particular story, the taxi driver asks for “ten and six”,
although I’m placing it almost nine or ten months after the introduction of
decimal currency. I assume he’s charging fifty-two and a half pence and being a
difficult sod.
Derbyshire was the landlocked County of Derby, lying southeast
of Lancashire, south of Yorkshire and west of Nottinghamshire.
The Mind Extractors
Illustrated short story,
published 1970 Doctor: 3
featuring
Lethbridge-Stewart, UNIT, Liz
Written
by the World Distributors 1971 Annual crew.
informed guess Takes place in the UK, after Spearhead From Space and before
Country of the Blind; self-dated December.
The Ghouls of Gretenspey Illustrated short story, published 1970 Doctor: 3
featuring
Lethbridge-Stewart, UNIT, Liz
Written
by the World Distributors 1971 Annual crew.
informed guess Takes place in Scotland, after The Mind Extractors as published.
Old Soldiers Audio Drama,
released 2007 Doctor: 3
featuring
Lethbridge-Stewart, UNIT
Written
by James Swallow.
informed guess Takes place in West Germany, a few weeks after Doctor Who and the Silurians.
Shadow of the Past Audio Drama,
released 2010 Doctor: 3
Featuring UNIT, Liz, the Mim, with the Time Lords (glimpse) and Benton, Yates (informative
mention)
Written by Simon Guerrier.
The Mim
are space-travelling sentient sponges from the Mimsphere.
The Christmas Dimension
Audio short story, released 2016 Doctor: 3
Featuring UNIT, Benton, Liz
Written by Rob Nisbet.
Takes place in UNIT HQ; self-dated
Christmas Day, before Country of the
Blind.
UNIT Christmas Parties: First Christmas Short story, published 2004 Doctor: 3
featuring
Lethbridge-Stewart, UNIT, Benton, Liz,
with Yates (informative mention)
Written
by Nick Wallace.
Takes
place in UNIT HQ and in space above Earth, the first Christmas of the Doctor’s
exile. Yates and Benton are both now sergeants.
Total Stories Considered 233
Proportion Written By Women 10%
Top Docs
2 28 stories
1 19 stories
7 14 stories
3 12 stories Climber!
11 10 stories
8 8 stories Climber!
10 8 stories
4 7 stories
6 6 stories
Unbound 5 stories
5 3 stories
9 2 stories
13 2 stories
12 1 story
Top Twenty Recurring Elements
London 81 stories
Alastair and the Lethbridge-Stewart family 77 stories
The Travers family 46
stories
North America 40 stories
Regional England 39 stories
The Intrusion Counter-Measures Group 23
stories
Scotland 19
stories Climber!
UNIT 17
stories New entry!
Christmas 16 stories Climber!
Jamie 16 stories Climber!
Senor 105 14
stories Climber!
Iris Wildthyme 13 stories
The Great Intelligence 12
stories
The Time Lords 11 stories Climber!
Barbara and Ian 10 stories
Continental Europe 10 stories
Liz 10
stories New entry!
The Cybermen 9
stories
The Moon 9
stories
Susan 9 stories
Top Decades
The Teens 143 stories
The Noughties 35 stories
The Sixties 22 stories
The Twenties 14
stories
The Nineties 12 stories
The Seventies 6
stories New entry!
The Eighties 1
story
And Top Twenty Years
2016 24 stories
2018 22 stories
2015 18 stories
2013 17 stories
2019 14
stories Climber!
2011 12 stories Climber!
2012 11 stories
2017 11
stories
2021 9
stories New entry!
1968 7
stories
2009 6
stories
2010 6
stories Climber!
2014 6 stories
1970 5
stories New entry!
2005 5 stories
2020 5 stories Climber!
1965 4 stories =
1967 4 stories =
1999 4
stories =
2000 4
stories =
2001 4
stories =
2004 4 stories =
2008 4
stories =
Total Writers (including showrunners, script editors, anthology
linking material writers) 128
Proportion of Female Writers 14%
Top Twenty Writers
Andy Frankham-Allen 10 stories
Justin Richards 7 stories
John Dorney 6 stories
Eddie Robson 6 stories
? John Canning 5
stories Climber!
Andrew Cartmel 5 stories
Terrance Dicks 5
stories New entry!
Matt Fitton 5 stories
Cody Schell 5
stories
David Whitaker 5 stories
Christopher Cooper 4 stories
Simon Guerrier 4 stories
Jonathon Morris 4 stories
John Peel 4
stories
Sharon Bidwell 3
stories=
Lawrence Burton 3 stories=
Roger Noel Cook 3 stories= New entry!
Gerry Davis 3
stories=
Tom Dexter 3
stories=
Malcolm Hulke 3
stories= New entry!
Alyson Leeds 3
stories=
Steve Lyons 3 stories=
Paul Magrs 3
stories=
David A McIntee 3 stories=
Cavan Scott 3
stories= Re-entry!
Nick Walters 3
stories=
Mark Wright 3
stories= New entry!
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