Now: Nineteen Sixty Eight                                                                                                  

 

The Microtron Men   Illustrated short story, published 1968                  Doctor: 2

featuring Jamie, Victoria

Written by the anonymous 1969 Annual crew.

contemporary to publication Takes place in a sub-atomic universe, I assume technically in the UK, as the Microtron Men describe themselves as Britons. This is quite a subtly constructed story, at one point hinging on the Doctor noticing that the Microton Men talk both of “the glass”, by which they mean the sky, and “the Glass”, a large telescope they use. Unfortunately, World Distributors obscure this by printing it incorrectly.

Victoria Waterfield is a Tellurian, born in 1852 CE.

I, Alastair   Novel, published 2020                                                       Doctor: Unbound

Featuring Unbound Lethbridge-Stewart, the Unbound Travers Family, Unbound

Benton, the British Republic, Grace Technology

Written by Robert Mammone.

Informed guess Takes place in England in the British Republic continuum; self-dated 
eight or nine years after April 1959 CE. 

The British Republic continuum was a version of Earth in which totalitarianism and fascism were a great deal more successful in achieving and retaining power from the mid-nineteenth century than in this one. Timewyrm: Revelation suggests that the leader of the British Republic itself was a version of the Doctor exiled to Earth after his second regeneration.

Among Tellurian individuals who existed in this continuum as well as our own are

Edward Travers, born around 1884 CE (going by actor Giles Watling’s age when The Abominable Snowman was made; his daughter Anne Travers, born 1937 CE; and John Benton, born some time before 1944 CE (War Time), say 1940 CE. 

The Grace, who manifest themselves in this story as The Accord, are incorporeal beings of immense power who take it upon themselves to maintain balance in the universe. It is not clear how they interact with the Chronarchy. It is possible they come after the Time Lords, or the five-dimensional equivalent of after, in the Doctor’s five-dimensional equivalent of the future.

Atoms Infinite   Comic story, published 1968                                           Doctor: 2

featuring Jamie, Victoria

Written by the anonymous 1969 Annual crew.

Contemporary to publication Takes place in a sub-atomic universe. Since the TARDIS is actually piloted to its destination, I’m assuming that the Doctor is inspired to make the journey by the events of The Microtron Men, despite the fact that this story appears before it in the 1969 Annual. I’m guessing that the Doctor has investigated the macro-beings he deduced were responsible for the shrinking experiments in The Microtron Men, and discovered that they were actually micro-beings, and pulled out all the stops to take the TARDIS to them.

The Enigma of Dorian Gray   Audio Drama, released 2015          Doctor: 0

Featuring Dorian Gray

Written by Roy Gill.

Informed guess Takes place in Salford, Lancs.; self-dated 1968 CE.

Riviera Shakedown   Short story, published 2010                                    Doctor: 0

Featuring Iris Wildthyme

Written by Simon Bucher-Jones.

Informed guess Takes place principally on the French Riviera; self-dated 1968 CE. 

The Riviera was a stretch of the French Mediterranean coast, adjacent to Monaco, devoted to leisure and holidaymaking, generally considered a bit pricey.

The Age of Revolution   Audio Drama, released 2013         Doctor: 6 (glimpse)

Featuring Vampires, Jago, Litefoot

Written by Jonathan Morris.

Informed guess Takes place in London; self-dated 1968 CE.

Henry Jago is a Tellurian born in about 1845 CE, from the age of actor Christopher Benjamin in The Talons of Weng Chiang. He auditioned for Romeo in 1866, which would fit.

George Litefoot is a Tellurian born in the mid-1830s CE.

Jago and Litefoot’s friend Ellie is a vampire, a Tellurian with a metaphysical infection, the symptoms of which include a dependency on human blood, extraordinary physical resilience, agelessness, willed masslessness and supernatural metamorphosis. Quantum uncertainty seems to be involved (Goth Opera). The Book of the War pretty much equates vampirism with the Malakh, the servants of the Yssgaroth, against whom the Time Lords fought before the establishment of the Chronarchy. Different syndromes of vampirism are observable in different individuals: Ellie, for example, has been cured of her dependency on blood but, born in the late nineteenth century CE, still enjoys the benefits of agelessness

Invasion of the Quarks   Comic story, published 1968                                       Doctor: 2

featuring Gillian, John, Jamie, the Quarks

John Canning’s early strips in the TV Comic were written anonymously, but like those of Neville Main and Bill Mevin, they had a distinct style: in this case, a boy’s idea of a James Bond film, gloating megalomaniacs with spectacular hardware at their disposal, who usually met a violent and melodramatic end. Once again, I think there is a reasonable chance that he was writing them himself.

contemporary to publication Takes place principally in Scotland; the Doctor would appear to have left Jamie in late-sixties Britain after travelling with him on behalf of the Time Lords (World Game).

The Quarks are the armed, ambulatory artificial intelligences made by the Dominators, spacefaring humanoids of non-Tellurian origin. The way the Quarks’ arms fold neatly into their torsos suggest their Swiss-army penknife nature: the Dominators intended them as universal problem-solving mechanisms. These Quarks are entirely self-organising: no Dominators are shown or mentioned and the Quarks declare a jihad against the Doctor on their own account. And if you’re serious about having robot factotums to anticipate your every whim, that might well be how you would design them, in fairness.

Scotland was a constituent monarchy of the UK, occupying the northwestern end of Albion and numerous surrounding islands.

The Banquo Legacy   Novel, published 2000                                          Doctor: 8

Featuring the Time Lords, Compassion, the remembered Fitz, with Braxiatel,

Romana (informative mention)

Written by Andy Lane and Justin Richards.

Takes place in what is described as southeast England, concluding self-datedly in 1968 CE. 

Irving Braxiatel is a Time Lord, a contemporary of the Doctor and, it is implied pretty unignorably, his brother.

Femme Fatale      Short story, published 1999                                                       Doctor: 8

Featuring Iris Wildthyme, Sam, with Unbound Lethbridge-Stewart, Unbound Benton

(glimpse), and Fitz (informative mention)

Written by Paul Magrs.

Takes place mostly in New York, NY; self-dated June, 1968 CE.

Samantha Jones, known as Sam, is a Tellurian born in 1980 CE.

Fitzgerald Kreiner, known as Fitz, is a Tellurian born in 1936 CE. He is the individual on whom the Remembered Fitz was based.

The Case of the Gluttonous Guru    Audio Drama, released 2013         Doctor: 0

Featuring the Vampires, Jago, Litefoot

Written by Marc Platt.

Takes place in London; self-dated August 1968 CE.

The Nameless City   Short story, published 2013                                                 Doctor: 2

Featuring the Master, Jamie, with the Time Lords (informative mention)

Written by Michael Scott.

Contemporary to publication Takes place partly in London, self-datedly 1968 CE. The

Archons tie this story into Scott’s continuity for his Roman Fleuve Secrets of the Immortal

Nicholas Flamel, which clearly does not take place in the same reality as Doctor Who

continuity. However, the Archons are described as Great Old Ones, largely eradicated by the

Time Lords during, as we may suppose, the Time Wars That Never Happened in the early

days of the Chronarchy. It is not surprising that the surviving Archons have access to parallel

realities. This story says that Gallifreyan TT capsules were developed from stolen Archon

technology. Toy Story tells us that the TT capsules effectively called the Time Lords into being

to give them cause: this story suggests that the TT capsules specifically thought that the Time

Lords would be a significant improvement on the Archons. The Flamel novels name two

Archons: Cernunnos, identified in Cobweb and Ivory as a survivor of the pre-Chronarchial

universe who is instrumental in initiating the Second War in Heaven; and Coatlicue, the first

vampire. In The Book of the War, vampires are identified as the servants of the

Yssgaroth…but the Gallifreyans released the Yssgaroth into the universe before the

Anchoring of the Thread, and certainly before the Time Wars That Never Happened, so the

Yssgaroth were released into the pre-Chronarchial universe in which the Archons were

figures of importance. We may assume the experimentally minded Coatlicue was so curious

about the Yssgaroth that she fucked around and found out.

In the Loop    Illustrated short story, published 2020                                           Doctor: 0

Featuring Chris, 10,000 Dawns, with the Time Lords (informative mention)

Written James Wylder.

Takes place in Chicago, Ill; self-dated August 1968 CE.

Christopher Cwej, known as Chris, is a Tellurian born in 2954 CE. At this point in his career, there were multiple iterations of him at large as a result of his having worked for the Time Lords: this particular version was employed by Time Lords who seem actually to have won the Second War in Heaven. 

10,000 Dawns is a multiverse, probably not including our own universe, but which is nevertheless accessible from our universe if you’re a Time Lord. Similar beings to the Time Lords that live there can equally access our universe, reciprocally. 

Chicago was a metropolis on the shore of Lake Michigan, the third largest in the USA and the fifth largest in North America, in Illinois, a constituent state of the USA on its northern border.

 

Whistle And I’ll Come To You is a 1968 TV adaptation of M.R.James’s short story Oh Whistle And I’ll Come to You, My Lad, and is widely considered one of the most unsettling ghost stories to appear on television. It seems to have been updated to contemporary East Anglia, and can be claimed for Doctor Who continuity by equating ghosts with N-forms. Anyway, Doctor Who was at fault for not casting Michael Hordern when it had the opportunity, and this redresses that.

 

The Heart Pendulums   Short story, published 2018                                          Doctor: 0

Written by Steve Cole.

Featuring Iris Wildthyme

Takes place partly in Bayswater in September 1968 CE.

Bayswater was a district of London.

Iris Wildthyme y Senor Cientocinco Contra los Monstruos del Fiesta

                                                                                    Short story, published 2009 Doctor: 0

Featuring Iris Wildthyme, Senor 105

Written by Cody Schell.

Takes place in Mexico City during the 1968 Olympiad, in October.

Mexico City was the largest metropolis in North America, the capital of Mexico, a republic occupying the southern band of North America, bordering the USA.

Prologue   Short story, published 2021                                                                   Doctor: 0

Featuring the Travers family, with the USA (informative mention)

Written by Peter Frankum.

Takes place implicitly in London; self-dated autumn, “forty years” after The Abominable

Snowmen and before The Web of Fear.

The Bloodchild Codex   Audio Drama, released 2013                                  Doctor: 0

Featuring the Vampires, Jago, Litefoot, Mr Sin

Written by Colin Brake.

Takes place in London, after The Case of the Gluttonous Guru; self-dated 1968 CE.

The Peking Homunculus, known as Mr Sin, is a homicidally inclined automaton with the brain of a pig, created in the late fifth millennium.

The Avant Guardian         Short story, published 2006                         Doctor: Unbound 2

Featuring an unbound Time Lord, unbound Jamie, unbound Zoe

Written by Eddie Robson.

Takes place in London; self-dated December 1968 CE. Some of the events of this story are, or should be, negated by DS Al Fine. 

Zoe Herriot is a Tellurian, or humanoid of Tellurian descent, born, in my estimation, in 2063 CE. Although this was before Tellurian interstellar colonisation, it is possible she was born in an offworld artificial environment somewhere in the Solar System.

Nightshade   Novel, published 1992                                                                Doctor: 7

featuring Ace, the Sentience

Written by Mark Gatiss.

Takes place in Crook Marsham, Yorkshire; self-dated December 1968 CE.

The Sentience is a disembodied psychic parasite permeating some areas of the Earth; it seems likely it may be a survival of the consciousness of the Sou(ou)shi, thrown into the Earth three billion years previously in Venusian Lullaby.

The Last Day at Work   Audio short story, published 2018                                 Doctor: 2

Featuring Jamie

Written by Harry Draper.

Informed guess Takes place in London; self-dated five years after An Unearthly Child.

The Final Act   Audio Drama, released 2013                                                      Doctor: 0

Featuring the Vampires, Jago, Litefoot, Mr Sin, Magnus Greel

Written by Justin Richards.

Takes place in London, after The Bloodchild Codex; self-dated 1968 CE.

Magnus Greel is a Tellurian born in the late fifth millennium.

Three Wise Men   Illustrated short story, published 2016                                    Doctor: 4

Featuring K9 II (glimpse)

Written by Richard Dungworth.

Takes place between Earth and the Moon; self-dated Christmas Eve, 1968 CE.

Luna, known as the Moon, was the Earth’s moon.

The Left-Handed Hummingbird: Prelude   Illustrated short story, published 1993                           Doctor: 7

featuring UNIT

Written by Kate Orman.

Takes place in the UK; self-dated Christmas Eve, 1968 CE.

 

Total Stories Considered               99

Proportion Written By Women   8%

 

Top Docs

1                 15 stories

2                 12 stories            Climber!

7                 11 stories           

4                 6 stories             

8                 5 stories              Climber!

11               5 stories             

6                 4 stories              Climber!

Unbound   4 stories              Climber!

5                 3 stories             

10               3 stories             

9                 2 stories             

3                 1 story

12               1 story

13               1 story

 

Top Twenty Recurring Elements

 

London                                                                46 stories

The Intrusion Counter-Measures Group        21 stories

North America                                                   16 stories   Climber!    

Regional England                                               16 stories  

Barbara and Ian                                                 9 stories

Iris Wildthyme                                                   8 stories     Climber!

Continental Europe                                           8 stories     Climber!

Christmas                                                            8 stories     Climber!

Ace                                                                      7 stories     Climber!

Jamie                                                                   7 stories     New entry!

Susan                                                                   7 stories

The Time Lords                                                  7 stories     Climber!

Steven                                                                 6 stories             

The Malakh, the werewolves and the vampires 5 stories New entry!

Lethbridge-Stewart                                           5 stories     Climber!

The Daleks and Davros                                     4 stories    

Gillian and John                                                 4 stories     Climber!

Polly and Ben                                                     4 stories     Climber!

Jago and Litefoot                                               4 stories     New entry!

The K9s                                                               4 stories

 

Top Decades

 

The Teens                                                           52 stories

The Noughties                                                    23 stories

The Sixties                                                          12 stories  

The Nineties                                                       8 stories

The Twenties                                                     3 stories     New entry!

The Eighties                                                        1 story

 

And Top Twenty Years

 

2013                                                                    14 stories

2015                                                                    7 stories     Climber!

2018                                                                    6 stories     Climber!

2012                                                                    6 stories    

2014                                                                    6 stories

2016                                                                    5 stories     Climber!

2000                                                                    4 stories     Climber!

2005                                                                    4 stories    

2011                                                                    4 stories    

1965                                                                    3 stories

1966                                                                    3 stories    

1968                                                                    3 stories     New entry!

2003                                                                    3 stories

2009                                                                    3 stories     Climber!

1967                                                                    2 stories = 

1992                                                                    2 stories =  New entry!

1993                                                                    2 stories =  New entry!

1999                                                                    2 stories =  New entry!

2004                                                                    2 stories = 

2006                                                                    2 stories =  New entry!

2007                                                                    2 stories =

2010                                                                    2 stories =  New entry!

2020                                                               2 stories = New entry!                  

                                                                  

 

Total Writers (including showrunners, script editors, anthology editors)                                                                   74

Proportion of Female Writers                             11%

 

Top Twenty Writers

 

Justin Richards                                                   7 stories New number 1!

John Dorney                                                       5 stories    

Andrew Cartmel                                                5 stories    

Matt Fitton                                                         4 stories    

David Whitaker                                                 4 stories    

Simon Guerrier                                                  3 stories    

Steve Lyons                                                        3 stories     Climber!    

Jonathon Morris                                                3 stories     Climber!

Eddie Robson                                                     3 stories     Climber!    

Ken Bentley                                                        2 stories = 

Colin Brake                                                         2 stories = 

Simon Bucher-Jones                                          2 stories = 

Gerry Davis                                                         2 stories =

Richard Dungworth                                           2 stories = 

James Goss                                                         2 stories =

Paul Magrs                                                         2 stories = 

Terry Nation                                                       2 stories =

Marc Platt                                                           2 stories = 

Cavan Scott                                                        2 stories =

Milton Subotsky                                                2 stories =

Mark Wright                                                      2 stories =

1969 Crew                                                           2 stories =