Now:Nineteen
Seventy-Four
Nothing To See Here Audio Drama,
released 2016 Doctor: 0
Featuring the Counter Measures Group
Written by
Guy Adams.
Takes
place in Switzerland, after The Dead
Don’t Rise.
The Many Deaths of Jo Grant Audio Drama,
released 2011 Doctor: 3
Featuring UNIT,
Jo, with Susan, Jamie, Zoe,
Lethbridge-Stewart, Benton (informative mention)
Written by
Cavan Scott and Mark Wright.
Informed guess Takes place above the Earth, after The
Three Doctors.
Decline of the Ancient Mariner Audio short story, released 2020 Doctor: 3
Featuring Sarah Jane, with the USA (informative
mention)
Informed guess Takes place in the inner Solar System, approaching Venus. It would appear
that following a radio blackout from the Mariner 10 mission on its approach to
Venus, NASA sought the help of the Doctor, and their call was answered not by
the contemporary Doctor, no doubt off gallivanting with Jo, but by a later
Doctor, gallivanting with Sarah Jane.
Dr. Third Illustrated short story, published 2018 Doctor: 3
Featuring the Ice Warriors, UNIT,
Liz, Yates, Jo
Written by Adam Hargreaves.
Informed guess Takes place in the UK, some time after Liz and
Jo’s meeting in Primord.
Doctor Who - The Pescatons Novelisation,
published 1991 Doctor: 4
featuring
Sarah Jane
Adapted
by Victor Pemberton from his own script.
informed guess Takes place in London and the Thames Estuary, a few
years before Sarah Jane boards the TARDIS, self-dated February.
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
PESCATONS OVERRUN LONDON (AND BUD EMMERSON HAS A TELESCOPE THAT SHOWS
CONTEMPORANEOUS EVENTS LIGHT-YEARS AWAY).
Troubled Waters Audio Drama,
released 2016 Doctor: 0
Featuring The Counter Measures Group
Written by Ian Potter.
informed guess Takes place at sea, after Nothing
to See Here.
The Heralds of Destruction Comic
story, published 2017 Doctors: 3, with 2 (informative
mention)
Featuring the Master, Lethbridge-Stewart, UNIT,
Benton, Yates, Jo
Written by
Paul Cornell.
Takes place in London and elsewhere in the UK, shortly after Doctor Who – The Three Doctors.
Horror of Glam Rock Audio Drama,
released 2007 Doctor: 8
Featuring Lucie, the Headhunter
Written by Paul Magrs.
Takes place just off the M62; self-dated winter,
1974 CE.
Lucie Miller is a Tellurian born in 1988 CE.
The Headhunter
is a time-travelling humanoid of unknown origin.
The Curse of the Fugue
Audio short story, released 2016 Doctor: 8
Featuring Lucie
Written by Alice Cavender.
Takes place in the UK; self-dated February
1974 CE.
The Phoenix Strain Audio Drama,
released 2016 Doctor: 0
Featuring The Counter Measures Group
Written by
Christopher Hatherall.
informed guess Takes place in London, after Troubled
Waters as released.
Under Pressure Comic story, published 1991
Doctors: 3, 4, 7
featuring
the Earth Reptiles, Jo, Ace
Written
by Dan Abnett.
informed guess Takes place in the North Sea, ninety miles off
Lowestoft (the easternmost town of Albion, in Suffolk); some time after The Sea Devils.
Dancing the Code Novel, published 1995 Doctor: 3
featuring
Lethbridge-Stewart, UNIT, Benton, Yates,
Jo and the Sontarans (im).
Written
by Paul Leonard.
Takes
place in UNIT HQ and North-west Africa, some time after Doctor Who – The Three Doctors, self-dated March.
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.
MOST
OF THE NORTH AFRICAN NATION OF KEBIRIA - SEVERAL MILLION - IS WIPED OUT IN AN
EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL INVASION.
Find and Replace Audio Drama,
released 2010 Doctor: 3
Featuring Lethbridge-Stewart, Iris Wildthyme, UNIT, Benton, Yates, Jo
Written by Paul Magrs.
The Hidden Realm Audio Drama, released 2016 Doctor: 3
Featuring Jo, with Buenos Aires (informative mention)
Written by David Llewellyn.
The Piper Illustrated short story, published 2015 Doctor: 3
Featuring the Cybermen, Lethbridge-Stewart, UNIT,
Benton, Jo
Written by
Mark Morris.
Informed guess Takes
place in the UK, after the Doctor and Jo have returned from Spiridon.
Rock ‘n’ Roll Alien Charity short story, published 2016 Doctor: 3
Featuring Jo, Allen Road
Written by
Stewart Sheargold.
Informed guess Takes
place in and around the Doctor’s house in Allen Road, in Kent, over at least
six weeks, culminating in the spring after Doctor
Who - The Three Doctors.
UNRECONCILED
UNIT DATING
Jo says it
is 1973, but I can only make it 1974 CE.
The house
in Allen Road is one that the Doctor maintained across several incarnations,
to pop into when it was not already occupied by an earlier version of him.
To Catch a Fox Charity short story, published 2001 Doctor: Unbound
featuring
Unbound Master, Unbound UNIT.
Written
by Philip Parneker
Informed guess Takes place during the Doctor’s time as UNIT’s
scientific advisor, in an alternative timeline.
Dead on Arrival Comic story, published 1974 Doctor: 3
featuring
Lethbridge-Stewart, UNIT, Jo
Written
by the 1975 World Distributors Annual crew.
informed guess Takes place in and near UNIT HQ in this reality and a
near-identical one; after Doctor Who –
The Three Doctors.
The Defectors Audio Drama,
released 2015 Doctors: 7, with 3 (glimpse)
Featuring UNIT, Yates, Jo, with Lethbridge-Stewart, Switzerland (informative mention)
Written by Nicholas Briggs.
Informed guess Takes place in the British Isles; after Doctor Who – The Three Doctors.
Doorway into Nowhere Illustrated
short story, published 1972 Doctor: 3
featuring
the Master, Jo
Written
by the 1973 World Distributors Annual crew.
informed guess Takes place in the UK; “some months” after the Doctor
and Jo last encountered the Master (on, I am assuming, contemporary Earth).
Target Practice Comic story, published 1995 Doctor: 3
featuring
Lethbridge-Stewart, UNIT, Jo, and
Benton, Yates (glimpse)
Written
by Gareth Roberts.
informed guess Takes place in the UK, between Walk A Mile In My Shoes and The
Green Death.
A Gamble With Time Audio Drama,
released 2016 Doctor: 0
Featuring the Counter Measures Group
Written by John Dorney.
Informed guess Takes place in Monte Carlo, some time
after The Phoenix Strain.
Menace of the Molags Comic story, published 1973 Doctor: 3
featuring
Lethbridge-Stewart, UNIT, Jo, the
Daemons
Written
by the 1974 World Distributors Annual crew.
informed guess Takes place in London, between Walk A Mile in My Shoes and The
Green Death.
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.
A
DAEMON SPACESHIP ADDRESSES EARTH AND LONDON IS NEAR-GODZILLA’D BY MOLAGS.
The House that Jack Built Illustrated
short story, published 1974 Doctor: 3
featuring
UNIT, Jo
Written
by Keith Miller.
informed guess Takes place partly in UNIT HQ; between Walk A Mile In My Shoes and The Green Death.
Galactic Gangster Illustrated
short story, published 1973 Doctor: 3
featuring
Lethbridge-Stewart, UNIT, Jo
Written
by the 1974 World Distributors Annual crew.
informed guess Takes place in the UK, between Walk A Mile In My Shoes and The
Green Death.
The Time Thief Comic story, published 1973 Doctor: 3
featuring
the Master, Lethbridge-Stewart, UNIT, Jo
Written
by the 1974 World Distributors Annual crew.
informed guess Takes place on Earth: the Master is operating from
the planet Ekaypia, which may be close to where he was stranded at the end of Doorway Into Nowhere.
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.
MUCH
SHIPPING IS SUNK BY ANACHRONISTIC AEROPLANES AND WARSHIPS.
In
truth, Doctor Who narrative doesn’t commit itself much to werewolf lore,
certainly compared to Vampire lore. Perhaps popular culture doesn’t much,
generally. The 1974 werewolf film The
Beast Must Die certainly seems compatible with what Doctor Who narrative
has to say on the subject.
Tempus Refugit Charity short story, published 2001 Doctor: 3
featuring
the Master, Lethbridge-Stewart, UNIT,
Benton, Yates, Jo
Written
by James Ambuehl and Simon Bucher-Jones.
informed guess Takes place in UNIT HQ, between The Sea Devils and The Green
Death.
Urgent Calls Audio Drama,
released 2007 Doctor: 6
Featuring Viyran biotechnology
Written
by Eddie Robson.
Informed guess Takes place in the UK; self-dated 1974 CE.
Hidden Talent Short story, published 2003 Doctor: 3
featuring
the Master, Jo, with Lethbridge-Stewart
(informative mention)
Written
by Andrew Spokes.
informed guess Takes place in the UK, for Jo after Planet of the Daleks.
Listen - the Stars Illustrated
short story, published 1973 Doctor: 3
featuring
the Master, Lethbridge-Stewart, UNIT,
Yates, Jo
Written
by the 1974 World Distributors Annual crew.
informed guess Takes place at UNIT HQ after The Sea Devils.
It’s the End, But...(DWM 311)
Short story, published 2001 Doctor: 3
featuring
Lethbridge-Stewart, and the Master,
UNIT, Benton, Jo
Written
by The Watcher.
informed guess Takes place in the UK, plausibly after Listen – the Stars.
Doctor Who Fights Masterplan Q Illustrated
short story, published 1971
Doctor: 3
featuring the Master, Jo
Written
by a writer employed by Nestle.
informed guess Takes place on the planet Quorus, in Yorkshire and in
London, for Jo and the Doctor after Doctor
Who – The Three Doctors.
Fugitives from Chance Illustrated short story, published 1974 Doctor: 3
featuring
Jo
Written
by the 1975 World Distributors Annual crew.
contemporary to publication Takes place on the planet of the Melovians. I’m
putting it contemporaneously as the latest ship hijacked from Earth dates from
the second world war and has been there a longish time.
Flash Rogers Conquers the Universe! Short story, published 2011 Doctor:0
Featuring Iris Wildthyme
Written by Richard Salter.
The Dragon of Hyacinth Lodge Illustrated short story, published 1996 Doctor:3
featuring the Master, Jo
Written
by Alan Barnes.
informed guess Takes place in the UK, after The Sea Devils. There is a suggestion that the Master may
regenerate, as he ends the story trapped in lethal circumstances. The story
itself is a pastiche of Fawlty Towers,
but also, I think, The Avengers,
another TV series devised by Sydney Newman.
The Last of the Gaderene Novel, published 2000 Doctor:3
featuring
the Master, Lethbridge-Stewart, UNIT,
Benton, Yates, Jo
Written
by Mark Gattis.
informed guess Takes place largely in East Anglia, an area generally
but not invariably held to cover Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk; after Doctor Who - The Three Doctors. Once
again, even the Doctor thinks that the Master may not have survived the events
of this story’s climax, so another candidate for the Master’s regeneration.
Spectrum Novella, published 2014 Doctor:0
Featuring Senor 105, with C19 (informative mention)
Written by Stewart Sheargold.
Venice was a city occupying a small lagoon
archipelago off the north-east coast of Italy.
Guatemala was a republic lying athwart the Isthmus of Panama, immediately south-east of Mexico.
Time Tunnel Audio
short story, published 2015 Doctor:3
Featuring Lethbridge-Stewart, UNIT, Benton, Yates, Jo
Written by Nigel Fairs.
Informed guess Takes place in Sussex, after Doctor Who – The Three Doctors.
The Abysmal Sea Audio Drama,
released 2015 Doctor:0
Featuring Dorian Gray
Written by David Llewellyn.
Informed guess Takes place in the Aegean Sea, during the Graeco-Turkish conflict of July 1974 CE.
Hunt to the Death Illustrated
short story, published 1972 Doctor:3
featuring
Jo
Written
by the 1973 World Distributors Annual crew.
informed guess Takes place in and under Yorkshire; after Doctor Who – The Three Doctors, we may
assume, as the extraterrestrials recognize the Doctor in his third incarnation.
The Fathom Trap Illustrated
short story, published 1973 Doctor:3
featuring
Lethbridge-Stewart, UNIT, Jo
Written
by the 1974 World Distributors Annual crew.
informed guess Takes place at sea; after Walk a Mile in My Shoes.
The Clean Air Act Illustrated
short story, published 2019 Doctor:3
Featuring Lethbridge-Stewart, UNIT, Benton, Yates, Jo
Written by Matthew Sweet.
Informed guess Takes place in the UK, after Walk a Mile In My Shoes.
The Rise of the New Humans Audio Drama,
released 2018 Doctor:3
Featuring Mortimus, UNIT, Jo
Written by Guy Adams.
Informed guess Takes place in the UK; after Doctor Who – The Three Doctors.
The Scorchies Audio Drama,
released 2013 Doctor:3
Featuring Lethbridge-Stewart, UNIT, Jo, the Scorchies, with Benton (informative
mention)
Written by David Richardson.
Takes place in the UK; David Richardson
dates it just before The Green Death.
The Green Death TV story,
broadcast 1973 Doctor:3
featuring
Lethbridge-Stewart, UNIT, Benton, Yates,
Jo
Written
by Robert Sloman, script edited by Terrance Dicks.
Takes
place in Wales, as broadcast.
UNRECONCILED
UNIT DATING
The
calendars in this story show February and April, making it irreconcilable with
itself, but I’m guessing July. Jo’s departure from UNIT in this story begins
the sixth phase of the Doctor’s time as UNIT Scientific Adviser.
She Knew Short story, published 2007 Doctor:3
featuring
Jo (informative mention)
Written
by Nigel Fairs.
Takes
place in Wales, immediately after The
Green Death.
Old Scores Charity
short story, published 2001 Doctor:3
featuring
the Master
Written
by Bret Herholz.
Takes
place in Devil’s End, some hours after She
Knew. The Doctor and the Master’s chess game began five hundred years
previously, when the Doctor would have been two hundred and twenty-five. A move
was made a hundred years previously, when the Doctor was in his second
incarnation.
UNRECONCILED
UNIT DATING
Herholz
places this in autumn. Also, he has Jo being with UNIT for three years, but I
can only make it two.
The Celluloid Midas Comic story, published 1971 Doctor:3
Written
by Dennis Hooper.
Takes
place in Hampshire and London. As published. In the Countdown/TV Action comic stories the Doctor never interacts with
UNIT, so I’m placing most of them after Jo’s departure, when we may assume the
Doctor was being moody.
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
CAST AND CREW OF A TV SOAP OPERA, AND OTHERS, ARE TURNED INTO PLASTIC.
The two protagonists of Celine and Julie Go Boating, a surrealist film of 1974, find themselves looping into another time and place and eventually being able to change events there, in a way aesthetically compatible with Doctor Who narrative, and particularly the Second War in Heaven. I have, incidentally, seen this film described as having a gay subtext, which having seen it seems like saying that Tokyo Story has got a Japanese subtext.
The Plant Master Comic story, published 1971 Doctor:3
Written
by a writer employed by Polystyle.
Takes
place in the UK. As published.
Landbound Audio short story, published 2017 Doctor:3
Written by Selim Ulug.
*Sub Zero Comic story, published 1972 Doctor:3
featuring
the Daleks, with the USA (informative
mention)
Takes
place in Antarctica, Australia and at sea. As published.
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.
MUCH
OF SYDNEY IS DESTROYED BY MISSILES, POSSIBLY NUCLEAR.
And For My Next Trick... Illustrated short story, published 1972 Doctor:3
Written
by a writer employed by Polystyle.
Takes
place in the UK. As published.
Terror of the Master Audio story, released 2021 Doctor: 3
Featuring the Master,
Lethbridge-Stewart, UNIT, Benton, Yates
Written by Trevor
Baxendale.
Takes place partly in
London, self-dated not long after The Green Death.
Daleks: The Secret Invasion Illustrated
short story, published 1979 Doctor:0
Featuring the Daleks
Written
by Terry Nation.
Informed guess Takes place in London, during the West End release of
The Exorcist in the autumn of 1974 CE and the Home Secretaryship of Roy
Jenkins.
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.
A
DALEK FLYING SAUCER LANDS IN CENTRAL LONDON AND BLACKMAILS THE GOVERNMENT.
Fogbound Comic story, published 1973 Doctor:3
featuring
Lethbridge-Stewart, the Master, UNIT
Written
by a writer employed by Polystyle.
Takes
place on the coast of southern England; as published.
The Split Infinitive
Audio Drama, released 2019 Doctor:7
Featuring the Rocket Men, Ace, the Counter Measures
Group
Written by
John Dorney.
The Rocket Men are interstellar humanoid pirates.
Different Worlds Charity drabble, published 1993 Doctor:3
featuring
Lethbridge-Stewart
Written by Graham McKinnon.
Informed guess Takes place partly in the UK, after Doctor Who – The Three Doctors.
Count
Dracula’s status in Doctor Who narrative is effectively both fictional and
actual as a result of the Second War in Heaven, as recounted in A Bloody (and Public)Domain.
Nonetheless, I am inclined to discount Hammer’s cycle of Dracula films as being
incompatible with this narrative, simply by being narratively incompatible with
Bram Stoker’s original novel. The exception is the last of the cycle, The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973),
which is entirely compatible on its own, and is set in November 1974.
Hide TV story, broadcast 2013 Doctor:11
Featuring Clara
Written by Neil Cross, script supervised
by Steven Moffat and Denise Paul.
Takes place in the UK; self-dated November
1974 CE.
The Glen of Sleeping Comic
story, published 1973 Doctor:3
featuring
the Master
Written
by Dick O’Neill.
Takes
place in Scotland; as published. This late in the year, the two Time Lords are
probably Coarse Fishing.
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.
A US NUCLEAR SUBMARINE DISAPPEARS OFF THE COAST OF
SCOTLAND. (IT MAY LATER BE FOUND OVER TWO CENTURIES OLDER).
Freya Audio Drama,
released 2015 Doctor:0
Featuring Dorian Gray
Written by
Sam Stone.
Informed guess Takes place in Sweden; self-dated 1974 CE.
Sweden was a European monarchy lying on the north coast of the Baltic Sea, east of Norway.
The Threat from Beneath Comic story, published 1973 Doctor:3
featuring
the Daleks
Written
by Dick O’Neill.
Informed guess Takes place in London and in the Pacific Ocean; as
published.
The One-Second Hour Illustrated
short story, published 1973 Doctor:3
Featuring
Lethbridge-Stewart, UNIT, Yates, with
the Master (informative mention)
Written
by a writer employed by Polystyle.
Informed guess Takes place in the UK; as published. Yates is using a
Bren gun for the gunfire experiment, which I thought might be anachronistic,
but I find that they weren’t completely phased out until after the Falklands
War.
Exclave Short
story, published 2008 Doctor:6
featuring
Peri, with Christmas (informative
mention)
Written
by Joff Brown.
Takes
place in Kowloon, Hong Kong; self-dated December, 1974 CE.
The Bad Penny Audio Drama,
released 2018 Doctor:4
Featuring Leela
Written by
Dan Starkey.
Informed guess Takes place in the UK; the later sections self-dated the nineteen-seventies CE.
Leela is a humanoid of Tellurian descent, born on an unidentified planet in, I suggest, the mid-third myriad CE.Tonton Macoute Short
story, published 2008 Doctor:0
Featuring Faction Paradox, the War in Heaven
Written by Dave Hoskin.
Takes place in Darwin, in the Northern
Territories of Australia; self-dated Christmas 1974 CE.
Total
Stories Considered 436
Proportion
Written By Women 8%
Top Docs
3 166 stories
2 31 stories
1 21 stories
7 17 stories
4 11 stories Climber!
8 12
stories Climber!
11 11 stories
10 10 stories
6 8 stories Climber!
Unbound 8 stories Climber!
12 7 stories
5 4
stories
13 3
stories
9 2
stories
Top Twenty
Recurring Elements
Alastair and the Lethbridge-Stewart family 184 stories
UNIT 136
stories Climber!
London 125 stories
Regional
England 91 stories
Jo 83 stories Climber!
Benton 65
stories Climber!
North
America 56 stories
Yates 53
stories Climber!
The Travers
family 49
stories
Liz 47
stories
The Master 42
stories Climber!
The
Intrusion Counter-Measures Group 32 stories
At sea 32
stories Climber!
Christmas 24 stories
Continental
Europe 24 stories
Scotland 27
stories Climber!
The Time
Lords 21 stories
Senor 105 19
stories
Iris
Wildthyme 19 stories Climber!
Jamie 16 stories
Top Decades
The Teens 205 stories
The
Seventies 72
stories Climber!
The
Noughties 70 stories
The Nineties 39 stories
The Twenties 25
stories
The Sixties 23 stories
The Eighties 2
stories
And Top
Twenty Years
2016 40 stories
2015 26 stories Climber!
2018 26 stories
2013 25 stories Climber!
1970 24
stories
2019 22
stories
2011 19 stories
1972 18
stories
2017 18 stories
1973 15 stories New
entry!
2001 15
stories Climber
2021 15
stories
2012 14 stories
1971 9 stories
2007 9
stories Climber!
2009 9
stories
2020 9 stories
1993 8
stories
2008 8
stories Re-entry!
1968 7
stories =
2000 7
stories =
2005 7 stories = Climber!
2010 7
stories =
2014 7 stories =
Total
Writers (including showrunners, script editors, anthology linking material
writers) 200
Proportion
of Female Writers 12%
Top Twenty
Writers
Terrance Dicks 22
stories
Andy
Frankham-Allen 11 stories
? John Canning 10
stories
John Dorney 10 stories Climber!
Paul Magrs 10
stories Climber!
Malcolm Hulke 9
stories
Mark Wright 10
stories Climber!
Justin
Richards 8 stories
Eddie Robson 8 stories Climber!
1971 Annual crew 8
stories
1973 Annual crew 8 stories Climber!
Roger Noel Cook 7
stories
Simon
Guerrier 6 stories
Dennis
Hooper 6
stories Climber!
David A McIntee 6
stories
John Peel 6 stories
Cody Schell 6
stories Climber!
David
Whitaker 6 stories
1974 Annual crew 6
stories New entry!
Guy Adams 5
stories= New entry!
Andrew
Cartmel 5
stories=
Matt Fitton 5 stories=
Comments
Post a Comment