Now: Nineteen Eighty-Two                                                             

 

Fanboys   Short story, published 2007                                                        Doctor: 0

Written by Paul Magrs.

Takes place in a version of Newton Aycliffe, a town in County Durham; self-dated early January 1982 CE.

County Durham was a county on the east coast of England, north of Yorkshire and south of Northumberland.

Doctor Who - Time Flight   Novelisation, published 1983             Doctor: 5

featuring the Master, Nyssa, Tegan, and Lethbridge-Stewart (informative mention)

Adapted by Peter Grimwade from his own script, edited by Eric Saward.

Takes place at Heathrow Airport, just inside the borders of Greater London; dated January 1982 CE in Divine Intervention.

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 CONCORDE DISAPPEARS, THOUGH ITS PASSENGERS AND CREW DON’T.

Tsar Wars   Audio drama, released 2011                                                  Doctor: 4

Featuring Mrs Wibbsey, with Yates (informative mention)

Written by Paul Magrs.

Informed guess Takes place in the Robotov Palace; self-dated some thirty years before Survivors in Space.

The King of the Dead   Audio short story, published 2015                      Doctor: 5

Featuring Nyssa, Tegan, with UNIT (informative mention)

Written by Ian Atkins.

Informed guess Takes place in London; self-dated 1982 CE.

The Hollows of Time Audio drama, released 2010                    Doctor: 6

Featuring ? the Master, the Tractators, Peri

Written by Christopher H Bidmead.

Informed guess Takes place in Hollowdean, a village in rural England; self-dated the early 1980s CE. It is suggested that “Stream” is an anagram of “Master”, and the Professor Stream may well have been the Master, as the Doctor and Peri would have known if they hadn’t been given partial amnesia.

 

Let the Right One In, released in 2008 but set in 1981-2, is a vampire film broadly compatible with Doctor Who narrative.

 

The Monster of Loch Crag   Illustrated short story, published 1982      Doctor: 0

featuring Sarah Jane, K9 III

Written by Mike Wilde.

informed guess Takes place in the Scottish Highlands, soon after K9 and Co. as Sarah Jane discovers that K9 can pick locks, which I wouldn’t have thought would be that long into their relationship.

Relative Dementias   Novel, published 2002                             Doctor: 7

featuring UNIT,  Ace

Written by Mark Michalowski.

Takes place in Scotland; self-dated April, 1982 CE.

The Lost   Short story, published 2006                                                       Doctor: 2

featuring Edward Grainger, Jamie, Victoria

Written by L J Scott.

Takes place in New York, NY; self-dated May 1982 CE.

Larkspur   Short story, published 2008                                                      Doctor: 7

featuring Benny, with the Time Lords (informative mention)

Written by Mark Stevens.

Takes place, pivotally, in East Falkland, an island in the south Atlantic; self-dated June 1982 CE.

Living Legend   Audio drama, released 2003                                           Doctor: 8

featuring Charley, with the Time Lords (informative mention)

Written by Scott Gray.

Takes place near Ferrara, Italy; self-dated July, 1982.

The Tides of Time Comic story, published 1982                                       Doctor: 5

featuring the Time Lords, the Matter of Britain, Shayde

Written by Steve Parkhouse.

contemporary to publication Takes place in Stockbridge, a village in Glocestershire (in the cricket season), on Gallifrey and elsewhere.

The Matter of Britain is the traditional name for all written, or indeed oral, material relating to the legends of King Arthur, and the general pre-English mythos from which it developed; in this case, the appearance of a Higher Evolutionary named Merlin in the Gallifreyan Matrix, who knows a lot more about the Doctor than vice versa.

Shayde is a humanoid servant of the Matrix Lords, probably a Cast, described by The Book of the War as being constituted of solid baryonic matter or invisible, lower dimensional strange matter. Additionally, it is suggested pretty heavily in The Good Companion that Shayde is, or perhaps is a development of, a Time Sentinel, from Gallifrey’s prehistory.

 

Liquid Sky (1982) describes a small-scale extraterrestrial incursion in New York, broadly compatible with Doctor Who narrative. 

 

Still Need a Title!   Fictional Document, published 2013     Doctor: 4 (informative mention)

Featuring Sarah Jane, K9 III

Written by James Goss and Steve Tribe.

Informed guess Takes place in the UK, some time after K9 and Co: A Girl’s Best Friend.

Day of the Cockroach Audio novella, released 2012                         Doctor: 11

Featuring Amy, possibly as a ganger, Rory

Written by Steve Lyons.

Informed guess Takes place in the UK; self-dated 1982 CE.

Stars Fell on Stockbridge   Comic story, published 1982                         Doctor: 5

Written by Steve Parkhouse.

Informed guess Takes place in and near Stockbridge, and on a derelict spaceship; not long after The Tides of Time.

 

I think The Annotation Autopsy of Agent A’s reference to isolated military bases points us in the direction of The Thing (1982). True, the Arctic base of The Thing From Another World (1951) is more overtly military, but the fluidly metamorphic body-horror of John Carpenter’s version is closer to the nature of The Enemy as suggested by The Book of the Enemy.

 

Do You Smell Carrots?   Short story, published 2009                             Doctors: 1, 5

featuring Steven

Written by Simon Guerrier.

Takes place in Reading, self-dated as being near Christmas, 1982 CE.

The Case of the Missing Fairy   Short story, published 2017                 Doctor: 0

Featuring Lethbridge-Stewart

Written by Steven Walton.

Takes place at Brendon School; self-dated Christmas 1982 CE.

 

 

Total Stories Considered               606  

Proportion Written By Women   8%                                          

 

Top Docs

3                 193 stories

4                 77 stories  

2                 34 stories  

7                 26 stories            

1                 23 stories

8                 19 stories           

5                 17 stories   Climber!

11               15 stories   Climber!

10               14 stories  

12               14 stories  

6                 13 stories  

Unbound   9 stories             

13               4 stories    

9                 3 stories    

         

         

 

Top Twenty Recurring Elements

 

Alastair and the Lethbridge-Stewart family                                                                                                                                         219 stories

UNIT                                                                    173 stories

London                                                                150 stories

Regional England                                               138 stories         

Jo                                                                         83 stories  

Benton                                                                82 stories  

North America                                                   71 stories

Yates                                                                   62 stories  

The Master                                                         51 stories  

The Travers family                                            51 stories

Liz                                                                        51 stories

Sarah Jane                                                          48 stories   Climber!

At sea                                                                  45 stories  

The Intrusion Counter-Measures Group        39 stories

Continental Europe                                           38 stories           

Scotland                                                              38 stories

Christmas                                                            31 stories   Climber

The Time Lords                                                  30 stories  

Iris Wildthyme                                                   27 stories  

The K9s                                                               20 stories   New entry!

         

 

         

Top Decades

 

The Teens                                                           258 stories

The Seventies                                                    120 stories         

The Noughties                                                    102 stories

The Nineties                                                       51 stories

The Twenties                                                     37 stories  

The Sixties                                                          24 stories  

The Eighties                                                        14 stories

 

And Top Twenty Years

 

2016                                                          46 stories

2015                                                          31 stories  

2017                                                          30 stories  

2019                                                          30 stories   Climber!

2013                                                          29 stories  

2018                                                          28 stories  

1970                                                          24 stories

2012                                                          22 stories  

1973                                                          20 stories  

2001                                                          20 stories  

2011                                                          20 stories   Climber!

1972                                                          18 stories

2020                                                          18 stories

2021                                                          18 stories

1974                                                          14 stories  

2007                                                          12 stories   Climber!   

2008                                                          12 stories   Climber!

2009                                                          12 stories   Climber!

2010                                                          12 stories   Climber!    

1976                                                          11 stories=

1993                                                          11 stories=         

 

 

         

 

Total Writers (including showrunners, script editors, anthology linking material writers)                                                263

Proportion of Female Writers                         12%      

 

Top Twenty Writers

 

Terrance Dicks                                          27 stories  

? John Canning                                         25 stories  

Paul Magrs                                                18 stories   Climber!

Anonymous Polystyle Writers               15 stories  

John Dorney                                             13 stories  

Andy Frankham-Allen                             13 stories  

Robert Holmes                                         10 stories  

Malcolm Hulke                                         10 stories  

Mark Wright                                             10 stories  

Simon Guerrier                                        9 stories

Eddie Robson                                            9 stories

Dennis Hooper                                         8 stories    

Justin Richards                                         8 stories    

1971 Annual crew                                   8 stories    

1973 Annual crew                                   8 stories             

Roger Noel Cook                                      7 stories    

Guy Adams                                               6 stories=            

Matt Fitton                                               6 stories=

Steve Lyons                                               6 stories=   Re-entry!

David A McIntee                                      6 stories=

Jonathan Morris                                      6 stories=  

John Peel                                                  6 stories=

Eric Saward                                               6 stories=   New entry!

Cody Schell                                               6 stories=

David Whitaker                                        6 stories=

1974 Annual crew                                   6 stories=