Now: Nineteen Seventy-Nine                                                                      

 

The Time Snatch   Illustrated short story, published 1976                       Doctor: 4

featuring UNIT, Sarah Jane

Written by the World Distributors 1977 Annual crew.

informed guess Takes place in the US southwest; sometime after Robot.

Trail of the White Worm   Audio drama, released 2012                 Doctor: 4

Featuring the Master, Leela, with UNIT (informative mention)

Written by Alan Barnes.

Informed guess Takes place in Derbyshire; self-dated 1979 CE.

The Oseidon Adventure   Audio drama, released 2012                  Doctor: 4

Featuring UNIT, the Master, Leela, with ?Lethbridge-Stewart (informative mention)

Written by Alan Barnes.

Informed guess Takes place in Derbyshire, at UNIT HQ and on Oseidon, immediately after Trail of the White Worm. James Callaghan is Prime Minister, placing it before the General election in May. It seems unlikely that Lethbridge-Stewart would be on UNIT business in Canada: how many references to “the Brigadier” actually relate to Lethbridge-Stewart though? I suggest some could refer to the officer who will have replaced him after No Future, who will have had intermittent contact with the Doctor for almost three years by this time.

City of Death   Novelisation, published 2015                                     Doctor: 4

featuring Romana, the Jagaroth, with K9 II (glimpse) and Braxiatel (informative mention)

Adapted by James Goss from a script by Douglas Adams and Graham Williams, from a story by David Fisher.

Takes place partly in Paris, in the springtime; self-dated 1979 CE.

The Jagaroth are a spacefaring, monocular species, probably bipedal, certainly capable of passing for Tellurian with the aid of prosthetics.

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 MONA LISA IS STOLEN AND WHEN RECOVERED, WILL TURN OUT TO BE A FAKE.

Notre Dame du Temps   Short story, published 2003 Doctors: 4, 7, 8, with 6 (informative mention)

Featuring Romana, Anji, with the remembered Fitz (informative mention)

Written by Nick Clark.

Takes place partly in Paris, during City of Death.

Anji Kapoor is a Tellurian born in 1973 CE.

 

Phantasm (1979) features a small scale extraterrestrial incursion that is broadly compatible with Doctor Who narrative.

 

Watch Out! Watch Out!   Charity short story, published 2001                Doctor: 4

featuring K9 II, Romana

Written by Mags L Halliday.

informed guess Takes place in the UK, at the time of the “There’s a Humphrey About!” advertising campaign on behalf of Unigate dairies.

Three Steps to the Left   Illustrated short story, published 1993            Doctor: 7

featuring Ace (informative mention)

Written by Glenn Langford.

Takes place in the Gibson Desert, Australia; Skylab fell to Earth in July, 1979 CE.

Bennelong Point   Illustrated short story, published 2009                      Doctor: 10

Written by Keith Temple.

Takes place in Australia, not long after Three Steps to the Left.

Childhood Living   Short story, published 2006                                      Doctor: 1

featuring Susan, Edward Grainger

Written by Samantha Baker.

Takes place in the English Channel; self-dated mid-August 1979 CE.

Edward Grainger is a Tellurian born in 1906 CE.

The Doomsday Contract   Audio drama, released 2021        Doctor: 4

featuring K9 II, Romana

Adapted by Nev Fountain from an original script by John Lloyd.

Takes place principally on the Coelare Coelum. The original story would have been broadcast

in 1979, which is where I am consequently placing it.

The Persistence of Memory   Illustrated short story, published 2016   Doctor: 12

Featuring Mortimus

Written by Colin Brake.

Informed guess Takes place by Loch Ness; self-dated August, six years after the release of the hit single Merry Christmas Everybody.

Suitors, Inc.   Short story, published 2005                                                 Doctor: 4

featuring Iris Wildthyme, Sarah Jane, Harry, K9 II, Romana

Written by Paul Magrs

Takes place in the UK; self-dated late summer 1979 CE. I remember when Short Trips: Seven Deadly Sins came out the rush of glumness I felt on seeing that Paul Magrs had got Lust. Realistically though, having to address lust in a BBC-licenced Doctor Who story was an insoluble problem, and giving it to Paul Magrs was an elegant way of side-stepping it, so, fair enough, really.

UNRECONCILED UNIT DATING

Sarah Jane thinks it is “two years” since she saw the Doctor, which doesn’t fit my time scheme at all. I suggest she is thinking figuratively.

The Dollhouse   Audio drama, released 2017                                       Doctor: 0

Featuring Torchwood

Written by Juno Dawson.

Informed guess Takes place in Los Angeles, Ca; self-dated the 1970s CE. The general feeling of being a mutant Charlie’s Angels suggests the late 1970s. It is not obvious why Torchwood, an organisation with a frankly unnatural relationship with the British Crown, would be maintaining an office in Hollywood, apart from general bureaucratic overreach. If the sources of Torchwood’s funding – a comprehensively unaddressed issue – were known, more might be clearer.

The Tansbury Experiment   Comic story, published 1976                      Doctor: 4

featuring Sarah Jane

Illustrated ?and written by John Canning.

informed guess Takes place on the Cornish coast, after Robot. As in The Threat From Beneath and The Deadly Sea, the Doctor’s job is made considerably harder by an obstructive Flag Officer of the Royal Navy. Perhaps somebody at Polystyle had had a bad experience.

 

The 1979 series The Aphrodite Inheritance describes the Greek gods involving themselves in human affairs on contemporary Cyprus. I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to imagine the Gods coming back from the trans-dimensional retreat they went on a few years previously in Deadly Reunion. One might expect gods to be easily bored, the Olympian pantheon perhaps more easily than most.

 

TV Action!   Comic story, published 1999                                                    Doctor: 8

featuring The Beep of All the Meeps, Tom Baker, Izzy

Written by Alan Barnes.

Takes place in the BBC Television Centre of an alternative Earth; self-dated October 1979 CE.

The Meeps are a spacefaring species of furred, macrotous, macrophthalmic bipeds. The Beep was at one point their supreme leader.

Isabelle Sinclair, known as Izzy, is a Tellurian born in 1979 CE.

The Iron Legion   Comic story, published 1979                                         Doctor: 4

Written by Pat Mills and John Wagner.

Contemporary to publication Takes place mostly in an alternative Rome, where the empire became interstellar. According to the Audio adaptation, it is dated early October, 1979 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.

A VILLAGE IN ENGLAND (STOCKBRIDGE ACCORDING TO THE AUDIO ADAPTATION) IS OVERRUN BY ROBOTS AND ITS SURVIVNG INHABITANTS KIDNAPPED TO ANOTHER DIMENSION.

Zombie Motel   Illustrated short story, published 2007                            Doctor: 10

Featuring Martha

Written by Paul Magrs.

Takes place near the coast of England; principally self-dated Hallowe’en 1979 CE.

The Valley of Death   Audio drama, released 2012                     Doctor: 4

Featuring Leela, UNIT

Written by Jonathan Morris, from a story by Philip Hinchcliffe.

informed guess Takes place in South America and London, concluding in 1979 CE. The Prime Minister is female, placing it after the general election. The Brigadier is doing business in Oslo, the capital of Norway, and again I am inclined to interpret this as “a Brigadier”.

Beneath the Waves   Comic story, published 2017                                   Doctor: 12

Featuring Hattie, and the Quarks, Earth Reptiles, the Sontarans, the Zygons, the Judoon (glimpse)

Written by George Mann.

Informed guess Takes place partly on the coast of England, self-dated 1979 CE.

Hattie Munro is a humanoid of Tellurian descent, born on the Twist probably in the fortieth century CE, from her appearance, though advances in longevity technology might mean that it was earlier.

Serpent’s Child Short story, published 2016                                             Doctor: 0

Featuring Erimem

Written by James Maddox.

Takes place on the English coast; self-dated December 1979 CE.

The Hoaxers Comic story, published 1976                                                 Doctor: 4

featuring Sarah Jane

Illustrated ?and written by John Canning.

informed guess: Takes place in the UK; self-dated Christmas, after Robot, as published. The Doctor and Sarah Jane are now pretty close, working as a team. Difficult not to conclude that a wealthy miser called Hiram Lutz getting his come-uppance isn’t an anti-Semitic dogwhistle, alas.

 

 

 

Total Stories Considered               551  

Proportion Written By Women   8%                                          

 

Top Docs

3                 193 stories

4                 52 stories  

2                 33 stories  

7                 23 stories   Climber!    

1                 22 stories

8                 16 stories           

10               14 stories  

12               14 stories  

11               13 stories

6                 11 stories  

Unbound   9 stories             

5                 8 stories             

13               4 stories    

9                 2 stories    

         

         

 

Top Twenty Recurring Elements

 

Alastair and the Lethbridge-Stewart family                                                                                                                                        208 stories

UNIT                                                                    161 stories

London                                                                143 stories

Regional England                                               126 stories         

Jo                                                                         83 stories  

Benton                                                                77 stories  

North America                                                   67 stories

Yates                                                                   61 stories  

The Travers family                                            51 stories  

Liz                                                                        50 stories  

The Master                                                         47 stories

At sea                                                                  42 stories   Climber!    

The Intrusion Counter-Measures Group        39 stories

Continental Europe                                           34 stories           

Scotland                                                              35 stories

Sarah Jane                                                          31 stories   Climber!

Iris Wildthyme                                                   27 stories  

Christmas                                                            26 stories   Climber!    

The Time Lords                                                  26 stories            

Senor 105                                                           19 stories  

 

         

Top Decades

 

The Teens                                                           241 stories

The Seventies                                                    110 stories         

The Noughties                                                    86 stories

The Nineties                                                       49 stories

The Twenties                                                     37 stories  

The Sixties                                                          24 stories  

The Eighties                                                        4 stories

 

And Top Twenty Years

 

2016                                                          44 stories

2015                                                          30 stories  

2018                                                          28 stories  

2017                                                          28 stories   Climber!

2013                                                          28 stories  

2019                                                          28 stories  

1970                                                          24 stories

2012                                                          21 stories   Climber!

1973                                                          20 stories  

2011                                                          19 stories

1972                                                          18 stories

2020                                                          18 stories

2021                                                          18 stories

2001                                                          17 stories           

1974                                                          14 stories  

1993                                                          11 stories

2007                                                          11 stories

2005                                                          10 stories   Climber!

2009                                                          10 stories   Climber!

2010                                                          10 stories  

 

         

 

Total Writers (including showrunners, script editors, anthology linking material writers)                                      244

Proportion of Female Writers                12%      

 

Top Twenty Writers

 

Terrance Dicks                                          26 stories  

? John Canning                                         22 stories  

Paul Magrs                                                16 stories   Climber!

Anonymous Polystyle Writers               14 stories  

John Dorney                                             12 stories  

Andy Frankham-Allen                            12 stories  

Malcolm Hulke                                         10 stories  

Mark Wright                                             10 stories  

Simon Guerrier                                        8 stories    

Dennis Hooper                                         8 stories    

Justin Richards                                         8 stories    

Eddie Robson                                            8 stories    

1971 Annual crew                                   8 stories    

1973 Annual crew                                   8 stories             

Roger Noel Cook                                      7 stories    

Guy Adams                                               6 stories=            

Robert Holmes                                         6 stories=

David A McIntee                                      6 stories=

Jonathan Morris                                      6 stories=   Re-entry!

John Peel                                                  6 stories=

Cody Schell                                               6 stories=