Now:  Nineteen Eighty-Seven                                                                     

 

Mondas Passing   Short story, published 1998                                         Doctor: 0

featuring Polly, Ben

Written by Paul Grice.

Takes place in the UK; self-dated January 1987 CE.


The Rise and Fall of Senor 105  Novella, published 2019  Doctor: 1 (glimpse)

Featuring Senor 105, Theo Possible, Ancient Venus, the Cybermen, with the Time Lords (informative mention)

Written by Blair Bidmead.

Takes place variously, but pivotally in Andalusia in Spain, ending shortly after The Tenth Planet.


Wartime   Video Drama, released 1987                                                       Doctor: 0

featuring UNIT, Benton, with Lethbridge-Stewart on rerelease in 1997.

Written by Andy Lane and Helen Stirling.

contemporary to release Takes place near Bolton, Lancs.


A Tale of Monsters   Charity short story, published 2001                         Doctor: 6

featuring Izzy

Written by David Bickley.

informed guess Takes place in western Surrey. The astute reader will notice that I am assuming that Isobel (aged seven or eight) is a young Izzy, which would place this story at about this time. This requires the further assumption that a) Izzy has a younger step-brother and b) the family moved from near Guildford to Stockbridge. Being imprisoned in their house by the most repulsive aliens the Doctor has ever seen might plausibly make them want to do this.

 

The space-faring species in The Annotation Autopsy of Agent A who have their history retroactively colonised by The Enemy are, I think, the Predators introduced in the film Predator (1987).

 

Hunters   Comic story, published 1987                                                       Doctor: 0

Featuring Death’s Head

Written by Simon Furman.

informed guess Takes place in a version of Oregon, self-dated 1987 CE and published in the UK version of the Transformers comic in June.

Death’s Head is a bipedal cyborg of extracontinual, possibly extrauniversal, origin in the realm of Styrakos.


The Wrong Doctors   Audio Drama, released 2013                      Doctor: 6

Featuring Mel

Written by Matt Fitton.

informed guess Takes place in Pease Pottage, Sussex; self-dated 1987 CE.

 

The Lost Boys (1987) is a vampire movie broadly compatible with Doctor Who narrative.

 

Encounter at Burnt Snake Flats Illustrated short story, published 1992          Doctor: 5

featuring Tegan

Written by Marc Platt.

informed guess Takes place in Queensland, Australia; self-dated three years after Tegan’s departure from the TARDIS in Resurrection of the Daleks.


Damaged Goods   Novel, published 1996              Doctors: 7, with 8 (glimpse)

featuring Roz, Chris, with UNIT, Harry (glimpse), and the Time Lords, the Vampires (informative mention)

Written by Russell T Davies.

Takes place in the USA, Colombia, and principally a city in northwest England; self-dated July 1987 CE.

Colombia was a republic in the northwest of South America, southeast of the Isthmus of Panama.


Burning Daylight Short story, published 2018                                   Doctor: 0


featuring Lethbridge-Stewart


Written by Paul Chase.


Takes place in London and elsewhere in the UK. Lethbridge-Stewart, a Brigadier of “middle

years”, is doing odd jobs for the government.


We Are The Daleks   Audio Drama, released 2015                        Doctor: 7

Featuring the Daleks, Mel

Written by Jonathan Morris.

Takes place in London and Bradford, also on Skaro and Callico Nine; self-dated October 1987 CE.

Bradford was a city in Yorkshire.

 

Near Dark (1987) is a vampire film broadly compatible with Doctor Who narrative.

 

Tilting at Windmills Short story, published 2012                                    Doctor: 0

Featuring the Manleigh Halt Irregulars

Written by Nick Mellish.

Takes place in Lewes, Sussex; self-dated a month after the Great Storm of October 1987 CE.


Evitability Short story, published 2008                                                     Doctor: 7

featuring Ace

Written by Andrew K Purvis.

Takes place near Alice Springs, in the Northern Territory of Australia; self-dated 1987 CE.


Oracle of the Supermarket   Audio Drama, released 2015                     Doctor: 0

Featuring Iris Wildthyme

Written by Roy Gill.

Informed guess Takes place in the UK; self-dated the twentieth century. 45 rpm jukebox singles are being sold off, we infer, cheaply.


Father’s Day   TV story, broadcast 2005                                                Doctor: 9

Featuring Rose, Jackie, with Mickey (glimpse)

Written by Paul Cornell, script supervised by Russell T Davies.

Takes place in London; self-dated November 1987 CE.

Jackie Tyler is a Tellurian, born in 1967 CE, the mother of Rose.

Michael Smith, known as Mickey, is a Tellurian, born around 1983 CE.


Teenage Kicks   Illustrated short story, published 1990                           Doctor: 7

featuring Ace, with Iris Wildthyme (merest hint)

Written by Paul Cornell.

informed guess Takes place in London, probably Putney; self-dated winter, two days before Fenric moved Ace to Iceworld, causing her to leave linear time, which is dated 1987 CE by Parkin in Ahistory, shortly after she saw Withnail and I. This may reasonably be regarded as the prelude to the New Adventures, taking Doctor Who prose in directions it had not previously gone.


Merry Christmas, Mr Nixon   Short story, published 2018                    Doctor: 0

Featuring 10,000 Dawns

Written by James Wylder

Informed guess Takes place in the USA, self-dated Christmas Eve. At least some of Richard

Nixon’s grandchildren, born 1978-84 CE, are of an age for Santa Claus.


Be Good For Goodness’s Sake   Short story, published 2005                Doctor: 8

featuring Charley (informative mention)

Written by Samantha Baker.

Takes place in Sherman, Ill.; self-dated Christmas Eve, 1987 CE.


Doctor Who - The Romans  Novelisation of TV Story, published 1987      Doctor: 1

featuring Barbara, Ian, Vicki

Adapted by Donald Cotton from a script by Dennis Spooner.

Takes place in Italy in the first century CE, but the historian Tacitus recommends that the documents it collects are not published until 1987 CE, and Target Books appear to have complied. The framing narrative takes place some six decades after the main action, so it is not surprising that Ascaris is now considered a third-class legionary, apparently working on Hadrian’s Wall in his nineties.

 

 

 

 

 

Total Stories Considered               703  

Proportion Written By Women   8%                                          

 

Top Docs

3                 194 stories

4                 83 stories  

2                 48 stories  

5                 40 stories  

7                 33 stories  

6                 30 stories           

1                 29 stories

8                 25 stories           

11               18 stories  

10               15 stories  

12               14 stories  

Unbound   9 stories             

9                 5 stories     Climber!

13               4 stories    

         

         

 

Top Twenty Recurring Elements

 

Alastair and the Lethbridge-Stewart family                                                                                                                                         229 stories

UNIT                                                                    185 stories

London                                                                174 stories

Regional England                                               162 stories         

North America                                                   89 stories   Climber!

Benton                                                                86 stories   Climber!

Jo                                                                         84 stories  

Yates                                                                   63 stories  

The Master                                                         55 stories

Sarah Jane                                                          54 stories  

The Travers family                                            53 stories  

Liz                                                                        51 stories           

At sea                                                                  49 stories           

Continental Europe                                           44 stories  

The Time Lords                                                  43 stories   Climber!    

The Intrusion Counter-Measures Group        39 stories

Scotland                                                              38 stories

Christmas                                                            37 stories  

Iris Wildthyme                                                   30 stories  

Tegan                                                                  28 stories

         

 

         

Top Decades

 

The Teens                                                           284 stories

The Noughties                                                    125 stories

The Seventies                                                    120 stories         

The Nineties                                                       64 stories

The Eighties                                                        40 stories  

The Twenties                                                     40 stories

The Sixties                                                          30 stories  

         

 

 

 

And Top Twenty Years

 

2016                                                          47 stories

2019                                                          35 stories   Climber!

2015                                                          33 stories   Climber!    

2017                                                          33 stories  

2018                                                          33 stories  

2013                                                          32 stories  

2011                                                          26 stories  

2001                                                          25 stories   Climber!    

1970                                                          24 stories

2012                                                          24 stories           

2021                                                          21 stories

1973                                                          20 stories  

1972                                                          18 stories

2020                                                          18 stories

2008                                                          16 stories  

1974                                                          14 stories  

1993                                                          13 stories  

2004                                                          13 stories  

2007                                                          13 stories           

2009                                                          13 stories

         

 

         

 

Total Writers (including showrunners, script editors, anthology linking material writers)                                                302

Proportion of Female Writers                         12%      

 

Top Twenty Writers

 

? John Canning                                         29 stories  

Terrance Dicks                                          28 stories  

Paul Magrs                                                20 stories  

Eric Saward                                               16 stories  

Anonymous Polystyle Writers               15 stories  

John Dorney                                             13 stories  

Andy Frankham-Allen                             13 stories  

Eddie Robson                                            13 stories  

Robert Holmes                                         11 stories  

Simon Guerrier                                        10 stories

Malcolm Hulke                                         10 stories  

Mark Wright                                             10 stories  

Jonathan Morris                                      9 stories     Climber!

Roger Noel Cook                                      8 stories    

Dennis Hooper                                         8 stories    

Justin Richards                                         8 stories    

1971 Annual crew                                   8 stories    

1973 Annual crew                                   8 stories             

Matt Fitton                                               7 stories     Climber!

Guy Adams                                               6 stories=           

Paul Cornell                                              6 stories=   New entry!

Steve Lyons                                               6 stories=  

David A McIntee                                      6 stories=

Gary Russell                                              6 stories=  

John Peel                                                    6 stories=

Cody Schell                                               6 stories=

David Whitaker                                        6 stories=

1974 Annual crew                                   6 stories=

 

 

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