Now: Nineteen Eighty-Six                                                                           

 

Time Wake  Illustrated short story, published 1985                                  Doctor: 6

featuring Peri

Written by the World Distributors 1986 Annual crew.

Takes place in London; self-dated January 1986 CE (and 1720 CE).


Mind Over Matter   Charity short story, published 2001                          Doctor: 4

featuring Lethbridge-Stewart, UNIT, Benton and Sarah Jane (informative mention)

Written by David J Howe.

Informed guess Takes place in Sussex; after Robot and “some years” after The Mind of Evil.


The Ashes of Eternity   Audio story, released 2021                     Doctor: 9


Featuring Rose


Written by Neil Bushnell.


Takes place in Northumberland; self-dated 1986.


Pass it On   Short story, published 2009                                                    Doctors: 2, 6

featuring Ace

Written by Simon Guerrier.

informed guess Takes place in London, culminating in 1986 CE.


Kept Safe and Sound Short story, published 2003                                  Doctor: 0

Featuring K9, probably K9 II

Written by Paul Magrs.

informed guess Takes place in the UK; self-dated summer, ten years or more after Invasion of the Dinosaurs. K9 I was either destroyed in Imperiatrix, or went on to become K9 I Mark 2; K9 III was destroyed in School Reunion; K9 IV was preserved by Sarah Jane’s (adoptive?) descendants until the 50th century CE (Tautology), so this is probably K9 II, somehow abandoned on Earth, I speculate, as a survivor of the Last Great Time War.


The Way Forwards   Audio short story, released 2011                              Doctor: 2

Featuring Victoria

Written by Steven Case.

Informed guess Takes place in the USA; self-dated 1986 CE, presumably summer.


Vigil   Audio short story, published 1998                                                     Doctor: 6

featuring Peri

Written by Michael Collier.

informed guess Takes place in Hastings, a coastal town of Sussex; about a couple of years after Planet of Fire as Peri’s college contemporaries are unsurprised by her appearance.


The Shroud of Azaroth   Illustrated short story, published 1982            Doctor: 0

featuring Sarah Jane, K9 III

Written by Mike Wilde.

informed guess Takes place in the UK, sometime after K9 & Co.: A Girl’s Best Friend.


Pure History   Short story, published 2019                                                             Doctor: 0


Featuring Anne Travers, with Grace technology (informative mention)


Written by George Ivanoff.


Takes place in Melbourne, a city on the south coast of Australia, and capital of the state of

Victoria; self-dated 1986 CE, at the beginning of the Academic year.


Loud and Proud   Audio short story, released 2019                                 Doctor: 6

Featuring Mel

Written by Andrew Allen.

Takes place in Pease Pottage, Sussex; self-dated September 1986 CE. This means that Mel is in technical danger of meeting her earlier self, but presumably they’ve got that covered.

 

Peter S Beagle's 1986 novel The Folk of the Air pivotally features a character whom it gradually emerges is a goddess, plausibly an amnesiac Olympian.

 

Old Boys   Short story, published 2006                                                      Doctor: 6

featuring Edward Grainger, Peri, Mel, Evelyn

Written by Steve Parsons and Andrew Stirling-Brown.

Takes place in Hong Kong and London; the later section self-dated September 1986 CE.

Doctor Evelyn Smythe is a Tellurian. There are remarkably few clues to her birth date, but as she is a senior academic in 2000 CE, I’d a hazard a guess at some time in the 1940s CE.


The Heart That Lives Alone               Audio Drama, released 2011           Doctor: 0

Featuring the Vampires, Dorian Gray

Written by Scott Handcock.

Informed guess Takes place in Whitby; self-dated 1986 CE.

 

The Fly (1986) of course features teleportation technology entirely compatible with Doctor Who narrative: The Seeds of Death, Ride to Nowhere et al.

 

The Day Before They Came   Audio drama, released 2021         Doctor: 11


Written by Daniel Blythe


Takes place on the English coast; self-dated November 1986 CE.


The Tenth Planet   TV story, broadcast 1966         Doctors: 1, with 2 (glimpse)

featuring the Cybermen, Polly, Ben, with Geneva (glimpse), and the USA (informative mention)

Written by Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis.

Takes place in Antarctica; self-dated December 1986 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.

THERE ARE MAJOR LANDINGS BY CYBERMEN, WHO COLLAPSE WHEN MONDAS DISINTEGRATES NOT FAR FROM THE EARTH.


Letting Go   Charity short story, published 2001                 Doctors: 1, with 2 (glimpse)

Featuring Polly, Ben

Written by Jim Catapano.

Takes place in Antarctica; during The Tenth Planet.

 

 

 

 

Total Stories Considered               686  

Proportion Written By Women   8%                                          

 

Top Docs

3                 194 stories

4                 83 stories  

2                 48 stories  

5                 39 stories  

7                 29 stories  

6                 28 stories   Climber!

1                 27 stories

8                 23 stories           

11               20 stories  

10               15 stories  

12               14 stories  

Unbound   9 stories             

9                 4 stories     Climber!

13               4 stories    

 

         

         

 

Top Twenty Recurring Elements

 

Alastair and the Lethbridge-Stewart family                                                                                                                                         227 stories

UNIT                                                                    183 stories

London                                                                170 stories

Regional England                                               156 stories         

North America                                                   85 stories Climber!    

Benton                                                                85 stories   Climber!

Jo                                                                         84 stories  

Yates                                                                   63 stories  

The Master                                                         55 stories   Climber!

Sarah Jane                                                          54 stories   Climber!

The Travers family                                            53 stories   Climber!    

Liz                                                                        51 stories                     

At sea                                                                  49 stories           

Continental Europe                                           42 stories   Climber!

The Time Lords                                                  41 stories  

The Intrusion Counter-Measures Group        39 stories

Scotland                                                              38 stories

Christmas                                                            34 stories  

Iris Wildthyme                                                   28 stories=

The K9s                                                               28 stories= Re-entry!

         

 

         

Top Decades

 

The Teens                                                           278 stories

The Noughties                                                    121 stories Climber!

The Seventies                                                    120 stories         

The Nineties                                                       60 stories

The Twenties                                                     40 stories  

The Eighties                                                        37 stories  

The Sixties                                                          30 stories  

 

 

 

And Top Twenty Years

 

2016                                                          47 stories

2019                                                          34 stories   Climber!

2017                                                          33 stories  

2015                                                          31 stories  

2013                                                          31 stories  

2018                                                          31 stories  

2011                                                          26 stories   Climber!    

1970                                                          24 stories

2001                                                          24 stories   Climber!    

2012                                                          23 stories           

2021                                                          21 stories

1973                                                          20 stories  

1972                                                          18 stories

2020                                                          18 stories

2008                                                          15 stories

1974                                                          14 stories  

1993                                                          13 stories  

2004                                                          13 stories  

2007                                                          13 stories           

2009                                                          12 stories=

2010                                                          12 stories=         

 

         

 

Total Writers (including showrunners, script editors, anthology linking material writers)                                                293

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   Climber!    

Malcolm Hulke                                         10 stories  

Mark Wright                                             10 stories  

Roger Noel Cook                                      8 stories    

Dennis Hooper                                         8 stories    

Jonathan Morris                                      8 stories    

Justin Richards                                         8 stories    

1971 Annual crew                                   8 stories    

1973 Annual crew                                   8 stories             

Guy Adams                                               6 stories=           

Matt Fitton                                               6 stories=

Steve Lyons                                               6 stories=  

David A McIntee                                      6 stories=

John Peel                                                  6 stories=

Gary Russell                                              6 stories=  

Cody Schell                                               6 stories=

David Whitaker                                        6 stories=

1974 Annual crew                                   6 stories=

 

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