Now: Nineteen Ninety-Six                                                                           

 

Who Killed Kennedy   Novel, published 1996                            Doctor: 3

featuring the Master, Dodo, Lethbridge-Stewart, UNIT, C19, Liz, and Benton, Jo, the Ogrons (glimpse)

Written by David Bishop.

Takes place mainly in London and Dallas, Tx; finishing self-datedly in January 1996 CE.

Virgo: Virgin Lands   Short story, published 2002                                   Doctor: 7

featuring Ace, Death, Benny

Written by Sarah Groenewegen

Takes place in Sydney, NSW; historically, the Port Arthur massacre took place in April 1996 CE.

Battlefield   TV story, broadcast 1989                                                 Doctor: 7

featuring Lethbridge-Stewart, UNIT, the Matter of Britain, Ace

Written by Ben Aaronovitch, script edited by Andrew Cartmel.

Takes place in Cornwall, between Downtime and The Dying Days. In the novelisation of Downtime, Bambera is a captain, so she has advanced four ranks in about a year. Her verbal tic of “shame!” clearly signifies her nationality, as it is a very South African idiom.

A Suitable Gift (And a Safe One)   Charity drabble, published 1993     Doctor: 7

featuring Lethbridge-Stewart, and Jo (informative mention)

Written by Alison Jacobs.

informed guess Takes place probably in Lethbridge-Stewart’s home, probably shortly after or shortly before the end of Battlefield.

Shame   Charity drabble, published 1993                                                    Doctor: 3

featuring UNIT

Written by Tony Cooke.

informed guess Takes place at old UNIT HQ; shortly after Battlefield.

 

The TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer intersects Doctor Who narrative tangentially at a couple of points: a panel in the Buffy: Series 7 comic serial and the non-professional Faction Paradox story Sisters of Paradox. Buffy continuity is too large to encompass in this chronology for only that reason. However, there is nothing to prevent it incorporating the film Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992): Buffy TV series chronology would place it in spring 1996, in some reality.

 

Pop Culture Reference   Charity short story, published 2001                 Doctor: Unbound

Written by Scott Longmuir.

Takes place post-modernistly; finishing self-datedly and self-referentially in April 1996 CE.

The Raggedy Doctor by Amelia Pond   Audio short story, published 2020                                                                                                                                                    Doctor: 11 (informative mention)

Featuring Amy, Rory, River Song

Wriitten by Steven Moffat

Informed guess Takes place in Leadworth, a village in Gloucestershire, some time after the first meeting of the Doctor and Amy.

Doctor Who and the Fangs of Time   Comic story, published 1996   Doctor: Unbound 4

Written by Sean Longcroft.

Contemporary to publication Takes place post-modernistly.

Unnatural Selection   Video Drama, released 1996                          Doctor: 0

featuring Liz, PROBE

Written by Mark Gatiss.

contemporary to release Takes place in the UK; self-dated July.

Hospitality   Short story, published 2010           Doctor: Unbound 8 (informative mention)

Featuring Iris Wildthyme

Written by Paul Magrs.

Informed guess Takes place in a version of London, soon after the broadcast of the Doctor Who TV Movie with Paul McGann.

Interference – Book One: Shock Tactic   Novel, published 1999                                                                                                                                Doctors: 3, 8

Featuring  the Time Lords, UNIT, the Ogrons, Sarah Jane, K9 III, Faction Paradox, the Second War in Heaven, Sam, Fitz, Compassion, with the Master, The Rani (informative mention)

Written by Lawrence Miles.

Takes place in London, Geneva and Saudi Arabia, also on Dust, Anathema, Foreman’s World and Ordifica; mostly self-dated August 1996 CE.

Saudi Arabia was a monarchy occupying most of the Arabian peninsula of southwest Asia.

Interference – Book Two: The Hour of the Geek                                                                                     Novel, published 1999                       Doctors: 3, 8

Featuring the Time Lords, UNIT, the Ogrons, Sarah Jane, K9 III, Faction Paradox, the War in Heaven, Sam, Fitz, Compassion, with Iris Wildthyme, Jeremy, the remembered Fitz (glimpse) and the Voord, UNIT, the Daemons, K9 IV (informative mention)

Takes place mostly in London, Surrey, Berkshire, Saudi Arabia and on Dust, Anathema, Foreman’s World and Ordifica, immediately after Interference: The Hour of the Geek. I’m guessing that the Special Scientific Adviser interviewed by Sarah is Iris. Also, the Jeremy she talks to seems indistinguishable from Jeremy Fitzoliver, despite the fact that he appeared to die in Instruments of Darkness. Of course, the fact of having left linear time opens the possibility of there being more than one of him about. Compassion leaves linear time, being aboard the TARDIS when it dematerialises. The Remembered Fitz is Remembered by and aboard the TARDIS.

The Voord are a bipedal species of the planet Marinus. The suggestion here that Faction Paradox engineered their creation – witty and well thought out, as one expects of Lawrence Miles - would make things very complicated indeed.

The Time Savers   Illustrated short story, published 1984                        Doctor: 6

featuring the Time Lords, the Master, Peri

Written by the World Distributors 1985 Annual crew.

Takes place on Gallifrey and in Cambridge self-datedly in September 1996 CE.

Ghosts of Winterborne   Video Drama, released 1996                  Doctor: 0

featuring Liz, PROBE

Written by Mark Gatiss.

contemporary to release Takes place in Surrey and London, many months after The Devil of Winterborne.

The Sow in Rut   Short story, published 1999                                            Doctor: 0

featuring Sarah Jane, K9 III

Written by Robert Perry and Mike Tucker.

informed guess Takes place in the Lake District; self-dated September, not long after City of Devils, but not before 1996 CE, as K9 plays a Spice Girls track.

The Spectre of Lanyon Moor Audio Drama, released 2000            Doctor: 6

featuring Lethbridge-Stewart, Evelyn, and UNIT (informative mention)

Written by Nicholas Pegg.

informed guess Takes place in Cornwall; self-dated October. Lethbridge-Stewart is married, so after Downtime;  indeed, from his appearance in Downtime and Battlefield, the photo images and illustration for this story suggest that marriage to Doris has, understandably, rejuvenated him.

Trick or Treat   Audio Drama, released 2015                                        Doctor: 0

Featuring Dorian Gray

Written by Scott Handcock.

informed guess Takes place in London; self-dated Hallowe’en, and 1996 CE by Scott Handcock.

 

From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) is a vampire film broadly compatible with Doctor Who narrative.

 

The Sands of Time   Novel, published 1996                                  Doctor: 5

featuring the Osirians, Nyssa, Tegan

Written by Justin Richards.

Takes place in Oxfordshire, Cornwall, London and Egypt; finishing self-datedly in November 1996 CE.

Endgame   Comic story, published 1996                                                     Doctor: 8

featuring the Toymaker, Izzy

Written by Alan Barnes.

Takes place in Stockbridge; self-dated December 1996 CE.

Imaginary Enemies   Comic story, published 2012                                  Doctor: 0

Featuring River Song, Amy, Rory   

Written by Scott Gray.

Informative guess Takes place in Leadworth; self-dated December. Amy was born in 1989 CE, and nativity plays are traditionally performed in British primary schools, so it will be in the mid-nineties, but no earlier than the Doctor’s meeting with Amy in 1996 CE.

 

 

 

 

 

Total Stories Considered               821  

Proportion Written By Women   8%                                          

 

Top Docs

3                 204 stories

4                 96 stories  

7                 72 stories  

2                 56 stories  

5                 48 stories  

6                 45 stories

1                 34 stories

8                 31 stories           

11               23 stories  

10               15 stories  

12               15 stories            

Unbound   14 stories           

9                 5 stories    

13               4 stories    

         

         

 

Top Twenty Recurring Elements

 

Alastair, Kate and the Lethbridge-Stewart family                                                                                                                               246 stories

London                                                                208 stories

UNIT                                                                    201 stories

Regional England                                               200 stories          

North America                                                   99 stories  

Benton                                                                89 stories

Jo                                                                         88 stories  

Sarah Jane                                                          67 stories   Climber!    

Yates                                                                   65 stories  

The Master, including Missy                            63 stories  

Liz                                                                        60 stories   Climber!    

The Time Lords                                                  55 stories  

The Travers family                                            55 stories  

Continental Europe                                           53 stories  

At sea                                                                  52 stories           

Ace                                                                       51 stories  

Christmas                                                            44 stories           

Scotland                                                              41 stories

The Intrusion Counter-Measures Group        39 stories

The K9s                                                               39 stories

 

 

         

Top Decades

 

The Teens                                                           306 stories

The Noughties                                                    144 stories

The Nineties                                                       124 stories Climber!   

The Seventies                                                    120 stories

The Eighties                                                        53 stories  

The Twenties                                                     42 stories

The Sixties                                                          32 stories  

         

 

 

 

And Top Twenty Years

 

2016                                                          48 stories

2019                                                          40 stories  

2018                                                          37 stories  

2017                                                          35 stories            

2015                                                          34 stories

2013                                                          34 stories  

2001                                                          30 stories  

1993                                                          29 stories   Climber!

2012                                                          29 stories   Climber!    

2011                                                          28 stories            

1970                                                          24 stories

2021                                                          21 stories

1973                                                          20 stories  

2020                                                          20 stories   Climber!

2008                                                          19 stories

1972                                                          18 stories

1992                                                          17 stories           

1999                                                          15 stories   New entry!

2005                                                          15 stories   Climber!

1974                                                          14 stories=

2007                                                          14 stories=          

2009                                                          14 stories=

 

         

 

Total Writers (including showrunners, script editors, anthology linking material writers)                                                343

Proportion of Female Writers                         13%      

 

Top Twenty Writers

 

Terrance Dicks                                          31 stories  

? John Canning                                         30 stories  

Paul Magrs                                                22 stories  

Andy Frankham-Allen                             16 stories

Eric Saward                                               16 stories  

Anonymous Polystyle Writers               15 stories  

Eddie Robson                                            15 stories            

John Dorney                                             13 stories  

Andrew Cartmel                                      12 stories  

Paul Cornell                                              11 stories  

Simon Guerrier                                        11 stories  

Robert Holmes                                         11 stories  

Malcolm Hulke                                         10 stories  

Jonathan Morris                                      10 stories  

Justin Richards                                         10 stories  

Gary Russell                                              10 stories  

Mark Wright                                             10 stories

Roger Noel Cook                                      9 stories    

Steve Lyons                                               9 stories    

Mark Gatiss                                               8 stories=   New entry!

Dennis Hooper                                         8 stories=  

David A McIntee                                      8 stories=  

1971 Annual crew                                   8 stories=  

1973 Annual crew                                   8 stories=