Then: The Chronarchy and the Doctor’s Timeline: The Doctor’s First Incarnation

(Say, four hundred and forty-nine years. The Doctor describes himself as about four hundred and fifty in The Tomb of the Cybermen. He has been travelling continuously with Polly and Ben, then Jamie between his regeneration in The Tenth Planet and that story. I am assuming that these three Tellurians age in the same way as the actors playing them, and place the Doctor’s regeneration a year before this.)

 

Out of the Mouths   Charity drabble, published 1993                              Doctor: 1

featuring the Time Lords

Written by Chris Boucher.

Takes place on Gallifrey, if, as I am assuming, the child in the story is the Doctor. A loomed Gallifreyan has an adult body: I am assuming that “child” (and indeed “time tot”) generally means in this context a very recently loomed Gallifreyan.


At the Academy   Charity drabble, published 1993                                     Doctor: 1

featuring the Time Lords

Written by Simon Christopher Jones.

Takes place on Gallifrey: the Doctor’s entry into the Academy. He is almost recognised as the Other.


“Past”, “Present”, “Future”, “Oblique” and “Absolute”   Fictional documents, published 1999                                                                                                                   Doctor: 0

Featuring The Time Lords

Written by Lawrence Miles.

These effectively provide a linking story for the charity anthology Perfect Timing 2. I was tempted to list them all separately to boost Miles’s story count, but they’re not really long enough. Although as usual Miles packs a dizzying amount of information into a small number of words with laugh-out-loud wit. One of his websites had a quote about him from the actor Julian Glover, “probably some sort of genius”. He also reported with gleeful masochism how Glover had once described him as a prick. I’m unable to offer an opinion on that, but as for “probably some sort of genius”, it is the opinion of this chronology that there is no “probably” about it. I assume that something similar to these documents were read by the Doctor when he was about five years and two months. It probably wasn’t precisely these, as they are published for the Arcalian Chapter, while the Doctor is of course a Prydonian.


Report on Term’s Work   Fictional document, published 2013               Doctor: 1

Featuring the Time Lords, with the Master, the Rani (informative mention)

Written by James Goss and Steve Tribe.

Takes place on Gallifrey, purportedly written by Borusa, in the comparatively early days of the Doctor’s education.


Extract from an Address to the Time Lord Academy by its Regulator, Scombos   

                        Charity drabble, published 1993                                                 Doctor: 1

featuring the Time Lords

Written by Colin Baker.

Takes place on Gallifrey: high jinks at the academy.

 

Backdating from Lungbarrow, at the age of one hundred and thirty-one, the Doctor is a Scrutationary Archivist.

 

Backdating from The Pirate Planet, at the age of two hundred and thirty-six, the Doctor makes his first journey in the TARDIS, as detailed in Where Were You?


Newtons Sleep Prelude: The Return of the King   Short story, published 2008                                                                                                                              Doctor: 0

Featuring the Time Lords, the Vampires

Written by Daniel O’Mahoney.

Takes place on southern Gallifrey, some four years before Warmonger according to The Book of the War. I am assuming Thecla’s oracle is a surgically disarmed cat person.


Warmonger   Novel, published 2002                                                  Doctor: 5

featuring the Time Lords, the Cybermen, the Ice Warriors, the Ogrons, the Draconians, the Sontarans, Peri

Written by Terrance Dicks.

Takes place around Gallifrey. The Sontarans are contemporaneous: the other aliens must be from colonies set up by the Time Lords in their own remote pasts. Backdating from The Book of the War, the Doctor is two hundred and eighty-seven at the fall of Morbius/The Imperator Presidency (and witnesses Morbius’s supposed execution (The Brain of Morbius)).


Daring Initiation   Short story, published 2018                                       Doctor: 0

Featuring Faction Paradox

Written by Jacob Black.

Takes place wherever Drashigs come from, possibly a moon of Grundle. Before leaving Gallifrey, the Docror successfully campaigned to have Miniscopes banned. The Drashigs seen here are soon to be timescooped into such a miniscope, so I am placing this during the early stages of the Doctor’s career as a Time Lord. This vignette gives us the Drashig backstory we didn’t know we needed.

 

Backdating from The Armageddon Factor, the Doctor is three hundred and nine when he attends a tech course with Drax.

 

Flashback   Comic story, published 1992                                                     Doctors: 1, 7

featuring the Time Lords, Magnus, Benny

Written by Warwick Gray.

Takes place on or near Gallifrey. Magnus has already regenerated. He never forgives the Doctor, his fellow former Deca member, for this incident. Both have clearly attained high rank.


One Virtue, and a Thousand Crimes   Illustrated short story, published 2020                                                         Doctor: 1 (informative mention)

Featuring the Time Lords

Written by Neil Gaiman.

Takes place partly on Gallifrey before the Doctor’s departure from it.


Escape   Charity drabble, published 1993                                                      Doctor: 1

featuring Susan

Written by David Inwood.

Takes place in the TARDIS. The Doctor and Susan leave Gallifrey in it. Backdating from Lungbarrow, the Doctor is three hundred and thirty-three.


The Three Paths   Short story, published 2006                                          Doctor: 1

featuring the Time Lords, and Steven, Polly, Ben (informative mention)

Written by Ian Potter.

Takes place on Gallifrey. The TARDIS returns to Gallifrey simultaneously with its departure.


The Exiles   Short story, published 2003                                                      Doctor: 1

featuring Susan, the Vampires

Written by Lance Parkin.

Takes place in the TARDIS, shortly after Escape.


Before the Beginning   Charity drabble, published 1993                          Doctor: 1

featuring Susan

Written by Brian Ameringen.

Takes place in the TARDIS, shortly after The Exiles. Susan names the TT capsule in which she and the Doctor are absconding the TARDIS, an acronym for Time And Relative Dimension In Space.


Darkness Before Me   Charity short story, published 1999                      Doctor: 1

featuring Susan (informative mention)

Written by Jim Campbell.

Takes place in the TARDIS, after Before the Beginning and before Doctor Who and An Unearthly Child.

 

While it is easy to imagine the Doctor travelling in time and space for eleven decades before Doctor Who and An Unearthly Child, I’m not sure it is to imagine Susan doing the same. Marco Polo implies that she is in Tellurian terms no older than she appears, and even allowing for a decade or two on that, she doesn’t have her grandfather’s air of great lived experience to temper her superhuman academic knowledge. It is implied that the Doctor could navigate the TARDIS a great deal better before Doctor Who and An Unearthly Child than he could for some time afterwards. I suggest that, with regard to her personal safety, he left her in what he knew, or thought he knew, to be a safe location and left to travel. And I can find corroborative evidence! In First Meetings, we learn that the Doctor stayed fifty years on the planet Hyspero in the company of an entity recognised as kin by Iris Wildthyme, named Allison. That a version of this story was later published with “Allison” replaced by “Susan” I shall obviously ignore.

In Byzantium!, we also learn that the Doctor has been piloting the TARDIS for sixty years, which would contradict Lungbarrow, but not if it means that he has been piloting it that long since recovering his mojo on Hyspero. So, backdating from Byzantium! and First Meetings, I suggest the Doctor is three hundred and thirty-seven when he is plunged into depression by his humiliation on Hyspero, and three hundred and eighty-seven when, with the assistance of Iris Wildthyme, she informs us, he resumes his career as a mysterious traveller in time and space.

 

Who Is Doctor Who?   (Illustrated short story, published 1966              Doctor: 1

Written by David Whitaker and Dennis Spooner.

Informed guess Implicitly takes place before Doctor Who and An Unearthly Child.


Celestial Intervention: A Gallifreyan Noir   Illustrated short story, published                                                             Doctor: 1 (informative mention)

Featuring the Time Lords, the Master, the Rani

Written by Dave Rudden.

Informed guess Takes place on Gallifrey, some time after The Three Paths.


How the Monk Got His Habit   Short story, published 2020                Doctor: 0

Featuring Mortimus

Written by Peter Harness.

Informed guess Takes place in Mortimus’s TT capsule, before The Time Meddler. He is on his fifth incarnation, which seems a lot.


The Equations of Doctor Who   (Illustrated short story, published 1966    Doctor: 1

Written by David Whitaker and Dennis Spooner.

Informed guess Implicitly takes place before Doctor Who and An Unearthly Child and after Who Is Doctor Who? as published.


Quinnis   Audio drama, released 2010                                                     Doctor: 1

Featuring Susan

Written by Marc Platt.

Takes place in the Fourth Universe, which I assume means an effective disconnect with the chronology of our own universe; for the Doctor and Susan, shortly before Doctor Who and An Unearthly Child. I suggest that Susan has recently reboarded the TARDIS.


Doctor Who and An Unearthly Child   Novelisation, published 1981    Doctor: 1

featuring Susan, Barbara, Ian

Adapted by Terrance Dicks from a script by Anthony Coburn, edited by David Whitaker.

Barbara and Ian board the TARDIS. Susan refuses to be parted from them, so the Doctor dematrialises the TARDIS, kidnapping them. Takes place partly in Shoreditch.


The Daleks   TV story, broadcast 1964                                                 Doctor: 1

featuring the Daleks, Susan, Barbara, Ian

Written by Terry Nation, script edited by David Whitaker.

As broadcast. The Doctor states, not very convincingly, actually, that he has no knowledge of the Daleks or Skaro.


Doctor Who - The Edge of Destruction   Novelisation, published 1988     Doctor: 1

featuring Susan, Barbara, Ian

Adapted by Nigel Robinson from a script by David Whitaker.

As broadcast. The TARDIS warns the Doctor, Susan, Barbara and Ian of approaching disaster. They realise they must learn to trust each other.


Doctor Who - Marco Polo   Novelisation, published 1985                                                                           Doctor: 1

featuring Susan, Barbara, Ian

Adapted by John Lucarotti, from his own script, edited by David Whitaker.

As broadcast. The TARDIS suffers a near total breakdown, which the Doctor repairs. Takes place in Asia.


In-Between Times   Comic story, published 2018                                      Doctor: 1

Featuring Susan, Barbara Ian

Written by Paul Cornell.

Takes place in the TARDIS, of which Barbara and Ian are being given their “first proper tour”.


Nothing at the End of the Lane   Short story, published 2000             Doctor: 1

featuring Barbara, Ian, and Susan (glimpse)

Written by Daniel O’Mahoney.

Takes place mostly in Barbara’s head, as she recalls and dreams about events leading up to her departure in the TARDIS. Most of it occurs in a remembered/dreamt London.


Farewell, Great Macedon   Audio adaptation of an unproduced TV script, released 2010                                         Doctor: 1

Featuring Susan, Barbara, Ian

Adapted by Nigel Robinson from a script by Moris Farhi.

Approximately as first intended to be broadcast, as near as can be reconciled with televised continuity. Takes place in Asia.


The Masters of Luxor   Audio adaptation of an unproduced TV script, released 2012                                                    Doctor: 1

Featuring Susan, Barbara, Ian

Adapted by Nigel Robinson from a script by Anthony Coburn.

Takes place for the TARDIS crew after Farewell, Great Macedon. The TARDIS is drained of power, and exhibits a ‘hover’ mode.


Doctor Who and The Keys of Marinus   Novelisation, published 1980    Doctor: 1

featuring Susan, Barbara, Ian, the Voord

Adapted by Philip Hinchcliffe from a script by Terry Nation, edited by David Whitaker.

As broadcast. Arbitan is able to keep the Doctor, Susan, Barbara and Ian out of the TARDIS with a force-field.


Doctor Who - The Aztecs   Novelisation, published 1984               Doctor: 1

featuring Susan, Barbara, Ian

Adapted by John Lucarotti from his own script, edited by David Whitaker.

As broadcast. Takes place in North America.


Doctor Who - The Sensorites   Novelisation, published 1987     Doctor: 1

featuring Susan, the Sensorites, Barbara, Ian

Adapted by Nigel Robinson from a script by Peter R Newman, edited by David Whitaker.

As broadcast. The Sensorites have the technology to remove the TARDIS lock, keeping the Doctor out.


Doctor Who - The Reign of Terror   Novelisation, published 1987   Doctor: 1

featuring Susan, Barbara, Ian

Adapted by Ian Marter from a script by Dennis Spooner, edited by David Whitaker.

As broadcast. After a further row, the Doctor is reconciled with Barbara and Ian. Takes place in continental Europe.


Doctor Who - Planet of Giants   Novelisation, published 1990  Doctor: 1

featuring Susan, Barbara, Ian

Adapted by Terrance Dicks from a script by Louis Marks, edited by David Whitaker.

As broadcast. The TARDIS materialises far too small, owing to the doors opening in mid-flight. I don’t know how oxygenation and gravity and so on is supposed to work in these circumstances.

Doctor Who and the The Dalek Invasion of Earth   Novelisation, published 1977                                          Doctor: 1

featuring the Daleks, Susan, Barbara, Ian

Adapted by Terrance Dicks from a script by Terry Nation, edited by David Whitaker.

As broadcast. Susan leaves the TARDIS. Takes place in London and Bedfordshire.


Doctor Who - The Rescue   Novelisation, published 1988             Doctor: 1

featuring Barbara, Ian, Vicki

Adapted by Ian Marter from a script by David Whitaker.

As broadcast. Vicki boards the TARDIS.


Doctor Who and The Zarbi   Novelisation, published 1965           Doctor: 1

featuring Vortis, Barbara, Ian, Vicki

Adapted by Bill Strutton from his own script, edited by Dennis Spooner.

As broadcast. The TARDIS is captured by the Animus and its doors forced open.

Vortis is an artificial planet created in the Isop galaxy and capable of travelling through space, sometimes at many times the speed of light. It is inhabited by sentient bipedal winged insects called Menoptra, who periodically have trouble with their principal domesticated livestock, the hexapedal Zarbi.


Doctor Who and The Crusaders   Novelisation, published 1966   Doctor: 1

featuring Barbara, Ian, Vicki, the Plantagenet dynasty

Adapted by David Whitaker from his own script, edited by Dennis Spooner.

As broadcast. Takes place in Asia.

The Plantagenet dynasty was a royal house of England, occupying the throne of England from the accession of Henry II in 1154 CE to the ostensible death of Richard III in 1485 CE.


Doctor Who - The Space Museum   Novelisation, published 1987     Doctor: 1

featuring Barbara, Ian, Vicki, the Moroks, with the Daleks (glimpse)

Adapted by Glyn Jones from his own script, edited by Dennis Spooner.

As broadcast. The TARDIS ‘jumps a time-track’ causing its inhabitants to see some of their future and change it.


Journey Out of Terror   Illustrated short story, published 2019              Doctor: 1

Featuring Barbara, Ian, with the Daleks, Vicki (informative mention)

Written by Simon Guerrier.

Takes place in something resembling the Land of Fiction. Vicki is absent from the TARDIS, as described in The Chase.


Doctor Who - The Time Meddler   Novelisation, published 1988    Doctor: 1

featuring Vicki, Steven, Mortimus

Adapted by Nigel Robinson from a script by Dennis Spooner, edited by Donald Tosh.

As broadcast. Barbara and Ian have left the TARDIS and Steven boards it. The Doctor meets fellow former Deca member Mortimus. Takes place in regional England.


Significant Others   Charity short story, published 2016                         Doctor: 1

Featuring Theo Possible, Vicki, Steven, Rose

Written by Blair Bidmead.

Takes place in the Fourth Universe, which turns out to be the location of Pete’s World.


Doctor Who - Galaxy Four   Novelisation, published 1986            Doctor: 1

featuring Vicki, Steven

Adapted by William Emms from his own script, edited by Donald Tosh.

As broadcast.


Doctor Who - The Daleks’ Masterplan: Mission to the Unknown

Novelisation, published 1989                                                                        Doctor: 1

featuring the Daleks, Steven, Katarina, Sara

Adapted by John Peel from a script by Terry Nation and Dennis Spooner, edited by Donald Tosh.

As broadcast. Vicki has left the TARDIS, and Katarina boards it. And dies. Sara boards the TARDIS. Takes place partly in Asia.


Doctor Who - The Daleks’ Masterplan: The Mutation of Time

Novelisation, published 1989                                                                        Doctor: 1

featuring the Daleks, Steven, Mortimus, Sara

Adapted by John Peel from a script by Terry Nation and Dennis Spooner, edited by Donald Tosh.

As broadcast. Sara dies. The Doctor is able to use the directional unit from Mortimus’s TT capsule, but it burns out in returning the TARDIS to Kembel. Takes place partly in regional England, North America and Africa. And at Christmas.


Doctor Who - The Ark   Novelisation, published 1987                     Doctor: 1

featuring Steven, Dodo, the Monoids

Adapted by Paul Erickson from a script by him and Lesley Scott, edited by Gerry Davis.

As broadcast. Dodo has boarded the TARDIS.


The Celestial Toymaker   TV story, broadcast 1966                Doctor: 1

featuring Steven, Dodo, the Toymaker

Written by Brian Hayles, script edited by Gerry Davis.

As broadcast. The TARDIS is captured and opened by the Toymaker; The Doctor can only save himself, Steven and Dodo by exercising his wits.


Doctor Who - The Celestial Toymaker   Novelisation, published 1986     Doctor: 1

featuring Steven, Dodo, the Toymaker

Adapted by Gerry Davis and Alison Bingeman, from a story by Brian Hayles.

Another telling of the events of The Celestial Toymaker. Takes place in the TARDIS and in the Toymaker’s Realm, which is implicitly outside the Universal timestream.


Murder in the Dark   Short story, published 2017                                   Doctor: 1

Featuring Steven, Dodo, the Toymaker

Written by Jacqueline Rayner.

Takes place in the Toymaker’s Realm, after The Celestial Toymaker .


Doctor Who - The Savages   Novelisation, published 1986            Doctor: 1

featuring Steven, Dodo

Adapted by Ian Stuart Black from his own script, edited by Gerry Davis.

As broadcast. Steven leaves the TARDIS.


Doctor Who - The War Machines   Novelisation, published 1989    Doctor: 1

featuring Dodo, Polly, Ben, and Ian (informative mention)

Adapted by Ian Stuart Black from his own script, edited by Gerry Davis.

As broadcast. Dodo leaves the TARDIS; Polly and Ben board it. The Doctor telepathically feels the presence of evil: the proximity of, as it turns out, WOTAN, the Chameleons (The Faceless Ones), the Daleks (The Evil of the Daleks) and Igrix (The Love Invasion), might well do it if anything would. Takes place in London.


Doctor Who - The Smugglers   Novelisation, published 1988      Doctor: 1

featuring Polly, Ben

Adapted by Terrance Dicks from a script by Brian Hayles, edited by Gerry Davis.

As broadcast. Takes place in regional England.


Falling   Audio story, released 2017                                                            Doctor: 1

Featuring Polly, Ben

Written by Jonathan Barnes.

Takes place aboard the TARDIS, shortly before Doctor Who and The Tenth Planet.


Doctor Who and The Tenth Planet   Novelisation, published 1976     Doctors: 1, with 2 (glimpse)

featuring the Cybermen, Polly, Ben.

Adapted by Gerry Davis, from his script written with Kit Pedler.

As broadcast. The Doctor regenerates. Takes place in Antarctica.


 Know Your Enemy - Madame Kovarian’s Documents Relating to the Doctor (Up To His First Regeneration)   

                                                    Short story, published 2013                     Doctor: 1

Featuring Susan, the Time Lords, the Daleks, the Cybermen, Vortis, Barbara, Ian, the Voord, Vicki, the Mechanoids, Steven, Mortimus, Katarina, Sara, Dodo, the Toymaker, Polly, Ben, Madam Kovarian

Written by James Goss and Steve Tribe.

We may assume that River Song assembles this material from up to this point in the Doctor’s timeline.

The Mechanoids are sentient robots, developed by Tellurians for planetary colonisation.

 

 

Total Stories Considered               2257

Proportion Written By Women   11%                                        

 

Top Docs

3                 224 stories

10               166 stories

4                 164 stories

7                 158 stories

11               137 stories         

8                 119 stories

1                 110 stories Climber!

5                 108 stories         

6                 103 stories

2                 85 stories  

12               75 stories  

Unbound   38 stories  

9                 34 stories  

13               32 stories

War            4 stories    

 

 

Top Twenty Recurring Elements

 

London                                                                588 stories         

Regional England                                               440 stories

UNIT                                                                    358 stories

Alastair, Kate, Kadiatu, Lucy Weston and the Lethbridge-Stewart family                                                                                      350 stories

Wales                                                                  239 stories

North America                                                   228 stories    Climber!

Torchwood                                                         228 stories  

Captain Jack                                                       179 stories

Sarah Jane                                                          144 stories

The Time Lords                                                  140 stories   

Christmas                                                            122 stories

Continental Europe                                           112 stories

The Master, including Missy                            110 stories

Jo                                                                         101 stories

Iris Wildthyme                                                   101 stories         

Ace                                                                      98 stories

Benton                                                                95 stories  

At sea                                                                  86 stories  

The Daleks and Davros                                    85 stories    Climber!

Amy and Rory                                                    82 stories  

 

 

Top Decades

The Teens                                                           963 stories

The Noughties                                                    618 stories                   

The Nineties                                                       215 stories

The Twenties                                                     201 stories

The Seventies                                                    123 stories         

The Eighties                                                        95 stories  

The Sixties                                                          42 stories  

 

 

And Top Twenty Years

 

2016                                                          150 stories

2008                                                          128 stories

2020                                                          124 stories         

2018                                                          116 stories    Climber!

2017                                                           116 stories                   

2011                                                          103 stories

2009                                                          99 stories  

2015                                                          97 stories  

2019                                                          97 stories     Climber!

2010                                                          88 stories  

2013                                                          81 stories  

2021                                                          76 stories  

2007                                                          74 stories

2001                                                          72 stories  

2006                                                          64 stories  

2012                                                          62 stories           

2014                                                          50 stories  

2005                                                          49 stories            

2004                                                          48 stories  

1999                                                          45 stories  

 

 

Total Writers (including showrunners, script editors, anthology linking material writers)                                                690

Proportion of Female Writers                         16%      

 

Top Twenty Writers

 

Russell T Davies                                       86 stories  

Paul Magrs                                                60 stories  

James Goss                                               57 stories  

Terrance Dicks                                          42 stories  

Justin Richards                                         39 stories   Climber!

Steven Moffat                                          38 stories  

Eddie Robson                                            33 stories  

Gareth Roberts                                        31 stories  

? John Canning                                         30 stories  

Joseph Lidster                                          30 stories  

Steve Lyons                                               29 stories  

James Hornby                                           28 stories

Jonathan Morris                                      28 stories            

Matt Fitton                                                26 stories  

David Whitaker                                        25 stories   Re-entry!

Guy Adams                                               23 stories           

Andrew Cartmel                                      23 stories            

John Dorney                                             23 stories                     

Christopher Cooper                                 22 stories=

Andy Frankham-Allen                            22 stories=

Simon Guerrier                                        22 stories=  Re- entry!

Gary Russell                                              22 stories=

 

 

 

 

 

 

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