Then: Before Photosynthetic Plant Life On Earth

 

Approximately the third and second aeons before the Common Era.

 

Petrified   Comic story, published 1974                                                      Doctor: 3

featuring the Time Lords (informative mention)

Written by an anonymous Polystyle writer.

Informed guess Takes place in the Great Spiral Nebula of Andromeda (henceforward the Andromeda Galaxy), at least an aeon before Doctor Who and the Invasion from Space.

The Savages   TV story, broadcast 1966                                             Doctor: 1

featuring Steven, Dodo

Written by Ian Stuart Black, script edited by Gerry Davis.

Informed guess: The Doctor is welcomed by a very advanced civilisation (they’ve been tracking him through time and space). The end of the previous episode has the Doctor announcing the TARDIS’s arrival in the far future, but I’m assuming unseen events between that and this. I’m guessing that it exists relatively soon after the Time Lords, and possibly has had contact with them. Once the Time Lords had evolved, other humanoid life-forms became more likely (Lucifer Rising).

The Locked Room   Audio drama, released 2015                               Doctor: 1

Featuring Steven, the Vardans, with Oliver Harper (informative mention)

Written by Simon Guerrier.

Informed guess Takes place on the same planet as The Savages, about fifty years afterwards (I am assuming that the Doctor’s consciousness has no difficulty in travelling through time, and that these events do not coincidentally take place in 1986 CE).

Self Delusion   Charity short story, published 2001      Doctors: 6, 7 and 1 (informative mention)

featuring Peri, Ace, Benny

Written by Jon Andersen.

Informed guess Takes place in the Cerrone system, at a time of interstellar civilisation in the Andromeda Galaxy, arguably near in time to Petrified.

The Year of the Drex Olympics   Audio story, released 2019                Doctor: 2

Featuring Venus, Jamie, Victoria

Written by Paul Ebbs.

Informed guess Takes place on Venus. The Venusian civilisation described seems noticeably less catastrophic than that described in Venusian Lullaby, so I’m guessing this takes place some kilocenturies earlier.

Venusian Lullaby   Novel, published 1994                                      Doctor: 1

featuring Barbara, Ian, Venus

Written by Paul Leonard.

Takes place on Venus; self-dated three billion years before the Common Era.

Venusian Sunset   Charity short story, published 1998                            Doctor: 2

featuring Venus, Polly, Ben

Written by Paul Leonard.

Takes place on Venus; shortly after Venusian Lullaby.

On the Planet Isopterus   Comic story, published 1982                         Doctor: 5

featuring Adric, Nyssa, Tegan

Written by the World Distributors Annual 1983 crew.

Arbitrary placement Takes place on Isopterus.

They Were Chancing Their Arm

...living on a planet named Isopterus and expecting not to be enslaved by termites.

The Promise   Comic story, published 2o16                                               Doctor: 12

Written by Paul Lang.

Arbitrary placement Takes place in the Forbidden Zone.

The Doomsday Quatrain   Audio drama, released 2011         Doctor: 7

Featuring the Time Lords, Italy (informative mention)

Written by Emma Beeby and Gordon Rennie.

Arbitrary placement Takes place on the Poldagon research planet. The Doctor remarks that Madame Nostradamus knitted him a scarf, “or will”, implying that this may be before the sixteenth century CE, and that the Poldagon are consequently time travellers. I’m sure the Doctor knows more about this possibility than I do, so I will be guided by him. Certainly, the Poldagon know of the Time Lords, increasing its likelihood.

The Sea of Faces   Illustrated short story, published 1977                          Doctor: 4

featuring Sarah Jane

Written by the World Distributors Annual 1978 crew.

Arbitrary placement Takes place in a high-tech civilisation of earless humanoids.

Shining Darkness   Novel, published 2008                                  Doctor: 10

Featuring Donna

Written by Mark Michalowski.

Takes place in Andromeda galaxy. The robotic civilisation seen here could plausibly be a forerunner of the One in Doctor Who and the Invasion From Space.

Toy   Illustrated short story, published 1992                                                Doctor: 0

featuring the Master

Written by Colin Varney.

Informed guess Takes place in Castrovalva, just before the Castrovalva-set sections of Doctor Who – Castrovalva.

Doctor Who – Castrovalva   Novelisation of a TV story, published 1983    Doctor: 5

featuring the Master, Adric, Nyssa, Tegan

Adapted by Christopher H Bidmead from his own script, edited by Eric Saward.

Informed guess Takes place near and in Castrovalva, although also briefly in Cambridgeshire. I’m assuming that the Master sets his trap for the Doctor on Castrovalva nearer to his own time on Gallifrey than we are.

A New Life   Illustrated short story, published 1975                                   Doctor: 4

featuring Sarah Jane, with Lethbridge-Stewart, Harry (glimpse)

Written by the World Distributors Annual 1976 crew.

Arbitrary placement Takes place on Lexoptera.

New and Improved   Comic story, published 2o12                                   Doctor: 11

Featuring Amy or an Amy ganger, Rory

Written by Craig Donaghy.

Arbitrary placement Takes place on an unnamed forested planet.

Deadly Vessel   Comic story, published 1966                                            Doctor: 1

featuring Gillian, John

Written by Roger Noel Cook.

Arbitrary placement Takes place on the planet Ing, inhabited by high-tech non-humanoid bipeds.

Underworld   TV story, broadcast 1978                                              Doctor: 4

featuring Leela, K9 I, the Time Lords (informative mention)

Written by Bob Baker and Dave Martin, script edited by Anthony Read.

Arbitrary placement. Takes place “at the edge of the universe” (galaxy?) some time after Time Lord civilisation. The Minyans are humanoid, but I don’t think that the name Jackson indicates that they are Tellurian descended.

Underwater Adventure   Comic story, published 1966                           Doctor: 1

featuring Gillian, John

Written by Roger Noel Cook.

Arbitrary placement. Takes place, thoroughly underwater, on a planet of high-tech humanoids.

Change Management   Short story, published 2008                               Doctor: 6

Featuring Mel

Written by Simon Moore.

Arbitrary placement Takes place on Fluxicon IV.

Doctor Who and the Invasion from Space   Illustrated short story, published 1966                                                                                                                                                          Doctor: 1

featuring London (informative mention)

Written by J.L.Morrisey.

Informative guess Takes place in the One’s armada, migrating from the now uninhabitable Andromeda Galaxy to Mutter’s Spiral. There is, I suggest, the merest possibly that the One who commands the enemy in The Book of the War is this galaxy-wide A.I., seeking revenge, making the entire Second War in Heaven a sequel to Doctor Who and the Invasion from Space, which is no more than Doctor Who and the Invasion from Space deserves.

Heroes of Sontar   Audio drama, released 2011                             Doctor: 5

Featuring the Sontarans, Nyssa, Tegan, Turlogh, with the Rutan (informative mention)

Written by Alan Barnes.

Informed guess Takes place on Samur, (comparatively) early in the Sontaran-Rutan war. I am assuming that the Lynx and Styre mentioned are much earlier Sontarans of the same name.

The Rage   Comic story, published 2011                                                          Doctor: 11

Featuring Amy or an Amy ganger, Rory

Written by Eddie Robson.

Arbitrary placement Takes place on Senecca B.

Danger Down Below   Illustrated short story, published 1982                 Doctor: 5

featuring Nyssa, Tegan

Written by the World Distributors Annual 1983 crew.

Informed guess Takes place probably in our galaxy, but features a Migrator from the Andromeda galaxy. I’m guessing that it has reached here - uniquely in the Doctor’s experience - from the One’s armada, and I’m guessing at a couple of hundred million years after Doctor Who and the Invasion from Space.

Valley of Dragons   Illustrated short story, published 1967                      Doctor: 2

featuring Jamie, Victoria

Written by the World Distributors Annual 1968 crew.

Arbitrary placement Takes place on a planet inhabited by sentient giant insects and sentient avian bipeds.

The Outsider   Comic story, published 1980                                               Doctor: 4

featuring the Sontarans

Written by Steve Moore.

Informed guess Takes place on Braktilis, a planet populated by humanoids. Probably part of the aeons-long prehuman history of the Sontarans and the Rutan.

Nature of the Beast   Comic story, published 1986                                    Doctor: 6

featuring Peri, Frobisher

Written by Simon Furman.

arbitrary placement Takes place on an unnamed planet in Yl Caan/Caynon space.

The Armageddon Factor   TV story, broadcast 1979               Doctor: 4

featuring the Time Lords, K9 II, Grace technology, Romana

Written by Bob Baker and Dave Martin, script edited by Anthony Read.

Arbitrary placement Under the circumstances, I’d like to believe that the Shadow had to wait no more than twelve or so aeons after the creation of the universe for this story to take place. Takes place in the humanoid civilisation of Atrios and Zeos.

The Chaos Pool   Audio drama, released 2009                              Doctor: 5

featuring Grace technology, Romana

Written by Peter Anghelides.

Arbitrary placement Takes place on Safeplace/Chaos. On the surface it is close to the end of the universe, but in surrounding space it is almost two centuries after The Armageddon Factor.

Deleted Scene from ‘Iris Wildthyme and the Key Lime Pie 2 Time – Part Three: The Stones of Blood’   Short story, published 2011                                     Doctor: 0

Featuring Iris Wildthyme, Senor 105

Written by Cody Quijano-Schell.

Informed guess Takes place on board Iris’s bus, and linked somehow to the Doctor’s second quest for the key to time, that culminates in The Chaos Pool.

 

 

 

Total Stories Considered               2930

Proportion Written By Women   11%                                        

 

Top Docs

3                 271 stories

4                 262 stories         

7                 230 stories         

8                 208 stories                   

10               204 stories

11               185 stories         

5                 172 stories                   

6                 162 stories         

2                 153 stories         

1                 141 stories         

12               93 stories  

Unbound   77 stories  

9                 54 stories  

13               47 stories           

War            45 stories                     

 

 

Top Twenty Recurring Elements

 

London                                                                632 stories         

Regional England                                               489 stories

UNIT                                                                    398 stories

Alastair, Kate, Kadiatu, Lucy Weston and the Lethbridge-Stewart family                                                                                       388 stories

The Time Lords                                                  375 stories  

Wales                                                                  244 stories

North America                                                   239 stories   

Torchwood                                                         233 stories  

Sarah Jane                                                          202 stories  

The Daleks and Davros                                     201 stories  

The Master, including Missy                            189 stories   

Captain Jack                                                       187 stories

The K9s                                                               153 stories  

Romana                                                               146 stories  

Ace                                                                      140 stories  

Continental Europe                                           133 stories  

Christmas                                                            129 stories   

Jo                                                                         128 stories         

Benton                                                                115 stories  

Iris Wildthyme                                                   108 stories

 

 

Top Decades

 

The Teens                                                           1239 stories

The Noughties                                                    731 stories                   

The Nineties                                                       285 stories

The Twenties                                                     266 stories

The Seventies                                                    181 stories         

The Eighties                                                        174 stories

The Sixties                                                          54 stories  

 

 

And Top Twenty Years

 

2016                                                          186 stories

2018                                                          164 stories  

2020                                                          152 stories   

2017                                                           149 stories      

2008                                                          139 stories   Climber!

2015                                                          139 stories 

2021                                                          133 stories   

2019                                                          128 stories  

2011                                                          121 stories  

2013                                                          111 stories   

2009                                                          107 stories

2010                                                          103 stories

2001                                                          96 stories  

2007                                                          88 stories

2006                                                          72 stories     

2012                                                          69 stories           

2014                                                          68 stories  

1993                                                          67 stories

2004                                                          64 stories     

2005                                                          63 stories     

 

         

 

 

Total Writers (including showrunners, script editors, anthology linking material writers)                                  854

Proportion of Female Writers           16%      

 

Top Twenty Writers

 

Terrance Dicks                                          111 stories  

Russell T Davies                                       104 stories

James Goss                                               82 stories           

Paul Magrs                                                65 stories  

Steven Moffat                                          57 stories           

Justin Richards                                         49 stories                     

Robert Holmes                                         45 stories  

John Dorney                                             42 stories           

Matt Fitton                                               42 stories  

Gareth Roberts                                        41 stories  

Eric Saward                                               41 stories   Climber!

Eddie Robson                                            40 stories           

Gary Russell                                              39 stories  

Jonathan Morris                                      36 stories  

Andrew Cartmel                                      35 stories

Guy Adams                                               33 stories  

? John Canning                                         33 stories

Paul Cornell                                              31 stories  

James Hornby                                           31 stories  

Joseph Lidster                                          31 stories           

David Llewellyn                                       31 stories