Then: The Early Nineteenth Century

 

False Coronets   Audio drama, released 2018                          Doctor: 11

Featuring Clara

Written by Alice Cavender.

Takes place in regional England and London; self-dated 1800 CE.


Director’s Cut   Charity short story, published 2016                     Doctor: 6

Featuring Peri

Written by Una McCormack.

Informed guess Takes place, if I follow the logic of the story correctly, shortly after the Bayeux Tapestry was publicly on display at a museum for the first time, which would appear to be in the Musee Napoleon in Paris in 1803 CE.


The Emperor’s Spy   Comic story, published 1975                         Doctor: 4

featuring Sarah Jane

Written by John Canning.

Takes place in southern England between news of the accession of Napoleon as Emperor of France and news of the Battle of Trafalgar.


Grass   Short story, published 2001                                                  Doctor: 0

Featuring the Second War in Heaven

Written by Lawrence Miles.

Takes place in the continental interior of North America; self-dated 1805 CE.


The Clockwork Woman   Novella, published 2004              Doctor: 0

featuring LeChasseur

Written by Claire Bott.

Takes place in regional England and London; self-dated 1805 CE.


Rough Waters   Comic story, published 2010                                 Doctor: 11

Featuring Amy

Written by Trevor Baxendale.

Takes place at sea, just before HMS Tardis.


H.M.S. Tardis   Illustrated short story, published 1967                   Doctor: 2

featuring Polly, Ben

Written by the World Distributors Annual crew 1968.

Takes place at the Battle of Trafalgar, historically October 1805 CE.


The Many Lives of Zorro   Short story, published 2011               Doctor: 0

Featuring Iris Wildthyme

Written by Richard Wright.

Informed guess Takes place in the Pueblo of Los Angeles, in Spanish California, some time between 1781 and 1821 CE.


Double Falsehood   Short story, published 2014                          Doctor: 9

Featuring the William Shakespeare thing

Written by James Goss, Jonathan Morris, Justin Richards, Julian Richards and Matthew Sweet.

Takes place variously, the latest location being London, self-dated 1808 CE.

 

The Saragossa Manuscript (1965) is a film of nested stories and paradoxes, the framing story of which is set in Spain in 1805. It has a very Second War in Heaven feel, and a Saragossa Manuscript is mentioned in The Book of the War as a document probably produced under the influence of Praxis.

 

The TARDIS Worshippers   Comic story, published 1967           Doctor: 2

featuring Gillian, John

Written by Roger Noel Cook.

Informed guess Takes place in a South American jungle: the only evidence of European culture is gunpowder (but no guns).


Wing Finger   Short story, published 2013                                     Doctor: 0

Featuring Faction Paradox, the Second War in Heaven

Written by Helen Angove.

Takes place in Baden, New Guinea and points between, ending self-datedly in February 1811 CE.


Potential Energy   Short story, published 2015                             Doctor: 6

Featuring Peri

Written by Jacqueline Rayner.

Takes place in Paris; self-dated 1812 CE.


Mother Russia   Audio drama, released 2007                          Doctor: 1

featuring Steven, Dodo

Written by Marc Platt

Takes place in Russia; self-dated 1812 CE.


Frostfire   Audio drama, released 2007                                       Doctor: 1

featuring Vicki, Steven

Written by Marc Platt.

The later section takes place in London; self-dated February 1814 CE. The earlier section takes place in north Africa.


The Frozen   Web story, posted 2007                                            Doctor: 10

Written by Rupert Laight.

Takes place partly in London; self-dated February 1814 CE. Mai claims to come from Earth in the year 5113, but the planet is abandoned in the early sixth millennium CE. I am assuming she comes from the Space Year 5113, which is to say 7070 CE. (I’ll explain later).


Thin Ice   TV story, broadcast 2017                                              Doctor: 12

Featuring Bill, with Nardole (glimpse)

Written by Sarah Dollard, script supervised by Steven Moffat.

Takes place in London, self dated February 1814 CE.


Washington Burns   Audio short story, released 2016                 Doctor: 7

Featuring Ace

Written by Justin Richards.

Takes place in Washington, DC; partly self-dated August 1814 CE.


The Doctor and the Nurse   Comic story, published 2013           Doctor: 11

Featuring the Cybermen, Amy or an Amy ganger, Rory, the Silents

Written by Brandon Seifert.

Takes place variously, including in North America, Japan and on the Moon but pivotally in London in October 1814 CE.


The Thing From the Sea   Audio story, released 2018        Doctor: 4

Featuring Mrs Wibbsey

Written by Paul Magrs.

Informed guess Takes place on the coast of Italy; self-dated “the early 1800s”. Count Cagliostro evidently cheated his historically recorded death in the Forte de San Lio in 1795 CE.


No Room   Short story, published 2008                                         Doctor: 7

featuring Chris

Written by Rebecca Levene.

Takes place in the Indian Ocean; self-dated December, 1814 CE.


Spectator Sport   Short story, published 2016                               Doctor: 12

Featuring the Ood (informative mention)

Written by Justin Richards.

Takes place in New Orleans, then in the Louisiana Territory; self-dated January 1815 CE.


Iris and Irregularity   Short story, published 2005                      Doctor: 0

featuring Iris Wildthyme

Written by Jacqueline Rayner.

Informed guess Takes place in regional England; presumably during the writing career of Jane Austen.


The Mark of the Rani   TV story, broadcast 1985          Doctor: 6

featuring the Master, the Rani, Peri

Written by Pip and Jane Baker, script edited by Eric Saward.

Takes place in and near Killingworth, County Durham; dated by Doctor Who – The Mark of the Rani as slightly before the battle of Waterloo.


The Chromosome Connection   Comic story, published 2009    Doctor: 10

Featuring Heather

Written by Christopher Cooper.

Takes place in Edinburgh; partly self-dated 1815 CE.

Heather leaves linear time, being aboard the TARDIS when it dematerialises.


The Curse of Davros   Audio drama, released 2012        Doctor: 6

Featuring the Daleks, Davros, Flip

Written by Jonathan Morris.

Takes place partly at the Battle of Waterloo, historically June 1815 CE.


World Game   Novel, published 2005                                    Doctor: 2

featuring the Time Lords, the Players, a Raston Warrior Robot, with Jamie (informative mention).

Written by Terrance Dicks.

Takes place variously, on Continental Europe and in London, climaxing at the Battle of Waterloo.


The Bone Merchants   Short story, published 2018                     Doctor: 0

Featuring the Lethbridge-Stewart family

Written by Andrew Allen.

Takes place in Belgium shortly after the Battle of Waterloo.


The Creative Spark   Comic story, published 2008                      Doctor: 10

featuring Mary Shelley

Written by Simon Furman.

Takes place in Switzerland; self-dated 1816 CE, and presumably before Mary’s Story.


Mary’s Story   Audio drama, released 2009                                   Doctor: 8

Featuring Mary Shelley

Written by Jonathan Morris.

Takes place in Switzerland; self-dated June 1816 CE. Mary Shelley implicitly leaves linear time shortly after this story, being aboard the TARDIS when it dematerialises.


The Haunting of Villa Diodati  TV story, broadcast 2020           Doctor: 13

Featuring the Cybermen, Mary Shelley, Graham, Ryan, Yaz

Written by Maxine Alderton, script supervised by Chris Chibnall.

Takes place in Switzerland; self-dated June 1816 CE, and presumably after Mary’s Story, as Claire Claremont actually leaves Byron.


The Sky Man   Audio drama, released 2017                               Doctor: 0

Featuring the Master

Written by James Goss.

Arbitrary placement Takes place on an unnamed planet, inhabited by humanoids.


Rain and Regency   Short story, published 2018                          Doctor: 0

Featuring Iris Wildthyme

Written by Nick Chester.

Takes place in Brighton; self-dated January 1817 CE.

 

Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein was published in 1818. Thanks to the Second War in Heaven, Frankenstein’s Creature enjoys an ambiguous status in Doctor Who narrative between fiction and reality. He is of course Brenda’s husband, and also appears as the Piebald Man in First Draft. Brenda, strictly, is the eponymous Bride of Frankenstein, a film broadly set, allowing for Hollywood’s fantasy of life in central Europe, in its release date of 1935. Yet we know Brenda is about in 1868, appearing as she does in The Boy That Time Forgot. Bride of Frankenstein does actually feature a prologue suggesting that the story was the work of Mary Shelley, so we should probably regard Brenda as having been created in a narrative hybrid of Shelley’s novel, its 1931 film adaption and the sequel, at the end of the eighteen-teens. The protagonist of Brian Aldiss’s 1973 novel Frankenstein Unbound enters a fracture temporal reality where fact in fiction are interpenetrative enough for him to meet Frankenstein and his creature, and Mary Shelley.

 

The Peterloo Massacre   Audio drama, released 2016             Doctor: 5

Featuring Nyssa, Tegan

Written by Paul Magrs.

Takes place in Manchester; self-dated August 1819 CE.


Paradise Lost   Audio story, released 2020                                          Doctor: 11

Featuring Clara

Written by Darren Jones.

Arbitrary placement Takes place on Foss.


A Visit from Saint Nicholas   Short story, published 2008                    Doctor: 3

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

Written by Lisa Miles.

Takes place in Manhattan; self-dated Christmas 1822 CE.

 

The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, James Hogg’s 1824 novel of Calvinism, murder and madness, features a man tormented and seduced by his evil doppelganger: a possible manifestation of the Celestis. As a seminal horror story, it has a very strong Second War in Heaven vibe anyway.

 

The Barbarians and the Samurai   Audio drama, released 2018                                                                                                                                     Doctor: 1

Featuring Susan, Barbara, Ian

Written by Andrew Smith.

Informed guess Takes place in Japan; self-dated the 1820s CE.


The Curse of Vladula   Comic story, published 2009                              Doctor: 10

Featuring Heather, Wolfie

Written by Christopher Cooper.

Informed guess Takes place probably in Austria, probably in the early 19th century CE.


The Eye of the Jungle   Audio story, released 2011                    Doctor: 11

Featuring Amy, Rory

Written by Darren Jones.

Takes place in the Amazon Basin of northern South America; self-dated 1827 CE.


The Beast of Orlok   Audio drama, released 2009                            Doctor: 8

Featuring Lucie

Written by Barnaby Edwards.

Takes place in the Black Forest, a mountain range of southwest Germany; self-dated December 1827 CE.


The Angels of Vengeance   Illustrated short story, published 2017        Doctor: 0

Featuring the Weeping Angels

Written by Richard Dinnick.

Informed guess Takes place on the Fifteenth Broken Moon of the Medusa Cascade, not long, I’m inclined to think, after it was still in one piece.


Iron Bright   Audio drama, released 2018                                          Doctor: 6

Written by Chris Chapman.

Takes place in and beneath London; self-dated 1828 CE.


Medicinal Purposes   Audio drama, released 2004                   Doctor: 6

featuring Evelyn

Written by Robert Ross.

Takes place in Edinburgh; the latest date given is 1829 CE.


Of the Mermaid and Jupiter   Short story, published 2004                   Doctor: 7

featuring Benny

Written by Ian Mond and Danny Heap.

Takes place off the coast of Australia; ends self-datedly in November 1829 CE.


The Primeval Design   Audio drama, released 2021              Doctor: 4

Featuring Leela

Written by Helen Goldwyn.

Takes place in Dorset; self-dated 1830 CE.


Cat and Mouse   Comic story, published 2013                                           Doctor: 7

Featuring the Master, Ace

Written by Scott and David Tipton.

Takes place in Scotland; self-dated 1830 CE.


Doctor Who Discovers the Conquerors   Illustrated short story, published 1978                                                                                                                                         Doctor: 4

Written by Fred Newman.

Takes place variously including in continental Europe, Asia, Africa and South America. Simon Bolivar died in December 1830 CE.


Reckless Engineering   Novel, published 2003                          Doctor: 8

Featuring the remembered Fitz, Anji, with Trix (glimpse)

Written by Nick Walters.

Takes place in and around Bristol; the latest events not annulled by the story’s end take place in November 1831 CE.


The Circus of Doom   Audio drama, released 2009                          Doctor: 4

Featuring Yates, Mrs Wibbsey

Written by Paul Magrs.

Takes place in Blandford, presumably the one officially called Blandford Forum in Dorset; self-dated 1832 CE.


Doctor Who Quiz Book of Science   Game book, published 1983     Doctor: 5

featuring Nyssa, Tegan

Written by Michael Holt.

Takes place at various locations and times; the latest date given is 1833 CE.


The Time Ball   Comic story, published 2018                                             Doctor: 8

Featuring Josie

Written by Richard Dinnick.

Takes place in Greenwich, at this point still outside London; self-dated 1833 CE.


Gallery of Ghouls   Audio drama, released 2016                                Doctor: 4

Featuring Romana

Written by Alan Barnes.

Takes place in Brighton; self-dated 1833 CE.


Bloodtide   Audio drama, released 2001                                             Doctor: 6

featuring the Earth Reptiles, Evelyn

Written by Jonathan Morris.

Takes place in the Galapagos Islands; self-dated September 1835 CE.


L.E.G.E.N.D.   Audio drama, released 2019                                            Doctor: 8

Featuring Liv, Helen, the Eleven, with the Time Lords (informative mention)

Written by Matt Fitton.

Informed guess Takes place in Germany, during the career of the Brothers Grimm.


The Message of Mystery   Photo story, published 1964                          Doctor: 0

featuring the Daleks, Susan

Written by David Whitaker and Terry Nation.

Informed guess Takes place on Skaro. The Daleks are very tentative and unsure of themselves; I speculate that they have only recently escaped entombment, a thousand years or so after the end of Genesis of the Daleks.


Stamp of Approval   Short story, published 2006                                    Doctor: 10

Featuring Rose

Written by Jacqueline Rayner.

Takes place in Bath; self-dated 1840 CE.


The Curious Tale of Spring-Heeled Jack   Comic story, published 2003        Doctor: 8

Written by Scott Gray.

Takes place in London; self-dated 1840 CE. The female fashions, police uniforms and indeed the shotgun cartridges which resolve the plot are all hideously anachronistic.


The Haunted Wagon Train   Game book, published 2007           Doctor: 10

Featuring Martha

Written by Colin Brake.

Takes place in the American west; self-dated the early 1840s CE.


Mire and Clay   Short story, published 2003                                             Doctor: 1

featuring Susan, Barbara, Ian

Written by Gareth Wigmore.

Takes place in Afghanistan, a landlocked kingdom of central Asia, northwest of what would later be Pakistan; self-dated 1842 CE.


Plague of the Cybermen   Novel, published 2013                             Doctor: 11

Featuring the Cyberman

Written by Justin Richards.

Informed guess Takes place in German-speaking Europe, self-dated the nineteenth century CE. The technological level seems low, and the entire ambience suggests early nineteenth century romanticism.


The Lions of Trafalgar   Audio short story, released 2011                       Doctor: 5

Featuring Nyssa, Tegan

Written by Jason Arnopp.

Takes place in Trafalgar Square; self-dated October 1843 CE.


Unearthly Things   Comic story, published 2015                                      Doctor: 12

Featuring Clara

Written by George Mann.

Takes place in Derbyshire; self-dated 1845 CE.


The Greatest Gamble   Comic story, published 1981                                Doctor: 0        

featuring The Toymaker

Written by John Peel.

Takes place in the Toymaker’s realm, and on a Mississippi paddle-steamer; dated 1846 CE in Divided Loyalties.


Off the Trail   Short story, published 2016                                                 Doctor: 12

Written by Justin Richards.

Takes place on the Oregon Trail; self-dated 1846 CE.


A Shard of Ice   Audio drama, released 2010                                        Doctor: 4

Featuring Yates, Mrs Wibbsey

Written by Paul Magrs.

Takes place in the western Alps; self-dated 1847 CE.


Feast of Fear   Audio drama, released 2019                                           Doctor: 5

Featuring Nyssa, Tegan, Marc

Written by Martyn Waites.

Informed guess Takes place in Ireland, evidently during the Great Famine.


All That Glitters   Short story, published 2016                                        Doctor: 12

Written by Justin Richards.

Takes place in California; self-dated 1849 CE.


Aries: The True and Indisputable Facts in the Matter of the Ram’s Skull  

Short story, published 2002              Doctor: 1

featuring Barbara, Ian

Written by Mark Michalowski.

Takes place in Boston, Ma.; self-dated 1849 CE.

 

 

 

Total Stories Considered               3514

Proportion Written By Women   12%                                        

 

Top Docs

4                 323 stories                   

3                 287 stories

7                 267 stories         

10               244 stories   

8                 240 stories   

11               229 stories    Climber!  

5                 228 stories                   

1                 210 stories         

6                 200 stories  

2                 190 stories         

12               119 stories

Unbound   91 stories  

9                 63 stories  

13               53 stories           

War            45 stories                     

 

 

Top Twenty Recurring Elements

 

London                                                                697 stories         

Regional England                                               580 stories

UNIT                                                                    405 stories

The Time Lords                                                  404 stories

Alastair, Kate, Kadiatu, Lucy Weston and the Lethbridge-Stewart family                                                                  398 stories

Continental Europe                                           274 stories

North America                                                   265 stories

Wales                                                                  245 stories

Torchwood                                                         233 stories  

The Daleks and Davros                                     224 stories   

Sarah Jane                                                          221 stories  

The Master, including Missy                            216 stories   

Captain Jack                                                     192 stories

The K9s                                                             162 stories  

Ace                                                                     158 stories 

Romana                                                               156 stories  

Christmas                                                           141 stories

At Sea                                                                 138 stories Climber!

Jo                                                                         134 stories   

Asia                                                                      133 stories

 

 

Top Decades

 

The Teens                                                           1464 stories

The Noughties                                                    914 stories                   

The Nineties                                                       346 stories

The Twenties                                                     297 stories

The Seventies                                                    206 stories         

The Eighties                                                        201 stories

The Sixties                                                          86 stories  

 

 

And Top Twenty Years

 

2016                                                          214 stories

2018                                                          188 stories 

2017                                                           176 stories

2020                                                          174 stories 

2008                                                          171 stories  

2015                                                          163 stories 

2021                                                          142 stories  

2019                                                          141 stories  

2011                                                          140 stories  

2009                                                          138 stories   Climber!

2013                                                          138 stories   

2010                                                          118 stories

2001                                                          112 stories

2007                                                          107 stories 

2014                                                          104 stories  

2006                                                          88 stories 

2005                                                          86 stories  

1993                                                          81 stories           

2012                                                          80 stories  

2004                                                          78 stories     

  

 

         

 

 

Total Writers (including showrunners, script editors, anthology linking material writers)                                  942

Proportion of Female Writers            17%      

 

Top Twenty Writers

 

Terrance Dicks                                          119 stories  

James Goss                                               111 stories

Russell T Davies                                       107 stories

Paul Magrs                                                79 stories  

Justin Richards                                         79 stories   Climber!    

Steven Moffat                                          68 stories           

Jonathan Morris                                      65 stories           

Gareth Roberts                                        49 stories  

John Dorney                                             48 stories           

Robert Holmes                                         48 stories  

Matt Fitton                                               46 stories  

Eric Saward                                               46 stories            

Eddie Robson                                            44 stories                     

Gary Russell                                              40 stories  

Alan Barnes                                              38 stories   Climber!   

David Llewellyn                                       38 stories  

Steve Lyons                                               38 stories  

David Whitaker                                        38 stories   Climber!

? John Canning                                         37 stories   Climber!

Andrew Cartmel                                      37 stories  

         

         

 

 

 

 

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