Then: The Late Nineteen Thirties

 

Entanglement   Audio drama, released 2018                                   Doctor: 1

Featuring Vicki, Steven

Written by Robert Khan and Tom Salinsky.

Takes place in Cambridge, self-dated the mid-nineteen thirties, but before May 1935 CE, as Guy Burgess is still there.


Enemy Aliens   Audio drama, released 2013                             Doctors: 8, with 11

Featuring Charley

Written by Alan Barnes.

Informed guess Takes place in London, Scotland and points between; self-dated 1935 CE.


String Theory   Audio short story, released 2015                                      Doctor: 4

Featuring Leela

Written by Kini Brown.

Takes place in Cremona, a city of Italy, Connecticut and pivotally in New York, NY in  February 1936 CE. Connecticut was a constituent state of the USA, lying on the northeast coast, south of Massachusetts and east of New York.


The Shadow At the Edge of the World   Audio drama, released 2014     Doctor: 0

Featuring the Viyrans, Charley

Written by Jonathan Barnes.

Informed guess Takes place in Scotland; self-dated 1936 CE.


Judoon Monsoon   Gamebook, published 2010                                  Doctor: 11

Featuring the Judoon, Amy, Rory

Written by Oli Smith.

Arbitrary placement Takes place on Betul.


The Church of Football   Short story, published 2006                            Doctor: 5

featuring Edward Grainger, Peri

Written by Benjamin Adams.

Takes place in Wembley Stadium; self-dated April, 1936 CE.


The Glamour Chase   Novel, published 2010                              Doctor: 11      

Featuring Amy, Rory

Written by Gary Russell.

Informed guess Takes place in Norfolk; self-dated 1936 CE.


Pier Pressure   Audio drama, released 2006                                   Doctor: 6

featuring Evelyn

Written by Robert Ross.         

Takes place in Brighton; self-dated 1936 CE, implicitly summer.


The Elixir of Doom   Audio drama, released 2014                             Doctor: 8

Featuring Jo, Iris Wildthyme

Written by Paul Magrs.

Informed guess Takes place in Los Angeles, Ca.; self-dated 1936 CE.


The Fall of the House of Pollard   Audio drama, released 2014     Doctor: 0

Featuring The Viyrans, Charley

Written by Matt Fitton.

Takes place in Hampshire; self-dated November, 1936 CE. The title of Lord Richard Pollard suggests that he is, or at his age more likely was, the younger son of a Duke or Marquess.


The Hunting Season   Audio drama, released 2021                     Doctor: 9

Written by James Kettle.

Takes place in regional England; self-dated November 1936 CE.


The Crystal Palace   Comic story, published 2009                                   Doctor: 10

featuring Heather

Written by Christopher Cooper.

Takes place in the Crystal Palace, which, historically, burned down in November 1936 CE.


The Eagle of the Reich   Comic story, published 2012                             Doctor: 11

Featuring Winston Churchill, Amy, Rory

Written by Andy Diggle.

Takes place in London; ending simultaneously with The Crystal Palace.


Players   Novel, published 1999                                                             Doctors: 2, 6

featuring the Players, Peri, Winston Churchill, and the Time Lords (glimpse)

Written by Terrence Dicks.

Takes place in South Africa, France and pivotally in London in December 1936 CE.


Wolfsbane   Novel, published 2003                 Doctors: 4, 8 (the amnesiac sequence)

Featuring Werewolves, Sarah Jane, Harry

Written by Jacqueline Rayner.

Takes place in Somerset and London; self-dated December 1936 CE.


O Tannenbaum   Audio short story, released 2017                                   Doctor: 1

Featuring Steven

Written by Anthony Keetch.

Informed guess Takes place in Germany, plausibly in the twentieth century, at Christmas time.


The Lovecraft Invasion   Audio drama, released 2020            Doctor: 6

Featuring Flip, Constance

Written by Robert Valentine.

Takes place in Providence, in Rhode Island; self-dated January 1937 CE. Rhode Island was state on the northeast coast of the USA, south of Massachusetts and east of Connecticut.


The Best Holiday Ever   Short story, published 2010                               Doctor: 0

Featuring Iris Wildthyme

Written by Ian Gregory.

Takes place in Egypt; self-dated February 1937 CE.

 

Lemora (1973) is a vampire film set before World War II (and features a Citroen Traction Avant, first manufactured in 1934). It features two distinct genera of vampire and if incorporated into Doctor Who narrative helps bridge the Lawrence Miles gap between Mal’akh as vampires (passing for human, seductive) and Mal’akh as Primords (regressive, bestial), showing them in a state of near competition.

 

Analysis   Charity short story, published 2001        Doctor: 8 (the amnesiac sequence)

Written by Mark Clapham.

Informed guess Takes place on Earth, after the Depression of the early 1930s CE and before Sigmund Freud’s final illness in 1938 CE.


The Brigadier & the Bledoe Cadets   Novel, published 2019  Doctor: 0

Featuring Lethbridge-Stewart, Grace technology, Lucy Wilson

Written by Tim Gambrell.

Informed guess Takes place in south Wales and Cornwall, pivotally in 1937 CE.


History 101   Novel, published 2002                                                   Doctor: 8

Featuring the remembered Fitz, Anji, Sabbath

Written by Mags L Halliday.

Takes place mainly in Spain; concluding self-datedly in May 1937 CE.


Chasing the Dawn   Short story, published 2019                                      Doctors: 11, 13

Featuring Graham, Ryan, Yaz

Written by Jenny T Colgan.

Takes place on the International Date Line in the Pacific Ocean: the presence of Amelia Earhart implies it is July 1937 CE.


The Bledoe Cadets and the Bald Man of Pengriffen   Short story, published 2017   Doctor: 0

Featuring Lethbridge-Stewart

Written by Tim Gambrell.

Takes place in Cornwall; self-dated July 1937 CE.


The Shadow of Weng Chiang   Novel, published 1996        Doctor: 4        

featuring K9 II, Grace technology, Romana

Written by David A McIntee.

Takes place in China; self-dated August 1937 CE.


The Shadow Knows   Charity short story, published 2001                       Doctor: 2

featuring Jamie, Zoe

Written by Wendy Padbury

Informed guess Takes place in New York, NY, while Orson Welles was broadcasting The Shadow.


Carnival of Angels   Audio drama, released 2020                              Doctor: 0

Featuring the Weeping Angels, River Song

Written by Roy Gill.

Informed guess Takes place in New York, NY; before The Angel’s Kiss


The Angel’s Kiss   Novel, published 2012                                       Doctor: 0

Featuring the Weeping Angels, River Song

Written by Justin Richards.

Takes place in New York, NY; self-dated 1938 CE, and before The Angels Take Manhattan.


The Angels Take Manhattan   TV Story, broadcast 2012              Doctor: 11

Featuring the Weeping Angels, River Song, Amy, Rory

Written by Steven Moffat.

Takes place in New York, NY; pivotally self-dated April 1938 CE.


The Curse of the Scarab   Comic story, published 1995                          Doctor: 5        

featuring the Osirans, Peri, and the Threshold (glimpse)

Written by Alan Barnes.

Takes place in Los Angeles, Ca; self-dated May 1938 CE. The Threshold is a cult of Tellurians enhanced by Gallifreyan technology. This they use to travel through space, but not time, so as to escape the attention of the Time Lords.


Warlock: Prelude   Illustrated short story, published 1995                      Doctor: 7

Written by Andrew Cartmel.

Takes place in the USSR; self-dated the autumn before the outbreak of World War Two.


Invaders From Mars   Audio drama, released 20o2                   Doctor: 8

featuring Orson Welles, Charley

Written by Mark Gatiss.

Takes place in New York, NY; self-dated October 1938.

 

Humanoids transforming into big cats is obviously part of Doctor Who narrative since Survival. The 1942 film Cat People  is a treatment of this theme: I don’t think it is unreasonable to link the phenomenon to the Mal’akh. It is set at least six years before its sequel The Curse of the Cat People (1944).

 

The Blue Star Bomb   Comic story, published 2009                                Doctor: 10

Featuring Heather

Written by Trevor Baxendale.

Informed guess Takes place in Los Angeles, Ca.; self-dated 1938 CE.


Fiesta of the Damned   Audio drama, released 2016                 Doctor: 7

Featuring Mel, Ace

Written by Guy Adams.

Takes place near Valencia, port on the northeast coast of Spain; self-dated 1938 CE, just after the Battle of the Ebro.


Let’s Kill Hitler   TV Story, broadcast 2011                                           Doctor: 11

Featuring River Song, Amy, Rory, with the Silents (informative mention)

Written by Steven Moffat.

Informed guess Takes place in Leadworth and, principally, in Berlin self-dated 1938 CE.


Prequel: The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe   Webcast, posted 2011

Doctor: 11

Featuring Amy (informative mention)

Writer not credited but we may infer the involvement of Steven Moffat.

Takes place in a spaceship above the Earth; self-dated Christmas Eve 1938 CE.


In the Days Of  ‘The Days of  “The Days of our Lives”’   Charity short story, published 2001                                                                                                                                 Doctor: 2

featuring Polly, Ben

Written by Simon Bucher-Jones.

Informed guess Takes place in London; centrally self-dated 1939 CE.


Tooth and Claw   Comic story, published 1997                                         Doctor: 8

featuring the Vampires, Izzy, Fey

Written by Alan Barnes.

Informed guess Takes place on an island in the Indian Ocean; self-dated 1939 CE. Fey is aboard the TARDIS when it dematerialises, but she is an old chum of the Doctor: this may not bee the first time she has left linear time.


Fantomville   Short story, published 2011                                                  Doctor: 0

Featuring Iris Wildthyme

Written by Nick Campbell.

Takes place in and outside Paris; self-dated the summer before World War II.


The Wonderful Doctor of Oz   Novel, published 2021      Doctor: 13

Featuring Missie, the Cybermen, the Land of Fiction, Graham, Ryan, Yaz, K9 V

Written by Jacqueline Rayner.

Takes place in the Land of Fiction and Los Angeles, Ca.; self-dated August 1939 CE. K9 V gives himself the name 2-2, suggesting he is a second iteration of K9 II, constructed by the Doctor.


Murder on 81st Street   Audio drama, released 2013                         Doctor: 0

Featuring Dorian Gray

Written by David Llewellyn.

Informed guess Takes place in Manhattan, New York, NY; self-dated 1939 CE.


An Eye For Murder   Audio drama, released 2014                                    Doctor: 6

Featuring Peri

Written by Una McCormack.

Takes place in the UK; self-dated September 1939 CE.


A Blind Eye   Audio drama, released 2004                                            Doctor: 0

featuring the Time Lords, Leela, K9 II, Romana, with Charley (informative mention)

Written by Alan Barnes.

Takes place on the train from Munich to Calais, self-dated September, 1939 CE.


The Ruby’s Curse   Novel, published 2021                             Doctor: 13

Featuring Captain Jack, River Song, Amy, Rory

Written by Alex Kington and Jacqueline Rayner.

Takes place variously, including in Egypt, but pivotally in New York, NY, self-dated 1939 CE.


The Oncoming Storm   Audio drama, released 2016                       Doctor: 9

Featuring Winston Churchill, with the Time Lords (informative mention)

Written by Phil Mulryne.

Takes place in London; self-dated December, 1939 CE.

 

 

 

Total Stories Considered               4129

Proportion Written By Women   11%                                        

 

Top Docs

4                 364 stories                   

7                 309 stories 

3                 306 stories

8                 283 stories  Climber! 

10               280 stories  

11               279 stories  

5                 262 stories         

1                 241 stories  

6                 238 stories 

2                 215 stories         

12               132 stories

Unbound   93 stories  

9                 73 stories  

13               60 stories           

War            46 stories                     

 

 

Top Twenty Recurring Elements

 

London                                                                985 stories         

Regional England                                               718  stories        

The Time Lords                                                  422 stories 

Alastair, Kate, Kadiatu, Lucy Weston and the Lethbridge-Stewart family                                                                   412 stories 

UNIT                                                                    407 stories

Continental Europe                                           355 stories 

North America                                                   350 stories  

Wales                                                                  254 stories

Torchwood                                                         241 stories  

The Master, including Missy                            240 stories  

The Daleks and Davros                                     234 stories 

Sarah Jane                                                          231 stories  

Captain Jack                                                       197 stories

Ace                                                                      182 stories 

The K9s                                                               172 stories  Climber!

At Sea                                                                  172 stories 

Romana                                                               169 stories  

Asia                                                                      165 stories 

Christmas                                                            161 stories

Amy and Rory                                                    158 stories 

 

 

Top Decades

 

The Teens                                                           1772 stories

The Noughties                                                    1040 stories       

The Nineties                                                       392 stories

The Twenties                                                     336 stories

The Seventies                                                    217 stories         

The Eighties                                                        211 stories

The Sixties                                                          91 stories

(Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Oscar Wilde)    70 stories  

 

 

And Top Twenty Years

 

2016                                                          258 stories

2018                                                          211 stories 

2020                                                           201 stories   

2017                                                           199 stories

2015                                                          197 stories 

2008                                                          185 stories  

2011                                                          175 stories

2019                                                          174 stories

2013                                                          168 stories

2009                                                          162 stories 

2021                                                          154 stories

2010                                                          144 stories

2014                                                          131 stories 

2001                                                          124 stories

2007                                                          120 stories 

2012                                                          113 stories         

2006                                                          106 stories

2005                                                          97 stories  

2004                                                          97 stories   Climber!                

1993                                                          86 stories                     

         

 

 

 

Total Writers (including showrunners, script editors, anthology linking material writers)                                  993

Proportion of Female Writers            17%      

 

Top Twenty Writers

 

Terrance Dicks                                          126 stories  

James Goss                                               118 stories

Justin Richards                                         113 stories 

Russell T Davies                                       112 stories  

Paul Magrs                                                89 stories  

Steven Moffat                                          78 stories   Climber!    

Jonathan Morris                                      76 stories  

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle                           60 stories           

John Dorney                                             56 stories           

Eddie Robson                                            53 stories  

Robert Holmes                                         52 stories  

Gareth Roberts                                        52 stories  

Matt Fitton                                               51 stories  

Alan Barnes                                              48 stories   Climber!

Eric Saward                                               48 stories           

David Llewellyn                                       45 stories           

Steve Lyons                                               44 stories  

Gary Russell                                              44 stories   Climber!    

Guy Adams                                               42 stories

Andrew Cartmel                                      41 stories = Re-entry!

Paul Cornell                                              41 stories =

Marc Platt                                                 41 stories =

         

 

 

 

 

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