Then: The Early Nineteen Fifties

 

The Tunnel at the End of the Light   Novella, published 2004      Doctor: 0

featuring LeChasseur

Written by Stefan Petrucha.

Informed guess Takes place in London; self-dated 1950 CE.


The Severed Man   Novella, published 2004                                       Doctor: 0

Featuring LeChasseur

Written by George Mann.

Informed guess Takes place in London and Staffordshire; pivotally self-dated 1950 CE, and after The Tunnel at the End of the Light. Staffordshire was a landlocked county of England, southeast of Cheshire, west of Derbyshire, northwest of Leicestershire, north of the West Midlands, northeast of Worcestershire and east of Herefordshire.

 

While Orphee (1950) has something of an Enemy/Second War in Heaven aesthetic, it is fairly explicitly about the further adventures of the Seventh Doctor’s occasional employer, Death. Either way, I’d like to claim it for Doctor Who narrative.

 

Numb   Short story, published 2008                                                             Doctor: 3

featuring Sarah Jane, UNIT (informative mention)

Written by Dave Owen.

Takes place on the Isle of Wight; self-dated July 1950 CE.


The Boy With The Displaced Smile   Comic story, published 2017     Doctor: 12

Written by James Peaty.

Informed guess Takes place in Sweethaven; self-dated “the mid-twentieth century”.


Peculiar Times   Novella, published 2005                                             Doctor: 0

Featuring LeChasseur, with Professor Cleavis (informative mention)

Written by Philip Purser-Hallard.

Takes place in London and Wales; self-dated 1950 CE.


First Born   Short story, published 2006                                                      Doctor: 5

featuring Edward Grainger, Adric, Nyssa, Tegan

Written by Lizzie Hopley.

Informed guess Takes place in the UK; self-dated 1950 CE.


The Sideways Door   Novella, published 2006                                  Doctor: 0

Featuring LeChasseur

Written by R J Carter and Troy Riser.

Takes place in London; self-dated February 1951 CE.


On His Majesty’s National Service   Novel, published 2019       Doctor: 0

Featuring Lethbridge-Stewart, Anne Travers, Grace technology

Written by John Peel.

Informed guess Takes place in Scotland and Korea; self-dated 1951 CE. Korea was a peninsula extending southwards from the east coast of Asia, bordered to the north by China. At this time it was disputed by two republics, colloquially known as North and South Korea.


Endgame   Novel, published 2000        Doctor: 8 (the amnesiac sequence), 7 (glimpse)

Featuring the Players, Ace (glimpse)

Written by Terrance Dicks.

Takes place in London, Washington DC and Moscow; self-dated May 1951 CE.


The British Invasion   Audio short story, released 2017                          Doctor: 2

Featuring the Vardans, Jamie, Zoe

Written by Ian Potter.

Takes place at the South Bank site of the Festival of Britain, in summer 1951 CE.


The Cliff Face   Comic story, published 2012                                             Doctor: 11

Featuring Amy or an Amy ganger, Rory

Written by Eddies Robson.

Informed guess Takes place on the coast of Dorset; self-dated 1951 CE.


The Lavender Hill Blob   Comic story, published 2008                          Doctor: 10

Featuring Donna

Written by Christopher Cooper.

Informed guess Takes place in South London; self-dated 1951 CE.


The Albino’s Dancer   Novella, published 2006                   Doctor: 9 (glimpse)

Featuring LeChasseur

Written by Dale Smith,

Takes place in London; pivotally self-dated early November 1951 CE.


Murder At The Abbey   Audio drama, released 2015                               Doctor: 0

Featuring Iris Wildthyme

Written by Mark B Oliver.

Informed guess Takes place in the UK; self-dated “the early fifties”.


Child of Time   Novella, published 2007                                               Doctor: Unbound

Featuring the Daemons, LeChasseur

Written by George Mann and David J Howe.

Takes place in Venice and London; pivotally in December 1951 CE.


Set in Stone   Short story, published 2005                                                   Doctor: 1                        

featuring Susan, Barbara, Ian

Written by Charles Auchterlonie and John Isles.

Takes place in Scotland and London; self-dated Christmas 1951 CE.


The Nowhere Place   Audio drama, released 2006                     Doctor: 6

featuring Evelyn

Written by Nicholas Briggs.

Takes place partly on a train in north-east England; self-dated September 1952 CE. It takes place mainly in the Solar System in 2197 CE, but the Tellurians have not ventured outside the Solar System. As this is such a contravention of other continuity, I am assuming that the paradox which resolves matters wipes this future out altogether. Another clue that this might be the case is that before the paradox, Earth appears to be four times as old as the universe. Also, “billions” of intelligent life-forms have evolved on Earth in that time, at a rate of what? one every fifteen years? Some paradox.


Creature Feature   Comic story, published 2010                                       Doctor: 10

Written by Cavan Scott.

Informed guess Takes place probably in southern California, probably in the 1950s.


Amorality Tale   Novel, published 2002                                          Doctor: 3

featuring Sarah Jane, UNIT

Written by David Bishop.

Takes place in London; self-dated December 1952 CE.


The Creeping Death   Audio drama, released 2019                          Doctor: 10

Featuring Donna

Written by Roy Gill.

Takes place in London, simultaneously with Amorality Tale.


Lost and Founded   Short story, published 2008                                       Doctor: 3

featuring Jo

Written by Andrew Pidoux.

Informed guess Takes place north-east of the Caribbean; self-dated Christmas 1952 CE.


Closing the Account   Short story, published 2008                                   Doctor: 7

featuring Ace

Written by Stephen Hatcher.

Takes place in Moscow. Historically, Stalin died in March 1953 CE.


Tardisode: The Idiot’s Lantern   Video story, released 2006               Doctor: 0

Written by Gareth Roberts.

Takes place in Muswell Hill, the night before The Idiot’s Lantern.


The Idiot’s Lantern   TV story, broadcast 2006                                 Doctor: 10

Featuring Rose, with Torchwood (informative mention)

Written by Mark Gatiss, script supervised by Russell T Davies.

Takes place in North London; self-dated June 1953 CE.


Where’s the Doctor?   Comic story, published 2018

                                                                              Doctors: 13, with 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

Featuring Susan, Jamie, the Nestene Consciousness, Jo, Sarah Jane, Tegan, Peri, Ace, Rose, Donna, Amy, Bill, Graham, Ryan, Yaz

Illustrated ?and written by John Ross.

Takes place in London in June 1953, pretty much during The Idiot’s Lantern.


Sound the Siren And I’ll Come To You Comrade   Audio short story, released 2014

                                                                                                                                Doctor: 4

Featuring Leela

Written by John  Pritchard.

Informed guess Takes place in a nuclear testing ground in the USSR, probably in Kazakhstan, a landlocked constituent republic in central Asia, lying south of Siberia. Thermonuclear weapons (Hydrogen bombs) are believed to have first been tested there in the course of 1953 CE.


The Canvey Angels   Short story, published 2003                                      Doctor: 5

featuring Peri

Written by David Bailey.

Takes place on Canvey Island, off the coast of Essex in the Thames Estuary; self-dated high summer, 1953 CE.


Unsent Letter   Online short story, posted 2018                                       Doctor: 0

Featuring the Second War in Heaven

Written by Philip Marsh.

Informed guess Takes place in South America; self-dated 1953 CE, and during The Ugly Spirit.


The Ugly Spirit   Short story, published 2018                                              Doctor: 0

Featuring the Second War in Heaven

Written by Philip Marsh.

Informed guess Takes place in South America; self-dated 1953 CE.

 

The previous two stories can be described as being one remove from the reality of William S Burroughs; the 1991 film of his novel Naked Lunch also meets this criterion, and embodies the sensibility that The Book of the Enemy and The Book of the Peace in particular brought to the Second War in Heaven.

 

Nightshade: Prelude   Illustrated short story, published 1992                Doctor: 0

Written by Mark Gatiss.

Informed guess Takes place in Alexandra Palace, in north London; self-dated August. Nightshade is presumably an analogue of The Quatermass Experiment, first broadcast in 1953 CE.


Fear and Logarithms in Las Vegas   Charity short story, published 2001         Doctor: 4

featuring K9 II

Written by Matt Fitton.

Informed guess Takes place in Las Vegas, Na., during the New York mob’s takeover.


Time Works   Audio drama, released 2006                                      Doctor: 8

Featuring Charley, C’rizz

Written by Steve Lyons.

Arbitrary placement Takes place on Industry.


Water’s Edge   Short story, published 2004                                                Doctor: 6

Written by Peter Adamson.

Takes place near Tangiwai, New Zealand; self-dated Christmas Eve 1953 CE.


The Bronze Door   Short story, published 2011                                           Doctor: 0

Featuring Iris Wildthyme

Written by Dale Smith.

Informed guess Takes place in La Jolla and a version of Los Angeles, both Ca. It is “nearly twenty years” since the death of G.K.Chesterton in 1939 CE, but before the death of Cissy Chandler in 1954 CE.


The Good Soldier   Comic story, published 1991                                       Doctor: 7

featuring the Cybermen, Ace

Written by Andrew Cartmel.

Informed guess Takes place in Nevada and in orbit; self-dated 1954 CE.


Half Light   Short story, published 2017                                                       Doctor: 0

Featuring the Vampires, Olive Hawthorne

Written by Suzanne Barbieri.

The main action of the story takes place in Devil’s End, a month before an eclipse, while Olive is a young woman, which pretty much fixes it in May 1954 CE.


Quiet on the Set   Comic story, published 2013                                        Doctor: 10

Featuring the Quarks, Martha

Written by Scott and David Tipton.

Informed guess Takes place in Los Angeles, Ca.; self-dated “the mid nineteen-fifties”.


Between Fire and Shadow   Online short story, posted 2005                Doctor: 0

Featuring Faction Paradox, The Second War in Heaven

Written by Ushas the Rani.

Informed guess Takes place variously but partly in the USA; self-dated 1954 CE.


Summer Falls   Novella, published 2013                                               Doctor: 0

Featuring Amy (informative mention)

Written by James Goss.

Takes place in (a fictional version of) the UK; self-dated September and, as it were, 1954 CE.


The Seismologist’s Story   Short story, published 2004                           Doctor: 3

featuring the Master, Jo

Written by Peter Anghelides.

Takes place in the Aegean; self-dated the early 1950s CE.


Goodbye Piccadilly   Audio drama, released 2018                            Doctor: 0

Featuring Torchwood

Written by James Goss.

Takes place in Soho, self-dated the mid-nineteen fifties CE.

 

 

 

 

 

Total Stories Considered             4267

Proportion Written By Women  11%                                       

 

Top Docs

4                 372 stories                   

7                 329 stories 

3                 316 stories

8                 293 stories 

10               293 stories   Climber!   

11               288 stories            

5                 268 stories         

6                 249 stories  

1                 245 stories  

2                 222 stories         

12               136 stories

Unbound  96 stories  

9                 79 stories  

13               62 stories           

War           46 stories                     

 

 

Top Twenty Recurring Elements

 

London                                                              1027 stories                

Regional England                                            746  stories        

The Time Lords                                               425 stories 

Alastair, Kate, Kadiatu, Lucy Weston and the Lethbridge-Stewart family                                                                            419 stories 

UNIT                                                                  411 stories

Continental Europe                                         382 stories 

North America                                                 369 stories  

Wales                                                                  258 stories

Torchwood                                                        247 stories  

The Master, including Missy                         242 stories  

The Daleks and Davros                                  236 stories 

Sarah Jane                                                        235 stories  

Captain Jack                                                    200 stories

Ace                                                                      196 stories 

At Sea                                                                 184 stories

The K9s                                                              174 stories 

Asia                                                                     172 stories

Romana                                                             170 stories  

Christmas                                                          167 stories

Amy and Rory                                                  167 stories  Climber!

 

 

Top Decades

 

The Teens                                                          1838 stories

The Noughties                                                  1089 stories       

The Nineties                                                      400 stories

The Twenties                                                     346 stories

The Seventies                                                    220 stories         

The Eighties                                                      213 stories

The Sixties                                                         91 stories

(Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Oscar Wilde)        70 stories  

 

 

And Top Twenty Years

 

2016                                                          265 stories

2018                                                          227 stories 

2020                                                          207 stories   

2017                                                           207 stories Climber!

2015                                                          205 stories 

2008                                                          191 stories  

2019                                                          179 stories Climber!

2011                                                          178 stories

2013                                                          175 stories

2009                                                          166 stories 

2021                                                          158 stories

2010                                                          150 stories

2001                                                          133 stories Climber!

2014                                                          133 stories 

2007                                                          124 stories 

2012                                                          117 stories         

2006                                                          115 stories

2004                                                          102 stories Climber!

2005                                                          102 stories

1993                                                          86 stories                     

         

 

 

 

Total Writers (including showrunners, script editors, anthology linking material writers)                                     1008

Proportion of Female Writers               17%      

 

Top Twenty Writers

 

Terrance Dicks                                       128 stories  

James Goss                                              121 stories

Justin Richards                                       118 stories 

Russell T Davies                                     115 stories  

Paul Magrs                                              89 stories  

Steven Moffat                                         80 stories  

Jonathan Morris                                    77 stories  

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle                       60 stories           

John Dorney                                            57 stories           

Eddie Robson                                          56 stories  

Matt Fitton                                              55 stories  

Gareth Roberts                                       53 stories   Climber!   

Robert Holmes                                        52 stories  

Alan Barnes                                             51 stories  

Eric Saward                                            48 stories           

David Llewellyn                                      47 stories

Steve Lyons                                             47 stories   Climber!   

Gary Russell                                            45 stories  

Andrew Cartmel                                    44 stories  

Guy Adams                                              42 stories

         

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