Then Again: The Twenty-Eighties

 

 Loups-Garoux   Audio drama, released 2001                                  Doctor: 5

featuring Werewolves, Turlough

Written by Marc Platt.

Takes place in Brazil; self-dated 2080 CE.


Salt of the Earth   Illustrated short story, published 2014                        Doctor: 3

Featuring Jo

Written by Trudi Canavan.

Informed guess Takes place in Australia; self-dated the late twenty-first century. The blurb gives “2028”: I suggest this is a misprint for 2082.


Child of Darkness   Charity short story, published 1998                          Doctors: 4, 7

featuring the Time Lords, UNIT, K9 II, Romana, Mel

Written by Daniel Blythe.

The later section takes place in central Europe; self-dated March, 2083 CE. Evidently, Total Eclipse of the Heart’s United Earth has not entirely eradicated war.


Warriors of the Deep   TV story, broadcast 1984                    Doctor: 5

featuring Earth Reptiles, Tegan, Turlough

Written by Johnny Byrne, script edited by Eric Saward.

Takes place under the ocean on Earth; dated 2084 CE by Dicks in Doctor Who – Warriors of the Deep. The novelisation further identifies Sea Base Four as a military installation of West Bloc in its confrontation with East Bloc. By the time of Transit, Aaronovitch tells us that Japan, which had been dominating technology in the previous decades, was being overtaken by Africa.  Japan seems a plausible centre for a grouping called East Bloc: we learned from Scavenger that India had become a leader in global technology, and it is undeniably west of Japan.


Junk Food   Comic story, published 2010                                                   Doctor: 10

Featuring Heather

Written by Christopher Cooper.

Informed guess Takes place on Earth, after the invention of matter-transmission.


Black Destiny   Comic story, published 1996                                           Doctor: 4

featuring Sarah Jane, Harry and the Threshold (glimpse)

Written by Gary Russell.

Takes place in Ukraine; self-dated 2086 CE. There seems to be a surprising amount of nostalgia for the USSR in Ukraine; I suppose it is quite a long time in the future.


The Seeds of Death   TV story, broadcast 1969                           Doctor: 2

featuring the Ice Warriors, Jamie, Zoe

Written by Brian Hayles, script edited by Terrance Dicks.

Informed guess Takes place on Earth and the Moon.

Why I Respectfully Disagree With Lance Parkin’s Dating

Ben Aaronovitch implicitly dates this as 2086 CE in Transit.


Trank Tank   Short story, published 2021                                                  Doctor: 0

Written by John Peel.

Informed guess Takes place in Paradise Towers, which is still under construction.


Doris   Short story, published 2021                                                              Doctor: 0

Written by Jenny Shirt.

Takes place in Paradise Towers. People are still moving into it, so I would have thought relatively soon after its construction.

 

Larry Niven’s novella Flash Crowd (1973) and several short story sequels to it explore the consequences of a global Transmat system similar to the one suggested in The Seeds of Death. I don’t think they’re too incompatible with Doctor Who narrative. Quite plausibly, such a system rapidly makes the conflict implied in Warriors of the Deep suddenly impossible.

 

The Emmisaries of Jevo   Comic story, published 1966                          Doctor: 0

featuring the Daleks

Written by Angus Allan, Alan Fennel, Terry Nation and David Whitaker.

Informed guess Takes place some time after Shadow of Humanity as published, on Jevo, Skaro, Arides and points in between.


The Wheel of Ice   Novel, published 2012                                      Doctor: 2

Featuring Jamie, Zoe

Written by Stephen Baxter.

Informed guess Takes place orbiting Saturn, principally in the late twenty-first century CE, not long after The Seeds of Death. Also in Scotland.


Damaged Goods   Short story, published 2021                                         Doctor: 0

Written by Stuart Douglas.

Takes place in Paradise Towers, apparently in the aftermath of the Thousand Day War.


All the Empty Towers   Short story, published 2015                                Doctor: 12

Featuring Clara

Written by Jenny T Colgan.

Takes place in Blackpool; self-dated 2089 CE.

 

 

Total Stories Considered             4534

Proportion Written By Women 11%                                       

 

Top Docs

4                 386 stories                   

7                 358 stories 

3                 325 stories

8                 313 stories 

10               306 stories   Climber! 

11               305 stories 

5                 282 stories         

1                 271 stories 

6                 264 stories  

2                 234 stories         

12               142 stories

Unbound  106 stories

9                 79 stories  

13               66 stories           

War           47 stories                     

 

 

Top Twenty Recurring Elements

 

London                                                              1111 stories                

Regional England                                            783  stories        

UNIT                                                                  464 stories  

Alastair, Kate, Kadiatu, Lucy Weston and the Lethbridge-Stewart family                                                                            450 stories  

The Time Lords                                               439 stories 

Continental Europe                                         402 stories 

North America                                                 398 stories  

Wales                                                                  261 stories

The Daleks and Davros                                  258 stories 

Torchwood                                                        252 stories  

The Master, including Missy                         250 stories  

Sarah Jane                                                        241 stories  

Ace                                                                      212 stories 

At Sea                                                                 207 stories  

The K9s                                                              206 stories 

Captain Jack                                                    201 stories

Amy and Rory                                                  180 stories 

Asia                                                                     179 stories 

Christmas                                                          173 stories 

Romana                                                             173 stories  Climber! 

 

 

Top Decades

 

The Teens                                                          1960 stories

The Noughties                                                  1157 stories       

The Nineties                                                      422 stories

The Twenties                                                     376 stories

The Seventies                                                    221 stories         

The Eighties                                                      218 stories

The Sixties                                                         110 stories

(Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Oscar Wilde and William Hope Hodgson)                                                                                       70 stories  

 

 

And Top Twenty Years

 

2016                                                          272 stories

2018                                                          245 stories 

2020                                                          223 stories  

2017                                                          218 stories       

2015                                                          212 stories 

2008                                                          201 stories  

2019                                                          190 stories

2013                                                          186 stories  

2010                                                          185 stories

2011                                                          184 stories

2009                                                          172 stories 

2021                                                          154 stories

2014                                                          142 stories   

2001                                                          139 stories  

2007                                                          129 stories 

2012                                                          127 stories  

2004                                                          122 stories  

2006                                                          121 stories 

2005                                                          106 stories

1993                                                          89 stories

                            

         

 

 

 

Total Writers (including showrunners, script editors, anthology linking material writers)                                     1047

Proportion of Female Writers                17%      

 

Top Twenty Writers

 

Terrance Dicks                                       129 stories New joint no.1!

James Goss                                              129 stories           

Justin Richards                                       120 stories 

Russell T Davies                                     117 stories  

Paul Magrs                                              93 stories  

Jonathan Morris                                    83 stories            

Steven Moffat                                         81 stories  

Matt Fitton                                              66 stories  

John Dorney                                            63 stories  

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle                       60 stories           

Eddie Robson                                          59 stories

Gareth Roberts                                       54 stories           

Alan Barnes                                             52 stories  

Robert Holmes                                        52 stories  

David Whitaker                                      50 stories   Climber!

Steve Lyons                                             49 stories  

Eric Saward                                            49 stories   Climber!

David Llewellyn                                      48 stories  

Gary Russell                                            48 stories   Climber!

Guy Adams                                              47 stories  

 

 

 

 

 

 

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