Then Again: The Twenty-Nineties

 

Tricks and Treats   Short story, published 2021                                       Doctor: 0

Written by Alasdair Stuart.

Takes place in Paradise Towers, years, but not I think too many years since its inception.

Doctor Crypptic: Time Tourist   Charity short story, published 2001   Doctor: 7

Written by Jon de Burgh Miller.

Takes place in Cosmic Hollywood; self-dated 2090 CE.

Fountain of Youth   Short story, published 2021                                      Doctor: 0

Featuring Chris, 10,000 Dawns

Written by Jeffrey Koval.

Takes place on the northwest coast of the USA; self-dated 2090 CE.

The Secret Life of Caretaker Number 112 Stroke 9 Subsection 7

                                      Short story, published 2021                              Doctor: 0

Written by Stephen Wyatt.

Takes place on Paradise Towers, some time before Paradise Towers. The narrator’s belief that there are only about a hundred caretakers is consistent with the ferocious misinformation with which Paradise Towers’ inhabitants live (When Johnny Comes Marching Home).

Pluto   Short story, published 2005                                                             Doctor: 2

featuring Polly, Ben

Written by Dale Smith.

Informed guess Takes place on Charon, a moon/planet in mutual orbit with the moon/planet Pluto, beyond the orbit of Neptune; plausibly in the late Twenty-first century CE.

Paper Cuts   Audio drama, released 2009                                          Doctor: 6

Featuring the Draconians, Charley

Written by Marc Platt.

Informed guess Takes place in Draconian space, some time after five hundred years before Frontier in Space.

The Corinthian Project   Gamebook, published 2007                    Doctor: 10

Featuring Martha

Written by Davey Moore.

Informed guess Takes place beneath the sea, on Earth; plausibly in the late twenty-first century CE.

Sunset Over Venus   Short story, published 2015                                     Doctor: 12

Featuring Clara

Written by Mark Wright.

Informed guess Takes place above Venus; self-dated the 2090s CE.

The Tip of the Mind   Short story, published 2003                                  Doctor: 3

featuring Zoe, with the Time Lords (informative mention)

Written by Peter Anghelides.

Informed guess Takes place in the Solar System, some years after The Wheel in Space.

Ground Zero   Comic story, published 1996                                              Doctor: 7

featuring Susan, the Threshold, Sarah Jane, Peri, Ace

Written by Scott Gray.

Takes place in Notting Hill; self-dated August, 2092. It has been suggested that this contradicts other continuity by having Ace die as a teenager, but from the illustration there is nothing to suggest that she is not a fit woman in her forties. “Dixon”, the Threshold’s police officer, implicitly calls her a young girl, but sarcasm would be in character.

 

Isaac Asimov’s 1972 novel The Gods Themselves is set in about 2093, set partly on the Moon, which now has a population of about 20,000. The Earth itself has a population of two billion, following “The Great Crisis”, which could cover the planet’s various twenty-first century travails in Doctor Who narrative.

 

A Cup of Sugar  Short story, published 2021                                              Doctor: 0

Written by Paul Magrs.

Takes place in Paradise Towers, ending some time before Paradise Towers.

One Hundred and One Floors  Short story, published 2021                 Doctor: 0

Written by Niki Haringsma.

Takes place in Paradise Towers, perhaps after A Cup of Sugar.

The Queen in Yellow   Short story, published 2021                                 Doctor: 0

Written by Ian Potter.

Takes place in Paradise Towers, before Territory.

Happiness   Short story, published 2021                                                    Doctor: 0

Written by Dale Smith.

Takes place in Paradise Towers, some years after Think Trank.

Territory   Short story, published 2021                                                       Doctor: 0

Written by Courtney Milnestein.

Takes place in Paradise Towers, ending shortly before Paradise Towers.

Paradise Towers   TV story, broadcast 1987                                   Doctor: 7

featuring Mel

Written by Stephen Wyatt, script edited by Andrew Cartmel.

Informed guess Takes place in Paradise Towers, built in the 21st Century CE, during or in preparation for a war. I concur with Lance Parkin that the Thousand Day War is the most likely candidate.

Why I Respectfully Disagree With Lance Parkin.

Parkin assumes that the story is set fifteen years after the settlement of Paradise Towers, but Pex, of conscriptable age at its founding, is still young, as are the Kangs. It seems unlikely that the Rezzies were required to bring up babies and infants (otherwise, why were there no male infants?). The main point of Paradise Towers seems to have been the preservation of a population of fertile females, with the Rezzies and Caretakers merely separable ancillaries to this. My guess is that Paradise Towers takes place only about six or seven years after the outbreak of the Thousand Day War (no doubt long enough if you had to live there) in about 2093 CE. For some, no doubt cynical, reason the Tellurian authorities seem to have broken contact with it.

I envisage Paradise Towers as a cylinder, spun so that centrapedal force simulates gravity at right-angles to the rotation, that is, outwards. The outermost layer of the cylinder acts as Paradise Towers’ basement, the innermost its top floor and roof, with swimming pool(s). The space in the centre of cylinder evidently contains artificial illumination, to simulate sunshine. Inside, the environment “feels” like a windowless multistorey building, tapering as it goes up (each floor occupying less space than the one below it), as broadcast. Putting it into orbit around the Sun outside the planetary plane should make it impossible for the Ice Warriors, or anybody else who didn’t know where to look, to find.

C5   Short story, published 2021                                                                    Doctor: 0

Written by Iain McLaughlin.

Takes place in Paradise Towers, shortly after Paradise Towers.

The Integral   Audio drama, released 2016                                           Doctor: 2

Featuring Jamie, Zoe

Written by David Bartlett.

Informed guess. Takes place on Aspen Base, in Tellurian space; self-dated the late twenty-first century CE.

Cold War   Comic story, published 2007                                                    Doctor: 10

Featuring Martha

Written by Mark Michalowski.

Informed guess Takes place on Isqar and Earth. The transmat technology suggests a time between The Seeds of Death and Transit, while All the Empty Towers and Snowglobe 7 confirm that there were again problems with global warming at this time.

Across Silent Seas   Short story, published 2007                                      Doctor: 2

featuring Jamie

Written by Tim Waggoner.

Informed guess Takes place in Prague; the Doctor dates it as the late twenty-first or early twenty-second century; Kamen’s despair of the human condition suggests before The Indestructible Man.

The Indestructible Man   Novel, published 2004                   Doctor: 2

featuring Jamie, Zoe, with New York (informative mention)

Written by Simon Messingham.

Takes place on the moon, in London, regional England, South America and in the Caribbean and South China Seas; ending self-datedly in 2097 CE.

 

Outland (1981) is set during the colonisation of the outer Solar System. It would have to be incorporated into Doctor Who narrative before Transit, as by that time the System is linked by transmat and clearly has been for some years.

 

Snowglobe 7   Novel, published 2008                                               Doctor: 10

Featuring Martha

Written by Mike Tucker.

Takes place in Dubai, a port of southwest Asia, on the south coast of the Persian Gulf; self-dated 2099 CE.

Leap Second   Short story, published 2007                                                Doctor: 5

featuring Peri

Written by Bev Vincent.

Takes place in Prague; self-dated December, 2099 CE.

 

 

 

Total Stories Considered             4557

Proportion Written By Women 11%                                       

 

Top Docs

4                 386 stories                   

7                 361 stories 

3                 326 stories

8                 313 stories 

10               309 stories  

11               305 stories 

5                 283 stories         

1                 271 stories 

6                 265 stories  

2                 238 stories         

12               143 stories

Unbound  106 stories

9                 79 stories  

13               66 stories           

War           47 stories                     

 

 

Top Twenty Recurring Elements

 

London                                                              1113 stories                

Regional England                                            784  stories        

UNIT                                                                 464 stories  

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

The Time Lords                                               440 stories 

Continental Europe                                         404 stories 

North America                                                 401 stories  

Wales                                                                  261 stories

The Daleks and Davros                                  258 stories 

Torchwood                                                        252 stories  

The Master, including Missy                         250 stories  

Sarah Jane                                                        242 stories  

Ace                                                                      213 stories 

At Sea                                                                 209 stories  

The K9s                                                              206 stories 

Captain Jack                                                    201 stories

Amy and Rory                                                  180 stories 

Asia                                                                     180 stories Climber! 

Christmas                                                          173 stories 

Romana                                                             173 stories 

 

 

Top Decades

 

The Teens                                                          1962 stories

The Noughties                                                  1167 stories       

The Nineties                                                      423 stories

The Twenties                                                     385 stories

The Seventies                                                    221 stories         

The Eighties                                                      219 stories

The Sixties                                                         110 stories

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

 

 

And Top Twenty Years

 

2016                                                          273 stories

2018                                                          245 stories 

2020                                                          223 stories  

2017                                                           218 stories       

2015                                                          213 stories 

2008                                                          202 stories  

2019                                                          190 stories

2013                                                           186 stories  

2010                                                          185 stories

2011                                                          184 stories

2009                                                          173 stories 

2021                                                          163 stories

2014                                                          142 stories   

2001                                                          140 stories  

2007                                                          133 stories 

2012                                                          127 stories  

2004                                                          123 stories  

2006                                                           121 stories 

2005                                                          107 stories

1993                                                          89 stories

                            

  

 

Total Writers (including showrunners, script editors, anthology linking material writers)                                     1052

Proportion of Female Writers                17%      

 

Top Twenty Writers

 

Terrance Dicks                                       129 stories

James Goss                                              129 stories           

Justin Richards                                       120 stories 

Russell T Davies                                     117 stories  

Paul Magrs                                              94 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  

Steve Lyons                                             49 stories  

Eric Saward                                            49 stories  

David Llewellyn                                      48 stories  

Gary Russell                                            48 stories  

Guy Adams                                              47 stories=

Andrew Cartmel                                    47 stories= Re-entry!