Then Again: The Late Twenty-Second Century

 

The eponymous spaceship in Dark Star (1974) is paving the way for Tellurian colonisation by disintegrating ‘unstable’ planets, I don’t actually see why, but anyway, it is twenty years into its mission and is approaching the Veil Nebula, 2400 light years from the Solar System. The film is set in 2150, meaning it was launched in 2130 with the ability to travel at approximately two hundred times the speed of light, which would be an interesting snippet of information to incorporate into Doctor Who narrative.

 

Dust   Short story, published 2003                                                              Doctor: 2

Written by Paul Leonard.

Informed guess Takes place on Mars, after it has been terraformed.

 

Avatar (2009) dates itself as 2154 and is set on Pandora, in the Alpha Centauri system. There is no sign of the monocular hexapods Doctor Who locates there, but Alpha Centauri is a big old system, with three suns, so I don’t think this disqualifies it from Doctor Who narrative.

 

Der Grosse Verhau (1971), generally translated as The Big Mess, is a film set in a commercial Earth-based interstellar society. It is set, with more overoptimism, in 2034, so I again propose incorporating it into Doctor Who narrative by taking this as a Galactic Standard date and placing it in 2154 CE.

 

Whatever Happened to Iris Wildthyme?   Audio drama, released 2013    Doctor: 0

Featuring Iris Wildthyme

Written by Cavan Scott and Mark Wright.

Takes place in London and Rome; the latest events self-dated 2156 CE.


Lucifer Rising   Novel, published 1993                                             Doctor: 7

featuring Ace, Benny, with the Daleks (informative mention), and the Time Lords, the Master (glimpse)

Written by Jim Mortimore and Andy Lane.

Takes place in the Lucifer System; dated 2157 CE by Parkin in Ahistory.


Plight of the Monkrah   Short story, published 2007                             Doctor: 4

featuring Oliver Day

Written by John Davies.

Informed guess Takes place on an unnamed planet; there is a Tellurian presence in interstellar space, but Tellurians are still using Lynx aftershave, so early on.


GodEngine   Novel, published 1996                                                     Doctor: 7

featuring the Ice Warriors, Roz, Chris, with the Daleks (glimpse), and the Osirians, the Tereleptils (informative mention)

Written by Craig Hinton.

Takes place on Mars and Charon; self-dated May 2157 CE. A billion Tellurian settlers are exterminated by the Daleks on the colony world of Sifranos...but the earliest colonies were only founded thirty years previously. A population of a billion in so short a space of time implies a dedicated nursery-world, producing a maximum number of children, not necessarily by heterosexual reproduction, to provide plentiful labour for the exploitation of interstellar resources. As a long-term resource of the burgeoning Tellurian empire, such a world would be a tempting strategic target for the Daleks.


The Diamonds of Sartor, Quarsian Mission and Android of Death  

    Comic story, published 2008                                                                         Doctor: 10

Written by Jason Loborik.

Informed guess Takes place on Sartor, at an apparently early stage of Tellurian interstellar colonisation.


The Mutant Phase   Audio drama, released 2000                       Doctor: 5

featuring the Daleks, Nyssa

Written by Nicholas Briggs.

Takes place in Kansas, a landlocked constituent state of the USA, west of Missouri, north of Oklahoma and east of Colorado; self-dated 2158 CE.


Renaissance of the Daleks   Audio drama, released 2007   Doctor: 5

featuring the Daleks, Nyssa

Adapted by Alan Barnes from a story by Christopher H Bidmead.

Takes place in a version of London, Rhodes (an island of the Aegean Sea, south of Anatolia), Viginia and Vietnam; pivotally self-dated 2158 CE.


Technical Hitch   Comic story, published 1989                                        Doctor: 7

Written by Dan Abnett.

Informed guess Takes place on the spaceship Da Gama, at a time when Tellurians are exploring deep space.


Trouble on the Orion Express   Comic story, published 2012               Doctor: 11

Featuring Amy or an Amy ganger, Rory

Written by Luke Paton.

Informed guess Takes place in Tellurian Space, and not too far from Sol, as the constellation of Orion looks much the same as it does from Earth.


The Fag Hag From Hell   Short story, published 2009                            Doctor: 0

Featuring Iris Wildthyme

Written by Dale Smith.

Informed guess Concludes in a deserted, post-apocalyptic Manchester that is nonetheless recognisable to a visitor from the late 20th century CE. I think the Dalek occupation is a reasonable guess: there need be no Dalek presence in an unpopulated area.


When the Wolves Came   Illustrated short story, published 2014          Doctor: 12

Featuring Clara, with the Daleks (informative mention)

Written by Moray Laing.

Informed guess Takes place in London and Bedfordshire, during the Dalek occupation.


Masters of Earth   Audio drama, released 2014                             Doctor: 6

Featuring the Daleks, Peri

Written by Mark Wright and Cavan Scott.

Takes place in Scotland; self-dated 2163 CE, but also “a year before” the end of the Dalek occupation, which is not quite reconcilable with a lot of stuff, but for the time being I can accommodate the ambiguity.


The Grel Invasion of Earth   Audio drama, released 2018            Doctor: 0

Featuring Benny, the Grel

Written by Jacqueline Rayner.

Takes place in a version of Bournemouth, a coastal town of Dorset, and Dunstable, a town of Bedfordshire; self-dated 2164 CE. These time-travelling Grel seem to have substituted themselves for the Daleks in this timeline.


Every Dog Has His Day   Comic story, published 1980                           Doctor: 4

featuring K9 II, Romana

Written by the World Distributors Annual 1981 crew.

Informed guess Takes place on a Tellurian interstellar colony; ties are still worn.


The Dalek Invasion of Earth   TV story, broadcast 1964     Doctor: 1

featuring the Daleks, Susan, Barbara, Ian

Written by Terry Nation, script edited by David Whitaker.

Takes place in London and Bedfordshire; Parkin dates this as 2167 CE in Ahistory.


After the Daleks   Audio drama, released 2021                       Doctor: 0

Featuring the Daleks, Susan

Written by Roland Moore.

Takes place in London; self-dated 2167 CE and after The Dalek Invasion of Earth. 


Christmas Every Day   Short story, published 2008                                Doctor: 4

featuring Leela, with Austria (informative mention)

Written by Jason Arnopp.

Takes place on Gloricious; self-dated Christmas 2171 CE.


Something Inside   Audio drama, released 2006                        Doctor: 8

featuring Charley, C’rizz

Written by Trevor Baxendale.

Informed guess Takes place, plausibly, on Earth; soon after a war which has been won by the use of crudely engineered psychic abilities. There is a general air of underpopulation. It is never actually made clear how the events of The Dalek Invasion of Earth - Bedfordshire rid of the Daleks - lead to the Earth being rid of the Daleks, so I’m assuming that the recent war was the one in which they were finally expelled.


Under ODIN’s Eye   Audio short story, released 2019                              Doctor: 6

Featuring Peri, werewolves

Written by Alice Cavender.

Informed guess Takes place on Buris, a planet on which Tellurians have recently arrived.

 

Ghosts of Mars (2001) is self-dated 2176. Mars is at least partly terraformed, and I think the film can broadly be incorporated into Doctor Who narrative

 

A Time & a Place   Illustrated short story, published 1993                   Doctor: 7

Featuring Susan (informative mention)

Written by Una McCormack.

Informed guess Takes place in regional England, ten years or so after The Dalek Invasion of Earth.


Man of Smoke and Dust   Charity short story, published 2001      Doctor: Unbound

featuring the Daleks (informative mention)

Written by Sarah Hadley and Nick Campbell.

Takes place in Vienna; self-dated 2178 CE.


A Date to Remember and Snow Fakes   Comic story, published 2006   Doctor: 10

Featuring Rose

Written by Davey Moore.

Informed guess Takes place in Paris, in the future. Transit establishes that Paris was destroyed in the Thousand Day War towards the end of the 21st century, but Sword of Forever established that it had been rebuilt by the late 26th. As the hologramic technology on display seems rather advanced for the 21st century, I have placed it here, with a reconstructed Paris still recovering from the Dalek Occupation.


Wish Upon a Star Beast   Charity short story, published 1998                Doctor: 6

featuring the Meeps, Grant

Written by Steve Lyons.

Informed guess Takes place in Norwegian Lapland; self-dated a couple of centuries after Star Beast.


The Selachian Gambit   Audio drama, released 2012                      Doctor: 2

Featuring Polly, Ben, the Ockorans, Jamie

Written by Steve Lyons.

Informed guess Takes place near Tellurian space, sometime before The Final Sanction.


The Haldenmor Fugue   Illustrated short story, published 2009           Doctor: 10

Written by James Moran.

Takes place pivotally in a version of the east of England; self-dated 2180 CE.


Suspension and Disbelief   Short story, published 2007                       Doctor: 5

Written by Mary Robinette.

Takes place in Prague; self-dated 2181 CE.


Venus   Short story, published 2005                                                                Doctor: 8

featuring Charley

Written by Stuart Manning.

Informed guess Takes place near Venus, after much interplanetary exploration by Tellurians, but well before the terraforming of Venus seen in Invasion of the Daleks. I am supposing that Aristede was living outside the Solar System at the time of the Dalek occupation, and that the war of ‘62 which caused the closure of his exhibition was a campaign against the Daleks.


Something Borrowed   Short story, published 2013                                Doctor: 6

Featuring the Rani, Peri

Written by Richelle Mead.

Informed guess Takes place on Koturia; self-dated “about two hundred years” after Peri’s time.


Longest Day   Novel, published 1998                                                Doctor: 8

featuring Sam

Written by Stephen Cole (as Michael Collier).

Takes place on and above Hirath, some time before Legacy of the Daleks, it is reasonable to assume. True, Dreamstone Moon is “a few days” after for Sam, but we may assume that Hirath is some distance from Tellurian space – Sam only having one tongue comes as a surprise to the Thannosian humanoids - so I am assuming that Sam’s impression is the result of relativity or something. It is possible that Hirath’s unusual temporal properties are a side-effect of the War in Heaven.


Legacy of the Daleks   Novel, published 1998                            Doctor: 8

featuring the Daleks, Susan, the Master, with the Time Lords (glimpse), and Sam (informed mention)

Written by John Peel.

Takes place in London and southern England; self-dated thirty-two years after The Dalek Invasion of Earth. It must clearly be well before An Earthly Child, however, so I am assuming that “sixteen” years is actually meant.


A Star’s View of Caroline   Short story, published 2013                          Doctor: 0

Featuring Unbound Susan, Unbound Barbara, Unbound Ian, with the Daleks, San Francisco, London, Vienna, Faction Paradox (informative mention)

Written by Sarah Hadley.

Takes place on Earth. The main action is dated fifteen years after the end of the Dalek Occupation, and the story concludes, I’d guess, a couple of years after that.

 

Seeding Program, published as A Time to Survive (1956) is the last novella in James Blish’s The Seedling Stars sequence, although the first chronologically. It describes an interstellar colonial mission committed to the pantropic engineering of human colonists to alien environments leaving a Tellurian settlement on Ganymede, a moon of Jupiter. I believe it fits well enough with Doctor Who narrative here.

 

Life From Lifelessness   Short story, published 2007                             Doctors: 1, 4

featuring Susan, K9 II, Romana

Written by Keith R A DeCandido.

Informed guess Takes place in Prague; the main action takes place “five hundred and fifty” years after the late sixteenth century, which is problematic, as this places the Wronsdehj occupation of central Europe immediately before or during the Dalek occupation of Earth. My guess is that it took place while the human race was suffering a majority die-back during the Dalek plague, and was ended before the Daleks actually arrived. The date for the framing action of this story, “twenty years after the occupation”, I therefore take to mean twenty years after the Dalek occupation.


An Earthly Child   Audio drama, released 2009                                  Doctor: 8

Featuring Susan

Written by Marc Platt.

Takes place in London and Bristol; self-dated 2187 CE.


Lucie Miller and To the Death   Audio drama, released 2011     Doctor: 8

Featuring the Daleks, Susan, Mortimus, Lucie, Tamsin

Written by Nicholas Briggs.

Takes place on in Thailand, London, regional England, north America and the Atlantic, beginning some months after An Earthly Child and concluding three or four  years after.


Space Invaders!   Comic story, published 2015                                         Doctor: 12

Featuring Clara

Written by Mark Wright.

Informed guess Takes place in the Solar System, some decades after 2122 CE.


Absolute Power   Audio drama, released 2016                              Doctor: 6

Featuring Constance

Written by Jamie Anderson.

Informed guess Takes place on Teymah, dated “2190-ish” by the Doctor.


Greenaway   Short story, published 2003  Doctors: 2, 5, 8, Unbound, with 1, 3 (informative mention)

featuring Steven (informative mention)

Written by Peter Anghelides.

Informed guess Takes place on a Tellurian colony world. Interstellar flight still commonly takes years, and involves travellers being put in stasis.


The More Things Change   Illustrated short story, published 1993        Doctor: 6

featuring Peri, and the Daleks (informative mention)

Written by Andy Lane.

Informed guess Takes place in Virginia; finishes about thirty years after the end of the Dalek occupation.


A Lift in Time   Audio drama, released 2013                                         Doctor: 0

Featuring Iris Wildthyme

Written by David Bryher.

Informed guess Takes place on Io, a now colonised moon of Jupiter. A sentient muzak-playing lift has been operational for seventy-nine years.


The Arboreals   Short story, published 2015                                              Doctor: 1

featuring Susan

Written by Marc Platt.

Informed guess Takes place on a planet in Tellurian space. Susan is “beginning to feel at home” in the TARDIS, so it is not long after she and the Doctor left Gallifrey, and implicitly before The Sons of the Crab ; therefore, in Mutter’s Spiral and not necessarily a long way into the future.

 

Screamers (1995) is set on a Tellurian colony on Sirius 6B, presumably orbiting Sirius, and dated 2078, which for Doctor Who narrative is far too early for interstellar colonisation, so I am treating it as a Galactic Standard date and placing it in 2198 CE.

 

Murmurs of Earth   Audio short story, released 2011                               Doctor: 6

Featuring Peri

Written by Michael Deacon, Jamie Middleton and Chris Wraight.

Takes place in the Oort Cloud, the vast cloud of icy planetesimals surrounding the solar system (some of which fall into it to become comets); self-dated 2199 CE.

 

 

 

Total Stories Considered             4652

Proportion Written By Women 11%                                       

 

Top Docs

4                 391 stories                   

7                 367 stories 

3                 328 stories

8                 322 stories 

10               318 stories

11               310 stories 

5                 292 stories         

1                 277 stories 

6                 275 stories  

2                 250 stories         

12               146 stories

Unbound  109 stories

9                 81 stories  

13               66 stories           

War           47 stories                     

 

 

Top Twenty Recurring Elements

 

London                                                              1125 stories                

Regional England                                            794  stories        

UNIT                                                                 464 stories  

Alastair, Kate, Kadiatu, Lucy Weston and the Lethbridge-Stewart family                                                                            451 stories  

The Time Lords                                               445 stories 

Continental Europe                                         415 stories 

North America                                                 407 stories  

The Daleks and Davros                                  277 stories

Wales                                                                261 stories

The Master, including Missy                         252 stories Climber!   

Torchwood                                                        252 stories  

Sarah Jane                                                        242 stories  

Ace                                                                      215 stories 

At Sea                                                                 214 stories  

The K9s                                                              209 stories 

Captain Jack                                                    201 stories

Amy and Rory                                                  185 stories 

Asia                                                                     184 stories

Christmas                                                          176 stories 

Romana                                                             175 stories 

 

 

Top Decades

 

The Teens                                                          1991 stories

The Noughties                                                  1200 stories       

The Nineties                                                      441 stories

The Twenties                                                     389 stories

The Eighties                                                      225 stories

The Seventies                                                    221 stories         

The Sixties                                                         115 stories

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

 

 

And Top Twenty Years

 

2016                                                          276 stories

2018                                                          246 stories 

2020                                                          223 stories  

2017                                                           219 stories       

2015                                                          216 stories 

2008                                                          208 stories  

2019                                                          192 stories

2013                                                          190 stories  

2011                                                          189 stories Climber!   

2010                                                          187 stories

2009                                                          179 stories 

2021                                                          167 stories

2014                                                          146 stories   

2001                                                          142 stories  

2007                                                          139 stories 

2012                                                          131 stories  

2006                                                          124 stories 

2004                                                          123 stories  

2005                                                          114 stories

1993                                                          95 stories

                            

         

 

 

 

Total Writers (including showrunners, script editors, anthology linking material writers)                                     1063

Proportion of Female Writers                17%      

 

Top Twenty Writers

 

Terrance Dicks                                       129 stories

James Goss                                              129 stories           

Justin Richards                                       121 stories 

Russell T Davies                                     117 stories  

Paul Magrs                                              94 stories  

Steven Moffat                                         83 stories  

Jonathan Morris                                    83 stories            

Matt Fitton                                              66 stories  

John Dorney                                            65 stories  

Eddie Robson                                          62 stories   Climber!

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle                         60 stories           

Gareth Roberts                                       54 stories           

Alan Barnes                                             53 stories   Climber!

Robert Holmes                                        53 stories            

David Whitaker                                      53 stories   Climber!   

Steve Lyons                                             52 stories  

Eric Saward                                            49 stories  

David Llewellyn                                      48 stories  

Gary Russell                                            48 stories  

Guy Adams                                              47 stories=

Andrew Cartmel                                     47 stories=

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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