Then Again: The Early Twenty-Fourth Century

 

Excelis Decays   Audio drama, released 2002                                      Doctor: 7

Written by Craig Hinton.

Takes place on Artaris, three hundred years before The Plague Herds of Excelis.


Mummy On The Orient Express   TV story, broadcast 2014      Doctor: 12

Featuring Clara

Written by Jamie Mathieson, script supervised by Steven Moffat.

Informed guess Takes place on a sophisticated interstellar spaceship in Tellurian space.


Tower of Power   Comic story, published 2012                                          Doctor: 11

Featuring Decky Flamboon

Written by Craig Donaghy.

Informed guess Takes place on Cobaltikar 45. A replica Eiffel Tower places it after 1888 CE, and probably after Tellurians expanded into interstellar space, but not too far into the future, as the Brancheerians are still extant, and the coordinates for their stellar system are still usable.


The Slow Empire   Novel, published 2001                                     Doctor: 8

Featuring the remembered Fitz, Anji

Written by Dave Stone.

Takes place within the Slow Empire; dated 2305 CE by Parkin in Ahistory, for no very good reason that I can see.


Green Fingers   Comic story, published 2007                                           Doctor: 10

Written by Mike Tucker.

Informed guess Takes place above an unnamed planet, during a time of Tellurian expansion into interstellar space.

 

Seminal space opera Forbidden Planet (1956) features the super-lightspeed cruiser C-57-D travelling to Altair IV. The sequel, The Invisible Boy (1957), handily informs us that the C-57-D returned to Chicago spaceport in March 2309 AD, which I think is fine for Doctor Who narrative.

 

The Mists of Time   Audio drama, released 2009                              Doctor: 3

Featuring Jo, with the Time Lords, Lethbridge-Stewart, Benton (informative mention)

Written  by Jonathan Morris.

Takes place on Zayin Eight; dated 2309 CE by Parkin in Ahistory.


Doctor Who - The Twin Dilemma   Novelisation of a TV story, published 1986   Doctor: 6

featuring the Time Lords, Peri

Adapted by Eric Saward, from a script by Anthony Steven.

Takes place on Earth, Titan III and Jaconda; self-dated some five hundred years after 1810 CE.


Midnight in the Cafe of the Black Madonna   Short story, published 2007     Doctor: 3

Written by Sean Williams.

Informed guess Takes place in Prague; self-dated the twenty fourth century CE.


Time of Your Life   Novel, published 1995                                    Doctor: 6

featuring Grant, and the Time Lords (informative mention)

Written by Steve Lyons.

Takes place in the Meson and New Earth systems; self-dated Earth Year 2191. The level of Tellurian interstellar civilisation seems a bit high for the late twenty-second century, so I believe the date to be Galactic Standard, making it 2311 CE. Grant leaves linear time, being aboard the TARDIS when it dematerialises.


Killing Ground   Novel, published 1996                                         Doctor: 6

featuring the Cybermen, Grant

Written by Steve Lyons.

Takes place on Agora, immediately after Time of Your Life. The Cyber activity here could be the start of the “Cyber Wars”, mentioned as having taken place four hundred years previously in Revenge of the Cybermen. Clearly Tellurian interstellar colonists had previously found themselves in conflict with Cybermen (Dreadnought, The Tyrants of Logic); I suggest that the Cyber Wars represent a systematic attempt by the Cybermen to take over Tellurian space as a going concern, and indeed absorb Tellurians as an interstellar species by means of Cyberconversion.


Welcome to Tickle Town   Comic story, published 2013                        Doctor: 11

Featuring Clara

Written by Scott Gray.

Informed guess Takes place in Tickle Town, some three hundred years after Clara’s time.


The Swords of Kali   Comic story, published 2015            Doctors: 12, with 4 (glimpse)

featuring Clara

Written by Robbie Morrison.

Takes place variously, including in Florence, but pivotally in and above India, self-dated 2315 CE.


Cyber Crisis   Comic story, published 2017                                                Doctor: 0

Featuring the Daleks, the Cybermen

Written by Cavan Scott.

Informed guess Takes place in Tellurian space, plausibly in the Cyber-wars. Despite the Daleks’ claim that the Cyberman empire has fallen to them, I would say that the Cybermen are a lot more comfortable with decentralisation than the Daleks, and the destruction of the city on New Mondas is not a decisive blow against them. It may well remove a threat to the Daleks, however, as they build up to the invasion of the Solar System at the beginning of the next century. For that matter, it may be pressure from the Daleks that prompt the Cyber Wars, analogously to the way the Germanic invasions of the Roman empire were a response to pressure from the Huns.


The Skin of the Sleek and The Thief Who Stole Time

                                                   Audio drama, released 2017                         Doctor: 4

Featuring the Time Lords, Romana

Written by Marc Platt

Informed guess Takes place on Fundrell, in Tellurian space.


Profits of Doom!   Comic story, published 1987                                       Doctor: 6

featuring Peri, Frobisher

Written by Mike Collins.

Takes place in space; self-dated January 2321 CE. Disappointingly, we have heard nothing further of Varley Gabriel alias Seth, a temporally active supervillain who appears to know the Doctor, while the Doctor, at this stage of his life, only slightly knows of him. I suggest that he could plausibly Sabbath.


The Caterpillar Room   Charity short story, published 2018                   Doctor: 8

Featuring the Remembered Fitz, Anji

Written by Kate Orman.

Informed guess Takes place on Hitchemus, “a century” after The Year of Intelligent Tigers.


The Jupiter Conjunction   Audio drama, released 2012       Doctor: 5

Featuring Nyssa, Tegan, Turlough

Written by Eddie Robson.

Takes place in the outer Solar System; self-dated 2329 CE.


Identity Crisis   Charity short story, published 1999                                 Doctor: 0

Featuring the Cybermen

Written by Nathan Skeslet.

Informed guess Takes place in Tellurian space; self-dated less than two years into the Cyber-wars.


The Haven   Illustrated short story, published 1982                                  Doctor: 5

featuring Nyssa, Tegan

Written by the 1983 World Distributors Annual 1983 crew.

Takes place on 435; self-dated 2330 CE.


Vengeance on Varos   TV story, broadcast 1985                         Doctor: 6

featuring Peri, Sil

Written by Philip Martin, script edited by Eric Saward.

Informed guess Takes place on Varos; the Governor, apparently in his mid-forties, was born shortly before 2285 CE.


Throwback: The Soul of a Cyberman   Comic story, published 1979   Doctor: 4 (glimpse)

featuring the Cybermen, Kroton

Written by Steve Moore.

Informed guess Takes place on Telos and Mondaran; plausibly during the Cyber Wars.


The Triplet Impertinence   Charity short story, published 2016            Doctor: 6

Featuring Peri

Written by Andrew Jones.

Informed guess Takes place on Fiesta-95 and Jaconda, a generation after The Twin Dilemma.

 

High Life (2018) is set on a spaceship travelling at high but sub-light speeds. By the end of the film, eighteen years have passed for it subjectively, but two hundred and ten years relative to Earth. I think a launch date of the early twenty-second century is compatible with Doctor Who narrative.

 

Birth of a Renegade   Illustrated short story, published 1983     Doctors: 5, with 1 (glimpse)

featuring the Time Lords, the Cybermen, the Master, Susan, Tegan, Turlogh.
Written by Eric Saward.

Informed guess Takes place on a Cyberman spaceship; plausibly during the Cyber Wars.


To the Slaughter   Novel, published 2005                                     Doctor: 8

featuring the remembered Fitz, Trix, with the Krotons, the Sontarans (glimpse), and the Draconians (informative mention)

Written by Stephen Cole.

Takes place in the outer Solar System; self-dated “almost four hundred years” after 1938 CE.


Cold War   Short story, published 2003                                                      Doctor: 7

featuring the Earth Reptiles, Ace, Benny

Written by Rebecca Levene.

Informed guess Takes place on a moon of Zara Seven, five years after a war between Tellurian and Earth Reptile colonists. According to The Also People, Third Eye released Outta My Way, Monkey Boy in 2327 CE, suggesting tension between the species at this time.


Eskimo Joe   Comic story, published 1969                                                 Doctor: 2

featuring the Cybermen

Written by John Canning.

Informed guess Takes place on a Tellurian colony world; plausibly during the Cyber Wars.


Embrace the Darkness   Audio drama, released 2002             Doctor: 8

featuring Charley

Written by Nicholas Briggs.

Informed guess Takes place above and on Cimmeria IV. Humans are exploring interstellar space, from extra-solar colonies that appear to be acting independently of Earth, though, bizarrely, there is a Humans Don’t Belong In Space movement.


Ghost in the Machine   Short story, published 2018                               Doctor: 6

Featuring the Cybermen, the Racnoss, with the Daleks, Peri (glimpse)

Written by Dave Rudden.

Informed guess Takes place over a period of time in Telosian space, plausibly during the Cyber Wars.


Return to Skaro   Audio drama, released 2020                             Doctor: 1

Featuring the Daleks, Susan, Barbara, Ian

Written by Andrew Smith.

Informed guess Takes place on Skaro; self-dated fifty years after Doctor Who In An Exciting Adventure With The Daleks. It is only about half a century before the Daleks find a way of taking Skaro to the Solar System in Invasion of the Daleks. At this point, however, the planet seems to be peripheral to interstellar Dalek activities, as it has been since before Curse of the Daleks.


The Cyber Empire   Comic story, published 1968                                     Doctor: 2

featuring the Cybermen, Gillian, John

Illustrated ?and written by John Canning.

Informed guess Takes place at the heart of the Cyber Empire (Telos?); plausibly in the twenty-fourth century.


Separation Day   Short story, published 2006                                          Doctor: 3

featuring Sarah Jane

Written by Andy Campbell.

Informed guess Takes place in orbit round Neptune; self-dated five centuries after the eighteenth century.


A Girl Called Doubt   Illustrated short story, published 2020                 Doctor: 5

Featuring the Cybermen

Written by Dave Rudden.

Informed guess Takes place on Agrippina; the Eleventh Cyber Legion are said to be attacking it in Ghost in the Machine, so plausibly soon after that.


Masters of War   Audio drama, released 2008                   Doctor: Unbound

featuring Unbound Daleks, Unbound Lethbridge-Stewart, Unbound Davros

Written by Eddie Robson.

Informed guessTakes place on an alternative version of Skaro, a couple of generations after Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure With the Daleks.


Flower Power   Comic story, published 1967                                             Doctor: 2

featuring the Cybermen, Gillian, John

Written by John Canning.

Informed guess Takes place on an unnamed planet in Tellurian space; plausibly during the Cyber Wars.


The Darkening Eye   Audio drama, released 2008                            Doctor: 5

featuring Adric, Nyssa, Tegan

Written by Stewart Sheargold.

Informed guess Takes place in space; plausibly before The Death Collectors.


Rescue   Illustrated short story, published 1994                                         Doctor: 0

featuring the Cybermen, and the Rani (glimpse)

Written by David Roden.

Informed guess Takes place on DV Acrol 8; plausibly during the Cyber Wars.


The Time Crocodile   Gamebook, published 2007                            Doctor: 10

Featuring Martha

Written by Colin Brake.

Takes place in The Space Zoo; self-dated 2345 CE.


Terminal of Despair   Novel, published 2011                              Doctor: 11

Featuring Amy, Rory

Written by Steve Lyons.

Informed guess Takes place in Tellurian space; self-dated 2346 CE.


The Scruffy Piper   Illustrated short story, published 2015                       Doctor: 2

Featuring the Cybermen, with Jamie, Zoe (informative mention)

Written by Justin Richards.

Informed guess Takes place in Tellurian space; plausibly during the Cyber Wars of the twenty-fourth century.


The Long Step Backward   Short story, published 2007                         Doctor: 1

featuring Vicki, Steven

Written by Mike W Barr.

Takes place in Prague; self-dated 2348 CE. Vicki has seen Prague at an earlier date, so the Doctor must have taken there (as her own time is over a century later).

 

 

 

Total Stories Considered             4758

Proportion Written By Women  11%                                       

 

Top Docs

4                 401 stories                   

7                 374 stories 

8                 340 stories 

3                 336 stories

10               326 stories

11               320 stories 

5                 302 stories         

6                 289 stories  Climber!   

1                 287 stories 

2                 260 stories         

12               148 stories

Unbound  110 stories

9                 82 stories  

13               67 stories           

War           47 stories                     

 

 

Top Twenty Recurring Elements

 

London                                                              1132 stories                

Regional England                                            799 stories

UNIT                                                                  464 stories  

Alastair, Kate, Kadiatu, Lucy Weston and the Lethbridge-Stewart family                                                                             453 stories  

The Time Lords                                               452 stories 

Continental Europe                                         419 stories 

North America                                                 409 stories  

The Daleks and Davros                                  287 stories

Wales                                                                  261 stories

The Master, including Missy                         257 stories

Torchwood                                                        252 stories  

Sarah Jane                                                        244 stories  

Ace                                                                      217 stories 

At Sea                                                                 214 stories  

The K9s                                                              213 stories 

Captain Jack                                                    202 stories

Amy and Rory                                                  190 stories 

Asia                                                                     187 stories

Romana                                                             181 stories

Christmas                                                          178 stories 

 

 

Top Decades

 

The Teens                                                          2024 stories

The Noughties                                                  1233 stories       

The Nineties                                                      456 stories

The Twenties                                                     396 stories

The Eighties                                                      235 stories

The Seventies                                                    224 stories         

The Sixties                                                         120 stories

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

 

 

And Top Twenty Years

 

2016                                                          277 stories

2018                                                          252 stories 

2020                                                          226 stories  

2017                                                           223 stories       

2015                                                          220 stories 

2008                                                          213 stories  

2011                                                          194 stories

2013                                                          194 stories 

2019                                                          193 stories

2010                                                          190 stories

2009                                                          181 stories 

2021                                                          171 stories

2014                                                           148 stories  

2001                                                          146 stories  

2007                                                          146 stories Climber! 

2012                                                          134 stories  

2006                                                          128 stories

2004                                                          125 stories

2005                                                          116 stories

1993                                                          96 stories

                            

         

 

 

 

Total Writers (including showrunners, script editors, anthology linking material writers)                                     1071

Proportion of Female Writers               17%      

 

Top Twenty Writers

 

Terrance Dicks                                       129 stories

James Goss                                              129 stories           

Justin Richards                                       125 stories 

Russell T Davies                                     117 stories  

Paul Magrs                                              95 stories  

Jonathan Morris                                    85 stories  

Steven Moffat                                         84 stories  

Eddie Robson                                          70 stories  

Matt Fitton                                              67 stories  

John Dorney                                            65 stories  

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle                        60 stories           

Steve Lyons                                             56 stories   Climber!   

Gareth Roberts                                       56 stories           

David Whitaker                                      55 stories            

Robert Holmes                                        54 stories           

Alan Barnes                                             53 stories  

Eric Saward                                            53 stories   Climber!   

Marc Platt                                               49 stories   Climber!

Gary Russell                                            49 stories  

Stephen Cole                                           48 stories= Re-entry!

David Llewellyn                                      48 stories=

 

 

 

 

 

 

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