Then Again: The Late Twenty-Fifth Century

 

Shell Shock   Novella, published 2003                                                     Doctor: 6

featuring Peri

Written by Simon A Forward.

Informed guess Takes place on an unnamed planet; the warring Tellurian corporations suggest a time close to Colony in Space.


Tunnel Terrors   Comic story, published 2013                                          Doctor: 11

Featuring Clara

Written by James Hill.

Informed guess Takes place on a Tellurian colony world; self-dated the twenty-fifth century CE.


The Sound of Fear   Audio drama, released 2009                              Doctor: 0

Featuring Iris Wildthyme

Written by Mark Michalowski.

Takes place mainly on Radio Yesterday, “five hundred” years after 1963 CE; also in London.


Last Rites   Short story, published 2004                                                      Doctor: 7

featuring Ace

Written by Marc Platt.

Informed guess Takes place on Epajaenda; self-dated “over three hundred years” after “sixty-two”, when interstellar space ships were “newfangled”. I’m assuming the “old Earth Land-rush” took place in 2162 CE, prompted by the Dalek occupation.


The Dawn Before Christmas   Short story, published 2018                     Doctor: 0

Featuring 10,000 Dawns

Written by Trevor Allen.

Informed guess Takes place on a version of Mars in the 10,000 Dawns, self-dated Christmas Morning after Zhang Han’s election to the presidency.


The Diplomat’s Story   Short story, published 2004                                 Doctor: 6

featuring Evelyn

Written by Kathryn Sullivan.

Informed guess Takes place on Teuba, at a time when life on Earth is “getting restrictive”.


Holiday Heist   Short story, published 2018                                               Doctor: 0

Featuring 10,000 Dawns

Written by Bri Crozier.

Informed guess Takes place in a 10,000 Dawns version of Shanghai; self-dated Christmas Eve, not long after the outbreak of the Centro Civil War.


Colony in Space   TV Story, broadcast 1971                                      Doctor: 3

featuring the Master, Jo, and the Time Lords, Lethbridge-Stewart (glimpse)

Written by Malcolm Hulke, script edited by Terrance Dicks.

Takes place on Uxarius; self-dated 2472 CE.

The Fate Of The Earth

Earth’s population is now up to a hundred billion.


Whodunnit and The Sound of Our Voices   Comic story, published 2014 Doctor: 11

Featuring Alice, John Jones, ARC

Written by Al Ewing.

Informed guess Takes place in Tellurian space; self-dated ten years before The Friendly Place. ARC leaves linear time, being aboard the TARDIS when it dematerialises.


The Nu-Humans   Audio story, released 2012                                     Doctor: 11

Featuring Amy or an Amy ganger, Rory

Written by Cavan Scott and Mark Wright.

Informed guess Takes place on Hope Eternal. The obsessive desire of Tellurian space for minerals suggests a time near Colony in Space.

 

 

Most classic science-fiction future histories are incompatible with Doctor Who narrative. Many, influenced by Astounding editor John W Campbell, are set in a future where Earth humans are the only known intelligent life in the universe, such as those of Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Cordwainer Smith, and Frank Herbert’s Dune sequence. Others have too specific a relationship between humanity and other civilisations, or, frequently, too specific a conception of supra-lightspeed travel. Examples include those of James Blish, Ursula LeGuin, Frank Herbert’s Gowachin stories, Arthur C Clarke, Larry Niven, A Bertram Chandler, Jerry Pournelle, Gregory Benford, Greg Bear, Stephen Baxter and Iain M Banks. Poul Anderson’s Polesotechnic League stories have a fairly detailed chronology that contradicts Doctor Who narrative, but his 1964 novella collection Trader to the Stars, the latest placed in 2478 by enthusiasts, show a vigorously commercial interstellar Tellurian civilisation interacting with a variety of alien intelligences in a way that fits here very easily (and permits me to claim the Falstaffian titular character, Nicholas van Rijn).

 

Light at the End of the Tunnel   Short story, published 2003                Doctor: 5

featuring Peri

Written by Mark Wright.

Informed guess Takes place on N’Tia; self-dated five hundred years after Geoffrey Boycott’s hundredth Hundred.


Roses   Illustrated short story, published 1994                                            Doctor: 1

featuring Susan, Steven (informative mention), with the Time Lords (glimpse).

Written by Robert Mammone.

Informed guess Takes place in a Rose Garden the Doctor has previously cultivated; plausibly on Dido, before The Rescue.


The Last Song I’ll Ever Sing   Charity short story, published 2001         Doctor: 1

featuring Steven, Sara, the Sontarans

Written by Simon Exton.=

Informed guess Takes place on New Babylon, during Sontaran incursions into Tellurian space


The Friendly Place   Comic story, published 2014                                      Doctor: 11

Featuring Alice

Written by Al Ewing.

Informed guess Takes place on Rokhandi. The similarity between ServeYou Inc and the IMC suggests a time near Colony in Space.


The Rise and Fall and The Other Doctor   Comic story, published 2015        Doctor: 11

Featuring Alice, John Jones, ARC

Written by Al Ewing and Rob Williams.

Takes place in ServeYouInc City, immediately after The Friendy Place.


Cold Vengeance   Audio drama, released 2017                                   Doctor: 10

Featuring the Ice Warriors, Rose

Written by Matt Fitton.

Informed guess Takes place on Coldstar, some time after a conflict between Ice Warriors and Tellurians: Ice Warriors have been settled on Enyo following the peace agreement.


The House of Winter   Audio story, released 2015                           Doctor: 12

Featuring Clara

Written by George Mann.

Informed guess Takes place in the Asurmian Reach; self-dated the Twenty-Fifth Century CE.


#Harry Sullivan   Audio short story, released 2019                                  Doctor: 4

Featuring Sarah Jane, Harry, with Lethbridge-Stewart (informative mention)

Informed guess Takes place aboard the Zephyr, in Tellurian space. The Doctor estimates it is the twenty-fifth century CE.


Operation Wurlitzer   Comic story, published 1969                                Doctor: 2

Drawn ?and written by John Canning.

Informed guess Takes place in Tellurian space. There is at this point a United States Government, possibly for nostalgic reasons, still detaining convicted criminals in San Quentin, possibly also for nostalgic reasons.


The Game   Audio drama, released 2005                                            Doctor: 5

featuring Nyssa

Written by Darin Henry.

Takes place on Cray; dated 2484 CE by Parkin in Ahistory.


Echoes of the Mogor   Comic story, published 1988                                Doctor: 7

Written by Dan Abnett.

Informed guess Takes place on Mekrom, in Tellurian space. The presence of the Tellurian military organisation, Foreign Hazard Defence, suggests that it is around the same time as Conflict of Interests.


Judgement of the Judoon   Novel, published 2009               Doctor: 10

Featuring the Judoon, with the Draconians (glimpse)

Written by Colin Brake.

Takes place in and above New Memphis; self-dated 2487 CE.


Dark Paragon   Charity short story, published 1998                                 Doctor: Unbound

featuring ?Unbound Master

Written by Jon Andersen.

Informed guess Takes place partially on a Tellurian colony world, three generations after Infinite Requiem.


Hell to Pay   Charity drabble, published 1993                                             Doctor: 0

featuring ?Unbound Master

Written by Jim Mortimore.

Plausibly takes place during Dark Paragon.


Aquitaine   Audio drama, released 2016                                             Doctor: 5

Featuring Nyssa, Tegan

Written by Simon Barnard and Paul Morris.

Informed guess Takes place in Tellurian space, at a time of obsessive exploration and research.


Conflict of Interests   Comic story, published 1992                                 Doctor: 0

featuring the Sontarans

Written by Dan Abnett.

Informed guess Takes place on Aleph 777; a very long time after The Final Quest, and implicitly between Silent Warrior and Pureblood. It is implied that skirmishes between Tellurians and Sontarans are not uncommon.


Swarm Enemies   Comic story, published, published 2007                      Doctor: 10

featuring Martha

Written by John Ross.

Informed guess Takes place on New Colorado. That the Doctor and Martha can be mistaken for androids suggests a time not too distant from Kingdom of Silver and The Sword of Orion.


The Sleeping City   Audio drama, released 2014                                Doctor: 1

Featuring Barbara, Ian, Vicki

Written by Ian Potter.

Informed guess Takes place in the city of Hisk; self-dated the late twenty-fifth or early twenty-sixth century CE.


Terrorformer   Comic story, published, published 2014                           Doctor: 12

Featuring Clara, with the Time Lords, the Earth Reptiles, the Sontarans (glimpse)

Written by Robbie Morrison.

Informed guess Takes place on Neptune and, pivotally, Isen VI, self-dated the twenty-fifth century CE.


The Rescue   TV Story, broadcast 1965                                                   Doctor: 1

featuring Barbara, Ian, Vicki

Written by David Whitaker, script edited by Dennis Spooner.                                             

Takes place on Dido; during, or not long after, 2492 CE. Vicki leaves linear time, being aboard the TARDIS when it dematerialises.


The Crash of the UK-201   Audio drama, released 2018          Doctor: 1

Featuring Vicki, with Steven (glimpse)

Written by Jonathan Morris.

Takes place in various timelines leading away from The Rescue.


Blue Skies Thinking   Comic story, published, published 2010               Doctor: 11

Featuring Amy

Written by Eddie Robson.

Takes place on Thelka; self-dated 2495 CE.


Hunger from the Ends of Time   Comic story, published, published 1989       Doctor: 7

Written by Dan Abnett.                                                                                                           

Informed guess Takes place on Catalog. The presence of the FHD suggests a time similar to Conflict of Interests.


Kingdom of Silver   Audio drama, released 2008                        Doctor: 7

featuring the Cybermen

Written by James Swallow.

Informed guess Takes place on Tasak, during the Orion War.

 

  

 

 

Total Stories Considered             4861

Proportion Written By Women 11%                                       

 

Top Docs

4                 410 stories                   

7                 383 stories 

8                 341 stories 

3                 338 stories

11               332 stories  Climber! 

10               331 stories

5                 312 stories         

6                 301 stories    

1                 294 stories 

2                 265 stories         

12               151 stories

Unbound  112 stories

9                 83 stories  

13               67 stories           

War           47 stories                     

 

 

Top Twenty Recurring Elements

 

London                                                              1135 stories                

Regional England                                            801 stories

UNIT                                                                  464 stories  

The Time Lords                                               463 stories 

Alastair, Kate, Kadiatu, Lucy Weston and the Lethbridge-Stewart family                                                                            456 stories  

Continental Europe                                         420 stories 

North America                                                 410 stories  

The Daleks and Davros                                  299 stories

The Master, including Missy                         263 stories Climber!

Wales                                                                261 stories

Torchwood                                                        252 stories  

Sarah Jane                                                        247 stories  

Ace                                                                      219 stories 

The K9s                                                              215 stories 

At Sea                                                                 214 stories  

Captain Jack                                                    202 stories

Amy and Rory                                                  196 stories 

Asia                                                                     189 stories

Romana                                                             182 stories

Christmas                                                          180 stories 

 

 

Top Decades

 

The Teens                                                          2058 stories

The Noughties                                                  1255 stories       

The Nineties                                                      479 stories

The Twenties                                                     399 stories

The Eighties                                                      240 stories

The Seventies                                                    225 stories         

The Sixties                                                         135 stories

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

 

 

And Top Twenty Years

 

2016                                                          278 stories

2018                                                          255 stories 

2020                                                          229 stories  

2015                                                          225 stories  Climber! 

2017                                                           225 stories       

2008                                                          216 stories  

2013                                                          197 stories 

2019                                                          196 stories  Climber! 

2011                                                          195 stories

2010                                                          193 stories

2009                                                          185 stories 

2021                                                          171 stories

2014                                                          155 stories  

2001                                                          150 stories  

2007                                                          148 stories

2012                                                          140 stories  

2006                                                          129 stories

2004                                                          127 stories

2005                                                          117 stories

1993                                                          100 stories

                            

         

 

 

 

Total Writers (including showrunners, script editors, anthology linking material writers)                                     1082

Proportion of Female Writers                17%      

 

Top Twenty Writers

 

Terrance Dicks                                       130 stories Climber!   

James Goss                                              130 stories   

Justin Richards                                       126 stories 

Russell T Davies                                     117 stories  

Paul Magrs                                              95 stories  

Jonathan Morris                                    88 stories  

Steven Moffat                                         85 stories  

Eddie Robson                                          73 stories  

Matt Fitton                                              69 stories  

David Whitaker                                      66 stories   Climber!   

John Dorney                                            65 stories  

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle                        60 stories           

Gareth Roberts                                       58 stories  

Steve Lyons                                             57 stories  

Alan Barnes                                             54 stories  

Robert Holmes                                        54 stories           

Eric Saward                                            54 stories  

Marc Platt                                               50 stories   Climber!   

Gary Russell                                            50 stories  

Stephen Cole                                           49 stories  

 

 

 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog