Then Again: The Late Third Myriad

 

The Face of Evil   TV story, broadcast 1977                                      Doctor: 4

featuring Leela

Written by Chris Boucher, script edited by Robert Holmes.

Takes place on an unnamed Tellurian colony; dated 25,000 CE by Parkin in Ahistory. Leela leaves linear time, being aboard the TARDIS when it dematerialises.

A Stone of the Heart   Charity short story, published 2001                       Doctor: 0

featuring the Master

Written by Erin and James Bow.

Informed guess Takes place on an unnamed Tellurian colony, at least twenty thousand years after its settlement.

Blue Road Dance   Short story, published 2008                                        Doctor: 2

Written by James Milton.

Informed guess Takes place on Ost and Eshraya, finishing in the Year 24,321. As years are given for both planets, I assume an interstellar calendar is being used; if they are Imperial Space Years, then Year 24,321 is 26,277 CE.

 

Brian Herbert dates God Emperor of Dune (1981) three and a half thousand years after Children of Dune. Leto II, by my hypothesis, remembers that the universe is full of non-Tellurian civilisations. The Scattering that he plans for after his death will be undertaken by space vessels using Ixian navigation machines. These might be prescient, but they will not be programmed to seek out uninhabited areas of the universe, like Guild navigators, simply because their owners will be unaware that this is an issue.

 

The Snow Wolves   Short story, published 2016                                       Doctor: 0

Featuring Erimem, with Egypt (informative mention)

Written by Chloe McLaughlin.

Informed guess Takes place on Rizan, in Tellurian space. The planet has been settled for many decades.

Conduct Unbecoming   Audio drama, released 2000                     Doctor: 0

Featuring the Sontarans

Written by Gareth Preston.

Informed guess Takes place in Sontaran space. Maria says she is “thirtieth century”, Forrest refers to a treaty of “twenty thousand”(and presumably something, he is cut off). Two different calandars are being used: if either of them is the Common Era, this takes place after Pureblood. Sontarans are waging war on Tellurian-descended humans, so I think it is much closer to The Sontaran Experiment than Pureblood. I’m placing it after the Space Year 21,000, in the Third Myriad CE.

Beneath the Viscoid   Audio drama, released 2017                           Doctor: 0

Featuring the Daleks, the Master, with the Time Lords (informative mention)

Written by Nicholas Briggs.

Informed guess Takes place on Gardezza; self-dated “the far future”.

Planet of Paradise   Illustrated short story, published 1981                       Doctor: 4

featuring Adric, K9 III

Written by the World Distributors Annual 1982 Crew.

Arbitrary placement Takes place on Elystria.

 

Heretics of Dune (1984) is set fifteen hundred years after God Emperor of Dune. During this time the Scattering has been travelling out randomly from the largely random locations of the Old Empire, and I imagine has discovered that the universe teems with other civilisations, some of them populated by their long-lost Tellurian cousins. I suggest that it is the cultural shock of this discovery as much as anything else that sends the fearsome Honored Matres scurrying back to the Old Empire. The godlike, slightly jocular figures from outside the empire who appear in Chapterhouse Dune may, as Duncan suspects, be independent Face Dancers, or other Zygons, or anything really, narratively symbolic of an undelineable universe.

 

Store Wars   Comic story, published 2009                                                 Doctor: 10

Featuring Heather

Written by Nev Fountain.

Informed guess Takes place above the Earth. The most likely explanation for the outline of the New World being Waltoxian for ‘supermarket’ is the spread of Tellurian interstellar culture, but Earth as such seems to have no extraplanetary defences, so I’m placing it during the post-Solar Flare depopulation of the planet.

The Path of Skulls   Comic story, published 2018                                Doctor: 1

Featuring Susan, Barbara, Ian

Written by Richard Dinnick.

Arbitrary placement Takes place on a planet once inhabited by Pathicols.

The Ark in Space   TV story, broadcast 1975                                   Doctor: 4

featuring Sarah Jane, Harry, the Wirrrn

Written by Robert Holmes, from an idea by John Lucarotti.

Takes place above Earth, dated 28,537 CE in The TARDIS Logs.

The Sontaran Experiment   TV story, broadcast 1975             Doctor: 4

featuring the Sontarans, Sarah Jane, Harry

Written by Bob Baker and Dave Martin, script edited by Robert Holmes.

Takes place on Earth, immediately after The Ark in Space. The Doctor claims they are on the site of London, although I don’t see how the Thames Basin acquires granite outcrops in a few millennia. There has been “no” animal life on Earth for ten thousand years.;

The Wirrn   Illustrated short story, published 1992                                   Doctor: 4

featuring Sarah Jane, Harry, the Wirrrn

Written by Adrian Rigelsford.

Takes place above Earth, immediately after The Ark in Space.

Wirrn Isle   Audio drama, released 2012                                             Doctor: 6

Featuring the Wirrrn, Flip

Written by William Gallagher.

Takes place in Scotland; self-dated four decades after The Sontaran Experiment. The year is given as 16,127, which I am supposing to be a Galsec calendar. If I can get away with incorporating Dune into Doctor Who narrative, whatever event was regarded as significant enough to start this calendar will have taken place not too long before the Butlerian Jihad and the Spacing Guild’s subsequent exodus across the universe.

Race Memory   Audio drama, released 2001                                        Doctor: 0

Featuring the Wirrrn

Written by Paul Ebbs,

Takes place in Mombassa, self-dated about a century after The Sontaran Experiment.

Petals   Comic story, published 2016                                                      Doctor: 12

Written by Rik Hoskin.

Takes place on Eed’n; the Mega University Galactica sounds like an institution that might exist in the Galsec civilisation.

The Gift Givers   Short story, published 2020                                            Doctor: 0

Featuring Axos, K9 I(2)

Written by Bob Baker.

Informed guess Takes place on NuEarth Seven, which seems to be located in a galaxy that is not Mutter’s Spiral, and published after Stranger on the Train.

Babblesphere   Audio drama, released 2013                Doctors: 4, with 11 (glimpse)

Featuring Romana, with K9 II (informative mention)

Written by Jonathan Morris.

Informed guess Takes place on Hephastos, in Tellurian space. Earth has an empire that the Prolocutor aspires to take over.

Holding Pattern   Short story, published 2011                                          Doctor: 0

Featuring Faction Paradox

Written by Scott Harrison.

Informed guess Takes place on and above Mercy, in Tellurian space. For some centuries Earth has had an empire, but it does not extend beyond the Solar System, Earth’s interstellar possessions falling under a different heading. Egypt seems to be a more fertile and hospitable place than presently. I suggest that this could be set in the centuries following The Sontaran Experiment, as Earth is repopulated and re-establishing itself as an interstellar power.

The Black Hole   Audio drama, released 2015                                Doctor: 2

Featuring the Time Lords, Mortimus, Jamie, Victoria, with the Sontarans (informative mention)

Written by Simon Guerrier.

Informed guess Takes place in Tellurian space, in the “far” future. Earth is in another expansionary phase.

Code Freeze   Comic story, published 2009                                            Doctor: 10

Featuring Heather

Written by Christopher Cooper.

Informed guess Takes place on space station G-Delta-17, in the Darkplace system, presumably in Tellurian space.

Mission: Impractical   Novel, published 1998                             Doctor: 6

featuring the Ogrons, the Veltrochni, the Tzun, Frobisher, the Valeyard, Glitz

Written by David A McIntee.

Informed guess Takes place in Tellurian space. References to GalSec suggest it is relatively near in time to The Sontaran Experiment; a thousand-year old spaceship from Earth would make it well over a millennium afterwards.

The Sontarans   Illustrated short story, published 1992               Doctors: 2, 3, 4, 6

featuring the Time Lords, Jamie, the Sontarans, Sarah Jane, Harry, Leela, K9 II, Peri

Written by Adrian Rigelsford.

Takes place in Sontaran space, after The Sontaran Experiment.

Dragonfire   TV story, broadcast 1987                                                  Doctor: 7

featuring Glitz, Mel, Ace

Written by Ian Briggs, script edited by Andrew Cartmel.

Informed guess Takes place on Svartos; not long after Mission: Impractical. Ace is aboard the TARDIS when it dematerialises, but has already left linear time at this point by agency of Fenric.

The Nine Moons Race   Short story, published 2020                               Doctor: 0

Featuring K9 I(2)

Written by Bob Baker.

Informed guess Takes place above NuEarth Seven, after The Gift Givers as published.

The Betrothal of Sontar   Comic story, published 2006                         Doctor: 10

Featuring the Sontarans, Rose, with the Rutan (informative mention)

Written by John Tomlinson and Nick Abadzis.

Informed guess Takes place on Serac: the Doctor is a feature of Sontaran databases, so plausibly after The Sontarans.

The Time Thief   Short story, published 2020                                            Doctor: 0

Featuring the Time Lords, K9 I (2)

Written by Bob Baker.

Informed guess Takes place on NuEarth Seven after The Nine Moons Race as published.

Judy Collins vs Christopher Cwej   Short story, published 2020          Doctor: 0

Featuring Chris, the Second War in Heaven

Written by Rachel Redhead.

Arbitrary placement Takes place on Hellman’s World.

The Fourth Wall   Audio drama, released 2012                             Doctor: 6

Featuring Flip

Written by John Dorney.

Informed guess Takes place on Transmission, in Tellurian space, not too long before You Are the Doctor. It is a time of prosperity, and Earth is worth invading.

You Are the Doctor   Audio drama, released 2015                            Doctor: 7

Featuring Ace, with Glitz, Mel (informative mention)

Written by John Dorney.

Takes place in Tellurian space, not too long after Dragonfire.

A Soldier’s Education   Short story, published 2018        Doctors: 3, 4, 10 (informative mention)

Featuring the Sontarans, with the Time Lords, the Daleks, the Cybermen, the Rutan, Sarah Jane (informative mention)

Written by Dave Rudden.

Informed guess Takes place in Sontaran space, some time after The Sontaran Experiment, meaning alas that the new Sontaran trooper named Strax cannot actually be the Strax who becomes a member of the Paternoster Gang.

A Life of Crime   Audio drama, released 2016                                 Doctor: 7

Featuring Mel, Ace, with Glitz (informative mention)

Written by Matt Fitton.

Takes place in Tellurian space, not long after You Are the Doctor.

Citation Needed   Illustrated short story, published 2019      Doctors: 13, with 11, 12

Featuring Graham, Ryan, Yaz, with the Time Lords, the Master, Clara (informative mention)

Written by Jacqueline Rayner.

Arbitrary placement Takes place partly on Pfiig.

It’s Only a Game   Illustrated short story, published 1994                        Doctor: 7

featuring Ace, and the Sontarans (informative mention)

Written by Andy Lane.

Informed guess Takes place on Rebeeka VI, where humans are known; the Doctor is engineering the final defeat of the Sontarans, presumably after A Soldier’s Education.

Prison in Space

Audio adaptation of an unproduced TV story, released 2010              Doctor: Unbound 2

Featuring Unbound Jamie, Unbound Zoe

Adapted by Simon Guerrier from a story by Dick Sharples.

Informed guess Takes place on and near Earth, in the far future in what for various reasons I am treating as an alternative timeline.

 

 

 

 

 

Total Stories Considered             5885

Proportion Written By Women 11%                                       

 

Top Docs

4                 502 stories                   

7                 491 stories 

10               411 stories 

11               409 stories 

8                 399 stories 

3                 371 stories

6                 360 stories    

5                 358 stories         

1                 336 stories 

2                 315 stories         

12               177 stories

Unbound  128 stories

9                 90 stories  

13               83 stories           

War           48 stories                     

 

 

Top Twenty Recurring Elements

 

London                                                              1167 stories                

Regional England                                            827 stories

The Time Lords                                               535 stories

The Daleks and Davros                                  471 stories 

UNIT                                                                  468 stories  

Alastair, Kate, Kadiatu, Lucy Weston and the Lethbridge-Stewart family                                                                             463 stories  

Continental Europe                                         441 stories 

North America                                                 433 stories  

Benny                                                                 311 stories

The Master, including Missy                         290 stories

Ace                                                                      274 stories 

Sarah Jane                                                        274 stories  Climber!   

Wales                                                                  261 stories

The K9s                                                              254 stories  Climber! 

Torchwood                                                        254 stories  

Amy and Rory                                                  246 stories 

At Sea                                                                 230 stories

Christmas                                                          208 stories 

Peri                                                                     208 stories  Climber!

Captain Jack                                                    206 stories

 

 

Top Decades

 

The Teens                                                          2367 stories

The Noughties                                                  1593 stories       

The Nineties                                                      615 stories  

The Twenties                                                     475 stories   

The Eighties                                                      307 stories   

The Seventies                                                    272 stories         

The Sixties                                                         186 stories

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

 

 

And Top Twenty Years

 

2018                                                          303 stories 

2016                                                          296 stories

2020                                                          274 stories  

2015                                                          263 stories 

2008                                                          256 stories  

2017                                                           241 stories       

2011                                                          232 stories 

2013                                                          229 stories 

2010                                                          225 stories 

2009                                                          224 stories 

2019                                                          220 stories 

2007                                                          209 stories 

2021                                                          203 stories 

2014                                                          191 stories 

2001                                                          182 stories  

2012                                                          172 stories  

2006                                                          161 stories

2004                                                          155 stories

2005                                                          138 stories

2003                                                          121 stories  

                            

         

 

 

 

Total Writers (including showrunners, script editors, anthology linking material writers)                                     1148

Proportion of Female Writers                17%      

 

Top Twenty Writers

 

Justin Richards                                       156 stories

Terrance Dicks                                       146 stories

James Goss                                              144 stories   

Russell T Davies                                     123 stories  

Jonathan Morris                                    111 stories 

Steven Moffat                                         102 stories

Paul Magrs                                              97 stories  

Eddie Robson                                          96 stories  

Terry Nation                                           89 stories  

Matt Fitton                                              86 stories  

Nicholas Briggs                                       82 stories  Climber! 

John Dorney                                            82 stories  Climber!    

David Whitaker                                      82 stories  

Simon Guerrier                                       78 stories  

Steve Lyons                                             68 stories 

Gareth Roberts                                       68 stories  

Guy Adams                                              63 stories

Trevor Baxendale                                  63 stories 

Alan Barnes                                             62 stories  

Robert Holmes                                        62 stories  Re-entry!