Apollo 11 mission in the Doctor Who universe

[Noddy]

As many fans of Classic Who may be aware, the Third Doctor serial The Ambassadors of Death depicted Britain launching manned expeditions to Mars in the twentieth century. At the time, there was nothing particularly jarring with this, as the intention was that the UNIT stories take place around 5-10 years in the then-future. However, later revelations in the series, particularly Mawdryn Undead, fix the timeframe of the UNIT tales in the early to mid 1970's (The Invasion and Spearhead from Space most likely occur in 1970, with The Android Invasion taking place in the summer of 1976, shortly before Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart's retirement).

With this in mind, I have to wonder about the status of the 1969 Apollo 11 mission in the Doctor's universe. We know from The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon that it was still a very big deal, but why would it be? Think about it: If Britain had the technology to send manned trips as far as Mars a year later, wouldn't they have already landed on the moon by '69? And the British ship sent to Mars in Ambassadors is Mars Probe 7, so the Mars program has probably been around for several years by the time the story is set.

 

[Nightowl1701]

You can say Mars Probe 1-6 was unmanned or simply orbited Mars only like Apollo 8 & 10 did. Maybe Kennedy cut a deal with British PM Harold MacMillan in '62: "OK, we'll land on the moon, you can have Mars."

It's still a big deal because it's the first time Man lands on another world. It still fits into the general feeling at the time: "Today the Moon, tomorrow Mars, the day after the UNIVERSE!!"

And then Apollo 13 and Mars Probe 7 happen around the same time in 1970, and Man backpedals and says "Whoa, we need to rethink this."

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Wasn't the team in Waters of Mars also pretty much the first manned Mars flight?

I think the universe and timeline has been changed so much during the course of the show, that the DW history is itching closer and closer to actual reality each time they do something like this.
Early on we would have had FTL ships by the end of the 20th century probably if the Doctor didn't meddle all the time. Thanks, Doctor!!!!

 

[diankra]

At least one of the earlier Mars probes was manned and landed according to the backplot of Ambassadors: the crew included Carrington and the late Michaels.

 

[Marc]

Probably best not to think about it.

After a few years later the U.K was sending men into deep space.

In the Android Invasion Guy Crayford had been sent into deep space (before being hijacked by the Kraals) and at the time of the story he'd been missing for 3 years.

 

[Iamnotspock]

Wasn't the team in Waters of Mars also pretty much the first manned Mars flight?

The first Martian colony.

Put it down to the Time War or the cracks in time changing the history of the Whoniverse. It's a neat catch-all explanation for any continuity or fictional/real-world discrepancy.

 

[Pavonis]

It's amazing how hard people will work to fit irreconcilable continuities together in a show that is explicitly about a time traveler flitting about the Universe changing things.

 

[publiusr]

Maybe that explains the drawing of the Ares/Constellation Orion blackboard drawing standing in for the actual Apollo craft's lines.

 

[Noddy]

I'm starting to think the best solution to these problems is to just treat Ambassadors of Death and The Android Invasion as completely apocryphal stories. It's obvious from more recent stories that the Mars expeditions and space freighters going to Jupiter never happened in the modern version of history.

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

But, the UK sent Guinevere One to Mars in 2006! They said at that time it was their FIRST Martian mission! Thanks Doctor, you deserved to get your arm chopped off for screwing THAT one up! :P

Mark

 

[JoeZhang]

I for one am too busy watching out for the rise of a mexican politician called Ramón Salamander to be concerned with...