Conjectural late 20th/Early 21st Century Doctor Who Timeline

[Sci]

Hola all!

This is just something I worked out for my own amusement: A timeline of events from the late 20th and early 21st Centuries in Doctor Who, as chronicled between the episodes "Rose" and "The Eleventh Hour."

I'm afraid it doesn't include much information from The Sarah Jane Adventures or Torchwood.

Some of it is speculative -- I just don't think that the Barack Obama seen in "The End of Time" could be the same individual who was the U.S. President in Children of Earth, as he was obviously a popular individual, and I don't buy for one second that anyone would celebrate an American President (or anyone else from his/her administration) who conspires to kidnap children and illegally take control of a major foreign ally's government. My theory is that the President and Vice President during Children of Earth -- like Prime Minister Green -- would have been forced to resign, and Obama would have then ascended to the Presidency from Congress after.

Also, while many characters referred to Arthur Coleman Winters from "The Sound of Drums" as U.S. President, or referred to his plane as Air Force One, Winters himself only called himself the President-elect. I don't buy that other characters would know his proper title and he wouldn't, and so I've chosen to base my timeline for Series Three on the assumption that Winters won the 2008 Presidential Election but had not taken yet taken office when Harold Saxon became Prime Minister, placing Series Three some time between 4 November 2008 and 20 January 2009. Since I try to assume that December is reserved for Christmas specials, I decided to place Series Three in mid-November, placing the 2008 U.K. General Election the second Thursday after the U.S. election.

While there is no evidence within the episode, promotional material for "The Eleventh Hour" has apparently indicated that the Doctor first met Amelia Pond in 1996; I base my timeline for Series Five on that assumption.

Another chronological assumption is that any episode set in the present takes place during the month that episode was first aired, unless there is evidence otherwise. Thus, for instance, I assume that the Battle of Canary Wharf took place in July because that's when the Series Two finale was first aired.

Anyway, here's my timeline!

1986: The Doctor and Rose attend the wedding of Pete and Jackie Tyler. (DW: "Father's Day")

1987: Rose Tyler nearly averts the death of Pete Tyler, leading to the appearance of the Reapers; paradox resolved with the death of Pete Tyler (DW: "Father's Day")

Easter 1996: Crack in space-time occurs in Pond residence; Prisoner Zero escapes from the Atraxi; the Doctor lands in Leadworth, England, after regenerating, encounters Amelia Pond (DW: "The Eleventh Hour")

30-31 December 1999: The TARDIS lands in San Francisco; the Doctor shot by rival street gangs, dies and regenerates in San Francisco hospital (Doctor Who)

1 January 2000: Torchwood Three freelance agent Jack Harkness discovers massacre of Torchwood Three staff, becomes new Torchwood Three leader (TW: "Fragments"); the Doctor saves the Earth from the Master (Doctor Who)

1 January 2005: The Doctor visits Rose Tyler, for the last time in his life, at a point in her life before she had first met his ninth incarnation; death of the Doctor’s tenth incarnation, regeneration into his eleventh incarnation (DW: "The End of Time, Part Two")

March 2005: Rose Tyler encounters the Doctor at Henrick’s, helps avert Auton invasion, leaves to travel with him (DW: "Rose," "Aliens of London")

March 2006: Rose returns to the Powell Estate after being missing for a year; First Contact: The Slitheen of Raxicoricalfalipatorious assassinate British Prime Minister Tony Blair, destroy Big Ben; Downing Street destroyed (DW: "Aliens of London"/"World War Three")

September 2006: Blon Fel Fotch Pasameer Day Slitheen impersonates Margaret Blaine as Lord Mayor of Cardiff; the Doctor captures her, she reverts to egg form and is delivered to Raxicoricalfalipatorious (DW: "Boom Town")

November 2006: Rose Tyler returned to the 21st Century involuntarily from a Dalek invasion in the 2,002nd Century, rejects escape, looks into the Heart of the TARDIS to save the Doctor (DW: "The Parting of the Ways")

24-25 December 2006: Attempted Sycorax invasion; the Doctor, newly regenerated, starts rumor that leads to vote of no confidence against British Prime Minister Harriet Jones (DW: "The Christmas Invasion")

1 January 2007: The Doctor and Rose leave for New Earth in the Year 5 Billion and Fifty (DW: "New Earth")

February 2007: The Doctor and Rose investigate a school, encounter Sarah Jane Smith; Mickey Smith joins the TARDIS crew (DW: "School Reunion")

March 2007: The Doctor and Rose defeat the Absorbaloff; the Master arrives on Earth, assumes the guise of Harold Saxon; U.K. P.M. Harriet Jones loses a vote of no confidence (DW: "Love & Monsters;" "The Sound of Drums")

April 2007: Henry Van Staten houses a captive Dalek beneath Utah, United States; Rose and the Doctor encounter the Dalek, and help it commit suicide after it exterminates numerous Humans (Note: Date corrected from the Doctor’s date of 2012 to keep episode consistent with Dalek Invasion of 2009.) (DW: "Dalek")

June 2007: Sally Sparrow encounters the Weeping Angels, is saved by the Doctor and Martha Jones (DW: "Blink")

July 2007: Battle of Canary Wharf; fall of Torchwood One; the Doctor and Rose defeat the Cybus Cybermen and the Cult of Skaro; Rose Tyler sucked into the alternate universe (DW: "Army of Ghosts"/"Doomsday")

July-October 2007: Torchwood Three leader Jack Harkness assumes overall control of the Torchwood Institute after Torchwood One's fall in the Battle of Canary Wharf (TW: "Everything Changes;" DW: "The Sound of Drums")

October 2007: Cardiff Police Constable Gwen Cooper discovers Torchwood Three, becomes one of its agents (TW: "Everything Changes")

25 December 2007: The Doctor and Rose have their last contact prior to the 2009 Dalek Invasion; the Doctor encounters Donna Noble, defeats the Racnoss; River Thames drained; Harold Saxon is United Kingdom Defense Minister (DW: "Doomsday," "The Runaway Bride")

January 2008: A Saxon candidate is running in a special election for a House of Commons constituency in Cardiff; Torchwood Three investigates abandoned dance hall, agents temporally displaced to 1940s London; the Cardiff Rift is opened, Captain Jack Harkness defeats the creature Abaddon; TARDIS lands in Cardiff to absorb energy from the Rift, Harkness stows away on its exterior; TARDIS begins its journey to the Year 100 Trillion; Harkness is believed to have disappeared (TW: "Captain Jack Harkness;" "End of Days;" DW: "Utopia")

April 2008: The Doctor returns Prisoner Zero to the Atraxi and saves the Earth, meets Amy Pond again (DW: "The Eleventh Hour")

June 2008: The Doctor encounters Sally Sparrow, who gives him a guide to the previous year’s events (DW: "Blink")

4 November 2008: Arthur Coleman Winters elected President of the United States (DW: "The Sound of Drums")

11 November 2008: Royal Hope Hospital in London displaced to Luna by the Judoon; the Doctor encounters Martha Jones, asks her to travel with him; Harold Saxon is leading a political faction bearing his name in the 2008 United Kingdom General Election (DW: "Smith and Jones")

12 November 2008: Richard Lazarus attempts his immortality experiment with funds from U.K. Defense Minister and Saxon faction leader Harold Saxon (DW: "The Lazarus Experiment")

13 November 2008: 2008 United Kingdom General Election; Saxon faction wins majority of seats in House of Commons; U.K. government agents loyal to Saxon enter Jones home, record Francine Jones’s conversation with Martha Jones in the 51st Century (DW: "42")

14 November 2008: Harold Saxon appointed Prime Minister; Jones family detained; the Doctor, Torchwood Three leader Jack Harkness, and Martha Jones proclaimed wanted terrorists (DW: "The Sound of Drums")

15 November 2008: First Contact with the Toclafane; assassination of United States President-elect Arthur Coleman Winters aboard United Nations Intelligence Taskforce aircraft carrier Valiant; assassination of the Master/Harold Saxon by Lucy Saxon; Jack Harkness returns to Cardiff and Torchwood Three (DW: "The Sound of Drums," "Last of the Time Lords;" TW: "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang")

25 December 2008: London significantly depopulated in wake of Racnoss and Sycorax attacks; near-destruction of Buckingham Palace by the Stow space liner Titanic; the Doctor first encounters Wilfred Mott, grandfather of Donna Noble (DW: "Voyage of the Damned")

April 2009: Adipose incident in London; Donna Noble travels with the Doctor; the Sontaran Empire attempts to conquer Earth, is thwarted by the Doctor (DW: "Partners in Crime;" "The Sontaran Stratagem"/"The Poison Sky")

Saturday, June 2009: Displacement of Earth to the Medusa Cascade; Dalek Invasion of 2009; assassination of Harriet Jones, former British Prime Minister; assassination of British Prime Minister Aubrey Fairchild; destruction of the Valiant; Earth military forces significantly depleted; the Doctor and his allies rescue the Earth and defeat the Daleks (DW: "The Stolen Earth"/"Journey's End"); the young Adelaide Brooke looks into the eye of a Dalek and is spared extermination (DW: "The Waters of Mars")

August 2009: The Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith avert a plot by the Trickster to defeat Smith and her friends on Bannerman Road (SJA: The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith)

September 2009: The 4-5-6 Crisis; British Prime Minister Brian Green resigns; coup d'état in the United Kingdom by the United States Armed Forces; possible resignation of Arthur Coleman Winters’s successor (TW: Children of Earth)

September 2009: Barack Obama becomes United States President in wake of 4-5-6 Crisis, achieves high popularity in wake of ongoing financial crises stemming from bank failures and alien invasions (Speculative, based on his high popularity in DW: "The End of Time, Part One")

24 December 2009: Resurrection of the Master by Saxon cult (DW: "The End of Time, Part One")

25 December 2009: Creation of the Master Race; temporal displacement of the Time Lords and planet Gallifrey from the last day of the Time War to 2009; Human race restored, Master and Time Lords disappear back into the Time War; absorption of radiation by the Doctor to save Wilfred Mott (DW: The End of Time)

December 2009: Wedding of Donna Noble to Shaun Temple; the Doctor says his goodbyes to Sarah Jane Smith, Jack Harkness, Mickey and Martha Jones-Smith, Verity Newman, and the Noble family before regenerating into his eleventh body (DW: "The End of Time, Part Two")

4 April 2010: The 200 London Bus travels to San Helios; the Doctor saves Earth with help from United Nations Intelligence Taskforce (DW: "Planet of the Dead")

June 2010: The Doctor returns to Leadworth, invites Amy Pond to travel with him the night before her wedding (DW: "The Eleventh Hour")

27 July 2012: The Doctor and Rose save the 2012 Summer Olympiad in London (DW: "Fear Her")

1 July 2058: Bowie Base One established by the World State in the Gusev Crater on Mars (DW: "The Waters of Mars")

21 November 2059: Infiltration of Bowie Base One by the Flood; destruction of Bowie Base One on orders of Captain Adelaide Brooke; the Doctor rescues Brooke and two crew members who had originally died on Mars; Brooke commits suicide rather than alter the timeline from one of its "fixed points" (DW: "The Waters of Mars")

 

[captcalhoun]

according to the DW Adventures mag, Eleventh Hour's main Amy scenes are in April 2008 and she leaves with the Doctor in June 2010.

 

[ClayinCA]

That's a hell of a lot of work, Sci - well done!

 

[Starkers]

You have more patience than me, Sci. Just 2 points really. First off I'd leave Dalek as 2012 with timey wimey reasons why Van Statton doesn't recognise the Dalek for what it is. The Doctor's timeline has always had a certain fluidity.

And it would be fairer to say that Sally saved the Doctor from the weeping Angels as much as he saved her. Although my head might start to hurt if I think about that too much...

Good job anyway!

 

[Chaos Descending]

November 2006: Rose Tyler returned to the 21st Century involuntarily from a Dalek invasion in the 1001st Century, rejects escape, looks into the Heart of the TARDIS to save the Doctor (DW: "The Parting of the Ways")

2001st Century, no?

 

[Sci]

That's a hell of a lot of work, Sci - well done!

Thanks!

November 2006: Rose Tyler returned to the 21st Century involuntarily from a Dalek invasion in the 1001st Century, rejects escape, looks into the Heart of the TARDIS to save the Doctor (DW: "The Parting of the Ways")

2001st Century, no?

You're right -- well, righter than I was, anyway. I just checked with the TARDIS Index file; "Bad Wolf" was set in the year 200100, which means it was the 2,002nd Century. Thanks!

according to the DW Adventures mag, Eleventh Hour's main Amy scenes are in April 2008 and she leaves with the Doctor in June 2010.

Yeah? I haven't seen that, but I'll adjust the dates accordingly, then.

You have more patience than me, Sci. Just 2 points really. First off I'd leave Dalek as 2012 with timey wimey reasons why Van Statton doesn't recognise the Dalek for what it is. The Doctor's timeline has always had a certain fluidity.

*nods* It's a completely subjective choice, but it's one that I stand by. I'd argue that the fact that young Brooke was inspired to travel to space by seeing a Dalek during the 2009 Invasion means that that invasion itself was probably a fixed point in time that had to happen. (Why didn't the Doctor know it was coming? I'd theorize that there are a number of fixed points in time that have developed in the wake of the Time War's time lock erasing Gallifrey and the rest of the Time Lords from history, and that the Doctor can't anticipate every fixed point before he lives through them.) Because of that, it's impossible to reconcile Van Statten not knowing what a Dalek was with the Invasion; to me, the simplest solution, since nothing in the episode requires it to be set in 2012, is just to re-set it to some pre-Battle of Canary Wharf or pre-2009 period and assume the Doctor misread the date-o-meter.

It's certainly a subjective choice though -- as are a number of chronological assumptions I've made. An different conjectural timeline could work just as well, but these are the choices I've made in interpreting the show.

And it would be fairer to say that Sally saved the Doctor from the weeping Angels as much as he saved her. Although my head might start to hurt if I think about that too much...

I mean, they both saved each other, and I think that my timeline acknowledges that.

Good job anyway!

Thank you!

 

[Stevil2001]

"Planets in the sky" are mentioned by one of the bus passengers after they make it to San Helios, setting "Planet of the Dead" after "Journey's End."

I also disagree with the ten-month gap between "End of Days" and "The Sounds of Drums" ("The last place the TARDIS landed: right here, right now"), but that's a tricky one to navigate.

Other than that, though, this looks sharp. I was doing this myself, but fell away from it after Series 4.

 

[Sci]

"Planets in the sky" are mentioned by one of the bus passengers after they make it to San Helios, setting "Planet of the Dead" after "Journey's End."

I'd forgotten about that! "Planet of the Dead" is explicitly placed on Easter, so that puts it at Easter 2010.

I also disagree with the ten-month gap between "End of Days" and "The Sounds of Drums" ("The last place the TARDIS landed: right here, right now"), but that's a tricky one to navigate.

*nods* It's a subjective choice, too. Basically, we have chronological evidence from a prior Torchwood episode that the Series One finale would take place soon after the New Year, and we have the "President-elect" line from "The Sound of Drums" that would put it sometime after 4 November. As I've said, I've chosen to interpret the evidence such that Winters is more likely to know his actual title than other characters and to therefore assume there's a large gap between the "End of Days" finale/"Utopia" teaser and "The Sound of Drums," and to presume that (once again) the Doctor's dates were off a bit. But other interpretations are quite defensible, too.

Other than that, though, this looks sharp. I was doing this myself, but fell away from it after Series 4.

Thanks!

 

[The Wormhole]

24 December 2009: Resurrection of the Master by Saxon cult (DW: "The End of Time, Part One")

25 December 2009: Creation of the Master Race; temporal displacement of the Time Lords and planet Gallifrey from the last day of the Time War to 2009; Human race restored, Master and Time Lords disappear back into the Time War; absorption of radiation by the Doctor to save Wilfred Mott (DW: The End of Time)

December 2009: Wedding of Donna Noble to Shaun Temple; the Doctor says his goodbyes to Sarah Jane Smith, Jack Harkness, Mickey and Martha Jones-Smith, Verity Newman, and the Noble family before regenerating into his eleventh body (DW: "The End of Time, Part Two")

Just out of curiosity, on what grounds do you assume The End of Time took place in Christmas 2009 as opposed to 2010? I suppose there is no reason why it can't be 2009, but given most of NuWho's modern day episodes are set a year after they aired, I assumed The End of Time was no different.

Also, didn't Wilf say Donna was going to get married in the spring? If so, that would mean her wedding scene wasn't in December.

 

[Chris3123]

"Planets in the sky" are mentioned by one of the bus passengers after they make it to San Helios, setting "Planet of the Dead" after "Journey's End."

I'd forgotten about that! "Planet of the Dead" is explicitly placed on Easter, so that puts it at Easter 2010.

2009, actually.

 

[Sci]

"Planets in the sky" are mentioned by one of the bus passengers after they make it to San Helios, setting "Planet of the Dead" after "Journey's End."

I'd forgotten about that! "Planet of the Dead" is explicitly placed on Easter, so that puts it at Easter 2010.

2009, actually.

I had put it in Easter 2009. The problem is, it can't be during Easter 2009 because that's long before the 2009 Dalek Invasion, which is explicitly mentioned in dialogue (as Steve Mollmann points out).

24 December 2009: Resurrection of the Master by Saxon cult (DW: "The End of Time, Part One")

25 December 2009: Creation of the Master Race; temporal displacement of the Time Lords and planet Gallifrey from the last day of the Time War to 2009; Human race restored, Master and Time Lords disappear back into the Time War; absorption of radiation by the Doctor to save Wilfred Mott (DW: The End of Time)

December 2009: Wedding of Donna Noble to Shaun Temple; the Doctor says his goodbyes to Sarah Jane Smith, Jack Harkness, Mickey and Martha Jones-Smith, Verity Newman, and the Noble family before regenerating into his eleventh body (DW: "The End of Time, Part Two")

Just out of curiosity, on what grounds do you assume The End of Time took place in Christmas 2009 as opposed to 2010?

A couple of reasons.

First, the TARDIS Index File's entry for The End of Time indicates that the two-parter was intended by the creators to be set in 2009 rather than 2010, because "The Next Doctor"'s having been set in the 1800s meant they didn't need to continue the "One Year Ahead" practice they'd been maintaining.

Second, there was a newspaper seen in Children of Earth that dates the 4-5-6 Crisis to September 2009 Luke in "The End of Time" looks pretty much the same age he was in The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith and "Journey's End," implying that it's not been all that much time for him since those events -- putting it all in the same year.

Also, didn't Wilf say Donna was going to get married in the spring? If so, that would mean her wedding scene wasn't in December.

I honestly don't remember and don't have my copy handy right now. Anyone care to verify?

 

[Admiral_Young]

Great job Sci.

 

[The Wormhole]

Second, there was a newspaper seen in Children of Earth that dates the 4-5-6 Crisis to September 2009 Luke in "The End of Time" looks pretty much the same age he was in The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith and "Journey's End," implying that it's not been all that much time for him since those events -- putting it all in the same year.

Ah, but the final scene of Children of Earth in which Jack leaves Earth was six months after the main storyline. So therefore, the scene with the Doctor visiting Jack in that alien bar can be no earlier than March 2010.

 

[The]

That is an unbelievable amount of detail and consideration, Sci. I'm very impressed, man!

I also agree with your reasoning concerning Van Statten, even though 'timey-wimey' also works in unison with it, simply by changing the dates for you in retrospect. And, I like how you included the 7th/8th Doctor, as well. Good stuff! You have to be a student, though. No one other than a student has THIS much free time!

Meanwhile, I'd love to see someone familiar with the previous Doctors and stories to come along and plug in the rest of the Docs in the timeline...

 

[Chris3123]

I'd forgotten about that! "Planet of the Dead" is explicitly placed on Easter, so that puts it at Easter 2010.

2009, actually.

I had put it in Easter 2009. The problem is, it can't be during Easter 2009 because that's long before the 2009 Dalek Invasion, which is explicitly mentioned in dialogue (as Steve Mollmann points out).

Yes, I know PotF referenced the invasion. I just wasn't aware of any specific time of year given for the invasion. When in 2009 was it?

 

[Sci]

2009, actually.

I had put it in Easter 2009. The problem is, it can't be during Easter 2009 because that's long before the 2009 Dalek Invasion, which is explicitly mentioned in dialogue (as Steve Mollmann points out).

Yes, I know PotF referenced the invasion. I just wasn't aware of any specific time of year given for the invasion. When in 2009 was it?

Well, as usual for Series One through Four, we know that "The Stolen Earth"/"Journey's End" was set about a year ahead of its airdate. As I noted above, one of my subjective assumptions is that a given episode is usually set within the year as close to the month it aired in as possible; since it aired in June 2008, I set it in June 2009.

For whatever it's worth the TARDIS Index File set "The Stolen Earth" in May 2009 rather than June, apparently (if I'm understanding their logic correctly) to accommodate a New Series novel called Beautiful Chaos, which is explicitly supposed to be set six weeks before "The Stolen Earth" and, apparently, is dated to April or May of 2009.

I suppose if one wanted to, one could shoe-horn "The Stolen Earth"/"Journey's End" in to around early April of 2009, but I wanted to give Martha and U.N.I.T. enough time to have a working prototype for Project Indigo (which was, you'll recall, based on technology reverse-engineered from captured Sontaran technology). Moving "The Stolen Earth" to May or June also gives Series Two of Torchwood enough room to have its story arc take place (including Martha's appearances) without trying to shove it all into a small space of time.

Second, there was a newspaper seen in Children of Earth that dates the 4-5-6 Crisis to September 2009 Luke in "The End of Time" looks pretty much the same age he was in The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith and "Journey's End," implying that it's not been all that much time for him since those events -- putting it all in the same year.

Ah, but the final scene of Children of Earth in which Jack leaves Earth was six months after the main storyline. So therefore, the scene with the Doctor visiting Jack in that alien bar can be no earlier than March 2010.

Aaaah, good catch! Thanks.

That is an unbelievable amount of detail and consideration, Sci. I'm very impressed, man!

Thank you very much!

And, I like how you included the 7th/8th Doctor, as well. Good stuff!

Thanks. I focused mostly on the revived series, but since I already had so many entries for the area of time around 2000, and since there was already going to be an entry for New Year's Day 2000 for Captain Jack, it just seemed silly not to mention the events from the TV film (especially since they were so easily summarized).

I seem to remember that the TOS serial The Tenth Planet takes place in 1986, and I considered including it in the 1986 entry alongside Jackie and Pete's wedding, but decided not to since I'm not well familiar with it, and since I didn't want to try to come up with a retcon if it had anything that contradicted real history.

You have to be a student, though. No one other than a student has THIS much free time!

Actually, I graduated last August. And I've had much more free time since graduation than I had throughout university. Under-employment and a lack of homework will do that to ya.

 

[Stevil2001]

I used to have an argument for placing "Partners in Crime" and the Sontaran episodes in March and "Journey's End" in April... but I forget what it was.

 

[Sci]

I used to have an argument for placing "Partners in Crime" and the Sontaran episodes in March and "Journey's End" in April... but I forget what it was.

You only give U.N.I.T. a month to reverse-engineer a Sontaran transmat into a workable prototype for Project Indigo?

I mean, it's just as valid as my theory, and I suppose we could say that it's also based in part on technology the Master gave them when he designed the Valiant, but I'd argue that one month just isn't enough time.

 

[UssGlenn]

Only problem I saw was you have Sally Sparrow giving the Doctor the information about her adventure before he meets Martha, but in the episode, Martha was with him when Sally catches him on the street and hands over the information.

 

[Sci]

Only problem I saw was you have Sally Sparrow giving the Doctor the information about her adventure before he meets Martha, but in the episode, Martha was with him when Sally catches him on the street and hands over the information.

Yeah; I just assumed the Doctor and Martha had landed in mid-2008 for whatever reason and got embroiled in whatever adventure they were on when Sally met them.