B00DPX9ST8 EBOK (167 page)

[
328
]
Hornets’ Nest: The Stuff of Nightmares

[
329
] Dating
Terror of the Zygons
(13.1) - It is the near future. The Prime Minister is a woman. In
Pyramids of Mars
, two stories after this one, Sarah states that she is “from 1980”. According to
No Future
, this story is set in January 1976.

[
330
]
SJA: Judgement Day

[
331
]
The Kingmaker
. In real-life, Target published the
Doctor Who Discovers...
books, the fifth of which (here unnamed) was
Doctor Who Discovers Early Man
. This would also explain why the fourth Doctor was chosen to present a segment of children’s show
Animal Magic
. Naturally, as that was broadcast in 1980, it’s final, clinching and irrefutable proof that the UNIT stories are set in the future.

[
332
] “Six months” before
No Future
, and also referred to in
Return of the Living Dad.

[
333
]
SJA: Death of the Doctor
. Date unknown, but probably no earlier than
Terror of the Zygons
- although the Doctor does aid UNIT in
The Android Invasion
and
The Seeds of Doom
, his association with the group is on the decline, and he doesn’t step foot in UNIT HQ on those occasions.

[
334
]
SJS: Buried Secrets
,
SJS: Fatal Consequences
. It’s unclear when Will was recruited, but it’s almost certainly after Harry joined UNIT, and even more probably after he went travelling with the Doctor and Sarah.

[
335
] Dating
Heart of TARDIS
(PDA #32) - The dating seems particularly confused. UNIT knows the fourth Doctor, but Benton’s a Sergeant and Yates hasn’t been discharged. This is after the 1982 Falklands War, and there is a Conservative government. We could infer from the gold reserves reference that UNIT have fought the Cybermen - either in
The Invasion
, the 1975 invasion mentioned in
The One Doctor
and
Dalek
(presuming that’s a different invasion) or another incident entirely.

[
336
] Dating
No Future
(NA #23) - The date is given (p6).

[
337
]
No Future
, and a reference to the 1981 BBC drama
The Nightmare Man
- adapted by Robert Holmes and directed by Douglas Camfield.

[
338
]
Return of the Living Dad

[
339
] The Brigadier is in Geneva during
The Android Invasion
and
The Seeds of Doom.

[
340
] Dating
The Android Invasion
(13.4) - This is the near future. For at least the last two years, Britain has had a Space Defence Station, a team of Defence Astronauts, and has been operating space freighters. The calendar in the fake village gives the date (every day) as “Friday 6th July”. The nearest years with that exact date are 1973, 1979, 1984 and 1990.

[
341
]
Business Unusual

[
342
] Dating
The Seeds of Doom
(13.6) - On balance, it seems to be the near future. There is a satellite videolink to Antarctica and UNIT have access to a laser cannon. The Antarctic base has an experimental fuel cell. On the other hand, Sarah only wants 2p to use the public telephone. Chase says it is autumn (location work for the story was recorded in October/November). The Doctor is invited to address the Royal Horticultural Society on “the fifteenth”.

[
343
]
Hothouse

[
344
] Dating
The Pescatons
(Argo Records LP, novelised as Target #153) - The story is set in Sarah’s time. It was released in August 1976, between Seasons 13 and 14, so it’s been placed after
The Seeds of Doom
. The bit with Professor Emmerson and the telescope is in the novelisation, not the original record. It’s quite the impressive telescope too - able to watch events on another planet in real-time, which is impossible.

[
345
]
Peri and the Piscon Paradox

[
346
] Dating
The Hand of Fear
(14.2) - While it doesn’t feature UNIT, Sarah is returned home at the end of the story. It has to be set before December 1981 and
K9 and Company
, in which she’s back at work. According to
The Visual Dictionary
, it is “thirty years” before
School Reunion
.

[
347
]
School Reunion

[
348
]
K9 and Company

[
349
] Dating
Wartime
(Reeltime Pictures film #1) -
Wartime
was released in 1987, and John Levene (understandably) looks older, suggesting that some time has passed since Benton’s last TV appearance (
The Android Invasion
). The Brigadier is still in command of UNIT; otherwise, placement of this film is only a rough approximation.
The Android Invasion
establishes that Benton has a kid sister, but nothing is said about her here.

[
350
]
Battlefield
.
The Seeds of Doom
is the last story to feature UNIT until
Mawdryn Undead
, and it is established in the later story (and implied in
Time-Flight
) that the Doctor hasn’t visited the Brigadier for years.

[
351
]
Mawdryn Undead
, a year before 1977.

[
352
] Dating
The Architects of History
(BF #132) - Klein implies that the Doctor hasn’t visited UNIT for two years. Steve Lyons, the author of this story, commented: “That last scene is set two years after the Doctor left UNIT, circa
Terror of the Zygons/The Android Invasion
.
Battlefield
hasn’t happened yet, because Klein would recognise the Doctor more immediately if it had (she only knows of [his seventh] incarnation through second-hand reports of his adventures), and anyway, she’d be a lot older than she is”.

The only other clue, oddly enough, is that the CD track containing this scene is labelled “UNIT 1960’s” (sic) – which is incorrect under any dating scheme.

[
353
]
Project: Lazarus
. This refers to Elton John, presumably, but no date is given.

[
354
] “The Betrothal of Sontar”. The Doctor also claims to have swum the Channel in
Doctor Who and the Pirates
. There’s no indication exactly when this happened, but it’s apparently after “Lunar Lagoon”, when the fifth Doctor said he’d never learned to swim. (He seemingly has by
Warriors of the Deep,
however.) Oliver Reed, an actor known for such films as
The Three Musketeers
(1973), lived 1938-1999.

[
355
] “The early seventies”, according to
Return of the Living Dad
(p66).

[
356
]
Peacemaker

[
357
]
The Hounds of Artemis
. No date is given, but Stapleton was a young man in 1929.

[
358
]
TW: A Day in the Death

[
359
]
TW: Miracle Day

[
360
]
TW: The Dead Line

[
361
]
Demon Quest: The Relics of Time

[
362
]
Apollo 23
(p51).
Apollo 20
was cancelled on 4th January, 1970;
Apollo 18
and
19
were cancelled after that, on 2nd September of the same year. The last Apollo flight,
Apollo 17
, launched on 7th December, 1972.

[
363
]
Beautiful Chaos
. Geoff died in 2008, after he and Sylvia had been married “thirty-eight years” (p26).

[
364
] “Forty years ago” in
SJA: The Vault of Secrets
.

[
365
]
SJA: Goodbye, Sarah Jane
, in accordance with Sarah being born in 1951 (
SJA: Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?
). This probably denotes when Sarah started doing journalist work - “doorstepping” is a UK term meaning the practice of parking oneself outside the home of a celebrity/politician to snag a quote or photograph.

[
366
]
SJA: The Man Who Never Was

[
367
]
SJA: Judgement Day
. This is “a few years” before Sarah joins UNIT.

[
368
]
SJA: The White Wolf

[
369
]
Who Killed Kennedy

[
370
] Dating
Day of the Moon
(X6.2) - A caption says it is “6 months later” after the main action of the story. Melody isn’t identified by name until
A Good Man Goes to War
. It’s not directly established
why
Melody regenerates; it’s not even certain that Amy’s gunshot (the end of
The Impossible Astronaut
) actually hit her. It’s possible that Melody’s immune system was compromised because she was initially raised in a spacesuit acting as a life-support system.
Doctor Who: The Encyclopedia
says that Melody regenerated because she was “exhausted and injured”.

[
371
]
Let’s Kill Hitler
. This leaves around a quarter-century gap where we don’t know what Melody Pond was doing. Fortunately, the same story makes it clear that Melody/River has some control over her appearance - she looks about age seven when we see her with young Amy and Rory, and presumably she allows herself to outwardly age with Amy and Rory from childhood to adulthood. It would appear that she didn’t regenerate a second time between 1970 and meeting up with Amy and Rory as children, because when she regenerates in
Let’s Kill Hitler
, she mentions “the last time” she did such a thing, in New York (in
Day of the Moon
). Mels’ surname isn’t given on screen, but is listed in
Doctor Who: The Encyclopedia
.

[
372
] Dating
The Underwater Menace
(4.5) - Polly discovers a bracelet from the 1968 Mexico Olympics; she and Ben guess that they must have landed about “1970”. The Atlanteans are celebrating the Vernal Equinox.