Authors: Lance Parkin,Lars Pearson
[
529
]
The King of Terror
[
530
]
The Gallifrey Chronicles
[
531
] Dating
The Hollows of Time
(BF LS #1.4) - It’s “the early 1980s”, “a year or two” in Peri’s past. In the original conceptualisation of this story, Stream was to be unmasked as the Master; in the actual audio, he’s just (if you can call it that) a genius with robotic helpers, hypnotism, knowledge of the Doctor’s previous encounter with the Tractators and the ability to pilot the TARDIS.
[
532
] Dating
K9 and Company
(18.7-A) - Sarah arrives in Moreton Harwood on “December the 18th”, and later tells K9 that it is “1981”. The other dates are given in dialogue. This story is part of the UNIT timeframe, but real life has overtaken Sarah’s “I’m from 1980” comment in
Pyramids of Mars
.
[
533
] Dating
Blue Box
(PDA #59) - Presuming one can believe Peters’ account, the story opens “two days before Christmas 1981” (p10). Peters visits Swan in the Bainbridge Hospital in late 1982 (p5).
[
534
]
TW: The Undertaker’s Gift
[
535
] “Ten years” before
Iris: Enter Wildthyme
.
[
536
] Dating
Time-Flight
(18.7) - The date isn’t specified beyond Tegan’s “this is the 1980s”. There’s no indication that it’s the exact day Tegan left in
Logopolis
(or that it isn’t). There’s snow on the ground, which there wasn’t in
Logopolis
, but which doesn’t rule out it being February.
[
537
]
The King’s Demons
[
538
]
Arc of Infinity
[
539
]
Night Thoughts
. The Falklands War lasted from 2nd April to 14th June, 1982.
[
540
] Six hundred thirty days before
The Reaping
, which opens on 24th September, 1984.
[
541
] Dating
Relative Dementias
(PDA #49) - The date is given (p40).
[
542
]
Only Human
[
543
] “Two years” after the first part of
Father Time
, “three years” before the second (p114).
[
544
]
Return of the Living Dad
[
545
] Dating
Living Legend
(BF promo #4,
DWM
#337)
-
The date is given, Track 1.
[
546
]
The Also People
. This would be between 1982 and 1988.
[
547
]
Business Unusual
[
548
]
The Song of the Megaptera.
Slayer was founded in 1981, and Peri saw them prior to her meeting the Doctor in 1984.
[
549
]
The Reaping
[
550
] Either “twenty-five years” (according to Turvey and a local named Angela Wisher, who could be generalising a little) or “twenty-three Christmases” (according to the product blurb) before
Cuddlesome.
[
551
] For almost the entire run of the fifth Doctor’s
DWM
adventures, he was based in Stockbridge. The reason for this was finally given in “4-Dimensional Vistas”. The stories have a contemporary setting. While they started publication in 1982, the Doctor in “Lunar Lagoon” assumes it is 1983 - the only time a year is specified.
As for
where
these stories take place in relation to the fifth Doctor’s television adventures, the Big Finish audios featuring Stockbridge (especially
Circular Time
: “Autumn”,
Castle of Fear
and
The Eternal Summer
) establish that the Doctor is already acquainted with Stockbridge, Sir Justin (“The Tides of Time”) and Max Edison (“The Stars Fell on Stockbridge”) during the time he is travelling with Nyssa alone (between
Time-Flight
and
Arc of Infinity
). Even this, however, means that he must have dropped her (and possibly Adric and Tegan too, if he first visited Stockbridge during Season 19) off somewhere and picked them up again. In ”The Tides of Time”, the Doctor says that deference is shown on Gallifrey to his “honorary title” of president (
The Invasion of Time
). The
DWM
stories with Gus, however, possibly happen later in the fifth Doctor’s lifetime, as his sixth incarnation is still hunting for the person that had Gus killed, suggesting it happened more recently.
[
552
] “Fugitive”
[
553
] Dating “The Tides of Time” (
DWM
#61-67) - Time is disturbed during this story, and strictly speaking the events take place in a cul-de-sac of time created by Melanicus, and which is destroyed at the end.
The year the story starts is not specified, but the first part features the discordant note and specifies that the Doctor’s cricket game on contemporary Earth is taking place “at that precise moment”. “Forty years before”, the village green was a sandbagged army training army, so clearly that was during the Second World War. The story was published in 1982. In “Lunar Lagoon”, the Doctor had thought he was in “1983”, perhaps suggesting that’s the year the Stockbridge adventures take place.
The story spells “Event Synthesizer” in both its American and British (“Synthesiser”) form in different installments. Stockbridge isn’t named until the following story. The mysterious woman the Doctor sees in the dreamscape is never identified - the dress she wears resembles a jumpsuit Zoe wore in
The Wheel in Space
. In retrospect - and completely coincidentally - she resembles the first incarnation of Patience, seen in a similar flashback in
Cold Fusion
.
[
554
] Dating “The Deal” (
DWM
#53) - No date is given, other than stating that the story takes place during the Millenium Wars.
DWM
consistently misspelt “millennium” with one “n”. This is not the same as the Millennium War in
The Quantum Archangel
.
[
555
] Dating “Stars Fell on Stockbridge” (
DWM
#68-69) - No year is given, but it’s a contemporary setting, and the Doctor is still based in Stockbridge, as he was in “The Tides of Time”.
[
556
] Dating “The Stockbridge Horror” (
DWM
#70-75) - Once again, it’s a contemporary setting.
[
557
] Dating
Arc of Infinity
(20.1) - There is no indication of the year. It is some time after
Time-Flight
, and before
The Awakening
.
[
558
]
Omega
[
559
] As mentioned by Turlough in
Frontios,
although the universe isn’t yet twenty billion years old at this point.
[
560
]
Damaged Goods
[
561
]
SJA: Death of the Doctor
[
562
]
Army of Death
[
563
] Dating
Hexagora
(BF LS #3.2) - The story occurs between
Arc of Infinity
and
Snakedance
(and directly after
The Elite
), during Tegan’s native time on Earth.
[
564
]
Mawdryn Undead
,
Planet of Fire.
[
565
]
Kiss of Death
[
566
] Dating
Mawdryn Undead
(20.3) - The Doctor says “if these readings are correct, its 1983 on Earth”, and the date is reaffirmed a number of times afterwards.
Turlough first appears in
Mawdryn Undead
, but his origins are revealled in
Planet of Fire
. According to the initial Character Outline, Turlough was “20” on his first appearance, which makes him a couple of years too old to be at Brendon School - this was almost certainly written when the plan was to introduce the character in
The Song of the Space Whale
by Pat Mills, a story that was delayed, then rejected. Mark Strickson was 22 when he began playing Turlough.
Turlough’s pact with the Black Guardian ends in the undatable
Enlightenment
.
[
567
] Dating
Kiss of Death
(BF #147) - The story occurs between
Mawdryn Undead
and the reforms on Trion that enable Turlough to return home (
Planet of Fire
).
[
568
] Dating
Rat Trap
(BF #148) - It’s “June the 9th, 1983”, general election day in the United Kingdom.
[
569
] Dating
Turlough and the Earthlink Dilemma
(
The Companions of Doctor Who
#1) - As Turlough’s actions eliminate Rehctaht, this presumably (and paradoxically) causes the very political reform that allows his younger self to return home to Trion in
Planet of Fire
.
[
570
] Dating
The Five Doctors
(20.1) - The Brigadier recognises Tegan, so he must be kidnapped by Borusa after the second half of
Mawdryn Undead
in 1983. It is specified that he is attending a UNIT reunion (perhaps one he initiated once his memories returned?), but this isn’t the occasion of his retirement. Sarah is kidnapped around the same time, certainly after
K9 and Company
.
[
571
]
Business Unusual
[
572
] “Last year” according to
Heart of TARDIS
(p41).
[
573
] Dating “4-Dimensional Vistas” (
DWM
#78-83) - This story marks the end of the Doctor’s vigil on Earth. In “Lunar Lagoon”, the Doctor thought he was in “1983”.
[
574
]
Ghost Light
. Marc Platt’s novelisation specifies that Gabriel Chase is burnt down in August 1983. Ace’s social worker is referred to in
Survival
.
[
575
] “Eight months” before
Return of the Living Dad.
[
576
]
Return of the Living Dad
(p53). While in 1983, Jason says he was “born this year”. In
Death and Diplomacy
(set circa 2011), Jason must be rounding when he says, “I’m thirty years old, near enough” (p196).