B00DPX9ST8 EBOK (176 page)

[
798
]
Minuet in Hell

[
799
]
Ghosts of India

[
800
] Dating
Bullet Time
(PDA #45) - The date of April 1997 is given (p15). Sarah Jane visits Bangkok just prior to this in March (p7). Britain turned over Hong Kong to China on 1st July, 1997. The report of Sarah Jane’s demise in this novel is largely unsubstantiated and hails from Ryder’s unreliable point-of-view.
Sometime Never
suggests the ambiguity of her death owes to the Council of Eight’s machinations. Sarah clearly survives, as evidenced in
School Reunion, The Sarah Jane Adventures
and several of the books (including
System Shock
,
Millennium Shock
,
Christmas on a Rational Planet
,
Interference
and
The Shadow in the Glass
).
Bullet Time
never names the stranded aliens, but they would appear to be the Tzun from McIntee’s
First Frontier
. The Cortez Project head, General Kyle, is possibly Marianne Kyle from
The Face of the Enemy
.

[
801
] Dating
The Rapture
(BF #36) - Ace reckons it is “ten years” after she left Earth.

[
802
] Dating
Battlefield
(26.1) - The Doctor tells Ace that they are “a few years in your future”. Sergeant Zbrigniev is apparently in his mid-thirties, served in UNIT while the Doctor was present, and appears to have first-hand recollection of two of the Doctor’s regenerations. Even if we assume that Zbrigniev is older than he looks (say, forty), and was very young when he joined UNIT,
Spearhead from Space
must have taken place in the mid-seventies. (The earliest Zbrigniev could be in the regular army is age 16, but he’d almost certainly need a couple more years before seeing active service, especially with an elite organisation like UNIT.)

The
Battlefield
novelisation by Marc Platt, based on notes by story author Ben Aaronovitch, sets the story in “the late 1990s” (p15). Ace later notices that Peter Warmsley’s tax disc expires on “30.6.99” (p30).
The Terrestrial Index
set the story in “1992” and
The TARDIS Special
chose 1991 - perhaps they misheard the Doctor’s line as “two years in your future”. In a document for Virgin Publishing dated 23rd March, 1995, concerning “Future History Continuity”, Ben Aaronovitch perhaps settled the matter when he stated that
Battlefield
is set “c.1997”.
The Dying Days
is set after this story.

The Doctor is apparently surprised to learn that Lethbridge-Stewart married Doris - in this story,
The King of Terror
and
The Spectre of Lanyon Moor
.

The Future of the United Nations

By
Battlefield
, UNIT is a truly multinational organisation with British, Czechoslovakian and Polish troops serving side by side. UNIT appear in the New Adventures
The Pit
,
Head Games
and
Happy Endings
, and the UN is referred to in
Cat’s Cradle: Warhead.
In
The Enemy of the World
, nations have been grouped together into Zones. The governing body of the world is the United Zones, or the World Zones Authority, headed by a General Assembly.

The United Nations still exists at the time of the Thousand Day War referred to in the New Adventure
Transit
. Gradually, though, national barriers break down and a World Government runs the planet. Where this leaves the UN is unclear, although it appears that the United Nations survives or is reformed at some time far in the future. In
Mission to the Unknown
, Lowry’s ship is the “UN Deep Space Force Group 1”, and has the United Nations symbol and a Union Jack on the hull.

[
803
]
Benny: Present Danger
: “The Empire Variations”

[
804
] Dating
The Dying Days
(NA #61) - The date is given at the start of the story and on the back cover. 6th May is the date that Virgin’s license to publish
Doctor Who
books officially ended. Lethbridge-Stewart was cited as a General in
Head Games
.

[
805
] “The Mark of Mandragora” - a reference to “Invaders from Gantac” and
Battlefield
.

[
806
] Dating
The Many Hands
(NSA #24) - The year is given.

[
807
] Dating
The Eight Doctors
(EDA #1) - The date is given. Technically, Sam returns home in
Interference
before her younger self leaves with the Doctor.

[
808
] Dating
Vampire Science
(EDA #2) - The date is given (p25).

[
809
] Dating
Genocide
(EDA #3) - The time seems concurrent with the book’s publication in 1997. On page 147, Jo wonders if even “twentieth-century hospitals” will be capable of curing an illness that Julie contracts. Jo and Cliff are separated, and while it’s not expressly said that they’re divorced - they live near each other, and remain friendly enough that Cliff gave Jo a present on the first anniversary after he left her - Jo is using her maiden name of Grant, having been formerly known as Jo Jones. Matthew would appear to be Jo and Cliff’s only child, contradicting the shedload of offspring they have in
SJA: Death of the Doctor
.

[
810
] Dating
Auton
(Auton film #1) - The story was released in 1997, and seems contemporary. Lockwood says that the Nestenes are using “a bit of slurry” left over from a body they tried to create “decades ago” - presumably a reference to
Spearhead from Space
.

[
811
] “Ten years” before
Army of Ghosts
.

[
812
] Also “ten years” before
Army of Ghosts
, and elaborating on the super-weapon used in
The Christmas Invasion
.

[
813
]
Wonderland

[
814
] Dating
The Pit
(NA #12) - The Doctor and the poet William Blake travel to the 1990s, apparently after the Doctor has met Brigadier Bambera in
Battlefield
.

[
815
] Dating
Infinite Requiem
(NA #36) - It is “1997”.

[
816
] “A couple of years” before “Plastic Millennium”.

[
817
]
The Shadow in the Glass

[
818
]
The Dying Days
, first mentioned in
Christmas on a Rational Planet.

The Monarchy

Different stories say different things about who is the British monarch around the turn of the millennium. Lethbridge-Stewart refers to the King in
Battlefield
, which is set in the late twentieth century.
Happy Endings
specifies that King Charles ruled at the turn of the millennium. There is a King when Mariah Learman seizes power in
The Time of the Daleks
, and by the time of
Trading Futures
. In
Revenge of the Judoon
, the tenth Doctor forecasts the reigns of Charles III and Queen Camilla, and King William V.

However, Queen Elizabeth II still reigns in
Head Games
(set in 2001) and
Voyage of the Damned
(set in 2008).
Christmas on a Rational Planet
refers to the “Recoronation”, apparently implying that Elizabeth II abdicated in favour of Charles, but - for reasons we can only speculate on - was restored to the throne soon afterwards.
The Dying Days
(set just after
Battlefield
) offers a different reason for the Recoronation: the Queen was usurped by the Ice Warrior Xznaal.

In the
Doctor Who
universe, there’s a Princess Mary who’s 19 at time
Rags
is set (p158). While it isn’t stated, she’s clearly a senior royal and by birth, so the obvious inference is that she’s the Queen’s daughter.

[
819
] Dating
Touched by an Angel
(NSA #47) - The exact day is given (p95).

[
820
]
Christmas on a Rational Planet
. “Morley” is presumably the same as the “Paul” whom Sarah is dating but not married to in
Interference
, set two years previous in 1996. If so, there’s no evidence that Sarah and Paul were married for long. When asked by Alan Jackson if she’s ever been married (in
SJA: Revenge of the Slitheen
), Sarah replies “No, never found time” - which might suggest that their marriage was annulled, that Sarah means she “never found time to commit to a relationship of wedlock”, or that she’s withholding the entire truth from Alan (whom she’s just met and has no reason to be all that forthcoming with) or some combination of all of those options. If Sarah and Paul’s marriage fizzled out quickly, it could owe to what Sarah implies in
SJA: Invasion of the Bane
- that there was “only ever one man for me [i.e. the Doctor] . After him, nothing compared...” - even if she comes to reevaluate that position while under supernatural influence (
SJA: The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith
).

[
821
]
Touched by an Angel

[
822
]
Iceberg

[
823
] In
Transit
, there’s a history book called
Thatcher: The Wilderness Years.

[
824
]
Timewyrm: Revelation

[
825
]
Escape Velocity

[
826
]
TW: Miracle Day

[
827
] “Twenty years” before
SJA: The Lost Boy
. Despite the similar name, no overt connection has been made between the Pharos Institute and the Pharos Project seen in
Logopolis
.

[
828
] “Ten years” before
SJA: Warriors of Kudlak.

[
829
] “Ten years” before the linking material in
The Story of Martha
. As the Drast are defeated during the year of time that’s erased in
Last of the Time Lords
, it’s unclear what ended their plans in the actual history.

[
830
] Per Alex Hopkins’ report on Torchwood.org.uk.

[
831
] Dating
System Shock
(MA #11) - When asked, a barman, Rod, informs the Doctor that this is “1998”. The Doctor goes on to tell Sarah that in that particular year, “nothing of interest happened as far as I remember”. It is “twenty odd years” after Sarah’s time, and she muses that a “greying, mid-forties” future version of herself is alive in 1998, which the epilogue confirms.