B00DPX9ST8 EBOK (182 page)

The help that the Silurians here give to Harry Sullivan compliments
Eternity Weeps
, set in 2003, in which some Silurians are aiding UNIT even though the public is unaware of their existence.

[
1009
] The
UNIT
audios
Time Heals
and
Snake Head.

[
1010
] Bricommbe-Wood’s allegiances are revealled in
UNIT: The Wasting
, and the effects of the flu aren’t known until
UNIT: The Longest Night
.

[
1011
] Reports of members of the royal family being killed are contradictory and never confirmed, and so can perhaps be ignored.

[
1012
]
UNIT: The Longest Night

[
1013
] Dating
Death Comes to Time
(BBCi drama, unnumbered) - No year is given, but Tony Blair is the Prime Minister and George W Bush is President of the United States, suggesting a contemporary setting. The story was webcast in 2002. Lee Sullivan’s illustrations suggest that UNIT is operating a moonbase at this time, and although such details aren’t in the script or dialogue, this could nudge the story a couple of years into the future (there was a moonbase in the 2003 of
Eternity Weeps
and
SJA: Death of the Doctor
, after all). See “American Presidents in the
Doctor Who
Universe” for why this story seems to take place after 2004.

Is Death Comes to Time Canon?

As the seventh Doctor dies at the end, all Time Lords are revealled to have godlike powers that they simply haven’t used before and all the Time Lords are extinguished or otherwise removed from the universe during the seventh Doctor’s time, a strong case can be made that this story is apocryphal. Crucially, the Time Lords’ godlike abilities aren’t reconcilable against the Gallifrey History section of this book. However, references to Anima Persis in
Relative Dementias
and
The Tomorrow Windows
and the Canisians in
Trading Futures
suggest
Death Comes to Time
may well be canonical. As with all
Doctor Who
, readers can include or ignore this story as they wish.

[
1014
]
Trading Futures
, making reference to
Death Comes to Time
.

[
1015
]
Iris: The Claws of Santa.
It’s not specified if this is George W. Bush or his father, although the younger Bush was more commonly regarded as being clumsy, such as a 2002 incident where he briefly fell unconscious after choking on a pretzel.

[
1016
] Dating
TW: Fragments
(
TW
2.12) - Owen’s fiancée dies “four years” before the 2009 component of this story. The weather seems decent, and Owen comments that he promised Katie “a summer wedding”, suggesting that it’s spring. Some time must elapse, however, between Owen first meeting Jack in 2005 and his being recruited to work for Torchwood -
TW: Exit Wounds
says that Owen was only on the job his “second week” when
Aliens of London
, set in March 2006, occurred.
The Torchwood Archives
concurs that Owen “hooked up with Jolly Jack” in 2006, and
TW: SkyPoint
, set in 2008, says that Owen joined Torchwood “two years” ago (p24).

[
1017
] Dating “The Flood” (
DWM
#346-353) - It’s “the early twenty-first century”, and the story was published from 2004 to early 2005. Thematically, the resolution of this story is much like Rose unleashing the power of the Time Vortex in
The Parting of the Ways
.

[
1018
] Dating
The Gallifrey Chronicles
(EDA #73) - The date is given (p75).

[
1019
] “Two years” before
TW: Small Worlds
.

[
1020
] Dating
Sarah Jane Smith
Series 2 (
SJS: Buried Secrets
, #2.1;
SJS: Snow Blind
, #2.2;
SJS: Fatal Consequences
, #2.3;
SJS: Dreamland
, #2.4) - These four audios were released from February to April 2006, but seem to have been written with 2005 in mind. Somewhat definitively, Josh says in
Fatal Consequences
that he’s been protecting Sarah for “three years”, denoting how long it’s been since
SJS: Comeback
, set in 2002. Little clues throughout Series 2 support a 2005 dating: in particular, Natalie says in
SJS: Buried Secrets
that a Medici burial chamber was located “in July 2004” - a phrasing she’d be unlikely to use in 2004 itself. Two items establish that Series 2 can’t take place any later than 2007:
Buried Secrets
mentions that the
Dauntless
was originally scheduled for lift-off “in 2008”, but has now been moved up, and it’s said in
SJS: Dreamland
that Chuck Yeager broke the speed of sound “nearly sixty years ago” (he did so on 14th of October, 1947).

As Series 2 ends on a cliffhanger, a 2005 dating is preferable to 2006 (or 2007, even) in that it allows more time for an unspecified adventure in which Sarah Jane returns to Earth and wraps up any and all lingering details from her dealings with the Crimson Chapter before casually witnessing events in
The Christmas Invasion
, which she mentions upon meeting the tenth Doctor in
School Reunion
.

Series 2 ends with the
Dauntless
launching into space on 27th of September, and all signs are that the series begins some months beforehand; see the Series 2 episode entries for more. It seems likely, although it’s not actually stated, that Sarah Jane recovers some of her professional standing between
SJS
Series 1 and Series 2 - at the very least, she’s no longer living under cover identities, and is currently having to dodge media inquires about Hilda Winters’ death.

The
Dauntless
launch is cited throughout Series 2 as being Earth’s first “space tourism” flight... while the attempt made in
Escape Velocity
probably wouldn’t count owing to an alien invasion scuttling it, by 2004 that ship had long since sailed in the real world; Dennis Tito and Mark Shuttleworth made “space tourist” flights in 2001 and 2002 respectively. That said, nothing within
Who
itself (other than
Escape Velocity
, maybe) particularly contradicts the
Dauntless
being the first tourist flight as stated.

[
1021
] Eighteen months before
SJS: Fatal Consequences
. “Mandrake” is the English equivalent of “Mandragora”, for reasons given in
SJS
Series 2. It’s also the name of a drug in “The Mark of Mandragora”.

[
1022
] Dating
SJS
:
Buried Secrets
(
SJS
#2.1) -
SJS: Snow Blind
establishes that Sarah spends two months after
Buried Secrets
recovering from a gunshot wound. The month in which
Buried Secrets
takes place, however, still isn’t clear (see the dating notes under
Snow Blind
for why). Natalie specifies that the story opens on “the 20th”, and if the two subsequent “midday headlines” reports are any gauge, the action wraps up two days later. The Crimson Chapter’s role in Winters’ death is revealled in
SJS: Dreamland
.

[
1023
] Dating
SJS
:
Snow Blind
(
SJS
#2.2) - The amount of time that passes between
Snow Blind
and
Fatal Consequences
is rather vague. The two installments could easily take place in the same month (meaning that
Buried Secrets
occurs in June) - then again, they might be further apart than that (meaning that
Buried Secrets
occurs in May or even April).

[
1024
] Dating
SJS
:
Fatal Consequences
(
SJS
#2.3) - It’s said that a round-the-clock vigil at Pangbourne labs has lasted for “six months”, and
SJS: Buried Secrets
says the same vigil started “last Christmas” - so by logical extension,
Fatal Consequences
should take place circa June. However, a news report in
SJS: Dreamland
simultaneously mentions that the
Dauntless
is “cleared for lift-off next month” (September, according to
Dreamland
) and that the Marburg incident in
Fatal Consequences
occurred “last week”, meaning that the “six months” figure has to be taken as rounding, and
Fatal Consequences
must occur in August. That squares with Sarah in rapid succession attending the funeral of Will Sullivan - who’s shot dead at the end of
Fatal Consequences
- and then embarking on a four-week training course so she can join the
Dauntless
launch.

[
1025
] Dating
Red Dawn
(BF #8) - It is “thirty years” since the “Mars Probe fiasco” of
The Ambassadors of Death
, which is a UNIT story. So to cut a very long story short, it’s the now first decade of the twenty-first century. As
The Dying Days
was “over twenty years” after
The Ambassadors of Death
, this story is set before 2007. The impact of Tanya’s ambassadorship to Mars must be minimal, as humanity and the Martians are in conflict by
The Seeds of Death
.

[
1026
] Both “ten years” before
Trading Futures.

[
1027
]
TW: Long Time Dead
. Brown appears to be an otherwise unmentioned member of Jack’s Torchwood team.

[
1028
]
TW: They Keep Killing Suzie.
This is part of Suzie’s insurance policy in case of her death, although it doesn’t entirely account for why she kills herself in
TW: Everything Changes
. (One explanation is that Suzie knows she’s going to get fired - meaning mind-wiped - from Torchwood, and her suicide/resurrection gambit is a desperate means of maintaining her memories and identity.)

[
1029
]
Human Resources
. The Lonsis operation has been running for “a year” prior to 2006, and Hulbert acts as if he’s been in charge of the company for some time before that.

[
1030
]
Iceberg
and
Cat’s Cradle: Warhead
are both set around the same time and feature an Earth on the brink of environmental and social collapse. The two books are broadly consistent, although the odd detail is different - in
Iceberg
, for example, journalist Ruby Duvall muses that sunbathing in England is impossible nowadays, whereas Ace sunbathes in Kent during
Cat’s Cradle: Warhead
. The Connors Amendment is mentioned in
Warlock.