B00DPX9ST8 EBOK (309 page)

And although it’s not said, the chasm on Karn theoretically contains the body of a Morbius from a closed-off timeline.

[
1196
]
Orbis

[
1197
] “Ten years” before the latter part of
Cobwebs.

[
1198
] Dating
Cobwebs
(BF #136) - From Nyssa’s perspective, it’s been “about fifty years” since
Terminus
. For the Doctor’s group, that story happened two days ago.

[
1199
]
Heroes of Sontar

[
1200
] Dating
The Sirens of Time
(BF #1) - The date is given.

[
1201
] Steven Taylor

We know that Steven hails from an era in which interplanetary travel for Earth is becoming (or already is) commonplace, that Earth has been dispatching the Mechanoids to colonise other worlds, and that Earth “got mixed up in interplanetary wars” - which is why the colonisation of Mechanus wasn’t completed. We also know from
The Daleks’ Master Plan
that Steven is from at least some “centuries” if not more before the year 4000. Unfortunately, every piece of evidence related to Steven contains some degree of ambiguity, so debates are still being had as to whether he originates anywhere from as early as the twenty-third century to as late as the thirty-sixth century(ish).

On screen, the strongest clues about Steven’s era come from
The Daleks’ Master Plan
. In episode six, Sara (originating from the year 4000) says that “Gravity force as a source of energy was abandoned, centuries ago”, to which Steven replies, “We were still using it.” In itself, this isn’t an indicator that Steven is from only “centuries” before Sara’s time, as gravity force could have been discontinued long after his era. But in the same episode, Steven says to Sara, “The technology of my age may be hundreds of years behind yours and the Doctor’s, but there are still some things I can handle.” He could be speaking colloquially, as he seems to be saying that the Doctor’s technology is only centuries ahead of his - but if he really were from thousands rather than hundreds of years behind Sara’s time, he could have said exactly that and been just as colloquial where the Doctor was concerned.

Without a clear directive as to when Steven’s era takes place, the tie-in stories have been of split minds about it. In
The First Wave
, writer Simon Guerrier assumed a later dating for Steven, claiming in the story that Steven once lived in a dwelling which was already “two centuries old” by the time he resided there, and was made using technology far in advance of the present day. Conversely,
Salvation
by Steve Lyons implied a much earlier dating, establishing (p58) that Steven saw the “rubble, the wasteland... the suffering of those... whom rebuilding had left behind” of New York following the Daleks devastating it in the mid-twenty-second century (
The Dalek Invasion of Earth
). This could just mean, however, that a portion of New York never recovers from the Dalek onslaught and is still in ruin in Steven’s time - a better restored part of the city might contain the popular waterways mentioned in
Fear Itself
(PDA), or it’s possible that these are different cities entirely (in accordance with
The End of the World
establishing that at least fifteen cities bear the name “New York”).

Previous editions of
Ahistory
erroneously reported that Steven said in
The Daleks’ Master Plan
that he was from “thousands of years” before the year 4000, which doesn’t appear to be the case. It was also reported that
Salvation
directly stated that Steven was from the “mid twenty-third century”, which isn’t (apologies again) true either.

Until a story comes along that cuts through the fog surrounding this topic and resolutely states that “Steven Taylor is from the X century”, it seems best to assume by default that mention in
The Daleks’ Master Plan
of Steven being from “hundreds of years” before the year 4000 does actually mean “hundreds of years” rather than millennia, hence the relocation in this guidebook of
The Chase
to the year 3565.

[
1202
]
Cold Equations

[
1203
]
The Perpetual Bond

[
1204
]
The Daleks’ Master Plan

[
1205
]
The First Wave

[
1206
]
Salvation

[
1207
]
Frostfire

[
1208
]
The Empire of Glass

[
1209
]
War of the Daleks
, and presumably the same class of Mechanoids seen in
The Chase.

[
1210
] Dating
The Chase
(2.8) - No date given, but this is Steven’s native time. See the Steven Taylor sidebar.

The TARDIS Logs
suggested a date of “3773 AD”. The first and second editions of
The Programme Guide
set dates of “2150” and “2250” respectively,
The Terrestrial Index
settled on “early in the twenty-seventh century”. The American
Doctor Who
comic suggested a date of “2170”. “A History of the Daleks” in
DWM
#77 claimed a date of “3764 AD”,
The Discontinuity Guide
suggested that Steven fought in “one of the Cyber Wars, or the Draconian conflict”.
Timelink
suggests “3550”,
About Time
“2200 - 2400”.

There’s no indication that the Daleks are in their native time when they fight the Mechanoids at the end of the story, but the Daleks have fought the Mechanoids before. We saw this happen in the
TV Century 21
strip, in “Eve of the War”, but there’s a problem - that story is set very soon after the Daleks started space exploration, explicitly centuries before mankind could have built the Mechanoids. Additionally, the Mechanoids in the strip are far more inventive and advanced.

There are a number of possibilities. A rather messy one is that there are two, near identical, robot races out there - “Mechonoids” built by humans to colonise Mechonous, and “Mechanoids” built by a far more advanced race of outer space robot people from the planet Mechanus. Or, given that they look the same, perhaps the Mechanoids the humans sent out were based on alien technology, possibly acquired after some unseen Mechanoid attack on Earth (again, no evidence - and it doesn’t explain why both come from Mechanus). Another alternative is that perhaps the ones that fight the Daleks in the strip are time travellers (although there’s absolutely nothing to indicate that). While there’s no evidence for it, the simplest answer of all is... that the Mechanoids have lied to Steven about their origins, and that they are a powerful spacefaring alien race who have fought the Daleks in the past.

The end credits of episode five and six of
The Chase
spell the name as “Mechanoid” and “Mechonoid” respectively. The script spells the name of the planet as “Mechonous”; the comic strip prefers “Mechanus”.

[
1211
] Dating
Palace of the Red Sun
(PDA #51) - It is five hundred years after the previous part of the story.

[
1212
] Dating
The First Wave
(BF CC #6.5) - Steven says that they’re “somewhere a little after” his own time, as he’s largely familiar with the technology at hand, but some improvements have been made to gravity and atmosphere control. Oliver Harper previously appeared in
The Perpetual Bond
and
Cold Equations
.

[
1213
] Dating
The Resurrection of Mars
(BF BBC7 #4.6) - The Monk says that he and Tamsin have travelled “one thousand years into the future”, presumably referring to their previous location on Deimos rather than Tamsin’s native era. The transformed Halcyon is separate from the Martian colony planet Nova Martia (i.e. New Mars, one of the founding members of the Federation), which is settled after the Thousand-Day War according to
GodEngine
.

[
1214
] Dating “Art Attack!” (
DWM
#358) - It’s “the thirty-seventh century”.

[
1215
] Dating
The Song of the Megaptera
(BF LS #1.7) - No year given. The back cover text says that it’s “deep space in the distant future”. The participants are aware of humanity, use Earth whaling terms and seem human themselves. A Terran warship inside the pilot Ghaleen has “Eat lead, Dalek scum” written on its side, so it’s after humanity’s conflicts with the Daleks.

Environmentalists hold influence on some colony planets, suggesting it’s not the time of the less-than environmentally minded (to put it mildly) Earth Empire. The whale-hunters have some awareness of the Ghaleen’s temporal abilities - such as measuring the depths to which they dive in “millenniums” - but lack the ability to follow, which rules out the time-tech-riddled fifty-first century. It’s a guess, but the fourth millennium seems like a good compromise, when humanity’s technology is developed enough to hunt space whales, but prior to its having time tech.

This audio story was adapted from the continually delayed and rewritten
The Song of the Space Whale
by Pat Mills, which in one phase of development was designed to introduce Turlough (who debuted instead in
Mawdryn Undead
). The Ghaleen seem different from the space whales seen in
The Beast Below
and
TW: Meat
, in that they can navigate through time as well as space.

[
1216
] Dating
Weapon of Choice
(
Gallifrey
#1.1) - The year is given. “Black light” was first mentioned as a power source in
The Mysterious Planet
.

[
1217
] The contest in
Bang-Bang-A-Boom!
is the 308th.

[
1218
] “Centuries” before the forty-first century portion of “Hotel Historia”.

[
1219
]
A Device of Death
. There’s a discussion of the history on p31. No date is given, but Kambril has been in charge for “eighteen years” (p90).

[
1220
]
Davros

[
1221
] “Three millennia” before
Return of the Krotons.

[
1222
] “A few hundred years” after
Paradise 5
.

[
1223
] Dating
Interference
(EDA #25-26) - It’s the “thirty-eighth century” (p306) and “several centuries” after
The Monster of Peladon
. The Foreman/bottle universe story occurs some time after the main events on Dust.

[
1224
] The bottle next appears in
The Ancestor Cell
.

[
1225
] Dating
A Device of Death
(MA #31) - No date is given, but this is a time of isolated Earth colonies, and it’s fifteen hundred years since Landor was colonised. The implication that the robots are the Movellans, seen in
Destiny of the Daleks
, would seem to contradict
War of the Daleks
.

[
1226
] Dating
Earth Aid
(BF LS #2.8) - No year given. Earth Aid is, presumably, either based on Earth or chiefly composed of humans; either way, it’s after man’s expansion into space. Spaceship technology is advanced enough that Earth Aid shipments appear to reach their destinations in time to actually provide relief, without decades spent in transit (a concern in humanity’s early colonial age). The
Vancouver
and
Lilliput
both have “jump” capabilities, but the
Vancouver
’s primary weaponry is nothing more fancy than cannons and missiles. There’s not even mention of a transporter or T-Mat.