B00DPX9ST8 EBOK (319 page)

[
1455
] Dating
Dalek Empire IV: The Fearless
- The story occurs in the years that pass very shortly after the start of
Dalek Empire I
episode three (
“Death to the Daleks!”
), but prior to the Daleks overrunning Earth in that installment. Ernst Tanlee, who’s killed at the very end of
Dalek Empire I
, here appears as head of Earth Alliance security. Like
Dalek Empire II
but unlike the other
Dalek Empire
mini-series,
Dalek Empire IV
has no individual episode titles.

[
1456
] Dating
Dalek Empire I
(episode three,
“Death to the Daleks!”
; episode four,
Project Infinity
) - An unspecified number of “years” occur as the Daleks make advances, and Mendes and Kalendorf shore up their master plan. “Eight months” pass after Mendes gives the rebellion signal, and Kalendorf spends five months after that in transit to the Lopra system.

[
1457
]
Return of the Daleks

[
1458
]
Dalek Empire II

[
1459
] Dating
Planet of the Spiders
(11.5) - The colony ship that crashes on Metebelis III has intergalactic capability, as Metebelis is in the Acteon galaxy. It made a “time jump”, also suggesting it’s from the far future.
The Terrestrial Index
claimed that the colony ship was “lost during the early days of the twenty-second century”, dating
Planet of the Spiders
itself as “c.2530”.
The TARDIS Logs
suggested “4256”,
Timelink
“3415”.

[
1460
] Dating
The Eight Doctors
(EDA #1) - This happens at some point in the aftermath of
Planet of the Spiders.

[
1461
]
The Eight Truths/Worldwide Web

[
1462
] Dating
Dalek Empire II: Dalek War
(no individual titles) - Mendes is revived from stasis “five, nearly six” years after instigating her rebellion in
Dalek Empire I
.

[
1463
]
Dalek Empire III

[
1464
] Dating
Dalek Empire II: Dalek War
(no individual titles) - Kalendorf’s conflict against the Alliance Daleks is described as a “long, terrible war”, and must run for a number of years. The Great Catastrophe seems to occur shortly after the Alliance Daleks’ withdrawal to their home dimension.

The Great Catastrophe

Dalek Empire II
ends with all Daleks and Dalek technology in the Milky Way and Seriphia galaxies exploding to such a degree, “countless worlds” (all of them unnamed) are devastated. Some take centuries or millennia to recover, some never do. The big question for
Ahistory
’s purposes is how much damage Earth itself endures... and, as it happens, this question is never answered. Although
Dalek Empire III
picks up the threads of the Great Catastrophe some two thousand years later, no mention whatsoever is made of Earth’s status.

... which isn’t to say that the homeworld has been especially devastated beyond repair. Although the Daleks do take control of Earth in
Dalek Empire II
, the “Daleks, Obliterate Yourselves” pulse that brings about The Great Catastrophe wouldn’t mete out damage to the planets under Dalek control equally, and some worlds would surely weather that storm better than others. Where this is especially relevant is the question of whether the humans on Earth would emerge from the Great Catastrophe with the technological know-how and resources to react as we’re shown to the Solar Flare event (established in
The Ark in Space
). So little is said about what happens to Earth during The Great Catastrophe, there’s nothing to directly rule out pretty much any scenario to follow.

[
1465
]
Dalek Empire III

[
1466
] Dating
The Pyralis Effect
(BF CC #4.4) - It’s long enough after the destruction of Pavonis IV that the Doctor is regarded as a mythical hero, but not so long that the planet’s environment has recovered and the survivors have resettled there. Otherwise, this date is arbitrary.

[
1467
]
The Highest Science

[
1468
]
Synthespians™

[
1469
]
The Price of Paradise

[
1470
] “Thousands of years” after
Asylum.
No date given, and this is an arbitrary placing.

[
1471
]
Spiral Scratch

[
1472
] “Five thousand years” before
The Crystal Bucephalus
(p114).

[
1473
] “Two hundred and seventy years” before
Half-Life.

[
1474
] Dating
Combat Rock
(PDA #55) - There’s no date given, although cigarettes were banned on the colonies “hundreds of years ago”. There are smokers in
Resurrection of the Daleks
, but of course a smoking ban can be lifted and ignored, so it’s hardly firm evidence that this story is set after that. This date is arbitrary, but it’s linked to the Christian colonists of Espero.

The date of the Earth-Indoni war is unspecified, but Jenggel’s current political climate seems to stem from its fallout, suggesting a shorter rather than longer span of time since it occurred. The Indoni subjugated the Papul, and the Christian missionaries arrived, some “thirty rainseasons” before the novel takes place.

[
1475
] Dating
Sick Building
(NSA #17) - No dating clues are given, but in
Iris: Enter Wildthyme
(p240), Barbra says that she’s from “the fifty-ninth century”. The character is named as “Barbara” in
Sick Building
and
Iris: Iris and the Celestial Omnibus
: “The Deadly Flap”, but is “Barbra” in
Iris: Enter Wildthyme
.

[
1476
]
Iris: Enter Wildthyme

[
1477
] Dating
The Krotons
(6.4) - This has been one of the most persistently undatable TV stories.
About Time
concedes that the year is “unknown”, and Jon Preddle writes in
Timelink
, “I have placed
The Krotons
under ?????” While the story gives virtually no dating clues (it isn’t even established if the Gonds are human or not), evidence from the tie-in media allows for the establishment of some parameters.

Alien Bodies
(p263-264) says that the Krotons were literally patterned after the type of servo-robots seen in
The Wheel in Space
, meaning the Krotons didn’t exist prior to mankind’s colonial age. The same section of
Alien Bodies
suggests that (in terms of rudimentary personality, if nothing else) the Krotons as we know them took some “centuries” to develop.

In
Return of the Krotons
, a Kroton who went dormant circa 3700 regards dynatropes - relative to when it liquefied - as “an inferior form of craft, with low grade crew specifications. We are more advanced.” So, if dynatropes haven’t been outright discontinued by the thirty-eighth century, it’s unlikely they were used much after. The Krotons featured in
The Krotons
might be using a dynatrope well past its expiration date, but we nonetheless have a rough approximation of when they landed on the planet of the Gonds.

The Gond leader Selris says in
The Krotons
episode one that the Krotons arrived “thousands of years” ago - not the most specific of terms to start with, and one that becomes even vaguer when it’s taken into account that the Gonds have forgotten so much of their history. The Doctor similarly claims in episode three that the Krotons have been lying dormant for “thousands of years”, but he might just be repeating what Selris told the TARDIS crew. Nonetheless, if we presume that the Krotons landed on Gond circa 2895 (the mid-point between man’s colonial age starting about 2090 and dynatropes being deemed “inferior” circa 3700), then arbitrarily add on (say) three thousand years,
The Krotons
would occur circa 5895. It’s a ballpark figure, to be sure, but it’s better than nothing.

[
1478
] Dating
Mission: Impractical
(PDA #12) - It is “a couple of million years” before
The Trial of a Time Lord
(p56). Ernie McCartney from
Tragedy Day
is mentioned (p215), setting this around the same time as that book. This would not appear, from the other stories featuring Glitz, to be his native timezone. We might conclude that he has ended up somehow either acquiring time travel or been brought here by a time traveller.

[
1479
] Dating
Tragedy Day
(NA #24) - There is no indication of the date in the book, although the colony planet Pantorus is mentioned here (p83) and in
Zamper
(p57), perhaps suggesting they are set around the same time.

[
1480
]
The Ark in Space

The Solar Flares

The solar flares ravage the Earth “thousands of years” after the thirtieth century (
Revenge of the Cybermen
). Judging by information in the TV series, the last recorded human activity on Earth for millions of years is in the fifty-first century (
The Talons of Weng-Chiang
,
The Invisible Enemy
). The books and audios push this forward by about a thousand years, to around 6000. The Solar Flares must occur relatively soon after this time.

The first edition of
The Programme Guide
claimed that Earth was only evacuated between “c.2800” and “c.2900”, the second suggested dates between “c.2900” and “c.4300”.
The Terrestrial Index
attempted to rationalise the statement that the Ark was built in the “thirtieth century”, stating that Nerva was built, but then the Solar Flares “abated”, Nerva was not informed and the population of Nerva went on to recolonise Ravolox “between 15,000 and 20,000” (as seen in
The Mysterious Planet
). This contradicts the date for
The Mysterious Planet
established on screen and would represent a rather implausible oversight on behalf of the Earth’s authorities. The book’s supposition that the Solar Flares caused the Ice Age we see in
The Ice Warriors
(a theory repeated in
Legacy
) is specifically ruled out by dialogue in
The Ice Warriors
. For analysis of the solar flares as referenced in the new series, see
The Beast Below
.

[
1481
] Dating
Dreamtime
(BF #67) - Simon Forward scripted this story with the intent of it occurring during the time of the World Zones Authority in the twenty-first century, but nothing in the story itself supports this. Talk of evacuating the Earth means it fits naturally at the time of the solar flares. If the “past” segments are part of the Dreaming and inherently unreliable, dating becomes even murkier. Forward says that the Galyari Korshal in
Dreamtime
isn’t the character of the same name in
Benny: The Bone of Contention
(even if Steffan Rhodri voices both parts); the Galyari are long-lived, but traditionally hand down some names through the generations.