B00DPX9ST8 EBOK (322 page)

[
1550
]
The Crystal Bucephalus

[
1551
]
Killing Ground
. The ArcHivists first appeared in the reference book
Cybermen.

[
1552
]
The Quantum Archangel

[
1553
] Dating
The Crystal Bucephalus
(MA #4) - The Doctor claims they are “six or seven centuries into the tenth millennium” (p27), but also says that it is the “108th century” (p40, which is in the
eleventh
millennium). The latter date is correct - elsewhere we learn that “10,663” was in the recent past (p69). Although the novel doesn’t specify the exact date, author Craig Hinton assumed that it was set in the year 10,764 and that date has been adopted here.

[
1554
] Combining accounts given in
The Crystal Bucephalus
and
Synthespians™
, both novels by Craig Hinton.
Synthespians™
claims that Chen’s empire is finished before the Union is formed, and yet someone else claiming descent from Mavic Chen (evidently not the beheaded emperor) is either the leader of the Junta (which follows on from the Union) or has some form of authority as mankind seeks out its lost colonies (p273).

[
1555
] Dating
Synthespians™
(PDA #67) - The events of
The Crystal Bucephalus
were “several centuries” ago.

[
1556
]
Synthespians™

[
1557
]
The Crystal Bucephalus

[
1558
]
The Ark in Space.
Vira notes that scientists had calculated it would be “five thousand years before the biosphere was viable” on Earth after the solar flares. In
The Sontaran Experiment
, we learn that humanity has spread across the galaxy, and that Earth has been habitable for “thousands of years” but has remained abandoned.

[
1559
] Before “Final Sacrifice”. There’s some confusion in the story about the time that elapses during the civil war, which is variously given as “tens of thousands of years”, “ten thousand years”, “over ten thousand years” and simply “millennia” before.

[
1560
]
The Also People
(p247).

[
1561
] According to the Doctor in
The End of the World.
This would seem to fall at the time Earth was thought to be abandoned by humanity following the solar flares. Perhaps the New Roman Empire wasn’t based on Earth, or there was a shortlived resettlement of the planet.

[
1562
] Dating
City at World’s End
(PDA #25) - This is an arbitrary date, although we are told it is “thousands of years” after Ian and Barbara’s native time.

[
1563
]
Alien Bodies

[
1564
] Dating
The Ark in Space
(12.2) - Harry twice suggests that they are “ten thousand years” after the time of the Solar Flares, and the Doctor confirms this in
The Sontaran Experiment
, which takes place immediately afterwards.
The Terrestrial Index
set the stories between “15,000 and 20,000”.
The TARDIS Logs
suggested a date of “28,537”.
Cybermen
offered the year “?14714”.
The TARDIS Special
gave the date “c.131st century”. The first edition of
Timelink
said “10,000”; the Telos version went for “15,000”.
About Time
decided it was “15000 AD, at the earliest”.

[
1565
]
Wirrn: Race Memory

[
1566
] Dating
The Sontaran Experiment
(12.3) - The story immediately follows
The Ark in Space
. In
SJA: The Last Sontaran,
Sarah claims that these events happened “ten thousand years” in the future.

[
1567
]
Heroes of Sontar

[
1568
] Dating
The Eye of the Tyger
(TEL #12) - The dating is more than a little confused. The Doctor says this is “a million and a half years” in Fyne’s future (p28), but the blurb says it’s the “thirty-second century”. It’s clearly after the solar flares first referred to in
The Ark in Space
.

[
1569
] Dating
Wirrn: Race Memory
(BBV audio #29) - It’s repeatedly said to be “one hundred years” after events in
The Ark in Space
. The audio concurs with the TV story in that “ten millennia have passed since the solar flares”, but also, a bit oddly, says that the Nerva gene bank is fifteen thousand years old.

[
1570
]
Genesis of the Daleks.
It’s a presumption that “Space Year 17,000” is the same as 17,000 AD.

[
1571
] Dating
The Time of Angels
(X5.4) - It’s “twelve thousand years” after the story’s main events.

[
1572
] Inter Minor is in the Acteon Group, as is Metebelis III (
Carnival of Monsters
), although it is later referred to as the Acteon galaxy (
The Green Death, Planet of the Spiders
). The Isop galaxy is the location of Vortis (
The Web Planet, Twilight of the Gods
), the home of the Face of Boe (according to
Bad Wolf
) and possibly the Slitheen (
Boom Town
refers to “venom grubs” - as they’re called in
The Web Planet
novelisation; they’re named “larvae guns” in the TV version). Artoro and the Anterides are referred to in
Planet of Evil
.

[
1573
] “Thousands of years” before
The Parting of the Ways
. It’s unclear exactly when this occurs. Captain Jack knows about the Daleks’ disappearance, but as he’s also a time traveller; it doesn’t mean this happened before his native time. It’s after “Space Year 17,000”, historically the last recorded reference to the Daleks before
Bad Wolf
.

It’s also unclear what this “vanishing” entails - the Doctor seems amazed that he meets a Dalek in
Dalek
, suggesting that they’ve been erased from history (would he, for example, have been surprised to meet one around 2164 on Earth, during their invasion?). However, Captain Jack recognises their ships in
Bad Wolf
, and the inhabitants of 200,100 both know the Daleks’ name and that they vanished. Perhaps the simplest solution is that the new-style, gold Daleks that make their debut in
Dalek
are “Time War Era” Daleks, and so none of them should exist after the Time War.

[
1574
] “Thousands of years” before
Twilight of the Gods.

[
1575
] “Four thousand years ago” according to
Speed of Flight.

[
1576
] Dating
Heroes of Sontar
(BF #146) - A plaque commemorates the Sontaran invasion of Samur “in the Marshall year 7509”, but this is unlikely to equate with the Earth calendar because a) the Sontarans are too inclusive and egotistical a race to resort to anything but their own dating, and b) a human-torture manual written by Field Major Styre is in use, so it’s after
The Sontaran Experiment
. Judging exactly
how
far after is tricky: Styre’s manual is still in circulation, even though one would presume that the Sontarans would eventually gain better intelligence on humans (whom they are aware of, to the point of designating Terra a Class-C civilisation) and render his findings outdated. And yet, enough time has passed since
The Sontaran Experiment
that Sontaran stories of the Doctor are now “legion”, whereas Styre hadn’t heard of him.

The Sontarans currently have an empire with considerable holdings in the Madillon Cluster, a territory they seemed to be battling the Rutans for in
The Two Doctors
.

[
1577
] Dating
Plague of the Daleks
(BF #129) - The Doctor notes the use of a fortieth century-style shuttlecraft and a forty-fifth century-style environmental dome; from this, he conjectures that he and Nyssa have arrived “beyond the Critical Age”, i.e. after the solar flares have ravaged Earth (presumably the same incident established in
The Ark in Space
). However, this isn’t to say that the adventure actually takes place near the forty-fifth century - both items could be long-lasting, or could have been recreated for nostalgic purposes. The history established in
The Ark in Space
, in fact, tends to rule out
Plague of the Daleks
as occurring near the forty-fifth century - the solar flare cataclysm is so great that humanity takes desperate measures such as converting Nerva Beacon into a hibernation station to survive, and it’s hard to imagine that amidst this tragedy, a heritage trust is shuttling carefree senior citizens to Earth as a tourist service with declining revenues.

One of the seniors, Vincent Linfoot, says that he’s backtracked “several hundred generations” (call it seventy-five hundred to seventeen thousand five hundred years for the sake of argument) of his family to Stockbridge, and here finds a family gravestone from 1872. Extrapolating “several hundred generations” from that point, the story could date anywhere from circa 9,350 to 19,350. As Stockbridge itself - however much the Doctor mourns for its loss - could itself be a Dalek recreation, and there’s nothing to say that a single brick of it stemmed from the genuine article, it’s perhaps best to assume that it was established as a heritage city after Earth’s repopulation after
The Ark in Space
, and that its destruction comes before the planet being (yet again) abandoned by 18,500 according to
Birthright.

That just leaves the task of correlating this story to Dalek history. The Daleks’ instruments say they’ve been hibernating in Stockbridge for seventeen centuries awaiting the Doctor’s arrival, but as their equipment is badly corroded, the accuracy of their time-keeping devices is very questionable. Whether or not the “seventeen centuries” figure can be trusted, though, it’s notable that A) the Stockbridge Daleks say their race possessed a mighty battle fleet when they went to sleep, and that B) two natives of this era - Lysette Barclay and Professor Rinxo Jabbery - respectively claim that “the Daleks died out centuries ago” and that most civilised races consider them to be extinct. If
Plague of the Daleks
does indeed take place after Earth’s re-settlement in
The Ark in Space
, Jabbery and Barclay could be referring to the Daleks’ failed assault against Venus in 17,000 (as established in
Genesis of the Daleks
).

Pursuant to this, the Doctor claims that while the Stockbridge Daleks slept, they were defeated by the “combined forces of over one hundred planets”, and that they “were driven from this sector of the galaxy centuries ago; where there used to be a glorious Dalek empire, there’s just a big empty nothing”. As he’s no means of establishing the year beyond the forty-fifth century technology he’s witnessed, however, his opinion here can’t particularly be trusted - he could just as easily be referring to the downfall in Dalek fortunes in the centuries after
The Daleks’ Master Plan
or
Dalek Empire II
, or just be mocking them to gain a psychological advantage.

One last oddity: at story’s end, the Doctor tells Nyssa that “time” deposited them at the last possible point in Stockbridge’s future - i.e. its destruction. Not only is this claim bizarre on its face - does he mean the entity Time from the New Adventures, or does he actually mean to say that the time bubble in
The Eternal Summer
was somehow self-aware? - it’s still not proof that the Stockbridge seen here isn’t a Dalek recreation, and that the original didn’t perish long ago.