B00DPX9ST8 EBOK (86 page)

[
571
]
The Settling
. The person who bestows the forceps upon the Doctor is merely referred to as “Chamberlen”. Peter Chamberlen is regarded as the inventor of forceps, although the name actually refers to two brothers (respectively 1560-1631 and 1572-1626). The elder Peter is apparently the creator of the device, which was a family secret for generations.

[
572
] “Don’t Step on the Grass”

[
573
]
The End of Time
(
DL
), p40. There were actually two “Defenestrations of Prague”, in 1419 and 1618, although the term more often refers to the latter. Some real-life texts do claim that those thrown out the third window of the Bohemian Chancellory lived owing to a large heap of manure.

[
574
]
Silver Nemesis

[
575
]
Sometime Never

[
576
] “Ten generations” before
Imperial Moon.

[
577
]
FP: Newtons Sleep
(p14). Silver says he was born “the year the last king came to the throne” - meaning Charles I, in 1625.

[
578
] Dating
The Church and the Crown
(BF #38) - The date is given.

[
579
]
The Abominable Snowmen.
This was “1630” according to the Doctor.
The Programme Guide
suggested “1400 AD”.

[
580
] The Doctor speaks Tibetan in
Planet of the Spiders
(but can’t in
The Creature from the Pit
), and uses Tibetan meditation in
Terror of the Zygons.

[
581
]
Heart of TARDIS
. Bacon died in April 1626.

[
582
]
The War Games
. The Thirty Years War ran from 1618-1648.

[
583
] Dating
Borrowed Time
(NSA #49) - The year is given (p253). The peak of “tulip mania” was February 1637.

[
584
]
The Church and the Crown

[
585
] Dating
Silver Nemesis
(25.3) - The Doctor gives the date of the launch, but there is no indication of exactly how long afterwards Lady Peinforte leaves for the twentieth century. Quite how “Roundheads” can be involved in this business when the term wasn’t used until the Civil War is unclear. As a letter to
Radio Times
after
Silver Nemesis
aired noted, the adoption of the Gregorian calendar in 1752 means that eleven days were “lost” in Britain, so had the Nemesis
really
landed exactly three hundred and fifty years after 23rd November, 1638, it would have landed on 3rd December, 1988.

The statue passes over the Earth every twenty-five years (in 1663, 1688, 1713, 1738, 1763, 1788, 1813, 1838, 1863, 1888, 1913, 1938, 1963 and finally 1988).
The Terrestrial Index
offers suggestions as to the effects of the statue on human history, but the only on-screen information concerns the twentieth century.

Fenric’s involvement is established in
The Curse of Fenric.

[
586
] Dating
FP: Newtons Sleep
(
FP
novel #6) - The date is given on the back cover, in accord with the English Civil War starting in 1642. The publisher of
Newtons Sleep
, Random Static, has stated that the lack of an apostrophe in the title was deliberate; it’s a quote from William Blake.

[
587
]
The War Games
. The English Civil Wars ran from 1642-1649.

[
588
]
The Time Monster

[
589
]
The Awakening

[
590
]
The Hollow Men

[
591
]
The Spectre of Lanyon Moor

[
592
]
Nightshade

[
593
]
The Daemons
. The witchhunter Matthew Hopkins died in 1647.

[
594
]
Players

[
595
] Dating
The Roundheads
(PDA #6) - The Doctor says it’s “1648, December I should say” (p39).

[
596
] Dating
The Settling
(BF #82) - Cromwell’s ultimatum to Wexford is issued on 12th September, 1649, and the story begins shortly beforehand. The sacking of Wexford lasted from 2nd to 11th October. The “Dr. Goddard” in this story apparently refers to Dr. Jonathan Goddard (1617-1675), a distinguished Society member and a favourite of Cromwell.

[
597
] Dating
FP: Newtons Sleep
(
FP
novel #6) - Newton was born on 4th January, 1643, and is currently “a child of nine summers with shite on his brow” (p1). Rene Descartes is “freshly-dead” (p2) - he died on 11th February 1650. Newton is constantly referred to in
Newtons Sleep
by his pseudonym, “Jeova Unus Sanctus” (more commonly rendered as “Jeova Sanctus Unus”) - the letters of which can be rearranged (allowing that J’s in Latin are rendered as I’s, as demonstrated in that great and seminal documentary of archaeology,
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
) to spell
Isaacus Neutonuus
, an invented rendering of his name in Latin.

[
598
] Dating
FP: Newtons Sleep
(
FP
novel #6) - Behn, a real-life historical figure, was born on 10th July 1640, and is age 10 when she meets Larissa.

[
599
] “The seventeenth century”, says
Rags
(p39).

[
600
]
The Androids of Tara
. Izaak Walton lived 1593-1683, and published
The Compleat Angler
in 1653.

[
601
]
Ghost Ship
. Hobbes lived 1588-1679.

[
602
] According to the monument in
Silver Nemesis.

[
603
]
The Stones of Blood
. The English writer John Aubrey (best known for his collection of biographies,
Brief Lives
) lived 1626-1697.

[
604
]
Ghost Light
. The Royal Geographical Society was formed in 1645 during the Civil War.

[
605
] The Doctor says that these should have been outlawed “centuries” before
The Many Deaths of Jo Grant
.

[
606
] Dating
The Witch from the Well
(BF #154) - It’s the “seventeenth century”, and “three and a half centuries”/“350 years” from the present day. The Varaxils landed in spring, and it’s now six months later.

[
607
]
The Ghosts of N-Space

[
608
]
The Eleventh Hour
. This was in 1665.

[
609
]
SJA: The Eternity Trap

[
610
] Dating
FP: Newtons Sleep
(
FP
novel #6) - The year is given in the blurb.

[
611
] Dating
The Demons of Red Lodge and Other Stories
: “The Demons of Red Lodge” (BF #142a) - The Doctor twice comments that it’s 1665, and it’s “twenty years” after the time of Matthew Hopkins, who operated as a witchhunter from 1645 to 1647.

[
612
]
TW: Hidden
. In real life, Vaughan was a member of the Society of Unknown Philosophers, established his reputation by writing the pseudo-mystical work
Anthroposophia Theomagica,
and lived 1621 to 1666.

[
613
]
K9: Fear Itself

[
614
]
Doctor Who and the Invasion from Space

[
615
] Dating
The Visitation
(19.4) - The Doctor, trying to get Tegan home, suggests “we’re about three hundred years early”. The action culminates with the start of the Great Fire of London, which took place on the night of 2nd to 3rd September, 1666, so the story would seem to start on 1st September. According to the novelisation, the Terileptils crashed on “August 5th”. On screen, Richard Mace says this was “several weeks ago”.

[
616
] The Doctor says he was blamed for the Great Fire in
Pyramids of Mars
. He refers to Mr and Mrs Pepys in
Robot
, and to Mrs Pepys’ coffee-making prowess in
Planet of the Spiders.
Pepys lived 1633-1703 and began his diary in 1660. His wife Elizabeth died in 1669. Mention of the Doctor’s reluctance to talk about the Great Fire is from
Doctor Who and the Pirates.

[
617
] Dating “Black Death White Life” (IDW
DW
one-shot #6) - “It’s the year of our Lord sixteen hundred and sixty-nine” according to a villager.

[
618
] Dating
The Impossible Astronaut
(X6.1) - No date is given. The affronted man is not named in the story, and is only referred to as “Charles” in the end credits. However, the story implies that he is king, and the man’s attire, moustache and impressive hair all match that of Charles II (who reigned 1660-1685) as painted by John Michael Wright.
Doctor Who: The Encyclopedia
cites the man as a “seventeenth-century nobleman”, and also says that Matilda is the man’s daughter. None of Charles’ real-life children have that name, although he did have an awful lot of illegitimate issue.

[
619
] Dating
FP: Newtons Sleep
(
FP
novel #6) - The back cover names the year.

[
620
]
Sometime Never

[
621
]
The Forgotten Army
. New Amsterdam reverted to the name “New York” in November 1674, but the Bronx wasn’t incorporated into New York until 1874. Either this discrepancy owes to some aspect of time travel on the Doctor’s part, or - as with a lot of the Doctor’s spurious and inaccurate claims in this novel - one does have to wonder if he’s just making it all up.

[
622
] “Don’t Step on the Grass”

[
623
]
The Happiness Patrol
. Wallis lived 1616-1703, and is credited with furthering the development of modern calculus.

[
624
] Dating
FP: Newtons Sleep
(
FP
novel #6) - Events follow the death of the courtier Edward Coleman (p143), who was hanged on 17th May, 1678. Rochester in real life went underground as “Dr Bendo” following a brawl with the night watch, in which one of his companions was killed. “The Inferno” is presumably a precursor to the nightclub seen in
The War Machines
. (Writer Daniel O’Mahony also mentions the Inferno - the nightclub, that is, not the brothel - in
The Cabinet of Light
, so the name of the brothel here is looking less and less like coincidence.)