B00DPX9ST8 EBOK (96 page)

Great care should be taken, however, to distinguish between “unfixed” historical mysteries and simply things where there’s one explanation that’s not been uncovered. It’s also probably best not to use this as a handwave for any continuity problems - like, say, why the manned space program of the UNIT years is more advanced than the one seen in the new series, or the final fate of the planet Earth. But where
Doctor Who
has multiple explanations for the same historical mystery, we might usefully think the reason is that it’s “unfixed”.

[
1109
] Dating
Matrix
(PDA #16) - It’s during the time of the Ripper murders (the later part of 1888); the month is given as “November” (p155, 231). The last of the canonical Jack the Ripper murders took place on 9th November, 1888, so this is presumably after that.

[
1110
] Dating
A Good Man Goes to War
(X6.7) - As with
Matrix
, this is presumably after the last of the Ripper killings.

[
1111
] Dating
SJA: Lost in Time
(
SJA
4.5) - The year is given.

[
1112
] Dating “The Time Machination” (IDW
DW
one-shot #2) - A caption says it’s “London 1889”, and Wells claims that he met the Doctor in
Timelash
“four or five years back” (even if the version of Wells seen here is very hard to reconcile against the slightly younger version seen on screen). The story ends with the fourth Doctor and Leela arriving at the beginning of
The Talons of Weng-Chiang
. Lewis and Cooper seem attached to the Torchwood branch operating out of the West India Docks, although they are acquainted with Jack Harkness by “Final Sacrifice”.

[
1113
] “Final Sacrifice”

[
1114
] Dating
The Talons of Weng-Chiang
(14.6) - No date is given, and the story is trying to encapsulate an era, rather than a precise year. The story is set soon after the Jack the Ripper murders (1888), as Henry Gordon Jago refers to “Jolly Jack”. In the draft script, Casey went on to say that the new batch of disappearances can't be the Ripper because he “is in Canada”.

Litefoot is seen reading a copy of
Blackwood’s Magazine
from February 1892 in episode four... then again, there's also a modern newspaper visible in Litefoot's laundry in episode three, with a headline that references British politician Denis Healey, so both could be considered set dressing rather than definitive dating evidence.

The story takes place before
The Bodysnatchers
and possibly
All-Consuming Fire
(although that only mentions Mr Sin, so might refer to earlier activities than this story). The
Jago & Litefoot
audios, which most likely begin in 1892, seem to occur some months, more likely some years, after
Talons
.

The first edition of
Timelink
stated that it was 1895; the Telos version of the book goes for February 1892.
About Time
roughly concurred with the latter.
The Terrestrial Index
went for “c1890”.

[
1115
] “Ninety years” before
K9 and Company
.

[
1116
]
The Crooked World

[
1117
]
Ghost Ship
. Zola lived 1840-1902.

[
1118
]
TW: Miracle Day

[
1119
] Dating
Vincent and the Doctor
(X5.10) - The story entails Vincent painting
The Church at Auvers
, which Dr Black says was completed “somewhere between the 1st and 3rd of June 1890, less than a year before [van Gogh] killed himself”. Vincent died on 29th July, so while Black is technically right, it was more accurately about two months beforehand.

The story has a few anachronisms... Vincent has both ears, but in real life, he’d cut one off in December 1888.
The Church at Avers
was painted in 1890, but Vincent’s series of sunflower paintings (the creation of which Amy here influences) were done August 1888 to January 1889. The episode opens with Vincent painting
Wheatfield with Crows
, which was actually completed some weeks
after
this story, around 10th July. (Then again, the opening might be more thematic than literal.) It’s perhaps excusable that Vincent appears to have signed “For Amy” in English, assuming the TARDIS is translating it; in real life, the work just bears Vincent’s signature.

[
1120
] Dating
The Pandorica Opens
(X5.12) - The year appears in a caption.
Doctor Who: The Encyclopedia
says this happened “a few weeks” after
Vincent and the Doctor
, so it’s very close to van Gogh’s death.

[
1121
] Dating
The Story of Martha:
“The Frozen Wastes” (NSA #28d) - The year and month are given.

[
1122
]
Vincent and the Doctor
. This happened on 29th July, 1890.

[
1123
]
The Vampires of Venice

[
1124
]
TW:
“Fated to Pretend”

[
1125
] The prologue to
FP: Erasing Sherlock
, as published in
FP: Warring States
.

[
1126
]
The Eleventh Tiger

[
1127
]
The Death of Art

[
1128
]
Dust Breeding
. There are actually four different versions (and a lithograph) of
The Scream
, all created by Munch between 1893 and 1910.

[
1129
]
Benny: The Adventure of the Diogenes Damsel
, following the continuity established in Conan Doyle’s stories. “The Final Problem”, where Sherlock seemed to perish, was set in 1891.

[
1130
]
Utopia

[
1131
] Dating
TimeH: The Severed Man
(
TimeH
#5) - The year is repeatedly given. The Cabal’s links to Sodality are explained in
TimeH: Child of Time
(p64).

[
1132
] Dating
The Mahogany Murderers
(BF CC 3.11) and
Jago & Litefoot
Series 1, 2 and 3 (
The Bloodless Soldier
, 1.1;
The Bellova Devil
, 1.2;
The Spirit Trap
, 1.3;
The Similarity Engine
, 1.4;
Litefoot and Sanders
, 2.1;
The Necropolis Express
, 2.2;
The Theatre of Dreams
, 2.3;
The Ruthven Inheritance
, 2.4;
Dead Men’s Tales
, 3.1;
The Man at the End of the Garden
, 3.2;
Swan Song
, 3.3;
Chronoclasm
, 3.4) - The production notes for
Jago & Litefoot
Series 1 say, “The year is 1892. It is a short while after
The Talons of Weng-Chiang
, in which Litefoot reads the February 1892 edition of
Blackwood’s Magazine
. But unless we absolutely have to, we won’t mention specific dates. The stories exist in the limbo of the classic late Victorian era. Queen Victorian is on the throne, the British Empire seems to control most of the world, and science is the answer to all problems. London is a perpetual murk of... fogs and industrial pollution, and you can always charter a special railway train to get you wherever you need to go.”

Despite this intended ambiguity, however, Series 1 simultaneously indicates that the year is 1892 (the revolution that occurred in Eastern Rumelia in 1885 happened “seven years ago”, according
J&L: The Bellova Devil
) and that a fair amount of time has passed since
Talons
(Jago says in
J&L: The Similarity Engine
that the “demonic deflagration” that closed the Palace Theatre happened “a few years back”; Litefoot calls Jago one of “his oldest friends” in
J&L: The Spirit Trap
; Litefoot says in
J&L: Litefoot and Saunders
that the events which brought him and Jago together happened “some time ago”; and even
The Mahogany Murders
has Jago stating that the “adventure in Limehouse”, presumably meaning
Talons
, was “a while back”. He and Litefoot appear to have working together off and on since then.

Jago & Litefoot
Series 1 and 2 (as well as the Companion Chronicles audio leading into them,
The Mahogany Murderers
) seem to happen in relatively close succession to one another. Litefoot’s conversation with Ellie the barmaid in
J&L: The Bellova Devil,
for instance, suggests that as little as a week has passed since the previous episode. However, the seasonal time frame within the mini-series is a little warped... a week passes within
The Similarity Engine
, but only a few days then seem to elapse between Ellie the barmaid being “killed” by the vampire Saunders (in
Litefoot and Saunders
, which occurs the day after
The Similarity Engine
) and her body being shipped via train for burial in a pauper’s field (in
J&L: The Necropolis Express
). And yet, in that relatively short space of time, it’s magically gone from being “the middle of summer” (as Jago claims in
The Similarity Engine
) to Litefoot commenting upon the “frosty air” and wishing he were at home in front of a warm fireplace (in
The Necropolis Express
). At least “a month” seems to pass in the course of
J&L: The Theatre of Dreams
, and another passes during J
&L: The Ruthven Inheritance
, so if it isn’t already autumn when
The Theatre of Dreams
begins, it almost inescapably is when Series 2 finishes.

The references given in Series 3 point to it taking place the following year (1893), even if this wasn’t necessarily the intent, and there’s a little ambiguity about it. Jago says in
J&L: The Man at the End of the Garden
that “It’s August” - as Series 2 concluded so late in the year, it must now be the
following
August, i.e. August 1893. Also,
J&L: Chronoclasm
has Jago referring to the panto performance held at the New Regency in Christmas - he only inherited the theatre in Series 2, so, again, it must now be the following year. However, mention is made in
J&L: Swan Song
that Jago has only been at the New Regency “a few months”, when (if it really
is
1893), it’s been more like a year.

Where this becomes especially tricky is that in the final Series 3 story (
Chronoclasm
), Litefoot says to Sgt Quick: “You and I, and Jago and Miss Leela, we’ve come across some of the most vile and appalling things over the past year or so...” - a line possibly meant to suggest that a year had passed within
Jago & Litefoot
Series 1, 2
and
3. Given the aforementioned math on how much time passes in Series 1 and 2, though, Litefoot’s line probably has to be construed as indicating how much time has passed in Series 3 alone. This would mean that Leela literally spends about a year dashing around resolving time breaks with Litefoot and Jago, but to date there’s nothing to particularly rule that out. Leela arrives at Litefoot’s house in the epilogue of Series 2, so it’s possible that the first story of Series 3 (
J&L: Dead Men’s Tales
) happens in 1892, even if the bulk of Series 3 must then unfold in 1893.