Authors: Lance Parkin,Lars Pearson
[
1273
]
SJA: Enemy of the Bane
[
1274
] Dating
Beautiful Chaos
(NSA #29) - The story has a very precise dating framework, with the text split into days rather than chapters. Events begin on “Friday 15th May 2009” (per a newspaper dateline, p24), and progress to the following Monday (pgs 15, 79, 135, 185), with an epilogue that takes place the next “Friday” (p221). Page 53 reiterates that it’s the “middle of May”.
... all of this information, however, must be set aside because it clashes with the continuity of the TV episodes. Given the need for
Planet of the Dead
to occur at Easter 2009 (see the dating notes on that story for why), all Series 4-related stories must happen beforehand, ruling out a mid-May dating for
Beautiful Chaos
. Additionally, the story is said to happen “one month” after
The Poison Sky
(p13), which is dated in this chronology to mid-March 2009.
Conflict with the TV series aside,
Beautiful Chaos
(pgs 187-188) is otherwise accommodating to continuity by acknowledging the other Mandragora-related adventures: “The Mark of Mandragora”,
Sarah Jane Smith
Series 2 and
The Eleventh Tiger
. Fairchild is the Prime Minister whose plane goes down in
The Stolen Earth
.
[
1275
] Dating “The Time of My Life” (
DWM
#399) - The story was released in 2008, but the “year ahead” rule governing Series 4 might apply. It must be roughly contemporary in that Donna spies her house, and is incensed that her neighbours have a swimming pool that she didn’t know about. The London Eye, constructed in 1999, is seen in the background.
[
1276
] Dating
Turn Left
(X4.11) - “Three weeks” after
The Poison Sky
.
[
1277
] Dating
The Stolen Earth
/
Journey’s End
(X4.11) - This story crosses over with
Torchwood
and
The Sarah Jane Adventures
, and picks up the story from all three series. It is set after
The Poison Sky
, but before
Planet of the Dead
; between
TW: Exit Wounds
and
TW: Children of Earth
; and at some point after
SJA: Revenge of the Slitheen
and before
SJA: Secrets of the Stars
(which mentions this story). Sarah says Luke is 14, as he was in
Revenge of the Slitheen
. Triangulating from all of that,
The Stolen Earth
would have to be set in early April, before Easter. Rose passes a sign advertising a dance night on “Friday 25 July” (which in 2009 was actually a Saturday) - not that this means it’s actually July, though.
Adelaide Brooke’s biography in
The Waters of Mars
confirms that this Dalek invasion occurred in “2008”. The Doctor says it’s a Saturday. Callufrax Minor (as it’s spelled on screen here) is presumably related to Calufrax (as it’s spelled on screen in
The Pirate Planet
).
[
1278
]
The Waters of Mars
[
1279
]
The Next Doctor
, presuming the “greater battle” that the Doctor mentions refers to events in
The Stolen Earth
/
Journey’s End
.
[
1280
]
Victory of the Daleks
[
1281
] Dating
Planet of the Dead
(X4.15) - It is “April” according to the bus driver, and the Doctor wishes Christina “Happy Easter”. This is after
The Stolen Earth
/
Journey’s End
, as “planets in the sky” are referenced. The story is mentioned in
SJA: Mona Lisa’s Revenge
, so must take place beforehand. Most importantly,
Planet of the Dead
must occur before
The End of Time
(TV) per a psychic’s prediction of not just the tenth Doctor’s impending death, but Gallifrey’s return.
Planet of the Dead
, then, is the first contemporary
Doctor Who
TV story since
Rose
to be set the year it was shown, ending the practice (starting with
Aliens of London)
that “present day” stories are set around a year after broadcast. Any temptation to continue the “year later” tradition is overruled partly because of the psychic’s prediction, but also because
The End of Time
has to occur at the end of 2009 per the continuity of
The Sarah Jane Adventures
. Sarah and Luke first meet the tenth Doctor in
Journey’s End
(set in 2009), acknowledge that meeting in
SJA: The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith
(where it’s said that Sarah and the Tennant Doctor will meet at least one more time), they have their final meeting in
The End of Time
(TV) when the Doctor saves Luke from an oncoming car, and then Sarah acknowledges
that
meeting in
SJA: Death of the Doctor
(set in 2010), when she airs her suspicion that the Doctor regenerated because, “The last time I saw him, he didn’t say a word, he just looked at me”.
[
1282
]
TW: Lost Souls.
The real life CERN project was also mentioned in
SJA: Invasion of the Bane
.
[
1283
] “Six weeks” after
Beautiful Chaos
.
[
1284
] Dating
SJA: The Last Sontaran
(
SJA
2.1) - This epilogue occurs six weeks after the story’s main events.
[
1285
] Dating
Last of the Time Lords
(X3.13) - It's “one year later” than the events of
The Sound of Drums
.
[
1286
]
The Vengeance of Morbius
,
Orbis
.
Death in Blackpool
specifies that Lucie is abducted in summer - no later than June, as she’s kidnapped “six months” after returning home in 2008.
[
1287
] Dating “Ghosts of the Northern Line” and “The Crimson Hand” (
DWM
#414-420) - Intersol agents state in “Ghosts of the Northern Line” that it’s “late ‘09, post-Stolen Earth scenario” (
Journey’s End
). Obama is said to be in power.
[
1288
] Dating the
Torchwood
Series 2/Series 3 interim stories (
TW: Lost Souls
,
TW
audio drama #1;
TW: Almost Perfect
,
TW
novel #9;
TW:
“Ma and Par”,
TW
webcomic #2;
TW:
“The Selkie”,
TWM
#14;
TW:
“Broken”,
TWM
#15-19;
TW: The Sin Eaters
, audiobook #4;
TW: Into the Silence
,
TW
novel #10;
TW: Bay of the Dead
,
TW
novel #11;
TW: The House That Jack Built
,
TW
novel #12;
TW: Asylum
,
TW
audio drama #2;
TW: Golden Age
,
TW
audio drama #3;
TW: The Dead Line
,
TW
audio drama #4;
TW: Risk Assessment
,
TW
novel #13;
TW: The Undertaker’s Gift
,
TW
novel #14;
TW: Consequences
,
TW
novel #15 - actually a novella collection, but generally counted as part of the novel range;
TW:
“Fated to Pretend”,
TWM
#20;
TW:
“Somebody Else’s Problem”,
TWM
#23;
TW:
“Hell House”,
TWM
#24;
TW: Department X
,
TW
audiobook #5;
TW: Ghost Train
,
TW
audiobook #6;
TW: The Devil and Miss Carew
,
TW
audio drama #5;
TW: Submission
,
TW
audio drama #6) - The aforementioned
Torchwood
stories all feature Captain Jack, Gwen and Ianto, and are set between
Torchwood
Series 2 and Series 3 (the latter being a single story,
TW: Children of Earth
). The year is confirmed as 2009 in
Risk Assessment
(p9),
Asylum
,
Consequences
: “Consequences” (p241),
The Sin-Eaters
and
Golden Age
. Weirdly, in
TW: The Dead Line
, events in 1976 are identified - in the very same conversation! - as being both thirty-three and thirty-four years ago.
With so few tangible clues as to how these audios, novels and comics slot together, the stories are here presented in nothing more scientific than release order. See the individual entries for more.
[
1289
] Dating
TW: Lost Souls
(
TW
audio drama #1) - The story aired on 10th September, 2008, as part of Radio 4’s “Big Bang Day” to commemorate the LHC switch-on of the very same date, and was released on CD on 18th September. Within the fiction, nothing is said about the year - which is fortunate, given the overarching need to place the Jack, Gwen and Ianto stories in 2009. Nor is any reference given to the month or day, save for repeated mentions of an LHC field test conducted “back in May”. It’s tempting to think that the switch-on just occurs a year later in the
Doctor Who
universe than in real life, but as the year of the actual LHC switch-on has already been compromised, there’s no particular reason to think one way or the other that the 10th September dating is still valid. That being the case,
Lost Souls
might as well go into the release-order rotation with its post-
Torchwood
Series 2 contemporaries.
[
1290
] The framing sequence to
TW: In the Shadows
. Placement is unknown, save that Gwen references
TW: Lost Souls
.
[
1291
] Dating
TW: Almost Perfect
(
TW
novel #9) - The action begins on a Friday (p131) and concludes the next Saturday.
[
1292
]
TW: Out of Time
establishes that Torchwood already has asylum protocols for people from the past, so the issue here must be in convincing the group to similarly protect benevolent aliens.