A History of the Whoniverse

The Nineteen Seventies (1970-1979)

The UNIT Era

1970

During this winter, 18 West Australians die after eating local fruit which contain mercurial dioxide due to contact with alien dust particles.

This was 'last winter' according to The Scales of Injustice (chapter 6 page 7). As this is mentioned in Britain, it is unclear whether this refers to the British or the Australian winter.

Dodo is released from the Glasshouse. She finds herself wandering around London and joins the homeless community, living in a hostel.

Who Killed Kennedy. This happened several months after she arrived in the Glasshouse.

By this time, the World Trade Centre and Battery Park in New York will have been built.

In Salvation, the Doctor asks for a cab there and then notes that he should come back in five years.

Nicholas Bridgeman succeeds to the professorship of science at the newly formed UMIST in Manchester. He quickly transfers to London, where his growing interest in the paranormal, sparked by the deaths of his parents, slowly absorbs all his time.

According to Invasion of the Cat People, this was four years after his parents' deaths.

Mike Yates joins UNIT.

Two months before The Scales of Injustice chapter 5 page 12.

5th-10th February 1970

INFERNO

A secret government project in Eastchester involved drilling into the Earth looking for what was known as Stahlman's gas. Using a computer with [experimental] perspex/crystalline memory blocks and a robotic drill, the Inferno project drilled down 20 miles and discovered a green slime that turned men into savage primordial beasts. The project was closed down, thanks to the intervention of Sir Keith Gold, the Doctor, and UNIT.

A desk calendar in the parallel universe says that it's July 23rd, but not which year Who Killed Kennedy dates this as February 1970. Face of the Enemy seems to establish a mismatch in time between the two universes (the gap between the two stories in the Inferno universe is 5 years, far too long for the gap between stories). Therefore, I've chosen to redate the real universe part of the story to go with Who Killed Kennedy.

Sir Keith Gold resigned his post at the Ministry of Science soon after these events.

Who Killed Kennedy.

James Stevens published five parts of a six part feature series, entitled Bad Science, in the Daily Chronicle. Part 1 caused a media stir. Part 2 revealed the Inferno project to the public. Part 3 looked at the C-day fiasco and the rise of computers. Part 4 looked at the Wenley Moor plague, whilst part 5 looked at the Mars Probe disaster. By the end of the week, three government ministers had resigned and there were rumours of impending elections. The editor pulled the final part of the series, a planned exposé of UNIT and C-19, at the last minute. Stevens refused to let the story lie and was sacked. At the same time, C-19 sent Stevens' wife photos of him committing adultery.

Who Killed Kennedy. The date is given as February 1970. This clearly destroys the credibility of the government. In The Devil Goblins from Neptune, 'some six months ago' a coalition of Liberals, disenfranchised Tories and Socialists and fringe parties took power on a platform of social reform, abolishing the death penalty, and a strong interstellar defence policy. The PM is a Liberal [Jeremy Thorpe?]. Before reading Devil Goblins, I thought that the victor mentioned in Who Killed Kennedy was a most likely a Lib-Lab coalition headed by Harold Wilson, with Jeremy Thorpe coming to power later.

March 1970

THE UNDERWATER MENACE

Professor Hermann Zaroff discovered the last survivors of Atlantis, and used them in an insane plan to raise Atlantis from the Ocean Floor. The plan was foiled by the intervention of the second Doctor.

Polly finds a bracelet from the 1968 Olympics, and she and Ben guess that they're in 1970.

Martyn Townsend arranges the theft of a secret stealth plane from UNIT Geneva.

A month before The Scales of Injustice chapter 6 page 27.

5th March

EYE OF THE GIANT

Following an unusual discovery on a South Pacific island, the Doctor converts his Time-Space Visualiser into a Time Bridge and travels back to 1934 to investigate. During the course of these investigations an alternate universe is created and then destroyed.

It's at least 37 and nearly 40 years since 1934 (so between 1971 & 1974). UNIT has a photocopier. Mike Yates is still a Sergeant and hasn't met the Doctor and Liz yet. The Doctor is still working out what went wrong with the TARDIS console in Inferno. The date is chosen to fit in with other UNIT stories.

Soviet spy satellites discover what appears to be a massive mining complex in Siberia. They send a high-altitude reconnaissance plane, which reports that construction and mining are taking place, before being lost. They then send three MiG-25s, which are shot down. An entire regiment of the Red Army is sent in, and disappears.

This was early March, according to Shuskin on page 97 of The Devil Goblins from Neptune.

Colonel Katayev, the head of Soviet UNIT begins petitioning UNIT Geneva for the assistance of the Doctor. Each request is blocked at the highest level.

According to Captain Shuskin Katayev began petitioning two months before The Devil Goblins from Neptune page 87.

April 1970

THE SCALES OF INJUSTICE

A down and out and a WPC die in mysterious circumstances in the village of Smallmarshes, Kent. Meanwhile, a secret faction within department C-19 arrange a (failed) assassination attempt on Sir John Sudbury which the media interpret as an attempt on the Prime Minister. The bullets used are C-19 issued, and the attempt is linked to the Glasshouse team. At the same time, there is an explosion at the house of Alan Marshall - MP for Irlam O'the Heights, which destroys several adjacent homes, killing the families.

As a result of the assassination attempt, the Glasshouse is taken into C-19's care, and Sir Marmaduke Harrington-Smythe, its director, disappears. Meanwhile, UNIT deal with an Earth Reptile Attack and shut down a secret institution called The Vault. Liz Shaw decides she's had enough of UNIT and takes a leave of absence to help the Earth Reptiles discover the key to some of their genetic problems.

There are a number of documents reproduced in the book. These date Liz's posting to UNIT as Monday 21st October (thus 1968, 1974, or 1985), Monday 31st October (thus 1966, 1977, or 1983) which was 8 months, 2 weeks & 4 days ago (so it's June/July 1967/1968/1975/1978/1984/1986). These dates are on pages 9 (prologue page 1), 13 (prologue page 3), and 18 (chapter 1 page 5) and the time since Liz joined UNIT is on page 261 (chapter 7 page 33), 3 days after the story finishes. [Given my date for Liz's joining UNIT, this would make it 8th July 1970.] Page 28 (chapter 1 page 17) says it's March 27th. It is some months since Liz joined UNIT (chapter 1 page 19) and a short time before May week, in June, (page 36 / chapter 1 page 24). The Silurians was both last year & 6 months ago (chapter 3 page 8). [So it's May 1970.] Information on pages 85-87 makes it some time after 1969. It's after the 23rd of the month on page 102 (chapter 3 page 18). It's also 'a few weeks' after The Eye of the Giant. Given the conflicting dates and my conclusions on dates for other season 7 stories, I've chosen to fit it in relative to my chronology instead of using any of the dates given. As Liz is still with UNIT in The Devil Goblins from Neptune, which is clearly set later, she must have taken a leave of absence rather than left altogether. This speculation is confirmed in The Face of the Enemy.

One of the Earth Reptiles escapes [and journeys to a nearby shelter containing her relatives from the Sea Devil warrior caste. She persuades them that the humans must be destroyed].

The Scales of Injustice. Her destination and activities are implied at the end of the book. They account for some of the events of The Sea Devils.

Soon after this, Mike Yates is promoted to Captain, as a replacement for Captain Munro

The Scales of Injustice.

As a result of Yates' promotion, Lieutenant Beresford is brought in to replace him.

According to Yates in Face of the Enemy (page 33).

The Beatles perform a comeback gig in San Francisco. The new line-up consists of John, George, Ringo, Billy, and Klaus.

This is not that long before The Devil Goblins from Neptune pages 72 and 92.

May 1970

Andrew Montrose retires from Cambridge University.

According to The Scales of Injustice prologue page 4.

June 1970

The Home Office refuses to place a D-Notice on a song about Mars, though the Brigadier believes that it is based on a leaked memo concerning the Carrington fiasco. The Brigadier orders 24 hour surveillance on David Bowie just in case.

This happened in The Devil Goblins from Neptune on pages 33-34.

The National Front wins a by-election in Walthamstow - their sixth recent victory.

The day before the prologue of The Devil Goblins from Neptune page 9.

THE DEVIL GOBLINS FROM NEPTUNE

Festival goers at the Redborough festival see some strange lights coming down from the sky. This is reported in the tabloid press. The next day, UNIT receives reports of crop circles in Polesworth, Warwickshire and from Wiltshire along with reports of a glowing object encountered by two RAF pilots over Leicestershire, and increased radiation levels in the Solent. That day, a kidnap attempt is made on a member of the Progressive Club in Mayfair. The following day, there is a battle outside Cambridge. A couple of days later, there is a blood-bath amongst a group of Hippies who have arrived at Salisbury Plain for the Summer Solstice. This is followed by an aerial battle in the US state of Nevada. At the same time, Viscount Rose - 37th in line to the throne - goes missing, and Professor Bernard Trainor of the British Rocket Group dies of a heart attack.

It is six months since the liberal coalition take power on page 8. It is summer on page 89. Brazil have just been playing in the World Cup on page 109 (so it's 1966, 1970, 1974, 1978, 1982, or 1986). The Republican primaries are on, making it 1968, 1972, or 1976 - mention of both Nixon suggests it's no later than this, though mention of Reagan suggests its 1980 - and rules out 1984 or later. It's four days to the summer Solstice on page 191. It's June on page 277. It's eight months before March 1971 on page 282 (making it July).

Journalist James Stevens publishes his book Bad Science, an expansion of his original articles by the same name, just days before the general election on the 18th of June 1970. Ted Heath's Conservatives win with a majority of 47.

According to Who Killed Kennedy though it suggests that this is after Terror of the Autons.

August 1970

20th August 1970

Dorothy McShane is born.

The year is established in Falls the Shadow. According to Ghost Light she was 13 in 1983. The day of the year is from Timewyrm: Revelation.

October 1970

The Doctor starts to agitate for a new assistant.

Terror of the Autons.

1971

Sarah Jane Smith visits the Sistine Chapel on a bus tour.

Managra.

The Black Star rocket puts a military satellite nicknamed Haw Haw into orbit. The satellite has the ability to jam extra-terrestrial transmissions and fake messages that look like they come from outer space. Haw Haw is controlled by Space Security.

According to Alexander Christian and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart in The Dying Days chapter 6.

LOVE & MONSTERS

The Doctor tracks down an elemental shade who had escaped from the Howling Halls. He manages to stop it, but not before it kills Elton Pope's mother. Four-year-old Elton briefly meets the Doctor.

This was when Elton was 4. As his age is not stated, or even hinted at, I arbitrarily assume that he was born at about the same time as the actor playing him (i.e. in 1967).

January 1971

The Doctor begins the steady state microwelding of his dematerialization circuit.

Three months before Terror of the Autons.

February 1971

SHORT TRIPS: ACE OF HEARTS

The Doctor performs at the 1971 WRNS annual reunion dinner. Staying overnight at Audrey Dudman's, he apologises to the baby Ace for what he will do to her in her future. He replaces her photo with an ace of hearts.

It's the 1971 dinner. It's stated to be February on page 280.

March 1971

Simon Griffiths is born to Daniel Adam [Griffiths] and Denise Janet [Griffiths].

He's 23 and 4 months in Invasion of the Cat People (July 1994).

Arab terrorist Vincent Al Tayid bombs the Cairo Hilton.

Dancing the Code. This was during Jo's first year in UNIT. Al Tayid says it was two years ago (thus March 1971).

April 1971

TERROR OF THE AUTONS

Josephine Grant, who had failed general science A-level but passed courses in cryptology, safe-breaking, escapology and explosives, becomes the Doctor's new assistant thanks to her Uncle General Hobson's intervention. Soon after this, the Time Lords send the Doctor a message that the Master has arrived on Earth.

The Master's first act on arrival is to steal the Nestene energy unit that had been on display at the National Space Museum. He uses this to contact the Nestenes from the Ministry of Technology's Beacon Hill establishment. The Master, together with the Nestenes, uses troll dolls and plastic daffodils in an attempt to take over the world. The plot is foiled when the Doctor convinces the Master that the Nestenes won't accept his leadership. During these events, the Doctor steals the Master's dematerialization circuit, which proves to be incompatible with his own.

The Doctor has been working on his dematerialization circuit for 3 months, and he doesn't seem to have started in Inferno. This is dated as April and coincides with Good Friday 1970 in Who Killed Kennedy (pages 107 and 109). In Genocide (page 113), Jo says that she's been on the UNIT books since 1971.

August 1971

James Stevens finishes his book on the Kennedys.

Who Killed Kennedy. This is said to have taken place four months after the election in June on page 119, but also a few days before The Mind of Evil. I suggest that Stevens took a lot longer over it than he remembers.

Harry Sullivan leaves Naval College and is posted to the Ark Royal.

He was there for a year before his posting to Faslane according to Face of the Enemy page 202.

October 1971

THE MIND OF EVIL

An international peace conference is held in London, with UNIT providing security. During this conference, a Chinese delegate is killed.

Meanwhile, Captain Yates is given responsibility for the safe transport of a Thunderbolt Missile full of nerve gas. The missile is captured as the convoy transporting it passes near Stangmoor prison. The missile is then launched at the peace conference, but destroyed at a safe height.

At Stangmoor prison Professor Emil Keller, supposedly a Swiss scientist, had created a machine that supposedly removed the evil impulses from criminals' brains. The machine is demonstrated to a group that includes both the Doctor and journalist James Stevens. The machine eventually goes haywire in the midst of a prison riot. UNIT storms the prison, destroying the machine. Emil Keller, in reality the Master, escapes, having retrieved his dematerialization circuit.

James Stevens' report about the Keller Machine, published in Metropolitan, produces lots of media interest in supposed government mind control experiments.

Gas warfare was banned years ago and the Keller machine has been around for a year, although Who Killed Kennedy suggests that this is untrue. Mao Tse-Tung is still alive and, in the real world, he died in 1976. James Stevens' role comes from Who Killed Kennedy, which dates this as November 1970.

November 1971

James Stevens interviews Dodo about her experiences in The Glasshouse. She moves into his house and they fall in love.

Who Killed Kennedy.

The Master leaves Earth and is captured by Axos. He offers to lead Axos to Earth for feeding in return for his freedom.

Between The Mind of Evil and The Claws of Axos.

THE CLAWS OF AXOS

Ministry of Security employee Horatio Chinn is given a brief to investigate UNIT. Meanwhile, Bill Filer, an agent from Washington [either UNIT US or the CIA. There are hints in various books that the US CIA is a front for the Gallifreyan CIA. Thus the Gallifreyan CIA may be trying to capture the Master themselves.] is sent to the UK to help track down the Master. At the same time, a spaceship lands near the Nuton Power Complex, which supplies [a substantial portion of] Britain's electricity. The ship's occupants, called Axons, offer the humans a substance called Axonite, which can mimic any element, in return for fuel. Chinn attempts to secure Axonite for use by the UK alone. The Axons are soon revealed to be an entity called Axos who wants to drain Earth's energy. They are stopped when the Doctor traps them in a Time Loop. Nuton is destroyed during this incident.

The Nuton Complex has a (presumably experimental) light accelerator. There are videophones (presumably remnants of IE's model) and normal telephones. Chinn thinks that the UN has been high-handed recently. Who Killed Kennedy dates this as December 1970.

The Nuton Power Complex is rebuilt.

The Dæmons.

December 1971

UNIT mistakes the Spanish Ambassador for the Master and arrests him.

Colony in Space.

COLONY IN SPACE

The TARDIS leaves the Doctor's laboratory for a few seconds, although The Doctor and Jo are gone for significantly longer in their timeline.

UNIT is still looking for the Master. Jo is surprised that a colony ship could have left Earth in 1971.

1972

Prof. Gilbert Horner begins excavating Devils Hump. Olive Hawthorne, the local white witch, objects and starts pestering him. At the same time, the Master murders Canon Smallwood, vicar of Devil's End. He then takes on two roles - that of vicar and that of magister - leader of the local coven. He calls himself Mr Magister.

The dig began weeks before The Dæmons. I arbitrarily place the Master's arrival at the same time. More details are given in The Eight Doctors on page 86.

Astronaut Alexander Christian, his future lover Madelaine Goodfellow, and Albert Fitzwilliam become friends.

According to Veronica Haliwell in The Dying Days (chapter 3 page 6), this was nearly five years before the final Mars mission [1977].

Alf Brunner dies of cancer. Soon afterwards, his wife Norma has a heart attack.

This was ten years before Relative Dementias pages 24 and 172 (April 1982).

Mr Bisham is born in Australia. He would later spend three months as a trainee teacher at Coal Hill School.

He was eight years older than Sam according to page 98 of Kursaal.

Philips introduces Video Cassette Recording (VCR) - the first successful home video format.

In The Idiot's Lantern, set in 1953, the Doctor claims to have invented the home video 30 years early.

29th April-1st May 1972

THE DÆMONS

Professor Horner opens Devils Hump live on BBC3 at midnight on 30th April, the occult festival of Beltane. The broadcast shows the Doctor running to stop Horner opening the hump. At this point, a stone falls on Horner, and the whole scene goes white. It then shows both the Doctor and Horner frozen solid, before the broadcast is cut at the source. After this, the Master summons the Dæmon Azal. He then sets up a heat barrier around the town and the situation is finally resolved. Azal commits suicide when Jo demands to be killed instead of the Doctor. His suicide blows up the local church. The Master is then captured by UNIT.

The hump is opened at midnight on Beltane and the story ends with a maypole. It's the weekend, as there's a rugby international on BBC3. As Horner's book is released the next day, it's Sunday and hence 1972. Who Killed Kennedy dates this as 1971, and so reckons that Rugby Internationals are played on Fridays and books published on Sundays - another case of James Stevens misremembering - or the dates being deliberately changed.

Public outrage at the blowing up of the church during this, The Aldbourne Incident, led to questions in the house and a near riot in the Church of England's General Synod.

Downtime.

Several villagers leave Devil's End, particularly those who had fallen under the Master's control.

According to The Eight Doctors page 85.

June 1972

SHORT TRIPS: FREEDOM

A hundred employees of the Freedom Corporation, established over 30 years ago by the Master converge on Stangmoor Prison, attempting to free the Master. The corporation announces a breakthrough in time travel technology, which causes the Doctor to break into its headquarters. He is then trapped in an inescapable cell in the vortex. When the Master uses his machine to use temporal means to destroy Earth, the Time Lords free the Doctor.

The Master is being held in Stangmoor before his trial, as confirmed in Face of the Enemy (page 92). The Freedom Corporation was established over 30 years ago, in 1936. Therefore, it's at least 1966 and well before 1976. It is described as Tuesday and 'early summer' on page 123.

The media was told that the Master's real name was Victor Magister, but still referred to him as The Master. He was portrayed as an anarchist, and blamed for all the incidents UNIT had been involved in since 1970 (or at least those that the public knew about). They were excluded from the trial, a policy that they were not happy about.

BBC3's The Passing Parade held a debate on this, featuring Malcolm Muggeridge, Davis Jenkins from the Lord Chancellors Office, Peter Wise, editor of the Daily Chronicle, and James Stevens. During the Debate, Stevens mentioned UNIT and C-19 and was about to mention the Glasshouse when the broadcast was cut. C-19 subsequently firebombed his house. He was taken to the Glasshouse when he reported this to the police. He was then shut in the Glasshouse for three weeks.

Stevens escaped with the brainwashed UNIT private Cleary. He found himself in Evesham, and offered the scoop of exposing the Glasshouse to BBC3's The Passing Parade. A writ of habeas corpus was issued for Magister, to try to prove that he couldn't be found, and a film crew entered the Glasshouse, which looked as if it had been abandoned for months. Whilst Stevens was being discredited, Cleary killed Dodo, who was pregnant, and travelled back to 1963. Stevens was accused of the murder, held in a police cell, and then released because he had been on live TV at the time.

Who Killed Kennedy. The 3-week period is mentioned by Dodo. Stevens' "escape" is dated as August 1971 on page 215.

The Master's trial is held in camera and, at it, the Doctor pleads for clemency, whilst several foreign governments request execution. The Master is given multiple life sentences and temporarily imprisoned in Aylesbury Detention Centre.

The in camera trial is mentioned in Who Killed Kennedy, but was clearly inevitable. The Doctor's role at the trial comes from The Sea Devils. The prison, and foreign intervention, is from Face of the Enemy.

Summer 1972

At the [Munich] Olympics, Briton John Crichton jumps 2.362 metres in the high jump, [breaking the world record].

At the last Olympics, according to Sarah in Invasion of the Dinosaurs.

The international situation was dire. World war was threatening. The failing health of the deposed Nikita Kruschev was leading to the decline of his faction in the Politburo, so the hard-liners took more power. There were numerous border incidents between the USSR and China. War was looking inevitable, and all the major powers would have been drawn in. Britain asked Sir Reginald Styles to persuade the reluctant Chinese to attend a peace conference.

This is the background to Day of the Daleks as elaborated on in Who Killed Kennedy.

Professor Elizabeth Shaw begins a lecture tour of the United States with Stanton Friedman and Carl Sagan.

According to Yates on Face of the Enemy page 31. It isn't stated when she started, but the tour was still going by the time he mentioned it.

September 1972

12th & 13th September

DAY OF THE DALEKS

Guerrillas from an alternate future come back in time and attempt to assassinate Sir Reginald Styles. They believe that he was responsible for the third world war that ravaged Earth in their history books. Styles arranges a preliminary meeting in his mansion, including a Chinese delegate. The Doctor, having travelled to the guerrillas' timezone, orders the evacuation of the mansion. At the same time, a group of Daleks and Ogrons from that future attacks the mansion, to ensure the deaths of the delegates. After a pitched battle with UNIT, the Daleks enter the mansion. They are then killed by one of the rebels' bombs.

Jo says she left the 20th century on September the 13th. It might, or might not be worth noting that this coincides with real-world terrorist activity at the Munich Olympics.

James Stevens arrives during these events, intending to expose UNIT. The Doctor saves him from an Ogron, and the Brigadier explains UNIT's true nature to him. Stevens then uses the Master's Time Ring to travel back to 1963 and keep Kennedy's assassination on track. He returns with Private Cleary, who has severe brain damage. UNIT subsequently provides for Cleary's family, whilst the Doctor pays for his treatment.

Who Killed Kennedy.

The Doctor and Jo temporarily encounter themselves from earlier in their timelines.

Day of the Daleks. They are wearing the same clothes in both periods. The first occurs at the start of Day of the Daleks, whilst the second was scripted for the end, where it appears in the novelisation. I assume that its placement in both script and novelisation corresponds to the actual sequence of events.

The peace talks are successful, bringing an age of co-operation to Earth. The Cold War was [publicly thought of as] over. To prevent nuclear war, the US, USSR and China gave Britain their nuclear destructor codes [and Britain gave them ours]. Joseph Chambers was the Special Responsibility Secretary responsible for their safety.

The Cold War is thought of as being over in Invasion of the Dinosaurs and Robot. However, as the former is talking about a bunker being built, it may be referring to the ultra-paranoid fifties. The destructor codes are referred to in Robot.

October 1972

MORE SHORT TRIPS: HONEST LIVING

The scientist Krashen and his niece Tuala (both from the possible future seen in Day of the Daleks) arrive in this time zone. They deliberately cause several temporal anomalies before time itself rectifies the anomalies and banishes them from this timezone.

The TARDIS is still inoperative, so it's before The Three Doctors. Day of the Daleks was fairly recent, hence my dating.

October 1972

Surgeon-Lieutenant Harry Sullivan is posted to the Naval base at Faslane.

A couple of weeks before Face of the Enemy page 202.

A Jetstream 31 plane disappears.

A week before Face of the Enemy page 27.

There are adverts in the Times for new posts under the Junior Armed Forces Minister.

This was 'last week' according to Face of the Enemy page 114.

November 1972

FACE OF THE ENEMY

The Metropolitan Police investigate a robbery at the Magnum Bank. Meanwhile, UNIT is called in to investigate a plane crash involving a genetic duplicate of a government minister. Because the Doctor is absent, they have to call in Ian Chesterton from the RAF. The Minister in question, the Right Honourable Frederick Jackson, Junior Armed Forces Minister, is murdered the same day. The day after this, there is a helicopter attack on the Birnham Hotel. Not long afterwards, there is an incident involving UNIT at the Faslane Naval Base.

This story happens at the same time the Doctor is away in Colony in Space. It is said to be November on page 12. Barbara thinks it's ten years since she returned home on page 72 (making it 1975). The author's preamble makes a big hash of UNIT dating, claiming - for example - that the 13th September dating of Day of the Daleks and the 29th September setting of The Time Monster are both late September and that there must be an entire year between them, and he ignores most of the actual evidence for UNIT dating. Therefore, I'm ignoring what he claims the date is and just putting in an arbitrary date between Day of the Daleks and The Time Monster.

Two ships are attacked by Sea Devils off the South Coast. One of them is the SS Pevensey Castle.

Shortly before The Sea Devils.

THE SEA DEVILS

A colony of aquatic Silurians in the English Channel attack Fortress Island. They were drawn there by the Master, who promised to help them repair their damaged revival equipment. The Doctor [visiting the Master because James Stevens had revealed that the Master was able to escape his prison] pleads with them to make peace, but they refuse. The humans are then left with no choice but to destroy them. During the chaos, the Master escapes.

The Master asks for a colour TV and watches a Clangers episode first broadcast in 1971. The brackets refer to events in Who Killed Kennedy. Face of the Enemy forces this story to be quite some time after Day of the Daleks. During the gap between these stories, we have to fit the entirety of Face of the Enemy and the relocation of the Master to Fortress Island as well as the conclusion to Who Killed Kennedy.

THE EIGHT DOCTORS

The Master's description is broadcast on the media, and roadblocks are set up to catch him. However, he still makes his way to Devil's End, where he had hidden his TARDIS. He then travels to the Doctor's laboratory to kill him, but is stopped by a future incarnation of the Doctor.

The Third Doctor segment is clearly set immediately after The Sea Devils.

The Doctor begins work on a time sensor to track down the Master's TARDIS. At the same time, UNIT issues an A1 priority order to track down the Master.

At some time before The Time Monster.

[The escape of the Master causes the Heath government to fall. In the subsequent elections,] Jeremy [Thorpe's Liberals return to power.]

The PM is called Jeremy in The Green Death, so Jeremy Thorpe's Liberals have to have come to power at some point before then. This speculation reconciles what we learn in The Devil Goblins from Neptune with what we learn in Who Killed Kennedy, and even fits with the Doctor's list of British PMs in Interference: Book 1.

Oskar Steinmann dies.

Just War. The year, but not the date, is given.

1973

DECALOG 2: WHERE THE HEART IS

The Doctor tracks down a Birastrop called Dantillion, who has been dissecting rich ill people, who won't be missed. Dantillion is taken into UNIT custody, where the Doctor discovers that Dantillion was learning about human anatomy as a doctor. Meanwhile, a government committee has decided to stop funding UNIT and hand their duties to the Royal Marines under Rear-Admiral Zecca. Thanks to intervention by the Doctor, aided by the Time Lords, Dantillion escapes from the Marines' custody, UNIT acquires a new HQ - rent free, and UNIT is reinstated.

This must be before The Three Doctors, as the TARDIS isn't operational. There are references to several UNIT stories, up to and including The Sea Devils. The Doctor also refers to his trips on behalf of the Time Lords, the most recent reference being to Solos (The Mutants). Thus, this is set somewhere between The Mutants and The Three Doctors. UNIT changes residence here. The Doctor's lab changes between each of The Mutants, The Time Monster, and The Three Doctors. That in The Time Monster is akin to that in Terror of the Autons. This might indicate either that it's in the same building, or that the old design was initially taken up in the new building before they decided how best to use the place. I place the story after The Time Monster as it fits into my dating scheme more easily. Incidentally, the story dates UNIT as being 5 years old (hence dating from 1967 - a year before my date for the setting up of UNIT).

An archaeological expedition led by Aubrey Prior strips the tomb of Nephthys in Egypt. They tell the workers that it will be rebuilt in the British Museum.

This was 23 years before The Sands of Time pages 223 and 227 (instalment 9, pages 1 and 7).

May 1973

RAGS

At the beginning of May, some students from Bristol University disappear following a car crash with a punk band. The day after, a nameless band plays on Dartmoor. There is a riot at the prison, and three prison officers escorting a work party near the gig are brutally murdered, as is a policeman who was nearby. Over the next two days, a wide range of disenchanted people - punks, hippies, rastas, etc. come to join the crowd around the band. At the second gig, 2 days later, three aristocratic fox-hunters are murdered. Five days after this, UNIT are assigned to take over minding the convoy - which has moved on to Glastonbury Tor - from the local police. Whilst the convoy is there, two policemen who had been watching the convoy went home and murdered their wives. The papers link this with the convoy.

The second gig is dated Tuesday 10th May on page 40 - which makes this 1977, 1983, or 1988. References are made to Punk events around 1979, and the year '79 is suggested on page 7. This is clearly between Day of the Daleks (page 36) and The Three Doctors (page 14). The Brigadier mentions the Doctor sneaking off in the TARDIS - which is probably a reference to The Curse of Peladon/Face of the Enemy, so it may be soon after that.

June 1973

RAGS

The Convoy has been contained in a cemetery in Bristol, though there is a massacre at an exclusive executive bar caused by some local alcoholics who have joined the convoy. There is no trouble when there is a blood-sports demonstration in the city. However, not long afterwards Princess Mary visits the city, an anarchist attempts to assassinate her. She grabs the gun off him, shoots him five times and dances on the corpse before losing all memory of the event. The anarchist is soon revealed to have links to the Shadow Transport Minister, Jeremy Willis - who commits suicide.

Meanwhile, in the village of Cirbury, Kane Sawyer discovers his ancestor's body in the local church, steals a significant book from the local library, and disrupts a play being put on in the village. The day after this, the convoy splits in two - the band heading for the village of Cirbury, and a Roadie and half the convoy heading for Stonehenge. At Stonehenge, there is a pitched battle between the convoy and UNIT and at Cirbury there is a riot, but the band seem to disappear after this.

It is mid June by page 119 and the convoy has been going for a few weeks by page 158. The play is on 19th or 20th June according to the flyer on page 49, and this is a couple of days (page 119) or 'days' (page 169) since Kane and the Doctor met at the library. It's the 20th of June by page 182.

September 1973

THE TIME MONSTER

The Newton Institute in Wooton, near Cambridge, demonstrates TOMTIT, Transmission of Matter through Interstitial Time. [The technology is actually an adaptation of the Master's TARDIS.] The Doctor's Time Sensor detects the experiments. The device is responsible for sending the Master and the Doctor back 4,000 years to confront a Chronovore.

Jo wishes Benton a Merry Michaelmas (29th September). Falls the Shadow sets this in the mid-70's on page 116. I've put it here to allow time for the events of Face of the Enemy. Perhaps Jo meant to say Merry Christmas.

The Coal Board closes Llanfairfach Colliery in South Wales.

This is referred to as last year in The Green Death.

December 1973

Dr. Tyler encounters strange readings, which he interprets as a light beam exceeding light speed.

A few weeks before The Three Doctors.

At the 1973 UNIT staff Christmas party, Jo plays Aladdin, Yates plays Widow Twanky, and the Doctor plays the villain. [Presumably Jo's trip to the Amazon takes time to arrange and she hasn't gone yet and is invited back for the party].

No Future (page 261). The Doctor also remembers it in Timewyrm: Revelation (page 80).

1974

Mr Peploe begins commuting from Rickmansworth Station.

He has been subjected to the eccentricities of London Regional Transport for nearly 20 years according to The Highest Science page 13 - and this scene is set in 1993 according to page 2.

Timothy Todd and Oswald are both born during this year.

They are both said to be 23 in The Dying Days (chapter 5 page 1 and chapter 9 page 12).

January 1974

THE THREE DOCTORS

Anti-matter gel creatures attack UNIT HQ. During this battle, it temporarily disappears into Omega's anti-matter universe. The Time Lords reward the Doctor for helping them defeat Omega by giving him a new dematerialization circuit and restoring his knowledge of time travel.

Dr. Tyler refers to Cape Kennedy and Jo misquotes "I am the Walrus". In Transit (page 65), Kadiatu claims that the Doctor's exile lasted five years, though this probably refers to his entire time at UNIT.

The Brigadier and Benton check UNIT's grounds in order to account for equipment that may not have returned from Omega's realm.

Just after The Three Doctors.

The Doctor meets Miss Gallowglass, who provides a mail forwarding service for aliens and time travellers. One of her customers had got annoyed about a lost parcel, and declared war on the Earth. His first move was to steal one of the Crown Jewels. The Doctor replaced it with a fake.

According to the Doctor in Relative Dementias (page 18), this was just after The Three Doctors. He gives more details on page 44.

After the Doctor constructs a forcefield generator, he takes the TARDIS on a test flight.

As shown in Carnival of Monsters.

Over the next two months, he and Jo spend only about 5 days at UNIT HQ. [During some of these travels] Jo encounters the Methaji, Hoveet, Skraals, and Kalekani.

Dancing the Code.

UNIT build a new headquarters in London. Its basement is designed to withstand a nuclear attack and has a hidden exit to the Northern Line, capable of driving a tank through.

According to the Brigadier in The Dying Days chapter 8 page 22 this was 25 years ago from 1997. I've placed it a bit later so that it's definitively after Decalog 2: Where the Heart Is - when UNIT have to abandon a rented London HQ for budgetary reasons.

February 1974

A new TV talent show airs. Make A Star votes off a contestant at regular intervals. The contestants stay in a closed environment at the studio for the duration of the show. Those contestants who are voted off disappear without trace.

Lucy Wilkins says that you get used to the contestants' quarters after six weeks on page 168 of Short Trips Companions: Hidden Talent, suggesting that she has been a contestant for that long.

Late March 1974

DANCING THE CODE

UNIT's Captain Deveraux is killed in the Arab nation of Kebiria. Amidst accusations of new chemical weapons, UNIT UK sends people to investigate and discovers a Xarax hive. The Xarax start replacing the population and plant a nest in the UK. Eventually the Doctor manages to destroy both hives before the planned US nuclear strike on Kebir City. The decimated Kebirans and Giltaz attempt to re-establish their society in the absence of a dictator, [but soon lapse back into civil war].

The TARDIS has been operational for at least two months. Watergate is topical.

SPEED OF FLIGHT

Sergeants Benton and Bell set up Mike Yates and Jo Grant on a blind date. The two don't appreciate it, but decide to go to a restaurant anyway. En route, they ask the Doctor to join them. Instead, they take a trip in the TARDIS.

Jo mentions a comment Mike made on the trip back from Kebiria.

SHORT TRIPS COMPANIONS: HIDDEN TALENT

Talent show Make a Star has a feature called 'Stairway to the stars' where three members of the audience are picked and the winner, Josephine Grant, is voted onto the show. Not long afterwards, the broadcast of the final is replaced by a test card. [The show's archives and all recordings of the songs sung on the show are destroyed].

For the Doctor and Jo this is between Planet of the Daleks and The Green Death.

Global Chemicals Director Stevens meets with Ministry of Ecology people, who approve Global's new oil refining technique.

Shortly before The Green Death.

Professor Clifford Jones attempts to borrow some Global Chemicals cutting equipment and is refused. Soon afterwards, miner Dave Griffiths uses the equipment in the closed Llanfairfach coal mine and returns it.

"A fortnight back" from The Green Death.

April 1974

THE GREEN DEATH

UNIT investigates an unusual death in the closed Llanfairfach mine. The death turns out to be the result of Global Chemicals' processing. During these events, UNIT shut down BOSS; a sentient computer who wants to take over the world and already controls Global Chemicals. Jo falls in love with Prof. Clifford Jones and decides to leave UNIT and marry him.

There's a February 1972 calendar in the security guard's office, and an April 5th one in the pithead office. BOSS uses "Biomorphic" technology and has been linked to a human brain.

Mike Yates goes on leave, during which he is recruited into Operation Golden Age.

According to Invasion of the Dinosaurs, this is after The Green Death.

Professor Jones marries Jo Grant marry in Cardiff. They pick up equipment and honeymoon on the Amazon Basin, searching for rare fungi.

In the month following The Green Death, according to Planet of the Spiders. However, Jo still makes the UNIT Christmas party in this year.

The Doctor builds a new vehicle that looks futuristic and probably includes advanced technology.

He unveils it in Invasion of the Dinosaurs. He could have started it at almost any time before, though probably not before The Three Doctors.

July 1974

Sarah Jane Smith reports on the disappearance of Guy Crayford aboard the XK5 Space Freighter.

Two years before The Android Invasion.

September 1974

Professor Whitaker applies for a government grant to fund time travel experiments. He is [understandably] refused. Shortly afterwards he disappears, becoming involved in Operation: Golden Age.

Six months before Invasion of the Dinosaurs.

Several hundred people are sent off in "spaceships" to a pre-industrial planet called New Earth. They include athlete John Crichton, novelist Nigel Castle and conservationist Lady Cullingford. They are actually in bunkers beneath Earth, which is intended to be regressed to a pre-human state.

Three months before Invasion of the Dinosaurs.

October 1974

The October 1974 election brings Harold Wilson's labour party to power.

His resignation is mentioned in No Future, so he has to have won the previous election. If any details of Operation: Golden Age had been made public, the scandal would almost certainly have brought down the previous government. However, in Interference: Book 1 the Eighth Doctor recites a list of British Prime Ministers from the 70s which goes "Heath, Thorpe, Williams, Thatcher" - perhaps he's just forgotten one.

1975

January 1975

THE TIME WARRIOR

Following the disappearance of a number of prominent scientists, UNIT confines the UK's leading scientists in a central location. Journalist Sarah Jane Smith sneaks into the compound disguised as her aunt Lavinia, a noted virologist. She helps the Doctor trace the disappearances to a Sontaran stranded on Earth in the Middle Ages.

In Pyramids of Mars, Sarah claims to be from 1980, though this is more likely to be a reference to Terror of the Zygons.

THE PARADISE OF DEATH

The Parakon Corporation opens Space World on Hampstead Heath. Amongst its attractions are 21 alien species, including the Giant Ostroid, the crab-clawed Kamelius from Aldebaran 2, Piranhatel Beetles and Stinksloths. They also use a technology called Experienced Reality. UNIT investigations discover that the corporation was looking to trade a miracle crop called Rapine for human bodies to fertilise the devastated farmlands of their home world. The corporation is shut down on Parakon.

The Brigadier hasn't heard of Virtual Reality and the UN secretary general is female. There's not actually a gap between The Time Warrior and Invasion of the Dinosaurs, but that gap is when the story's supposedly set. Presumably, "Experienced Reality" technology is never integrated into Earth's.

[The Doctor and Sarah take another trip in the TARDIS]

This must be assumed in order to fit The Paradise of Death in the intended gap.

March 1975

INVASION OF THE DINOSAURS

Dinosaurs start materialising in London, forcing an emergency evacuation of 8 million people. The government relocates to Harrogate. A group including Sir Charles Grover MP, Professor Whittaker, General Finch and Mike Yates attempts to reverse the flow of time under the code-name Operation: Golden Age. They are eventually stopped by UNIT. Grover and Whitaker are sent back into pre-history by the time scoop.

The "Whomobile" is an M-reg. The bunker was built "back in the cold war days" - probably a reference to the 50s.

After the failure of Operation: Golden Age, General Finch is court-martialled and Yates is allowed a quiet resignation from UNIT. Yates subsequently starts studying at a Tibetan monastery in Mummerset, attempting to make peace with himself.

Shortly after Invasion of the Dinosaurs. Yates' involvement with the monastery is from Planet of the Spiders.

THE FIVE DOCTORS

The Third Doctor is kidnapped by Borusa whilst driving Bessie. He is transported to the Gallifreyan death zone, where he meets several other incarnations.

He recognises Sarah, so this must be after The Time Warrior and so probably happens in this gap.

The Doctor constructs a recall device for the Brigadier. He also begins investigating the psychic potential of humans.

The recall device is used in Terror of the Zygons and blatantly wasn't available in Invasion of the Dinosaurs. As Jo suggested the idea in Dancing the Code, I think that the Doctor has been thinking about it for some time but only gets round to doing it following Invasion of the Dinosaurs. The psychic research is under way in Planet of the Spiders. It may have been inspired by the Brigadier's ability to, briefly, resist the will of a Time Lord in The Five Doctors. He abandons this project after his regeneration.

Jo and Professor Jones send their wedding present of a blue crystal from Metebelis 3 back to the Doctor because the Amazonian natives fear it.

Some time before Planet of the Spiders.

May 1975

20th-21st May 1975

THE GHOSTS OF N-SPACE

Sarah and Jeremy Fitzoliver are on holiday in Sicily at the same time as the Brigadier visits his Uncle Mario Verconti, who is being threatened by mobster Max Vilmio. The Doctor is called in, and realises that Verconti's historic Castello is on a massive rift in Null-Space. Vilmio attempts to take the Castello before May the 21st, a significant date on which he can control N-Space. He manages to merge his physical body with his N-form, but the Doctor manages to prevent him from dominating the universe.

For the Doctor and Sarah, it's after Death to the Daleks. Clancey's comet returns every 157 years (page 200) and last time was 1818 (page 63), so it's 1975. The date May 21st is noted several times. I've placed it in 1974 to fit in with other UNIT dates.

June 1975

Whilst researching ESP, the Doctor discovers a stage magician "Professor" Clegg, whom he believes to be a powerful psychic.

Shortly before Planet of the Spiders.

PLANET OF THE SPIDERS

Stage magician Clegg dies at UNIT HQ. Soon afterwards, UNIT investigates a Tibetan Monastery in Mummerset. The monastery has a link to mutated spiders on Metebelis 3 in the far future. The Doctor travels to Metebelis 3 and suffers radiation damage, forcing him to regenerate.

Three weeks before Robot. Sarah says that meditation is the "in-thing".

July 1975

ROBOT

Benton is promoted to Warrant Officer and made second in command of UNIT UK.

The Think Tank, a government funded scientific group, has been taken over by the Scientific Reform Society. The SRS want to take over the world by threatening to destroy the world's nuclear weapons. UNIT is forced to destroy a giant robot, created by Think Tank members, to stop them.

Sarah's Think Tank pass is dated 4th April. I'm ignoring this date in a futile attempt to keep things in some kind of order. The Cold War has been "over for years". Think Tank has invented the K1 Robot, the super-hard material dynastrene, and a disintegrator gun capable of burning a hole through the moon. I'd guess that a lot of this is derived from captured alien technology.

August 1975

23rd August 1975

A New York Court sentenced Martin Crawford for public indecency and cruelty to animals. Crawford had become a Satanist after seeing the New York gods' version of heaven in 1965. He had rampaged through a women's health club naked and smeared in goat's blood, brandishing an upside-down crucifix.

Salvation.

September 1975

FURY FROM THE DEEP

Gas pipelines in the North Sea become infected by a mutant species of seaweed. The Second Doctor, Jamie McCrimmon, and Victoria Waterfield avert the potential crisis. Victoria stays in this time period to be adopted by Frank and Maggie Harris.

There's a European energy policy and videophones [presumably left over from IE]. In Downtime, Victoria has been in the 20th century for about 10 years by Downtime (1984). I place it here, where it coincides nicely with another North Sea incident. It is possible that Zygon activity set off the seaweed.

Harold Wilson resigns and Shirley Williams wins the subsequent leadership election.

A woman is Prime Minister in Terror of the Zygons. Harry is surprised that a woman is "at the top of the totem pole" in The Ark in Space, suggesting that there hadn't been a female PM by Robot. The details are mentioned in No Future (pages 30, 78, 255). The simplest explanation is to put Wilson's resignation and the subsequent leadership election a few months earlier than in real life - so when Harry left, there hadn't even been a female party leader. In Interference: Book One, the Doctor gives a list of Prime Ministers that excludes Wilson. I suggest that he simply forgot a name.

The Zygons replace the Duke of Forgill, local nurse Sister Lamont, and the Duke's gamekeeper the Caber.

At some point before Terror of the Zygons.

THE SANDS OF TIME

Sadan Rassul and Aubrey Prior put Nyssa's mummy through a CAT scan. This, combined with tissue samples and Prior's genetics background allows them to create Vanessa as a vessel for Nephthys.

The date is on page 95 (instalment 3, page 26). Vanessa's 21st Birthday happens in the 1996 segment of The Sands of Time on page 182 (instalment 7 page 7). The tissue samples are said to have been 22 years before page 263 (instalment 9, page 50).

December 1975

The Skarasen attacks several North Sea oil rigs to preserve the route between Loch Ness and the open sea.

Shortly before Terror of the Zygons.

Zygon leader Broton, disguised as the Duke of Forgill, gives the Fox Inn in Tullock a stag's head. The head conceals a monitoring device.

A week before Terror of the Zygons.

TERROR OF THE ZYGONS

Zygons based near Loch Ness attack a number of North Sea Oil Rigs. UNIT tracks them down and discovers the Skarasen travelling south to attack London. They prevent the Zygons from implementing their plan to use the Fourth International Energy Conference to help prepare the way for their invasion fleet, which is bound for Earth in a few centuries. The Zygon ship is destroyed and the Skarasen is left in Loch Ness.

There is a female Prime Minister. Sarah claims to be from 1980 in Pyramids of Mars, and this is the last (recorded) story when she was in her native time. The Zygons' planet was destroyed "recently." However, given the ETA of their fleet, and how long they've been on Earth, I presume this means centuries ago. No Future (set June 1976) places this story six months ago (page 8) and possibly last year (page 100).

1976

The Doctor and Ace visit London.

Timewyrm: Revelation (page 217).

Maupassant may have become Reeve of Excelis about this time.

The curator thinks that Maupassant became Reeve about 10 or 15 years ago in Excelis Rising. However, there is a strong chance that Maupassant became Reeve long before then.

The Ebola virus jumps to humans.

According to the Doctor on page 32 of Only Human.

June 1976

VAMPIRE SCIENCE

Biochem student Carolyn McConnell meets the eighth Doctor and Sam in a bar. They track down and kill a vampire

The year is given on page 3. Carolyn has an exam the next day.

19-22 June

NO FUTURE

Black Star anarchists are responsible for a number of terrorist incidents. At the same time, Vardans replace senior members of both UNIT and Black Star. At the height of June, Big Ben is blown up, the latest in a series of major bombings, and an assassination attempt is made on the Queen. Lethbridge-Stewart, Benton and American Captain Pike of UNIT are declared rogue when they and the Doctor disappear over Salisbury plain. Robert Bertram, the head of Priory Records, who had prematurely introduced the Compact Disc, is appointed scientific advisor to UNIT. Bertram sets up a "peace concert", intending to help the Vardans to take over the world. The plan is thwarted when UNIT's elite Broadsword unit and the band Plasticine burst into the studio. Bertram is really the Time Lord Mortimus and is finally stopped when Ace lets loose Artemis, his captive Chronovore. The Vardans are then beamed back home at light speed. The Vardan that had replaced Captain Pike, along with others in the Vardan Popular Front, are given a 5,000 year start to destroy the Vardan military mentality before the troops return home.

The date is given on page 6. It is clearly stated that history has been altered in this story. Ace and the Doctor both recognise significant differences to history as they know it. It is, however, very strongly implied that this is NOT an alternate universe. It is never stated what Chronovores can do if properly directed. Presumably rewriting established history to this degree is well within their capabilities. I thus assume that this happens in the main Whoniverse.

At this time, there were a number of High Frontier units on Earth, including UNIT, the Soviet Vodyanoi, the Chinese Foreign Guard, and a USAF group at Edwards, where the original Captain Pike was based. All of these had been infiltrated by the Vogans.

According to Pike in No Future (page 224). The Vodyanoi were Russian supersoldiers in the novel Child of the Vodyanoi, adapted to TV by the BBC in 1981.

The Brigadier, who is seeing Doris, retires. This is partly due to hypnotic suggestion from the seventh Doctor and partly due to excessive time spent [on administrative work] in Geneva.

No Future. He is in Geneva during The Android Invasion and The Seeds of Doom.

Astronaut Guy Crayford contacts Earth, claiming to have been stranded around Jupiter for two years. This call is prompted by the Kraals.

"Recently" before The Android Invasion.

July 1976

6th July 1976

THE ANDROID INVASION

The Kraals have created a copy of Devesham and the Space Defence Station from the mind of Guy Crayford. They have populated these with android replicas intended for phase one of a take-over of Earth. However, the Fourth Doctor and Sarah foiled their plans.

The date is given as Friday 6th July on the calendar in the fake village (hence it's 1973, 1979, 1984 or 1990). As the calendar gives the same date every day, it's likely that they copied this detail from Crayford's mind and that he was in that location on this date 1973. Therefore, the date is fairly arbitrary - though it can't be too long after No Future, as in that story the Brigadier is planning to leave UNIT.

October 1976

THE SEEDS OF DOOM

The World Ecology Bureau receives reports of an Antarctic discovery of two seed pods, which the Doctor, who happens to be present, identifies as Krynoid. One infects a scientist, who is killed in an explosion that also destroys one of the pods. The remaining pod is stolen and taken to England by the millionaire enthusiast Harrison Chase. This pod grows until it is destroyed by a UNIT air strike, which also destroys Chase Mansion.

Chase says it's autumn. The Doctor is invited to address the Royal Horticultural Society on the fifteenth. The authorities have a satellite videolink to Antarctica [using old IE equipment and the latest in satellite technology]. UNIT has access to an [experimental] laser cannon and the Antarctic base has an experimental fuel cell. It only needs 2p for the public telephone.

The Brigadier mothballs Bessie, realising that the Doctor [in his new incarnation] is visiting Earth less often.

Battlefield.

Alexander Lullington-Smythe publishes his autobiography How I Saved the World, focusing on events in New York 1965. It is published by Aphrodite Ltd.

An extract is used on page 39 of Salvation. The year, but not month, of publication is stated.

The Doctor and Ace subtly arrange for Peter Hutchings and Emily West to meet each other in Greenwich. The two will later marry.

This happens on page 218 of Timewyrm: Revelation.

4th November 1976

The Doctor drops off a Landine, disguised as a cat, with Miss Gallowglass.

The date is given on a desk calendar in Relative Dementias (page 276).

The Post-UNIT Years.

1977

Detective-Inspector Foster (as he will become) joins CID.

He has been working for them for 20 years by The Eight Doctors page 18.

Mars Probe 13 arrives on Mars. It is crewed by Alexander Christian (on his third Mars mission), Albert Fitzwilliam and Alexander's lover Madeline Goodfellow. The crew are found spying in a Martian research facility. Christian escapes, whilst the other two are killed. The probe leaves Mars and, [during the] 8 months it takes to return to Earth, science minister Lord Greyhaven negotiates with the Martians. He agrees that there should never again be a manned mission from Earth to Mars. In lieu of extraditing Christian to Mars, he is sentenced to life imprisonment on Earth for murdering his colleagues. The agreement also ensures that he will never be debriefed.

This was over 20 years before The Dying Days (chapter 1 page 11, chapter 7 page 4)

At this point, Caldwell was in his first year at University.

This was 20 years before The Dying Days (chapter 1 page 11).

April 1977

THE HAND OF FEAR

The Fourth doctor and Sarah discover a fossilised hand in a quarry. The hand creates a new body, revealing itself to be the scientist Eldrad from Kastria. Events lead to the meltdown of the reactor at Nunton Nuclear Power Complex. Eldrad eventually returns to his home planet Kastria to take it over. He discovers that the planet has been lifeless for millennia and dies there in defeat. The Doctor leaves Sarah on Earth, though in Aberdeen rather than Croydon when he is summoned to Gallifrey and she is not allowed there.

The date is uncertain. It must be before December 1981 and K9 and Company. It was established that she was left in Aberdeen in School Reunion.

7th June 1977

MAWDRYN UNDEAD

Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart CBE, who had retired from UNIT the previous year to take up teaching maths at Brendon School, has an encounter with his future self. Thanks to the Blinovitch Limitation Effect, he loses all memories of this encounter and his time with UNIT. He is diagnosed with a nervous breakdown. He quickly returns to teaching.

It is repeatedly stated to be 1977, six years before 1983, and the Queen's Silver Jubilee (June 7th 1977 - according to the Doctor). The 1983 Brigadier retired from UNIT 7 years ago. The CBE is confirmed in Downtime. It's uncertain how the Brigadier obtained the qualifications usually required to teach maths.

30-31st July 1977

IMAGE OF THE FENDAHL

A group of scientists unearths a 12 million-year-old skull. The skull is all that remains of the Fendahl, a creature from the fifth planet that feeds on life itself. The use of an [experimental] time scanner activates the skull, which has been influencing human evolution and development for millions of years. The skull turns a number of people into Fendahleen, who are destroyed when Fetch Priory is blown up.

Ma Tyler says it's "Lammas Eve" (31st July) at the end of part 3. It's a contemporary setting.

The Doctor deposits the Fendahl skull into a supernova in the constellation of Canthares.

There's no reason why this shouldn't be in the same time period as the main story.

Professor Emilia Rumford attends a lecture in New York. She is arrested for carrying an offensive weapon. She was carrying a police truncheon "in case she gets mugged".

A year before The Stones of Blood.

The Doctor lands in Lewisham, attempting to track the Timewyrm. During this visit, he and Ace visit the Rose of Lee pub.

According to Timewyrm: Revelation page 13.

1978

21st February 1978

Electrical workers in Mexico City uncover the sacrificial stone lying at the foot of Tenochtitlan's Great Temple.

The Left Handed Hummingbird page 23.

THE PIRATE PLANET

The Doctor stops Zanak, a planet that materialises around planets and steals their mineral wealth, before it destroys Earth.

The population of Earth is "billions and billions". First Frontier places this in 1978 (page 129).

The Tulkan Empire is on the point of making a decisive strike against the Annarene Protectorate, which will end a war between the two. The Annarene capture the Tulkan War Council, wipe their memories, and send them to a penal planet. However, the ship taking them to the penal planet is hijacked and taken to Earth.

According to the two Annarene in Relative Dementias (page 221) this was four years ago.

THE SANDS OF TIME

Sir John Mapleton wins the auction for an Egyptian bracelet at Sotheby's. The bracelet had belonged to Arthur Evans, who had fallen on hard times.

The date is given on page 191 (instalment 7, page 18(.

THE STONES OF BLOOD

The Megara justice machines finally catch up with Cessair of Diplos. She is imprisoned as a stone in the Nine Travellers stone circle. Cessair's necklace was discovered by the Doctor to be one of the segments of the key to time.

It's a contemporary setting.

The [fourth] Doctor sends K9 Mark III to Croydon as a present for Sarah-Jane Smith. The crate remains unopened for 3 years.

K9 and Company.

Chris Parsons graduates from Cambridge. He has an honours degree in Chemistry.

Shada.

David Gibson gets lost in the woods near Llanfer Ceriog during a family camping holiday.

According to Cat's Cradle: Witch Mark (set around 1991) page 45 this happened when he was five. On page 38, he is described as a teenager and on page 50 his friend Jack is said to be a student. I, therefore, assume they are both 18.

The sewers under Fleet Street are being worked on at this time.

This was seven years before Attack of the Cybermen.

Alexander Lullington-Smythe's book How I Saved the World is publicly discredited. A film script based on the book is shelved because of this.

Salvation.

Dan is born

He celebrates his 30th birthday in Short Trips and Side Steps: Reunion.

December

Chad Boyle steps on Dorothy McShane's toe in Assembly at St Benedict's School, Perivale. She elbows him back. The next day at either playtime or lunch, Chad is about to hit Dorothy with a brick,but is stopped when a stranger (actually Dorothy's future self) intervenes.

This happens in Timewyrm: Revelation (pages 216-217).

24th December

SHORT TRIPS AND SIDE STEPS: SPECIAL OCCASIONS 3:
BETTER WATCH OUT: BETTER TAKE CARE

The Doctor and Romana leave a card and a stocking for the Brigadier.

It's clearly Christmas Eve, but the year is uncertain. As City of Death is a recent memory, I suggest that they're in the same year. Given the Brigadier's memory loss in Mawdryn Undead, it would be interesting to know what he made of it.

1979

17th February 1979

China invades Vietnam.

The Doctor mentions this as a feature of 1979 in Tooth and Claw. The exact date is historical.

After hijacking the Tulk High Council's prison ship with the secret aid of a rebel Annarene faction, Sooal takes them to Earth. He sets up an Alzhiemer's clinic/nursing home as a cover for his attempts to help them remember the control codes for their stasis chamber.

This was three years before Relative Dementias (pages 122, 132, 223).

Lavinia Smith moves to Moreton Harwood. Shortly afterwards, Sarah Jane Smith visits her and meets Commander Pollock.

K9 and Company.

The Muppet Movie is released.

The Doctor mentions it as a feature of 1979 in Tooth and Claw.

Michael Ashworth, the son of General Terrence Ashworth and Doctor Joyce Brunner, joins UNIT. His first encounter with aliens happens in a Birmingham warehouse under Brigadier Brunner [a regular army officer]. A small group of Ogrons have had to land on Earth for emergency repairs, and are holed up in the warehouse. The UNIT troops take them by surprise, and quickly overwhelm them. During this, Michael sustains a head wound.

This was three years before Relative Dementias pages 206 and 209.

4th May 1979

Margaret Thatcher [comes to power].

The Doctor mentions Thatcher as a key feature of 1979 in Tooth and Claw. In the real world she came to power on this date.

John Benton leaves the army [presumably, he was still in UNIT rather than back in the regular army]. He becomes a used car salesman.

According to the Brigadier in Mawdryn Undead. The Android Invasion suggested that he may have been killed, but this is clearly fiction.

CITY OF DEATH

Count Scarloni, the final segment of Scaroth the Jagorath, has been laundering various ancient works of art. These include six authentic copies of the Mona Lisa, painted by Leonardo. He is attempting to travel back in time to save his ship from exploding millions of years ago, creating life. He is opposed in this by the fourth Doctor and Romana.

The Doctor says it's 1979, "more of a table wine".

SHORT TRIPS COMPANIONS: NOTRE DAME DU TEMPS

During his encounter with Count Scarloni, the fourth Doctor dropped a sketch of Romana out of his pocket. The Seventh Doctor retrieved it from the streets of Paris.

This is very clearly set during City of Death.

11th July 1979

Skylab falls to Earth, with a little help from the Doctor. However, it nearly takes off his thumb.

The Doctor mentions this in Tooth and Claw. The date is historical.

October 1979

SHADA / THE FIVE DOCTORS

Professor Chronitus at St. Cedds College, Cambridge accidentally lends Chris Parsons The Ancient and Worshipful Law of Gallifrey, a book dating from Gallifreyan history. The book, [coated in RTCs,] is stolen by criminal Skagra. The Doctor stops Skagra from finding the Time Lord prison planet Shada and the criminal Salayavin.

The TARDIS is confused by May Week being in June and so lands in October.

THE FIVE DOCTORS

During these events, Borusa attempts to kidnap the Doctor for the Game of Rassilon. He is thwarted by a Time Eddy [caused by the interaction of the time scoop with the RTCs coating the book].

The Doctor is seen in a scene from Shada.

SHORT TRIPS: GLASS

One of the minds contained in Skagra's sphere escapes, and latches itself to the mind of a woman and then appears in every bit of glass she looks at.

She has been living in Cambridge since 1976 and this story clearly describes events immediately following Shada.

The TARDIS lands on Brighton beach out of season.

The Leisure Hive. The date is completely arbitrary. Other chronologies I've seen have suggested both a contemporary setting and (for unstated reasons) 1934.