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A History of the WhoniverseThe Nineteen Nineties (1990-2000)1990 In the early 90's, there was a string of privatisations in the UK. The electricity industry became Elec-Gen, whilst British Rail became BritTrack. System Shock. It may well be that the Whoniverse privatisation was a bit more logical than some of ours were. Gordon James Lethbridge-Stewart is born to Kate Lethbridge-Stewart and her partner Jonathan. His granddad, Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, doesn't know, as Kate hasn't spoken to him for over a year [before this]. Nearly 5 years before Downtime. July 1990 CAT'S CRADLE: TIMES CRUCIBLE The Doctor and Ace have baked Alaska on Ealing Broadway. They are then summoned back to the TARDIS. It is a Sunday, and 3 years since Ace left Perivale on page 8. It is said to be July on page 10. It is before Battlefield on page 29. 1991 On In Tír Na n-Óg, the sun doesn't rise. General Nuada travels to see Goibhnie. His party are slaughtered by demons surrounding Giobhnie's island. General Nuada returns to the humans' capital, Dinorben, and sets his people at war with the other races. Events mentioned in Cat's Cradle: Witch Mark (page 89). There is no date, but it must be shortly before the refugees start travelling to Earth. May 1991 People start appearing in cities across the UK. They have names but no documentation. They form ghettoised communities. Thirteen months before Cat's Cradle: Witch Mark page 33. THE SANDS OF TIME Aubrey Prior sets fire to his home, Kenilworth Hall so that he can rebuild it with part of it being a pyramid. The date is given on page 238 (instalment 9, page 21). Summer 1991 The Doctor goes brass rubbing with Mel in St. Christopher's church, Cheldon Boniface. He uses this opportunity to place a portable temporal link there. He claims that Mel is his niece. This was the Doctor's last visit to Cheldon Bonniface before Timewyrm: Revelation (page 4). This was 'last summer' on page 196 - so 1991 or 1992. 23rd July 1991 MORE SHORT TRIPS: MISSING, PART ONE: BUSINESS AS USUAL Mel returns to Earth several years older than when she joined the Doctor. The date is at the top of the story. George Smithers' wife dies of lung cancer. Invasion of the Cat People. David is sent to boarding school When he was five, according to Short Trips and Side Steps: Monsters page 224. Astronomers on earth discover an object they classify as QSO 0046. They believe it is a Quasar, but it is actually artron energy from [the future of] a far distant galaxy. According to Timewyrm: Apocalypse this is in the '90s (pages 18 & 20). I arbitrarily date it to the year of publication. Edmund, [a professor at Cambridge] hypothesises time-space corridors. According to Peter Hutchings in Timewyrm: Revelation (page 62). Defences are installed in the cabinet room at number 10 Downing Street - 3 inch thick steel that can cover all the walls, doors, and windows - making an impenetrable box. The Doctor mentions this as happening in 1991 in World War Three 1992 The Mandragora Helix was due to return around this time. The Masque of Mandragora. We see an account of this is depicted in the graphic novel The Mark of Mandragora, originally appearing as separate stories in Doctor Who Magazine. Rose Tyler wins the bronze in Jericho Street Junior School's Under Sevens Gymnastics Team. She mentions this in Rose, and The Unquiet Dead states that she is 19. Justine is born. She is 17 on page 181 of Cat's Cradle: Warhead. Jonathon leaves his partner, Kate Lethbridge-Stewart. When Gordon is two. Downtime.
July 1992 CAT'S CRADLE: WITCH MARK A coach veers off the M40 near Condicote. None of the passengers can be identified. Many are wearing Marks and Spencers clothing with the price tags still on. Each of them has a suitcase full of money - a grand total of £2,000,000, and several have a strange birthmark. At the same time, a local vet discovers a unicorn in a nearby stable and two American tourists discover a wounded Centaur. Two inhabitants of Llanfer Ceriog are killed in mysterious circumstances. Two days later, one of the Americans is nearly burnt alive by a local cult, and a local stone circle explodes. At the same time, the world of Tír Na n-Óg is saved from an invasion of demons, and its sun, which had disappeared, returns. The setting appears to be contemporary. It's about 150 years since the mid-19th century on page 222. There's a drought in continental Europe (page 40). A half of mild is only 42p. The area code for London is still 01. The Daily Spotter claims that the US President bathes in cranberry sauce, but the chances are that it's making it up. Stevens claims he saw Yeti on the tube (The Web of Fear) 20 years ago (making it 1986), though he's probably rounding. It's summer on page 31, and early summer on page 57. However, the meteor shower mentioned on page 70 is either from a series that peaks about May 5th or from one that peaks about July 29th. July 1992 Nate Simms moves to Australia. 24 months before Invasion of the Cat People. Sunday 19th - Thursday 24th December 1992 TIMEWYRM: REVELATION The Doctor sneaks into St Christopher's church in Cheldon Bonniface during a service and gives a baby girl to Emily Hutchings, before quickly departing.
The Doctor and Ace stay in Cheldon Bonniface until January. It's the Sunday before Christmas 1992 on page 2, the day on which most of the book happens, and Christmas Eve on page 214. The Doctor and Ace finally leave in January, according to page 218. 1993 c. 3rd January 1993 Polly Wright loses her job as PA to the managing director of the firm for which she has worked for the last 12 years. Six weeks before Short Trips Companions: Cirriculum Vitae page 139. 14th February 1993 SHORT TRIPS COMPANIONS: CIRRICULUM VITAE Polly Wright goes to a job interview for the post of PA to John Eliot Maurice. It's after John Major's re-election in May 1992 and implicity before Labour's victory in May 1997. 2Unlimited became number 1 in the charts the day before page 137. If we go by the real world UK singles charts, 2Unlimited knocked Whitney Houston off the top spot on the 13th of February 1993.
By this year, I2 was controlled by the Voracians. According to System Shock (page 73). It is implied that they created the company not long before then, but as I2 is around in 1989 ( Unusual), this is probably when they infiltrated the company. Cheryl is born. She will be fatally run over by a car when she is six. According to Cat's Cradle: Warhead pages 174-177. The 08:12 train from Amersham to Aldgate is caught in a Fortean Flicker, and the passengers transported to another planet centuries in the future. They are, however, returned to Rickmansworth Station. That day's tabloid headlines included Daisy the windsurfing duck goes completely quackers, How did those bananas get into my chimney stack asks stunning Stacy, Space aliens turned my daughter into a red pepper, and Shrewsbury showered by sardines (the Daily Mail's). Their disappearance happened in The Highest Science and is dated on page 2, More details (including headlines) are given on pages 13-15 and 111. The train's return occurs in Happy Endings (page 5). The Doctor, Ace, and Benny meet Danny Pain and his daughter Amy at the 1993 Glastonbury festival and stage a Plasticine reunion. This is the epilogue to No Future. Raymond Heath helps the EG Corporation build a plant for processing Martian soil. This was four years before The Dying Days chapter 13 page 10.
18th November 1993 THE DIMENSION RIDERS Time Lord Epsilon Delta, from Gallifrey's future, is hiding out in St. Matthew's College Oxford. He is responsible for the assassination of a government minister who was recorded as having survived, in order to help the Garvond. In return, he expects to gain power. It transpires that the assassinated minister was actually Epsilon Delta, who then disappears in a temporal paradox. The year is given on page 2, the date on page 13. November 1993 GOTH OPERA The Time Lady Ruath resurrects the vampire Yarven, believing ancient Gallifreyan prophecies about a vampire messiah. Together, they attempt to gain the blood of the Doctor to fulfil some of these prophecies, before beginning a massive recruitment drive in Manchester. Whilst Ruath perfects a device that can control the time of day, the vampires use televangelist Victor Lang's crusade to release vampire DNA into the atmosphere. The Doctor, however, manages to transport the vampires to a planet with two suns, causing their destruction. The year is on page 24, the month on page 62. 31st October 1993 THE LEFT HANDED HUMMINGBIRD The so-called Halloween Man opens fire on an unsuspecting crowd in a Mexico City marketplace. Cristián Alvarez narrowly avoids death in this incident. The massacre date is on page 9.
1994 An unmanned space probe discovers Cassius, a planet beyond Pluto in the Solar System. Cassius is established as the 10th planet according to human reckoning in The Sun Makers. The date of its discovery is from Iceberg. The battle of Cassius is mentioned in The Crystal Bucephalus. Industrial action by signalmen brings the rail network to a stop. Over the next four years, this leads to a phasing out of signalmen in favour of computerised systems. System Shock. Sam Jones holds hands with John Govan on the way back from the Coal Hill disco. En route, she snuggles up to the fake-fur collar of his overcoat. They sit on the bench outside Woolies and he fails to take her hints about having a snog. Sam later tells her friends that he is a rotten kisser. According to pages 35-36 of Kursaal.
On the Doctor's first visit to Earth, he meets a marketing manager who has been selling poisonous products despite having to admit that they kill people. Venusian Lullaby. The Doctor doesn't give any details, so I arbitrarily decided that he was referring to the tobacco industry and set this event in the year the book was published. However, it is well established that the Doctor's first visit to Earth was during the French Revolution. 8th July 1994 INVASION OF THE CAT PEOPLE A house in Cumbria, called the Grange, was destroyed along with its grounds. The body of the gamekeeper, Charles Albert Coates, was found at the bottom of a cliff on the grounds, apparently killed by falling off the cliff. A white kitten was found in the remains of the house. The body of estate manager George Smithers was never found. A University of Greenwich ghost-hunting group was visiting the house at the time. The university bursar, Ms Thorsuun, and a university administrator, Herr Kerbe, both died in the incident. Their bodies were never recovered. Professor Bridgeman and three students survived, having been out of the house at the time. No public explanation was ever given for the incident. At the same time, a ship of cat people from Feles disappeared in Mutters Spiral. The main story starts Friday 8th July 1994. The Doctor, Benny, Chris, and Roz spend a few days at Allen Road. They are recovering from their experiences on Zamper. June 1994 DECALOG 2: HOUSEWARMING Sarah-Jane Smith and Mike Yates are involved in a ghost hunt. It turns out that the house is owned by the Doctor and that the Master is interfering, having detected the approaching TARDIS. It's after The Five Doctors. Sarah makes an X-Files reference (so it's at least late 1993) on page 158. Brendan is taking exams at Cambridge (page 158). Given that he's 14 in K9 and Company, he would have graduated by 1990 at the latest unless he took several years out, or had to resit. Perhaps he's doing a postgrad course which has exams (unlikely, but possible). Timothy Dean's great-granddaughter becomes a vegetarian. 'Last summer' before April 1995, according to Human Nature page 253. Samantha Jones' father's grandmother dies aged 88. She had been suffering from Alzheimer's Disease. When Sam was 13, according to The Bodysnatchers page 227. 1995 On the planet Raxacoricofallapatorius, the family Slitheen is tried in its absence and found guilty with no chance of appeal. If [certain] members of the family set foot on the planet, they will be executed. According to Margaret in Boom Town. 5th April 1995 Francis Cleary dies shortly after asking James Stevens to write about what happened in the 70s. According to Who Killed Kennedy page 271. Vincent Wheaton, Rebecca Cox, Guthrie, Calvin Palmer, Sean, and Warren are all born this year. They are all in the same school year, and appear to be 14 in Cat's Cradle: Warhead pages 105 and 152. April 1995 Timothy Dean attends the annual reunion of the Norfolk Regiment. He very briefly meets the Doctor and Benny, but soon after this, Timothy dies of natural causes. According to Human Nature pages 253 and 254. It is dated as April 1995. DOWNTIME Sarah Jane Smith is hired to investigate the disappearance of a number of people connected to the 1968 London Event. Meanwhile, a computer virus brings London to a halt and spreads through the Internet. Among the reported effects are: the broadcast of CIA files on Russian TV, bank cashpoints releasing all their cash, and Tomahawk launches in the Gulf. The vice-chancellor of New World University, Victoria Harris, disappears. According to secret UNIT files, Victoria Harris was born in 1852 and the chancellor, Edward Travis, was a dead man. According to the book, it's about 30 (page 99) or over 25 (page 134) years since The Web of Fear (hence 1993-1998). It's nearly 20 years since Fury From The Deep (hence about 1995) and since Sarah's time at UNIT (hence about 1993-1996). It's about 10 years since 1984 (hence 1994ish). The Brigadier has been teaching for about 20 years (making it about 1997). It's 130 years after 1865 - so 1995 (page 135). Millennial Rites, set in 1999, places it 4 years previously (1995). Soon after this, Colonel Crichton is promoted to General, following only his third battle against extra-terrestrial forces. According to the Brigadier in The Dying Days this was two years before 1997 (chapter 10 page 10). Roweena Williams is shot through the spine by an intruder. This is said to be two years before Genocide pages 44-46. August 1995 Sarah Jane Smith publishes Irongron's Star in Metropolitan magazine. Decalog 3: Moving On. November 1995 FALLS THE SHADOW After 5 years of experimentation on the Thascales Theorem, Professor Jeremy Winterdawn interfaced with an alien construct called the Cathedral. This released a number of beings from alternate universes, along with two powerful manifestations of pain. These were finally destroyed. Page 4 tells us that it's November. It's 5 years after UN adventurism in the Persian Gulf (pages 113-114), presumably referring to the 1991 Gulf War or its build-up. Thus it's 1995 or 1996. Elvis Presley dies of diabetes. According to Oswald in The Dying Days chapter 9. [Upon reaching 65], Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart retires from teaching. He marries Doris. After Mawdryn Undead and Downtime, but before Battlefield. The dates and circumstances of these two events are unknown, but 65 is the standard retirement age and he reaches that this year. 1996 January 1996 Sarah Jane Smith publishes Operation Golden Age in Metropolitan magazine. Decalog 3: Moving On. James Stevens and David Bishop's book Who Killed Kennedy is published. It exposes UNIT and department C19. However, MI5 ensured that its dates and cover were altered, that it is labelled Science Fiction, and that the publisher won't publish anything similar ever again. James Stevens vanishes at the time. They also keep tracks on everyone who borrows or orders it. According to Staines and Veronica Haliwell in The Dying Days chapter 2 page 7. This was said to be 'last year' from 1997. The epilogue to Who Killed Kennedy is dated January 1996. DECALOG 3: UNITED WE FALL The UN impounds all UNIT UK's equipment and ships it to New York as part of an investigation UNIT requisitions during the early 1970's. Meanwhile, a man with a grudge against the Doctor steals some of the equipment to make a dangerous bomb, following which he uses the recall device to summon the Doctor. The bomb is defused and the hearing cancelled. The Brigadier has been retired as a soldier for a decade and a half, making it c.1991. Bambera is a Brigadier, so it's after Downtime (1995). Lethbridge-Stewart has encountered out of sequence Doctors twice before (at least that he remembers), both times with massive consequences. Thus it's after The Three Doctors and The Five Doctors (1983). It's nearly 2 decades since the Brigadier last saw the fourth Doctor, making it before 1996 - although Heart of TARDIS completely mucks both parts of this dating. Mind you, the dating in Heart of TARDIS is so appalling, I'm tempted to strike it from continuity. February 1996 Sarah Jane Smith publishes Exxilon in Metropolitan magazine. Decalog 3: Moving On. April 1996 Sarah Jane Smith publishes Return to Peladon in Metropolitan magazine. Decalog 3: Moving On. July 1996 Sarah Jane Smith publishes Eightlegs in Metropolitan magazine. Decalog 3: Moving On. The British Government makes a fool of itself over State Secret. This was 'last year' according to Veronica Haliwell on The Dying Days chapter 2 page 8. I'd guess this is a film that exposes UNIT, or one of the alien invasions. In San Francisco, a cult in Noe Valley (in or near San Francisco) attack seven people, cut open their victims' veins, and drink their blood. Two of the victims died before help could reach them. This was 'last year', according to Vampire Science pages 26-27. Biochemist Carolyn McConnell meets lighting designer James Court. Eleven months before Vampire Science page 28. The Doctor left Professor Arthur Candy in Birmingham. According to the Afterword on page 304 of Decalog 3: Consequences. The year is stated. THE SANDS OF TIME An Egyptian artefact, actually an Osiran generator loop, goes missing from the British Museum. The date is given on page 117 (instalment 4, page 25). THE CHASE The 1996 Festival of Ghana takes place. One of the exhibits was Frankenstein's House of Horror. It contains advanced robot models of Frankenstein's monster, Dracula, and the Grey lady among others. Daleks arrive in this time, but the exhibits destroy several of them. The exhibition is closed after Chinese protests. [These were brought on by an incident in which Chinese visitors were injured by the robots.] A sign says "Festival of Ghana 1996." In Original Sin, Tobias Vaughn claims to have seen the Dalek time machine at the 1995 Earth Fair in Ghana, but he admits that his memories are corrupted. It is never established how or why Peking would cancel the exhibition. Perpugilliam Brown returns to Earth, having aged at least 25 years. The epilogue to Bad Therapy. It is dated in the late Twentieth Century, and Peri's passport is out of date. I arbitrarily assume it's contemporary. It could equally be fairly soon after she left Earth. August 1996 INTERFERENCE Sarah-Jane Smith makes an undercover visit to the COPEX arms fair. She discovers a new weapon known as the Cold being sold by a group known as the Remote. She teams up with Samantha Jones and the eighth Doctor. She offers Sam a place to stay until she can return to her old life. DECALOG 3: MOVING ON Scott Wojzek, boss of Tonska Industries, commits suicide. Two months later, Sarah Jane Smith realises she is possessed by the Cerrunos. Cerrunos had previously possessed Wojzek, his late partner Kendrick, and psychologist Bendick. She throws off the possession, having damaged K9 beyond repair. The story takes place over two months, and towards the end, it appears to be autumn (page 58). Sarah is unfamiliar with modern technology, having been away from Earth for several years. However, other information strongly suggests that this is the 90s, and she's been back on Earth for at least a decade. K9 is still fully functional by Interference (set 1996). On the other hand, we have the bibliography. Sarah doesn't appear to have started publishing her stories yet, (the novel she's working on during the story isn't based on her time with the Doctor), so it's before August 1995. Moving On is published in 10 years time, several years (page 72) after her last novel (published 2001). Thus, the Bibliography suggests it's slightly before August 1995. I'm setting it soon after Interference, assuming that Sarah has started writing short stories based on her travels to make ends meet, without realising their full potential. November 1996 THE SANDS OF TIME Sir John Mapleton is murdered, and a single Egyptian bracelet is stolen from his house. At the same time, Vanessa Prior has a 21st birthday party at Kenilworth Hall. Her fiancé's house is burgled, and he goes missing and Kenilworth Hall burns to the ground. Nyssa was due to wake up in precisely 100 years time, according to page 64 (instalment 2 page 26), and the Doctor says he is a few days early on page 186 (instalment 7, page 11). An alien spacecraft falls to Earth. Its technology will eventually be used to create the Torchwood weapon. According to Harriet Jones in The Christmas Invasion 1997 The late 90's saw a period of rapid inflation. In some areas a lemonade, a vodka and coke, and a glass of water cost £5. By this time, there was a [possibly commemorative] five pound coin. This inflation was presumably connected to a period of strong economic growth. The round of drinks is from Battlefield, where we see the £5 coin. Such coins are also seen in Cat's Cradle: Warhead. In System Shock (1998), there's a headline saying "Economic Growth in Single Figures". In the ten years after this, the Russians would "decommission" 150 nuclear submarines. Not one of these would have its reactor removed. Ten years before The Deviant Strain page 28. BATTLEFIELD A UNIT convoy is escorting a nuclear missile through the Carbury area. Their equipment is damaged by an energy pulse. Soon afterwards, a number of knights appear on the scene, as do Brigadiers Bambera and Lethbridge-Stewart. During this incident, massive damage is done to an archaeological dig. [After these events, the dig was sealed off at the orders of C19.] The Doctor notes that it's a few years in Ace's future (hence the 90's). Zbrigniev seems to remember meeting three incarnations of the Doctor and appears to be in his mid-30s. Assuming he's not talking about unrecorded adventures, this gives at most 20 years since The Invasion (1969). The novel sets this in the mid 90's. Warmsley's tax disc runs out on 30/6/99. Ben Aaronovitch, the author, stated that it was c.1997 in Virgin's Future History Continuity document. These events appear to have been a few months before The Dying Days and an unknown time after Downtime. After these events, Morgaine - an immensely powerful other-dimensional sorceress - was locked up. She escapes immediately afterwards, but felt a bit sheepish as a result. According to the Doctor in Human Nature page 237. THE PIT UNIT is called in to investigate an alien skeleton on Salisbury Plain. Soon afterwards, batlike creatures tear apart a passenger airliner outside Bristol. UNIT never found out where the skeleton came from. It's the 1990s and after Battlefield, as the Doctor is confident that Bambera knows who he is. However, the Doctor tells UNIT that he hasn't visited this time period for a few years. Perhaps he's referring to his personal timeline. Roweena Michaels gets drunk and angry, and attempts to walk around a room. She spends the night in agony, and has to spend the next three days in bed. This was 'months' before Genocide page 57 (June 1997). Gordon Pymble, US Ambassador to Burunda, is killed by Vampires. The details of the murder are hushed up. He was found in an alley with his pants round his ankles, a tangerine in his mouth, and bite marks on his right hip and left shoulder. A month before Vampire Science page 38. THE EIGHT DOCTORS The Eighth Doctor, bereft of his memories, intervenes to save Samantha Jones from the wrath of some school drug dealers, on whom she has been informing. He is arrested by local police for possession of crack cocaine. Shortly afterwards, there is a near riot outside the police station. The Doctor escapes, taking the drugs to Totter's Lane. It is over thirty years since An Unearthly Child on page 6. The setting is contemporary, but the teenagers' slang is several years too early. If it is 1997, it's almost certainly before The Dying Days, or the Police would have recognised the Doctor. Grant Oxwell is killed by vampires in San Francisco. His body is found on the roof of a fish shop dressed in a diving suit with a note attached to his back saying 'bite me'. A week before Vampire Science pages 37-38. VAMPIRE SCIENCE Senator Daniel Ben-Zvi is murdered in his own front yard in San Francisco. His body is drained of blood and police suspect a link to the Noe Valley Killings. Over the next few days there are a series of incidents centred around Goth bar The Other Place, including the deaths of the manager and three staff. A local doctor called David Shackle disappears. It's 1997 on page 25, and "a matter of weeks" after The Eight Doctors on page 143. Kramer claims that part of UNIT's role is to make sure that no-one finds out about the aliens until everyone's ready to deal with them. This strongly suggests that the story is set before The Dying Days. It begins on Saturday and ends on Thursday. Time travelling Tractites arrive on Earth. The group quickly depart for earlier times, but one is left behind with a seedling from their time tree. This Tractite, Gavril, attempts to continue their aim of preventing the human race from ever existing. This was a thousand years before the humans attacked Tractis, according to Mauvril in Genocide (page 223), and before Gauvril meets Hynes. GENOCIDE Jacob Hynes visits a Planet First group in California. He freaks them out by saying that he wants to utterly destroy humanity. The date for this part of the story is uncertain. It is just before Hynes starts trying to get a UNIT cover identity - so it can't be too long before June 1997. April 30th 1997 THE DYING DAYS Kadiatu and aM!xitsa drop Benny on the planet Earth. The date is given on page 1. At this time, there were subversive groups operating in London, security leaks in the press, terrorism, increases in gun-related crime, and riots. According to Staines in The Dying Days chapter 2 page 7. The riots were 'last week' from May 6th or 7th. May 6th to 7th 1997 THE DYING DAYS The British Space Programme has launched a new mission to Mars - the first in 20 years. To celebrate its landing, a public holiday is declared. Whilst the holiday is taking place, the murderer Alexander Christian escapes custody during a helicopter journey. Later that day, the Prime minister, who is on a visit to Washington DC, is assassinated. At 8 p.m. BST, a Martian spacecraft arrives above London. Approximately half an hour later, it broadcasts the following message: 'WARRIORS UNDER THE BANNER OF THE UNITED KINGDOM HAVE VIOLATED THE TOMB OF OUR GREAT MARSHALL KYRUUL OF THE ARGYRE CLAN, UNDER THE SACRED SANDS OF THE MARE SIRENUM. THESE CRIMINALS ATTEMPTED TO STEAL THE TREASURES WITHIN. THEIR SHAMEFUL ACT IS ONE FOR WHICH THE WHOLE CLAN MUST BE PUNISHED. IN ACCORDANCE WITH OUR LAW, ALL TERRITORIES, MINERAL RIGHTS AND THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE CLANS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM ARE NOW FORFEIT. THE UNITED KINGDOM IS NOW UNDER THE RULE OF THE HEAD OF THE ARGYRE CLAN, THE LORD XZNAAL, AND ALL ITS CITIZENS ARE SUBJECT TO MARTIAN FEUDAL LAW. YOU HAVE ONE HOUR TO AGREE TO THESE TERMS. AT THAT TIME, YOUR LEADER SHALL COME HERE IN PERSON AND SUBMIT TO OUR REGENCY.' The UN asks for clarification of the Martians' intentions, and receives the following message: 'OUR ONLY DISPUTE IS WITH THE CLANS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. WE HOPE TO LIVE IN PEACE WITH ALL THE OTHER RACES OF THE EARTH. HOWEVER, SHOULD OTHER HUMAN CLANS ATTEMPT TO ATTACK MARTIAN TERRITORY OR INTERFERE WITH THE INTERNAL AFFAIRS OF THE MARTIAN DEPENDENCIES, THEN THIS WILL BE TREATED AS AN ACT OF WAR AND WE WILL RESPOND IN THE APPROPRIATE MANNER.' There is confusion, and some troops attack the ship. They are destroyed and the Martians issue the following declaration: 'PEOPLE OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. YOUR ASTRONAUTS COMMITTED A TERRIBLE CRIME THROUGH THEIR IGNORANCE. THIS SHOULD NOT BE THE WAY OUR RACES FIRST MEET. LET US PUT TODAY BEHIND US AND WORK TOGETHER. WE HAVE MUCH TO OFFER ONE ANOTHER. YOUR FELLOW HUMAN CLANS ABANDONED YOU, YET YOU FOUGHT FOR YOUR BELIEFS. THIS WE RESPECT. WE HAVE TALKED TO YOUR LORD GREYHAVEN. HE IS A BRAVE, BOLD MAN. LET US LIVE IN PEACE, PEOPLE OF THE UNITED KINGDOM AND OF MARS. Following this, Greyhaven becomes head of a provisional government. However, a number of military units remain loyal to Queen Elizabeth II - who has been forced to flee the country. The following day, Xznaal is crowned in a coronation ceremony at the Tower of London, and the Martians release a poison gas weapon over the village of Adisham in Kent. Hundreds of people die in the attack. The BBC says it's Tuesday 6th May in Chapter 1, page 3. However, the Daily Mirror on the same day claims that it's the 7th in Chapter 2, page 1. May 14th 1997 The Provisional Government begins repatriation flights from Heathrow to transport foreign nationals back home. There are half a million such people waiting for the flights. May 15th 1997 THE DYING DAYS The Martian ship helps the Provisional government attack Royalist forces at Portsmouth Harbour. It destroys them, but is damaged by missile attack. Later that day, the Resistance forces, commanded by Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, move on London. The Provisional Government forces pull back to Downing Street and the Tower of London as the Martians open fire. However, the Provisional Government forces soon surrender, and the Martian ship is destroyed by Resistance air power. The date is given at the beginning of chapter 12. Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart is promoted to General. This is between The Dying Days and its epilogue. June 6th GENOCIDE Two amateur palaeontologists are digging in the Kilgai gorge, Tanzania, when they discover a homo sapiens skull that is two and a half million years old. They are then barred from the area by a UNIT squad controlled by Captain Jacob Hines. That night, they are attacked by Hines and an alien, and phone Jo Grant in England. Jo, courtesy of UNIT connections, travels to Africa. Jo and her friends end up as captives of Captain Hynes before being sent millions of years back in time. The Skull is dated as being uncovered on 6.5.97. As Rowenna and Julie are Americans, this makes it the 5th of June. On page 76, Jo recalls that her time at UNIT was more than 20 years ago. INFINITE REQUIEM Tilusha Meswani dies after giving birth to a son very prematurely. The son disappears an hour later. Hospital staff refuse to discuss the incident. The year is given on page 26. September 1997 MORE SHORT TRIPS: SOW IN RUT Some kind of intelligence temporarily possesses K9 in search of revenge against humanity. It is September on page 137. The Spice Girls are around, so it's at least 1996. Sarah has recently placed an ad in Time Out, which led to her meeting some of the Doctor's old companions. (Perhaps meeting Sam in Interference made her curious). Brendan has a games console, so it's at least the late 80s. She is also working on a novel, so it may be after Decalog 3: Moving On. Sarah Jane Smith publishes the books More than Human and Noah's Ark. Decalog 3: Moving On. November 1997 Sarah Jane Smith publishes The Destructors in Metropolitan magazine. Decalog 3: Moving On. 23rd November 1997 THE DYING DAYS: EPILOGUE Elizabeth II is re-crowned, the only Re-coronation in British history. The date is given at the start of the section. 1998 "Nothing of interest" happened in this year According to the Doctor's memory in System Shock. Given the events of the book, his memory was clearly mistaken. The Scots get a little restless with the United Kingdom. According to the Doctor in The Roundheads page 9. This happens "around the end of the twentieth century". Presumably he's referring to the SNP and devolution. In the 18th July NME, Paul Travers reviews a Johnny Chess concert in the Moles club in Bath. There's an extract from the review in Timewyrm: Revelation (page 87). Kate, daughter of film producer Lloyd Kingsley-Sayle, temporarily disappears. She is presumed kidnapped, and retains no memories of this time. "Last year" according to Lloyd in More Short Trips: Scientific Advisor. The Japanese set up the Nikkei 5 station in Antarctica. Its main purpose is to measure carbon dioxide levels and determine the effect of global warming [presumably, they also want to determine ozone depletion]. Iceberg, page 61. The book Shakespeare's Playing Space by Michael Campling is published. It is cited on page 257 of Theatre of War. Rose Tyler gets lost in Hampton Court Maze whilst on a school trip. In 1998, according to page 77 of Winner Takes All. The company I2 was, by this time, one of the leading computer companies. Their language, Vorell, was used on the bulk of computers. They were also responsible for the XNet protocols. These included CarNet, OffNet, and BattleNet, which co-ordinated traffic, offices and military forces. BritTrack had replaced human signallers with automated systems and XNet systems controlled almost everything. Their owner, 43 year-old Lionel Stabfield, was the fifth-richest man on the planet. The company Applied Automation marketed the XNet compatible chip. I2 had brought rights to major works of art and released them on interactive discs. Other technology used at this time included recordable CD-ROMS, flatpanel & interactive TV. [Maybe they introduced digital TV earlier than we did, and maybe more people had cable and satellite]. In response to all this new technology, the government set up the Ministry of Information Technology. [In the 70's, there was a department of technology. Presumably, the department of IT was a section of this elevated in status.] The European section of the Internet was almost entirely routed through Hubway, a converted Queen Anne building in Wiltshire, previously known as Aragon Court. This is the background to System Shock. SYSTEM SHOCK As Hubway went on line, computer systems worldwide crashed. The official explanation was that there had been a terrorist attack on Hubway, [presumably involving a sophisticated computer virus]. The cause had, in fact, been an attempted alien invasion, stopped by MI5, COBRA and the SAS. The year is given on page 21. "Nothing much of interest" happened this year, according to the Doctor on page 23. It's about 20 years after Sarah's time (page 67), thus the early/mid 90's. Sarah guesses that there's a greying, mid-forties version of her in this time (page 100). In the epilogue, this version meets up with Harry. Following the collapse of I2, Ashley Chapel's company ACL brought up their patents. This made Chapel a multi-millionaire. ACL financed the New Millennium Hall on the Thames and began work on the Millennium Codex, a program that used quantum mnemonics and block transfer computation to rewrite the laws of physics. Before Millennial Rites. Sarah Jane Smith publishes Dalek Dawn, Return to the Ark and Terror of the Loch. Decalog 3: Moving On. SHORT TRIPS: MOTHER'S LITTLE HELPER The American born teenager Nanci Cruz goes missing for at least one day in the UK town of Southmouth. At the same time, the Doctor rescues a child capable of removing pain from an alien living on Earth. The school disco scene, mention of maintenance payments and Nanci's mother's Apple Mac suggest a contemporary setting. SHORT TRIPS AND SIDE STEPS: REUNION The alien Dobtcheff tried to reunite himself and his ship. He failed, causing minor damage to the Northern Line where it runs under the Thames. The headline in the Evening Standard says that five tube workers have been killed on the Jubilee Line extension (page 181), so it's the late 90's. 25th December 1998 12-year-old Rose Tyler receives a red bicycle for Christmas. According to the Doctor in The Doctor Dances, and Rose seems to agree with him. 1999 Sarah Jane Smith publishes Forbidden Matter, A Gift of Death, and The Kraal Invasion. Decalog 3: Moving On. Seven year-old Justine is walking home from school when her six-year old friend Cheryl is run over by a car. According to Cat's Cradle: Warhead pages 174-177, which gives the girls' ages. MORE SHORT TRIPS: SCIENTIFIC ADVISOR A film company makes a film based on the CyberFaction invasion of 1969. The second Doctor is employed by UNIT to act as scientific advisor to the film in order to misinform. In the process, he disables a Cyber-infiltration unit. The Doctor "can't have been much more than a kid" during The Invasion. Given the Brigadier's thoughts about meeting Doctors out of sequence in Decalog 3: UNITed We Fall, this must be after that (unless someone has been tampering with the Brigadier's memories). They have been making big films in the UK for some years. The Crystal Bucephalus suggests that the Doctor poured vast sums of money into the British film industry, in order to keep his bank balance from becoming embarrassingly large. At this point, Rose Tyler had a boyfriend in the school year above her who was good at starting food fights. This was when she was 13, according to The Monsters Inside page 73. MORE SHORT TRIPS: THE ETERNITY CONTRACT A telepath calling himself Lord Carnon had been kidnapping human minds at the point of death and subjecting them to emotional torment. When he caused the Doctor and Nyssa to visit the house, his control was broken. One of the minds he kidnapped, Patricia Hopkins, managed to avoid death. The residents of Carnon Manor are all from Earth 1999 (page 116). September 1999 MORE SHORT TRIPS: RETURN OF THE SPIDERS Some spiders from Metebelis 3 in the far future managed to travel to High Wycombe, Earth. They planned to colonise the universe. The Doctor, Romana, K9, and the local fire brigade interrupted their plans. The humans were taken prisoner in early September. The setting is clearly contemporary. MORE SHORT TRIPS: HOT ICE The Doctor is lured to a house in Suburbiton, where he is framed for the theft of the Eye of Gaar. The setting is contemporary. December 1999 SHORT TRIPS AND SIDE STEPS: PLEASE SHUT THE GATE The Mars Polar Lander lands on Mars and immediately loses contact with Earth. The Doctor says that this is December 1999 on page 122. 30th December 1999-1st January 2000 MILLENNIAL RITES At midnight GMT on 31st December 1999, the Millennium Codex, and attempts by Anne Travers to prevent it from summoning the Great Intelligence, caused reality to be warped. London became a battle among three opposing forces: Magick, Technomancy, and Abraxas. These represented the physical laws of this, the previous, and the next universe. After ten minutes, these laws unravelled. Fifteen people had died. [The authorities covered up the incident, blaming recollections on mass hysteria.] The date is clearly stated. ENEMY WITHIN A white man is shot in the middle of a Chinese gang battle in San Francisco. He is taken to the Walker General Hospital and dies during heart surgery. His x-rays consistently come up double-exposed, apparently showing two hearts. The man's corpse then disappears. The atomic clock due to be started at the Institute of Technological Advancement and Research at midnight 31st December 1999 fails, due to the disappearance of an essential chip. The chip had, in fact, been used to prevent Earth being sucked through the Eye of Harmony. Soon afterwards it was discovered that Walker General paramedic Bruce Gerhardt had disappeared and that his wife Miranda had been murdered. The date is repeatedly stated. Some details come from the novelisation. 2000 Dorothée makes friends with a dancer in London, who discovers that she has a time-travelling bike. This friend asks her about going to see the 1913 performance of Le Sacre du Printeps ballet. Ace mentions this in Lungbarrow (pages 223-224 / Chapter 25 page 4). New York police trainee Tessa Mancuso refuses to use a new gun despite a direct order. Her sergeant demonstrates the weapon herself, and ends up collecting a fifty percent disability pension. Nine years before Cat's Cradle: Warhead page 200. The Hourly Tele-press [began] to keep humanity informed about current affairs. One of its most popular features was The Karkus cartoon strip. This is mentioned by Zoe in The Mind Robber episode 4. This may well have been an Internet newspaper. Its format is never mentioned. [Internet news services] offered personally sifted news from the [Internet and other] media. TV services offered the option of news broadcasts interrupting whatever else you were watching. Cat's Cradle: Warhead and System Shock. The latter technology may be similar to those car radios where local travel news interrupts whatever you're listening to. SHORT TRIPS COMPANIONS: BALLOON DEBATE Sarah Jane Smith writes a short, fanciful, piece on the Doctor's companions to break her writer's block for the anniversary edition of Columbine magazine. Sarah is writing for the anniverary issue of Columbine magazine, setting this a year or more after the Columbine massacre in April 1999. However, the absence of Samantha Jones from the featured companions suggests that it is before Interference. SHORT TRIPS AND SIDE STEPS: MONSTERS A number of people saw lights in the sky on the night that a grocery store was unexpectedly demolished. Ace says it's 2000 on page 223, but some of the schoolkids' slang seems rather too early for that. [Soon after this, Kirsty is taken to a doctor connected to UNIT. He is able to help do something about her mother's Munchausen by proxy.] This is conjecture. At the end of the story, Kirsty's mum has spoken to someone who sounds very like a high-up UNIT person. It seems quite likely that the Doctor asked UNIT to do something to help Kirsty. SHORT TRIPS AND SIDE STEPS: VRS The Cybermen release a computer virus that destroys vowels. The year is stated on page 348. Eight-year old Adam Mitchell logs onto the USA's defence systems, and nearly causes World War Three. He mentions this in The Long Game, where he gives his age at the time. An update to Mickey's website which happened at some point between the March 2006 setting of Aliens of London / World War Three and the September 2006 setting of Boom Town gives Adam's age as 14, so I'm using that date as a reference for his age. 12th August 2000 Russian submarine, the Kursk, sinks. This is mentioned, but not dated, by Razul on page 84 of The Deviant Strain, where it is mentioned that Razul's cousin was onboard. Rose Tyler and her friend Shareen Costello go on a school trip to France but skipped visiting the Louvre and sneaked into Parc Asterix. When she was 13, according to the 2005 Doctor Who Annual's character guide to Rose by Russell T Davies. c. 2000 EXCELIS RISING The town of Excelis on the planet Artaris had become an empire - ruled by an Imperial family, and competing with Galal and Kalan. They had developed steam technology, dirigible flight, and newspapers. There were even manned trips to redbrick moon - by cannon fired from the top of Mount Excelis. Lord Grayvorn was believed to be a non-existent mythical figure, the truth known only to those with access to the black room of the imperial archives. One night thieves broke into the Excelis Museum, aided by a member of museum staff. Both thieves died, having been hired by Reeve Maupassant to steal the legendary relic. However, Maupassant was apparently killed when he opened the relic. There are several references to say that this story happens a thousand years after Excelis Dawns | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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