[1264] Dating Partners in Crime (X4.01) - No month is given here, but in the alternate timeline in Turn Left, the Adipose incident takes place in March. An Adipose Industries customer tells Donna that she “started taking the pills on Thursday” and has been doing so for “five days”, meaning the story begins on a Tuesday. It concludes the next day.
[1265] Dating Turn Left (X4.11) - It’s at least “eight weeks” since the Titanic disaster, as the Colasantos family have been living in Leeds that long, and the Nobles are told they face “another three months” stuck where they are unless they relocate to Leeds.
[1266] Dating The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky (X4.5-4.6) - The month isn’t given, but the dating can be extrapolated from the alternative universe seen in Turn Left, and the fact that only “a few days” have passed since Donna left with the Doctor in Partners in Crime. Frustratingly, Martha walks past a wall calendar that is too blurry to make out.
The Brigadier also mentions being in Peru in SJA: Enemy of the Bane. Russell T Davies has said that UNIT’s name change resulted from the United Nations asking that its name not be associated with the group, although UNIT is said to still receive UN funding.
[1267] The Doctor’s Daughter
[1268] The Taking of Chelsea 426
[1269] Dating Turn Left (X4.11) - This is the parallel timeline’s version of The Poison Sky.
[1270] Dating TW: Fragments and TW: Exit Wounds (TW 2.12-2.13) - The repeated flashback segments in TW: Fragments best align with established Torchwood continuity if the final two episodes of Series 2 occur in 2009. Most relevantly, it’s established that Ianto approached Jack for a job “21 months” ago, after the destruction of Torchwood One (in Doomsday) in 2007. If Doomsday is indeed set in July 2007, then Fragments would occur in April 2009. It might seem like a glitch when Jack tells the Torchwood of 1901 to deep-freeze him and set the alarm for “107 years’ time...”, suggesting a target year of 2008, but if he’s unearthed late in 1901, he could easily be rounding down from, “107 years and a few months”.
[1271] TW: Lost Souls
[1272] Dating SJA: The Last Sontaran (SJA 2.1) - The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky are referenced in detail, so it’s after those stories. No mention is made of events of The Stolen Earth, and, notably, both Maria’s mum Chrissie and Professor Skinner’s daughter Lucy become incredulous upon learning that aliens are real. Chrissie isn’t portrayed as the brightest of people, but Lucy - as the daughter of a man whose job is to search for friendly life in outer space - would surely better keep track of this sort of thing. The point is that while it’s a little suspect to think that they haven’t noticed all the very public alien events that have taken place throughout New Who, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures before now, it’s barking mad to think that they’re still in the dark after events of The Stolen Earth/Journey’s End. Moreover, this reflects a marked shift within The Sarah Jane Adventures Series 2 itself - Clyde’s dad mentions “those Dalek things” (i.e. The Stolen Earth/Journey’s End) mid-way through the series in SJA: The Mark of the Berserker, and by SJA: Enemy of the Bane, the last story of Series 2, the Brigadier can bluff his way out of a tight spot by saying that, “as the cat’s out of the bag” with regards aliens, he’s now at liberty to reveal details of his UNIT days in his memoirs.
While it’s very counter-intuitive, the best fit is to place The Last Sontaran prior to The Stolen Earth (i.e. in spring 2009), and to set the rest of The Sarah Jane Adventures Series 2 later in the year. (The alternative would be to set The Last Sontaran at least six weeks prior to SJA: The Day of the Clown, which would mean that the Park Vale school year has started nearly a month earlier than normal - see SJA: Revenge of the Slitheen and SJA: The Nightmare Man - for no discernible reason.) It might be relevant that when mention is made of the Doctor, Sarah Jane gives no clue that she’s met him recently in Journey’s End, further suggesting that story hasn’t happened yet.
Where Maria is concerned, a pre-The Stolen Earth dating makes some sense: if her father gets the job offer in spring, she might be allowed to finish out the school year (during the “six weeks” that pass prior to the epilogue of The Last Sontaran), and they move to America at the start of summer. It also works better to assume that not that long has passed since The Poison Sky for Kaagh (as opposed to a fall dating for The Last Sontaran, which would mean that he’s evidently been sitting around Earth for some months doing nothing). The only real glitch to all of this, then, is that when Luke gets an email dated 9th October from Maria in The Day of the Clown, it’s treated as if it’s the first time she’s gotten in touch with her old gang, when one would expect that she might have done so some time prior.
[1273] SJA: Enemy of the Bane
[1274] Dating Beautiful Chaos (NSA #29) - The story has a very precise dating framework, with the text split into days rather than chapters. Events begin on “Friday 15th May 2009” (per a newspaper dateline, p24), and progress to the following Monday (pgs 15, 79, 135, 185), with an epilogue that takes place the next “Friday” (p221). Page 53 reiterates that it’s the “middle of May”.
... all of this information, however, must be set aside because it clashes with the continuity of the TV episodes. Given the need for Planet of the Dead to occur at Easter 2009 (see the dating notes on that story for why), all Series 4-related stories must happen beforehand, ruling out a mid-May dating for Beautiful Chaos. Additionally, the story is said to happen “one month” after The Poison Sky (p13), which is dated in this chronology to mid-March 2009.
Conflict with the TV series aside, Beautiful Chaos (pgs 187-188) is otherwise accommodating to continuity by acknowledging the other Mandragora-related adventures: “The Mark of Mandragora”, Sarah Jane Smith Series 2 and The Eleventh Tiger. Fairchild is the Prime Minister whose plane goes down in The Stolen Earth.
[1275] Dating “The Time of My Life” (DWM #399) - The story was released in 2008, but the “year ahead” rule governing Series 4 might apply. It must be roughly contemporary in that Donna spies her house, and is incensed that her neighbours have a swimming pool that she didn’t know about. The London Eye, constructed in 1999, is seen in the background.
[1276] Dating Turn Left (X4.11) - “Three weeks” after The Poison Sky.
[1277] Dating The Stolen Earth/Journey’s End (X4.11) - This story crosses over with Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures, and picks up the story from all three series. It is set after The Poison Sky, but before Planet of the Dead; between TW: Exit Wounds and TW: Children of Earth; and at some point after SJA: Revenge of the Slitheen and before SJA: Secrets of the Stars (which mentions this story). Sarah says Luke is 14, as he was in Revenge of the Slitheen. Triangulating from all of that, The Stolen Earth would have to be set in early April, before Easter. Rose passes a sign advertising a dance night on “Friday 25 July” (which in 2009 was actually a Saturday) - not that this means it’s actually July, though.
Adelaide Brooke’s biography in The Waters of Mars confirms that this Dalek invasion occurred in “2008”. The Doctor says it’s a Saturday. Callufrax Minor (as it’s spelled on screen here) is presumably related to Calufrax (as it’s spelled on screen in The Pirate Planet).
[1278] The Waters of Mars
[1279] The Next Doctor, presuming the “greater battle” that the Doctor mentions refers to events in The Stolen Earth/Journey’s End.
[1280] Victory of the Daleks
[1281] Dating Planet of the Dead (X4.15) - It is “April” according to the bus driver, and the Doctor wishes Christina “Happy Easter”. This is after The Stolen Earth/Journey’s End, as “planets in the sky” are referenced. The story is mentioned in SJA: Mona Lisa’s Revenge, so must take place beforehand. Most importantly, Planet of the Dead must occur before The End of Time (TV) per a psychic’s prediction of not just the tenth Doctor’s impending death, but Gallifrey’s return.
Planet of the Dead, then, is the first contemporary Doctor Who TV story since Rose to be set the year it was shown, ending the practice (start
ing with Aliens of London) that “present day” stories are set around a year after broadcast. Any temptation to continue the “year later” tradition is overruled partly because of the psychic’s prediction, but also because The End of Time has to occur at the end of 2009 per the continuity of The Sarah Jane Adventures. Sarah and Luke first meet the tenth Doctor in Journey’s End (set in 2009), acknowledge that meeting in SJA: The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith (where it’s said that Sarah and the Tennant Doctor will meet at least one more time), they have their final meeting in The End of Time (TV) when the Doctor saves Luke from an oncoming car, and then Sarah acknowledges that meeting in SJA: Death of the Doctor (set in 2010), when she airs her suspicion that the Doctor regenerated because, “The last time I saw him, he didn’t say a word, he just looked at me”.
[1282] TW: Lost Souls. The real life CERN project was also mentioned in SJA: Invasion of the Bane.
[1283] “Six weeks” after Beautiful Chaos.
[1284] Dating SJA: The Last Sontaran (SJA 2.1) - This epilogue occurs six weeks after the story’s main events.
[1285] Dating Last of the Time Lords (X3.13) - It's “one year later” than the events of The Sound of Drums.
[1286] The Vengeance of Morbius, Orbis. Death in Blackpool specifies that Lucie is abducted in summer - no later than June, as she’s kidnapped “six months” after returning home in 2008.
[1287] Dating “Ghosts of the Northern Line” and “The Crimson Hand” (DWM #414-420) - Intersol agents state in “Ghosts of the Northern Line” that it’s “late ‘09, post-Stolen Earth scenario” (Journey’s End). Obama is said to be in power.
[1288] Dating the Torchwood Series 2/Series 3 interim stories (TW: Lost Souls, TW audio drama #1; TW: Almost Perfect, TW novel #9; TW: “Ma and Par”, TW webcomic #2; TW: “The Selkie”, TWM #14; TW: “Broken”, TWM #15-19; TW: The Sin Eaters, audiobook #4; TW: Into the Silence, TW novel #10; TW: Bay of the Dead, TW novel #11; TW: The House That Jack Built, TW novel #12; TW: Asylum, TW audio drama #2; TW: Golden Age, TW audio drama #3; TW: The Dead Line, TW audio drama #4; TW: Risk Assessment, TW novel #13; TW: The Undertaker’s Gift, TW novel #14; TW: Consequences, TW novel #15 - actually a novella collection, but generally counted as part of the novel range; TW: “Fated to Pretend”, TWM #20; TW: “Somebody Else’s Problem”, TWM #23; TW: “Hell House”, TWM #24; TW: Department X, TW audiobook #5; TW: Ghost Train, TW audiobook #6; TW: The Devil and Miss Carew, TW audio drama #5; TW: Submission, TW audio drama #6) - The aforementioned Torchwood stories all feature Captain Jack, Gwen and Ianto, and are set between Torchwood Series 2 and Series 3 (the latter being a single story, TW: Children of Earth). The year is confirmed as 2009 in Risk Assessment (p9), Asylum, Consequences: “Consequences” (p241), The Sin-Eaters and Golden Age. Weirdly, in TW: The Dead Line, events in 1976 are identified - in the very same conversation! - as being both thirty-three and thirty-four years ago.
With so few tangible clues as to how these audios, novels and comics slot together, the stories are here presented in nothing more scientific than release order. See the individual entries for more.
[1289] Dating TW: Lost Souls (TW audio drama #1) - The story aired on 10th September, 2008, as part of Radio 4’s “Big Bang Day” to commemorate the LHC switch-on of the very same date, and was released on CD on 18th September. Within the fiction, nothing is said about the year - which is fortunate, given the overarching need to place the Jack, Gwen and Ianto stories in 2009. Nor is any reference given to the month or day, save for repeated mentions of an LHC field test conducted “back in May”. It’s tempting to think that the switch-on just occurs a year later in the Doctor Who universe than in real life, but as the year of the actual LHC switch-on has already been compromised, there’s no particular reason to think one way or the other that the 10th September dating is still valid. That being the case, Lost Souls might as well go into the release-order rotation with its post-Torchwood Series 2 contemporaries.
[1290] The framing sequence to TW: In the Shadows. Placement is unknown, save that Gwen references TW: Lost Souls.
[1291] Dating TW: Almost Perfect (TW novel #9) - The action begins on a Friday (p131) and concludes the next Saturday.
[1292] TW: Out of Time establishes that Torchwood already has asylum protocols for people from the past, so the issue here must be in convincing the group to similarly protect benevolent aliens.
[1293] Dating TW: Risk Assessment (TW novel #13) - It’s “Thursday” (p92), and after the new morning dawns, it’s said that Havisham was revived “two days ago” (so, she awoke on a Wednesday). Gwen goes missing for “two days” after that, so the story concludes on a Sunday.
[1294] Dating The Eternal Summer (BF #128) - After the bubble’s collapse, Max reappears in Stockbridge on 4th August, 2009 - one of many dates said in a time ripple, and probably representing the furthest point that the time bubble extends into the future. By default, then, that’s when the story takes place. Max also confirms, in a conversation with the Doctor, that it’s now the twenty-first century. The Eternal Summer, alas, wasn’t actually released in summer, but came out in November 2009.
[1295] Dating TW: Consequences: “The Wrong Hands” and “Virus” (TW novel #15c, #15d) - The second day of “Virus” falls on the “last Thursday of the month”, so it’s not yet September, as that would conflict with TW: Children of Earth.
[1296] Dating The Three Companions (serialised story; BF #120-129) - The story appears contemporary, and was released April 2009 to February 2010. Tellingly, Polly tells the Brigadier that it’s been “forty-three years” since she last saw the Doctor - presumably referencing the duration of time between The Faceless Ones (set in 1966) and the release of The Three Companions in 2009.
The Brigadier in return tells Polly that he hasn’t seen the Doctor in “twenty years” - a pretty nonsensical thing to say, whatever one’s views on Doctor Who continuity. It’s possible this comment is similarly meant to denote the amount of time that’s passed between the release of The Three Companions and the last time the Brig saw the Doctor on TV - in Battlefield, broadcast in 1989 - but not only does this ignore the tie-in stories featuring the Brig in that interim (including those made by Big Finish!), it forgets that Battlefield wasn’t actually set in 1989, and instead dates to the mid-90s. The oversight becomes even more peculiar when you consider that Marc Platt wrote both The Three Companions and the Battlefield novelisation.
Brewster’s journal says that the meet-up between him, Polly and the Brigadier - and by extension the end of the story - occurs on “Tuesday the 18th”. In 2009, only August had such a day.
Polly’s first encounter with Lendler is fairly hard to date, as Lendler’s origins are so unknown - whether or not he’s a time traveller, or is even human despite his having the demeanour of one, is entirely unclear - so the “Polly’s Story” component of this adventure has been relegated to None of the Above.
[1297] Dating TW: Ghost Train (TW audiobook #6) - Torchwood seems to deal with other cases during the two-week period in which the future Rhys hides out in Ianto’s apartment and fulfills his own history (hence why Ianto keeps downing minor doses of Retcon, to guarantee that his actions are historically consistent), but as no references are given, deciding which stories happen in this gap is something of a tossup.
Curiously, the story’s continuity is a bit awry - Rhys’ co-worker says that it’s “February”, but Rhys himself mentions the ATMOS incident, which has to occur later than that (see the dating notes on The Sontaran Stratagem). The blurb says that the story occurs before TW: Children of Earth, but doesn't specify that it's after Series 2. No mention is made of Owen or Tosh - while it’s not impossible that they’re still alive (meaning that it’s prior to TW: Exit Wounds), one has to wonder why - if that were the case - there's no evidence of their being involved in the waves of crises Torchwood here deals with. With that in mind, it’s probably best to ignore the “February” reference, and place the story in the Torchwood Series 2-3 interim, which according to write
r James Goss was the intent.
[1298] Barrett is a physicist who appears in The Legend of Hell House (1973).
[1299] Dating TW: Ghost Train (TW audiobook #6) - To the contemporary Rhys, events begin on a Wednesday and (after he’s thrown back in time and catches up with the present) end on a Friday morning.
[1300] Dating TW: The Devil and Miss Carew and TW: Submission (TW audio dramas #5-6) – These two audios were released after TW: Miracle Day (as part of the Torchwood: The Lost Stories boxset), but take place during the Series 2 to 3 interim. Submission occurs fifty years (the duration of Doyle’s memories) after the Guernica went missing in August 1959. The dating clues in The Devil and Miss Carew are a bit bewildering – Gwen says that Joanna Carew, born in 1930, is now “81”, suggesting that it’s now 2011 (which is clearly isn’t). Also, a radio shipping forecast gives the date as “Wednesday, the 10th of November” – that day was a Wednesday in 2010, but not 2009 or 2011.
[1301] “Two months” before SJA: Secrets of the Stars.
[1302] “A few months” before SJA: The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith.
[1303] Dating TW: Children of Earth (TW 3.01-3.05) - As with Series 2, Children of Earth bucks the trend that Doctor Who-related episodes in this era are a year ahead of broadcast. Conspicuously, Ianto picks up a newspaper with the dateline, “Wednesday, September 2009” - as the paper is put out for the morning of Day Two, the 456 crisis must begin on a Tuesday and end on a Saturday. It’s twice said that “forty-four years” have passed since 1965 - once in Day Two in reference to how long Clement’s real name has been inactive, and once by Rhys in Day Four.
[1304] TW: Long Time Dead
[1305] As we learn in The End of Time (TV). Martha was engaged to Tom Milligan as of The Sontaran Experiment/The Poison Sky, but the relationship evidently ended off screen.
[1306] TW: Children of Earth
[1307] “Don’t Step on the Grass”
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