1666

1666 was a year of particular interest to several incarnations of the Doctor, mostly because of the Great Fire of London and the then-rampant bubonic plague.

In late August, the Fifth Doctor, Adric, Nyssa and Tegan Jovanka arrived in London on the trail of a Terileptil invasion. A few days later, on 2 September, the Doctor accidentally started the Great Fire of London. (TV: The Visitation) His involvement in the fire remained a source of embarrassment for the Doctor in his sixth incarnation. (AUDIO: Point of Entry, The Marian Conspiracy, Doctor Who and the Pirates)

The Great Fire of London starts at Pudding Lane. (TV: The Visitation)

Around this time, the Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith were also in the vicinity of greater London. They landed the TARDIS in a bubonic plague-infested area. Sarah contracted the plague, while the Doctor tried to warn the locals — some of whom were Republicans and some of whom were loyal to Charles II — to the spread of the oncoming Great Fire. He managed to get the two groups to work together against the approaching fire, then returned to the TARDIS with the ailing Sarah in time to give her some useful antibiotics. However, some of the antibiotics were stolen by one of the locals. The theft threatened to destroy the delicate fabric of the Web of Time. (PROSE: The Republican's Story)

Shortly thereafter, George, Helen, Ida and Alan Mortimer were rescued from the Great Fire by the First Doctor. It is possible that, for a brief period after the First Doctor's arrival, that there were three separate incarnations of the Doctor co-existing in the same timeframe and in close promixity to one another. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Invasion from Space)

In the aftermath of the Great Fire, the English Catholics were falsely accused of having started it. (AUDIO: The Glorious Revolution)

The renegade Time Lady Iris Wildthyme also claimed to have been present for the Great Fire. (AUDIO: Excelis Dawns)

A play entitled Ye Unearthly Childe, purported to have been written by William Shakespeare, was part of a set of diaries which were badly damaged in the Great Fire. The play was rediscovered in the 1960s but its possible importance as a lost Shakespearean play was not realised until the 1960s. (PROSE: Ye Unearthly Childe)

Behind the scenes

One possible "game over" for the video game Don't Blink has the player being sent back in time by a Weeping Angel to the year 1666 to die in the Great Fire.