Theory:Timeline - War Doctor

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This page lists appearances of the War Doctor in the order in which he experienced them. This timeline is based on observations of the Doctor Who universe and the events in each of these stories. From these observations we have attempted to build a concise timeline. There are also many gaps between stories.

The layout of this timeline is in part based on the observations on Doctor Who - The Complete Adventures, as well as Lance Parkin's AHistory and other sources that allow us to make observations, such as Doctor Who Reviews, Clive Banks databanks, Whopix, and the Big Finish forums. None of these sources should be used solely as a source or considered a "true" timeline for stories.

Timeline

Previous page: Eighth Doctor

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Doctor No More

• TV: The Night of the Doctor

The Doctor regenerates from his previous incarnation on Karn with the aid of Ohila after his eighth incarnation failed to save Cass Fermazzi. The War Doctor immediately disowns his name to fight in the Last Great Time War.

• AUDIO: Light the Flame

Set directly after The Night of the Doctor, with the Doctor preparing to fight in the Time War after coming to terms with his new incarnation, and Cass being given a funeral on Karn. Karn disappears from the universe to escape the Time War.

• AUDIO: Lion Hearts

The Doctor tricks the Time Lords into trusting that he now fully supports their efforts in the Time War. He still makes promises, and lives up to his vow to save the Tharil prisoners.

• AUDIO: The Shadow Squad

The Doctor fights the Daleks for the first time since his regeneration in The Night of the Doctor. (VOR 147) The Doctor recalls the recent events of Lion Hearts.

• COMIC: Ambush

The Doctor has stubble on his face, and has a soldier named Petrella with him in the TARDIS. Rassilon is leading the Time Lords in the Time War, but the Doctor implies he has not spoken to him yet. Having been working alone for a while, the Doctor decides it is time to join Gallifrey in the fighting.

Meeting Case

(REFERENCE)

The Doctor, now forced to be accompanied by Time Lord agent Veklin, rescues Albert Brown from the Gallipoli campaign due to his skills being useful to him. Veklin, in an attempt to make him more controllable, separates the Doctor from his TARDIS and forces him to use a Battle TARDIS instead. (AUDIO: Saviour)

• AUDIO: Saviour

After travelling together for some time in the Battle TARDIS, the Doctor, Veklin and Albert rescue Case from a Dalek harvest ship. The Doctor is beginning to long for the days before he became a warrior, setting this sometime after The Night of the Doctor. As they escape the Dalek harvest ship to Tharius, Albert is killed by the Daleks while trying to flee to an escape pod, and the Doctor destroys the Battle TARDIS, leading directly into Consequences.

• AUDIO: Consequences

The Doctor, Veklin and Case arrive on Tharius. The Doctor's sonic screwdriver uses the sound effects of the Time War variant.

• AUDIO: Destroyer

Set directly after Consequences.

(FRAMING DEVICE)

After she uncovers her true nature, the Doctor tells Case the circumstances behind their first meeting. (AUDIO: Saviour)

New battlegrounds

• AUDIO: The Keeper of Light

The Doctor is on a mission for Commodore Tamasan, though disobeys her, having stopped pretending to be supporting the Time Lords in their darker war efforts.

• AUDIO: Temmosus

The Doctor has been working with the Time Lords to arm the Thals with a new state of the art warship he has designed.

• AUDIO: Rewind

• WC: He Who Fights With Monsters

The Doctor has his silver sonic screwdriver on his TARDIS control console, implying that it is his primary sonic screwdriver in use.

Campaign against the Barber-Surgeon

• AUDIO: The Mission

The Doctor is sent on a mission by the War Council to track down and stop the Barber-Surgeon, a new combatant in the Time War who has proved deadly to both Daleks and Time Lords alike. Ending leads directly into The Abyss.

• AUDIO: The Abyss

The Doctor receives a message from Leela regarding his mission, which disappoints the Doctor. The is the first he has heard from her since becoming the War Doctor.

• AUDIO: The Horror

Helping Case

• AUDIO: A Mother's Love

The Doctor reunites with Case and Veklin at the Haven Time Lord field hospital for the fist time since Saviour. After Case decides to stop working with Veklin, the Doctor offers her a place in the TARDIS, which she accepts.

• AUDIO: Berserker

Case merges with a Berserker Dalek at Sunspire and, although it cures her of dying from the berserker infection, she becomes a hybrid entity that the Doctor suspects that the Dalek Time Strategist will come looking for. The Doctor comments that his body has started to wear thin "already".

• AUDIO: Memnos

The Doctor brings Case to Memnos, where she uncovers the details of her past life while fighting for control with her Dalek side. The Doctor recalls the events of Rewind. The Dalek Time Strategist tracks her down with the intention of bringing her back to Skaro. The Doctor is separated from Case and believes her to be dead, not knowing that she has been transported to Skaro by the Time Strategist.

• AUDIO: The Hybrid's Choice

A month has passed since the events of Memnos and the Doctor is still haunted by the loss of Case and has been living in his reclusion at his childhood barn. He is reunited with Veklin when Tamasan assigns them to track down the Dalek command base together.

• AUDIO: Fear Nothing

Reunited with his own TARDIS, the Doctor is searching for Case when he called upon for a mission by Tamasan. The Doctor and Tamasan recall the events of Temmosus. The Doctor is known by the names Doctor of War, Warbringer and the Oncoming Storm. Continuing on his claims from The Keeper of Light, the Doctor considers himself a free agent and not subject to the will of Gallifrey.

• AUDIO: Exit Strategy

The Doctor and Tamasan return to Gallifrey following the events of Fear Nothing. Tamasan gives the Doctor a chance to eliminate Case from the Time War before the War Room gets involved, and his solution is to leave her in a near-death comatose state where she can travel with a mental recreation of the Eighth Doctor.

Degeneration crisis

(FLASHBACK)

The Doctor rescues the Monk from the Diamond Array, only to be shot with a degeneration weapon by the Union. (AUDIO: The Union)

• AUDIO: Past Lives

The Doctor wakes up in a Time Lord field hospital in the midst of going through retro-regenerations into his past incarnations, eventually settling on the Fourth Doctor.

• AUDIO: The Artist at the End of Time

• AUDIO: A Genius for War

• AUDIO: Two's Company

• AUDIO: The Martian Invasion of Planetoid 50

• AUDIO: Time Lord Immemorial

• AUDIO: The Union

The Union delights in telling the Doctor, wearing the face of his eighth incarnation, that it was in fact the War Doctor that she shot with the degeneration weapon. The Doctor then regenerates back into the War incarnation.

Rise of the Warrior

• AUDIO: In Name Only

The Doctor claims to be long past his pacifist ways and that even his closest friends would not recognise him these days. He is depicted with his younger appearance from The Night of the Doctor.

• AUDIO: Morbius the Mighty

The Doctor has spent three years on the planet Lull recovering from the effects of Temporal Toxaemia, which have left him unable to travel in time. During this time he is accompanied by his nurse Cora. He grows a moustache. Karn is still gone following the events of Light the Flame.

• AUDIO: The Golden Child

During a skirmish in the War, the Doctor is knocked backwards in time to a point in the war before his regeneration, where he is reunited with Susan.

Aged by war

• COMIC: The Clockwise War

On what would later be recalled as the "worst day of the Time War" by the Twelfth Doctor, The War Doctor fights a battle against the Morlontoa with Fey Truscott-Sade, Ohila and the Sisterhood of Karn, with Fey appearing to be killed while trying to save a child, traumatising the Doctor. He is using his own variation of the sonic screwdriver, and comes to see the Time War as a tragedy instead of a challenge for the first time. The Sisterhood of Karn have allied with the Time Lords and joined the War, suggesting a setting after Morbius the Mighty.

(NOTE)

During the Battle of Skull Moon, where he is aided by Time Lords like Gastron, (TV: Hell Bent) the Doctor takes command of the "slaughter", (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor) and becomes known as the "Butcher of Skull Moon". (TV: Twice Upon a Time)

(REFERENCE)

After years of searching, the Doctor is able to return Cass's body to the remains of her family. (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor)

• COMIC: The Lost Dimension

The Doctor has wrinkles, and a beard, but his hair is still brown.

(FLASHBACK)

Begrudgingly undergoing missions for Rassilon, the Doctor leads Asmuth into the ruins of Estragil and encounters the History Eater. (GAME: Bigger on the Inside)

• COMIC: Four Doctors

The Doctor notes that the Time War has left him unable to make any "grand promises".

Working with the Master

(REFERENCE)

At some point in the war, the Doctor takes on the Squire as a companion, (COMIC: The Then and the Now) and makes an alliance with the Master. (COMIC: The Organ Grinder)

• COMIC: The Master Plan

The Doctor and the Master have just finished fighting Daleks together on an unnamed planet during the Time War, setting this before The Then and the Now.

(FLASHBACK)

The Doctor and the Squire fight various battles in the Time War, including one against the Heisenberg mutations on Kether Prime. (COMIC: Pull to Open)

• COMIC: Outrun

The Doctor, the Master and the Squire fight the Daleks on Veestrax. The Doctor isn't aware of who coined the term "Exterminhate", setting this before he meets the Volatix Cabal.

• COMIC: The Then and the Now

The Doctor and the Master land on Golgauth, the Overcast homeworld.

• COMIC: First Rule

Set during the beginning of The Organ Grinder, but from Alice's perspective

• COMIC: The Organ Grinder

Set immediately after The Then and the Now. After killing one of the Volatix Cabal, the Master's TARDIS crashes next the Doctor and its pilot, Alice Obiefune, claims to have travelled from after the Time War had ended, before being captured by the Volatix Cabal. The Doctor, the Master and the Squire rescue her and bring her to the Psilent songbox before the Cyclors attack, leading directly into Kill God.

• COMIC: Kill God

Escaping the Cyclors, the Doctor realises Alice has fled with the Psilent songbox. After being deserted by the Master, the Doctor and the Squire find Alice using the Songbox to banish the Cyclors to a higher dimension. However, the Master's use of his future TARDIS causes a chronal meltdown with the Songbox reacting to the paradox, leading directly into Fast Asleep.

• COMIC: Fast Asleep

The Doctor creates the Then and the Now from a temporal dart that was inside Alice, and uses the entity to send Alice back to her the Post-War universe. He then smashes the Songbox to end the paradox, but loses all memory of his time with the Squire, who falls into the post-Time War universe in the confusion.

• COMIC: Physician, Heal Thyself

The Doctor is still fighting the Volatix Cabal, setting this shortly after Fast Asleep. Abslom Daak enters the Time War through the Then and the Now, much to the Doctor's chagrin.

Wartime escapades

• NOTVALID: Doctor Who Comes to MINECRAFT!

• NOTVALID: Master of Time

• POEM: The Red and the Blue

The Doctor recalls faking an invasion.

• WC: Doctors Assemble!

Though his profile picture depicts him young, the War Doctor is referred to as "Gramps" by the Ninth Doctor.

• NOTVALID: The Daft Dimension 559

The Doctor has Christmas dinner with his other incarnations.

• NOTVALID: Time Fracture

The War Doctor unites with his other incarnations to help a group of people seal the Time Fracture.

• NOTVALID: The Dalek Death Diamond

The Doctor is searching for a missing weapon from the Time Lord arsenal. He encounters the Rani, who is co-operating with the Daleks after they invaded her planet of Miasimia Goria.

The Keska incident

• AUDIO: The Innocent

The Doctor spends a hundred days on the planet Keska in a coma after taking the full blast of a Time Destructor, being cared for by Rejoice. After helping the Keskans defeat the Taalyens, the Doctor spends one-hundred-and-thirty-four days relaxing on Keska, until Veklin arrives to collect him for Cardinal Ollistra, leading directly into The Thousand Worlds. Despite the events of The War Doctor Begins: Warbringer, Veklin and the Doctor appear to be meeting for the first time.

• AUDIO: The Thousand Worlds

The Doctor is sent to locate Seratrix in the Null Zone. Arriving back on Keska to find the Daleks helping the Taalyens, the Doctor meets up with Rejoice again, though many years later from her perspective, and learns that Seratrix has made an alliance with the Daleks.

• AUDIO: The Heart of the Battle

Following on directly from The Thousand Worlds, the Doctor tries to convince Seratrix not to trust the Daleks. Following Seratrix's assassination, the Doctor allies with the Taalyens to destroy the Daleks, only to be betrayed and see Rejoice being killed.

The Neverwhen gambit

• AUDIO: Legion of the Lost

After destroying the Annihilator on Vildar, and wiping the Technomancers from existence, the Doctor is arrested as a war criminal by Ollistra, leading directly into A Thing of Guile. He recalls the "Keska incident" as if it were a recent affair.

• AUDIO: A Thing of Guile

The Doctor and Ollistra discover that the Daleks are retro-engineering themselves back into Kaleds in order to gain a new insight into war, leading directly into The Neverwhen.

• AUDIO: The Neverwhen

The Doctor tries to create a state of peace where both Daleks and Time Lords are farmers in the Neverwhen, but they still begin conflict with each other. The Doctor refuses to make any greater promise than that he would try his best to help, and proves his initial reluctance right when it all goes wrong.

Opposing the Dalek Time Strategist

• AUDIO: The Shadow Vortex

After defeating the plot of Lara Zannis in 1961 Berlin, the Doctor is informed that Ollistra has been kidnapped, leading directly into The Eternity Cage.

• AUDIO: The Eternity Cage

Rescuing Ollistra from the Sontarans on Rovidia with Heleyna and Kalan, the Doctor learns that Heleyna is a traitor and is ejected from their Battle TARDIS, leading directly into Eye of Harmony.

• AUDIO: Eye of Harmony

The Doctor is saved from the Time Vortex by Ollistra, but Heleyna and Kalan are killed by the Dalek Time Assault Squad, and the Doctor and Ollistra are left stranded on a space station with the Daleks in pursuit.

• AUDIO: Pretty Lies

Following directly on from Eye of Harmony, the Doctor and Ollistra escape from the Daleks and crash land on Beltox. Repelling a Dalek attack with journalist Schandel, the Doctor and Ollistra commandeer Schandel's time ship after he is killed.

• AUDIO: The Lady of Obsidian

Following on from Pretty Lies, with the Doctor tracking the "Lady of Obsidian" after reading Schandel's files on her. With the aid of Rosata Laxter, the Doctor finds the Lady, and discovers she is Leela. After Ollistra contacts the Time Lords, the Doctor and Leela return to Gallifrey, leading directly into The Enigma Dimension.

• AUDIO: The Enigma Dimension

The Doctor decides that the Daleks and Time Lords must both be destroyed to truly end the Time War. His decision puts a strain on his relationship with Ollistra.

Struggling with the Time Lords

• COMIC: The Bidding War

The Doctor is not on good terms with Ollistra, setting this after The Enigma Dimension.

• PROSE: Decoy

The Doctor opposes Rassilon's plan to use Auton duplicates of him to manipulate impressionable Time Lords into undertaking suicide missions, setting this before Engines of War.

(REFERENCE)

The Doctor fights Boltarian Death Mechas with River Song. (AUDIO: A Brave New World)

Nearing the end

• NOTCOVERED: Regenerations

The Doctor's timeline is temporarily corrupted, he is described as old and is weary of the Time War.

• PROSE: The Stranger

The Doctor is unsure about whether he is even a warrior anymore, setting this after any story where he is actively attacking his enemies.

• COMIC: The Whole Thing's Bananas

The Doctor meets Dorium Maldovar during the "last few months of the Time War", and destroys the weapons factories of Villengard.

Rogue soldier

• PROSE: Engines of War

Landing on Moldox after a Dalek ambush, the Doctor is aided by a young woman named Cinder in infiltrating a Dalek base, and discovers the Eternity Circle planning to erase Gallifrey from history with Temporal Weapon Daleks. When they alert Rassilon, the Doctor and Cinder fight against the High Council's decision to destroy the Tantalus Eye and free Borusa, who has been converted into a possibility engine, from the Tomb of Rassilon, leading Rassilon to brand the Doctor a traitor to the Time Lords and sever all ties to him. Cinder is killed by an enemy Time Lord, and Borusa dies while removing the Daleks from the Tantalus Eye. Tired of all the death that surrounds him, the Doctor vows to end the Time War for Cinder, implicitly leading directly into The Day of the Doctor.

• GAME: Legacy

The Doctor recalls the events of Engines of War, and takes advantage of the instabilities caused to the Web of Time by the Sontarans to rescue Cinder from the moment before her death.

• GAME: Bigger on the Inside

Set during Legacy. The Doctor initially struggles to recall his first encounter with the History Eater, implying a considerably long time has passed since the event.

• PROSE: Heroes of Time

Reflecting on the "long weary years" he's fought in the Time War, the Doctor decides "no more" and intends to use the Moment to end the Time War, setting this immediately prior to The Day of the Doctor.

The last day of the Time War

(REFERENCE)

The Doctor decides to end the Time War with the Moment after learning of Rassilon's Ultimate Sanction. (TV: The End of Time) He destroys the Dalek Emperor's fleet, and most of the Dalek City, when inscribing "NO MORE" on Skaro's surface as a message to the Daleks. (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor)

• PROSE: Dalek

Set immediately prior to The Day of the Doctor, with the Doctor crossing paths with the Metaltron during the Fall of Arcadia.

• TV: The Day of the Doctor

During the Fall of Arcadia, the Doctor steals the Moment from the Omega Arsenal and retreats into the Drylands to detonate the weapon to destroy the Time Lords and the Daleks. However, the sentient device chooses to bring the Doctor to his tenth and eleventh incarnations to help him finalise his decision. The War Doctor claims to be "400 years younger" than the "twelve-hundred-or-something" year old Eleventh Doctor, making him roughly 800-years-old. After being convinced to save Gallifrey by Clara Oswald, the Doctors team up with another ten of their incarnations to seal Gallifrey in a pocket dimension, destroying the Dalek Fleet in their own crossfire. After he departs the celebratory tea party in the Under Gallery, the War Doctor regenerates into his next incarnation.

• COMIC: Supremacy of the Cybermen Prologue: The War Doctor

In an alternate timeline created by Rassilon and the Cybermen, the Doctor uses the Moment in the Time War against the Cybermen.

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Next page: Ninth Doctor

Currently unplaced

These entries are placed here due to being part of ongoing storylines that have yet to offer sufficient enough evidence to be placed in a specific part of this Doctor's timeline, unless further evidence arises in the stories to come.

• PROSE: The Third Wise Man

The Doctor answers a summons from Davros from the first year of the Time War, and attempts to save him from the Nightmare Child at the Gates of Elysium, but appears to fail, suggesting a setting after A Genius for War. The Doctor has grey hair and a war-ravaged face, and meets the Eleventh General for the first time, at least in this account. His TARDIS control room is described as "a dim cave, starred by flickering gold".

Awaiting placement

These entries are placed here until a suitable position in the timeline can be determined based on the available evidence.