Theory:Timeline - Tenth Doctor
If this thread's title doesn't specify it's spoilery, don't bring any up.
This page lists appearances of the Tenth Doctor in the order in which he experienced them. This timeline is based upon observations of the Doctor Who universe and the events that occur during each of these stories. From these observations we have attempted to build a concise timeline. It is assumed that for each novel, comic, audio or television series, their published, broadcast or numbered order is the order they occur in.[1]
Fan sources like the Doctor Who Reference Guide should not be used solely as a source or considered a "true" timeline for stories.
Limiting factors
Though multiple stories that predate TV: Journey's End, in particular DWBIT comic stories, feature the Doctor travelling alone, TV: Smith and Jones and TV: Partners in Crime have the Doctor state or strongly imply that it hasn't been long since Rose Tyler and Martha Jones have departed (respectively in TV: Doomsday and TV: Last of the Time Lords).
Any story with Rose Tyler travelling must be after TV: The Christmas Invasion and before TV: Army of Ghosts. Any story with Martha Jones travelling must be after TV: Smith and Jones and before TV: Utopia. Any story with Donna Noble must be after TV: Partners in Crime and before TV: Turn Left.
Series basics
There are two notable divisions in the varying Tenth Doctor media, those where he is almost constantly travelling with a companion and those, set after his hearts were broken by all his losses in TV: Journey's End, where he spends most of the time travelling alone.
The era while he constantly travels with someone can be further divided into adventures with original to television companions:
- Rose Tyler
- Rose and Mickey Smith
- Rose (again)[2]
- Martha Jones
- Donna Noble
There are also the original to comics companions:
- Heather McCrimmon
- Heather and Wolfgang Ryter
- Matthew Finnegan and Emily Winter
- Majenta Pryce
His adventures with Matthew and Emily are said to take place towards the end of his time alone. The Doctor's refusal to take on companions such as Christina de Souza along after Donna makes the placement of Heather and Wolfgang's travels with him, which span over 50 stories, uncertain.
Timeline
- The Doctor regenerates from his previous incarnation.
- Children in Need Special and The Christmas Invasion both involve the Doctor in the early stages after his regeneration.
- COMIC: Growing Terror / Hyperstar Rising / Death Race Five Billion / The Macrobe Menace / The Hunt of Doom / Reunion of Fear
- COMIC: The Betrothal of Sontar
- COMIC: The Lodger
- The Doctor and Rose return to the Powell Estate
- The Doctor and Rose leave the Powell Estate.
- COMIC: Which Switch?
- COMIC: Mirror Image
- COMIC: Under the Volcano
- COMIC: The Germ War
- COMIC: Warfreekz
- TV: Tooth and Claw
- The Doctor and Rose fight off the Lupine Wavelength Haemovariform.
- PROSE: The Stone Rose
- PROSE: The Feast of the Drowned
- PROSE: The Resurrection Casket
- TV: School Reunion
- Rose mentions meeting a werewolf to Sarah Jane in School Reunion, clearly placing it after Tooth and Claw. The final scene of A Dog's Life takes place during the scene where the Doctor awakens K9 Mark III in School Reunion. At the end of School Reunion, Mickey joins the TARDIS crew.
- Mickey's first trip in the TARDIS.
- Mickey is still travelling in the TARDIS.
- Mickey stays behind in a parallel universe with the walls closed behind him.
- Rose mentions being a dinner lady but Mickey isn't present, placing this after School Reunion, The Girl in the Fireplace, Rise of the Cybermen and The Age of Steel.
- Second part to The Impossible Planet. Rose's "death" is foreshadowed by the Beast, implying not much time passes between this story and Army of Ghosts.
- PROSE: The Nightmare of Black Island
- PROSE: The Art of Destruction
- PROSE: The Price of Paradise
- TV: Love & Monsters (Elton meeting Rose)
- Rose is still stopping off to see her mother, but is no longer with Mickey, placing this after The Age of Steel.
- Rose and Jackie are trapped on the parallel Earth. Donna Noble appears in the TARDIS.
- The Doctor is returning Donna to Earth after Donna was pulled into the TARDIS by mistake.
- The events of Smith and Jones through Gridlock flow into one another. Martha's intended "single trip" in the TARDIS during The Shakespeare Code is postponed to an uncertain length between Gridlock and The Lazarus Experiment.
- Martha officially joins the TARDIS full-time.
- The events of the book must take place after The Lazarus Experiment as Martha says something about facing mad scientists again. Martha is forced to wait outside the TARDIS in the Doctor's absence, placing this story before 42, when Martha receives a key to the TARDIS.
- PROSE: 42 Prologue
- TV: 42
- Immediately follows 42 Prologue.
- TV: Human Nature / The Family of Blood
- TV: Blink (The Doctor and Sally in 2008)
- Sally gives the Doctor the transcript his future self has already read to her.
- TV: Blink (The Doctor and Billy in 1969)
- TV: Utopia / The Sound of Drums / Last of the Time Lords
- Time Crash occurs during the final scene of Last of the Time Lords and ends on the same cliffhanger.
- Continues the cliffhanger that occurs in both Last of the Time Lords and Time Crash.
- Donna's first trip to an alien planet.
- Sylvia and Wilf find out about the Doctor, and the Doctor and Donna meet UNIT. Martha is accidentally taken aboard the TARDIS.
- The TARDIS is suddenly pulled towards Jenny. Martha returns home at the end of this story.
- Martha and UNIT are mentioned, placing it after The Doctor's Daughter.
- Donna contacts Wilf from Midnight not long before the events of The Stolen Earth.
- The Stolen Earth picks up where Turn Left left off. The Doctor meets Luke Smith over the Sub-Wave. The Doctor begins travelling on his own full-time after Journey's End.
- Set directly after Journey's End.
- Carmen prophesies the Doctor's death.
- COMIC: Silver Scream
- COMIC: Fugitive
- COMIC: Tesseract
- COMIC: Don't Step on the Grass
- COMIC: Old Friend
- COMIC: Final Sacrifice
- The end of this story leads into The Waters of Mars.
- The Doctor meets, sleeps with, and marries Queen Elizabeth I. These events are directly mentioned at the start of The End of Time.
- At the end of the story, the Doctor decides that after all of his adventuring, his time is up.
-
- Set during the final scenes of The End of Time.
- The Doctor regenerates into his next incarnation.
Unplaced
- TV: The Infinite Quest
- TV: Music of the Spheres
- TV: The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith / PROSE: The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith
- Set some time after Journey's End, as the Doctor recognises Luke and is on his own.
- Set after The Lazarus Experiment, but before Utopia.
- PROSE: Sting of the Zygons
- PROSE: The Last Dodo
- PROSE: Wooden Heart
- PROSE: Forever Autumn
- PROSE: Sick Building
- PROSE: Wetworld
- PROSE: Wishing Well
- PROSE: The Pirate Loop
- PROSE: Peacemaker
- PROSE: Martha in the Mirror
- PROSE: Snowglobe 7
- PROSE: The Many Hands
- PROSE: Ghosts of India
- PROSE: The Doctor Trap
- PROSE: Shining Darkness
- PROSE: The Weeping
- PROSE: Breathing Space
- PROSE: The Frozen Wastes
- PROSE: Star-Crossed
- PROSE: The Eyeless
- PROSE: Judgement of the Judoon
- PROSE: The Slitheen Excursion
- PROSE: Prisoner of the Daleks
- PROSE: The Taking of Chelsea 426
- PROSE: Autonomy
- PROSE: The Krillitane Storm
- PROSE: I am a Dalek
- PROSE: Revenge of the Judoon
- PROSE: The Sontaran Games
- PROSE: Code of the Krillitanes
- PROSE: The Dust of Ages
- PROSE: The Graves of Mordane
- PROSE: The Colour of Darkness
- PROSE: The Depths of Despair
- PROSE: The Vampire of Paris
- PROSE: The Game of Death
- PROSE: The Planet of Oblivion
- PROSE: The Pictures of Emptiness
- PROSE: The Art of War
- PROSE: The End of Time
- PROSE: Cuckoo-Spit
- PROSE: The Cat Came Back
- PROSE: Once Upon a Time
- PROSE: Gravestone House
- PROSE: Untitled
- This is Rose's first trip to the Moon.
- PROSE: No One Died
- PROSE: Corner of the Eye
- PROSE: Cats and Dogs
- PROSE: The Body Bank
- PROSE: The Box Under the Tree
- PROSE: Zombie Motel
- PROSE: The Iron Circle
- PROSE: Kiss of Life
- PROSE: Deep Water
- PROSE: Hello Children, Everywhere
- PROSE: Grand Theft Planet
- PROSE: Cold
- PROSE: Bing Bong
- PROSE: Island of the Sirens
- PROSE: Hold Your Horses
- PROSE: The Puplet
- PROSE: Total Eclipse of the Heart
- PROSE: The End of the Rainbow
- PROSE: Scared Stiff
- PROSE: Bennelong Point
- PROSE: The Shape on the Chair
- PROSE: Knock Knock!
- PROSE: The Haldenmor Fugue
- PROSE: Once Upon a Time
- PROSE: Most Beautiful Music
- PROSE: The Hero Factor
- PROSE: Number 1, Gallows Gate Road
- PROSE: The Frozen
- PROSE: Blue Moon
- PROSE: The Lonely Computer
- PROSE: The Advent of Fear
- PROSE: Deep and Dreamless Sleep
- PROSE: The Hopes and Fears of All the Years
- AUDIO: Pest Control
- AUDIO: The Forever Trap
- AUDIO: The Nemonite Invasion
- AUDIO: The Rising Night
- AUDIO: The Day of the Troll
- AUDIO: The Last Voyage
- AUDIO: Dead Air
- COMIC: F.A.Q.
- COMIC: The Futurists
- COMIC: Interstellar Overdrive
- COMIC: The Warkeeper's Crown
- COMIC: The Woman Who Sold the World
- COMIC: Bus Stop
- COMIC: The First
- COMIC: Death to the Doctor!
- COMIC: Universal Monsters
- COMIC: Hotel Historia
- COMIC: The Widow's Curse
- COMIC: Thinktwice
- COMIC: The Time of My Life
- COMIC: The Stockbridge Child
- COMIC: Mortal Beloved
- COMIC: The Age of Ice
- COMIC: The Deep Hereafter
- COMIC: Onomatopoeia
- COMIC: Ghosts of the Northern Line
- COMIC: The Crimson Hand
- COMIC: A Delicate Operation
- COMIC: Blood and Tears
- COMIC: Fried Death
- COMIC: Bizarre Zero
- COMIC: Save the Humans
- COMIC: Bat Attack! / The Battle of Reading Gaol
- COMIC: Triskaidekaphobia
- COMIC: Smart Bombs
- COMIC: Pinball Wizard
- COMIC: Gangster's Paradise / Heads You Lose
- COMIC: A Date to Remember / Snow Fakes
- COMIC: The Hunters / Cliffhanger
- COMIC: 13 O'Clock
- COMIC: Green Fingers
- COMIC: The Snag Finders
- COMIC: The Skrawn Inheritance
- COMIC: The Green, the Bad and the Ugly
- COMIC: Minus Seven Wonders
- COMIC: The Last Soldier
- COMIC: Signs of Life
- COMIC: Shipwreck
- COMIC: Cold War
- COMIC: Waste Not
- COMIC: A Klytode Christmas
- COMIC: The Monster Upstairs
- COMIC: Hot Metal
- COMIC: The Halls of Sacrifice
- COMIC: The Old Kings of Skarab
- COMIC: Reign of the Stone Monkey
- COMIC: Every Dog Has Its Day
- COMIC: The Poison Planet
- COMIC: Sea-Rah
- COMIC: The Great Mordillo
- COMIC: Nightmare on the Boulevard
- COMIC: Windswept
- COMIC: The Continuity Cap
- COMIC: Wormhole
- COMIC: The Black Hole Gang
- COMIC: CitiZen's Arrest
- COMIC: The Lavender Hill Blob
- COMIC: Shark Bait
- COMIC: Attack of the Mange Mites
- COMIC: By Order of the Bonemenders
- COMIC: The Alice in Wonderland Circuit
- COMIC: Washed Away!
- COMIC: Titanoleum Tourists
- COMIC: The Man in the Moon
- COMIC: Time Flies
- COMIC: The Giant's Ring
- COMIC: Frosty the Snowdemon
- COMIC: The Chromosome Connection
- COMIC: The Aquarius Condition
- COMIC: Glum Culture
- COMIC: The Great Rain Robbery
- COMIC: The Parrian Proposal
- COMIC: Hitching Point
- COMIC: Store Wars
- COMIC: The Submariners
- COMIC: The Greed of the Gavulav
- COMIC: The Secret Army
- COMIC: The Silver Bullet
- COMIC: The Invisibles
- COMIC: Good Old Days
- COMIC: The Abomination Game
- COMIC: T.R.O.L.
- COMIC: Cyclops
- COMIC: The Crystal Palace
- COMIC: The Spirit of Ashgar
- COMIC: Monster Idol
- COMIC: The Slakken Cat
- COMIC: Code Freeze
- COMIC: Hear No Evil
- COMIC: Terror in the TARDIS
- COMIC: The Ball and Chain Gang
- COMIC: The Memory Collective
- COMIC: The Blue Star Bomb
- COMIC: Flight of the Giurgeax
- COMIC: Starstruck
- COMIC: The Genius Trap
- COMIC: The Rising Tide
- COMIC: Sweet Dreams
- COMIC: Copycat
- COMIC: Shadow of the Vaipid
- COMIC: Snakes Alive!
- COMIC: The Sparkling Planet
- COMIC: The Curse of Vladula
- COMIC: Photo Finish
- COMIC: Brain Train
- COMIC: Foot Soldiers
- COMIC: Bad Wolfies
- COMIC: City of Light
- COMIC: The Guardian of Murcher
- COMIC: Night of the Burnt Toast
- COMIC: The Ghost Factory
- COMIC: Skydive!
- COMIC: Highway Robbery
- COMIC: Doomsilk
- COMIC: One Careful Owner
- COMIC: The Garden Rebellion
- COMIC: The Goats of Christmas Past
- COMIC: A Merry Little Christmas
- COMIC: We Will Rock You
- COMIC: The Highest Stake
- COMIC: Hook, Line and Sinker
- COMIC: The Unwelcome Visitors
- COMIC: Junk Food
- COMIC: Dead-line
- COMIC: Arctic Eclipse
- COMIC: Return of the Klytode
- COMIC: Creature Feature
- COMIC: Mudshock
- COMIC: Project UFO
- COMIC: Borrowed Time
- COMIC: The Glutonoid Menace
- COMIC: The Power of the Cybermen / Drones of Doom / Enemy Mine / Time of the Cybermen
- COMIC: Beneath the Skin / The Sky Below / Beyond the Sea / Lonely Planet
- COMIC: Plague Panic
- COMIC: Exhausting Evil
- COMIC: Wrath of the Warrior / The Screaming Prison / Force and Fury / Warrior's Revenge
- COMIC: Head Start / Jewel of the Vile / Lock, Stocks and Barrel / End Game
- COMIC: The Millennium Blag / Second Wave / Operation Lock-up / Crime After Crime
- PROSE: Blue Moon
- COMIC: House Pests
- COMIC: Minor Trouble / Inhuman Sacrifice / Crimes and Punishment
- COMIC: The Diamonds of Sartor / Quarsian Mission / Android of Death
- COMIC: Blooms of Doom!
- COMIC: Dusty Death / Cold Assassin / Designs of the Dust / A Suitable Showdown
- COMIC: The Creative Spark
- COMIC: Any Old Iron / Merchant of Menace
- COMIC: The Black Sea / Sting of the Serpent / Attack of the Rats / The Zantraan Invasion
- COMIC: Pawns of the Zenith / Swarm of the Zenith / Prey of the Zenith / Lair of the Zenith
- COMIC: The Time Stealer / School of the Dead / Ghosts from the Past / The Battle for Time
- COMIC: Carnage Zoo / Flight and Fury / The Living Ghosts / Extermination of the Daleks
- COMIC: Da Vinci's Robots / Metal Mania
- COMIC: About Last Night / Dark Side of the Moon
- COMIC: The Day the Earth Was Sold / The King of Earth
- COMIC: The Guardians of Terror / The Rebirth of Corah
- COMIC: The House at the End of the World / The End
- COMIC: The Whispering Gallery
- COMIC: The Time Machination
- COMIC: Autopia
- COMIC: Room with a Deja View
- COMIC: Cold Blooded War!
- COMIC: Black Death White Life
- COMIC: Ground Control
- COMIC: The Big, Blue Box
- COMIC: To Sleep, Perchance to Scream
- COMIC: Mirror Image
- COMIC: Down the Rabbit Hole
- COMIC: Myth Maker
- COMIC: The Planet That Wept
- COMIC: Swarm Enemies
- COMIC: The Greatest Mall in the Universe
- COMIC: The Time Sickness
- COMIC: Death Disco
- COMIC: The Vortex Code
- COMIC: Health & Safety
- COMIC: Opera of Doom!
- COMIC: Sunscreen
- COMIC: The Immortal Emperor
- COMIC: Space Vikings!
- COMIC: In-Flight Entertainment
- COMIC: Mind Shadows
- COMIC: Destiny's Door
- COMIC: Fuel
- COMIC: The Beast Is Back In Town
- COMIC: Mad Martha
- COMIC: Escape to Penhaxico
- COMIC: Just Another Thursday
- COMIC: Who Ate All The Biscuits?
- COMIC: The Baktek Illusion
- COMIC: Prisoners of Time
- AUDIO: Death's Deal
Footnotes
- ↑ A notable exception is PROSE: The Story of Martha, which features Martha Jones as an occupant of the TARDIS, despite being published on the same day as a Donna Noble novel and a post-Donna novel.
- ↑ There are clear signs of Rose travelling alone before and after Mickey, notably mentioning events of TV: Tooth and Claw in TV: School Reunion and references to Mickey staying on Pete's World in TV: Love & Monsters and Army of Ghosts / Doomsday.