1974
| Timeline for 1974 |
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1974 was the year that Liam McShane, the younger brother of Dorothy Gale "Ace" McShane, was born. (AUDIO: The Rapture)
According to some accounts, the Third Doctor's exile on Earth had ended by this year, but he still frequently visited Earth and worked with UNIT. (COMIC: Doomcloud, AUDIO: Urgent Calls, TV: Death of the Doctor et al) Sarah Jane Smith's UNIT pass was dated 1974. (TV: Planet of the Spiders, Robot)
Evelyn Smythe later recalled that the class she taught in 1974 were a particularly difficult bunch. (AUDIO: The Marian Conspiracy)
Dated events
Early in the year, England was affected by an "international spat" over crude oil. A struggle ensued between the unions and the government and power cuts were common. The government imposed a state of emergency and businesses were recommended to operate on a 3-day week. (AUDIO: The Curse of the Fugue)
One night in the winter, during a time when power cuts were regular, the Only Ones came to Earth with intention of eating humans. They had been in contact with the glam rocker Tommy Tomorrow for some time before this and planned on eating his teenage fans. The Eighth Doctor and Lucie Miller landed near the Nadir Motorway Service Station at the same time that Tommy, his sister Trisha, and his manager Arnold Korns were passing by the station. The Only Ones also landed on Earth near the service station and cornered the Doctor, Lucie, Tommy, Trisha, and Arnold in the service station with two waitresses named Flo and Pat Ryder. Over the course of the night, Trisha was killed when she went outside the service station and Lucie discovered that Pat was her aunt. The Doctor defeated the Only Ones by trapping them in Lucie's MP3 player and then left with Lucie. Shortly afterwards, the Headhunter came to the Service Station looking for Lucie. (AUDIO: Horror of Glam Rock)
On a cold day in February, the Eighth Doctor and Lucie Miller came to England's southwest peninsula searching for a piece of Mandilus alloy which had been on Earth since World War II. For two weeks, Lucie worked at Elms Rest Home while the Doctor searched for the alloy. The Doctor eventually tracked one half of the alloy back to the rest home to the room of ex-spy Cecile Charmers. The Doctor, Lucie, and Cecile discovered that one of the other carers at the rest home was Matthew Ricas, the son of a traitorous soldier that had stolen the other half of the alloy. With the two halves of the alloy reunited, one in Matthew's pocket and the other disguised as Cecile's perfume, the Doctor took the alloy back to his TARDIS and disposed of it. (AUDIO: The Curse of the Fugue)
On 8 July, Princess Hentopet's Art was opened in London by Hentopet and Sheeq to try to attract the attention of an alien who could end their centuries old curse. In actuality, they were being manipulated by Bubastion, who wanted an alien that the Pantheon could use as a sacrificial lamb to save the universe.
Sometime before 5 September, the Tenth Doctor and Martha Jones visited London and encountered an outdoor exhibition of sand statues from Princess Hentopet's Art. They ran into Sheeq, who gave them free tickets to the art gallery. At the gallery, they learned that all the statues were actually real people who had been turned into sand by Hentopet and Sheeq. After he turned Martha, Hentopet, and Sheeq into statues, Bubastion talked with the Doctor to affirm he would be gullible enough to be manipulated. After the Doctor "negotiated" with Bubastion, Bubastion turned all the statues back into people and promptly disappeared. (COMIC: Agent Provocateur)
On 25 November, the Eleventh Doctor and Clara Oswald visited the Caliburn House, and helped Professor Alec Palmer and Emma Grayling's locate the ghost that haunted the building, who was actually a human time traveller named Hila Tacorien. Using Emma's psychic powers, the Doctor crossed a wormhole to get to the pocket universe in which Hila was trapped, bringing her back to N-Space. He later retrieved the Crooked Man from the pocket universe as well, reuniting him with his mate. The day was also notable as the start of the relationship between Alec and Emma, which would later give birth to Hila, their great-great-great-great-great-granddaughter. (TV: Hide)
In December, the Sixth Doctor and Peri Brown saved a monk named Cheung from a Triad gang in Kowloon, Hong Kong. (PROSE: Exclave)
Undated events
Reginald Tyler died, still working obsessively on revisions to his The True History of Planets. (PROSE: Mad Dogs and Englishmen)
A Viyran virus which gave good luck with phone calls affected England. The virus made Lauren Hudson accidentally call the Sixth Doctor, who recognised that Lauren was being killed by an alien parasite. Lauren went to the hospital and her life was saved. A couple weeks later, Lauren called the Doctor again and was able to thank him. Later, Lauren accidentally phoned a radio show that was having a contest and won a free holiday for two to Marbella using knowledge from her previous talk with the Doctor. While this happened, the Doctor tracked the virus to its source. He was briefly stopped when he was arrested for trespassing and taken to the Greenstreet Police Station, but Lauren used her prize money to hire the Doctor a solicitor. After this, the Doctor was able to triangulate the virus to its source and eliminate it. (AUDIO: Urgent Calls)
The Eighth Doctor and Lucie Miller arrived in England at a service station on the M62 sometime in the winter. (AUDIO: Horror of Glam Rock)
After sailing down the Amazon "for months", Jo Grant and Cliff Jones arrived in a "village in Crystaluna" and she called UNIT to say hello to the Doctor, but was told that he had "left UNIT and never came back." (TV: Death of the Doctor)
Sherman Pegg was born. (AUDIO: The Way Forwards)
Melanie Gough was killed by Mary. (TV: Greeks Bearing Gifts)
Behind the scenes
According to on-screen production notes for the DVD release of The Time Warrior, a line was struck from the script during Jingo Linx's interrogation of Sarah Jane Smith in which she would have explicitly stated her year of origin as 1974.
