5th century

Timeline

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Years of interest

420 493 445 451 476 405

The 5th century was a century only sporadically visited by the Doctor. The Seventh Doctor once stopped off in 5th century Britain for chestnuts in his game of conkers. (COMIC: Doctor Conkerer!)

The Roman occupation of Britain, which had begun in 43, ended during the early years of the century. (AUDIO: The Wrath of the Iceni)

As with most centuries of the first two millennia, the 5th century was home to Jack Harkness, Amy Pond and an Auton duplicate of Rory Williams. A version of Jack from around the time of the deaths of Toshiko Sato and Owen Harper existed in this century, having been buried alive in the 1st century by his brother, Gray. He perpetually died and resurrected an unknown number of times in an earthen tomb underneath Cardiff. (TV: Exit Wounds) Meanwhile, a near-dead Amy Pond was kept alive inside the Pandorica, beginning in the 2nd century. An Auton version of Rory kept vigil near her the entire time. They both awaited a moment in the mid-1990s when a young Amelia Pond would touch the outside of the Pandorica and restore Amy to full health. (TV: The Big Bang)

It was substantially unclear whether the events of the subsequent Big Bang Two erased Amy and Rory's presence in the 5th century. This ambiguity was caused, in part, because the non-Auton, married Rory Williams claimed to have remembered being "made of plastic" at his wedding reception, suggesting that, at least inasmuch as he was concerned, he and Amy were present in the 5th century. (TV: The Big Bang) Amy seemed to also remember those events, and displayed a fondness for the Auton Rory both during her honeymoon (TV: A Christmas Carol) and during a kind of lullaby to her newborn child Melody Pond. (TV: A Good Man Goes to War)

Behind the scenes

The Dalek Handbook dates the beginning of the Thousand Year War on Skaro to circa 450, which is derived from numerous assumptions and inferences:

• That The Daleks and Genesis of the Daleks are separated by approximately 500 years, based on dialogue from the former story concerning the dating of the neutronic war.
• That The Daleks takes place circa 1963, assuming the First Doctor returned Ian and Barbara to the right time period after An Unearthly Child but not the right place.
• That Genesis therefore takes place circa 1450, and that the Thousand Year War, which ends in that story, literally lasted (or at lasted very close to) 1,000 years.

However, this dating is contested, with numerous editions of AHistory dating the start of the war to 240 BC, and the in-universe short story Peaceful Thals Ambushed! alternatively dating the events of The Daleks to 2064.