Theory:Timeline - 20th century

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This page lists the order of stories in the Doctor Who Universe timeline from 1 January 1900 to 31 December 1999. (For the purposes of this timeline, 1900 will be considered part of the 20th century given the "Year 0" discrepancy.) This timeline is based upon observations of the Doctor Who universe and the events that occur during each of these 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, and LegoK9's timeline. None of these sources should be used solely as a source or considered a "true" timeline for stories.


Timeline rules:

  • Only list stories. References to dates that the story does not take place in are to be excluded.
  • Stories without any clear indication of an era should be omitted. (e.g. TV: Mummy on the Orient Express)
  • Many stories will contradict each other, so these contradictions should be noted but treated equally. (e.g. TV: The Enemy of the World and other stories set in 2018)
  • Direct quotes indicating the time period the story takes place should be provided. (Quotes sourced from another story should indicate the story it is from.)

Format (list all available):

  • Day Month Year - MEDIUM: Story title
CHARACTER/TEXT/NOTE: Indication of time period

Prime Timeline

1900s

"The Strand, London, 1900"
TEXT: Torchwood Hub - 1901
JACK: Now I need you to put me in the morgue. Freeze me. Set the alarm to defrost in a hundred and seven years time.
REUBEN: Last time that beast was seen on Fang Rock, eighty year ago now, two men died that very same night.
VINCE: 'Ere, Reuben. You don't really think what happened before, back in the twenties, you don't really think it's happening again, do you?
African Plains 1902 A.D.
DOCTOR: Met Mata Hari in a Paris hotel room. What an interesting woman.
DOCTOR: Christmas Eve, then. The kitchen should be buzzing with action.... Charley, it's Nineteen Hundred And Six. It's six years before you were even born.
TEXT: Oxford University, 1906.
DEADBEAT: Tunguska...1908? That rings a bell!
TEXT: The Raven Peninsula, Scotland,1909
TEXT: Lahore, 1909

1910s

SARAH: But he didn't, did he. I mean, we know the world didn't end in 1911.
DOCTOR: I think we're somewhere in the Atlantic, 1912... [The Titanic sinks]
MARTHA: I can prove that wrong for you, sir. Here's the morning paper. It's Monday, November tenth, nineteen thirteen, and you're completely human, sir. As human as they come.
TEXT: 21st August, 1914
DOCTOR: We're in France, Christmas day, 1914.
DOCTOR: Any other day it wouldn't make any difference, but this is Christmas 1914, and a human miracle is about to happen. The Christmas Armistice.
TEXT: And just before the First Battle of the Somme, 1916...
TEXT: July, 1916
TEXT: The town of St. Michael, The Somme. August 1916
NEW YORK TIMES: Friday, August, 1916
TOMMY: Take me. I'm in there in the ward in 1918. You have to take me so I can be here now. Just take me!

1920s

The Hull Times, 5th December 1920
QUOTE? [Hollywood scene with Charlie Chaplin and Bing Crosby]
TEXT: Paris, 1923
DOCTOR: Three o'clock, June the 11th, 1925.
TEXT: New York, 1925
NOTE: Harry Houdini in his 40s.
TEXT: Egypt, 1926. Fired by the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb, archaeologists dug many new sites in their search for history... fame... or fortune.
TEXT: Hollywood, 1926. The party of one Archibald Maplin, ESQ.
DOCTOR: No policewomen in 1926.
TEXT: Ellis Island, New York City, USA - 1927
TEXT: Sing Sing Prison, New York, USA - 1928
PHOTO (Old Girl): The Storyville Players Circa 1928

1930s

DOCTOR: The year wouldn't happen to be 1930, would it? ... And the month, October?
VANSELL (Neverland): ...And all despite having died in Beauvais, France on the fifth of October 1930, in the wreck of a dirigible known as the R101.
MARTHA: November first, 1930
DOCTOR: It was at the Singapore Hilton, on the cusp of years 1930 and 1931, that I first met Mister Sebastian Grayle. I was sitting in the Tea Gardens at midnight on that New Year's Eve...
TEXT: Dockery Plantation, Mississippi, 1931.
TO-DO LIST (The Pictures of Josephine Day): Briarwood House, April 12th, 1932. 7PM
DOCTOR: That attack in 1630, what was the outcome?
THOMNI: It disappeared three hundred years ago.
ANNE (The Web of Fear): Yes. Yes, he seems to. And you met him, when was it you said? In 1935? In Tibet?
NARRATOR: Early of an evening towards the less distinguished end of 1935, the alien Time Lord known as the Doctor bounded back inside his time traversing TARDIS.
AMY: Yes, hang on. Oh, April 3rd, 1938.
JIM: Hang on! This is 1938. We're too early. We need to go later in his time stream.
BIX BIRO: October Thirty-First, 1938.
MADGE: Oh, don't be silly. It's Christmas Eve. No one should be alone at Christmas.

1940s

TEXT: On the same village green... forty years previously... [World War II training]
POSTER: 1941 Kiss The Boys Goodbye Dance, Saturday 20th January 1941 7.30pm
NOTE: Gwen's flashback to Tom being sent to Cardiff.
TOM: No. Lived here sixty six years and still sound like a barrow boy. I was evacuated during the war. 1941. The Germans bombing the hell out of the East End.
DOCTOR: I make it 1941. You lot shouldn't even be in London. You should've been evacuated to the country by now.
QUOTE?
Cabinet War Rooms, London 1941
MADGE: England, 1941. And there's a war on.
ACE: I didn't know they had personal stereos in 1943.
PERI: We could go back in time and try and persuade the powers that be in 1943 that it's a bad idea to go ahead with the experiment.
ANNE: Oh, I see. It's October 26th.
TEXT: Montomgery, Alabama 1943
SUMMARY: October 1944. As World War Two draws towards its conclusion...
"Jonny... gave the bulk of his wages to his mother, of course; they needed every penny now that his dad was overseas fighting this war against Hitler."
'Yes, Nyssa,' the man said. 'But this is Earth, 1945.'
DEADBEAT: Don't tell me... Bermuda, 1945!
SIMON: December 20th, 1945. I am 12 years old. My brother is dead.
Roswell crash
DOCTOR: He's been keeping her alive with the bugs for about 70 years.

1950s

CHARLEY: And in the 1950s on Earth, a scientist will accidentally find a way to reopen the divergent universe, and give them a momentary glimpse of our universe. ... I saw something similar in 1951.
Hollywood 1952.
DOCTOR: Oh! Is this 1953?
DOCTOR: Judging by the truck, I'd say mid-1950s, or else the groundskeepers here are desperately in need of a trade in.
NOTE: References to Commies and Beatniks.
DOCTOR: Today is Wednesday, November 30th, 1955. Tomorrow Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat.
11 years after the Roswell crash in 1947
TOLLMASTER: Your prize. Hang about. You have won our fabulous Fifties tour. A week, a whole week, in Disneyland, planet Earth. And this time, they're going back to 1959. The rock and roll years.

1960s

TEXT: Alcatraz Prison, 1962
TEXT: 1962. A couple streets away.
TEXT: 1962. A couple streets away.
"The Diary of Susan Foreman: Wednesday, March 27th, 1963" ... "Wednesday, April 4th, 1963"
NOTE: Owen's flashback to Elizabeth Lewis' murder.
TOSH: Elizabeth Lewis. Lizzie. Only child of Mabel Ann Lewis of Hafod Street. Died March 29th, 1963.
TEXT: Judoon Containment Facility. Earth-Time: 1963
TEXT: The Nevada Desert, 1963
MAVIS: It is 1963 after all!
IAN: So that when we go out of that door, we won't be in a junkyard in London in England in the year 1963?
Who Killed Kennedy: "As a bullet blew open his head in Dallas, Texas, it was 12.30 p.m. on Friday 22 November 1963.... In the Shoreditch suburb of East London, two school teachers left the local Coal Hill School together."
NOTE: Right before Ian and Barbara enter the junkyard.
ACE: But this is Earth, 1963. Well, someone would have noticed. I'd have heard about it.
Who Killed Kennedy: "The Shoreditch Incident took place just one week after the assassination of America's President John F Kennedy."
SYNOPSIS: London. The end of November, 1963.
Note: Occurs after Remembrance of the Daleks.
TEXT: Las Vegas, 1964
IAN: London, 1965!
NOTE: Clem's flashback to the first 456 event.
IANTO (Children of Earth: Day Three): And they had a Clement MacDonald. He was taken into care, April 1965, after his mother died. No father on record. In November 1965, he was transferred, along with.
DOCTOR: Oh, Christmas. Oh, is it? Of course. Yes, yes, yes, yes. That accounts for the holly in the hall.
MORTON: 1966 Ma'am. Say, you wouldn't be trying to have a bit of fun with me now, would you?
SUMMARY: Monte Carlo, 1966
DOCTOR: 1966! It's the bobbles, dead giveaway.
SUMMER: Gentleman, ladies, may I have your attention please? Well, you're heard the backroom boys, now it's about time you my turn. C Day, that is Computer Day, will be next Monday, July the 16th, that is in four days time.
BEN: Don't you see, Duchess? July the 20th, 1966 is when it all began! We're back to when it all started. Well, I think.
Picks up from The Faceless Ones
TEXT: 1966. It's a good time to be alive.
NOTE: Ben is seen proposing to Polly, setting this after their departure in The Faceless Ones.
PHOTOGRAPH: 14 May 1947, Thalia
TELEGRAM: 21-05-67: 1412 HRS
QUOTE?
"London, 1968"
TEXT: 1968
"Christmas Eve, 1968. 200,000 miles from Earth"
BEN: Mexico Olympiad....That's right, it wasn't due till 1968.
POLLY: Right, so now is any time later than that.
NIXON (The Impossible Astronaut): It's a direct call every time. Every day for the last two weeks, usually late at night.
AMY: Washington D.C., April the eighth, 1969. So why haven't we landed?
DOCTOR: 1969. Not bad, as it goes. You've got the moon landing to look forward to.
Date according to PROSE: House of Giants
Three months later - July 1969.

UNIT Dating

UNIT stories set in the 1970s and/or 1980s should be placed here. See UNIT dating controversy and Timeline - UNIT
NOTE: Marinus is Planet 14 and becomes Mondas? [Before The Invasion]
ANNE: Yes. Yes, he seems to. And you met him, when was it you said? In 1935? In Tibet?
TRAVERS: But it can't be. Why, that's over forty years ago.
DOCTOR: June the seventh, 1977. Well done, Brigadier. Come on.
NOTE: Despite being promoted between The Web of Fear and The Invasion, the Brigadier retired in 1976 and became a maths teacher.
BRIGADIER: That's right, McCrimmon, in the underground. Must be four years ago now.

Liz Shaw era

Jo Grant era

"And with that he pushed his way out of the TARDIS, and back into the safe warmth of the British summer in 1973."
NOTE: The TARDIS has it's dematerialisation circuit.

Sarah Jane Smith era

TEXT: UNIT Headquarters. London, England. 1974
NOTE: The Whomobile makes an appearance.
SARAH JANE (Pyramids of Mars): Oh, that's just the Doctor. We travel in time, Mister Scarman. I'm really from 1980.
TEXT: Bristol, England. Sometime in the 1970s. Or maybe the '80s.
DOCTOR: The 70s. Maybe 80s. Does it matter?

1970s

MELODY: It's all right. It's quite alright. I'm dying. But I can fix that. It's easy, really. See?
CLARA: We're a bit behind the times. Which is kinda weird because it's 1972...
JESS: Six months!
DOCTOR: 1972. They haven't invented Space Invaders yet.
TEXT: 23rd December 1972, Christmas Eve, and Christmas Morning.
DOCTOR: I keep forgetting. 1973: A technological backwater.
SUMMARY: Earth, 1974. An innocent phone call. Okay, it was a wrong number, but there can't be any harm in that. Can there?
PALMER: Excellent, then. Excellent. Caliburn House, night four, November 25th, 1974. 11:04 PM.
LUCIE: I've never seen snow like it.
DOCTOR: It's 1974.
TEXT: Berlin, 1976
ELTON (memory): What was it? I must have been three or four years old. Middle of the night, went downstairs, and there was this man.
NOTE: A deleted scene put Elton’s birthday as 1973.
NOTE: Not said on screen, only in a trailer.
: BELINDA: OK, I admit it, I was adopted. I never knew my realy parents. And yeah, they found me on the steps of the hospital in Wood Street in 1977.
"Bryony Mailer was quite possibly the most important human alive on Earth at that time, which was 11.26 a.m. on 4 June 1978."
QUOTE?
QUOTE?
SYNOPSIS: When the Doctor and Leela arrive in the wilds of Derbyshire, only to get caught up in the hunt for a missing girl, they soon discover that the legend of the Worm is very much alive - even now, in 1979.
DOCTOR: Ah well, yes. It's 1979 actually. More of a table wine, shall we say. Ha! The randomiser's a useful device but it lacks true discrimination. Should we sip it and see?
TEXT: Seaton Bay, 1979
"Loch Ness in the summer of nineteen seventy-nine it is them... Scotland in August. Nowhere finer."
CHRONOTIS: Yes! Young Parsons. Born 1956, graduated 1978, honours degree in chemistry, currently engaged in sigma particles.
DOCTOR: It's October.
"Slade's Merry Christmas, Everybody' has been on the radio... The coin was dated 1987 — eight years in the future!"
TEXT: Opening with Stockbridge invaded by the Ninth Legion.

1980s

DOCTOR: Twentieth century Blackcastle, England, Earth!
And forty years hence... That confusion is echoed... [From World War II training]
QUOTE?
QUOTE?
DOCTOR: (The Doctor wets a finger and holds it up.) 1980.
QUOTE?
DOCTOR (Four to Doomsday): When was your flight again? ... February the twenty eighth, 1981. Oh, you'll have time for a cup of tea. It's only sixteen fifteen hours.
QUOTE?
Clara’s parents meet: The Doctor is hiding behind the Beano Summer Special 1981
K9: No available data. What is the Earth year?
SARAH JANE: 1981. December 18th.
TEGAN: This is the 1980s, Nyssa. Police boxes went out with flower power.
PERI: Doctor, we have stepped back into the past.
DOCTOR: A year or two for you. For me, well, it's all the same to me, of course. Early 1980s, but it could well be the 1880s.
QUOTE?
DOCTOR: If these readings are correct, it's 1983 on Earth.
CLARA: Yeah, but the world didn't end in 1983, did it, or I wouldn't be here.
SARAH JANE: Summer, 1983. This is my latest trip to see my Aunt Lavinia in Oxfordshire...
TURLOUGH: We're not. I checked the time monitor. It is 1984.
DOCTOR: Well, the instruments are still affected by turbulence, but I think it's 1984, London. Found it!
TEXT: Rekjavik, Iceland, 1984: Atop long extinct shaefels.
NOTE: Date according to AUDIO: The Reaping.
"It was the summer of 1984..."
DOCTOR: Can't be far, the signal is very strong.... Strange. It's coming from Earth. In 1985?
QUOTE?
SYNOPSIS: The TARDIS has been drawn to Blackpool in the year 1985
QUOTE? 12/12/85 according to the wiki?
DOCTOR 12: New York. 1985. Not a classic year. But nonetheless one where you were needed...
TEXT: New York, 1985
TEXT: Muswell Hill, London - 1985
CYBERMAN (Death in Heaven): [Clara Oswald was] born 23rd November, 1986.
NOTE: Mondas before The Tenth Planet.
CALENDAR: December 1986.
POLLY: 1986! Oh no, and I thought we'd be able to get home.
DOCTOR: November the 7th?
ROSE: 1987.
DOCTOR: In a matter of months since I was last here, he's calculated the exact time and date when a comet called Nemesis will land on this planet. The twenty third of November.
ACE: 1988
Toddler Clara.
DOCTOR: So when six strangely-shaped meteorites fell from the skies on that summer night in 1989, one might almost have said it was...

1990s

DOCTOR: I acquired that house in the seventies while working for UNIT. Or was it the Eighties?
QUOTE?
TEXT: Stage one of the invasion was complete. It was June, 1990.
NOTE: The Seventh Doctor returns to Elizabeth Klein after the events of Dominion.
Primary school age Clara
DOCTOR: This is London, isn't it? What year?
LEAPY: 1992, of course!
TEXT: Cuzco, Peru. 1992
NOTE: Young Rose in her flashback was portrayed by Julia Joyce, born in 1998, was 6 in 2005. Rose was born in 1986.
DOCTOR: Ho-ho-ho-ho. Merry Christmas, Grant!
DOCTOR: Grant, how long have you known this woman?
GRANT: Since elementary school. Twenty four years.
DOCTOR: Your saddest ever memory was at a fairground in 1994.
DOCTOR: The West Country Children's Home. Gloucester. By the ozone level and the drains, mid-nineties. You must have been here when you had the dream.
ACE: The TARDIS chronometer read December 20th, 1995. What's that the anniversary of?
AMELIA: Dear Santa. Thank you for the dolls and pencils and the fish. It's Easter now, so I hope I didn't wake you, but honest, it is an emergency.
AMY: There's a little girl waiting in a garden. She's going to wait a long while, so she's going to need a lot of hope. Tell her this is the story of Amelia Pond. And this how it ends.
DOCTOR: Amelia's house. When she was seven. The night she waited.
TICKET BOOTH: Festival of Ghana 1996
MAX: Six days 'til Christmas -- and all's well in Stockbridge.
TEXT (Oblivion): Stockbridge, December 19th, 1996...
Amy, Rory, and Mels in primary school.
DOCTOR: Earth. A few years in your future.
NOTE: Date from PROSE: The Dying Days.

14-15 May 1997 - AUDIO: The Rapture

SUMMARY: Ibiza, 1997, and thousands of young people are acting like mindless zombies.
GRANT: A couple of years after high school...
"So, as the Doctor regarded the Powell Estate in South East London on a winter's day in 1998..."
TEXT: December 31st 1999 A Happy New Year
TEXT: New Year's Eve 1999. 01:59:89 [Counting down to midnight.]
REPORTER: Some parts of the world have already welcomed in the New Year. Our cameras, of course, have been out in force across the UK tonight. Let's take you first to Cardiff.
BRUCE: December thirtieth.
LEE: 1999.
See next page: Timeline - 21st century
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