Pure historical
Pure historicals are Doctor Who stories that are set in in a historical time period and feature no science fiction anachronisms other than the TARDIS team. These stories were highlighted by Philip MacDonald in the article "A Foreign Country" in DWM 194.
Pure historicals were common in televised Doctor Who until The Highlanders in 1966. The only pure historical since then was Black Orchid in 1982.
The Time Meddler was the first "pseudo-historical" story with the Monk serving as the science fiction anachronism.
The term has been widely adopted by the fanbase, even by writers for Doctor Who Magazine and Big Finish Productions. These stories have explicitly been described as pure historicals: Other Lives,[1] The Wrath of the Iceni,[2] The Flames of Cadiz,[3] The Lady of Mercia,[4] The Doctor's Tale,[5] The Peterloo Massacre,[6] and The Great White Hurricane.[7]
Paul Magrs jokingly described his audio story Muse of Fire as a "not-quite-so Pure Historical".[8]
List of pure historicals
Footnotes
Notes
- ↑ In the original printing of DWM 162, this story is dated to the 5th century. This was changed to the more historically accurate 8th century in The Mark of Mandragora.
- ↑ Approximate year of Tutankhamun's death.
- ↑ Real world date of the Siege of Masada.
- ↑ Real world date of the Diet of Worms.
