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.

List of pure historicals

Medium	Title	Doctor	Era	Release Date
TV	An Unearthly Child	1st	001 !100,000 BC	23 November–14 December 1963
	Marco Polo		1289	22 February–4 April 1964
	The Aztecs		1430 !After 1430	23 May–13 June 1964
	The Reign of Terror		1794	8 August–12 September 1964
	The Romans		64	16 January–6 February 1965
	The Crusade		1190s	27 March–17 April 1965
	The Myth Makers		006 !1200 BC	16 October–6 November 1965
	The Massacre		1572	5–26 February 1966
	The Gunfighters		1881	30 April–21 May 1966
	The Smugglers		1690 !17th century	10 September–1 October 1966
	The Highlanders	2nd	1746	17 December 1966–7 January 1967
	Black Orchid	5th	1925	1–2 March 1982
Mini-episode	The Bells of Saint John: A Prequel	11th	1990s	23 March 2013
Mini-episode	The Doctor's Meditation	12th	1138	15 September 2015
Comic	Backtime	3rd	1863	2 October-13 November 1971
	Who is the Stranger	3rd	1940 !c. 1940-1944	10 February 1973
	Perils of Paris	3rd	1880	Summer 1974
	Woden's Warriors	4th	800 !to be added	1 September 1975
	Treasure Trail	4th	1944	20 March- 1 May 1976
	The Sky Warrior	4th	1500s !16th century	1 July 1977
	Doctor Conkerer!	7th	0400s !5th or 8th century^[1]	14 June 1990
	The Submariners	10th	1944	19 February 2009
	They Think It's All Over	11th	966	25 May 2011
	The Doctor Shops for Comics	11th	1923	12 August 2015
Novel	Sanctuary	7th	1242	20 April 1995
	The Plotters	1st	1605	21 November 1996
	The Roundheads	2nd	1648	24 November 1997
	The Witch Hunters	1st	1692-1693	2 March 1998
	The Wages of Sin	3rd	1916	1 February 1999
	Byzantium!	1st	64	2 July 2001
	Blood and Hope	5th	1860-1865	19 February 2004
	The Coming of the Queen	5th	003 !15th century BC	13 October 2005
Short story	The King of Golden Death	2nd	004 !After c. 1323 BC^[2]	September 1967
	The Real Hereward	6th	1066	August 1984
	A Victorian Interlude	5th	1890	21 March 1991
	An Unfulfilled Dream	7th	005 !1240 BC	5 September 1991
	Who Discovered America?	1st	1002	20 February 1992
	The Stranger, The Writer, His Wife and the Mixed Metaphor	4th	1590s	21 January 1993
	Front Line	7th	1914 !c. 1914-1918	23 December 1993
	The Last Days	1st	74 !c. 74^[3]	2 March 1998
	The People's Temple	8th	002 !Stone Age	2 March 1998
	Romans Cutaway	1st	64	1 March 1999
	Five Card Draw	1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th	1100 !12th century	6 March 2002
	Apocrypha Bipedium	1st	007 !After 1200 BC	2 April 2003
	Mire and Clay	1st	1842	16 June 2003
	The Immortals	5th	1016	9 April 2004
	All Done with Mirrors	4th	1593	9 April 2004
	The Thief of Sherwood	1st	1100 !12th century	9 April 2004
	White Man's Burden	5th	1877	9 April 2004
	Of the Mermaid and Jupiter	7th	1829	9 April 2004
	The Man Who Wouldn't Give Up	6th	800 !9th century	9 April 2004
	The Bushranger's Story	4th	1876	26 August 2004
	The Farmer's Story	2nd	1915 !After 1914	26 August 2004
	The Republican's Story	4th	1666	26 August 2004
	Never Seen Cairo	5th, 7th	1914	30 December 2004
	It's a Lovely Day Tomorrow	4th	1940	30 December 2004
	The Duke's Folly	1st	1870 !Late 19th century	9 April 2005
	Comforts of Home	5th	1861	26 November 2005
	Log 384	7th	1933	18 September 2006
	The Slave War	2nd	012 !71 BC	10 May 2008
	Goths and Robbers	5th	493	10 May 2008
	The Price of Conviction	1st	1521 !c. 1521^[4]	10 May 2008
	God Send Me Well to Keep	5th	1539	10 May 2008
	On a Pedestal	2nd	1200 !13th century	10 May 2008
	Hiccup in Time	3rd	1539	30 March 2009
	Shamans	4th	1856	30 March 2009
	The Reign Makers	1st	1415	30 March 2009
	The Bledoe Cadets and the Bald Man of Pengriffen*	N/A	1937	March 2017
Audio	The Marian Conspiracy	6th	1555	12 March 2000
	The Fires of Vulcan	7th	79	18 September 2000
	The Church and the Crown	5th	1626	28 November 2002
	Doctor Who and the Pirates	6th	1702 !c. 1702	April 2003
	Catch-1782	6th	1782	April 2005
	The Council of Nicaea	5th	325	July 2005
	Other Lives	8th	1851	13 December 2005
	The Settling	7th	1649	May 2006
	No Man's Land	7th	1917	November 2006
	Summer	5th	1690 !17th century	20 January 2007
	Autumn	5th	2000s	20 January 2007
	Son of the Dragon	5th	1462	6 September 2007
	100 BC	6th	011 !101 BC	26 September 2007
	Resistance	2nd	1944	March 2009
	The Angel of Scutari	7th	1854	June 2009
	The Emperor of Eternity	2nd	010 !210 BC	9 March 2010
	Farewell, Great Macedon	1st	009 !323 BC	10 November 2010
	The Wondrous Box	4th	1885	11 May 2011
	The Wrath of the Iceni	4th	60	March 2012
	The Alchemists	1st	1933	August 2013
	Murder at Moorsey Manor	N/A	1894	3 April 2014
	The Doctor's Tale	1st	1400	17 October 2014
	The Founding Fathers	1st	1762	3 June 2015
	Dark Convoy	7th	1941	20 July 2015
	Murder at the Abbey	N/A	1950s	6 August 2015
	The Peterloo Massacre	5th	1819	15 March 2016
	The Ravelli Conspiracy	1st	1514	10 November 2016
	The Barbarians and the Samurai	1st	1820s	25 July 2018
	The Phoenicians	1st	008 !814 BC	29 January 2019
	Black Thursday	5th	1902	12 February 2019
	Last of the Romanovs	1st	1918	18 March 2020
	Operation: Hellfire	3rd	1943	14 May 2020
	The Hollow Crown	1st	1601	27 April 2021
	The Rotting Deep	6th	2000s	17 May 2022
	A Ghost of Alchemy	4th	1921	8 March 2023
	River of Death	6th	1800 !19th century	7 March 2024
	The Merfolk Murders	5th	1940	9 April 2024
Role-playing game	The Bellagio Imbroglio	Uncertain	1778	12 January 2017

Footnotes

↑ 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.

[reprint-1] 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.

[2] Approximate year of Tutankhamun's death.

[3] Real world date of the Siege of Masada.

[4] Real world date of the Diet of Worms.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]