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Theory:Timeline - Ace

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Index → Timey-wimey detector → Timeline - Ace
Spoilers are strongly policed here.
If this thread's title doesn't specify it's spoilery, don't bring any up.

This page lists appearances of the Dorothy "Ace" McShane in the order in which she experienced them. This timeline is based upon observations of the Doctor Who universe and the events that occur during each of these stories. From these observations we have attempted to build a concise timeline. It is assumed, much like its TV story counterparts that for each novel or audio series their published/numbered order is the order they occur in. This does not apply to short stories which are often ambiguous about their placement. There are also many gaps between stories.

The layout of this timeline is in part based on the observations on Doctor Who Reference Guide and Doctor Who - The Complete Adventures, as well as Lance Parkin's AHistory and other sources that allow us to make observations, such as The Whoniverse, Doctor Who Reviews, The History of Doctor Who, The Discontinuity Guide, Clive Banks databanks, and The Divergent Universe forum. None of these sources should be used solely as a source or considered a "true" timeline for stories.

Additionally there are statements on the back many BBC Past Doctor Adventures novels that state between which TV stories the novel takes place between. These can be used to narrow the field, but should not be viewed as the only placement for these novels.

Timeline

Life in Perivale

The Seventh Doctor visits an infant Ace.
(FLASHBACK)
Set in September. Ace is fifteen and has started to act out and develop her "Ace" persona. She visits the Lincolnshire marshes with Julian Milton. (PROSE: Love and War)
Set the week before Ace's sixteenth birthday. She appears in court due to her bad behaviour and is close to being sent to prison, however the judge decides to give her a second chance.
Ace is working at a fast food restaurant, suggesting she must be at least sixteen years old by this point, indicating a setting after Pass It On. She encounters The Ergon, but mistakes it for one of her friends in a chicken costume.
Ace briefly has the Thirteenth Doctor as her new chemistry teacher, who inspires her love of chemistry. She blows up her art room with Nitro-9. After an encounter with a Charvalian, the Doctor wipes Ace's memory of her.
(REFERENCE)
On 14 September 1987 (PROSE: At Childhood's End), while planning a weekend out with Julian (PROSE: Love and War), Ace is transported to Svartos from her bedroom by a time storm. (TV: Dragonfire)

Joining the Doctor

On Iceworld, the Seventh Doctor finds Ace and offers for her to travel with him in the TARDIS, to which she accepts.
Ace has "only just come on board" the TARDIS, though has been aboard long enough to use up several cans of deodorant, and is exploring her new surroundings.
Ace is familiar with the TARDIS, but is surprised that the Doctor keeps secrets, setting this early in their travels.
The Doctor plays the spoons, which Master indicated he did less as he matured, setting this early in his travels with Ace.
The Doctor and Ace go back in time to kill a dictator as a baby, but are unable to go through with it.
Ace is carrying around the baseball bat that was destroyed in Remembrance of the Daleks.
Ace visits New York City for the first time.
Ace wishes to spend Christmas with the Doctor, who is reluctant and fails to see why it is so important to Ace, setting this early in their travels together.
The Doctor takes Ace to Rome during Saturnalia as a Christmas surprise. The Doctor's main priority is teaching Ace and, when they encounter danger, the Doctor sends Ace back to the TARDIS, setting this during their early travels.
The Doctor and Ace attend the coronation of Elizabeth II.
Ace feels the Doctor is showing off with his time travel shenanigans.
The Doctor, who is beginning to lean towards his scheming ways, gives his white coat to Rebeekan, and begins thinking about changing it for a brown one.
Ace encounters the Daleks for the first time. According to Head Games, this was the first time she doubted the Doctor's motives.
Immediately following Remembrance of the Daleks, the Doctor detects temporal abnormality at Coal Hill School in 2016. However, the TARDIS is attacked before he and Ace can tend to it. (AUDIO: In Remembrance)
The Doctor remains in the TARDIS while Ace visits Judith Winters in 1993, thirty years after Remembrance of the Daleks.
Ace learns that the TARDIS is stuck with the police box exterior due to a broken chameleon circuit, and begins questioning the Doctor's intentions and motivations.
The Doctor and Ace visit 1926 Africa. The Doctor leaves Ace with an old friend, Naikosiai, while he attends to some business alone, returning a few hours later. The Doctor and Ace leave for Terra Alpha, setting this immediately before The Happiness Patrol.
Broadcasted out-of-production-order on John Nathan-Turner's orders, to accommodate real world timing into the broadcast schedule.
After The Happiness Patrol, Ace asks the Doctor how he operates, and believes they come to an understanding.
Broadcasted out-of-production-order on John Nathan-Turner's orders, to accommodate with the twenty-fifth anniversary of Doctor Who. Ace encounters the Cybermen for the first time. The Doctor spots a chess set in Lady Peinforte's home and realises that Fenric is orchestrating events in his favour.
In an alternate timeline created by Rassilon and the Cybermen, the Doctor finds Ace converted into a Cyberman during Silver Nemesis.
The Doctor does not have much control over events, and his relationship with Ace is more trusting, setting this in their early travels. Ace has encountered Nazis during her travels with the Doctor, setting this after Silver Nemesis.
The Doctor, out gift-shopping for a friend, mentions that Ace likes Charlton Athletic, which he learnt in Silver Nemesis.
Broadcasted out-of-production-order on John Nathan-Turner's orders, due to a delay brought about by the 1988 Olympics, explained how Ace was wearing Flowerchild's earring in Silver Nemesis, despite acquiring it during this serial.
The Doctor is wearing his off-white jacket. Ace is described as a teenage, is carrying a baseball bat, and has a Charlton Athletic badge pinned to her jacket.
Set soon after The Time and Tide.
The Doctor is described as wearing a light jacket with a patterned sweater.
The Doctor recalls his movements in 1963 from Remembrance of the Daleks and an unknown second adventure. The Doctor changes into his chocolate brown jacket for the first time.
The Doctor is wearing his brown jacket, and the TARDIS has the console room from the television series. According to the introduction, the events of The Greatest Show in the Galaxy happened "not so long ago". Ace convinces Mags to take a trip in the TARDIS.
The Doctor has not yet told Ace about regeneration, and she doesn't know who the Master is, setting this before Survival.
Though she is absent, the Doctor is currently travelling with Ace.
The Doctor is travelling with Ace, and together they trap an Elder God. The Doctor is wearing his brown coat and plays the spoons.
The Doctor has a sonic screwdriver that fires laser attacks, and is wearing his white safari jacket. The Doctor and Ace visit Paris, New York City, Tokyo and Skaro.


Drawn to Earth

The Doctor drops Ace off in the Cretaceous period to see dinosaurs as he had previously promised in The Happiness Patrol. After travelling alone for a while, the Doctor retrieves Ace and the two resume travelling together.
Broadcast out-of-production-order on John Nathan-Turner's orders, to accommodate real world timing into the broadcast schedule. Ace meets the Brigadier for the first time in her life, while the Doctor meets him for the first time since his sixth regeneration.
Broadcast out-of-production-order on John Nathan-Turner's orders, to accommodate real world timing into the broadcast schedule.
Broadcast out-of-production-order on John Nathan-Turner's orders, as the episode's theme fitted well with the Halloween broadcast slot. Fenric's master plan reaches its climax, but the Doctor is able to best his foe again. Ace is gifted an authentic cap insignia of the Red Army by Captain Sorin.
Broadcast out-of-production-order on John Nathan-Turner's orders, to accommodate real world timing into the broadcast schedule. The novelisation details how the Doctor and Ace have returned to Earth for the first time since The Curse of Fenric, which was a week before. Ace encounters the Tremas Master for the first time on Cheetah World, and both become infected with the Cheetah virus, though Ace begins to recover by the serial's conclusion.
Set shortly after Survival, with the last event that Zoe dreams before waking up being the Doctor's speech to Ace about having "work to do".
Placement established by Interweaving with the New Adventures.
Placement established by Interweaving with the New Adventures. The Doctor mentions that he's recently been unable to take the TARDIS away from Earth since just before the events of Living in the Past. He recalls the events of Battlefield as having taken place in the "last few weeks". He is in the processs of redecorating the TARDIS interior. The Doctor purges the TARDIS of the Mandragora Helix and he and Ace are able to travel away from Earth again.

Continued travels

Placement established by Interweaving with the New Adventures.
Placement established by Interweaving with the New Adventures. The Doctor finally reaches Maruthea, just as his predecessor is leaving.
The Doctor remembers that his real reason to come to Maruthea was to tidy up loose ends with Death's Head. He stuns the original Death's Head and wipes his memory of his encounter with Death's Head II.
Placement established by Interweaving with the New Adventures. The Doctor locates his old signet ring in the TARDIS control console and decides to resume wearing it. Complications caused by the ring result in the TARDIS interior changing to a new design.
Placement established by Interweaving with the New Adventures.
Placement established by Interweaving with the New Adventures. The TARDIS' chameleon circuit is inexplicably working, and has changed the TARDIS's form into a Cadillac.
Placement established by Interweaving with the New Adventures.
Placement established by Interweaving with the New Adventures.
The Doctor is wearing his dark brown jacket underneath his duffle-coat, and Ace looks older than her television counterpart.

Travels with Raine Creevy

This is Ace's first encounter with an Ice Warrior. The Doctor claims to have never delivered a baby before he delivers baby Raine Creevy. The Doctor tries to get Ace accepted into the Time Lord Academy, but she turns down the offer and is also rejected by the Time Lords.
Set almost immediately after Thin Ice. After defeating the Metatraxi, the Doctor offers Raine Creevy the chance to travel in the TARDIS, which she accepts.
Raine's first journey is to Margrave University in 2001, where, she discovers that her father has died. Upset by the revelation, Raine decides to stay at Margrave for a short time.
It has been some time since the Doctor and Ace last saw Raine, who decides to return to the TARDIS.
The Doctor, Ace and Raine have just left Smithwood Manor, setting this after Fellow Travellers.
Under unknown circumstances, Raine leaves the TARDIS again.

Defying death

The Doctor and Ace have just left the Blitz, setting this immediately after Illegal Alien. Ace is 17-years-old, and the Valeyard uses the Dark Matrix to briefly reawaken the Cheetah virus within her, presumably amplifying her continued difficulties with the virus. Months have passed since the Doctor and Ace were on Cheetah World.
Set immediately after Matrix.
Ace is depicted with the same character traits she showed in Illegal Alien.
Ace obtains a CD Walkman from Paul Tanner.
The Doctor and Ace meet Bev Tarrant.
Ace refers to the recent events of Storm Harvest and The Genocide Machine. The Doctor refers to his encounter with the Master from Stop the Pigeon. The Doctor discovers Ace's future dead body, and tries to keep her out of danger, leading into Heritage.
It has been months since Ace went anywhere interesting and the Doctor is still paranoid about Ace's potential death. Ace hasn't yet worn her special sunglasses from the New Adventures era, setting this before Timewyrm: Genesys.
Ace has more experienced and confident, and knows more about future technology than she used too.
Sequel to Illegal Alien. Set several weeks after Heritage, with the Doctor still recovering from Mel's death. Ace is killed by George Limb, but the Doctor manipulates events so that, when Limb's plans are thwarted by James Dean, the timeline recreates itself with Ace still alive, though slightly altered.
(INTERLUDE)
According to one account, the Doctor and Ace parted ways in the year 1990 after the Doctor exposed Ace to the power of the Quantum anvil, allowing her to see her possible futures. After witnessing the death of the Astingir, Ace realises that her place is on Earth and asks the Doctor to take her home. The 2020 segments of the book establish that this took place after the events of Illegal Alien. (PROSE: At Childhood's End)

Further travels

Ace has a conversation echoing another that she had "not so long ago" in The Curse of Fenric. The earthbound setting places this after Survival.
The Doctor gives Clio a Blue Peter badge on Ace's behalf.
Ace is under 18-years-of-age and is familiar with UNIT and the Brigadier, setting this after Battlefield.
Though the book's blurb would place this between The Curse of Fenric and Survival, the Doctor has it noted that he should leave a settee for his younger self to land on in Perivale, a reference to Survival.
Ace references the events of Ghost Light.
Ace recognises the Master and the Cheetah People, setting this after Survival.
While Ace is asleep, the Doctor travels back in time to apologise to baby Ace for the events of Ghost Light and The Curse of Fenric, and for the pain "yet to come".
The Doctor and Ace recall the events of The Assassination Games.
Ace recognises the Master, setting this after Survival. After thwarting the Mater's scheme, Ace is kidnapped by Adam Mitchell, leading directly into Endgame.
The Doctor joins with his other incarnations to rescue Ace from Adam and the Master, and assists the other Doctors in saving their companions as well.
Set "more than twenty months" before Timewyrm: Revelation.
Ace refers to her escape from the underwater spaceship in Battlefield, and meeting her grandmother during The Curse of Fenric. She is still under the legal drinking age. Miss Gallowglass gives a cryptic warning to the Doctor and Ace about the upcoming events of Independence Day.
The TARDIS has a large, yellow control room, and Ace is depicted more mature than in the television series. After defeating Kla-Shi-Kel, the Doctor and Ace are contacted by Group Captain Gilmore, leading directly into Operation Volcano.
Ace recognises the Master, setting this after Survival. She also has the baseball bat seen in The Armageddon Gambit.
The Doctor has a sonic screwdriver.
Ace is described as tanned, muscular and "more military than anything else". She and the Doctor are delivering a package to the Brigadier.
Ace has faced the Daleks and Cybermen. She knows the Doctor can regenerate, setting this after The Light at the End. The Doctor knows Ace's full name.

Identity crisis

The Doctor and Ace bump into Bev Tarrant again, after meeting her in The Genocide Machine, and she leaves with them in the TARDIS after they defeat the Decayed Master.
At Colditz Castle during the Second World War, the Doctor and Ace are confronted by Elizabeth Klein, a scientist from an alternate timeline, who escapes her defeat as an anomaly. Ace decides to be called "McShane" from this story on, and still has the CD Walkman from The Fearmonger.
McShane references the recent events of Colditz and Dust Breeding.

Hex joins

McShane tells Hex that she has been travelling with the Doctor "for a surprisingly long time." The Doctor has a sonic screwdriver, and is convinced by McShane to let Hex join them in the TARDIS.
Hex has recently joined the TARDIS and still isn't used to the idea of time travel. He is concerned that the Doctor and McShane don't trust him as much as they trust each other, and visits his first alien world.
Hex sees aliens and spaceships for the first time.
Shortly after being joined by Hex, the Doctor battles the Cragvar. (AUDIO: Afterlife)
Set before LIVE 34, as Ace is still going by McShane.
Set before LIVE 34, as Ace is still going by McShane.
Prior to their arrival on Colony 34, McShane decided that "Ace" was her true name, and resumed using it. Reporter Ryan Wareing estimates Ace to be slightly older than Lulu, whom he estimated to be in her early-to-mid twenties.
The Doctor has dropped Ace and Hex off in 1966 Monte Carlo with instructions to steal the Veiled Leopard, while he visits Evelyn Smythe.
The TARDIS interior has been redecorated to the Victorian parlour design from Doctor Who.
Ace and Hex mention the recent events of The Settling.
Set a few months after The Harvest.
Set during the early days of Hex's travels with the Doctor and Ace. Ending leads directly into World Apart. The TARDIS interior has its Victorian parlour design, setting this after The Settling.
Immediately after leaving Umbra, Ace and Hex become trapped on Nirvana for some time. Hex plans on revealing his romantic feelings for Ace.
The TARDIS interior has its Victorian parlour design, setting this after The Settling.
Nobody No-One has been pursuing the Doctor for the past few weeks, and is the cause of the number "45" being prevalent wherever the TARDIS lands.

Battling the Elder Gods

The Doctor sees a chess set in the sanatorium, and realises Fenric is preparing his return.
Ace has significant military and tactical knowledge, implying a post-Deceit setting. Hex has his first encounter with the Daleks.
Hex is still reeling from the events that he witnessed on Bliss with the Daleks. The exterior shell of the TARDIS is shattered after the HADS are activated, and its colouration is stuck as white.
Follows directly on from The Angel of Scutari. Hex leaves the TARDIS crew after discovering that the Doctor had previously been witness to his mother's death. After learning from Aristedes that there is a Time Lord sarcophagus in the Forge archive, the Doctor and Ace decide to investigate.
Follows directly on from Project: Destiny, with the Doctor and Ace investigating the Forge archive. Ace is incapable of flying the Doctor's TARDIS. Hex rejoins the TARDIS at Evelyn Smythe's prompting, before Evelyn passes away.
The Doctor goes to Alaska, setting this after Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible.
The TARDIS is restored to its prime condition, and the Black TARDIS is destroyed.
Hex enters the Time Vortex to defeat Fenric, apparently killing himself in the process.
Ace no longer knows her age, setting this after Set Piece, where she knew for a fact she was 26-years-old. The Doctor has posited Lysandra to fight in a war in her native time, and Sally also leaves the TARDIS. The Doctor and Ace find Hex, living under the name "Hector Thomas", in Liverpool and take him with them in the TARDIS.
The Doctor takes Ace and Hector to Greece to relax after the events of Revenge of the Swarm. After their vacation, Hector asks the Doctor to return him home, leading into Signs and Wonders.
Hector leaves the TARDIS and settles down with Sally to raise a family. Ace glimpses various futures where she is wearing a high collar, riding a motorbike in Paris in the 19th century, being surrounded by the Lobri and dying of old age in the TARDIS. The Doctor promises to teach Ace how to fly the TARDIS, leading directly into You Are The Doctor.

Reunited with Mel

The Doctor begins teaching Ace how to fly the TARDIS, as he promised to do in Signs and Wonders, setting this after Deceit.
The Doctor realises that the ongoing events of You Are the Doctor, Come Die With Me and The Grand Betelgeuse Hotel have been the result of the TARDIS searching for someone and decides to help it find them, leading directly into A Life of Crime. Ace refers to Hex having just left, setting this shortly after Signs and Wonders.
The TARDIS finds Mel on Ricosta. After being rescued from the Speravores, Mel rejoins the TARDIS crew.
The Doctor, Mel and Ace have just left Ricosta, setting this immediately after A Life of Crime. The TARDIS interior has its Victorian parlour design.
At least one week has passed since A Life of Crime.
The TARDIS is on its way to a party on Maruthea, when the Doctor decides to change course and head to 2085 Earth instead. The Doctor refers to their recent encounter with the Galparians, setting this shortly after Dead to the World.
Mel delivers the TARDIS to Josiah W. Dogbolter, leading directly into The Quantum Possibility Engine.
Ace meets Narvin for the first time and learns about the Celestial Intervention Agency.
(REFERENCE)
According to one account, Ace eventually leaves the Doctor after a falling out following an encounter with The Rani which left her unable to face the many deaths they endure on their travels (TV: Tales of the TARDIS: The Curse of Fenric) or to understand the burden that the Doctor carried. (TV: The Power of the Doctor) Although intending to drop her off in West London, the Doctor accidentally leaves her in London, Ontario. (TV: Tales of the TARDIS: The Curse of Fenric)

Trouble with the Timewyrm

When the Doctor restores Ace's memories, the first thing that she recalls is the events of Survival, and she still feels some of the after-effects of the Cheetah virus. She knows about regeneration, and is aware that the Doctor has regenerated six times.
Set immediately after Timewyrm: Genesys.
The Seventh Doctor and Ace are observed visiting the Festival of Britain during Timewyrm: Exodus by an amnesiac Eighth Doctor.
Ace sees an animal in the TARDIS, foreshadowing Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible.
The Doctor and Ace have "only just left Kirith", setting this immediately after Timewyrm: Apocalypse. Ace is now in her early 20s.
Visiting Ethan Amberglass whilst in hospital, the Doctor mentions the recent events of Timewyrm: Revelation.

The best of friends

Ace is described as being "about 20", and acts like a mentor to a group of teenagers.
Placement established by Interweaving with the New Adventures. When listing the worst creatures she can imagine, Ace mentions the Daleks, the Timewyrm and the Cybermen.
Three years have passed since Ace left Perivale, and she hasn't seen her mother, Audrey Dudman, in the interim. The Doctor hasn't been to Alaska, and Ace has learnt how to swear in eleven alien languages. The TARDIS is damaged following an explosion in the console room. The Doctor sends Ace on a mission to Turkey while he takes care of some business of his own.

Reunited with the Doctor again

Ace spends at least three months in Turkey before she reunites with the Doctor, who has been operating out of Smithwood Manor and claims that the TARDIS is "waiting" after Ace inquires about how it is, following the damage done to it in Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible.
Set during Cat's Cradle: Warhead, according to Interweaving with the New Adventures.
Ace can still feel the biological effects of being on the Cheetah planet. The TARDIS gets infected by demonic protoplasm.
Ace has already been traveling with the Doctor for several years.
Placement established by Interweaving with the New Adventures.
Placement established by Interweaving with the New Adventures.
An opening annotation places this story directly after the consecutive events of Memorial and Nightshade, which is supported by Interweaving with the New Adventures.
Ace has been traveling with the Doctor for years. The Doctor and Ace are joined on their travels by Neil Hilton, whom spends years with them.
Ace recalls losing her memory, setting this after Timewyrm: Genesys.
The Doctor and Ace spend a month attempting to defeat CEREBRA.
According to the studio script, this audio is set after Survival.[1] The Doctor explains fixed points in time to Ace, and is manipulating events around one of them to get an outcome of his choosing, implying this takes place during his time as "Time's Champion".
The Doctor is making a cube in his lab that Ace must not know about, setting this shortly before Love and War.
Ace claims that the events of Nightshade occurred some months ago. Ace leaves the Doctor after realising that his manipulations resulted in the death of Jan Rydd, a man she had fallen in love with.

After Space Fleet

Three years after leaving the Doctor on Heaven, Ace decides to return to the TARDIS, but no longer trusts the Doctor. The TARDIS is cured of the protoplasm infection from Cat's Cradle: Witch Mark.
The Doctor gives his age as 943-years-old.
Ace is more curt and aggressive, setting this not long after her return in Deceit.
Placement established by Interweaving with the New Adventures.
The Doctor and an Old One are in an antagonistic relationship, setting this before their truce in Signs and Wonders. The Doctor begins wearing a cream linen suit and fedora.
Ace still keeps track of her age. The Doctor decides he needs a holiday, leading into Birthright and Iceberg.
Set at the same time as Birthright, with the events of both novels occurring concurrently for the Doctor, Ace and Benny.
Set concurrently with the events of Iceberg, with the Doctor being absent for the majority of Birthright. The Doctor's deceptions cost him Benny's trust.
Placement established by Interweaving with the New Adventures.
Placement established by Interweaving with the New Adventures.

Alternate universe cycle

A few months have passed since Deceit, but the events of Birthright are recent. The TARDIS falls through a puncture in the Time Vortex, and the Doctor later realises that someone is toying with time. The Doctor acquires a new sonic screwdriver from the possessions of his deceased alternate third incarnation, and also takes that Doctor's TARDIS after his is lost in a tar pit.
Ace still does not trust the Doctor, nor does the TARDIS from the alternate world. The Doctor discovers that the one who created the Silurian Earth has successfully altered the flow of time in the real universe.
The Doctor fixes the chameleon circuit in his new TARDIS.
Its been a week since The Left-Handed Hummingbird, with the Doctor spending most of this time in the sick bay. Benny decides to stay with the Doctor after struggling with her inability to trust him. The Doctor learns history is going to change again, and he sets out to find the cause, leading into No Future.
The Doctor discovers that Mortimus has been corrupting the timeline as a revenge stunt, but is able to defeat his enemy and regain Ace's trust. He also smashes the chameleon circuit of his TARDIS with a hammer, destroying it. The Doctor thinks he killed the Master in Survival, despite having spoken of him in the present tense during Deceit.

Final TARDIS travels

Set shortly after No Future, with the Doctor having found "a spring in [his] step" from his battle with Mortimus. The Doctor has had experience with delivering babies, setting this after Thin Ice.
Ace refers to the recent events of No Future.
Placement established by Interweaving with the New Adventures.
The TARDIS has been to Olleril recently, setting this shortly after Tragedy Day. As far as Ace knows, this is the first time she has seen an Ice Warrior. Benny, who has never been on Mars before this point in her life, takes a temporary leave of absence from the TARDIS.
Though the book's blurb would place this immediately after Survival, the Doctor is wearing his cream linen suit from White Darkness, and Ace is depicted with the confidence and general demeanour she had in the Virgin New Adventures. With Benny absent, this must take place during her brief leave-of-absence.
Benny returns to the TARDIS after her temporary leave of absence that started in Legacy.
Set between All-Consuming Fire and Blood Harvest.[2]
The Doctor is wearing his white suit from White Darkness, though the TARDIS console room is the one from before Final Genesis.
Set after The Shadow of the Scourge.[3]
The Doctor sends Ace and Benny on a mission to Antarctica.
The Doctor, Benny and Ace spend a month in Liverpool in the early 1990s.
The Doctor, Benny and Ace end up in E-space, where they find Romana and return her to Gallifrey, where she opts to remain.
Some time has passed since Blood Harvest, with Ace getting trigger-happy due to the lack of dangerous adventures.
The Doctor and Ace encounter the Tremas Master for the first time since Survival. Ace fatally shoots the Master, but he is able to regenerate into Template:Frontier. Ace considers leaving the TARDIS.
Ace has her head shaved clean.
Ace's hair is still re-growing from the events of St Anthony's Fire.
It has been at least a full year since No Future. Ace is still thinking about when she'll leave the Doctor.
The Doctor, Ace and Benny have been at Smithwood Manor for almost a year.
Ace is 26-years-old. After an ordeal with the Robot Ants, Ace leaves the TARDIS crew to become Time's Vigilante.

Time's Vigilante

(EPILOGUE)
The Doctor visits Ace in 1887 Paris where they discuss the events of The Curse of Fenric. Years have passed since they last saw each other and the Doctor is wearing a waistcoat. Ace tells the Doctor that she has fallen in love with Count Sorin. (PROSE: The Curse of Fenric)
Ace isn't using her real name yet, setting this before Happy Endings.
Ace is now going by "Dorothée" and is thirty-one years old. The Doctor believes that she looks much younger, citing TARDIS travel as the cause for her lack of ageing.
(EPILOGUE)
The Doctor catches up with a forty year old Ace following the defeat of the Voltranons. (PROSE: Set Piece)
Ace meets the Ninth Doctor and helps him save the Eighth Doctor, she is going by 'Dorothy' at the time.

Gallifrey

(REFERENCE)
While she is supposed to be watching over the planet Talmeson, Ace decides to go visit her mother in Perivale, only to discover that she had passed away during her absence. Upon returning to her post, she finds that Talmeson has been destroyed by the Daleks. She decides to steal an Omega device and wipe the Daleks out once and for all by time-locking Skaro during its early history. (AUDIO: The Lights of Skaro)
Ace leaves a message on Adolin warning no one to follow her to Skaro.
Trapped in a time lock of her own making on Skaro, Ace is reunited with Bernice Summerfield who has come to find her at the Doctor's request. Ending leads directly into The Lights of Skaro.
Ace is still a student at the Academy on Gallifrey. After the Doctor and Benny stop her plan to erase the Daleks with the Omega device, she asks the Doctor if she can stay with him until she is ready to return to Gallifrey, and the Doctor convinces Benny to join them for a while.
(REFERENCE)
Benny takes a break from TARDIS travel to attend her son's wedding. (AUDIO: The Pyramid of Sutekh)
(FLASHBACK)
The Doctor and Ace attempt to steal the Eye of Horus from a museum in Nazi Germany, but the Doctor is transported to Egypt. (AUDIO: The Vaults of Osiris)
Ace rescues Benny from a pyramid on Mars while she is trying to find the Doctor. Ending leads directly into The Vaults of Osiris.
Ace has only had a few TARDIS driving lessons at the Academy and isn't very proficient at piloting the TARDIS, setting this before Intervention Earth and Enemy Lines. Ace and Benny investigate the Doctor's disappearance in 2015 Egypt and are briefly reunited with the Doctor before Isis transports both the Doctor and Benny elsewhere, leading directly into The Eye of Horus.
Ace manages to pilot the TARDIS to ancient Egypt and rescue the Doctor and Benny. Ending leads directly into The Tears of Isis.
The Doctor, Benny and Ace defeat Sutekh and continue their adventures together.
The Doctor, Benny and Ace investigate a stolen Time Ring at the Trib Museum. They then monitor the thieves, Harmonious 14 Zink and his wife, 1V Magda. At some point around this time, Benny leaves the TARDIS again. The Doctor sends Ace on a mission to stop Zink and Magda discovering the secrets of a Cult before its time. She follows them to Erratoon. (AUDIO: The Prisoner's Dilemma)
The Doctor sends Ace on a mission to stop Zink and Magda discovering the secrets of a Cult before its time. While on Erratoon, Ace's mind is completely wiped. She is rescued by the Doctor and he tells her that he can restore her memories. However she does not entirely believe him and is unsure is if she should trust him. Ace refers to Happy Endings and Nightshade, placing this explicitly after Set Piece. After her memory is restored, Ace worries that whole chunks of her life might be missing and she would never know. She also only vaguely remembers Benny.
Ace contacts the Seventh Doctor and Raine Creevy to warn them about the Reborn Master breaking into the Omega Arsenal.
Ace has been to the academy on Gallifrey and is able to fly a TARDIS. She is wearing her bomber jacket and recalls the events of The Quantum Possibility Engine. She gathers a team consisting of herself, Melanie Bush, Bernice Summerfield, Hex, Sally Morgan, the Decayed Master, Garundel, Kane and Finsey to stop the Seventh Doctor from taking over the universe. Ace claims to have lived a life full of confusion, contradiction paradoxes and is still not sure how it fits together, while the Doctor describes the restored universe as being "a place of contradictory timelines and contradictory people." Ace can remember Hex, Sally, Lysandra, Benny, Chris and Roz. Gallifrey still exists and Ace obtains a TARDIS, implying the Time War hasn't yet happened.

Aborted timeline

Ace can no longer remember how she got to Gallifrey or how long she has been there, although she believes it had something to do with the Doctor. She feels as though she has lived her life over and over again in several different ways and understands that this is due to the timelines constantly shifting and her status as an agent of the Time Lords affords her a greater awareness of these changes. Romana III is president of Gallifrey and she sends Ace to investigate the Adherents of Ohm. She and Narvin are executed by the Time Lords when Omega escapes the Anti-matter universe and takes control of Gallifrey.
Braxiatel crosses his own timeline to prevent Romana II from regenerating into her third incarnation, resulting in a new timeline and undoing Ace's death in Intervention Earth. However Ace and Narvin are once again killed, this time by the Watchmaker. Romana II and Leela then change history once again and the pair of them are saved. Ace recalls her time with Space fleet, setting this after Deceit.

The Last Great Time War

Ace is working with Braxiatel to find new ways to combat the Daleks in the Time War. Braxiatel decides to spare Ace the horror of the War ahead and wipes her memory of her time on Gallifrey and the War itself. He leaves her back on 20th century Earth believing that the Doctor has just left her behind.
According to Narvin, Ace's timeline became so blurred and contradictory all the way back to her departure from the Doctor, that he could not trace her following her disappearance in Soldier Obscura. Both he and Romana suspected that this was due to the intervention of Irving Braxiatel. (AUDIO: Assassins)
Ace is back on Earth with her memories of Gallifrey erased.

Back on Earth

Set in the 1990s, Ace is described as being in her late teens, is carrying her rucksack and baseball bat, and responds to an ad intended for former companions of the Doctor. She would appear to meet Tegan Jovanka for the first time.
Set in the early 1990s. Ace is living on Earth and has a Space-time telegraph to contact the Doctor with.
Twenty years have passed since Ace last saw the Doctor. She is currently running A Charitable Earth and is a Professor of Sociology. She parts on bitter terms with the Doctor after showing disgust at his manipulations and the Time Lords' actions.
Set in 2016. Ace recalls the events of Soldier Obscura, and is running A Charitable Earth. She knows that her memories of her time on Gallifrey have been tampered with, but is sure that she was involved in the Last Great Time War.
Set in 2020 and Ace is fifty years old. She encounters the Thirteenth Doctor and the two finally make peace with each other. She does not seem to recall her encounter with the Seventh Doctor in Dark Universe.
Set a few months after Christmas. Ace encounters the Tenth Doctor and comments on the fact that he's not Scottish again, referencing her encounter with the Thirteenth Doctor in either At Childhood's End or The Power of the Doctor. The Doctor gifts her K9 Mark II and it is suggested that they will seek out K9 Mark IV as well. Despite the events of In Remembrance, Ace has no memory of Gallifrey or the Time War. Authorial intent places this specifically between At Childhood's End and before Farewell, Sarah Jane.[4]
Set in the Spring. Ace attends the funeral of Sarah Jane Smith. She adopts K9 Mark IV. She looks back fondly on an adventure she had with the Doctor, suggesting a setting after At Childhood's End or Power of the Doctor. However this would mean it takes place no earlier than Spring 2023 which conflicts with Rani Chandra confirming in Redacted that Sarah Jane had already passed away by 2022, further muddying the waters.
Ace meets St John Colchester and doesn’t trust Torchwood as an organisation. Authorial intent places this in early 2022. [5]
Ace is reunited with Mr Colchester, setting this after The Red List.
In an alternative account to At Childhood's End, Ace meets the Thirteenth Doctor when she is embroiled in the Master's Dalek Plan in 2022. She makes peace with the Seventh Doctor when the Holo-Doctor takes his form, acknowledging that they had previously "fell out". She claims to have not seen the Doctor in "three decades" and reacts with surprise to the Doctor's female body, suggesting she has not yet encountered another incarnation of the Doctor since her memory wipe in Soldier Obscura, implying this takes place before Quantum of Axos. Despite the events of In Remembrance, Ace has no memory of her encounter with the Seventh Doctor in Dark Universe, nor her encounter with the Thirteenth Doctor in At Childhood's End.
Ace is pulled into the remembered TARDIS from a business meeting, and is reunited with the Seventh Doctor, who she recalls last seeing as a hologram, setting this after The Power of the Doctor. After they reminisce about the events of The Curse of Fenric, Ace decides to take a trip in the TARDIS with the Doctor for old time's sake, with the Doctor promising that "the best is yet to come" for Ace. The Doctor asks Ace where her jacket is and she responds that it’s officially retired, but hanging pride of place on a hatstand in her office, suggesting a setting before The Promise.
  • WC: The Promise [+]Loading...["The Promise (webcast)"]
A Charitable Earth is fully established at this point. The City of London is seen, without the UNIT HQ seen in The Power of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Power of the Doctor (TV story)"] or the UNIQ HQ seen in The Star Beast [+]Loading...["The Star Beast (TV story)"], indicating this story is set contemporaneously with its release. Ace and the Seventh Doctor reunite.
Ace refers to Colchester as an “old friend”, setting this sometime after Death in Venice.

Possible death

The Doctor is older looking and is travelling with Ace, who has her young appearance from the television series. Ace is killed and the TARDIS's white interior is damaged, with the intent being that it is about to change into the Victorian parlour interior seen in Doctor Who. Any placement for this story will be contentious because of Ace's apparent death, though it is revealed in Sometime Never... that the Council of Eight were attempting to eliminate the Doctor's past companions, but they were thwarted by the Eighth Doctor, resulting in the restoration of multiple timelines and free will to the Universe.

Currently Unplaced

Ace is living back on Earth with her memories wiped. She's flatsitting for a friend in Camden and can’t remember her time on Gallifrey or seemingly travelling with the Doctor.

Footnotes

  1. ↑ https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/downloadsupplementarymedia/455
  2. ↑ https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/doctor-who-the-shadow-of-the-scourge-636
  3. ↑ https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/doctor-who-the-dark-flame-208
  4. ↑ Roy Gill's tweet explaining Quantum of Axos placement
  5. ↑ James Goss' tweet explaining The Red List placement
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