Theory:Timeline - Thirteenth Doctor
If this thread's title doesn't specify it's spoilery, don't bring any up.
This page lists appearances of the Thirteenth Doctor 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 that for each novel, comic, audio or television series, their published, broadcast or numbered order is the order they occur in.
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, and Clive Banks databanks. None of these sources should be used solely as a source or considered a "true" timeline for stories.
Limiting factors
Companions
Any story where the Doctor travels with Graham, Ryan and Yaz must be placed before TV: Revolution of the Daleks, therefore any story in which the Doctor appears to only be travelling with Yaz, with no mention of Ryan or Graham also being present, must be placed after TV: Revolution of the Daleks.
After being asked to refer to him as such in TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth and TV: The Ghost Monument, Ryan is able to bring himself to call Graham his granddad in TV: It Takes You Away. Thus, any story where Ryan identifies Graham as his grandfather must take place after It Takes You Away, and stories that do not feature Ryan identifying Graham by his name or title can take place at any point. However, entries such as TV: Spyfall and COMIC: The Power of the Mobox show that Ryan does call Graham both by name and by "granddad" interchangeably.
When Team TARDIS take one of their breaks from their travels in TV: Can You Hear Me?, the Doctor is shown preparing to skip ahead to their next meeting in favour of traveling alone for a while, with the implication she does this the majority of the time, as she acts unaccustomed to not having a companion with her.
Timeline
A new body
- The Doctor regenerates from her previous incarnation, and is almost immediately flung out the TARDIS when it begins catching fire from damage caused by the regeneration.
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- Set during Twice Upon a Time, both during and immediately after the Doctor's regeneration.
- Iris Wildthyme and her companion Andrew recieve a postcard from the recently regenerated Doctor.
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- Set during Twice Upon a Time, immediately after the Doctor regenerates. It's revealed that the Doctor's actualised potential sends postcards to V. M. McCrimmon and Grandfather Halfling in the City of the Saved after becoming a certainty rather than a possibility.
- Interlinked between Twice Upon a Time and The Woman Who Fell To Earth.
- Following on directly from Twice Upon a Time, the Doctor lands in Sheffield during September 2018 and is assisted by Ryan Sinclair, Yasmin Khan and Graham and Grace O'Brien in facing Tzim-Sha of the Stenza as she recovers from her regeneration. After Grace is killed during Tzim-Sha's defeat, the Doctor uses the Stenza tech to locate the TARDIS. Teleporting away, the Doctor accidentally brings Ryan, Yaz and Graham with her, leading directly into The Ghost Monument.
- Rescued by Angstrom and Epzo during the Rally of the Twelve Galaxies, the Doctor, Ryan, Yaz and Graham find the TARDIS on Desolation and begin their return journey to Sheffield.
- COMIC: The Many Lives of Doctor Who: Epilogue
- Set during The Ghost Monument, with the Doctor thinking about the uncertainty of her future while standing on a rock overlooking an ocean.
Returning to Sheffield
- The TARDIS arrives on an alien planet, and the Doctor steps out to take a look.
- The Doctor meets Rosa Parks during her fourteenth attempt to return Ryan, Yaz and Graham to Sheffield. Ryan, Yaz and Graham learn the mechanisms of history while preventing Krasko from altering the start of the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
- Yaz learns that the Doctor used to be a man, and the Doctor recounts her eleventh incarnation's meeting with Amelia Earhart to her. Yaz notes that the Doctor is secretive about her past.
- The TARDIS returns to Sheffield. Graham, Ryan and Yaz all choose to officially join the Doctor as her companions, calling themselves Team TARDIS. The Doctor alludes to her recent regeneration, noting that she is "still figuring [herself] out", and meets Jack Robertson and Yaz's family for the first time.
Early travels as Team TARDIS
- Set immediately after Arachnids in the UK.
- Team TARDIS attend the coronation of Elizabeth II, and then thwart Colby's assassination plot against the Doctor. The Doctor's recent regeneration is alluded to.
- The Doctor alludes to the recent events of The Ghost Monument while facing the Pting on the Tsuranga in the 67th century.
- The Doctor tells her companions about the TARDIS' telepathic capabilities when they go to the Partition of India to see Yaz's grandmother when she was younger.
- Yaz recalls the events of Demons of the Punjab.
- Graham implies that a month has passed since The Woman Who Fell to Earth. The Doctor is still figuring out the new TARDIS controls.
- Ryan says he "[doesn't] want to visit another big warehouse", suggesting the events of Kerblam! are still fresh in his mind.
- Team TARDIS are trying to get to the coronation of Elizabeth I, but end up in 17th century Lancashire instead, where they face the Morax with James I.
- Set immediately after The Witchfinders.
- Team TARDIS meet robot reporter Sandola Dell and face Berakka Dogbolter on Gatan.
- Ryan almost calls Graham his granddad, but stops himself, setting this shortly before It Takes You Away.
- After an encounter with the Solitract helps Graham come to better terms with Grace's death, Ryan calls him "granddad" for the first time after they both open up about their grief.
- Ryan calls Graham his granddad, setting this after It Takes You Away.
- Ryan calls Graham his granddad, setting this after It Takes You Away. Graham refers to the events of Combat Magicks.
- The Encyclopedia Gallifreya identifies a threat from Tzim-Sha's alliance with the Ux, setting this immediately before The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos.
- Team TARDIS face Tzim-Sha for the first time since The Woman Who Fell to Earth, with Graham considering executing him until he and Ryan decide to imprison him in a stasis chamber instead. Ryan tells Graham he loves him for the first time, and reinforces that he thinks of him as his grandfather.
Investigating the Catastrophia
- Team TARDIS encounter the Herald, learn about the Children of Chaos, and discover an entrance to the Catastrophia during a trip to 1608 Bohemia. Graham recalls Team TARDIS meeting "big names in history", and how most of those encounters involved "something dodgy".
- On Acantha, Team TARDIS encounter Mother G for the first time. Ryan refers to Graham as his granddad, setting this after It Takes You Away.
- Berakka Dogbolter skews the events of The Warmonger and The Power of the Mobox to present the Doctor as a villain, as revenge for her defeat on Gatan several weeks prior. Team TARDIS discover another entrance to the Catastrophia and encounter the Children of Chaos again. The Herald is revealed to be the Doctor from a future where her mind is warped by the Catastrophia, though she manages to avoid this future after a visit to the Catastrophia. Graham implies that only a couple of months have passed since The Woman Who Fell to Earth.
Going everywhere
- While celebrating various New Year's Day events in history, Team TARDIS fights a reconnaissance scout Dalek on 1 January 2019 with Lin and Mitch, which is the Thirteenth Doctor's first encounter with a Dalek since her regeneration, and the first encounter with them for Ryan, Graham and Yaz. During the conflict, Ryan's dad, Aaron, re-enters Ryan's life with the promise of being a better father, and is introduced to Yaz and the Doctor. After they defeat the Dalek, Ryan and Aaron reconnect, but Aaron declines an invitation to join Team TARDIS, instead opting for Ryan to contact him upon his return to Earth.
- The present year is 2019. Ryan and Yaz learn about the Time Agency for the first time, setting this before A New Beginning. The Doctor recalls the events of Kerblam!.
- The Doctor alludes to her recent regeneration, Yaz, Ryan and Graham are still learning about the Doctor and how she operates. Yaz feels ill-equipped to handle situations on her own, and is surprised when the Doctor asks her to take over a situation without her. Graham indicates that the Doctor has been acting as a guide for them, across several adventures, but notes that "it still ain't easy", and he is also still getting used to the TARDIS's dimensional transcendentalism. Team TARDIS meet Irene Schulz and Leon Perkins while freeing them from the Hoarder.
- Yaz is celebrating her birthday, setting this between A New Beginning, where her age is given as 19 in her character biography, and The Secret in Vault 13, where she is 20. However, Yaz is still referred to as 19-years-old in her Titan Comics bio due to Titan Comics' method of reusing the same bio for every issue.
- The Doctor tells her companions about the TARDIS's chameleon circuit. Yaz is 20-years-old. Team TARDIS have been travelling with the Doctor for months, but, during a home visit, they arrive several weeks after they left in Arachnids in the UK due to the Doctor getting the chronology wrong.
- Follows on directly from The Secret in Vault 13. Yaz's time with the Doctor is described as being "a brief spell" at this point, but she knows about the Time Lords in great detail and also knows about regeneration, but hasn't met another incarnation of the Doctor yet. Ryan recalls encountering a Dalek, setting this after Resolution. Yaz has yet to encounter another TARDIS, setting this before Old Friends.
- According to the Doctor, either one week or ten weeks have passed since A New Beginning. Ryan refers to Graham as his granddad, setting this after It Takes You Away, with the Doctor also still paranoid about the Woolly Rebellion. Team TARDIS find out that Schulz and Perkins have joined the Time Agency. 2019 is the present day, setting this after Resolution.
- Team TARDIS meet Pythagoras and discover that the Doctor's sunglasses did not belong to him, prompting the Doctor to search for Audrey Hepburn, leading directly into Mission of the KaaDok.
- Graham recalls meeting Elvis Presley in That's All Right, Mama.
Solo endeavors
- The Doctor starts traveling alone while Graham, Yaz and Ryan go on a secret mission for her. (NOTVALID: The Edge of Time)
- The TARDIS console room has its Series 11 design.
- The TARDIS console room has its Series 11 design.
- Though they are absent, the Doctor is currently traveling with Graham, Yaz and Ryan. She has not yet told them about her past, setting this before Spyfall.
- The Doctor collects Team TARDIS from Sheffield.
Further travels with Team TARDIS
- The Doctor has not seen Missy since The Doctor Falls, setting this before The Liar, the Glitch and the War Zone. The Doctor meets the Sixth Corsair out-of-sequence with their timeline, and they face the Hoarder together.
- Shortly after defeating the Hoarder again, Team TARDIS meet an alien called Friffle, who tells them of how his people were kidnapped by Mr. Henderson to work in his grotto with a memory wiping device keeping them at bay. With the help of Baxter the elf, they infiltrate the grotto and attempt to rescue the workers. They fail their mission, getting their memories of these events erased. Meet the Fam! is planted into their heads as a false memory in its place. (COMIC: Holiday Special)
- Set "a few time-jumps" after Meet the Fam!. Graham and Ryan have a Christmas dinner to attend, suggesting it is Christmastime in the present day. Team TARDIS realise that the events of Meet the Fam! were the product of a false memory, placed into their heads by Mr. Henderson after their first attempt to free Friffle's people.
Reminders of the past
- The present day is early 2020, as Graham has been in remission from his cancer for four years and 1834 is described as being "one-hundred-and-eight-six years back". Yaz is still a probationary officer. Graham learns that the Doctor really did used to be a man, having previously thought she was joking when mentioning it. The TARDIS console room has been slightly redecorated, and the Doctor encounters the Spy Master in a body she doesn't recognise. After foiling his plot, the Doctor learns that the Master ravaged Gallifrey after discovering information about the Timeless Child.
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- Set during Spyfall, when the Master and the Doctor are sharing their psychic link.
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- Set towards the end of Spyfall, after the Doctor drops off Ada Lovelace and before she sees the devastation of Gallifrey. She writes in her diary about defeating the Master and the Kasaavin.
- The Doctor is noted to have been in a bad mood as of late, suggesting a setting shortly after Spyfall.
- The Doctor is feeling lonely and in a grumpy mood, suggesting a setting shortly after Spyfall. However, her spirits are replenished after watching a recording left for her by Susan.
- The Doctor thinks that the TARDIS' navigation system is still rebooting after a tussle with a "psycho-squid", possibly setting this shortly after Orphan 55, though the Doctor is in a far jollier mood, which would also set this after Press Play.
- Graham, Yaz and Ryan encounter the Judoon for the first time and learn about the Cybermen. They also briefly meet Captain Jack Harkness, who passes on a message to "beware the Lone Cyberman". The Doctor has not heard from the Master since Spyfall, and encounters an alleged incarnation of herself who had been living under a Chameleon Arch. Graham, Yaz and Ryan proclaim that they will always be by the Doctor's side no matter what comes her way, lifting her spirits. The TARDIS picks up on multiple alerts across three Earth continents and Team TARDIS go to investigate them, leading directly into Praxeus.
- Interlinked between Fugitive of the Judoon and Praxeus. The Doctor is writing in her diary while the TARDIS follows the multiple alerts.
- The Doctor is processing being "more than [she] knew about", setting this shortly after Fugitive of the Judoon. Ryan implies that the present day is 2020. Team TARDIS spend three weeks sheltered on the planet Calapia in isolation. Yaz comments that the isolation appears to have given the Doctor a rest from recent troubles, as she dwells on some of her past actions, such as one involving "a girl in a mirror".
- Dropping Team TARDIS off on Travazion, the Doctor is summoned to New New York by River Song. After River shows her an image of her eventual reunion with the Master at the Panopticon, the Doctor decides to stop searching for him in order to prevent an out of synch meeting, setting this after Fugitive of the Judoon.
- The Doctor recalls reflecting while in isolation, setting this shortly after The Shadow Passes. She appears to be traveling alone, and releases Daughter of Mine from her imprisonment.
- The Doctor is reunited with Ace during January 2020. Team TARDIS is fully aware that the Doctor used to be a man, setting this after Spyfall. Ace tells Yaz about the Cybermen, suggesting a post-Fugitive of the Judoon setting.
Final travels with Team TARDIS
- The Doctor briefly takes on Lizzie as a companion while Graham, Ryan, and Yaz are away. They are seen returning to the TARDIS as Lizzie is dropped off.
The truth of the Timeless Child
- Several months have passed on Earth since Spyfall, and Yaz references the events of Spyfall, Fugitive of the Judoon and Praxeus as her travels in the time she's been away from Sheffield, suggesting this is her first trip home since Spyfall. The Doctor is unaccustomed to traveling alone. Following the defeat of Zellin and Rakaya, the Doctor decides to take Team TARDIS to see the origins of Frankenstein, while Ryan and Yaz begin to wonder how much longer they will remain with the Doctor.
- Team TARDIS arrive at 1816 Villa Diodati, where they find the Lone Cyberman searching for the Cyberium inside Percy Shelley. The Doctor is forced to surrender the Cyberium to save Shelley, and then decides to follow the Cyberman into the future, leading into Ascension of the Cybermen.
- Set immediately after The Haunting of Villa Diodati. While Ryan is writing in his diary, the Doctor is tracking down the Lone Cyberman.
- Team TARDIS follow the Lone Cyberman into the far future. The Doctor discovers a gateway to Gallifrey and is met there by the Spy Master, leading directly into The Timeless Children.
- The Doctor is told the truth of the Timeless Child by the Master, and unlocks old memories from before her first incarnation in the Matrix. Sending from Team TARDIS back to Earth during March 2020 to ensure their safety, the Doctor and Ko Sharmus destroy all organic life on Gallifrey with the Lone Cyberman's Death particle. Before she can reunite with Team TARDIS, the Doctor is imprisoned by the Judoon.
Imprisoned in the Maximum security facility
The Doctor spends 'several decades' in the Maximum Security Prison, although this is ten months on Earth
- After "a few decades", the Doctor is liberted from her prison by Captain Jack Harkness, and reunites with Team TARDIS in January 2021. After they stop Jack Robertson's Defence Drone Daleks from successfully invading Earth, Jack decides to visit Gwen Cooper, while Ryan and Graham decide to stay on Earth, leaving the Doctor and Yaz to travel on alone together. The Doctor notes that, despite having years in prison to cope, she is still upset by the events of The Timeless Children.
Lone travels with Yaz
- The Doctor, fearing she may one day become trapped somewhere and need someone else to save the Earth in her absence, compiles a book about her life and adventures to help someone protect the Earth in her absence. She creates fact files on her closest friends and latest adventures. She also includes reviews of previous destinations she has visited and a tour of her TARDIS control room within the document she has written. She also attaches her own write up of the Timeless Child legend and a a newspaper article about the Dark Times, written by River Song. In the book, the Doctor makes notes about still coping with the recent events of The Timeless Children.
Currently unplaced
- These entries are placed here either due to being part of ongoing storylines that have yet to offer sufficient enough evidence to be placed in a specific part of this Doctor's timeline, unless further evidence arises in the stories to come, or due to being released early in this Doctor's tenure, and not having sufficient enough evidence to be placed in any chapter of this Doctor's run.
Doctor Who Magazine
Titan Comics
- Although the TARDIS console room has its Series 11 design, Graham, Yaz and Ryan are all fully aware that the Doctor used to be a man, setting this after Spyfall. After an adventure with her tenth incarnation and Martha Jones, the Doctor agrees to drop Ryan, Yaz, and Graham home in 2020 for a visit, only to find London in ruin, leading directly into Alternating Current.
- The events of Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror are mentioned.
- The Doctor aids her tenth incarnation in escaping from the Daleks' Restoration Empire. The events of A Little Help from My Friends are alluded to.
- The Doctor is cleaning up the actions of the Time Lord Victorious, implying a setting shortly after Defender of the Daleks.
The Team TARDIS Diaries
Others
Travelling alone
- The Doctor walks through a forest toward her TARDIS, though it has the exterior last used by her tenth incarnation. She appears to be travelling alone, and is wearing a different outfit.
- The Doctor attends the Brigadier's funeral alongside all of her previous incarnations. (PROSE: Avatars of the Intelligence)
- Travelling on her own, the Doctor serves as a museum curator in Venice, and rescues Antonia when Missy abandons her in the 14th century. She leaves the museum immediately afterwards.
- Travelling alone, the Doctor encounters the Moment in Henry VIII's third favourite garden. (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor)
- A year after their last meeting, the Doctor encounters the Moment in the banana groves on Villengard. (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor)
- During Christmas 1966, the Doctor appears in Dublin to help Patricia Kiernan understand her encounter with the Judoon. She is travelling alone.
- The Doctor helps Santa Claus deliver Christmas presents in the TARDIS after his sleigh breaks down. She appears to be travelling alone.
- The Doctor meets with her fourth incarnation to remind him the importance of being the Doctor. She appears to be travelling alone.
- The Doctor gets caught in a time eddy for four days. She texts the two Osgoods to pass the time. She makes no reference to having traveling companions with her.
- The Doctor appears to be travelling alone. Her profile picture recalls the events of Message from the Doctor.
- The Doctor and everybody at Doctor Who wishes their audience "love and luck" for 2021.
- Posing as "the Midwife", the Doctor is present at the birth of Lucy Wilson.
- The Thirteenth Doctor asks the Seventh Corsair to steal the Hand of Omega and deliver it to the the First Doctor. (PROSE: One Virtue, and a Thousand Crimes)
- The Doctor visits Susan Foreman on 22nd century Earth, setting this after Press Play. She appears to be travelling alone.
Awaiting placement
- These entries are placed here until a suitable position in the timeline can be determined based on the available evidence.