Aliens of London dating controversy

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"Aliens of London dating controversy" is a title based upon conjecture.

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The Aliens of London dating controversy stems from a narrative feature introduced in the 2005 Doctor Who television story Aliens of London. In that story the Ninth Doctor returns Rose Tyler to her home time one year later than planned, in 2006. Indeed, a missing persons' poster created for that episode states that Rose has been gone since 6 March 2005. Various episodes of Doctor Who and its televised spin-offs that were executive produced by Russell T Davies directly follow from Aliens of London, with multiple successive markings of Christmas Day from The Christmas Invasion (2005) to Voyage of the Damned (2007). The writers of these shows, however, often forget that the contemporary setting is actually a year in the future.

This narrative feature was sometimes forgotten or not applied by some writers, leading to several contradictions.

Towards the end of the Davies era of Doctor Who, no on-screen date is given for the 2009 Easter Special Planet of the Dead, nor The End of Time, which comprises the 2009 Christmas Special and the 2010 New Year Special. [note 1] Planet of the Dead alludes to the real-world liquidation of major Icelandic banks in 2008 and The End of Time shows President Barack Obama making efforts to end "the recession." Early into Steven Moffat's run as executive producer of Doctor Who, Flesh and Stone (2010) directly describes Amy Pond's home time as 2010, synchronising Doctor Who's contemporary stories with their date of broadcast.

The third series of the spin-off series Torchwood synchronised with its year of broadcast, 2009, when in Children of Earth: Day One, a government operative mentions Clement McDonald's name was last active 44 years ago, i.e. when Clement disappeared in 1965, until Torchwood found him living under an alias. As well as this, in Children of Earth: Day Four, Rhys Williams mentions that Jack Harkness' deal with the 456 at that time worked for 44 years.

The other of Davies' spin-offs, The Sarah Jane Adventures, makes several references to then-current Doctor Who stories, but rarely gives an on-screen date beyond Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane? (2007) being approximately 40 years after 1964. It thus does not make it clear when it was written to be a year ahead and when it was not, particularly in the first two series. In 2009, the third series story The Mad Woman in the Attic has a 15-year-old character, Samuel Lloyd born in June 1994, heavily implying a non year ahead setting. Eventually, in 2010, six months after the start of Steven Moffat's production era of the parent show, the fourth series more explicitly synchronised with its year of broadcast, when dialogue and set design in The Nightmare Man and Lost in Time place Sarah Jane Smith's time as 2010.

Contradictory clues

Doctor Who

Torchwood

  • Torchwood's backstory is based in the Battle of Canary Wharf from the Doctor Who episodes Army of Ghosts and Doomsday (both 2006). Both Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones are explicitly mentioned as having joined Torchwood Three after the battle, with Cyberwoman (2006) showing Ianto escaping the Cyberman battle.
  • In Ghost Machine (2006), Tom Flanagan has lived in Cardiff for 66 years after arriving in 1941, which would set the year as 2007. Tom and Eleri had watched the Strictly Come Dancing finals the night before meeting Gwen and Owen Harper. Though not directly stated, if Strictly has similar scheduling in the DWU and the real world, this would suggest a December setting, which would be difficult to time with Out of Time (2006), a story nine episodes after Ghost Machine with numerous Christmas set dressings and references to Christmas. Moreover, in Captain Jack Harkness (2007), Owen mentions 24 December as "when Diane flew through the Rift" in Out of Time.
  • In Greeks Bearing Gifts (2006), a soldier from 1812 was killed by Mary approximately 196 years, 11 to 11-and-a-half months ago, which would set the year as 2009 or at the very earliest, the last few weeks of 2008. By this point Toshiko has been with Torchwood for three years, ie since 2005 or 2006.
  • In Random Shoes (2006), Shaun Jones came to his son Eugene's funeral 14 years after abandoning Eugene in 1992, which would set the year as 2006.
  • In To the Last Man (2008), Tommy Brockless was born on 7 February 1894. Toshiko Sato says that Torchwood froze Tommy in 1918, while Jack Harkness says "he's been here for 90 years," and "he's 24 or 114 years old," setting the episode between 7 February and 31 December 2008. As this is Gwen's only encounter with him, she has been at Torchwood for no longer than exactly one year. Toshiko's calendar is marked Friday 20, suggesting 20 June 2008, the only Friday the 20th from that year. Toshiko has known Tommy for four years, suggesting she has worked for Torchwood since at least 2004.
  • In Meat (2008), when Gwen admits to her fiancé Rhys Williams her "special ops thing" was a cover story for her actual job, Rhys responds, "Thank you! At last! God, what's that taken? About a year?"
  • In Reset (2008), Meredith Roberts was born on 11 January 1962 and was 45 when he died, which would set the episode between 11 January 2007 and 10 January 2008, explicitly clashing with the earliest possible date of 7 February 2008 in To the Last Man three episodes earlier.
  • In Adrift (2008), Jonah Bevan, born 15 February 1993, is described as 15 years old by Gwen, which would set the episode between 15 February 2008 and 14 February 2009. The first meeting of the missing persons support group Searchlight is held on a Monday 27th of an undisclosed month. The only Monday 27th between these dates is on 27 October 2008.
  • In Exit Wounds (2008), Toshiko mentions that she covered for Owen as a medic on Owen's second week in Torchwood during the examination of the space pig from Aliens of London (2005). Fragments (2008), set immediately before Exit Wounds, places Owen's recruitment to Torchwood as taking place four years ago, and Toshiko's recruitment, or at least her imprisonment prior to being recruited, as five years ago. This apparently puts Fragments and Exit Wounds in 2010, and Toshiko's imprisonment in 2005. However, Exit Wounds also has Jack telling the Torchwood from 1901 to freeze him for 107 years to allow him to get back to Gray, placing those two stories in 2008, Owen's recruitment in 2004, and Toshiko's imprisonment in 2003.
    • Owen's personnel file in Exit Wounds gives his date of birth as 14 February 1980. Dead Man Walking (2008) states that Owen was 27 when he first died at the end of Reset, placing Reset between 14 February 2007 and 13 February 2008. While this largely overlaps with the previous possible date of death of Meredith Roberts from Reset, it is still impossible to reconcile with Tommy Brockless being revived on at least 7 February 2008 in To the Last Man, which is after what would have been Meredith's 46th birthday on 11 January 2008.
  • According to Gwen's CIA file in The New World (2011), Gwen joined Torchwood (which happened in the 2006 episode Everything Changes) in October 2006. This would mean They Keep Killing Suzie (2006), which directly places itself three months after Everything Changes, takes place in January 2007. This clashes with the apparent 2006 setting of Random Shoes, the episode immediately following They Keep Killing Suzie, as well as the Christmas setting of Out of Time, just two episodes after They Keep Killing Suzie, and the implied December 2007 setting of Ghost Machine, five episodes before They Keep Killing Suzie.
    • The setting of To the Last Man is the first annual defrosting of Tommy Brockless which Gwen is present for, and the earliest possible date for that episode is February 2008, at least 16 months after the joining date given in The New World's file. If it is set on 20 June, the only Friday the 20th of that year in the real world, then the episode is 20 months after Gwen's first day according to The New World's file.
  • The Torchwood Magazine short story Happy New Year has Torchwood celebrate New Year's Eve between Exit Wounds and Children of Earth: Day One (2009).
  • The Big Finish audio story Outbreak (2016), which takes place between Exit Wounds and Children of Earth: Day One, makes explicitly clear, through extensive dialogue, that it is set in 2009.
  • The Big Finish audio story Dissected (2020), which takes place between Journey’s End and Children of Earth: Day One, refers to a recent Torchwood Christmas party that Martha missed owing to the breakdown of her engagement with Thomas Milligan, an engagement first mentioned in the 2008 Doctor Who episode The Sontaran Stratagem. In Children of Earth: Day One, Gwen explains Martha's absence from the events of Children of Earth is due to her being on honeymoon, though it is not stated at the time if Martha married Thomas or Mickey Smith (who is revealed to be Martha's husband in Doctor Who's The End of Time Part Two in 2010).

The Sarah Jane Adventures

Other media

Notes

  1. ↑ There is a scene near the end of The End of Time set on 1 January 2005; this, however, is clearly from before Rose's travels with the Ninth Doctor, and by extension, any of the John Simm Master's appearances on Earth in the 21st century.
  2. ↑ Though the parallel Earth the Preachers are from runs ahead of the normal Earth in later stories, in Rise of the Cybermen (2006), the episode before The Age of Steel, Mickey reads a newspaper dated to 1 February of "this year".
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