A History of the Whoniverse

The Nineteen Eighties (1980-1989)

1980

There was a civil war on Trion in which Turlough Vislor's mother was killed. His father and brother crashed on the prison planet Sarn. He was exiled to Earth and watched by Trion agents, including a solicitor on Chancery Lane.

An unknown time before the 1983 segment of Mawdryn Undead.

Louisa Kramer is born

Her mum says that she's about Sam's age (i.e. 17) in Vampire Science (page 86) - set in 1997.

Crosswell Educational Books published About Faith: Sociological & Psychological Aspects of Religion, edited by E. Coren.

We see an extract in Salvation, page 57.

15th April 1980

Samantha Angeline Jones is born.

This is the date given on pages 179 and 180 and applies to both "Blonde Sam" and "Dark Sam".

In Novrosk, a man called Chedakin is ordered to Moscow. The day before he is due to go, he shoots himself in the back of the head. The locals assume that he had been reported to the secret police by local political officer Alex Minin, and committed suicide. In fact, Chekadin was an undercover party agent. Minin had discovered this and murdered Chedakin to protect the community.

This is not dated in The Deviant Strain, but is almost certainly before the military abandoned Novrosk.

MEGLOS

Meglos, last of the Zolfa-Thurans, who created the Dodecahedron, attempts to steal the failing crystal from Tigella. Using a kidnapped human, he disguises himself as the fourth Doctor and obtains the crystal. The Doctor, however, manages to track down Meglos and re-sets the computers controlling the Dodecahedron. The resulting explosion destroys Zolfa-Thura. The human is then returned home.

The human wears an early-80s business suit so, unless Gaztaks can time-travel, it's contemporary. The human's return home is mentioned in Full Circle.

3^rd June 1980

UNIT receives a transmission from the Ambassadors saying that they have finished their survey of Earth's solar system. Astronomers confirm that a spacecraft left the vicinity of Mars.

According to UNIT file CCC in The Dying Days (chapter 5 page 14). This is dated 3/6/80.

Late 1980

Polly Wright gets a new job. She will stay with her new firm for the next twelve years, ending up as the Managing Director's PA.

Twelve years before she lost her job, according to Short Trips Companions: Cirriculum Vitae page 137.

November 1980

The film Prey for a Miracle is released. Based on Alexander Lullington-Smythe's book How I Saved The World, it is directed by Anthony Jones. Peter Cushing plays the mysterious government advisor Doctor Who as an endearingly eccentric professor. It is slated for having bought into notions of alien shape-changers and government conspiracies.

Salvation.

8th December 1980

Former Beatle John Lennon is murdered by Mark Chapman.

The Left Handed Hummingbird.

25th December 1980

Professor Edward Travers CBE dies.

Downtime.

1981

Anne Travers becomes scientific advisor to the cabinet.

18 years before Millennial Rites. It's suggested that this was during the UNIT era.

Atimkos estimated that the microchip revolution was 15 years after Ben and Polly's time. [He was probably referring to the IBM PC, launched in this year, rather than the invention of the microchip, which was developed 1969-1971.]

Invasion of the Cat People.

THE KEEPER OF TRAKEN

On the paradise world of Traken, consuls Tremas and Kassia marry. Kassia is hypnotised by the calcified Melkur as Tremas is nominated as Keeper. The Melkur then subverts events to become the new Keeper before being revealed as the Master's TARDIS. The Master is prevented from using the energy contained in The Source to regenerate himself, but manages to take over the body of Tremas before leaving.

The Melkur arrived many years ago. Traken is destroyed in Logopolis; thus, this story must take place by 1981 at the latest.

28th February 1981

LOGOPOLIS

The Master kills Vanessa [Jovanka], aunt of Tegan Jovanka.

Soon afterwards, the Master attacks Logopolis. This endangers the Logopolitans' efforts to postpone the heat death of the universe by draining entropy into e-space through CVEs. The destruction of the CVEs destroys several areas of the universe, including Traken. One CVE is reopened by the Doctor and the Master from the Pharos Project in Cambridge. During these events, the fourth Doctor regenerates into the fifth.

The date is stated in Four to Doomsday.

CASTROVALVA

The newly regenerated Doctor leaves with Nyssa and Tegan. Adric is kidnapped by the Master.

Immediately after Logopolis.

FOUR TO DOOMSDAY

Monarch of the Urbankans is en route to Earth, intending to strip the planet of all its resources. With these resources, he hopes to travel faster than light [in real space, rather than hyperspace]. He believes that this will send him back in time, where he will meet himself as god. His plan is thwarted by the arrival of the Doctor on board his ship.

The Doctor establishes the date. As it's taking Monarch 1,250 years to get from Urbanka to Earth, he's already going faster than light, hence the hypothesis.

June 1981

Peter Tracey receives a suspended sentence for housebreaking.

29^th July 1981

Ace joins in a street party celebrating the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer.

According to Cat's Cradle: Witch Hunt. The date is historical.

Summer 1981

Claudette and her mother almost visit Essex and London, but cancel at the last minute.

According to Claudette in Relative Dementias (page 58), this was last summer.

September 1981

A 13-second hailstorm destroys Commander Pollock's crop. At the time, Pollock is renting the east wing of Lavinia Smith's house.

Late 1981

The Talichre attempt to invade Earth. They are stopped by the Doctor and UNIT. During the course of events, the Doctor refuses to return a stolen alien device. As a result, a human ally of the Talichre kills a UNIT trooper called Andy.

This can't have been too long before Relative Dementias, because it sparks off Michael's desertion. As Joyce and Michael both seem to think the Doctor has changed from his third incarnation within the last few months, perhaps the Doctor here was a time-travelling Third Doctor.

6th December 1981

Lavinia Smith leaves for America.

10th December 1981

Lavinia Smith phones her ward Brendan Richards, telling him that he would be spending Christmas with her niece Sarah.

11th December 1981

Term ends and Brendan begins waiting for Sarah to pick him up. Unfortunately, Sarah spends the first 2 weeks of December working overseas for Reuters.

All the above events are mentioned in K9 and Company.

18th-22nd December 1981

K9 AND COMPANY

Sarah finds a crate containing K9 Mark III at Moreton Harwood. Sarah, K9, and Brendan are instrumental in exposing a local coven of witches conducting human sacrifices.

The date is clearly stated on-screen.

29th December 1981

The cultists appear in court on an attempted murder charge.

1982

April 1982

RELATIVE DEMENTIAS

Doctor Joyce Brunner travels to Scotland to visit her mother at Graystairs nursing home. She suspects that something strange is going on and sends the Doctor a postcard. The next day, she disappears. The day after her disappearance, two friends arrive in the nearby village of Muirbridge looking for her. They find her being held captive in the home, and release her. That evening, there is a battle at the village pub featuring directed energy weapons and high explosives. Shortly afterwards, the new Alzheimer's treatment at Graystairs is closed down. At the same time, a marine biology PhD student is surveying the seas around the Orkneys with his brother.

The Doctor claims that it is April 1982 on page 40, and he's arrived more or less at the right time and place. The Falklands War is on the TV news on page 23, Channel 4 is soon to be launched on page 175, and Claire mentions "the next Star Wars film" on page 212. There are also bits which say that 2012 was 30 years in the future. On the other hand, Joyce and Michael both think that it's only a couple of months since they last saw the Third Doctor - who was still at UNIT (pages 119, 145, 181). The Doctor and Ace arrive on a Saturday (pages 147 and 264).

TIME FLIGHT

Speedbird Concorde 192 from New York vanishes on its approach to Heathrow Airport. The Doctor arrives and, after establishing his connections with John Sudbury from C19, takes over the investigation. He takes another Concorde along the same flight path. This Concorde also vanishes. Both Concordes return to Heathrow, having travelled back in time 140 million years. Tegan leaves the TARDIS crew.

The date is uncertain, but it's clearly contemporary.

Tegan returns to her job as an air flight attendant, but is sacked soon afterwards.

Arc of Infinity.

Ace screams in fear.

She hasn't done this since she was 12 according to Timewyrm: Revelation page 51.

Boris Brodsky and Catherine Kornilova are both born.

They are stated to be in their mid-20s on pages 40 and 60 respectively of The Deviant Strain.

25th December 1982

SHORT TRIPS COMPANIONS: THE LITTLE DRUMMER BOY

The TARDIS briefly lands on Christmas day.

This is dated on page 154.

1983

January 1983

Katharine Delbane passes out through loss of blood whilst on a case for DISTO(P)IA.

This was a year and a half before Heart of TARDIS page 161.

ARC OF INFINITY

In Amsterdam, located on the curve of the Arc of Infinity, Omega attempts to bond with the Doctor. The attempt ultimately fails. Tegan rejoins the Doctor and Nyssa.

The date is uncertain, but it's clearly contemporary.

MAWDRYN UNDEAD

Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart has his car stolen by two Brendon School Pupils. He then meets the Doctor again and regains the memories he had lost in 1977 when he met himself. Brendon pupil Turlough Vislor leaves to travel with the Doctor.

The date is mentioned several times on-screen.

THE FIVE DOCTORS

Borusa kidnapped both the Second Doctor and the Brigadier for the game of Rassilon. They had been attending a UNIT reunion. At the same time, Sarah Jane Smith was similarly kidnapped despite K9's warnings.

An unspecified time after Mawdryn Undead (1983) and K9 and Company (1981) respectively.

[Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart returns to UNIT, being made head of the European branch. Sergeant Benton and Captain Yates return at the same time.]

This is speculation, based on the differences between what they're doing in Mawdryn Undead and what they're doing in Heart of TARDIS.

The Brigadier visits Haiti. During his time there, he would have killed for 'the proper kind of fetishes and a genuine obiman' - if he'd known how to get hold of one.

This was last year, according to the Brigadier in Heart of TARDIS (page 41).

Abner shoots Slake six times in front of a bunch of mortals. Slake starts to run after Abner before realising that he'd forgotten to fall down.

Abner says that this happened in 1983 in Vampire Science page 183).

Ace, aged 13, was friends with an Asian girl called Manisha Purkayatha. Manisha's flat was firebombed in a racist attack. The survivors moved to Birmingham. In revenge, Ace burnt down Gabriel Chase. She was then assigned a probation officer and a social worker. A much older Ace, having left the Doctor, ensured that the firebombers were caught by the police.

Ghost Light. The attack on Manisha's home is mentioned in numerous stories. The social worker is mentioned in Survival. Ace mentions her grown-up role in Set Piece (page 237).Although most accounts (particularly Blood Heat) say that Manisha died - Timewyrm: Apocalypse claims that Manisha 'nearly died'. Perhaps she was left in a permanent coma, and died some time later.

Peri visits the Temple of Abu-Simbel whilst on holiday in Egypt.

According to State of Change page 112. The date is arbitrary.

Henry Spencer dies of complications due to AIDS, one of the first British men to do so.

According to Who Killed Kennedy page 272.

Ace has her first kiss outside the Youth Centre in Perivale on a freezing night. She has to lure the guy out there and practically push him against the wall before he gets the idea.

According to Timewyrm: Revelation page 106.

1984

Timothy Dean's great-granddaughter is born.

She is eleven in April 1995, according to Human Nature page 253.

SHORT TRIPS: COMPANIONS: THE MAN FROM DOCTO(R)

Harry Sullivan disappears for a few days. He later tells his friends that he was involved with some aliensfrom the planet Zantor who were looking for an artefact called the Egg of Abundance. Soon afterwards, the survivors of the planet Zantor seed a planet with their dead planet's genetic codes.

It's unclear when in Harry's timeline this takes place, but his reaction to the circumstances suggest it's before his time in MI5, though it could, of course, all be a fiction on his part.

1st May

THE AWAKENING

The Malus absorbed the psychic energy of a series of war games in Little Hodcombe. This amplified the villager's violence. Will Chandler was brought forward from 1643. The Doctor prevented the Malus from becoming fully active and blew up the church it was inside before staying around a while and resting.

The Doctor claims it's 1984. Tegan is crowned Queen of May, so it's probably May Day.

Mid June 1984

At Crowley's suggestion, the Prime Minister sends DISTO(P)IA agent Katherine Delbane to infiltrate UNIT.

This was several weeks before Heart of TARDIS page 37 and a month before Heart of TARDIS page 102.

At this time, there are a steady rate of Silurian incursions

According to Benton in Heart of TARDIS page 39. However, he begins by saying Si and then stops himself, so it could be something else.

Mid July 1984

HEART OF TARDIS

Masked men attack UNIT HQ. They kidnap the Brigadier, and activate the time-space telegraph, whilst a division of Special Branch called DISTO(P)IA takes temporary control of UNIT. The masked men - working for the US Government's Section Eight - trap the Doctor and his companion Romana. They want to take TARDIS technology to deal with a project that has gone wrong and is altering reality. The Doctor manages to defeat them. In doing so, he travels to his second self's console room and helps himself with a previous adventure. In that adventure, he had arrived in the town of Lychburg, within some kind of contained space, and defeated an entity that was controlling everybody. Thanks to his fourth self's intervention, he managed to get the population into real space before their reality collapsed. The US Government had no choice but to let the 200,000 population disperse throughout America.

There's a lot of conflicting evidence for this one. On the historical side, the PM - though not named - is clearly Maggie (pages 60-62). UNIT has clearly been around in the last couple of governments (it's a hangover from both Labour and Heath). The Greenham Common Women are protesting (pages 137, 154, 171-172), and the Falklands war appears to be over (pages 60 and 160) -making it the mid 80s. Events during the Vietnam War are said to have been 15 years ago. Lychburg has plenty of cultural references to the 80s and nineties (e.g. GI Joe toys - invented in the 80s and Simpsons characters - created in the late 80s/early 90s). On the UNIT side, it appears to be both before Robot (Yates is still on staff - page 41, Benton is still a Sergeant rather than an RSM - page 38) and afterwards (UNIT staff recognise the fourth Doctor, the Doctor's file notes that he has been 'deactivated' - page 63). It's over 5 years since man last stepped on Mars (so after 1982 - according to The Dying Days). The Brigadier looks about 50 on page 39, making it around 1980. It's also decades since the nuclear strike on Lychburg (mid 1960s). It's the middle of July according to page 117. My best guess is that it's the mid 80s, and the Brigadier, Benton, and Yates have returned to UNIT temporarily.

[The Brigadier leaves UNIT again to return to teaching at Brendan School.]

Because that's what he's doing in Downtime and Business Unusual.

RESURRECTION OF THE DALEKS

Daleks from the future used time corridor technology to commence operations on 20th century Earth. They placed duplicates in key positions and stored canisters of a dangerous anti-Dalek virus there. One of their agents, the mercenary Lytton, was stranded on Earth in this timezone. He began a series of high-tech thefts to contact someone able to return him to his own time.

The Doctor tells us the year. Lytton's activities are mentioned in Attack of the Cybermen.

Scientists in Princeton discover Strange Matter.

Time and the Rani.

The Doctor and Mel visit Llanfer Ceiriog.

Seven years before Cat's Cradle: Witchmark.

Darren Pye is born.

It is stated that he is 2 school years older than Rose on page 17 of Winner Takes All.

Ace reads The Bell Jar.

She says that this was when she was 14 on page 87 of Love and War.

August/September 1984

DOWNTIME

At 23.08 GMT on 18th August, there is an explosion at the Det Sen monastery in Tibet. 6 days later, Second Lieutenant Douglas Cavendish and Pilot Per Londqvist are despatched to the area.

A Yeti cub arrives at London Zoo.

Chapters 2 and 3. Page 22 says it's 1984.

22nd December

Ruby Duvall is born in Islington.

Iceberg page 38.

1985

At this time, Ace was madly in love with Johnny Chess.

When she was 14, according to Timewyrm: Apocalypse. At this stage, he would only be about 18 - according to his age given in Byzantium!

The Associated Examining Board publishes Journeys Through History: A Sourcebook for GCSE by Barbara Chesterton and Ian Martin.

We see an extract on page 189 of Decalog 2: The Nine-Day Queen.

Summer 1985

PLANET OF FIRE

Professor Howard Foster discovers an archaeologically interesting wreck off the coast of Lanzarote. His stepdaughter Peri disappears, having travelled in the TARDIS to Sarn. On Sarn, Turlough found his exile lifted and returned home. Peri continued travelling with the Doctor, despite being due back at college in the autumn.

It's 3 months until "the fall" (i.e. autumn), when Peri is due back at college. As Turlough's exile is lifted here, it must be after 1983. In Timelash, the Doctor threatens to take Peri back to 1985; so I've set this story in this year.

Summer 1985

THE CRYSTAL BUCEPHALUS

Tegan and Diva are trapped in the vicinity of Oxford Street, being pursued by someone in a battlesuit.

It's the mid-1980's (page 55), and the waitress at McDonald's is called Dorothy - presumably this is intended to be Ace. Tegan guesses it could be '1985' or thereabouts (pages 84, 96), and it's 'summer' on page 71.

ATTACK OF THE CYBERMEN

A group of Cybermen from the 26th Century travelled back to cause Halley's comet to crash into Earth, thus preventing the destruction of Mondas. They established bases in the London sewers and on the Moon. Their plan was defeated when their future commanders were destroyed.

Mondas' attack is dated as 1986 and is supposed to happen next year.

THE TWO DOCTORS

Space station Camera in the third zone is conducting time travel experiments. The second Doctor, sent by the Time Lords, is investigating these. His efforts are interrupted when the ninth Sontaran Battle Group attacks in search of the Kartz-Reimer time module. They attempt to dissect the Doctor, to discover physiological factors of time travel. They then travel to Earth, near the planned Sontaran attack in the Madillon Cluster. They land in Seville. Twelve days later, the sixth Doctor lands on the station and tracks down his second incarnation. Together, they defeat the Sontarans and their Chessene allies.

It's contemporary. The exact date is speculation. Lords of the Storm (set 2371) dates this as 4 centuries ago.

Karen Kuykendall creates the Tarot of the Cat People.

Invasion of the Cat People.

The seventh Doctor and Mel visit the village of Llanfer Ceriog. They meet Old Davy, and stay with Hugh and Liz.

The visit was described as 'seven years ago' in Cat's Cradle: Witch Mark (page 25).

1986

David is born

He's just started his GCSEs in Short Trips and Side Steps: Monsters (page 224), so he would be 14 in 2000.

Matthew Jones is born to Clifford Jones and Jo Grant

Matthew is 11 by Genocide page 75 (June 1997).

Dorothy McShane, by now known as Ace, meets an older friend called Julian in a pub. One morning, Julian turns up outside the school in his Allegro & throws his L-plates at Ace. That day, they drive to Lincoln. On the way back, they investigate a road that appears to go nowhere. It turns out to lead to a prison. At some point during their friendship, they kiss - it starts out as a brotherly peck and turns into a full-blown snog, even though Jules is gay.

According to Love and War pages 1-2, 12 and 225. Page 235 implies that the trip to the prison happens during autumn.

An application to renovate and alter Kenilworth Hall, a grade two listed building, is refused.

According to The Sands of Time page 116 (instalment 4 page 25). The year is stated.

FATHER'S DAY

Peter Alan Tyler marries Jacqueline Andrea Susette Prentice in the local registry office.

This is not dated, but it was clearly a while before Rose was born. The alternative Pete and Jackie have been married for twenty years by the 2007 setting of Rise of the Cybermen. My date assumes that this was also true for the "real" Pete and Jackie, and takes into account that Jackie doesn't look pregnant in the wedding scene.

July 1986

The wreck of the Titanic is discovered.

The Left Handed Hummingbird (Page 261).

The [British] government carries out secret experiments to determine the possibilities of using sonic weaponry.

According to Atimkos in Invasion of the Cat People, this was in the mid-80s.

December 1986

THE TENTH PLANET

Whilst the military had developed deadly weaponry such as Cobra missiles and the planet-splitting Z-bomb, the space program had developed Zeus spaceships, travelling to Mars. These were carried on Demeter rockets and went both to the moon and into orbit. The Zeus 4 mission was sent out to monitor weather and cosmic rays. The Antarctic tracking station Snowcap detected a new planet between Mars and Venus when Zeus 4 was drawn off course by its gravitational force. The planet turned out to be Mondas, returned from its wandering round the solar system. Mondasian Cybermen attacked Snowcap base and International Space Command in Geneva. The Cybermen then withdrew to Mondas, planning to destroy Earth with a captured Z-bomb, but their forces at Snowcap were defeated by use of radioactive isotopes. Mondas finally reached saturation point and broke up, destroying the Cybermens' source of power. These events were effectively covered up.

The date is on a calendar and is confirmed in Attack of the Cybermen, Invasion of the Cat-People (page 48), and Killing Ground (page 60). Short Trips: Mondas Passing, Ben and Polly fail to notice any news of these events, though Iceberg and Decalog: The Golden Door suggest that the discovery of Mondas did make the news. Maybe Ben and Polly read the wrong newspapers and watch the wrong TV channels.

31st December 1986

SHORT TRIPS: MONDAS PASSING

Ben and Polly, now married to separate people, have a brief reunion.

The date is stated on page 165.

[Following the destruction of Mondas, the remnants of the CyberFaction decide that to optimise their chances of survival, they will send several groups of Cybermen out of the solar system, to attempt to conquer and colonise other planets. These wandering groups become known as CyberNomads.]

This was first theorised in Cybermen. The theory is confirmed in Killing Ground, where we see a group of CyberNomads.

1987

Peter Warmsley begins excavating a site on the edge of Lake Vortigern near Carbury. The site has Arthurian connections.

Ten years before Battlefield.

The British Government make idiots of themselves over the Zircon Project, giving credence to conspiracy theorists. Veronica Haliwell has to remove three van loads of paper and film from BBC Glasgow.

According to Veronica, this happened 10 years before The Dying Days chapter 2 page 8 (1997)

Ace had sat her O-levels, including Chemistry, French, Art, and Computer Science. One of her Computer Science teachers (Miss Sydenham, not Miss Birkett) thought Ace had untapped potential, but Ace mostly spent those lessons playing Space Invaders, though she often deleted programs. Her art teacher was Mrs Parkinson.

Details from Dragonfire, The Curse of Fenric, and Timewyrm: Apocalypse.

27th April 1987

Rose Tyler is born.

She is 19 according to the Doctor in The Unquiet Dead. The 2005 Doctor Who Annual contains a character guide to Rose by Russell T Davies which provides the exact date, even though that date means that Rose isn't 19 until she's over a month into her travels with the Doctor. It tallies with the Doctor's claim in Rise of the Cybermen that Rose was 6 months when Pete died.

Stuart Hoskins and Sarah Clark meet on the street corner outside the Beatbox club at 2 in the morning. She'd lost her purse, and he took her home, and then asked her for a date, she wrote his number on the back of her hand. Later on, she would become pregnant and they would have a shotgun wedding.

They tell the story in Father's Day, though no timescale is given.

Whilst studying for her A-levels, Ace was expelled from school for blowing up the art room. She subsequently worked as a waitress in a fast-food place (MacDonalds). She also worked as a courier, using her bike.

According to Dragonfire, Battlefield, Timewyrm: Apocalypse, The Crystal Bucephalus, and Cat's Cradle: Warhead (page 84).

20th August 1987

Ace was taken away in a timestorm created by Fenric. Her mother reported her missing and her friends believed that she had either died or gone to Birmingham.

This gets a particular mention in Dragonfire, The Curse of Fenric, and Survival. It gets a minor mention in a huge number of book featuring Ace. In Conundrum, the timestorm is said to have happened in a lab when Ace was 16 (page 148), her age being confirmed in Return of the Living Dad. The exact date is given in Timewyrm: Revelation (page 69), with the year on page 70. The year 1986 is given in First Frontier and White Darkness. Most chronologies place Ace's disappearance in 1987.

David Gosthorpe dies of a stroke in Naples. He had previously met the Doctor at Glastonbury, after which he spent his family fortune and sold their ancestral home.

Decalog 3: Past Reckoning page 107.

George Smithers' son dies of Leukaemia.

Invasion of the Cat People.

The Cold War was coming to an end and Russia was disarming because they couldn't afford the same level of military spending. A young Oleg Levin was sent to Novrosk to close down the barracks and dockyards and decommission the submarines, this being one of his first assignments. His team took whatever was useful, including the higher-grade local workers, leaving a small community with no supplies and a small staff at the Organic Weapons Research Institute. The train to the penninsula is closed down.

This is mentioned numerous times in The Deviant Strain, being dated as 20 years ago, the date first being given on page 13.

SHORT TRIPS: STOP THE PIGEON

A number of babies go missing. They are kidnapped by agents of the Master, coming from 80 years in the future.

The earlier time period is 80 years earlier (hence 1987). It is also said to be Ace's time, though mentions of privatised train companies suggest the 90's.

Kirsty is born

She's almost thirteen in Short Steps and Side Steps: Monsters (page 217).

7th November 1987

FATHER'S DAY

On a council estate in London, Stuart Hoskins and Sarah Clark get married. On the same day, Peter Alan Tyler is killed by a car, apparently after running out into the road. Witnesses say that an unknown girl came to comfort him before he died before disappearing. The driver who hit him stayed around until the police arrive.

Both Rose and Jackie state the date. This is the version of events after Rose's interference.

1988

The eighth Doctor and the Brigadier meet in Hong Kong. They discover the secret of the embodiment of Gris.

According to the Brigadier in The Dying Days chapter 6.

Sergeyev and Valeria are both born.

Valeria is said to be 19 on pages 30 and 32 of The Deviant Strain and Sergeyev is said to be at most 20 on page 32.

23rd November 1988

SILVER NEMESIS

A group of Cybermen [from the future] attempts to recover a statue made of the living metal Validium. They are hampered by Lady Peinforte, a human from 1638, and some Nazis led by De Flores. Both groups also want the statue. The interference of the seventh Doctor prevents any group from gaining control over this ancient Gallifreyan weapon. In the process, a Cyber-fleet in space is destroyed.

The date is clearly stated on screen. Iceberg hints that the Cybermen are from the future - maybe they're survivors of Attack of the Cybermen (though they've clearly modified themselves a little bit), as the Iceberg Cybermen are not yet vulnerable to gold, and these are ridiculously vulnerable to gold. Furthermore, Iceberg hints that the Cybermen learnt of Nemesis in that story - which is chronologically after this. Also, the Cyberman design seen here is more consistent with them originating from the future than from the present.

Polly visits a London museum with a Civil War exhibition.

This is the prologue to The Roundheads. The date isn't mentioned, but the Post Office Tower has been renamed. I arbitrarily place it here.

1989

SURVIVAL

Over the course of a month, at least four teenagers from Perivale vanish without trace. They have been abducted by the Cheetah People, whose planet is dying. Whilst on the planet, they encounter the Master, who has lured the Doctor and Ace to the planet to assist him. During these events, the planet explodes and all the Perivale residents transported to the planet, except Midge, return home safely.

There is no indication how long Ace has been away from Perivale. Midge and Stevie vanished last month, Shreela a week ago. First Frontier claims it was 1989. Most chronologies agree.

During the New York riots, a mob comes to destroy a local library. A few people, including Bobby Prescott, try to defend it, but fail.

The riots are said to be 20 years ago in Cat's Cradle: Warhead (page 45).

DECALOG 3: PAST RECKONING

Ellen Carter, sister of the late David Gosthorpe, attempts to retrieve hidden treasures from the former family estate of Trentillys Castle. She is killed when she unearths this treasure.

It must be after 1987, when David died, and some time before Decalog 3: UNITed We Fall. The exact date is conjecture. It seems quite likely to be near 1987.

24th-26th July

BUSINESS UNUSUAL

SenéNet, a company with no official records, had recently been taking over a number of Sussex electronics companies. A number of children who had won copies of their new Maxx console died in mysterious circumstances. At the same time, two unidentified Japanese men were found dead near SenéNet's headquarters, Garrett Manor. The manor was then destroyed in a huge fire and several local people were reported as missing, presumed dead. Among those missing is Melanie Bush, a 25-year-old computer programmer.

The book is divided into dated and timed sections.