Fill: Challenge #7 (Doctor Who

[shivver]

This is from a story I'm writing which consists of journal entries by Verity Newman, Joan Redfern's great-granddaughter, about writing "A Journal of Impossible Things". The headings are temporary - I've figured out when they happen vs. the time stamps in AHistory, but haven't nailed down the exact dates yet.


A Monday in June, 2008:

The news today! The Royal Hope Hospital, the one across the Thames from Parliament, it disappeared - left a big hole in the ground. They said big rhino aliens took it to the moon and then brought it back. That was in the journal! One of the less coherent entries, mostly scribbles about medical students and little shops and how thick the rhinos were. No ending. But now I know how Joan must have felt, seeing things in the journal happen.

I wonder, though, how she must have felt knowing the Doctor had returned, that the man who had taken her love away had returned again. She did write that when she met the Doctor, finally, she saw nothing of John in him and “cared not at all for him”, but she must have thought of him when she saw those journal stories unfolding from afar. Maybe that’s how the story should end.


Next day:

Chatted with Ella, and we realised things in the journal had already happened to the Doctor - John’s dreams were remembering, not predicting. So the Doctor doing the things Joan read about - and the one on the moon yesterday - he didn’t know her yet. He wasn’t “returning” like I said. I’m so glad I have Ella to keep all this science fiction stuff straight. Or is that science fact?

It did make me think, though, about Martha. Yesterday was also in the past for her, in some sense of the word. Joan said in her journal that Martha came from about a century in the future - maybe she meant now? It’d help to know this, so I can write her culture shock better. I’ll ask Abby if she can find a medical student named Martha within the past five or ten years. Joan said “coloured”, so black - not likely Indian or Middle Eastern. Not much to go on. Maybe she was at the Royal Hope - John did write about medical students. But Abby says she’s been enjoying looking things up for me, so maybe this’ll be a challenge for her.

Comments

[romanajo123]

That’s incredible. I love idea of her reading the Journal. It makes sense Joan would’ve probably used that terminology for Martha, given the period.

Wait Smith & Jones is 2008?

[shivver]

Yup! Everything set in contemporary Earth in the new series from "Aliens in London" until (but not including) "Planet of the Dead" is one year in the future of the air date, though not necessarily to the day - basically, episodes aired in 2006 happened sometime in 2007.

How do we know that, you ask? Easy...

• In "Aliens of London", the Doctor brings Rose back to her mum a year later. The posters that Jackie put up searching for Rose say, "Last seen (date in 2005)" so the episode is set in 2006.
  
• 2005 Christmas special: "The Christmas Invasion" must be Christmas, 2006, because Jackie didn't see Rose at Christmas in 2005.
  
• 2006 Christmas special: "The Runaway Bride" must be Christmas, 2007, because the Doctor tells Donna, "I spent Christmas over there, at the Powell Estate".
  
• 2007 Christmas special: "Voyage of the Damned" must be Christmas, 2008, because Wilf mentions both the Sycorax 2 years previous and the Racnoss Webstar the previous year. (He actually says two years ago and last year.)
  
• 2008 Christmas special: "The Next Doctor" is the first time the Doctor doesn't spend Christmas in modern times. This allows the show to get back in sync with the air dates. Thus, "Planet of the Dead" is actually set in 2009 (I haven't really checked this, though).
  
• 2009 Christmas special: "The End of Time" is thus likely to be actually at Christmas 2009, because unless proven otherwise, the show assumes the air date is the story's date.
  

So, since Series 3 is set after "The Runaway Bride", it must be in 2008, and I believe that based on clues surrounding the election for Prime Minister, it's all set in June. I figured out the year shift by myself a while back, but got the evidence about the poster from AHistory which is a encyclopedia that attempts to put dates on all Doctor Who events - TV, novels, audios, etc.

(There's a person on LJ that claims the show dates coincide with the air dates except for "Rose", which they claim happened in 2004, but they provide no evidence, just wishful thinking, and I think she's headcanoned it so that she can prove that Rose was underage when she left with the Doctor. ;) )

Another really cool time thing that few people realize: In "The Eleventh Hour", the Doctor, Amy, and Rory avert the whole Prisoner Zero thing, with the Atraxi threatening to burn the world. The air date is 2010, so this all happens in 2010... except it didn't. After sending the Atraxi off, the Doctor runs off to see his newly-repaired TARDIS, takes off without Amy, and comes back two years later, at which point, she goes traveling with him. So it's only that last part that happened in 2010; the Atraxi actually invaded in 2008.