River Thames

The River Thames, also known as the Thames, was a river that ran through the heart of London. It was the site (or close to the site) of many alien incursions.

The River Fleet ran into the Thames. (TV: The Talons of Weng-Chiang)

Sonning Palace was situated on the bank of the Thames. (AUDIO: The Doctor's Tale)

Cleopatra's Needle was erected next to the Thames. (PROSE: Hospitality)

15th century
In January 1400, pursued by Ian Chesterton, Sir Robert de Wensley slipped on ice on the bank of the Thames and fell into the water, where the current carried him away. (AUDIO: The Doctor's Tale)

18th century
In the summer of 1762, Steven Taylor worked as a boatman on the Thames. (AUDIO: The Founding Fathers)

19th century
In February 1814, the river froze over after a Phoenix egg was brought to London by a trader (AUDIO: Frostfire) and the Hyban Masoon landed in the area. The Tenth Doctor took Mai Kondo ice skating at this time. (PROSE: The Frozen) The First Doctor had already visited the 1814 frost fair with his companions Steven and Vicki Pallister. (AUDIO: Frostfire) The Doctor later went to the frost fair in the company of River Song. (TV: A Good Man Goes to War) This became known as the "last of the great frost fairs." (AUDIO: Frostfire) A serpent-like creature was chained under the Thames at some point prior. Lord Sutcliffe tried to lure people onto the ice for the frost fair in order to feed the monster to use the produced faeces as a fuel more efficient and hotter than coal. However the Twelfth Doctor and Bill Potts discovered his plan and the Doctor freed the creature using the explosives Sutcliffe had intended to use to break the ice. Sutcliffe was on the ice when the serpent cracked it and fell through. (TV: Thin Ice)



In 1833, the Fifth Doctor programmed the TARDIS and it materialised in the Thames. (AUDIO: The Haunting of Thomas Brewster)

In 1851, Thomas Brewster's mother committed suicide by throwing herself into the Thames. (AUDIO: The Haunting of Thomas Brewster)

In 1865, the TARDIS was recovered from the Thames and kept in the Creek's shop until the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa recovered it again in November 1867. (AUDIO: The Haunting of Thomas Brewster)

Sometime after 1888, Strax attended the annual New Year's Eve swim at the Thames. Jenny Flint, among many people, found the sight of Strax in a bathing suit hilarious. (PROSE: The Importance of Being Strax)

In the 1890s, the Sixth Doctor sank his TARDIS to the bottom of the mud in the Thames. He later retrieved it using a Stattenheim remote control. (AUDIO: The Hourglass Killers)

In 1894, a group of Zygons had a spacecraft under the Thames. (PROSE: The Body Snatchers)

Later in 1894, the Paternoster Gang helped a group of Gremlins settle into the bottom of the Thames in the Greenwich area. (PROSE: The Curious Case of the Miniature Menaces)

In 1897, the Paternoster Gang defeated a pair of Esturians who had parked their spaceship at the bottom of the Thames. (PROSE: The Terror of the Thames)

20th century
In 1909, a fragment of the Doctor's TARDIS containing Bernice Summerfield crashed along the banks of the Thames. During the time that Benny spent stranded in this era, she would often return to the Thames to check that the TARDIS was still there. (PROSE: Birthright)

In 1911, Iris Wildthyme, Archibald Angelchrist, and Panda fought a school of Piscotorians on the Thames embankment. (PROSE: Iris at the V&A)

On 20 April 1958, the MTB Heroic sank in the Thames due to a storm. Its crewmember Johnny Skipton was rescued from drowning by the 39th century time traveller Elliot Payne and brought to the 1890s. (AUDIO: Dead Men's Tales, Chronoclasm)

During the World Energy Conference in the 1970s, the Skarasen swam up the Thames following a Zygon tracking device. (TV: Terror of the Zygons)

On 28 February 1981, the Fourth Doctor attempted to flush out of the TARDIS by landing in the Thames and opening the doors. However, he landed on a boat instead. (TV: Logopolis)

A Dalek time corridor led to a warehouse not far from the Thames in 1984. (TV: Resurrection of the Daleks)

In the late 1990s, the assorted audience members of Glamorama convened at Cleopatra's Needle, which overlooked the Thames. (PROSE: Hospitality)

The Dusk Casino was located on the banks of the Thames. In 1999, the Sixth Doctor and Evelyn Smythe encountered the Forge's victims there. (AUDIO: Project: Twilight)

21st century
In 2006, as part of a hoax to gain control of Earth's nuclear weapons, (TV: World War Three) members of the Slitheen family flew a spaceship through Big Ben and landed it in the Thames. (TV: Aliens of London)

The Waterhive lived in the Thames, having arrived there when the wreckage of a cruiser containing them was towed up the river. (PROSE: The Feast of the Drowned)

On 24 December 2007, the Thames was drained by the Tenth Doctor in order to stop the Racnoss. The Thames Flood Barrier had been built by the Torchwood Institute as a cover for a project to synthesise huon particles from water. (TV: The Runaway Bride)



During the Dalek invasion of Earth in 2009, the Daleks destroyed the Valiant while it was over the Thames. (TV: The Stolen Earth)

In 2010 an old Nadloon circus comedy cruiser crashed in the Thames. Sarah Jane Smith and her friends had recovered the cruiser from the Thames. (COMIC: Defending Bannerman Road)

In 2015, Iris Wildthyme dealt with a Gomagog wormhole beneath London Bridge. (AUDIO: Kronos Vad's History of Earth Vol. 36,379)

In the early morning of 19 August 2020, a Dalek emerged from the River Thames, having came through the Time Fracture to the deserted London. It was intercepted by military personnel before any engagement with the civilian population could take place. (WC: 14683 UNIT Field Log)

In 2030, the river was artificially frozen over for the Dancing On Ice special. (PROSE: The Frozen)

In 2050, the Thames was polluted by chenium when Drake tried to replicate Mede technology. After the Medes were released, they cleaned up the pollution before departing. (TV: Alien Avatar)

22nd century
In 2167, the TARDIS materialised on the bank of the Thames. Soon afterward, the First Doctor and Ian Chesterton were taken prisoner by a Dalek which rose from the Thames itself. Later, Susan Foreman left her TARDIS key on the riverbank after the Doctor dematerialised the TARDIS and left her behind to her new life. (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth)

Parallel world
In a parallel world, the Tenth Doctor died under the Thames by drowning in the resulting flood which defeated the Racnoss. His body and the TARDIS was retrieved by UNIT soldiers. When Donna Noble was later fired from her job almost a year later, it was mentioned that the Thames was still closed, causing the business problems that precipitated her firing. (TV: Turn Left)

Other references
The River Thames was seen on a digital map of London used by Adipose Industries in 2009. (TV: Partners in Crime)

The River Thames was seen on a map of London used during the Monk invasion of the late 2010s. (TV: The Lie of the Land)

Fiume Tamigi