Theory talk:Timeline - Eighth Doctor

Should be in user namespace
This article shouldn't be in main, as it's an obvious essay based at least in part on invalid sources. It deviates from the usual practice on timeline pages of simply accepting the DWRG as read. It's very confusing to have all other Doctor's timelines just straight copies of the DWRG, but to have this one be sort of a hodgepodge of other sources.

Not, of course, that I'm actually conferring any sort of legitimacy on Second Doctor - Timeline, for instance. Timeline pages are abominations. They all should be wholesale deleted because they're based on an invalid source: the DWRG. And there is simply no other source which our own policies will allow us to use that can be considered reliable for the creation of a timeline page.

Timelines are fanwankery. They always will be.

But if you're not going to join me in following the rules of the wiki, at least make our violation of our own policies consistent. Pull this one back to the user namespace, instead of including it in main. 17:13: Fri 21 Oct 2011

Sorry, but...
1)DWM refererd to the "newly-regenerated" Eighth Doctor for Endgame.

And in The Glorious Dead Part 9, The Master says:

"In the past few months alone you have warped the Holloway woman's future, shattered Sato's honour and attempted to murder the benevolent Kroton. "

So, the Doctor Who Magazine comics come very soon after The TV Movie, and everything from The TV Movie to the end of The Glorious Dead takes place over "a few months". To say nothing of the Threshold storyline. Would the Threshold wait for the Doctor to have centuries of other adventures before saying "Remember us?" Of course not.

2)In Vampire Science, Chapter 12:

"She shook her head with a grin. 'Ahh, come off it. You were taking side trips even when we first got together. It was three months for me, three years for you..."

In The Placebo Effect, Chapter 3:

"Sam laughed. 'Who's getting hitched?'

'Two dear friends of mine. I haven't seen them for a while.'

Sam raised an eyebrow. 'Anyone I know?'

'No. No. I don't think so. They...travelled with me for a few months'.

'How long ago?'

'Ah. Well. Promise you won't get upset?'

Sam's other eyebrow raised. 'Oh yes? This sounds good'.

'Remember not long after we first met, and I dropped you off at that Greenpeace rally in Canada?'

'Uh-huh'.

The Doctor smiled. Sheepishly. 'Well, you know that while only a few hours passed for you-'

'You'd been gone nearly a year of your time. Yes, I remember'.

'Well, I met them then.' The Doctor took the book back. After we parted, they stayed together. Very romantic, I suppose. "

So, there is no "three year gap". This is sort of equivalent to the Eleventh Doctor and Clara. They travel together for a while, he drops her off at home, travels alone(or with other companions), then returns and travels with Clara, then drops her off, and travels alone, then...

The Eighth Doctor aged three years from The TV Movie to Vampire Science. However, he travelled off and on with Sam during those three years. And his sheepish smile suggests that this "nearly a year" gap which included his travels with Stacy and Ssard, as well as (from Page 20) "Met up with some friends. Saved Earth from alien invaders. Hung around with an old archaeology chum of mine"(The Dying Dayes) is the longest of these "side trips".

Or to put it another way, there is no chance of using one of these gaps for where he travelled with one companion for "three or four years", as well as the travels with Mary, Samson and Gemma.

It must go something like: The TV Movie-The Eight Doctors-The Dying Days-DWM Comics-Radio Times Comics-Doctor travels with Sam again-Totem-Doctor travels with Sam again-short stories where Doctor is travelling alone-Doctor travels with Sam again- Master of Spiders ☎