1997

In 1997, Sam Jones joined the newly-regenerated Eighth Doctor on his travels. (PROSE: The Eight Doctors)

January - July
In the spring, the Eleventh Doctor and Clara Oswald visited London to find that it was frozen by abominable aliens. The Doctor took his TARDIS to the aliens' base in the ice-solid River Thames and attached it to the machine the aliens used to freeze London. The TARDIS reversed the temporary winter and the aliens left Earth. (COMIC: Wintervention)

On 30 April, Bernice Summerfield was dropped off at the Doctor's house, whereupon she discovered he had regenerated into his eighth incarnation. On 6 May, Bernice first met the Doctor in his eighth incarnation. Britain sent the Mars Orbiter to Mars and the three astronauts on the surface stumbled across the Ice Warrior tomb of the Great Marshall Kyruul of the Argyre Clan under the sands of the Mare Sirenum and were killed. The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom was assassinated in Washington. Lord Xznaal's ship arrived over London and ordered the country to submit to his rule. On 7 May, Alexander Christian escaped from his military captors and contacted Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. The United Kingdom submitted to Martian rule and set up a Provisional Government.

Around this time, Queen Elizabeth II was deposed and Xznaal was crowned King. She had a second coronation on 23 November, at which the Fourth Doctor, Romana II and K9 Mark II were present. (PROSE: The Dying Days)

Shortly after the Mars 97 incident, Carolyn McConnell summoned the Eighth Doctor and Sam Jones to San Francisco to assist her with vampires. (PROSE: Vampire Science) During the adventure, Sam asked UNIT to contact her parents. When a UNIT soldier came to the Jones residence, he learned that Sam hadn't yet began travelling with the Doctor and then told Sam's parents to not tell Sam that he had came. (PROSE: Unnatural History)

On 14 May, the Seventh Doctor's companion Ace met her younger brother Liam McShane for the first time in San Antonio on Ibiza. (AUDIO: The Rapture)

Before the end of the Coal Hill School year, in one version of history, the Eighth Doctor came to 76 Totter's Lane shortly after his regeneration. Sam Jones was in the junkyard at the time getting drugs. Due to the fact that the Doctor had recently regenerated, Faction Paradox were able to use his use biodata to change Sam's life to make her into a suitable companion for the Doctor. (PROSE: Unnatural History)

In another version of history, the Eighth Doctor met Sam Jones in Totter's Lane while she was trying to stop a group of kids from dealing drugs. The Doctor, who was suffering from amnesia due to a trap left for him by, scared off the drug dealers and picked up their cocaine. The Coal Hill police saw him with the cocaine and assumed that he was the drug dealer. The Doctor was taken in for questioning, but he quickly escaped and ran back to Totter's Yard, where Sam was being attacked by the drug dealers. The Doctor ran into his TARDIS and left without saving her. After meeting all his past selves, the Doctor came back and brought Sam into the TARDIS. She began travelling with him. (PROSE: The Eight Doctors)

Before August, Sam Jones' parents received the first of many postcards from Sam. This postcard came from Fleeble 14. (PROSE: Unnatural History)

August - December
On 1 August, Sam's parents received a letter which had been kept in the mail system since 1894. (PROSE: Unnatural History)

On 11 October, Mary Barton killed her mother. (PROSE: There's Something About Mary)

Before the First Doctor and Susan Foreman settled down in Shoreditch in 1963, they took a brief trip to St Albans on 17 December 1997 to ensure that the United Kingdom would remain safe during and after the 1960s. Unbeknownst to either of them, the Fourth Doctor, Romana II and K9 Mark II were in the vicinity on the same day. (PROSE: The Little Things)

Undated events
The Seventh Doctor and Ace encountered Arthurian knights in Carbury. (TV: Battlefield) Afterwards, Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart was promoted to General. (PROSE: The Dying Days)

Torchwood One shot down a Jathaa sunglider over the Shetland Islands around this time. They began reverse-engineering its technology.

Rose Tyler's maternal grandfather Prentice died when his heart gave out. (TV: Army of Ghosts)

Carys Fletcher's mother was killed in a car crash. (TV: Day One)

James Stewart died. (PROSE: Interference - Book Two)

Alternate universes
In the Unbound Universe on 30 June, the newly regenerated Doctor, having been exiled to Earth, arrived in Hong Kong on the eve of the Handover of the territory from the United Kingdom to China. On that occasion, he encountered Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and the Unbound Master. In this universe, because the Doctor had not been on Earth to help UNIT, many of the events that happened during the prime timeline ended disastrously - for instance, the Brigadier had to order a group of soldiers led by Mike Yates to stop the Silurians destroying humanity.

The Master had been stranded on Earth for 20 years after losing his own TARDIS, and he had been waiting for the Doctor to arrive so he could escape. (AUDIO: Sympathy for the Devil)

According to one account, the Doctor and the Brigadier left Earth to never return. (AUDIO: Masters of War)

According to another account, the Doctor stayed on Earth with the Brigadier and grew to enjoy his exile. (AUDIO: The 100 Days of the Doctor)

Behind the scenes
According to the Torchwood House website, the book It's a Mystery was published in this year. Part of the book concerned the shooting star that fell into the Glen of St Catherine in 1540.