Aliens of London dating controversy

The Aliens of London dating controversy stems from a narrative feature introduced in the 2005 Doctor Who television story Aliens of London. In that story the Ninth Doctor returns Rose Tyler to her home time one year later than planned, in 2006. Indeed, a missing persons' poster created for that episode states that Rose has been gone since 6 March 2005. Various episodes of Doctor Who and its televised spin-offs that were executive produced by Russell T Davies directly follow from Aliens of London, with multiple successive markings of Christmas Day from The Christmas Invasion (2005) to Voyage of the Damned (2007). The writers of these shows, however, often forget that the contemporary setting is actually a year in the future.

This narrative feature was sometimes forgotten or not applied by some writers, leading to several contradictions.

Towards the end of the Davies era of Doctor Who, no on-screen date is given for the 2009 Easter Special Planet of the Dead, nor The End of Time, which comprises the 2009 Christmas Special and the 2010 New Year Special. Planet of the Dead alludes to the real-world and The End of Time shows President Barack Obama making efforts to end "". Early into Steven Moffat's run as executive producer of Doctor Who, Flesh and Stone (2010) directly describes Amy Pond's home time as 2010, synchronising Doctor Who's contemporary stories with their date of broadcast.

The third series of the spin-off series Torchwood synchronised with its year of broadcast, 2009, when in Children of Earth: Day One, a government operative mentions Clement McDonald's name was last active 44 years ago, i.e. when Clement disappeared in 1965, until Torchwood found him living under an alias. As well as this, in Children of Earth: Day Four, Rhys Williams mentions that Jack Harkness' deal with the 456 at that time worked for 44 years.

The other of Davies' spin-offs, The Sarah Jane Adventures, makes several references to then-current Doctor Who stories, but rarely gives an on-screen date beyond Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane? (2007) being approximately 40 years after 1964, and The Day of the Clown (2008) being set on 9 October in an unspecified year. It thus does not make it clear when it was written to be a year ahead and when it was not, particularly in the first two series. In 2009, the third series story The Mad Woman in the Attic has a 15-year-old character, Samuel Lloyd born in June 1994, heavily implying a non year ahead setting. Eventually, in 2010, six months after the start of Steven Moffat's production era of the parent show, the fourth series more explicitly synchronised with its year of broadcast, when dialogue and set design in The Nightmare Man and Lost in Time place Sarah Jane Smith's time as 2010.

Doctor Who

 * Aliens of London, set twelve months after Rose (2005), places Rose's disappearance in Rose on 6 March 2005. In Love & Monsters, Elton Pope recalls, "twelve months later", referring to twelve months having passed since the Auton invasion in Rose, "I'm back in town. I'm up west, looking for a new suit, something nice and smart - when I hear this plane overhead" and we see the Slitheen Spaceship crash into Big Ben, as it does in the episode, thus backing up the notion that Rose disappeared on 6 March 2005.
 * In School Reunion (2006), Sarah Jane Smith describes the Sycorax spaceship from The Christmas Invasion (2005) as "this Christmas just gone". Mickey Smith begins travelling with the Tenth Doctor at the end of the episode. Following this, in The Age of Steel (2006), the Doctor informs Jackie Tyler that Mickey has "gone home", referring to the parallel Earth. Love & Monsters (2006) is explicitly two years after the Auton invasion in Rose. Jackie is still living in London, placing the episode some time before Army of Ghosts (2006). Jackie also mentions Mickey as "gone" now, placing the story after School Reunion. All of this appears to place The Christmas Invasion in 2006 and School Reunion, Love & Monsters and Army of Ghosts in 2007.
 * In The Age of Steel, the Preachers, a team of fugitives, own a van with a tax disc due to expire in 2006.
 * In Blink (2007), Kathy Nightingale's letter to Sally Sparrow mentions her new life began after she took "one breath in 2007 and the next in 1920". This would mean that Sally giving her DVD transcript to the Doctor one year later, as well as the Red Hatching which Martha Jones describes as 20 minutes afterwards, happen in 2008.
 * The Sound of Drums (2007) dates its events as occurring four days after Smith and Jones (2007), and consequently the events of both episodes as well as The Lazarus Experiment (2007) and 42 (2007), both of which are set during that four-day span, to 18 months after The Christmas Invasion.
 * In The Fires of Pompeii (2008), Donna Noble recalls how the Doctor "saved [her]" in 2008. The previous episode, Partners in Crime (2008), has Donna mentioning the Titanic replica on Christmas Day from Voyage of the Damned (2007). Voyage of the Damned itself has Wilfred Mott describing The Christmas Invasion's spaceship as the "Christmas before last", suggesting Donna's time in series 4 as being 2009.
 * In The Sontaran Stratagem (2008), Donna's neighbour Sally tells Donna she hasn't seen her for "days".
 * In Turn Left (2008), Donna turns left on Little Sutton Street on Monday 25th at 11:01am, six months before the Christmas Eve setting of The Runaway Bride (2006). As 2007 is the earliest year after 2001 where 25 June falls on a Monday, this suggests a 2007 setting for The Runaway Bride, a 2008 setting for series 3 and Voyage of the Damned, and a 2009 setting for series 4.
 * In the novel Beautiful Chaos (2008), set about a month after The Sontaran Stratagem, a newspaper gives the date as 15 May 2009.
 * In The Waters of Mars (2009), an on-screen obituary states Adelaide Brooke was born in May 1999, and that the disappearance of her parents during the events of the Dalek invasion from The Stolen Earth/Journey's End (2008) took place in 2008. The same obituary, however, gives her age as 10 when her parents were pronounced missing, placing the events in at least May 2009.
 * In a scene set on 1 January 2005 in The End of Time Part Two (2010), the Tenth Doctor predicts to Rose that she will have a "really great year".
 * Files and articles from the prose story The Secret Lives of Monsters (2014) place the upwards rain around Royal Hope Hospital on 4 June 2008, and the events surrounding ATMOS and the Daleks' invasion from the 21st century in 2009.
 * Series 1 of the audio series Redacted, released in 2022 has several contributions to the dating issue:
 * In SOS, Partners in Crime is dated to 2008, with Penny Carter recalling that it was "almost fifteen years" prior to the present of 2022.
 * In Hysteria, the transportation of Royal Hope Hospital to the Moon in Smith and Jones (2007) is dated to 2008.
 * In Angels, Abby McPhail recalls Larry Nightingale's sister Kathy's disappearance (in Blink) happened in 2008. This would mean that Sally Sparrow giving her DVD transcript to the Doctor, and the Red Hatching, occur in 2009.
 * In Recruits, a UNIT mission log mentions moon rocks were recovered from Royal Hope Hospital in March 2008.
 * In Salvation, the Thirteenth Doctor confirms that the disappearance of Cleo Proctor's father Andy—whom Cleo mentioned in Recruits that she had last seen "nearly 20 years" before 2022—happened because he was killed protecting Cleo during the Red Hatching. According to the Doctor, Cleo was only six or seven at the time. However this would place the events of Blink (during which Martha and the Doctor are attempting to prevent the Red Hatching) as occurring around 2002.

Torchwood

 * Torchwood's backstory is based in the Battle of Canary Wharf from the Doctor Who episodes Army of Ghosts and Doomsday (both 2006). Both Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones are explicitly mentioned as having joined Torchwood Three after the battle, with Cyberwoman (2006) showing Ianto escaping the Cyberman battle.
 * In Ghost Machine (2006), Tom Flanagan has lived in Cardiff for 66 years after arriving in 1941, which would set the year as 2007. Tom and Eleri had watched the Strictly Come Dancing finals the night before meeting Gwen and Owen Harper. Though not directly stated, if Strictly has similar scheduling in the DWU and the real world, this would suggest a December setting, which would be difficult to time with Out of Time (2006), a story nine episodes after Ghost Machine with numerous Christmas set dressings and references to Christmas. Moreover, in Captain Jack Harkness (2007), Owen mentions 24 December as "when Diane flew through the Rift" in Out of Time.
 * In Greeks Bearing Gifts (2006), a soldier from 1812 was killed by Mary approximately 196 years, 11 to 11-and-a-half months ago, which would set the year as 2009 or at the very earliest, the last few weeks of 2008. By this point Toshiko has been with Torchwood for three years, ie since 2005 or 2006.
 * In Random Shoes (2006), Shaun Jones came to his son Eugene's funeral 14 years after abandoning Eugene in 1992, which would set the year as 2006.
 * In To the Last Man (2008), Tommy Brockless was born on 7 February 1894. Toshiko Sato says that Torchwood froze Tommy in 1918, while Jack Harkness says "he's been here for 90 years", and "he's 24 or 114 years old", setting the episode between 7 February and 31 December 2008. As this is Gwen's only encounter with him, she has been at Torchwood for no longer than exactly one year. Toshiko's calendar is marked Friday 20, suggesting 20 June 2008, the only Friday the 20th from that year. Toshiko has known Tommy for four years, suggesting she has worked for Torchwood since at least 2004.
 * In Meat (2008), when Gwen admits to her fiancé Rhys Williams her "special ops thing" was a cover story for her actual job, Rhys responds, "Thank you! At last! God, what's that taken? About a year?"
 * In Reset (2008), Meredith Roberts was born on 11 January 1962 and was 45 when he died, which would set the episode between 11 January 2007 and 10 January 2008, explicitly clashing with the earliest possible date of 7 February 2008 in To the Last Man three episodes earlier.
 * In Adrift (2008), Jonah Bevan, born 15 February 1993, is described as 15 years old by Gwen, which would set the episode between 15 February 2008 and 14 February 2009. The first meeting of the missing persons support group Searchlight is held on a Monday 27th of an undisclosed month. The only Monday 27th between these dates is on 27 October 2008.
 * In Exit Wounds (2008), Toshiko mentions that she covered for Owen as a medic on Owen's second week in Torchwood during the examination of the space pig from Aliens of London (2005). Fragments (2008), set immediately before Exit Wounds, places Owen's recruitment to Torchwood as taking place four years ago, and Toshiko's recruitment, or at least her imprisonment prior to being recruited, as five years ago. This apparently puts Fragments and Exit Wounds in 2010, and Toshiko's imprisonment in 2005. However, Exit Wounds also has Jack telling the Torchwood from 1901 to freeze him for 107 years to allow him to get back to Gray, placing those two stories in 2008, Owen's recruitment in 2004, and Toshiko's imprisonment in 2003.
 * Owen's personnel file in Exit Wounds gives his date of birth as 14 February 1980. Dead Man Walking (2008) states that Owen was 27 when he first died at the end of Reset, placing Reset between 14 February 2007 and 13 February 2008. While this largely overlaps with the previous possible date of death of Meredith Roberts from Reset, it is still impossible to reconcile with Tommy Brockless being revived on at least 7 February 2008 in To the Last Man, which is after what would have been Meredith's 46th birthday on 11 January 2008.
 * According to Gwen's CIA file in The New World (2011), Gwen joined Torchwood (which happened in the 2006 episode Everything Changes) in October 2006. This would mean They Keep Killing Suzie (2006), which directly places itself three months after Everything Changes, takes place in January 2007. This clashes with the apparent 2006 setting of Random Shoes, the episode immediately following They Keep Killing Suzie, as well as the Christmas setting of Out of Time, just two episodes after They Keep Killing Suzie, and the implied December 2007 setting of Ghost Machine, five episodes before They Keep Killing Suzie.
 * The setting of To the Last Man is the first annual defrosting of Tommy Brockless which Gwen is present for, and the earliest possible date for that episode is February 2008, at least 16 months after the joining date given in The New Worlds file. If it is set on 20 June, the only Friday the 20th of that year in the real world, then the episode is 20 months after Gwen's first day according to The New Worlds file.
 * In The Devil and Miss Carew (2011), a BBC Radio audio drama and part of Torchwood: The Lost Files, Ianto, while researching Joanna Carew in the Hub, states that Carew was born in 1930. Gwen later says to Carew that Carew is "an 81-year-old", implausibly (considering dates in other media and the destruction of the Hub in the 2009 TV story Children of Earth: Day One) suggesting the story is set in 2011 at the earliest.
 * In Submission (2011), part of Torchwood: The Lost Files, the crew of the submarine the Octopus Rock is described by Carlie Roberts as "the first [humans] to return" from the depths of the Mariana Trench "in over 50 years" following the successful return of the Trieste's crew in 1960, suggesting a date of 2010 at the earliest and again making the dating of The Lost Files clash with dates established in Children of Earth as both Ianto and the Hub still exist by the time of this story.
 * The Torchwood Magazine short story Happy New Year has Torchwood celebrate New Year's Eve between Exit Wounds and Children of Earth: Day (2009).
 * The Big Finish audio story Outbreak (2016), which takes place between Exit Wounds and Children of Earth: Day One, makes explicitly clear, through extensive dialogue, that it is set in 2009.
 * The Big Finish audio story Dissected (2020), which takes place between Journey’s End and Children of Earth: Day One, refers to a recent Torchwood Christmas party that Martha missed owing to the breakdown of her engagement with Thomas Milligan, an engagement first mentioned in the 2008 Doctor Who episode The Sontaran Stratagem. In Children of Earth: Day One, Gwen explains Martha's absence from the events of Children of Earth is due to her being on honeymoon, though it is not stated at the time if Martha married Thomas or Mickey Smith (who is revealed to be Martha's husband in Doctor Who's The End of Time Part Two in 2010).

The Sarah Jane Adventures

 * Invasion of the Bane (2007) opens with Alan and Maria Jackson moving into a new house in Ealing following the former's separation from Chrissie Jackson.
 * According to Sarah Jane Smith, K9 Mark IV has been in a black hole for "a year and a half", setting this story at least that long since School Reunion.
 * The tax disc on Sarah Jane's car expires in July 2007.
 * Sarah Jane Smith adopts Luke Smith, who, as she will recall in Sky (2011), "was born a thirteen year old boy".
 * Following Invasion of the Bane is Revenge of the Slitheen (2007), which takes place at the start of a new year at Park Vale Comprehensive School for Luke, Maria and Clyde Langer. Luke and Clyde are in form 10B.
 * Luke is now officially "fourteen" years old.
 * In Eye of the Gorgon (2007), Alan tells Chrissie that she took their home apart "six months ago", setting this story at most that long since Invasion of the Bane.
 * In Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane? (2007), Andrea Yates claims she's "been dead for forty years". Her teenage self died in 1964 and, assuming the adult Andrea isn't rounding up (or even down), it places the story in 2004.
 * In The Lost Boy (2007), "Jay Stafford" claims that "Ashley Stafford", actually Luke, has been missing for five months, setting this story at least that long since Invasion of the Bane.
 * Maria Jackson is fourteen years old by this story.
 * Sarah Jane recalls that Mr Smith appeared "eighteen months ago", setting this story at least that long since School Reunion and no more than that long since Invasion of the Bane.
 * The Last Sontaran (2008) recalls the events of Doctor Who's The Poison Sky (2008).
 * The epilogue of The Last Sontaran takes place "Six Weeks Later", when Maria and her father leave the UK for the US, placing the story after both the Sontaran invasion in The Poison Sky and the Dalek invasion of Doctor Who's The Stolen Earth and Journey's End (both 2008), where Maria is still in the UK.
 * The Day of the Clown (2008) takes place a "while" since the disappearance of Park Vale headmaster Greg Blakeman, from Revenge of the Slitheen, introducing new headmaster Haresh Chandra, who observes that Luke has shown impressive results over the "past year". Luke receives an email from Maria after she moves to the US dated 9 October in an undisclosed year, also heavily suggesting that Luke has been at school for a year.
 * By The Mark of the Berserker (2008), Clyde identifies as being fifteen years old.
 * In The Mad Woman in the Attic (2009), Samuel Lloyd was born on 23 June 1994, and is 15, placing the story between 23 June 2009 and 22 June 2010.
 * By Mona Lisa's Revenge (2009), Luke and Clyde are in form 11T and the events of Planet of the Dead (2009) are referenced.
 * By The Gift (2009), Luke is aged "fifteen", placing it within a year of the Doctor Who story Journey's End (with conflicting instory dating as above), where Sarah Jane describes Luke as "only fourteen".
 * The Nightmare Man (2010) is primarily set on the week of 6-10 September 2010, with Luke beginning his packing for the University of Oxford on the 6th, and leaving on the 10th. It establishes that, shortly after entering sixth form, Luke Smith decides to take his A-levels in June as per Mr Chandra's suggestion, which enables him to get into Oxford a year early, i.e. in the 2010-11 academic year. This suggests that Clyde and Rani are now in year 13, and Luke and Clyde were in form 10B before the autumn of 2008 and in form 11T after.
 * In Death of the Doctor (2010), Sarah Jane tells Jo Jones that she reunited with the Doctor "about four years ago", alluding to the events of School Reunion, which according to that episode and contemporary stories was set in 2007, either suggesting a 2011 setting of Death of the Doctor or retroactively putting School Reunion in 2006.
 * In Lost in Time (2010), Sarah Jane shows Emily Morris a clipping of a newspaper from 23 November 2010 to prove she is from Emily's future.

Other media

 * While not directly involved with Aliens of London's dating controversy, the UNIT Press Briefings, a small series of in-universe press briefing released by UNIT, has their own issues as the series dates most of the alien invasions seen in the 2005 revival to their respective air dates, regardless of the dates given in those same stories. So, according to UNIT Press Briefings, Rose is set on 26 March 2005, Aliens of London is set in May, etc, instead of 5 March and March respectively.
 * Directly contributing to the Aliens of London dating controversy, albeit in a unique way, the short story Operation London, part of the Operations Board series on the U.N.I.T. tie-in website, dates Aliens of London to 28 June. This both contradicts the date given for World War Three in Number Ten Pays Tribute to UNIT and Aliens of London. Where the date of 28 June originated from is unknown, as no televised story was broadcast on this date.
 * Project Rooftop, the final story from the Operations Board, set in late 2006, had one character mention that UNIT's activities have been going on for nearly forty years.
 * The short story The Paradox Moon opens with a scene that is set at the beginning of the Year That Never Was, with the date being given as 23 June 2007.
 * The short story The Mandela Effect, Or Monsters on the Streets of London has one character recall an artificial star being shot down by the government on Christmas 2006, presumably intended as a reference to The Runaway Bride, though the story being about unreliable memories could make her recollections unreliable.
 * According to the Doctor Who edition of Trivial Pursuit, TV: Time Crash takes place in 2007.
 * The Time Traveller's Almanac consistently follows the "one year ahead" rule, placing Rose and The End of the World in 2005, Aliens of London to The Christmas Invasion in 2006, New Earth to The Runaway Bride in 2007, Smith and Jones to Voyage of the Damned in 2008, and Partners in Crime to Journey's End in 2009. It is acknowledged that Blink mostly takes place in 2007 before jumping ahead a year to 2008.
 * The Time Traveller's Almanac specifies that Rose takes place on 3 and 4 March 2005 by placing the Auton invasion on the latter night. Jackie is said to have received her phone call from the future Rose in The End of the World on the morning of 3 March 2005. The Doctor and Rose's brief return to Earth at the end of The End of the World is said to be Rose's final glimpse of London in the year 2005, twelve months before Aliens of London.
 * Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe dates the events of both Army of Ghosts/Doomsday and The Stolen Earth/Journey's End to 2009, despite the stories being separated by two successive Christmas specials.