Theory talk:Timeline - Sixth Doctor

Thomas Brewster Trilogy placement
Recently me and Fwhiffahder have disagreed upon the placement of The Crimes of Thomas Brewster, Feast of Axos, and Industrial Evolution. These stories are a trilogy featuring Evelyn Smythe and Thomas Brewster. At the beginning of Crimes the Doctor uses his colourful coat to stun an alien with sensitive eyes. My interpretation of the sixth Doctor's timeline is that he wears only his blue coat between Real Time and The Wrong Doctors, he began wearing it to show that he was a new man, but gradually stopped wearing it when it became associated with painful memories (Thicker Than Water). Placing it before Real Time also connects it with the theme of Evelyn becoming distressed at the deaths of young people (she believes Brewster to be dead at the end of Evolution). Fwhiffahder places it at the end of their travels "for reasons". Both Me and him/her are so set in our ways that I think we need someone else to give their two cents. Please comment where you think these stories are so we can decide. :)-- TheChampionOfTime (talk page) 18:57, December 9, 2015 (UTC)


 * Apologies if this is the wrong way to add to talk pages. I actually only made one edit to that page. I saw your edit and figured that since your reasoning (rainbow=pre-Real Time) was wrong, the edit must be wrong. I don't have any opinion on your assessment of his character, but the coloring isn't so cut-and-dry. He first wears blue in Real Time, and says he'll "wear [the colourful coat] again for you" in The Wrong Doctors, but he also wears blue in Jago & Litefoot and with Charley, and he's deliberately switched back to the colourful one temporarily in The Crimes of Thomas Brewster. So blue is already standard in The Crimes of Thomas Brewster, and he doesn't exclusively wear rainbow after The Wrong Doctors.Fwhiffahder ☎  22:04, December 9, 2015 (UTC)


 * I'm sorry if this is obvious to you, but why does it have to be at the end of their travels? Based on the fact that he has hundreds of rainbow coats in his wardrobe and there is no mention of his blue outfit it makes most logical sense for this to be before he has had a blue coat. (I didn't say he never wore the blue coat after Evelyn, just that he gradually stopped wearing it, but that doesn't matter) -- TheChampionOfTime (talk page) 22:19, December 9, 2015 (UTC)


 * I just checked the story and Evelyn's comment could have meant that there's a reason he wears it in general, instead of in that story in particular. So your position works.Fwhiffahder ☎  22:31, December 9, 2015 (UTC)


 * Although he is wearing a blue coat on the cover...


 * ...But I'm pretty sure this generally accepted as a mistake (like Spaceport Feare). Sorry for the kerfuffle. -- TheChampionOfTime (talk page) 22:36, December 9, 2015 (UTC)


 * Yeah, the cover isn't really indicative. The cover for The Revolution uses the White Darkness outfit when the story specifically mentions the "amusing pullover."Fwhiffahder ☎  22:47, December 9, 2015 (UTC)


 * So are you okay with placing this story before Pirates or should it stay where it is now? (I'm really sorry that I misunderstood "wearing it for reasons", to me it seemed like you were being lazy, when in actuality you were quoting the story)-- TheChampionOfTime (talk page) 23:06, December 9, 2015 (UTC)


 * Pre-Doctor Who and the Pirates should be fine. Fwhiffahder ☎  23:08, December 9, 2015 (UTC)

The One Doctor Placement
I have edited this page to have The One Doctor after Terror of the Vervoids since, in the latter, the Doctor appears to compare Mel's memory to that of an elephant for the first time:

DOCTOR: Your amazing ability for almost total recall. MEL: Compliments. You are undergoing a change. DOCTOR: I could have been comparing you to an elephant. Well, figuratively speaking. They never forget. MEL: Doctor, I realise you're trying to take my mind off poor Edwardes.

Then, in The One Doctor, Mel says this:

MEL: The Doctor always says I have a memory like an elephant, it's a running joke we share.

Since there was no apparent reason for the previous ordering, I think it is appropriate to amend the order as I have done. Danochy ☎  03:59, August 9, 2018 (UTC)

Placement of Davros and other Early Solo Stories
I've looked around, and I can find no evidence that conclusively suggests that Davros takes place between The Two Doctors and Timelash as is suggested in this article. The reason why this is relevant right now is because the story Iron Bright has brought about the suggestion that the Doctor traveled alone at some point prior to The Two Doctors, due to the fact that he receives Brunel's card at this time. I think it would also be safe to assume that Hour of the Cybermen also takes place during this time. With this in mind, I'm going to be moving Davros around to fit in with this new information. –Nahald ☎  08:51, September 15, 2018 (UTC)

True, he only thong that places Davris between those two stories is the Big Finish website, but gheu have made errors in the past about these things.BananaClownMan ☎  12:51, September 15, 2018 (UTC)
 * Can't find anything on the story's page about this placement. You got a link? -Nahald ☎  22:40, September 15, 2018 (UTC)

In Iron Bright, the Doctor says that he met Marc Brunel on a previous occasion while attending one of his presentations, he also says that during that time he picked up his business card.

Brunel then claims that he does not recognise the Doctor and the Doctor says that “his face may have looked a little different”, implying that it was a previous incarnation.

So actually, the Doctor gets the business card from The Two Doctors in a previous incarnation, and then meets Marc Brunel for the second time in this story, whereas I think this is the first time he meets Isambard.

Therefore I have moved Davros back to its intended placement after The Two Doctors and have moved Iron Bright and Hour Of The Cybermen to the Doctor’s Solo Travels and shortly after Lure Of The Nomad. SarahJaneFan ☎  12:50, September 18, 2018 (UTC)
 * Thank you, having just listened to it myself I was going to move it back to "Unplaced," but I'll trust your judgment. –Nahald ☎  17:21, September 24, 2018 (UTC)

Placement of the Post-Trial Frobisher Stories
I just wanted to open up a discussion and see how people feel about moving these Frobisher stories to an earlier gap as currently we have them occurring after Evelyn’s departure but I feel as though tonally they fit much better before Evelyn’s introduction.

I think it makes a degree of sense to believe that Frobisher would be the first person he’d contact after Trial with Peri now out of the picture. On top of that, a lot of these stories were written with a more abrasive Sixth Doctor in mind.

I’d suggest changing it to something like this:

The Doctor asks Frobisher to join him again, but he declines (And whatever other Six/Frobisher Stories there are)
 * Trial Of a Time Lord
 * The Wrong Doctors
 * Time Of Your Life
 * Killing Ground
 * The Wormery
 * Excelis Rising
 * The Spindle Of Necessity
 * The Maltese Penguin
 * Mission Impractical
 * The Holy Terror

SarahJaneFan ☎  18:27, September 18, 2018 (UTC)

Regarding the Doctor's Blue Coat and the Placement of Real Time
I've recently started listening to the Sixth Doctor and Evelyn Smythe audio stories for the first time and just listened to The Sandman. Having listened to it, I've come to the conclusion that the placement of Real Time within the timeline is incorrect because the Doctor is clearly still wearing his technicolor coat in this story. This is obvious for the following reasons:


 * Although the picture on the cover is a bit hard to make out, the coat the Doctor is wearing appears to be his technicolor coat. You can clearly see that his left lapel is yellow and while the color of the rest of his coat is difficult to make out due to the lighting, it is very clearly not blue.
 * Evelyn makes several snide remarks about the Doctor's appearance that seem to indicate that he is still wearing his technicolor coat. The first is when the Doctor refers to himself as "the Devil" and Evelyn makes a remark that's something along the lines of, "I thought the Devil would be better dressed." The second is when the character Shol is averting his eyes from the Doctor out of fear and Evelyn remarks that he can be "hard to look at." Theses statements are not consistent with the audio version of Real Time which contains an additional scene in the TARDIS where Evelyn tells the Doctor that she likes his new blue outfit.
 * At one point during the story the Doctor and Evelyn are being stalked by a Galyari security drone that is able to camouflage itself. When the Doctor successfully catches the drone, it's cloaking mechanism attempts to blend in with the Doctor's coat but is having trouble doing so. Evelyn again makes a snide remark saying that it's probably having a "nervous breakdown" trying to match the Doctor's coat.

With all this in mind, I don't think that there is any room for doubt that the Doctor is, in fact, wearing his technicolor coat in this story. I don't know why Real Time was put where it was in the timeline, but I assume it was because the webcast aired August through September 2002 while The Sandman came out in October of the same year. Typically going by release dates for main ranges with audio-only companions is a safe bet for what order they go in, but one thing to keep in mind about Real Time is that it's not a main range audio story but a webcast that was later a special release Big Finish audio drama outside of the main range. With this in mind, I'm going to go ahead and move Real Time to "Awaiting Placement" until the issue of its placement is resolved and the first main range story in which the Doctor wears his blue coat is identified, as it would be before this story that Real Time would be placed. Also, while I'm at it, I'm going to place a flashback from The Sandman under there as well because I notice that the flashback that is shown within this story is nowhere to be found within this timeline. –Nahald ☎  03:42, 13 January 2021 (UTC)

The Doctor switches between the two coats throughout the Evelyn run. The later on stuff particularly has him jumping between the two coats and he continues to do so up until part-way through the Flip era. At least Pier Pressure has him explicitly in the technicolour coat and the Brewster trilogy also has him in the technicolour with no implication that it’s supposed to take place earlier on. In fact I think Feast of Axos is explicitly late in Evelyn's travels.

So I think release order works fine. Otherwise you’re going to end up moving around a lot of stories that are supposed to come later to satisfy the idea that he exclusively wears the blue coat after Real Time. SarahJaneFan ☎  12:56, 13 January 2021 (UTC)

I went ahead and moved it between Doctor Who and the Pirates and Project: Lazarus, as he wears his blue coat in Lazarus and Arrangements for War, so this seemed like a good a place as any to put it. While I do agree on release order for the most part, I think exceptions should be made for Specials like Real Time. Keep in mind that specials aren't even really part of any sort of production order and they probably have little idea of when exactly they are going to release them in relation to the main range. This goes double for this particular story because it was a production for BBCi, so when it was released was probably completely up to them and they likely cared little for when it was released in relation to the main range. So I think putting it before Project: Lazarus is as good a place as any. It would also further explain Evelyn's breakdown at the end of Episode 2 of Project: Lazarus. First she watched Jem die, then she watched the entire research team on Chronos either die or be converted, and then Cassie died. I could see that being her breaking point.

Also, I really should have finished listening to The Sandman before making my original post because it's pretty much explicitly stated later in the story that he is, in fact, wearing his technicolor coat. So all that speculation was entirely pointless. –Nahald ☎  07:29, 19 January 2021 (UTC)

So I'm a bit further into the Sixth Doctor and Evelyn stories, currently two thirds of the way through the Robert Ross trilogy, and I'm starting to think that we should seriously rethink the order of these stories and not stick strictly to release date. Arrangements for War seems like it was a major catalyst for the Sixth Doctor's change in temperament in the Big Finish stories, yet in the two stories that come after it, according to this timeline, he goes right on back to being cynical and flippant about people dying around him. This doesn't seem consistent at all. Add to that the fact that he in his technicolor coat for these stories (at least for Pier Pressure, not so sure about Medicinal Purposes), then perhaps his choice of coat is a major clue to the placement of these stories. I won't say anything definitive just yet, I'll finish off the rest of the Evelyn stories before I make any speculation as to the overall order for all the Evelyn stories, with the exception of Thicker Than Water, of course. –Nahald ☎  03:31, 23 January 2021 (UTC)