Theory:Timeline - Seventh Doctor

This page lists appearances of the Seventh Doctor in the order in which he experienced them. This timeline is based upon observations of the Doctor Who universe and the events that occur during each of these stories. From these observations we have attempted to build a concise timeline. It is assumed, much like its TV story counterparts that for each novel or audio series their published/numbered order is the order they occur in. This does not apply to short stories which are often ambiguous about their placement. There are also many gaps between stories.

The layout of this timeline is in part based on the observations on Doctor Who Reference Guide and Doctor Who - The Complete Adventures, as well as Lance Parkin's AHistory and other sources that allow us to make observations. None of these sources should be used solely as a source or considered a "true" timeline for stories.

Additionally there are statements on the back many BBC Past Doctor Adventures novels that state between which TV stories the novel takes place between. These can be used to narrow the field, and should be viewed as the only placing for these novels.

Limiting factors
Limiting factors for the Seventh Doctor's timeline placement are based on which companions he is travelling with at the time. However there are also several instances when the Doctor travels alone, these can often be placed in the latter part of his regeneration as they represent a more sombre character for the Doctor.

Any stories featuring Melanie Bush must take place between TV: Time and the Rani and Dragonfire.

Any stories involving a younger Ace must take place from TV: Dragonfire to PROSE: Love and War. Any story featuring an older Ace must take place between PROSE: Deceit and Set Piece or after AUDIO: The Lights of Skaro.

Any stories where he travels with Bernice Summerfield must take place between PROSE: Love and War and Happy Endings or after AUDIO:The Lights of Skaro (except Return of the Living Dad, which takes place later).

Any story featuring Roz Forrester must take place between PROSE: Original Sin and So Vile a Sin. Any story featuring Chris Cwej must take place between PROSE: Original Sin and Lungbarrow.

Any story featuring Hex must take place after AUDIO: The Harvest and before Signs and Wonders.

Ace
Throughout their travels together, Ace continued to mature and come to terms with her past and how she coped with it. The early audios that have her and the Doctor traveling with Raine Creevy generally follow the characteristics established by the television series.

The Virgin New Adventures have Ace shred off her teenage self to mature and harden after a fallout with the Doctor. It is this version of Ace that develops with the Doctor and Bernice Summerfield in the VNA series, after returns from fighting the Daleks with Spacefleet, and then leaving again to become Time's Vigilante.

A version of Ace with battle experience and some knowledge of futuristic technology also informs Enemy of the Daleks, and for many listeners it appears that in order to accommodate such dramatic changes in Ace's character, her time with the Doctor and Hex must therefore fall after her time with the Doctor and Bernice.

Complications
There are however some issues with using these stories alone to define story placement as some companions (such as Ace) have contradictory departure stories. Ace departs travelling the with the Doctor in PROSE: Set Piece and is apparently killed in COMIC: Ground Zero. Stories may also be placed depending on the Doctor's appearance, whether he is wearing his cream jacket, brown jacket, or white suit.

Additionally, the Doctor edits his more "useless" memories in Timewyrm: Genesys, which can account for discrepancies in continuity depending on where they fit in the timeline and how well.

Series basics
The Seventh Doctor's adventures can be sorted roughly by medium and then also roughly by companion.

Medium

 * TV stories
 * Virgin New Adventures
 * BBC Past Doctor Adventures
 * DWM comics and stories
 * Big Finish audio stories
 * Short Trips prose and audio stories
 * Anything else

TV created

 * Melanie Bush
 * Ace

Novel created

 * Bernice Summerfield
 * Roz Forrester
 * Chris Cwej
 * Catherine Broome
 * Wolsey

Audio created

 * Hex
 * Elizabeth Klein
 * Raine Creevy
 * Sally Morgan
 * Lysandra Aristedes

Comic created

 * Frobisher
 * Olla
 * Ly-Chee

Travels with Mel

 * TV: Time and the Rani
 * The Doctor regenerates from his previous incarnation.


 * PROSE: The Useful Pile
 * AUDIO: Unregenerate!
 * PROSE: Daisy Chain
 * TV: Paradise Towers
 * PROSE: 24 Crawford Street
 * COMIC: Plastic Millenium
 * Mel is wearing the same clothes as in Paradise Towers.


 * AUDIO: Bang-Bang-a-Boom!
 * AUDIO: Flip-Flop
 * AUDIO: We Are The Daleks
 * AUDIO: The Warehouse
 * AUDIO: Terror of the Sontarans
 * COMIC: A Cold Day in Hell!
 * COMIC: Redemption
 * COMIC: The Crossroads of Time
 * COMIC: Claws of the Klathi
 * COMIC: Culture Shock
 * COMIC: Keepsake
 * COMIC: Planet of the Dead
 * Comic placements established in DWM 168


 * TV: Delta and the Bannermen
 * AUDIO: The Fires of Vulcan
 * AUDIO: Red
 * The Fires of Vulcan is set here as it begins the transfer to a more S25 type tone but is set before Mel's departure. Red follows it per authorial intent plus it fits better here than in the earlier gap due to tone as well.


 * PROSE: Special Weapons
 * TV: Dragonfire

Early travels with Ace

 * TV: Remembrance of the Daleks
 * PROSE: uPVC
 * Ace is surprised that the Doctor keeps secrets.


 * TV: The Greatest Show in the Galaxy
 * Broadcast out of order.


 * PROSE: Prelude Birthright
 * The Doctor and Ace leave for Terra Alpha.


 * TV: The Happiness Patrol
 * TV: Silver Nemesis

Ercildoune

 * COMIC: Echoes of the Mogor
 * COMIC: Time and Tide
 * COMIC: Follow That TARDIS!
 * COMIC: Invaders from Gantac
 * COMIC: Time Bomb!
 * PROSE: The Infinity Season
 * COMIC: Nemesis of the Daleks
 * COMIC: Once in a Lifetime
 * COMIC: Hunger from the Ends of Time
 * COMIC: War World
 * COMIC: Technical Hitch
 * COMIC: A Switch in Time
 * COMIC: The Sentinel
 * COMIC: Who's That Girl!
 * COMIC: The Enlightenment of Ly-Chee the Wise
 * COMIC: Slimmer
 * COMIC: Nineveh
 * COMIC: Stairway to Heaven
 * COMIC: Train-Flight
 * COMIC: Doctor Conkerer

Growing darker

 * PROSE: Living in the Past
 * Comic placements established in DWM 168


 * AUDIO: The Defectors
 * Relatively arbitrary, but the Doctor wears light jacket on the cover.


 * AUDIO:  1963: The Assassination Games
 * The Doctor starts using a new jacket — the one seen in season 26.


 * TV: Battlefield
 * PROSE: Relative Dementias
 * PROSE: Fable Fusion
 * TV: Ghost Light
 * AUDIO: Police and Shreeves
 * TV: The Curse of Fenric
 * PROSE: Ace of Hearts
 * The Doctor apologises to baby Ace over the Gabriel Chase and Fenric incidents. Occurs while Ace is sleeping.


 * TV: The Day of the Doctor
 * Placement is arbitrary.


 * AUDIO: The Shadow Trader
 * AUDIO: Shockwave
 * TV: Survival / PROSE: Survival
 * It has been a week since Ace encountered her mother in 1943. She has not been to Earth in that week.

Trouble with the Timewyrm

 * PROSE: Timewyrm: Genesys
 * Set immediately after Survival. Ace is still feeling the effects of the Cheetah virus.


 * PROSE: Timewyrm: Exodus
 * PROSE: Endgame


 * PROSE: Timewyrm: Apocalypse
 * PROSE: Timewyrm: Revelation

Work to do

 * PROSE: The Hollow Men
 * Placed between Fenric and Survival on the back cover. The Doctor notes that he should leave his past self a settee to land on in Perivale.


 * PROSE: The Algebra of Ice
 * PROSE: The Ripple Effect
 * AUDIO: Seven to One
 * AUDIO: The Riparian Ripper
 * PROSE: Séance
 * PROSE: Teenage Kicks
 * PROSE: Untitled (DWM 184)
 * COMIC: Fellow Travellers
 * COMIC: Darkness Falling/Distractions
 * Both are prequels to The Mark of Mandragora.


 * COMIC: The Mark of Mandragora
 * The Doctor has been unable to take the TARDIS away from Earth "recently," which stretches from Train-Flight to Battlefield to Fellow Travellers. However, the previous comic stories leading up to this have him on other planets, so perhaps he's speaking broadly.


 * PROSE: Brief Encounter
 * COMIC: Under Pressure
 * COMIC: Party Animals
 * COMIC: The Chameleon Factor
 * COMIC: Seaside Rendezvous
 * COMIC: The Good Soldier
 * COMIC: A Glitch in Time
 * COMIC: Evening's Empire
 * COMIC: The Grief
 * PROSE: Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible
 * The Doctor hasn't been to Alaska (since he cleaned out his memory in Timewyrm: Genesys).

Ace, and sometimes Raine

 * AUDIO: Thin Ice
 * AUDIO: Crime of the Century
 * AUDIO: Animal
 * AUDIO: Critical Mass
 * The Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver.


 * AUDIO: Earth Aid
 * It has been some time since the Doctor and Ace last saw Raine.


 * PROSE: The Girl Who Stole the Stars
 * AUDIO: The Fearmonger
 * AUDIO: The Genocide Machine
 * PROSE: Illegal Alien
 * Ace also recalls the Blitz of Illegal Alien which cannot occur between storm and Matrix for the above reason.


 * PROSE: Matrix
 * This leads directly into Storm Harvest.


 * PROSE: Storm Harvest
 * PROSE: Prime Time
 * PROSE: Heritage
 * PROSE: Loving the Alien
 * Ace's death here is undone in Sometime Never....


 * PROSE: The Colony of Lies
 * PROSE: Atom Bomb Blues
 * COMIC: Prisoners of Time
 * Ace recognises the Master in his Tremas form.


 * AUDIO: Dust Breeding
 * Must take place after Storm Harvest, because the Doctor and Ace know of the Krill.


 * AUDIO: Colditz
 * Ace still has the CD Walkman from The Fearmonger.


 * AUDIO: The Rapture
 * Ace mentions Dust Breeding as a recent event.

Hex joins

 * AUDIO: The Harvest
 * Ace still goes by 'McShane.'


 * AUDIO: Dreamtime
 * AUDIO: LIVE 34
 * AUDIO: Night Thoughts
 * AUDIO: The Veiled Leopard
 * AUDIO: Thicker Than Water


 * AUDIO: The Settling
 * The console is the same as Doctor Who, having been rebuilt.


 * AUDIO: No Man's Land
 * AUDIO: Nocturne
 * AUDIO: The Dark Husband
 * AUDIO: Forty-Five
 * False Gods
 * Order of Simplicity
 * Casualties of War
 * The Word Lord
 * AUDIO: The Magic Mousetrap
 * AUDIO: Enemy of the Daleks
 * Ace has significant military/tactical knowledge, foreshadowing her time in Spacefleet.


 * AUDIO: The Angel of Scutari
 * AUDIO: Project: Destiny
 * AUDIO: A Death in the Family (from the perspective of the earlier Seventh Doctor)
 * Ace has a romantic/sexual relationship, but she has chosen to forget it by the time of Happy Endings, like captain Sorin.


 * PROSE: Natalie's Diary

Battling the Elder Gods

 * AUDIO: Lurkers at Sunlight's Edge
 * The Doctor goes to Alaska, so after Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible. He leaves Ace and Hex for a time and begins travelling with Sally Morgan and Lysandra Aristedes. In Black and White, the Doctor states that he left them after their adventure in Alaska.


 * AUDIO: Robophobia
 * AUDIO: The Doomsday Quatrain
 * AUDIO: House of Blue Fire
 * AUDIO: Project Nirvana
 * AUDIO: Protect and Survive
 * AUDIO: Black and White
 * AUDIO: Gods and Monsters
 * AUDIO: Afterlife
 * Ace no longer knows her age, but will start counting again before Shadowmind.


 * AUDIO: Revenge of the Swarm
 * AUDIO: Mask of Tragedy
 * AUDIO: Signs and Wonders

After Hex

 * AUDIO: You Are the Doctor and Other Stories
 * You Are the Doctor
 * Come Die with Me
 * The Grand Betelgeuse Hotel
 * Dead to the World
 * The Doctor is teaching Ace to fly the TARDIS, so after Deceit. Ace refers to Hex having left.


 * PROSE: Cat's Cradle: Warhead
 * Ace is much more grown out since Time's Crucible.
 * COMIC: Ravens (takes place within Warhead)


 * PROSE: Cat's Cradle: Witch Mark
 * Ace can still feel the biological effects of being on the Cheetah planet.


 * COMIC: Metamorphosis
 * COMIC: Memorial
 * PROSE: Independence Day
 * Authorial intent.


 * PROSE: Nightshade / AUDIO: Nightshade
 * The Doctor and Ace haven't been anywhere exciting since he "pulled his old ship back together again."


 * COMIC: Cat Litter
 * Order of the NAs and DWM comics based on editorial intent in "Interweaving with the New Adventures"


 * PROSE: Cathedral Heart

Beginnings as Time's champion

 * PROSE: Love and War / AUDIO: Love and War
 * PROSE: Affirmative


 * PROSE: Transit
 * COMIC: Pureblood
 * COMIC: Flashback
 * COMIC: Emperor of the Daleks!
 * PROSE: The Highest Science (novel) / AUDIO: The Highest Science (audio story)
 * PROSE: The Pit

Ace rejoins

 * PROSE: Deceit
 * PROSE: Lucifer Rising
 * COMIC: Final Genesis
 * PROSE: White Darkness
 * The Doctor and an Old One are in an antagonistic relationship, so before Signs and Wonders, but the Old One was sleeping anyway.


 * PROSE: Shadowmind
 * Ace still keeps track of her age.


 * PROSE: Birthright (cameo)
 * PROSE: Iceberg
 * COMIC: Time & Time Again
 * COMIC: Cuckoo

Mortimus's scheme

 * PROSE: Blood Heat
 * PROSE: The Dimension Riders
 * PROSE: The Left-Handed Hummingbird
 * PROSE: Conundrum
 * PROSE: No Future

Amicable travels

 * PROSE: Tragedy Day
 * PROSE: Legacy
 * Ace is only implied to see an Ice Warrior for the first time.


 * PROSE: Theatre of War / AUDIO: Theatre of War
 * COMIC: Uninvited Guest
 * Order of the NAs and DWM comics through Theatre of War and Uninvited Guest based on editorial intent in "Interweaving with the New Adventures"

Authorial intent. Ace and Benny are not antagonistic towards each other. Publication order for early Big Finish Ace/Benny stories.
 * PROSE: All-Consuming Fire / AUDIO: All-Consuming Fire
 * AUDIO: The Shadow of the Scourge
 * AUDIO: The Dark Flame
 * PROSE: Virgin Lands
 * PROSE: Blood Harvest
 * PROSE: Strange England
 * PROSE: First Frontier
 * PROSE: St Anthony's Fire
 * PROSE: Falls the Shadow
 * PROSE: Parasite
 * PROSE: Warlock
 * PROSE: Set Piece
 * Ace leaves, but still occasionally meets the Doctor. She can program the TARDIS to meet Benny.

Alone with Benny

 * PROSE: Infinite Requiem
 * PROSE: Sanctuary
 * PROSE: Human Nature
 * AUDIO: Bernice Summerfield and the Criminal Code

Chris and Roz

 * PROSE: Original Sin
 * PROSE: Sky Pirates!
 * PROSE: Zamper
 * PROSE: Toy Soldiers
 * GAME: Dalek Attack
 * PROSE: Head Games
 * PROSE: The Also People
 * PROSE: Shakedown
 * PROSE: Just War
 * PROSE: Warchild
 * PROSE: Sleepy
 * PROSE: Death and Diplomacy
 * PROSE: Happy Endings
 * PROSE: GodEngine
 * PROSE: Christmas on a Rational Planet
 * PROSE: Return of the Living Dad
 * PROSE: Cold Fusion
 * PROSE: The Death of Art
 * PROSE: Damaged Goods (novel) / AUDIO: Damaged Goods (audio story)
 * PROSE: So Vile a Sin

Champion's end

 * PROSE: Bad Therapy
 * PROSE: Eternity Weeps
 * PROSE: The Room With No Doors
 * PROSE: Bullet Time
 * Authorial intent places it within The Room With No Doors. Furthermore the NA style tone without a companion also makes this the only plausible gap anyway.


 * PROSE: Lungbarrow
 * The Doctor is sent on a mission by the Time Lords to pick up the Master's remains.

Looking for Ace

 * AUDIO: The Prisoner's Dilemma
 * Ace refers to Happy Endings. She is travelling with the Doctor without Benny. She loses her memory, which the Doctor does his best to restore.


 * COMIC: Ground Zero
 * The Doctor is older looking, and his TARDIS is damaged, implying that it is about to change to the interior seen in Doctor Who. Any placement for this story will be contentious because of Ace's death. However, Ace's fate after being taken into the TARDIS is unknown, meaning that she could have been taken to Gallifrey and resurrected like Rassilon was.


 * AUDIO: Excelis Decays
 * The TARDIS interior has just changed.


 * PROSE: Notre Dame du Temps
 * The Doctor has recently redecorated.


 * AUDIO: The Revolution
 * The Doctor left Ace on Gallifrey in his future, after Romana opened the Academy to aliens.


 * AUDIO: Good Night, Sweet Ladies
 * AUDIO: The Lights of Skaro
 * AUDIO: The Pyramid of Sutekh
 * AUDIO: The Vaults of Osiris
 * AUDIO: The Eye of Horus
 * AUDIO: The Tears of Isis

Unfinished business

 * AUDIO: The Sirens of Time
 * AUDIO: Last of the Titans
 * AUDIO: A Thousand Tiny Wings
 * AUDIO: Klein's Story
 * AUDIO: Survival of the Fittest
 * AUDIO: The Architects of History
 * AUDIO: The Four Doctors
 * AUDIO: The Shadow Heart
 * PROSE: Time, Love and TARDIS
 * AUDIO: The Wormery (cameo)
 * The Doctor is cleaning up after his last incarnation.


 * AUDIO: Project: Lazarus
 * AUDIO: A Death in the Family (from the perspective of the older Seventh Doctor)
 * AUDIO: Master
 * AUDIO: Return of the Daleks
 * AUDIO: Valhalla
 * AUDIO: Frozen Time
 * While recovering his memories, the Doctor erroneously refers to Genevieve as Mel, Ace and Hex, before remembering he's alone.


 * AUDIO: The Death Collectors
 * AUDIO: Spider's Shadow
 * AUDIO: Kingdom of Silver
 * AUDIO: Keepsake
 * PROSE: Companion Piece
 * AUDIO: UNIT: Dominion
 * Ace is on Gallifrey again.

Search for the Persuasion machine

 * AUDIO: Persuasion
 * After UNIT: Dominion.


 * AUDIO: Starlight Robbery
 * AUDIO: Daleks Among Us

Nearing the end

 * AUDIO: The Two Masters
 * After Dominion.


 * PROSE: Never Seen Cairo
 * PROSE: Running on Empty
 * PROSE: The Tramp's Story
 * PROSE: The Shopping Trolleys of Doom
 * PROSE: Twilight's End
 * PROSE: Omegamorphosis
 * PROSE: The Eight Doctors
 * TV: Doctor Who / PROSE: The Novel of the Film
 * The Doctor regenerates into his next incarnation.

Unplaced

 * GAME: Destiny of the Doctors
 * The Doctor has Excalibur in his TARDIS, placing this after Battlefield.


 * PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy
 * PROSE: The City of the Dead (flashback and mental manifestation)
 * PROSE: Citadel of Dreams
 * PROSE: Meridians
 * PROSE: An Unfulfilled Dream
 * PROSE: Echoes of Future Past
 * PROSE: A Time & a Place
 * PROSE: Three Steps to the Left
 * PROSE: Anti-Matter with Fries
 * PROSE: One Minute Fourteen Seconds
 * PROSE: Front Line
 * PROSE: The Gallery
 * PROSE: Dream a Little Dream for Me
 * PROSE: Pulling Strings
 * PROSE: It's Only a Game
 * PROSE: Playback
 * PROSE: The Trials of Tara
 * PROSE: Continuity Errors
 * PROSE: Question Mark Pyjamas
 * PROSE: Stop the Pigeon
 * PROSE: Monsters
 * PROSE: Storm in a Tikka
 * PROSE: The Invertebrates of Doom
 * PROSE: Hymn of the City
 * PROSE: The Glass Princess
 * PROSE: Monitor
 * PROSE: Inmate 280
 * PROSE: Cold War
 * PROSE: Ante Bellum
 * PROSE: Of the Mermaid and Jupiter
 * PROSE: The Southwell Park Mermaid
 * PROSE: A Rose by Any Other Name
 * PROSE: The Ghost's Story
 * PROSE: Last Rites
 * PROSE: These Things Take Time
 * PROSE: Categorical Imperative
 * PROSE: The Nuclear Option
 * PROSE: Separation
 * PROSE: Culture War
 * PROSE: Anteus
 * PROSE: Last Christmas
 * PROSE: A Yuletide Tail
 * PROSE: Spookasem
 * PROSE: Perfect Present
 * PROSE: Too Rich for My Blood
 * PROSE: Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast
 * PROSE: The Heroine, the Hero and the Megalomaniac
 * PROSE: How You Get There
 * PROSE: Uranus
 * PROSE: Presence
 * PROSE: Nobody's Gift
 * PROSE: The Anchorite's Echo
 * PROSE: Utopia
 * PROSE: Log 384
 * PROSE: Testament
 * PROSE: The Hunting of the Slook
 * PROSE: Private Investigations
 * PROSE: Sunday Afternoon, 848,988 AD
 * PROSE: There's Something About Mary
 * PROSE: The Report
 * PROSE: But Once a Year
 * PROSE: Christmas Everyday
 * PROSE: The Tide and Time
 * PROSE: One Card for the Curious
 * PROSE: The Celestial Harmony Engine
 * PROSE: Closing the Account
 * PROSE: The Devil Like a Bear
 * PROSE: Peaceable Kingdom
 * PROSE: Clean-up on Aisle Two
 * PROSE: Policy to Invade
 * PROSE: Driftwood
 * PROSE: Larkspur
 * PROSE: Relativity
 * PROSE: Evitability
 * PROSE: Stolen Days
 * PROSE: Instead of You
 * PROSE: No Room
 * PROSE: The Best of Days
 * PROSE: Christmas in Toronto
 * PROSE: Have You Tried Turning It Off and Then Back On Again?
 * PROSE: Death Sentences
 * AUDIO: The 100 Days of the Doctor
 * COMIC: The Last Word
 * COMIC: Younger and Wiser
 * COMIC: The Forgotten
 * COMIC: A Religious Experience
 * AUDIO: The Way Forwards