Theory:Timeline - Paternoster Gang

This page lists the order of stories featuring the Paternoster Gang, consisting of Vastra, Jenny Flint, and/or Strax. This timeline is based upon observations of the Doctor Who universe and the events that occur during each of these stories.

Origins

 * PROSE: A Soldier's Education
 * During the first seven minutes of his life, Strax receives a full education on various subjects such as the Doctor through the Sontaran Subliminal Education Matrix.


 * In the 1880s, Silurian warrior Vastra is awaken during the construction of an extension of the London Underground, and is convinced not to give into revenge by the Doctor, and instead integrates herself into humanity's culture. (PROSE: Madame Vastra) Against the Doctor's advice, she performs as The Sensational Scaled Siren for Henry Gordon Jago, (COMIC: The Lost Dimension) and also performs in Jago's "Monstre Gathering". (PROSE: Madame Vastra)


 * Jenny Flint is hired as Vastra's maid after she saves her from the Tong of the Black Scorpion. (PROSE: Madame Vastra) According to one account, the Doctor was involved with Vastra and Jenny's first meeting. (TV: The Name of the Doctor) Jenny and Vastra eventually start a romance. (TV: A Good Man Goes to War)

1881-1886

 * After saving Queen Victoria from a Zygon plot, Vastra gains the title of "Madame" and takes up residence at Paternoster Row (COMIC: The Lost Dimension)


 * While Vastra is in Egypt, Jenny helps the Doctor defeat a Kraal plot to replace Prince Bertie with an android duplicate in 1881. (PROSE: Madame Vastra)


 * Vastra and Jenny battled some CyberNeomorphs in Japan's history. (PROSE: Madame Vastra)


 * COMIC: The Lost Dimension
 * Set in 1886. Vastra and Jenny discover an island of quarantined Silurians with the Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler.

1888

 * TV: A Good Man Goes to War
 * Set in 1888. After consuming Jack the Ripper, Vastra and Jenny are recruited by the Eleventh Doctor to partake in the Battle of Demons Run, alongside Rory Williams, Strax, Dorium Maldovar, and the crew of the Fancy. During the battle, the Headless Monks decapitate Dorium and kill Strax. Strax claims to be nearly 12-years-old.


 * WC: The Battle of Demons Run: Two Days Later
 * Shortly after A Good Man Goes to War, Vastra and Jenny revive Strax, and invite him to join them in Victorian London, an offer he accepts after some hesitation.


 * PROSE: The Red-Eyed League
 * While the story is claimed to be set in 1884, Strax is living at 13 Paternoster Row, setting this after A Good Man Goes to War, which took place in 1888. Vastra and Jenny are celebrating their second anniversary as a couple.

1889-1991

 * COMIC: The Crystal Throne
 * Vastra has a sonic screwdriver, and Strax claims to nearly be 13-years-old, setting this about a year after The Battle of Demons Run: Two Days Later.


 * PROSE: A Perfect Christmas
 * Despite being set during Christmas 1885, Strax is present, setting this after 1888. Vastra refers to the events of The Red-Eyed League as being the previous Christmas.


 * PROSE: The Confounding Case of the Planetary Prankster
 * Vastra tricks an alien prankster into cleaning the Thames and removing the smog from the skies of London. The gang, among other Londoners, paddle in the clean waters of the Thames, suggesting a setting in a warmer time of year. Jenny appears quite naïve in the ways of aliens and technology, suggesting a setting early in her adventures with Vastra and Strax.


 * PROSE: The Pernicious Plots of the Big Game Hunter


 * PROSE: The Dangerous Dilemma of the Dream Doorway
 * Vastra uses her sonic hat-pin from Deep Breath. Jenny claims she couldn't beat a squirrel in an arm wrestle. Similarly, when Vastra informs Strax that Jenny had saved the day, he expresses his surprise (albeit in the form of a pun). This all suggests a setting early in their adventures together.


 * PROSE: The Fear Factory
 * Jenny has to remind herself that Strax is unfamiliar with the day-to-day running of Earth businesses. She is also unaware of the word "tank".


 * PROSE: The Insidious Ideas of the Danger Thinkers


 * PROSE: The Curious Case of the Weirdling Woods
 * Despite hearing reports that it is, Jenny is not expecting the Weirdling Wood to be haunted and surprised when it is. She is also surprised when she learns something new from Strax.

1892

 * On 26 November 1892, Vastra calls the Eleventh Doctor to ask for his help, but he turns her down. (AUDIO: Regeneration Impossible)


 * TV: The Great Detective
 * Set during winter 1892. After he retires from adventuring, the Paternoster Gang try to rouse the Doctor's spirits, but he continues to mourn the loss of his companions.


 * PROSE: Devil in the Smoke
 * Strax is still talking about his Moonite theory, setting this shortly after The Great Detective.


 * WC: Vastra Investigates: A Christmas Prequel
 * After a case involving identical twins, a poison undetectable to science and an ancient Egyptian curse, Jenny notices it is snowing in the absences of the clouds, setting this shortly before The Snowmen. According to Jenny, Strax is still "new" to dealing with people.


 * TV: The Snowmen
 * Set during Christmas 1892. While facing down Walter Simeon and the Great Intelligence, the Doctor assists the Paternoster Gang with the aid of Clara Oswin Oswald, but she dies in the process of defeating the Intelligence. However, at Clara's funeral, the Doctor tells Vastra and Jenny that she had died before, and then left in his TARDIS.

1893

 * TV: The Crimson Horror
 * Set in 1893. While infiltrating Sweetville, Jenny finds the Doctor in the company of Clara Oswald, an exact double of the deceased Clara Oswin Oswald.


 * PROSE: The House of Sorrows
 * Strax is in Yorkshire on a "weekend reconnaissance mission" in 1893. Vastra and Jenny do not appear. The events are relayed by Strax in his field report "D004/D".


 * TV: The Name of the Doctor
 * Set in 1893. Given the space-time co-ordinates to the Doctor's tomb on Trenzalore, the Paternoster Gang are kidnapped by the Great Intelligence, facing the villain for the first time since The Snowmen. After the Intelligence enters the Doctor's time stream, Clara follows to defeat it, scattering herself throughout history, though the Doctor is able to save her.


 * PROSE: The Tudor Engagement
 * Set in 1893. The events are relayed by Strax in his field report "D006/B".


 * PROSE: The Howling on the Hills
 * The events are relayed by Strax in his field report "D0011/C"


 * PROSE: The Case of the Curious Fugitive
 * Set in 1893. The events are relayed by Strax in his field report "D0013/C".


 * AUDIO: Prelude Heritage


 * AUDIO: The Cars That Ate London!
 * The Deptford power station has not been running long, setting this during or after 1889, based on real world information. Strax has been taught Cockney rhyming slang by Jenny. Jenny uses her sonic gauntlet from Deep Breath.


 * AUDIO: A Photograph to Remember
 * Jenny takes Strax for an "afternoon break", a concept he seems unfamiliar with.


 * AUDIO: The Ghosts of Greenwich
 * 3 September was "about three weeks ago". When Strax ages forty-two years, he states that he must be "nearly 60", meaning six or fewer years have passed since A Good Man Goes to War, when he said he was "nearly 12", giving the present date as 1894 at the latest. Strax is clumsily employing his Cockney slang, setting this not long after The Cars That Ate London. The gang visit the Royal Observatory, and Strax initially thinks it a zoo, until Vastra explains to him its function of observing the stars, setting this before The Curious Case of the Miniature Menaces.


 * After The Adventure of the Naval Treaty (real world publication: October 1893) is published, Strax threatens Arthur Conan Doyle into ceasing his plagiarism of the gang's adventures. Doyle soon killed-off Sherlock in The Final Problem, published in December 1893. (AUDIO: Whatever Remains)


 * PROSE: The Case of the Dissolving Man
 * Set as "the year was drawing to a close". The gang investigate Holmes' Travelling Carnival and Freak Show and make no mention of Jenny's Freak Show-running parents, suggesting a setting before Family Matters. Jenny is able to pick a lock.

1894

 * PROSE: The Curious Case of the Miniature Menaces
 * Set in February 1894. By invitation, the gang visit the Greenwich observatory. Strax is clearly aware of the function of the Royal Observatory.


 * PROSE: The Singular Case of the Blue Men of the Minch
 * Set during spring 1894.


 * PROSE: The Phantom of the Music Hall
 * Set in the first week of June 1894.


 * AUDIO: Dining with Death
 * Jenny is surprised when Strax' medical technology heals her ankle almost instantly.


 * AUDIO: The Screaming Ceiling
 * Victoria is currently the Queen.


 * PROSE: The Singular Case of the Time Machine
 * Set in early September 1894.


 * PROSE: The Curious Case of the Misery Diary
 * Set in the early Autumn of 1894.


 * PROSE: The Spectre of Paternoster Row
 * Set on 15 November 1894.


 * PROSE: The Evolution Episode
 * Set on 12 December 1894. Vastra believes that the Sontarans have always been the same, setting this before Truth and Bone.


 * AUDIO: Spring-Heeled Jack
 * Strax claims to have been studying the way of the Cockney, setting this after The Cars That Ate London. Jenny has her sonic gauntlet. The gang subdue and adopt Marjorie the Sarcosuchus, bringing her home to Paternoster Row and making plans to put her into stasis.

1895

 * AUDIO: Family Matters
 * Set shortly after Spring-Heeled Jack, with Strax initially preparing to put Marjorie into stasis, before being interrupted. A week later, Vastra reads about Oscar Wilde's new play at the Haymarket Theatre in a newspaper; Wilde plays that premiered at the Haymarket include A Woman of No Importance (April 1893) and An Ideal Husband (3 January 1895). Jenny reunites with her parents for the first time since she ran away and the gang prepare to place Marjorie in stasis once more.


 * PROSE: The Importance of Being Strax
 * Set on 14 February 1895. The gang attend the opening of The Importance of Being Ernest at St James's Theatre, and have been friends with Oscar Wilde for several years.


 * AUDIO: Whatever Remains
 * Vastra mentions The Final Problem, setting this after December 1893. Strax recalls visiting Glasgow.


 * AUDIO: Truth and Bone
 * According to Jenny, "a while" has passed since A Photograph to Remember. They meet the Bloomsbury Bunch for the second time, however Vella is absent. Vastra decides to begin collecting relics from her past, and plans to ask Strax to ask his contacts, setting this shortly before Merry Christmas Mr Jago.


 * AUDIO: The Haunting
 * Strax spends some time with Henry Gordon Jago and George Litefoot. Percival Quick is an inspector, setting this after he first gained that rank in December 1894.


 * AUDIO: Brimstone and Terror
 * Set on 22 December. Recruited to Scotland by Lucy Davis, Strax becomes involved with Lucy and Oliver Davis' fight against.


 * AUDIO: Merry Christmas, Mr Jago
 * Set on Christmas Eve. Jago and Strax are familiar with each other, setting this after The Haunting. Authorial intent sets this the Christmas after Jago & Litefoot Forever. (BFX: Heritage 4)

1896

 * AUDIO: The Ghost Writers
 * Vastra is possessed by the Goddess Anura, leading into Rulers of Earth. As bait, Strax makes a parcel salvaged from Christmas wrapping, setting this shortly after Christmas.


 * AUDIO: Rulers of Earth
 * Jenny and Strax are in hiding from Anura's agents when they are discovered by Vella. A month has passed since The Ghost Writers.


 * PROSE: Assassin on the Railroads
 * The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom resembles Robert Gascoyne-Cecil; in the real world he held this role from 1885-1892 and 1895-1902. Jenny recalls meeting "royalty from centuries past" setting this after The Tudor Engagement, which also suggests the latter term to be concurrent with this story.


 * PROSE: The Inscrutable Illusionist
 * Set during early 1896. Vastra offers to PR-40 a place in their home, at least until the Doctor's next visit, when he can be taken home.

1897

 * PROSE: The Giant's Heart
 * Set during summer 1897.


 * PROSE: The Terror of the Thames
 * Set during autumn 1897.


 * PROSE: The Pneuman League
 * Jenny uses a sonic probe.

1898

 * TV: Prequel to Deep Breath
 * While guiding a crashing spaceship away from London, Vastra is alerted to a dinosaur appearing in the Thames, leading directly into Deep Breath.


 * TV: Deep Breath
 * Information displayed by the adverts in the The Times can be used to place this story between January and September 1898. The Paternoster Gang meets the Twelfth Doctor for the first time, and helps him and Clara recover from his thirteenth regeneration.


 * PROSE: The Pest of Paternoster Row
 * Strax uses his sonic lorgnette from Deep Breath.

1899

 * PROSE: Silhouette
 * Set during January. The Paternoster Gang solve a case with the Twelfth Doctor and Clara, setting this after Deep Breath.


 * AUDIO: Young Winston
 * Vastra meets Winston Churchill in 1899.

Awaiting placement

 * These entries are placed here until evidence presents itself that provides a clue as to where they happen in relation to other entries. Some of these are part of ongoing storylines that could present evidence towards the end of the plot.


 * AUDIO: Inside Every Warrior
 * Set Thursday 8 March, giving the possible in-range years as 1888, 1894, and 1900. Jenny uses her Sonic gauntlet, and Vastra uses her Sonic hat-pin from Deep Breath. Vastra says that Jenny is "getting the hang of [investigating]", implying that this story is set early in their detective work together.


 * COMIC: Time Gentlemen, Please!
 * Strax is traveling with the Doctor, going on a "pub crawl" across the universe with him and Rory Williams.


 * COMIC: Love Thy Neighbor
 * Strax is traveling with the Doctor, going with him to visit Amy Pond and Rory Williams.


 * NOTVALID: Legacy
 * Vastra and Jenny revisit the events of The Name of the Doctor.


 * NOTVALID: Cinema Introduction


 * NOTVALID: Strax Saves the Day