Board Thread:The Reference Desk/@comment-60605-20140919101627/@comment-188432-20140924205336

In the broadest sense, Death of the Doctor is after The Big Bang, but there's nothing in the dialogue which suggests it's not also after A Christmas Carol. We say it's after The Big Bang, because that cements broadcast order as narrative order, but the script offers us no particular toehold on that mountain. When the distance of time allows you to be less interested in broadcast order, you can watch Carol first and Dead later and be perfectly convinced that's the correct way round.

I've long felt we accept broadcast order far too readily as narrative order — something that's less and less relevant in particular with so-called "classic" Doctor Who, since it's not even sold by the series.

As a wiki, we should strive for the most neutral observation of timeline placement. In most cases, this means not even trying to assert one.