Theory talk:Timeline - Tenth Doctor

Day of the Doctor - Shakespeare Code
Shouldn't Day of the Doctor be somewhere before The Shakespeare Code? Because the Doctor greets Elizabeth I at the end of The Shakespeare Code as if he had known her before. Also, the Tenth Doctor looked surprised when the War Doctor said "Bad Wolf", I think Day of the Doctor should be somewhere after Doomsday and before the Shakespeare Code, he didn't have Martha with him while he was with Elizabeth. I suggest Day of the Doctor should rather be in the part "Grieving for Rose".

The Tenth Doctor acts surprised and confused as to why she is so angry at him when he's with Shakepeare. We know The Day of the Doctor probably happened between The Waters of Mars and The End of Time.

In The Waters of Mars he is summoned by Ood Sigma, then in End of Time The Doctor references stopping at various places on the way, including meeting Elizabeth the First, with reference to the events at the beginning of Day of the Doctor Danochy ☎  04:43, August 31, 2018 (UTC)

Dr. Tenth: A Christmas Surprise
I personally would’ve placed this directly after Frosty the Snowdemon. It seems plausible to me that the Doctor and Donna would decide to stick around and celebrate Christmas after the events at the garden centre. Thoughts? WaltK ☎  01:38, October 15, 2019 (UTC)
 * That makes sense. Danochy ☎  08:30, October 24, 2020 (UTC)

Echoes of Extinction
So AUDIO: Echoes of Extinction seems to have thrown up something of a continuity conundrum.

It’s very explicitly after the events of TLV, to the point where the Doctor isn’t actually expecting to be confronted with anything related to that, and he doesn’t really speak of it as though it’s particularly recent for him. So we know it goes sometime after All Flesh is Grass, with the Doctor having resumed his normal travels.

However an issue arises later on in the story, when the Doctor makes reference to a fiancé called Liz, whom he does an impression of. This is clearly intended to be Elizabeth I. The problem is, they get engaged during the events of The Day of the Doctor and then marry later on in the same story, with little opportunity for the Doctor to pop off and have other adventures in between.

I don’t personally feel it would be right to place this story during Day of the Doctor because of this reference, as it doesn’t really make any sense in the narrative of either story. I feel it would make more sense to place it after with the assumption that either the Doctor didn’t believe that the marriage ceremony was legally binding at the time, or that the presence of his other selves have messed with his memory. Basically I think we should treat this as though he doesn’t yet know that he actually married Elizabeth I and that’s why he calls her his fiancé, only to discover that he did in fact marry her by The End of Time.

What are everyone else’s thoughts? SarahJaneFan ☎  14:45, 16 April 2021 (UTC)


 * It is possible it’s post-Day and the Doctor is just poorly recalling details due to usual multi-Doctor events screwing with memory, though that requires speculating that he somehow realised he did marry her by The End of Time when he clearly does remember marrying her. Trouble is I think the story is clearly designed as an epilogue for Tenth Doctor’s character arc in TLV so placing it so far after the main events feels wrong.


 * Is it not also possible the Doctor met Liz prior to The Day of the Doctor? It’s never explicitly said (if I remember rightly) how long he and her have been together prior to him confronting her about being a Zygon (which is the start of his role in Day). He could have been popping to and fro for a while before realising the Zygons were about and fearing they’d replaced Liz. I realise this is very speculative, so might not be appropriate for the Wiki. SherlockTheII ☎  21:07, 16 April 2021 (UTC)

The Doctor actually asks Liz to marry him in the scene just before he accuses her of being a Zygon, with the main basis for his argument being that the real Liz would never accept his proposal, and then realises hes made a terrible mistake once it’s clear to him that he’s now engaged to her. So it seems unlikely to me that this can take place before Day of the Doctor. I made the mistake myself of initially setting it prior to Day of the Doctor thinking they were already engaged at the start but after some fact checking I realised this was not the case.

But I do agree that a likely scenario could just be that the Doctor is misremembering or maybe he just doesn’t think the marriage was legal, but finds out later that it was. SarahJaneFan ☎  22:42, 16 April 2021 (UTC)


 * I have yet to find time to listen to my copy yet, but from what's been said here, it sounds like it takes place shortly, if not immediately, after The Day of the Doctor, with the Doctor recalling only his proposal to Elizabeth. After all, going by how old is describes his age, at least two years pass for the Doctor between The Day of the Doctor and The End of Time, plenty of time to find out their marriage, if not at least come to remember some of it, since the Eleventh Doctors says, "This is where I come in", just before he jumps into the time fissure, meaning the Tenth Doctor did come to remember more of the Multi-Doctor Event. BananaClownMan 23:32, 17 April 2021 (UTC)


 * The idea that the Doctor would only recall the engagement from Day of the Doctor due to the multi-Doctor shenanigans (that would affect the rest of the story) makes a lot of sense to me. Regardless of why he doesn't remember the marriage, it seems we have a consensus that it's best placed after Day. I'd also have to agree that the sooner the better, although there's nothing to suggest it should take place so soon as to be described as "shortly" or "immediately" after Day, especially given the suggested 2 year time period we have available. Danochy ☎  11:06, 20 April 2021 (UTC)

The Feast of the Drowned - Tooth and Claw
I've recently ordered and been reading The Feast of the Drowned and I noticed something a little odd about it's placement here. At the beginning of the Novel The Doctor keeps referring to himself as Sir John. I can't think of any reason why he would call himself Sir other than the fact that he was knighted in Tooth and Claw. As he doesn't do this again my only assumption is that he's very recently been knighted. The Problem appears when you look at the timeline. It has been placed before the beginning of Series 2 with New Earth, so at this stage he's not actually a knight. Another thought is that the novel was written after The Stone Rose. Now I know that when writing for the Novels and Audios the writers are allowed to jump around but I kind of like the idea of them being released in order of how the events happened to the Doctor. Very interested to see the counters so feel free to shoot down my idea in a ball of flame (If you are able to. ;-)).

I think you’ve hit the nail on the head and a move should be made. I’ve never liked the placements of the books on the timeline, so I’m glad you’ve spotted something that makes things clearer. SarahJaneFan ☎  19:38, 16 September 2022 (UTC)


 * As I recall, The Feast of the Drowned was at least set before The Lodger comic due to Mickey still holding his grudge with the Ninth Doctor against the Tenth Doctor in the former, while the latter shows them becoming friends, since, aside from some rather justified resentment from being treated as second fiddle to Rose, Mickey doesn't seem to have any hard feelings for the Doctor in Season 2. BananaClownMan ☎  21:01, 16 September 2022 (UTC)