H.M.S. Tardis (short story)

H.M.S. TARDIS was the seventh illustrated short story in the 1968 Doctor Who Annual. It featured the Second Doctor, Ben and Polly. It was a rare instance of the Doctor actively trying to change something about the known history of Earth.

Summary
The Doctor, Ben and Polly land on the HMS Victory during the Battle of Trafalgar. In the lull immediately before the fight with the Redoubtable, they must prove to Flag Captain Hardy they are not spies or deserters. The Doctor proposes to his companions that they try to do a bit more than that. He tells Polly that he aims to change history, but neither Ben nor she believe he is capable of that. He tries to give Nelson specific advice to avert his death, but, in the end, Nelson dies, anyway. Still, Ben seems to have changed history a tiny bit, by encouraging Nelson to send a message to the whole British fleet: "England expects that every man this day will do his duty."

Characters

 * Second Doctor
 * Ben Jackson
 * Polly Wright
 * Lord Admiral Horatio Nelson
 * Flag Captain Thomas Hardy

Continuity

 * Ben claims not to have been at sea for a very long time. It's possible to construct a timeline for Ben in which this is the first time he's been at sea since long before we viewers met him at the Inferno nightclub.
 * This is the first of two times the second Doctor has direct contact with Lord Admiral Horatio Nelson. Though this occasion is at the very beginning of the second Doctor's life, the next instance, in PROSE: World Game, came after his trial in TV: The War Games.  The two stories aren't necessarily contradictory, because the Doctor's interaction with Nelson in World Game is not on board the Victory.  Instead, it comes a little earlier, at a point when Nelson wouldn't have met the Doctor in H.M.S. TARDIS yet.

Timeline
Relative to television stories, this story must happen between The Power of the Daleks and The Highlanders, as Jamie is not a part of the TARDIS crew. Moreover, it must take place before any Earthbound stories featuring the trio, because Ben and Polly specifically state this is the first time they've been on Earth in a while. One arbitrary but acceptable placement is:
 * H.M.S. TARDIS occurs after DWAN: World Without Night
 * H.M.S. TARDIS occurs before DWAN: The King of Golden Death