Aliens of London dating controversy

The Aliens of London dating controversy stems from a narrative feature introduced in the 2005 Doctor Who television story Aliens of London. In that story the Ninth Doctor returns Rose Tyler to her home time one year later than planned, in 2006. Indeed, a missing persons' poster created for that episode states that Rose has been gone since 6 March 2005. Various episodes of Doctor Who and its televised spin-offs that were executive produced by Russell T Davies directly follow from Aliens of London, with multiple successive markings of Christmas Day from The Christmas Invasion (2005) to Voyage of the Damned (2007). The writers of these shows, however, often forget that the contemporary setting is actually a year in the future.

This narrative feature was sometimes forgotten or not applied by some writers, leading to several contradictions.

Towards the end of the Davies era of Doctor Who, no on-screen date is given for the 2009 Easter Special Planet of the Dead, nor The End of Time, which comprises the 2009 Christmas Special and the 2010 New Year Special. Planet of the Dead alludes to the real-world and The End of Time shows President Barack Obama making efforts to end "." Early into Steven Moffat's run as executive producer of Doctor Who, Flesh and Stone (2010) directly describes Amy Pond's home time as 2010, synchronising Doctor Who's contemporary stories with their date of broadcast.

The third series of the spin-off series Torchwood synchronised with its year of broadcast, 2009, when in Children of Earth: Day One, a government operative mentions Clement McDonald's name was last active 44 years ago, i.e. when Clement disappeared in 1965, until Torchwood found him living under an alias. As well as this, in Children of Earth: Day Four, Rhys Williams mentions that Jack Harkness' deal with the 456 at that time worked for 44 years.

Doctor Who

 * The End of the World (2005), set before Aliens of London (2005) from the Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler's perspective, places Rose Tyler's present 10,000 years before the year 12,005, which would be 2005.
 * Aliens of London, set twelve months after Rose (2005), places Rose's disappearance in Rose on 6 March 2005. In Love & Monsters, Elton Pope says "twelve months later I'm back in town. I'm up west, looking for a new suit, something nice and smart - when I hear this plane overhead" and we see the Slitheen Spaceship crash into Big Ben, as it does in the episode, thus backing up the notion that Rose disappeared on 6 March 2005.
 * In School Reunion (2006), Sarah Jane Smith describes the Sycorax spaceship from The Christmas Invasion (2005) as "this Christmas just gone". Mickey Smith begins travelling with the Tenth Doctor at the end of the episode. Following this, in The Age of Steel (2006), the Doctor informs Jackie Tyler that Mickey has "gone home", referring to the parallel Earth. Love & Monsters (2006) is explicitly two years after the Auton invasion in Rose. Jackie is still living in London, placing the episode some time before Army of Ghosts (2006). Jackie also mentions Mickey as "gone" now, placing the story after School Reunion. All of this appears to place The Christmas Invasion in 2006 and School Reunion, Love & Monsters and Army of Ghosts in 2007.
 * In The Age of Steel, the Preachers, a team of fugitives, own a van with a tax disc due to expire in 2006.
 * In The Fires of Pompeii (2008), Donna Noble recalls how the Doctor "saved [her]" in 2008. The previous episode Partners in Crime (2008) has Donna mentioning the Titanic replica on Christmas Day from Voyage of the Damned (2007). Voyage of the Damned itself has Wilfred Mott describing The Christmas Invasion's spaceship as the "Christmas before last", suggesting Donna's time as being 2009.
 * In The Waters of Mars (2009), an on-screen obituary states Adelaide Brooke was born in May 1999, and that the disappearance of her parents during the events of the Dalek invasion from The Stolen Earth / Journey's End (2008) took place in 2008. The same obituary, however, gives her age as 10 when her parents were pronounced missing, placing the events in at least May 2009.
 * In a scene set on 1 January 2005 in The End of Time Part Two (2010), the Tenth Doctor predicts to Rose that she will have a "really great year".

Torchwood

 * Torchwood's backstory is based in the Battle of Canary Wharf from the Doctor Who episodes Army of Ghosts and Doomsday (both 2006). Both Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones are explicitly mentioned as having joined Torchwood Three after the battle, with Cyberwoman (2006) showing Ianto escaping the Cyberman battle.
 * In Ghost Machine (2006), Tom Flanagan has lived in Cardiff for 66 years after arriving in 1941, which would set the year as 2007.
 * In Greeks Bearing Gifts (2006), a soldier from 1812 was killed by Mary approximately 196 years, 11 to 11-and-a-half months ago, which would set the year as 2009 or at the very earliest, the last few weeks of 2008.
 * In Random Shoes (2006), Shaun Jones came to his son Eugene's funeral 14 years after abandoning Eugene in 1992, which would set the year as 2006.
 * In To the Last Man (2008), Tommy Brockless was born on 7 February 1894 and is chronologically 114 years old, which would set the episode between 7 February 2008 and 6 February 2009. Tommy is annually defrosted for the last time. As this is Gwen's only encounter with him, she has been at Torchwood for no longer than exactly one year.
 * In Reset (2008), Meredith Roberts was born on 11 January 1962 and was 45 when he died, which would set the episode between 11 January 2007 and 10 January 2008, explicitly clashing with the earliest possible date of 7 February 2008 in To the Last Man three episodes earlier.
 * In Adrift (2008), Jonah Bevan, born 15 February 1993, is described as 15 years old by Gwen, which would set the episode between 15 February 2008 and 14 February 2009.
 * If Gwen is describing Jonah's age at the time of his disappearance 7 months and 11 days before the start of the episode rather than his chronological age from his date of birth, this would place the episode between approximately 26 September 2008 and 25 September 2009.
 * In Exit Wounds (2008), Toshiko Sato mentions that she covered for Owen Harper as a medic on Owen's second week in Torchwood during the examination of the space pig from Aliens of London (2005). Fragments (2008), set immediately before Exit Wounds, places Owen's recruitment to Torchwood as taking place four years ago, apparently putting Fragments and Exit Wounds in 2010. However, Exit Wounds also has Jack Harkness telling the Torchwood from 1901 to freeze him for 107 years to allow him to get back to Gray, placing those two stories in 2008.
 * According to Gwen's CIA file in The New World (2011), Gwen joined Torchwood (which happened in the 2006 episode Everything Changes) in October 2006. This would mean They Keep Killing Suzie (2006), which directly places itself three months after Everything Changes, takes place in January 2007. This clashes with both the apparent 2006 setting of Random Shoes, the episode immediately following They Keep Killing Suzie, as well as the Christmas setting of Out of Time (2006), just two episodes after They Keep Killing Suzie.
 * The Torchwood Magazine short story Happy New Year has Torchwood celebrate New Year's Eve between Exit Wounds and Children of Earth: Day One (2009).
 * The Big Finish audio story Outbreak (2016), which takes place between Exit Wounds and Children of Earth: Day One, makes explicitly clear, through extensive dialogue, that it is set in 2009.
 * The Big Finish audio story Dissected (2020), which takes place between Journey’s End and Children of Earth: Day One, refers to a recent Torchwood Christmas party that Martha missed owing to the breakdown of her engagement with Thomas Milligan, an engagement first mentioned in the 2008 Doctor Who episode The Sontaran Stratagem. In Children of Earth: Day One, Gwen explains Martha's absence from the events of Children of Earth is due to her being on honeymoon, though it is not stated at the time if Martha married Thomas or Mickey Smith (who is revealed to be Martha's husband in Doctor Who's The End of Time Part Two in 2010).

The Sarah Jane Adventures

 * Invasion of the Bane (2007), opens with Alan and Maria Jackson moving into a new house in Ealing following the former's separation from Chrissie Jackson.
 * According to Sarah Jane Smith, K9 Mark IV has been in a black hole for "a year and a half", setting this story at least that long since School Reunion.
 * The tax disc on Sarah Jane's car expires in July 2007.
 * Sarah Jane adopts Luke Smith who, as she will recall in Sky (2011), "was born a thirteen year old boy".
 * Following Invasion of the Bane is Revenge of the Slitheen (2007), which takes place at the start of a new year at Park Vale Comprehensive School for Luke, Maria and Clyde Langer. Luke and Clyde are in form 10B.
 * Luke is now officially "fourteen" years old.
 * In Eye of the Gorgon (2007), Alan tells Chrissie that she took their home apart "six months ago", setting this story at most that long since Invasion of the Bane.
 * In The Lost Boy (2007), "Jay Stafford" claims that "Ashley Stafford", actually Luke, has been missing for five months, setting this story at least that long since Invasion of the Bane.
 * Maria Jackson is fourteen years old by this story.
 * Sarah Jane recalls that Mr Smith appeared "eighteen months ago", setting this story at least that long since School Reunion and no more than that long since Invasion of the Bane.
 * The Last Sontaran (2008) recalls the events of Doctor Who's The Poison Sky (2008).
 * The epilogue of The Last Sontaran takes place "Six Weeks Later", when Maria and her father leave the UK for the US, placing the story after both the Sontaran invasion in The Poison Sky and the Dalek invasion of Doctor Who's The Stolen Earth and Journey's End (both 2008), where Maria is still in the UK.
 * The Day of the Clown (2008) takes place a "while" since the disappearance of Park Vale headmaster Greg Blakeman, from Revenge of the Slitheen, introducing new headmaster Haresh Chandra, who observes that Luke has shown impressive results over the "past year".
 * By The Mark of the Berserker (2008), Clyde identifies as being fifteen years old.
 * By Mona Lisa's Revenge (2009), Luke and Clyde are in form 11T.
 * By The Gift (2009), Luke is aged "fifteen", placing it within a year of the Doctor Who story Journey's End (with conflicting instory dating as above), where Sarah Jane describes Luke as "only fourteen".
 * The Nightmare Man (2010) establishes that, shortly after entering sixth form, Luke Smith decides to take his A-levels in June as per Mr Chandra's suggestion, which enables him to get into the University of Oxford a year early.
 * In Death of the Doctor (2010), Sarah Jane tells Jo Jones that she reunited with the Doctor "about four years ago", alluding to the events of School Reunion, which according to that episode and contemporary stories was set in 2007, suggesting a 2011 setting of Death of the Doctor.
 * A newspaper dates Lost in Time (2010) as taking place on 23 November 2010.

Other media

 * While not directly involved with Alien's of London's dating controversy, the UNIT Press Briefings, a small series of in-universe press briefing released by UNIT, has their own issues as the series dates most of the alien invasions seen in the 2005 revival to their respective air dates, regardless of the dates given in those same stories. So, according to UNIT Press Briefings, Rose is set on 26 March 2005, Aliens of London is set in May, etc, instead of 5 March and March respectively.
 * Directly contributing to the Aliens of London dating controversy, albeit in a unique way, the short story Operation London, part of the Operations Board series on the U.N.I.T. website, dates Aliens of London to 28 June. This both contradicts the date given for World War Three in Number Ten Pays Tribute to UNIT and Aliens of London. Where the date of 28 June originated from is unknown, as no televised story was broadcast on this date.
 * Project Rooftop, the final story from the U.N.I.T. website's Operations Board, set in late 2006, had one character mention that UNIT's activities have been going on for nearly forty years.
 * The short story The Paradox Moon opens with a scene that is set at the beginning of The Year That Never Was, with the date being given as 23 June 2007.
 * The short story The Mandela Effect, Or Monsters on the Streets of London has one character recall an artificial star being shot down by the government on Christmas 2006, presumably intended as a reference to The Runaway Bride, though the story being about unreliable memories could make her recollections unreliable.
 * According to the Doctor Who edition of Trivial Pursuit, TV: Time Crash takes place in 2007.
 * SOS, the first episode of the audio series Doctor Who: Redacted, dates Partners in Crime to 2008, with Penny Carter recalling that it was "almost fifteen years" prior to the present of 2022.
 * Hysteria, the second episode of the audio series Doctor Who: Redacted dates Smith and Jones to 2008. This is correct (since the episode broadcast in 2007 and all RTD era stories from Aliens of London are supposed to be a year ahead), but makes the above mention by Penny of Partners in Crime occurring in 2008 impossible as the events of Voyage of the Damned occur the Christmas after Martha departs from the Doctor and Wilf mentions the previous Christmas's Racnoss Web Star, meaning it's Christmas 2008; as well as this, Donna mentions the Titanic Spaceship in the events of Partners in Crime - "Well, apart from that replica of the Titanic flying over Buckingham Palace on Christmas Day. I mean, that's got to be a hoax." -, thus placing it after 2008.
 * Angels, the fourth episode of Redacted, also correctly dates Martha's adventures with the Doctor - and the events of Blink - to 2008.