Howling:Present day year?

My query is which is the year of the present day in Doctor Who?

With Rose Tyler coming back a year after she left, that made me presume every present day story was a year in the future. But then, Human Nature/The Family of Blood, The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang, The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon, The Wedding of River Song and The Power of Three made it quite confusing. POMfannumber1 ☎  06:12, June 18, 2014 (UTC).


 * They stopped placing present day stories one year ahead with Planet of the Dead, which took place in the year in which it aired. Doug86 ☎  06:22, June 18, 2014 (UTC)


 * I don't think what year it is is stated either way in most RTD era stories, including Planet of the Dead or The End of Time (Torchwood series 1 and 2 is also pretty contradictory on that front). But either way, the series 5 present doesn't really acknowledge the 2009 Dalek invasion, especially as according to Victory of the Daleks (not sure if it's in the post-reboot universe, but definitely before the cracks are sealed) as the cracks have outright erased these events, and Amy can't remember them. As I recall, Human Nature does have John say he was dreaming he was in 2007 even though series 2 is pretty conclusively set in spring/summer 2007 (what with Love & Monsters describing Rose as two years ago and The Christmas Invasion as the last Christmas). -- Tybort (talk page) 12:36, June 18, 2014 (UTC)


 * Hmm. Didn't answer your question though, POMfannumber1.


 * I think there's an issue all to itself for anything involving Kate Stewart, as there is explicitly a two-year gap between the Doctor's visit during events of The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe and the one before that (and even more time before Dinosaurs on a Spaceship and The Power of Three). Howeverr, I believe The Name of the Doctor explicitly has Clara's dream-inducing letter dated to 2013. My personal thoughts on this is that there is a sizable gap after The Name of the Doctor where The Year of the Slow Invasion from The Power of Three happens, and that The Day of the Doctor and The Time of the Doctor is set in some ambiguous near-future setting in the mid-to-late 2010s. I also believe that the 2012 New York from The Angels Take Manhattan isn't necessarily Amy and Rory's present, nor is there anything in the narrative which implies that it's supposed to be. -- Tybort (talk page) 12:47, June 18, 2014 (UTC)

Amy & Rory's wedding is dated exactly: 26 June 2010. Closing Time is also dated exactly (by a newspaper on the middle of its 3 days): 18 - 20 April 2011. The shooting at Lake Silencio is 22 April 2011 in both The Impossible Astronaut & The Wedding of River Song. The Doctor's Christmas visit to Amy & Rory at the end of The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe is, for Amy & Rory, 2 years after they'd last seen him. Allowing for the to-and-froing in Series 6, that means 25 December 2013 at the earliest (I don't recall anything that clearly says Series 6 was their most recent contact). Even without the additional interval before Asylum of the Daleks & the further intervals between that & The Power of Three, we can be certain that the 2012 visit to New York in The Angels Take Manhattan was a trip back in time for Amy & Rory.

However, we have nothing to say that Clara's present day is consistently later (in terms of the calendar) than Amy & Rory's present day was. In fact, we have the opposite: Clara received Vastra's letter in April 2013 (I think 10 April 2013), so an overlap is certain. In terms of the calendar, when Clara opened that letter, Amy & Rory still had over 8 months to wait before receiving the Doctor's Christmas visit at the end of The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe.

The same applies to Kate Stewart's present day. The Power of Three was the first time the Doctor had met her -- in his timestream. Kate is no dimwit & neither (in spite of the Doctor's frequent comments that he didn't understand time) was her father. If, in her timestream, she'd already met the Doctor before The Power of Three, she'd know enough to avoid giving him "spoilers" by saying so. Even if she hadn't worked that out for herself (& she probably had), as soon as the Doctor realised, by encountering her at an earlier date, that they were meeting out of sequence, he would warn her about it. That means we can't assume that The Day of the Doctor was, for her, later than The Power of Three.

It very much looks as if the confusion is because the "present day" of Series 7 Part 2 is earlier in terms of the calendar than the "present day" of Series 7 Part 1. Confusing though that may be, it's not an inconsistency; it's just that "time travel is like that!" --89.243.203.248talk to me 15:13, June 18, 2014 (UTC)