User:SOTO/Forum Archive/The Panopticon/@comment-31010985-20190102002350/@comment-5918438-20190102150520

Without bringing real world creep into it, I usually translate "Present day" as "around the time period of release/broadcast". So a story broadcast in 2008, set in the "present day", is set in the 2000s. One broadcast in 2018 might even be set in the "late 2010s", if there's sufficient evidence.

If a novel is in the present day for Amy and Rory in series 6, we know it must be the 2010s. And we can't even be that specific sometimes, especially with the Third Doctor UNIT stories, for well-known reasons. When there isn't enough to determine the decade, it's just 20th or 21st century.

Torchwood's present day is equally muddied, with many contradictions. In the end, it's better to say series 1 and 2 are all set in the 2000s, than to have conflicting years on each episode. So if a Torchwood story from that era is set in the present day, I wouldn't assume a specific year. Indeed, even with RTD-era Doctor Who, due to the Aliens of London thing, the "present day" for around four years is 1 year ahead of the real world. A novel featuring Martha in the present day, released in 2007, is likely set in 2008.

I'm not really sure that the intent always is for "present day" to mean "literally the day you're watching this on initial broadcast". It's not "These events are happening right now"; it's "This story takes place in your general time period, and features culture and technology with which you will be familiar."

So generally, we should air on the side of caution. The Eaters of Light is a good example, because as I recall, it features no real distinguishing time period clues. Was 2017 intended? A previous episode in this series spent a year on Earth, so it's not even 2017 for Bill anymore.