Talk: Timeline - Second Doctor

Fear of the Daleks Place in the Timeline

This article says that the entirety Fear of the Daleks takes place immediately after The Wheel in Space, but I'm not too sure… Now yes I will agree that the first couple minutes when they're in the TARDIS does indeed take place right after that particular story, I do not think rest of the story came immediately after The Wheel in Space. The main reason for this is because when we first see the Doctor in the next TV serial, The Dominators he says he's exhausted from "projecting all those mental images." Meaning that this serial would logically take place after the end of The Wheel in Space as well as the first couple minutes of Fear of the Daleks. The rest of The Fear of the Daleks could take place at any point after The Dominators, but I still don't think the main part of the Fear of the Daleks takes plave before this TV story. I think this needs to be reevaluated. –Nahald ☎ 23:14, February 13, 2014 (UTC)

Placebo Effect (novel)

In Placebo Effect (novel) Samantha Jones encounters Kleptons, and the events of The Klepton Parasites, including mention of the Thains, are told. So the TV Comic comics must occur in the same reality as the Eighth Doctor Adventure novels. Master of Spiders ☎ 13:34, May 27, 2014 (UTC)

Placement of The Five Doctors

As you're including Season 6B then there is a clear placement for the Second Doctor's appearance in The Five Doctors (TV story). As is made clear, the Second Doctor's appearance in Players (novel) occurs during World Game. And so does the Second Doctor's appearance in The Five Doctors (TV story).

At the end of Chapter Thirty-Six Serena has died, and the Doctor gets in the TARDIS which dematerialises.

When the next Chapter starts the Doctor is back as the CIA headquarters. His hair is now grey. And then the dialogue states:

The CIA say that the Doctor "took his time getting back", and the Doctor admits that he took side steps before returning to the CIA. It is of course stated that he has a working TARDIS, which he is able to control.

So between Chapters Thirty-Six and Thirty Seven of World Game the Second Doctor takes various solo adventures, during which his hair turns from brown to grey. This is at a time when he i)Has lived through and remembers The War Games (TV story) ii)is travelling alone and iii)is able to control his TARDIS. And since the Second Doctor looks significantly older in The Two Doctors (TV story) then he does in The Five Doctors (TV story), The Five Doctors (TV story) must take place before The Two Doctors (TV story) from the Second Doctor's perspective. Master of Spiders ☎ 13:48, May 27, 2014 (UTC)

Placement of The Two Doctors

It's currently stated that during The Black Hole the Doctor and Jaime "almost" visit the events of The Two Doctors but leave upon seeing the Sontarans. However, in the audio, Jaime says they've had several stops after the Sontarans and have been gone for weeks. So where did the "almost" part come from? Steed ☎ 02:22, May 13, 2016 (UTC)

Somebody misunderstood the audio and was being very insistent. Ideally it should be placed both within The Black Hole and after World Game. Fwhiffahder ☎ 05:02, May 13, 2016 (UTC)

I wasn't just insistent, I was also rather obtuse! The Champion of Time ☎ 11:19, May 13, 2016 (UTC)

Perhaps you could fill me in on this, because to me it just seems that Big Finish is coming up with their own explanation for Season 6B independent of BBC Books series. I honestly find it hard to believe that they are ignoring the events of The World Games, Big Finish has always seemed ignore the BBC Books canon, they've already wrote their own version of events regarding the Sixth Doctor's regeneration which completely ignores Spiral Scratch, I don't see why they wouldn't be doing the same thing with Season 6B and The World Games. After this, all that will be left for them to do is make stories depicting when Mel first joined the Doctor (Business Unusual) and the circumstances behind the Master's failed regeneration (Legacy of the Daleks), or maiming, depending on how you interpret those events.

To me it doesn't seem like that big a stretch to say that Big Finish constantly ignores most pre-New Who non-television media unless it was made by them (this includes their _Short Trips_ books). The only reason why they acknlowedge the Virign New Adventures as canon—in spite of the massive continuity problem that the series represents to the new series alone—is because Bernice Summerfield was their first successful series and paved the to them securing the rights to produce official Doctor Who audio dramas from the BBC. But even then they currently seem to be in the process of rewriting the Virgin New Adventures series in their recent adaptations of them in order to make them more continuity friendly, which then lead to them adapting the Virgin Missing Adventures as well. In fact the _only_ pre-New Who non-Big Finish media that I know of them referencing is the Marvel _Doctor Who_ comics when they did Circular Time and the Stockbridge Trilogy.

So if you do have any solid proof that says that this story isn't meant to set up Season 6B, I'd very much like to hear it, because something tells me it simply comes from a desire to try fit all of these stories in the same continuity when, in fact, that simply is not possible to do without taking massive leaps in logic that border on fan fiction. Seeing as how this is a theory page however (a blatant misuse of the phrase that I think the Doctor himself would very much disapprove of, by the way) none of the admins have authority here and would likely only get involved if we had an edit war that escalated to the point that drama arises from it. At the same time, however, I also acknowledge that there is currently no official sources that give an official account of what is and is not canon in the Whoniverse so really, as long as it doesn't contradict anything in the TV series itself, there's really no reason for one form thing to be considered more canon than the other. I personally rank the Doctor Who canon in tiers which are as follows: the TV series > all Big Finish productions and writings > modern Doctor Who novels > non-Big Finish audio dramas (the Fourth Doctor AudioGO series, for example) > all Virgin publications > IDW, Titan, and Marvel published comics > all other novels > BBC Books novels > the comic strips. Now I know that simply disregarding certain publications or favoring one continuity over the other will likely not go over well here, so here's what I propose: We consider the publisher behind each story and their intention when writing the story and place it where it best fits in the timeline. If we have a case of two stories that are meant to lead into another story but have a different placement in the timeline (like with this one and the Two Doctors) we will simply put said stories in two different places in the timeline and include an explanation. We will also hold all stories by these publishers to this continuity, meaning that Helicon Prime and all Big Finish produced Short Trips that take place during Season 6B while the Doctor is traveling with Jamie (the ones where he's traveling alone will be a bit trickier) would take place before the second half of Black Hole while any BBC books stories that feature the Season 6B Second Doctor will take place after The War Games and The World Games. Interested to hear everyone's thoughts on this idea, so let's keep this civil. –Nahald ☎ 08:58, September 1, 2016 (UTC)

Simon Guerrier, not Big Finish as a whole, has introduced another explanation for The Two Doctors. It doesn't explain the rest of Season 6B, like The Five Doctors or That Time I Nearly Destroyed the World whilst Looking for a Dress. Big Finish has also referenced BBC Books publications at least as much as they've contradicted them. There is absolutely no canon, and the very idea is stupid and harmful. The intent of authors, editors, and publishers is never and will never be considered meaningful: only the narrative is important. I do think The Two Doctors should be placed both during The Black Hole and after World Game: we can speculate that the CIA removed The Black Hole from time because of the Monk's interference, and had the Doctor re-enact The Two Doctors independently once they had control over him. Fwhiffahder ☎ 13:18, September 1, 2016 (UTC)

What you mean the canon thing I presented, the tier thing? Of course that's not accurate, was just giving an example of how I perceive some media in the series having more significance than others, and obviously Big Finish is going to consider their own continuity first and foremost before any other established continuity. I will say thought that I have yet to listen to the interviews included in The Black Hole, perhaps that will provide some additional insight. One thing I will say though: hats off to Simon Gurrier for making sense of that nonsensical handwave of "studying graphology." True many writers have tried their hand at making sense of nonsensical bits of writing from the classic series, but making sense of a poorly written bit of dialogue from the cesspool of terrible writing that was mid-eighties Doctor Who? That takes a special kind of talent. –Nahald ☎ 04:19, September 3, 2016 (UTC)

Final Adventures

Continuing from edit summary discussion...

In the case of the CCs, I can see your perspective, but the point is that most of these stories lack any such mention in this article. On the topic of probabilities, these stories are equally likely to occur in release order as some randomly chosen order, so a default of release order seems sensible to me. Stories with better defined placement presumably already have descriptions assigned to them. Regardless, I've moved The Rosemariners, The Queen of Time, and The Light at the End into later placements, since the "busy few weeks" section is already well populated with stories which have no choice but to be placed there. Thanks for your time, Danochy ☎ 00:16, March 12, 2020 (UTC)

I’m not hugely familiar with the Second Doctor's Timeline, especially not this particular era. So I can’t personally comment too much about how things should be placed. However I do agree with your sentiments regarding release order. Absolutely if evidence in a story suggests a particular placement then that should take precedence but if we have several stories in the same gap with no evidence where they go respectively of each other, then release order is champion.

One of my issues with the timelines right now is it seems when release order is appropriate, arbitrary stories are placed in an arbitrary order. But when it makes sense to group something out of general release order (Like the DWM and Titan Comics for the Thirteenth Doctor) they're placed that. Another thing is that so many of the placements on these pages are taken straight from EyeSpider and as much as I respect that he’s constructed his timelines, so much of it is factually inaccurate and randomly placed. I think that the order for this particular section is largely based on his timelines actually. SarahJaneFan ☎ 11:47, March 12, 2020 (UTC)