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Tardis
1987 in

the DWU • production history • vital statistics • releases

Timeline for 1987
20th century | 1980s

1981 • 1982 • 1983 • 1984 • 1985 • 1986 • 1988 • 1989 • 1990 • 1991 • 1992 • 1993
WikipediaInfo

1987 was a year.

Events

Dated

January - August

On 7 February, Kathy Nightingale wrote a letter to her friend Sally Sparrow, entrusting her grandson Malcolm Wainwright to deliver it and a package of photographs to Sally in the 2000s.[nb 1] (TV: Blink)

On 19 August, Nora Wicker discovered a tree she didn't remember planting in her garden. It was also that day she met the Eleventh Doctor, (AUDIO: The World Tree)

October - December

In October, the Seventh Doctor and Melanie Bush encountered the Daleks in London and Bradford. (AUDIO: We Are The Daleks)

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Reapers attack Rose Tyler. (TV: Father's Day)

On 7 November, Pete Tyler, the father of Rose Tyler, was killed when he was struck by a car while crossing the road to Stuart Hoskins and Sarah Clark's wedding. This event was witnessed by an older Rose and the Ninth Doctor. Initially, Pete died alone before help could arrive. Rose created an alternative timeline by preventing him from being killed, which resulted in a dangerous paradox. After spending some time with his now-grown daughter, Pete learnt that for time to have continued normally, he must have died, so he ran in front of the same car. This time Rose was with him when he died. The fabric of time was altered so that the record showed Pete died while an unidentified woman knelt beside him and the driver was known to Rose and Jackie instead of being nameless. (TV: Father's Day) This was known to UNIT as a Temporal Event. They kept a file, 1987 11-Be3a, on the incident. (PROSE: Rose Tyler)

On 20 November, an event called "Energize" took place in London. (TV: Father's Day)

On 24 December, David Gilligan burgled several houses in the suburbs of Illinois. (PROSE: Be Good for Goodness's Sake)

The Seventh Doctor, Roz Forrester and Chris Cwej battled an N-Form in London. (PROSE: Damaged Goods)

Undated

The Eightfold Truth was founded in the United Kingdom by Clark Goodman. By 2015, it had 244 million members worldwide, its membership having increased fivefold since 2010. (AUDIO: The Eight Truths)

The Eighth Doctor taught some boars how to talk, enabling them to evolve into the intelligent Boar race. (PROSE: Mad Dogs and Englishmen)

The St Oswald South Bank was demolished. (PROSE: Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast)

Sarah Jane Smith conducted an interview with Dr Francis Augur for the Metropolitan. Francis Augur experimented with medical applications of gold and was a promising young specialist. (AUDIO: The Glittering Storm)

Johnny Chess released the LP record Things to do on a Wet Tuesday Night, which included his songs "God Knows All About It" and "Preaching to the Converted". (PROSE: The Also People)

The Ninth Doctor pulled a child out of the path of a VW Beetle in Southport, but told David Gee and his wife that he'd later regret it. (PROSE: Have You Seen This Man?)

Ace in 1987

Ace and several of her friends went to see Withnail and I in the cinema. Ace thought that it was funny, but her friends did not get it. She fancied the actor who played Withnail. (PROSE: Independence Day)

Ace and a friend named Julian Milton planned to run away together so she packed supplies and clothes. (PROSE: Love and War)

Ace was transported by a time storm created by Fenric from Perivale to Iceworld on Svartos in the far future. (TV: Dragonfire, The Curse of Fenric) Fenric later took her back in time to the day that she was transported to Iceworld in an attempt to convince her to prevent her younger self from leaving. (AUDIO: Gods and Monsters)

Births and deaths

Dated

On 27 April, Rose Tyler was born. (PROSE: Meet Rose, TV: Father's Day, Rise of the Cybermen) However other accounts indicated Rose was born in early 1986. (TV: Rose, Aliens of London, PROSE: Rose)

On 8 September, Craig Dalloway was born. (TV: Reset)

On 13 November, Carys Fletcher was born. (TV: Day One)

Undated

David Gosthrope died of a stroke while in Naples, Italy. (PROSE: Past Reckoning)

Julia Hardwick, a future victim of the Weeping Angels, was born. It is possible that she became her own ancestor in her personal future after being sent back in time to 1887. (WC: A Ghost Story for Christmas)

Some time after 7 February, Kathy Nightingale died. (TV: Blink)

George Smithers' son died of leukemia. (PROSE: Invasion of the Cat-People)

Other

There were three million people unemployed in the United Kingdom. (AUDIO: We Are The Daleks)

Footnotes

  1. While Blink itself uncontroversially sets its main setting in 2007 and "twenty minutes to Red Hatching" a year later in 2008—as Kathy Nightingale's letter describes taking "one breath in 2007 and the next in 1920", and the Tenth Doctor's side of his conversation with Sally Sparrow in 1969 happens 38 years before Sally says hers—these are contradicted by heavily conflicting dates in the Redacted audio series later on regarding both Kathy's disappearance and the Red Hatching. In Angels, Abby McPhail identifies 2008 as the year of Kathy's disappearance, which suggests 2009 as the year of the Red Hatching. In Salvation, the Thirteenth Doctor recognises the Red Hatching as the cause of death of Andy Proctor, who was last seen by his daughter Cleo "nearly 20 years" before 2022 according to Recruits.
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