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DWF closure - link rationale[]

Just for the record I chose to use a TrekBBS forum link to cite the announcement of the closure of the Doctor Who Forum and Outpost Gallifrey since the original DWF and OG announcement pages will no longer be accessible as of 31 July, making them invalid as citation sources. Trek BBS is likely to survive for awhile yet, and they quote the announcement in full. 23skidoo 17:18, 4 June 2009 (UTC)

Children of Earth[]

Children of Earth appears to be set in September 2009, any reason this is not mentioned? HollyM 12:09, 28 July 2009 (UTC)

  • Because every Doctor Who/Torchwood/Sarah Jane Adventures episode is set a year past transmission date, since the Doctor dropped off Rose in 2006, after a year missing in the 2005 episode Aliens of London, so Children of Earth broadcast in 2009 would be set in 2010. MercM

But a newspaper in Part Two of COE clearly reads "September 2009".

  • So? You base the entire timeline on one newspaper that was probably wrong anyway, every episode in the present is based one year after transmission date because in Aliens of London, the Doctor dropped Rose off in 2006 instead of 2005 (the transmission date), every Doctor Who/Torchwood/SJA episode is set one year ahead of transmission date and are set in order (so by this rule created by RTD, Children of Earth is set after Planet of the Dead in 2010.), RTD does not make every prop so how can he decide the date? I am getting sick and tired of having to change the date based on someone going "Oh well, it was on some newspaper". Plus, the date would be too soon after the Dalek invasion, yet nobody happened to mention on the news either the Dalek invasion or the other alien incidents so it must have been set afterward. MercM
I've changed my mind on this again, RTD is not stupid, he clearly meant to put September 2009, mainly because it is some time after Journey's End in early 2009. Therefore, it is not a continuity error and should be included. The thing with Donna saying about The Doctor saving the world in 2008 could be referring to any of the times he did so in that year. Children of Earth takes place months after TW Series 2 (Jan-Feb 09), DW Series 4 (Feb- Mar 09) and SJA Series 2 (Summer/late Summer 09). Whoniverse93 22:55, 28 July 2009 (UTC)

2009 or 2010![]

I'm adding this simply so we can stop changing this from 2009 to 2010 or from 2010 to 2009. Reply underneath this saying what date you believe it is set in - 2009 or 2010? Whichever one comes out on top, we should respect the vote and leave it as is. Whoniverse93 21:20, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

  • 2009 gets my vote, as it was mentioned in the newspaper, I believe it takes place at least 7 months from Exit Wounds, 5 months from Journey's End and at most 2 months after Enemy of the Bane. Whoniverse93 21:20, 7 August 2009 (UTC)
For more detailed discussion see Talk:Series_3_(Torchwood)#Date and also Forum:Timeline Clarification Questions and Forum:"Children of Earth" takes place in late 2009: confirm/deny? for further discussions concerning the dating of Children of Earth. 2009 is when it takes place as the evidence all points towards that date. --Tangerineduel 07:06, 8 August 2009 (UTC)
  • 2010 gets my vote as every story of Doctor Who/Torchwood and SJA is set one year from actual transmission date. Normally every Doctor Who series goes from March to May, the normal months in which it is transmitted, so I believe that Planet of the Dead was set in April 2010 and Children of Earth in September 2010, with the events of Series 4 taking place in 2009, 3 in 2008, 2 in 2007 and 1 in 2005/2006. Plus I base my vote on the fact that every present time story is in chronological order, so CoE comes after PotD in 2010. MercM
This isn't about voting this is about providing proof. Not working on supposition or precedents. --Tangerineduel 16:04, 10 August 2009 (UTC)
  • And, half the Doctor Who universe has been set on precedents, the precedent of regeneration, the precedent of each year being one after the other, the precedent of co-ordination between series' and quite frankly as an Admin you should be taking an impartial side. MercM
  • Wow, seems like this is becoming an emotional issue. Looking objectively, it does seem that we have on-screen evidence which states that the story takes place in 2009 (someone referenced Rhys' comment that 1965 was 44 years ago, for example). The only counter-argument I've seen is that some previous stories were set one year later than they were broadcast (although in some of those cases, I don't think we see any clearly-established evidence of that in those stories...but that's another debate). So if it's a matter of clear evidence (newspaper date being the clearest example) versus "well, that's the way they usually do it", then logically the clear evidence has to prevail. Spreee 20:09, 13 August 2009 (UTC)Spreee
  • I have concrete evidence, the newspaper said Wednesday on Day Two, so Day Five would be a Saturday; why would children be on school on a Saturday? This proves that the newspaper's evidence for 2009 is null and void MercM
Not really. The newspaper did say Wednesday, yes, and that would indeed make Day Five a Saturday. The best explanation I've heard for why the children would be in school is simply that the government ordered them to be (which they did, for their own ulterior motives of course). However, even if one discounts the day of the week as a misprint, that still doesn't mean we just pretend the newspaper didn't exist. The year being wrong would have to be rationalized as another misprint, which seems unlikely. But just for fun, let's say we ignore the newspaper entirely. And, just for more fun, let's ignore Rhys' comment about 1965 being 44 years ago. There's still no evidence that I'm aware of to suggest it's 2010. At best, all of that fun ignoring of evidence would still only leave us with no clearly-established year. Spreee 20:59, 13 August 2009 (UTC)Spreee
I agree with Spreee, what evidence within Children of Earth is there to suggest that it takes place in 2010?--Tangerineduel 10:34, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

Dates January-March[]

Could whoever added the dates to the January-March section please split it up into the proper months? I can't access the Torchwood site to see what months those dates go with, and it makes it look very confusing. 23skidoo 15:29, October 25, 2009 (UTC)

Dating of Planet of the Dead[]

Let me get this straight: Planet of the Dead takes place at Easter in 2009, two months before TSE/JE, and yet features references to the planets in the sky. Someone really dropped the ball there.�

Well, it has been forced into that date thanks to The End of Time and Mona Lisa's Revenge, not to mention series 5. We can't take second-class canon in, though, The Stolen Earth/Journey's End could happen in April, too. The fact that two bus passangers were instantly reminded of those events would suggest, the way the mentioned them, that it was very, very recent. Delton Menace 00:30, March 24, 2010 (UTC)


Okay, this article DEFINATELY isn't right... The way I've figured it, "Partners in Crime", "The Sontaran Strategem"/"The Poison Sky" and "The Stolen Earth"/"Journey's End" all had to take place pre-Easter. I don't actually see a problem with this; it just means that early 2009 was extremely hectic. But the Russel T. Davies era seemed to have a thing for Earth invasions. Bttsstewart 07:58, April 22, 2010 (UTC)


The way that I understand it is that Series 4 takes place in 2009, with End of Time taking place Christmas 2009 and Planet of the Dead at Easter 2010. Series 5 takes place in 2010. It was established in 2005 that all stories from Aliens of London take place 12 months into the future - so we use this to date Series 4. From a production POV, it was stated that EoT would be taking place 2009 (I can't remember where I read it though, I think it might've been The Writer's Tale: The Final Chapter.) Series 5 takes place in 2010 because of in series references. Bttfboy1990 15:07, September 17, 2010 (UTC)

The End of Time (Part 2)[]

Well basically, it says on here that the return of the Time Lords takes place on Christmas Day, when the diamond from Galiffrey crash landed during the night and then there's a scene where Wilfred reminisces about his Wife and life as a soldier, and mentions that it's a 'brand new day' over England. But I'm pretty sure I can remember a scene in part 1 where Donna and Sylvia were opening presents.


Is this just a small mistake on the site or is this actually an incontinuity in the episode?

  • Technically, since they return in the UK, they return on boxing day. It would still be Christmas day (or night) in places such as America, but would be a new day (boxing day) in the UK. I'll fix it so it's clearer. The Thirteenth Doctor 13:27, August 4, 2010 (UTC)

Sarah Jane Adventures dates?[]

Where do these oddly specific dates for SJA series 3 come from? They certainly weren't in the episodes themselves and they seem to be directly contradicted by The Nightmare Man, which featured K9 (freed during the events of The Mad Woman in the Attic) defusing a Slitheen bomb in September 2009, before the narrative skipped ahead to August 2010. -- Tybort (talk page) 18:02, August 29, 2011 (UTC)

Those dates were added by somebody a long time ago based on the airing dates and were supposition. However, I'd like to talk about your edit summary As exams are mentioned in both Mad Woman and Wedding, it doesn't seem likely that they're set in the autumn. In Mad Woman, it was said that "Clyde has exams coming up". I'm unfamiliar with the British school system, but aren't there any examinations in autumn and why would Clyde have them and not the other two if they were end-of-term exams rather than class-specific? In Wedding, it was Maria who had exams, and she's in America, where there are most certainly major exams in the autumn. -- Noneofyourbusiness talk to me 20:05, October 11, 2011 (UTC)
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