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If Aggedors have a century-long gestation cycle, it’s little wonder that they’re so rare and prized. That said, the pregnancy of the female Aggedor seen here - the daughter of the one seen on TV - raises the rather incestuous question of who sired her pups. (Appalling as it might sound, however, father-daughter and mother-son matings are not uncommon when breeding animals such as horses; genetic deficiencies only start to crop up with brother-sister crossings.)
[1292] Dating A Good Man Goes to War (X6.7) - The date is given in a caption. We know nothing else about this battle, save that one of the sides fighting is human.
[1293] Dating “Hotel Historia” (DWM #394) - The month and year are given.
[1294] The Earth Empires
That the first Earth Empire lasted from the twenty-sixth century of Frontier in Space to the thirtieth of The Mutants has been well documented, particularly in the New Adventures. (The Doctor’s companion Benny is from the Empire’s early period, Ace lived in that time zone for a few years, and his later companions Chris and Roz were from the period when the Empire was starting to collapse.)
The Second Empire was first named in Tomb of Valdemar. The Doctor refers to the Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire in Planet of the Ood (set in 4162), Pest Control, The Story of Martha: “The Weeping”, and by extension The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit and 42. The Crystal Bucephalus states that descendants of Mavic Chen became Federation Emperors, and it might be this Empire that they rule.
“A Fairytale Life” has the Doctor expecting to find the Third Great and Bountiful Human Empire in the seventy-eighth century. This could well be the human empire mentioned in The Sontaran Experiment.
The Long Game is set, in theory at least, at the time of The Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire, but the Emperor Dalek’s machinations appear to alter history, and the apparent obliteration of Earth’s continents (The Parting of the Ways) casts doubt on whether this Empire ever comes to pass. If Rose reset all the actions of the Daleks, Earth’s history could be restored to the one the Doctor knows about, but there’s no evidence on screen she did that.
Either way, the overwhelming amount of evidence suggests that Earth survives and continues to have great influence on the universe, at least for billions of years into the future (The End of the World). It’s probable, then, that there’s a fifth and many more Empires after this point.
[1295] The Crystal Bucephalus
[1296] Tomb of Valdemar
[1297] Dating The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit (X2.8-2.9) - Casualties in this story are repeatedly said as dying on “43K2.1”. If the numbers mean anything we could interpret, the “K” perhaps suggests a date in the 43,000s. In the DVD commentary, Russell T Davies says the draft script stated it was the forty-third century. The overriding consideration, however, is that the story presumably happens before the Ood are liberated from slavery (Planet of the Ood, set in 4126). Doctor Who: The Encyclopedia and Doctor Who: The Time Traveller’s Almanac both concur with that, dating events with the Beast to “the forty-second century”. Timelink goes for an earlier dating of 4043. The Doctor’s assertion they are “five hundred years” from Earth would seem to mean five hundred light years or that it would take the humans here five hundred years to get to Earth.
The Doctor previously encountered life from before the creation of our universe in Terminus, Millennial Rites, All-Consuming Fire, Synthespians™, and more.
[1298] Commonly referenced as “K37J5”, but it’s “K37Gem5” in the closed captioning on the DVD - and indeed, that is what it sounds like Cross Flane is saying. (This is possibly the same dating system that starts inserting words like “apple” into year designations, as in The End of the World.)
[1299] Dating Orbis (BF BBC7 #3.1) - The Doctor and the Headhunter confirm that he’s been on Orbis “six hundred years or thereabouts”. The plotline with the activator continues in The Eight Truths/Worldwide Web.
[1300] Orbis, The Eight Truths, Worldwide Web.
[1301] Dating Planet of the Ood (X4.3) - The Doctor first says that the Ood are “servants of humans in the forty-second century”, then gives the exact year.
[1302] Dating 42 (X3.7) - While no date is given on screen, prepublicity for the episode said it was set in the forty-second century - possibly just as a take-off on the title. Nonetheless, the Doctor’s spacesuit bears the same design as the one he wore in The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit, perhaps indicating that all three episodes take place in roughly the same time.
[1303] “Centuries” before Destiny of the Daleks.
[1304] The Story of Martha: “The Weeping”
[1305] Dating The Last Voyage (BBC DW audiobook #6) - Earth currently has an empire, but as Eternity has a population of eight billion humans, this is well in advance of the struggling Earth Empire as seen in the Pertwee era. The only other historical clues are that a) robots are in use, b) a straight-shot flight from one end of the Empire to another is considered advanced (so presumably, standard spaceships aren’t too shabby either), and c) human longevity is such that Cluxton is 160, and is spry enough to undertake pioneering business ventures involving space transport. With all of that in mind, this story has been arbitrarily set during the Second Empire.
[1306] Dating Pest Control (BBC DW audiobook #1) - The Doctor identifies the Pioneer Corps soldiers as being part of the Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire.
[1307] Dating “Body Snatched” (IDW DW Vol. 2, #10-11) - It’s “two hundred years” before the opening of “Body Snatched”, which is set in the “forty-fifth century”.
[1308] Dating The End of Time (X4.17) - It’s been “one hundred years” since the Doctor’s last visit (Planet of the Ood).
[1309] Dating The Death Collectors (BF #109a) - The participants seem human; not only do they possess such names as “Nancy” and “Smith Ridley”, the sky station’s computer has Puccini’s “Madame Butterfly” in its music collection. No date is given, and so placement here amounts to little more than a guess, but the overall tone suggests it’s a story where mankind has simply ventured so far into space, it’s encountering horrors beyond its comprehension. Dar Traders also appear in The Darkening Eye.
[1310] A Christmas Carol. The date is given on Elliot’s portrait.
[1311] “Centuries” before The Davros Mission, and probably explaining why the Doctor blows up Skaro in Remembrance of the Daleks without fear of eradicating the Thals as well.
[1312] The Crystal Bucephalus (p42).
[1313] “Centuries” before Emotional Chemistry.
[1314] Dating A Christmas Carol (X6.0) - The Doctor first meets Kazran Sardick (from Kazran’s perspective) when Kazran is 12, but the precise year isn’t given. Elliot Sardick was born in 4302, so couldn’t have a 12-year-old son until, say, 4332 at the earliest (and while he has dark hair; Elliot’s clearly at least middle aged at this point). The older Kazran was played by Michael Gambon, who was 68 at the time, so we can infer that Kazran is around 70 in the “present day”. The Doctor then revisits Kazran on seven successive Christmas Eves.
[1315] “Twenty years” before A Christmas Carol; the year of Elliot’s death is on his portrait.
[1316] Spiral Scratch
[1317] Dating A Christmas Carol (X6.0) - We’re told Elliot Sardick died “twenty years” before the story, and a plaque below his portrait states he died in 4378. In SJA: Death of the Doctor, the Doctor mentions a seemingly unrelated incident in which he dropped Amy and Rory off on a “honeymoon planet” that as it turned out was itself on a honeymoon, having married an asteroid.
[1318] Red. “The Needle” in this story is not the same one as the Needle in The Infinity Doctors. The time-travel process described here is similar to the early Gallifreyan experiments (as detailed in Cat’s Cradle: Time’s Crucible).
[1319] Dating “Body Snatched” (IDW DW Vol. 2, #10-11) - It’s the “forty-fifth century” according to the opening caption.
[1320] Dating “Keepsake” (BF #112b) - The Doctor says that it’s “
nearly two thousand years” since Kingdom of Silver.
[1321] Only Human
[1322] Dating Here There Be Monsters (BF CC #3.1) - The back cover says it’s the “distant future”. Mention is made of yet another “human empire”, but in itself, this isn’t very telling. Rostrum says he doesn’t know the year in Earth terms - a pity, as that would’ve been helpful.
“Benchmarking” has here been linked to the “dirty rip” engines mentioned in Only Human, as they seem to work on roughly the same principle. That would make this “empire” the Second Great and Bountiful Earth Empire.
It’s unclear if the tentacled “deep space” creatures seen here are an evolved form of the Yssgaroth from The Pit, which were similarly loosed on our reality after Rassilon punched holes in the fabric of space-time. Tomb of Valdemar also alludes to similar creatures, and this chronology places the two stories at roughly the same time.
[1323] Dating Tomb of Valdemar (PDA #29) - No date is given, but this is within a generation of the fall of the Second Empire. Since the last edition of Ahistory, which placed this story in 16,000, Planet of the Ood established that the Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire was around in 4126. Earth no longer seems to have an Empire in the Davros Era, so the latest this story can be set is around 4500.
[1324] See The Davros Era sidebar.
[1325] Dating Destiny of the Daleks (17.1) - The Daleks and Movellans have been locked in stalemate for “centuries”. At this point, the Daleks are feared, highly advanced and have a vast war fleet which operates as their command base. In Resurrection of the Daleks, it is made clear that there is deadlock between the Movellans and the Daleks’ computers, not the Daleks themselves.
[1326] According to War of the Daleks.
[1327] Resurrection of the Daleks
[1328] “Forty years” before Revelation of the Daleks.
[1329] Before Davros.
[1330] Christmas on a Rational Planet. No date is given, but Riften-5 was the home planet of Lytton according to Attack of the Cybermen, and this is (presumably) his home timezone. Attack of the Cybermen ends with the Doctor saying he misjudged Lytton, yet they didn’t meet at all in Resurrection of the Daleks (unless you count Lytton shooting at the Doctor from a distance) and they barely meet in Attack of the Cybermen. If we wanted to fix that, we could theorise that the Doctor met Lytton - from his perspective - between the two stories (it would be before Resurrection of the Daleks for Lytton).
[1331] Dating Resurrection of the Daleks (21.4) - This is the sequel to Destiny of the Daleks. Davros says he has been imprisoned for “ninety years”. According to some reports, the rehearsal script set the story in 4590, which would follow the date established in The Programme Guide. This date also appears in The Encyclopaedia of the Worlds of Doctor Who.
[1332] The Juggernauts
[1333] Dating Davros (BF #48) - Davros is set after Resurrection of the Daleks. It’s never explicitly stated that it occurs between that story and Revelation of the Daleks, but the Big Finish website places it between The Two Doctors and Timelash. TAI was formed “back in the thirty-eighth century”.
[1334] Skaro has been abandoned for “centuries” before Destiny of the Daleks, but the Supreme Dalek is based there in Revelation of the Daleks. We see a biomechanoid in Remembrance of the Daleks - presumably the Daleks haven’t developed the technology when they lose the war with the Movellans. Although, according to War of the Daleks, the Movellan War was a ruse.
[1335] Dating Revelation of the Daleks (22.6) - This story is set an unspecified amount of time after Resurrection of the Daleks. It has been long enough for Davros to gain a galaxy-wide reputation and build a new army of Daleks. The galaxy is ruled by a human President and faces famine.
[1336] Dating The Davros Mission (exclusive audio story included with The Complete Davros Collection DVD set) - The story is set directly after Revelation of the Daleks (the ship that takes Davros to Skaro departs from Necros), and on the surface might seem to conflict with “Emperor of the Daleks” as yet-another “bridge” story between Revelation of the Daleks and Remembrance of the Daleks. In detail, however, the two stories are compatible - in The Davros Mission, the only leverage Davros gains over the Daleks on Skaro is a) what passes for his charm, and b) the concentrated Movellan virus he’s holding. A Dalek civil war is slated to occur after this point (in Remembrance), so whatever fealty the Skaro Daleks might here pledge to Davros is certain to fall to ruin under any scenario. It makes sense to assume that the Skaro Daleks only declare obedience to Davros in The Davros Mission to buy themselves the time required to neutralise the Movellan virus in his possession. Once that occurs, Davros would probably have little choice but to flee, leading to The Juggernauts and his eventually being captured and put on trial a second time (in “Emperor of the Daleks”).
Davros is here slated to become the Dalek Emperor, but that doesn’t actually happen - so it’s fair to think that it only happens down the road, once Abslom Daak takes a chainsaw to him in the comic story. He also gains a robotic hand (to replace the one shot off in Revelation of the Daleks), but might upgrade to the claw he uses in “Emperor of the Daleks”.
[1337] Dating The Juggernauts (BF #65) - This story is set an unspecified amount of time after Revelation of the Daleks. It’s said that Davros crash-landed seven hundred sixteen days prior to this story, but there’s no indication of the duration of time in a day on Lethe.
[1338] “Emperor of the Daleks”
[1339] Dating “... Up Above the Gods”/“Emperor of the Daleks” (DWM #227, 197-202) - The story is set between Revelation of the Daleks and Remembrance of the Daleks, and bridges the gap between them (even if this means that the seventh Doctor is experiencing developments with Davros out of order). The Emperor resembles the one from the TV Century 21 Dalek comic strip. This raises a question as to which Dalek Emperor this is - and not because that Emperor Dalek was apparently killed by Daak back in “Nemesis of the Daleks”. We didn’t see the Emperor killed on that occasion - we just didn’t see him escape the exploding Death Wheel. Given that “Emperor of the Daleks” establishes that Daak and all the Star Tigers - who were seen to perish in “Nemesis of the Daleks” - didn’t actually die, the Emperor Dalek barely makes the top five “least probable resurrections” in the story. See The Dalek Emperors sidebar.
[1340] Per his appearance as such in Remembrance of the Daleks.
[1341] “Ten years” before “Abel’s Story”.
[1342] Dating “Kane’s Story”/“Abel’s Story”/“Warrior’s Story”/“Frobisher’s Story” (DWM #104-107) - Davros rules the Daleks, and the only time this is the case on television is between Revelation of the Daleks and Remembrance of the Daleks. (Taking other media into account, this is between “Emperor of the Daleks” and Remembrance of the Daleks.) This also fits with where the story falls in the Doctor’s timeline. “War-Game” is set a few years after this, and states the Draconians rule a third of the galaxy. The Planetary Federation is also known as the Federation of Worlds, and could well be the same - or remnants of the same - Federation from the Peladon stories (although the Draconians were part of that Federation according to Legacy).
[1343] Dating The Story of Martha: “The Weeping” (NSA #28b) - Agaloas is established as part of the Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire (p49), and the story occurs “almost five centuries” (p56) after the colony’s failure.
[1344] Dating Remembrance of the Daleks (25.1) - This story is the sequel to Revelation of the Daleks, and there’s no indication how long it has been since the previous story. Davros has completely revamped the Daleks, which was presumably a fairly lengthy process.
[1345] “The Child of Time” (DWM)
[1346] Dating War of the Daleks (EDA #5) - It’s “about thirty years” after Remembrance of the Daleks. One of Davros’ followers operates the controls of his dispersal chamber, suggesting that Davros was later reconstituted in secret - and later recaptured, leading to his next appearance in Terror Firma.
The retcon in War of the Daleks that reversed Skaro’s destruction proved controversial with fans. A couple of references in later BBC Books suggested that Skaro had been destroyed, after all. Unnatural History stated that the Doctor tricked the Daleks into tangling their timelines so much their history collapsed; The Infinity Doctors that Skaro suffered more than one destruction. Doctor Who - The Movie (after Remembrance of the Daleks in the Doctor’s own timeline) opened on Skaro, but it could have historically been before it was destroyed. The 2005 TV series never stated that Skaro had been destroyed in the Time War (Russell T Davies’ essay in the Doctor Who Annual 2006 does name it and says it’s now “ruins”, though). The Doctor Who Visual Dictionary states that Skaro was “devastated” in Remembrance of the Daleks, but “finally obliterated” in the Time War.
There are a number of get-out clauses in War of the Daleks itself - the events aren’t seen, only reported. Internal dating seems confused, and Antalin appears after it’s meant to have been destroyed. There are pieces of contradictory information elsewhere - the origins of the Movellans in the book contradict their implied beginnings in A Device of Death, for example.
[1347] The Four Doctors. The Dalek Prime seen in this audio isn’t necessarily the exact same one seen in War of the Daleks, but the title isn’t used in any other Doctor Who story. Allowing for all of the time travel involved, though, there’s no guarantee that the Jariden sequences in The Four Doctors takes place in this era.
[1348] Years rather than decades before Terror Firma. The presence of Samson and Gemma’s mother suggests that this is their native time zone.
[1349] Dating Terror Firma (BF #72) - No specific date is given, but it is obviously after Remembrance of the Daleks, and a gap of some measure (Davros mentions “years of solitude”) is required after the novel War of the Daleks. Terror Firma doesn’t acknowledge War of the Daleks, but the two are not irreconcilable. Davros’ mental health is clearly eroding throughout this audio, so it’s entirely possible that the Daleks have altered his memories or that he’s simply too far gone to remember those events. In fact, as the Daleks are obviously fooling Davros into thinking that he’s in charge, it suits their plans if he forgets about Skaro and believes he’s gaining revenge against the Doctor by “turning Earth” into a new Dalek homeworld.