A guide to the Whoniverse based on what we see on screen rather than read in confusing reference guides..
The Abominable Snowmen - 1935
Victoria and Anne date events to this year in The Web of Fear. The Doctor and Thomni say 1630 was "three hundred years ago".
Survivors of the Flux - 1958
The on-screen caption shows this is when General Farquhar is given the task of setting up British UNIT and meets the Grand Serpent on a weekend shoot in the country.
Village of the Angels - November 21, 1967
Under polygraph, Claire Brown confirms the date the night the Angels attack.
Survivors of the Flux - November 1967
The TARDIS has been brought straight to UNIT HQ despite there being a flap on. The caption confirms the year, which is "nearly a decade" since 1958. Lethbridge-Stewart signed up to UNIT following the events of The War Machines in 1966.
The Web of Fear - November 1967
Although the clearly-senile Travers says it's been over-forty years since Tibet, Silverstein says it's thirty years since he came back and sold the Yeti. The map of the Underground shows it to be the 1967 layout, there are pre-decimalized prices on the adverts, a poster for 1967's In The Heat of the Night in one scene. The Snowmen establishes this is 1967. The sphere activates, the Yeti appear and Londoners fear in the first nine days of the month and then the web falls almost inert for three weeks until the Doctor arrives. A mysterious "other" insists Travers be sent to join the Goodge Street fortress, and Lethbridge-Stewart is sent to replace Colonel Pemberton, who knew each other well. Lethbridge-Stewart immediately believes in a space-time craft shaped like a police box, as there's one back at the MOD UNIT HQ. He arrives at the end of the month and the Great Intelligence is defeated that day.
The Invasion - July 1970
It's English summertime, roughly four years since The Web of Fear and Lethbridge-Stewart has been promoted to Brigadier and in charge of the UK UNIT branch in the meantime. Benton is on staff.
Spearhead from Space - October 1970
"Months" have passed since The Invasion, but it is Autumn and pre-decimalized prices are all over the shopping precincts while 1969's Oh Well (Part 1) is still being played on the radio. The Doctor later admits he worked for UNIT in the 70s (or 80s) but not 60s.
Doctor Who and the Silurians - November 1970
It's winter and the cold is bad for the Silurians. The Doctor hasn't done a mission for UNIT as an employee before, and is more interested in rebuilding Bessie than the TARDIS. It's pre-decimal prices still, and the Silurians set their alarm clocks to awake themselves in 50 years time - ie, 2020.
The Ambassadors OF DEATH - December 1970
It's not long since the Silurian incident and still winter, Benton has been promoted to Sergeant, the Brigadier has known the Doctor "on and off" for several years. But the whole men-on-Mars, no Morse Code, official first contact with aliens stuff contradict every other story, so I'm saying this is set in a parallel universe the Doctor visits fiddling with the TARDIS console in episode one.
Inferno - July 1971
The calendar says it's 24 July when the Doctor jumps universes. He's been at the Stahlman project for less than a week and has been working with the Brigadier for "all these years" without being asked what his real name is.
Terror of the Autons - October 1971
Liz has gone back to Cambridge, and the Doctor has spent three months working on the dematerialization circuit. UNIT uniforms are now more like British Army wear and Mike Yates is now the regular Captain.
The Mind of Evil - November 1971
The Doctor is still getting used to Jo, UNIT have been splitting themselves between sorting out the international peace conference and sorting out a nerve gas missile. The Doctor is the one insisting the Master is out to cause trouble to the Brigadier, all showing this is not long after the previous story. The Keller Machine was set up last year before there was a lengthy delay, but presumably that was the Master's Plan A and when that failed he teamed up with the Autons and now, without his TARDIS working, is going back to Plan B to fix things.
The Claws of Axos - December 1971
UNIT's Washington branch want to pool info about the Master following his actions during the peace conference, but the British government have no idea who he is. The Doctor insists the Master is long gone after his abusive phone call (and only returns because Axos caught him). At the end of the story, the Doctor hopes the Master was trapped in the time loop and can't escape.
Colony In Space - March 1972
Jo says 2472 is "five hundred years in the future" while the present is "simply ages" since The Claws of Axos. The Doctor has found out the Master is alive and loose, but UNIT are chasing down constant dead-ends looking for the Master on Earth. The Doctor's plan to get the TARDIS working is based on the Master's repairs in the previous story.
The Daemons - April 30th, May 1st 1972
The dates are confirmed by Professor Horner on TV and the Master to the villagers.
The Day of the Daleks - September 1972
Jo tells the Controller her trip to the future happened on September 13th, 1972.
The Sea Devils - early 1973
It was an unspecified but lengthy time for the Master to be sentenced to imprisonment and has been "trapped" on the island for a month or so. Colour TV is still a luxury, but he watches a 1971 episode of The Clangers and the Doctor's radio picks up a DJ playing a song from 1971.
The Mutants - August 1973
The Doctor is working on the super-drive for Bessie, which is completed and forgotten by Jo till the next story when they have to leave for 30th Century Solos.
The Time Monster - September 1973
The Master has been loose long enough for no one to recognize him and the Doctor to suspect UNIT have given up searching for him. The Master has been working with Ruth on TOMTIT for months prior to this story. Jo tells Benton "Merry Michaelmas" so they're coming up to 29th of September. The Doctor has redecorated the TARDIS in the same style as the Master's when Jo wasn't looking.
The Three Doctors - November 1973
It's November according to the weather and Dr. Tyler mentions Cape Kennedy rather than Cape Canaveral (as it would be renamed in 1974). The Doctor's redecorated the TARDIS again, just in time for the tenth anniversary and the Second Doctor doesn't like it.
Carnival of Monsters - 1965?
When they arrive in what seems to be 1926, Jo complains the TARDIS has malfunctioned and taken them back almost forty years in time. Presumably to prove to Jo he can steer the TARDIS, the Doctor took her back to the 1960s before they tried leaving Earth altogether.
The Green Death - April 1974
The mine closed down a year previously, in April. The calendar in Mike's office says 28 April. Possibly as a result of all the power cuts and failures and rolling blackouts caused by exploding power stations, Jeremy Thorpe is now Prime Minister.
The Time Warrior - July 1974
Not much time has passed (the Doctor hasn't had any solo journeys since his trip to Metebelis III according to the Brigadier, which the Doctor doesn't deny) and Sarah Jane Smith - who we later learn is a UNIT employee and thus didn't so much sneak in when no one was looking but there with the Brig's knowledge and consent, but he didn't tell her the mysterious Dr. Smith was also on the payroll even though that would've been helpful - is 23 years old, her birthday being in May. Yates is still on leave.
Invasion (of the Dinosaurs) - August 1974
The dinosaurs appeared "shortly after" the Doctor and Sarah left, and the Doctor says it's a few weeks later when the TARDIS brings them back to London. Given the dinosaurs were brought back deliberately to justify an evacuation of London, which also ties up UNIT and the resources of the British army, it seems only a month or so has passed. Yates is back on duty, but not for long.
Planet of the Spiders - March 1975
Much time has passed. Sarah Jane has returned to working for Metropolitan full-time but keeps in touch with Mike and the UNIT gang and is now good friends with Benton. The Doctor seems to be finding excuses to hang around on Earth, from completing the Whomobile to investigating ESP, and is now affectionately calling the Brigadier "Alistair". Jo and Cliff have been to over two dozen villages when she posts the crystal to UNIT HQ and there's no saying how long it takes to arrive, especially given the delays the Dinosaur invasion must have called. The final scene is less than four weeks later, on April 1st, so the rest of the Earth scenes occur in early March.
Robot - April 1975
Sarah visits Think Tank on April 4 according to her pass, the day the Doctor wakes up from his coma he's spent the last three days in since he regenerated. The Brigadier describes the Cold War in the past tense, but it might be wishful thinking after the last world peace conference - and all the superpowers do seem to cooperate quite well when faced with Think Tank's terrorism.
Terror of the Zygons - June 1975
It's unclear if the psionic beam "synchs up" the sender and the receiver, but Sarah suggests she's known the Fourth Doctor (and his much riskier lifestyle) for "a few weeks". Broton's been destroying oil rigs for a month and it's only a week since UNIT set up base in the Fox Inn. Harry is close enough to his home time that he agrees to stay behind, but enough time has passed for the Prime Minister to be replaced with a woman (Harry found the idea of a female in charge novel and a success for feminism in The Ark in Space, so he clearly didn't know about this development when he left).
Exploration Earth: The Time Machine - June 1975 (eventually)
Attempting to return to the "present" from 30,000 years in the future, the TARDIS overshoots and arrives in the distant past before Earth formed. The Doctor makes several jumps forward as he and Sarah deal with the chaos-loving Megron before finally arriving in a pleasant field of sheep in the present day and after defeating the Megron they are able to reconnect with UNIT and Harry.
The Pescatons - July 1975
The Doctor deduces it is "the mid-1970s" and later it is confirmed to be summer of 1975. At the end of the story, he bids farewell to Sarah and travels on alone but promises to see her again.
Pyramids of Mars - 1980
The Doctor does meet up with Sarah again, but he's changed his outfit and suffering a mid-life crisis. He reveals he has been summoned to help the Brigadier and UNIT in what Sarah would consider her past and, trying to cheer him up, puts on a Victorian dress for a laugh. The Osirian lodestone drags the TARDIS back to 1911 before the MOD HQ was built and an old priory was built.
Wartime - 1976
The Brigadier is still in England and Benton is still a Warrant Officer but is worried his career has stalled. After this mission pushes Benton to the brink of his sanity, and knowing Mike Yates also had a breakdown, the Brigadier decides to retire from the army for health reasons (but ends up spending lots of time in Geneva after this, arranging a replacement, while Colonel Farraday takes over in the UK).
The Android Invasion - July 1976
The Doctor and Sarah are still trying to get to UNIT HQ but the Doctor admits the coordinates were still set for 1980 and they arrive on the wrong planet entirely. That said, the dates on the money and the calendar are what they're expecting for their destination which is July 1976 (it seems UNIT summoned him back specifically to help with Crayford's return). Both Benton and Harry are expecting the Doctor to arrive alone, and Harry is surprised to see Sarah - in 1976 she's supposed to be living her life becoming the respectable author she is by 1981, not traveling with the Doctor. At the end of the story, she jokes about remaining in 1976 instead of taking the TARDIS "home" but chooses it anyway.
The Seeds of Death - October 1976
It's early (the 15th is a while away) in a month of Autumn and Harrison Chase is bewildered when ask by Amelia Ducat to write her a check for guineas. UNIT ask the Doctor back to help the World Ecology Bureau. He arrives alone, has no idea who is currently in charge of UNIT or where the Brigadier is (Geneva). He then heads off to collect Sarah (from 1980) and intends to travel straight to Antarctica in the TARDIS, but Sarah persuades him not to. The pre-set coordinates take them to Antarctica in the final scene because the Doctor forgets to cancel the programs.
The Hand of Fear - June 1977
The TARDIS scanner says "RD = 77" despite the Doctor aiming for South Croyden in 1980. Neither he nor Sarah suggest getting UNIT involved, so they're not familiar with a post-Lethbridge-Stewart organization even though Sarah eagerly offers to meet him and Harry when she leaves. The stock footage of the jets firing comes from 1976, so it makes sense it's after that. When the Doctor has a K9 for her, he sends it to her residence in 1978 and the crate is redirected to her Aunt Lavinia.
Mawdryn Undead - June 7th 1977
The Brigadier has finally managed to quit but is relieved when a teaching job at Brendon comes up to stop him giving up on life. By June he's not been there long enough to know the boys' names and considers himself "new". The Queen's Silver Jubilee is being celebrated the day the Brigadier meets Tegan and Mawdryn and later the same day the time differential traumatizes his memory and makes him forget everything about the Doctor and a lot of his time with UNIT. He becomes paranoid and avoids people from his past life as best as he can from this point was.
K9 & Company - December 1981
The Doctor accidentally leaves Sarah in Aberdeen but it seems he got the right year (she never says otherwise). She was expecting the Doctor to return for her, but if she was keeping her ear to the ground then she would have heard of an incident in the Pharos Project where a man in a scarf plunged to his death stopping a terrorist saying they were going to blackmail the universe on March 1st, 1981. Believing the Doctor to have died, she becomes stern and short-tempered and focuses on her career over her social life and decides to retreat to Morton Harwood for Christmas. Turns out the place is full of Satanists and she doesn't get a chance to write her book right away.
Mawdryn Undead - May 1983
It is "nearly six years" since June 1977.
The Five Doctors - March 1983
Sarah has moved back to London with K9, possibly trying to get away of all the witchcraft stories of the K9 and Company annual which covered events in 1982. Enough time has passed that Sarah refuses point blank the idea the Doctor could be involved, time travel or not, but she is not attending the UNIT reunion when she's abducted by the time scoop so it's probably before that. March 1983, judging by the weather and when it was filmed.
The Five Doctors - November 1983
Colonel
Chrichton has arranged a big reunion at the MOD HQ with
Lethbridge-Stewart as guest of honour with The Times and other
newspapers covering it. The Brigadier recognizes Tegan and the Fifth
Doctor, but has got healthy again and regrown his moustache. If it's
1983, then it's fifteen years since UNIT gained fame and credulity in
1968 and possibly fifteen years since Lethbridge-Stewart took over
running things. If it's late November, it's also sixteen years since the
Brig first met the Doctor in 1867.
Downtime - September 1987
This story is set fifteen years after the events of Fury from the Deep (1972) when shortly after Victoria left the Harrises and was lured to Det Sen where the Great Intelligence was hiding in Professor Travers' fresh corpse, so its circa 1987. Kate Stewart last spoke to her father six years ago (1981), presumably to tell him she was pregnant but the amnesiac paranoid Brigadier unwittingly drove her away. Gordy was born in late September 1982 and three years later she split up with her son's father Jonathan (1985). Edward Waterfield invested money for his daughter "130 years ago", presumably after her mother died and at a point before 1866. This year, the Brigadier is going to retire from Brendon as a teacher, where he's taught for the last ten years. There are PCs used throughout London (Kate has one on her houseboat) that are linked enough for the Great Intelligence to cause "computer flu" chaos, but England has had crude plans for a "computer internet" since 1966. Both Sarah and the Brigadier claim The Web of Fear was "twenty five years ago" but the former says this while pretending to have had no connection with UNIT (and she describes a version of events completely unlike the TV story, which lasted three months instead of one) while the latter is suffering repeated hallucinations and trips to the astral plane (not to mention his confused amnesiac years) and thus might be confused. Sarah makes a joke about a still-living Robert Maxwell (so it's pre-November-1991), but the New World University computer says the date is 14/9/1995 which could be wrong (Daniel Hinton is trying to hack the mainframe, so he's already suspicious even if none of the other students at NWU are). The Brigadier ends the story reconnecting with his daughter and grandson, as well as renewing his friendship with Sarah which they maintain into the next century.
Battlefield - May 1990
Since reuniting with Kate and his grandson, the Brig has very distinctly cut off all ties to the military and refuses to talk to them until he hears the Doctor's back. He's also hooked up with Doris and married her, moving into her big fancy country mansion and taken up gardening (but we can assume he and Doris caught up years earlier and have only just tied the knot), but his retirement from teaching is still recent. He mocks the idea of "the King" ringing him up which suggests either a) it seemed Elizabeth II was about to abdicate at the time for some reason or b) Doris is a huge Elvis fan. In any case, the Doctor describes this time zone as a few years in Ace's future (a bit vague, but
her most recent badge when we met her was from 1986 and when she goes
to Perivale at a time where she's "been away for as long as she thinks
she has", the latest posters are from 1987). Zibregniev served under Lethbridge-Stewart and knew the Doctor, hearing of his regeneration (so 1975-76), and is still serving as a solider. There are road-signs in kilometres, a voice-activated phone at the Cadbury Arms (which no one is surprised doesn't work, so maybe it's just Patrick trying to stay cool and relevant with the latest short-lived trends, hence the exorbitant prices at the pub to make ends meet). The Doctor pays for drinks with a five pound coin, which would be legal tender from 1990 onwards. More significantly, Czechoslovakia hasn't finished splitting into different states yet (which happened in 1990) so it's clearly 1990.
Daemos Rising - 31 October 1991
Captain Douglas Cavendish, a high-ranking UNIT security officer until he was recruited by the Great Intelligence, has a breakdown and sent to a mental asylum (Kate was his only visitor and Cavendish developed a big crush on her as a result) before he was retired from the organization on medical grounds. Since then, he looted UNIT vault outside London for some useful artifacts as a "pension" - including a dead giant maggot, a Dalek gun-stick, an Auton head, the chest unit of an 80s Cyberman, a paintbrush, a jar of jelly babies - a Daemon spell book that Daemon-worshippers from an apocalyptic future use to influence the mentally-vulnerable Cavendish to carry out black magic rituals. In the present, on Halloween, Kate only comes to see Cavendish because her best friend Beth is babysitting her son (so she still considers him too young to be on his own). She is still very skeptical about UNIT's otherworldly enemies and says she doesn't believe in ghosts (despite having met one who was, at last count, her son's imaginary friend at the end of Downtime). She compares the description of the UNIT vault to the work of Damien Hirst (who had risen to public acclaim in the early 1990s). Given how ignorant Kate still is of her father's work, her son needing a baby sitter, and how long Cavendish seems to have spent recovering, I'd say it's been five years since Downtime. It's worth noting that by 2014, Kate has been married and divorced and now has two children - could she have tried to make a go of it with Cavendish, who she and her father already consider "a good man"? This adventure is no doubt why Kate takes UNIT vault security
very seriously whern she's in charge, knowing what could happen, and is
willing to condone mind-wiping personnel to stop the stress of UNIT
driving them insane...
Cavendish noted the AURI vault he stole from was full of window dummies (and took an Auton head as a souvenir), so this occurs after his visit. Up until "five years ago" it was virtually forgotten with "mountains of old paperwork" Archivist Graham Winslett has made little headway in the stocktake since, though he's a dedicated worker there for the last seven years. Possibly Cavendish's theft got the attention of facility director Sally Arnold and made her insist on a stocktake, but she and the staff of the world have a contract with UNIT but not actually on staff. While they're up-to-date with contamination and biohazard protocols, they have next-to-no knowledge of the artifacts and their dangers and are paranoid UNIT containment teams execute those who see too much (the deaths are actually down to the alien threats who require containing). Neither energy unit here is the one the Master used in Terror of the Autons,
and the Doctor's ECT gizmo still works (so presumably the Spearhead
Autons are vulnerable even if the Terror ones were immune). Lockwood is
vague about how much he knows of "Dr. John Smith" but admires his work. Despite her qualifications and usefulness, UNIT keep Sally Arnold in the dark while simultaneously giving her permission to acces their deep space satellites using the vault modem without even needing permission. Lockwood agrees that the lack of communication between departments is down to financial cutbacks and a danger in and of itself, so Farquhar's 30-year-investment (1967-97) has clearly run out by this time, so it's 1998 at the earliest.
Lockwood and Arnold repeatedly date events of the previous film as happening "two years ago". The Nestenes buried a billion of their number on prehistoric Earth as an investment (reviving it was probably on the Autons' to do list on their previous incursions) but the awoken Nestene transfers itself into mental energy and downloads itself into Lockwood's mind and his neural implant. It is capable of forging and creating Autons out of mental energy, but Lockwood self-destructs and wipes out all the new Autons and Nestenes. When the Nestene Consciousness flees to Earth five years later in Rose, it is clearly out of desperation and has none of the resources shown in these films and UNIT likewise has lost everyone willing and able to keep an eye out for its return.
Aliens of London - March 2006
The Doctor and Jackie confirm twelve months have passed since Rose went off in the TARDIS, and the missing posters say that was March 2005. The Doctor identifies UNIT as "United Nations" rather than Unified, but not to any of the members who would correct him (none of the UNIT experts seem surprised he's there, but they probably know enough about regeneration not to ask). In case of an alien incursion, software activates to locate the Doctor and informs the government (or at least CC's them about it as well as UNIT). Mickey's use of the Bad Wolf virus the Doctor gives him explains why UNIT find it so hard to track him down after this.
The Christmas Invasion - December 2006
UNIT's main base is now under the Tower of London and defer to Prime Minister Harriet Jones (possibly because most of their local top brass were killed by the Slitheen and Jones doesn't need to be told aliens are real). They have effective translation software, an accurate archive of aliens, and Major Blake both considers the Doctor a legendary figure but is hugely-intimidated by the Torchwood Institute's power and authority even when facing a planetary invasion - so perhaps UNIT has actually been relying on Torchwood to sort things out more often than not, in England at least, since 1990.
School Reunion - January 2007
Given Rise of the Cybermen shows Mickey and Rose consider their "present" to be the end of January in 2007, then that's when this story must be set. Both Mickey and Sarah are investigating growing evidence of alien activity that started the previous year, especially when Torchwood deem it worth their attention (not that they ever actually seem to investigate themselves). Sarah fondly describes the events of The Christmas Invasion, the most recent Christmas, and confirms that her memory of The Five Doctors was wiped and she still believed the Doctor perished in his fourth incarnation (any other Doctors she observed she probably assumed were prior ones, like the Morbius Doctors).
The Sound of Drums - June 2008
Having been stranded on Earth for eighteen months or so (he's got a political party getting headlines in Love & Monsters and able to order the troops to nuke the Rachnoss in The Runaway Bride) the Master gets himself elected with a mix of his own charisma and the hypnosis of the Archangel Network. He deliberately declares he is making first contact with the Toclafane, knowing the UN will try and take over the situation and hold the ceremony on the Valiant air carrier which the Master has already converted into a base of operations with the TARDIS Paradox Machine installed. He then has some of the Toclafane to target Geneva to slaughter UNIT High Command for a laugh. When the paradox is broken and the Master is apparently killed and taken away, UNIT are able to diffuse the situation to prevent England and America going to war over the Master killing Winters.
The Sontaran Stratagem - February 2009
It's been "a few days" since the events of Partners in Crime (which wasn't long after Voyage of the Damned judging by how Donna dismisses the Titanic, and how in Turn Left Miss Foster needs to start Adipose Industries in America after Britain is devastated). Martha has been recruited by UNIT (now officially "Unified" rather than "United Nations") and field-qualified as a doctor, rather straining her engagement with Tom Milligan. Her sabbatical in Torchwood occurred the previous year, 2008, and convinced her she was better off with UNIT, and she gets on well with the leader of the British division, Colonel Mace who is not quite as trigger-happy as other UNIT officers (and presumably took over from Major Blake when he was killed by the Sycorax).Meanwhile, the Brigadier has been knighted as Sir Alistair (presumably for stuff UNIT didn't want to keep secret, maybe charity work to cover his recon missions to Peru). The weather suggests it's the end of winter.
Journey's End - March 2009
(The Sarah-Jane Adventures were launched eighteen months or so after School Reunion, so July 2008. There's no mention of Rani, only Clyde and Maria, so this is set between The Lost Boy and The Last Sontaran, which deals with a survivor of The Sontaran Stratagem. Torchwood launched months after Doomsday, leading up to Christmas 2007. Owen and Tosh have died recently, so this is set between Exit Wounds and Children of Earth.) In the Turn Left universe, three weeks separated the Sontaran attack and the Reality Bomb being detonation, which (given the Time Beetle is trying to keep distortions to a minimum) also applies here. UNIT have been reverse-engineering the Sontaran teleport under the code-name Project: Indigo and Martha is now based in New York, presumably because of her experience with Sontarans but it's worth noting we last saw her happily going to see her fiance in England and is now dressed in black, borderline suicidal and avoiding Europe and never mentions Tom Milligan again (so presumably he perished in the ATMOS fumes and Martha isn't coping very well). Despite all the chaos of the Dalek invasion, there are very few
casualties (the gravity engine needs a reasonably-intact 2009 Earth,
hence the atmospheric shell to protect the population) and the Daleks
are even shown to spare Adelaide Brooke perhaps down to Dalek Caan's
prophecies. It's a day or so after returning to Earth that the Children of Time leave the TARDIS as all the celebrations are over and people are acting normally. After Earth is returned, Jack suggests Martha quit UNIT and join Torchwood, but she declines and is later said to be on her honeymoon during the 456 crisis (apparently having married Mickey out of their mutual traumatic issues and frustration with the Doctor and Rose).
Planet of the Dead - April 2009
It's Easter at some point after Journey's End - the bus passengers mention "planets in the sky", UNIT is called in for the slightest sign of trouble. The Doctor notes that UNIT needs fresh recruits, and the organization is depleted from the Dalek purges (presumably why Captain Erisa Magambo is in charge, as Colonel Mace was exterminated, and their scientific advisor is the scruffy Malcolm Taylor who is clearly new to working in the military) and by now the Doctor's reputation for bringing apocalyptic chaos means he doesn't get the respect he had before. But Neon by Naismith is still an ongoing business concern, and Carmen sees the events of The End of Time as the future rather than the past (and the Dalek Invasion has yet to be consumed by the cracks in time which were first noticed in 2010) so it's still 2009, which will be relatively quiet for the rest of the year bar the 456 in Torchwood: Children of Earth and the various threats Sarah-Jane has to defeat in between trying to get married to a corpse. Later in the year both Sarah and the Brigadier agree with Jack that UNIT
isn't as reliable as it should be, given how easily infiltrated it is
in Enemy of the Bane and how easily they capitulate to the 456. This might be what causes Kate to take over UNIT and "drag them them kicking and screaming" to a more sophisticated state, which takes a long time and the Eleventh Doctor doesn't know about (so he's given up on the organization as whole as well).
The End of Time - December 2009
The Christmas specials are all set consecutively, except for The Next Doctor where it's Christmas 1851, so this synchs up Doctor Who with the year of broadcast for the first time since Aliens of London. It's over a year since Lucy Saxon was locked up, partially to atone for her crimes with the Master, but also to
lure out the Master's followers who need her to resurrect the Master.
This ultimately takes a long time to arrange but by that time not only
is Lucy ready with an antidote to destroy the reborn Master, Joshua
Naismith has learned of the scheme and is keeping an eye on the women's
prison in case it works - as the Master might be able to help him repair the Immortality Gate. After transforming the human race into his own clones, the Master has UNIT Command in Geneva try and track down the Vinvocci ship Hesperus and then take it down with every missile they can. Rassilon seemingly deletes the moment the Master used the Gate and humanity is returned to normal, albeit bewildered.
The Bells of Saint John - May 2013
Rosemary Kizlet encountered the Great Intelligence as a child in November 1967, some forty-six years ago when she was accidentally abandoned in the London Underground (presumably the Intelligence intended to use her as a hostage to blackmail the Doctor, but ultimately was recruited when the plan failed and has, as per the Intelligence's threats to consume human minds if it can't get the Doctor, developed the spoonhead-robots to do just that). When the Intelligence "resets" her she is reduced to a little girl confused as to where her parents are gone. The Doctor summons UNIT to take down the shard, but neither of them are aware of the Intelligence's involvement - the Intelligence, for its part, considers UNIT "old friends", in reference to fighting the taskforce in The Web of Fear and Downtime.
The Day of the Doctor - November 2013
By this time Kate Stewart is in charge of UNIT and had the rough task of rehabilitating the whole organization. Malcolm Taylor is still working for UNIT but seems more of a caretaker while Petronella Osgood is doing more of the scientific advisor stuff. The Curator contacted UNIT about the Zygon outbreak, but gave no details so they would collect his eleventh self to sort it out (neither Kate nor Osgood seem to meet him directly or notice he looks like an older Fourth Doctor, so Osgood's scarf is probably her own rather than a gift). Kate has researched the Doctor and numerous companions, and apparently mind-wiped them so they don't know about the Black Archive, but has met the Eleventh Doctor before and expects him to recognize her, but she still treats him with lots of reverence and surprise rather than the blunter treatment of later. The Black Archive has been relocated from the compromised version in Enemy of the Bane, and records of The Three Doctors have been given a false dating protocol so the files are dated to the wrong decade for security reasons. The space-time telegraph is in the Archive and the Doctors adjust it to act as a vocal communicator, albeit to little effect. Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart is dead by this time (he passed away peacefully in hospital, apparently never seeing the Doctor again, but there are hints this was just a story the Brig told people to guilt-trip the Doctor into going back in time to spend time with him). The Osgoods establish the Zygon truce with the Elizabethan-era Zygons and their new generation of hatchlings assimilating into humanity, with the idea of a doomsday weapon Osgood Box to lure extremists on either side of the conflict to the Black Archive where there's a chance of renegotiating the ceasefire.
Death In Heaven - July 2014
Clara was taken back to Christmas 2013 in Deep Breath, but it was in Glasgow and the Doctor went off on his own devices for three weeks before he returned by which time Clara was back at Coal Hill at the start of term where she met Danny Pink for the first time. They started dating for the next few months until the Doctor found out, Clara considered leaving, then tried to fool Danny that she had abandoned the Doctor while two-timing him. So it's around mid-2014 when Danny is run over, and Missy has already warned UNIT so they will arrive at the same time the Doctor is there for maximum dramatic effect. By now, the international cooperation of Robot has now reached the point that the Doctor is declared President of Earth if there is a confirmed global incursion (which neither the Doctor nor Missy seem to know about) and given full authority. Missy responds by killing the Zygon Osgood (who's poor knowledge of Gerry Anderson gives her away), having the Cybermen tear the plane apart, and throwing Kate and the Doctor to their apparent deaths. The Brigadier's cyber-converted body is able to save his daughter and then blast Missy, unwittingly giving her the energy to teleport herself to safety, before leaving Earth. Kate's manner implies she's met the Twelfth Doctor before, as she's not surprised by his new face but critiques his hair. A few weeks later, the Nethersphere closes down and Clara uses her contacts with UNIT to reunite the no-longer dead boy with his family while saying goodbye to the Doctor forever. That said, with the remaining Osgood having a breakdown, she helps Kate and Osgood's replacement Jac at the Tower of London base. Clara is determined to only bring the Doctor in for major crises, not trusting him to take it seriously, and helps solve things often enough she is a de facto UNIT employee. She keeps this up even after she is reunited with the Doctor that Christmas.
The Magician's Apprentice - 2015
Clara is now one of the very few individuals who has unfettered access to the Black Archive and continues to triage cases worthy of the Doctor and this is the first one, apparently worth it when Missy returns. The Doctor also does not respond to their calls, which is considered alarming in and of itself, even with his Twelfth incarnation.
The Zygon Invasion - 2015
With an Osgood's death, the peace was no longer maintained and the arrogant Zygon High Command made very little effort to help the next generation assimilate and acclimatize with humanity, often sending them unprepared to overpopulated and inappropriate spots. The Zygons found themselves regularly abused and attacked even though they were passing as humans, making them grow increasingly angry with mankind. When a young Zygon lost control in the town of Truth and Consequences and attacked, the Zygons retaliated by wiping out the humans and using the town's name as their credo. Zygon training camps (where they learned to be human) in Turzmenistan were radicalized into terrorist cells and TAC captured Osgood to ensure UNIT couldn't get a handle on events, while High Command were publicly executed as traitors. The Doctor, however, as part of setting up the truce also went back in time to meet Harry Sullivan and together they falsified evidence that Harry developed an anti-Zygon bioweapon ("the imbecile gas") which the Doctor stole, to give credibility to the destructive power of the Osgood Box. Together with the mind-wiping abilities of the Black Archive, the Doctor was able to convince the leader of TAC, Bonnie, to stand down and become the new Zygon High Command and restore the ceasefire. She then became the other Osgood to maintain the truce, while Kate and other UNIT officers were left mindwiped so they wouldn't start reprisals against TAC or innocent Zygons and the peace would maintain.
Face the Raven - 2015
Rigsy informs the authorities of Clara's death, which alerts UNIT but by the time they come to collect the TARDIS, it is already vanished. They get a call from the Twelfth Doctor, who doesn't remember who Clara is and is now stuck in America, hitchhiking until he works out his next move. Ashildr's Trap Street remains hidden from humanity as the Doctor and Riggsy keep the secret.
The Return of Dr. Mysterio - June 2016
It's
24 years since Grant first met Lucy in elementary school, which would
have been when he five to ten years old but seemingly before he got
super-powers at Christmas (so he was between six to nine years old when
he first met her). Puberty kicks in when Grant's high school (the Doctor
visits Grant as it gets bad, in the year 2001 as DJ Keoki's Pass It On plays).
So if he's circa 14 in 2001, he must have been born circa 1987. He met
Lucy in 1992 and twenty four years later is 2016. UNIT are still using
Osgood, and Nardole has no concern about the Doctor being distracted by
Bill, so this is before they met that same year. They're investigating
Harmony Shoal (who have been infiltrating humanity for the last five
years) as a possible security risk to keeping Missy in the Vault but the
Doctor is finding it increasingly hard to distract himself from his
loneliness and grief after River Song died. But the cubes aren't around,
so it must be pre the Slow Invasion.The Power of Three - July 2016 to July 2017
The Ponds leave the Doctor in 2011 (The God Complex) and the Doctor returns for Christmas two years later (The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe) in 2013. Pond Life and Asylum of the Daleks covers 2014, while the Doctor's visits get "further and further apart" by Dinosaurs on a Spaceship which could be in 2015. Power of Three covers "the year of the Slow Invasion" rather than a calendar year, from July (gay marriage is legal, so post-2014) to the same month the next year. So it's perfectly possible that when Kate Stewart arrives (with a different haircut to her usual one) she's aware that this is the first time the Eleventh Doctor meets her, rather than the other way round and she makes no mention of her other visits to prevent spoilers (this sort of timey-wimey stuff is to be expected). UNIT is still under the Tower of London, but there is no sign of Osgood which makes sense if she is either maintaining the Zygon truce or, just as likely, in New York dealing with the fallout of Harmony Shoal. Alan Sugar is seen on TV getting people to try and sell cubes, presumably in The Apprentice which was only off-air in 2020, so it's easily a 2017 episode. Amy says by June 2017 both Banksy and Damien Hirst denied being responsible for the cubes, which is also quite credible as they were alive and active in 2017 (and indeed, still active today).
The Pyramid at the End of the World - August 2017
The Doctor started tutoring Bill in 2016, even spending Christmas with her, and first introduced her to the TARDIS in 2017. His self-imposed "exile" at St. Luke's seems to ensure not even UNIT can come for him - maybe he's used the Bad Wolf virus again, as he knows they won't be overjoyed to see him keeping Missy in the vault trying to reform her. This is presumably why Kate went after the Eleventh Doctor to help with the cubes because she knew where he was, but enough research has happened in the meantime for them to know Bill Potts is his current companion. When the Monks arrive at Turmezistan (where UNIT presumably have a command base), they send the UN Secretary General to track down the Doctor as President of the World and also a third Bird One one (which isn't blown up, for a change). Perhaps because it's precisely the sort of things the Monks could predict, the Doctor doesn't have any direct dealings with UNIT, but he and Nardole make use of their "watch lists". Bill says Donald Trump is President of the United States (he won the office in January 2017, but notably the Monk's simulation in Extremis thought this was a ridiculous idea and generated a different winner). At the end of the episode, the Monks are able to temporarily brainwash the Earth's population that they have been on the planet for ages and wipe people's short-term memories (even Bill doesn't know how she gets from Turmezistan back to England). They they begin a sustained broadcast of psychic fake news to reinforce this idea, but certain humans are able to find the clear evidence otherwise and twig.
Survivors of the Flux - January 2018
Bill says the Monk invasion only lasted for six months but at the end of it the majority of humanity have forgotten it ever occurred, ignoring the broken Monk statues and others. Given the Monks also took credit for protecting mankind from various alien threats, it makes sense that the majority of humanity disbelieve in alien life (such as Graham) and thus UNIT would suddenly seem a ridiculously expensive and needless waste of resources in late 2017. The Grand Serpent, having killed his way to be part of the UNIT Oversight Committee, is able to use this crisis to shut down UNIT so he will be in control of Earth defenses and thus able to sell out the planet to the Sontarans (whereupon he will betray the Sontarans, portraying himself as a hero to humanity so they willingly make him their new ruler). Given all the anti-brainwashing training Kate and other UNIT personnel must go through, it's not surprising that they still remember the "real" history rather than Monk versions, but 'Prentiss' doesn't say if he is one of them. After he destroys Kate's house with a bomb, Kate contacts an Osgood and goes on the run off-grid. The Grand Serpent thus shuts down UNIT and by New Year's Day 2019, no one seems to remember what it is (or at least the lady in Resolution who answers the Doctor's phone call to UNIT is one of the Great Serpent acolytes).
The Halloween Apocalypse - October 31st 2021
The captions show Dan meets Karvanista, Yaz and the Doctor "201 years" after 1820, so 2021. It's Halloween night when the Flux reaches the Milky Way but the vortex energy from the TARDIS disperses the wave before it can reach the Solar System.
War of the Sontarans - November 3rd 2021
It's been "two days or so" since Dan vanished, during which there was the three minute eclipse (of the Lupari ships encircling the Earth) then the Sontarans storming Liverpool Docks, then the rest of the world. The Sontarans intend to use the Liverpool Docks to create a war fleet that will go back in time to Crimea 1885 and rewrite history, but Karvanista destroys the fleet before they launch and the temporal explosion causes the Sontaran invasion to unhappen. The distorted version of the Crimean War also has the fleet destroyed and the resulting paradoxes, however, mean everyone remembers it.
Survivors of the Flux - November 2021
The Grand Serpent makes contact with the Sontarans and agrees to turn Earth's defenses against itself (so the Lupari will be forced to let the invasion occur or see humanity destroyed). He presumably takes at least a few days convincing the Sontarans he can and will do as promised, and allows enough time for Stenk's fury over the defeat grow enough for him to be manipulated. The Sontaran invasion is virtually instantaneous, helped by people remembering the last invasion and not fighting back.
The Vanquishers - December 2021
Kate has set herself up as leader of the human resistance which is organized and well-known as a threat enough for both the Grand Serpent and the Sontarans to know about it. The Sontarans have been preparing their betrayal of the Daleks and the Cybermen for a while, long enough for their ground troops to start raiding corner shops for chocolate. This is the first time the Grand Serpent meets the "legendary" Doctor but nonetheless considers Kate a higher priority, if only out of sheer pride. Dalek survivors of the Flux immediately lay an ambush for the Doctor on 24th December that year in Eve of the Daleks, so it's likely the middle of the month when everything is sorted out.
The Power of the Doctor - 2022
Captions and the Doctor confirm this story's modern scenes are in 2022 (adding "106 years after 1916"). Tegan grumbles she hasn't seen the Doctor for 38 years (she's referring to Resurrection of the Daleks which was dated on-screen as 1984) and Ace says its been "three decades" (so assuming she hasn't traveled in time, last saw the Doctor in 1992, though Tales of the TARDIS say they parted company right after Dimensions in Time which would be 1993 and only 29 years ago). UNIT is now properly operational again with a brand new HQ Kate has just paid off, with vaults and emergency floor lockers in many rooms (containing gold-firing anti-Cybermen guns). There is a special lockdown and self-destruct mechanism. Some time passes for Graham to organize the support group meeting and gathers himself, Dan, Yaz, Kate, Tegan, Ace, Jo, Mel and Ian to their first get-together which is presumably the same year, but could be 2023 (Yaz is too upset to give a damn how long away she's been). Mel recently returned to Earth but was left at a loose end as she had no friends or family (due to an incident the Seventh Doctor at least was aware of) but when Graham invites her to Companions Anonymous, she is offered a job at UNIT by Kate and accepts. It's unclear if anyone else signs up (Ian's probably too old, Dan wants a quiet life and Yaz might still be too raw from losing the Doctor).
The Star Beast/Wild Blue Yonder/The Giggle - November 2023
The Toymaker says he will face the Doctor for the tie-breaker in "2023", but the Doctor's detector will sense the Toymaker's influence over the last 89 years (implying it's that long since 1925, but that would make the present day 2014). A flustered, not-wanting-to-go-into-detail Sylvia says Donna's breakdown was "fifteen years ago" (and if she means Donna's mindwipe in 2009 means it is 2024). We see flashbacks to Donna's wedding, which Wilf said would be in Summer 2010. Donna doesn't look pregnant, but its possible she had the baby later that year and her maternal joy fueled her decision to get rid of the lottery money, so Rose is at least thirteen going on fourteen (there's no mention of her birthday or Christmas, hinting she was born in December) and her mature look could be down to her relatively-recent transitioning and a side-effect of the meta-crisis (or maybe living with Sylvia her whole life has prematurely-aged her). Both Fourteenth and Fifteenth Doctors say that Sarah Jane Smith is dead by this time (her memorial service was held in April 2020, where Rani noted there was no body and believed that Sarah had rejoined the Doctor though everyone else considered her dead - could she have died after rejoining the TARDIS? - but the Doctor did not attend the funeral). In any case, UNIT has a new skyscraper with lots of logos fully functional and openly public (perhaps it proved cheaper to build an HQ instead of repurpose a secret one after the last one exploded). Shirley Bingham is officially UNIT's 56th scientific advisor and not only knows the Tenth through Thirteenth Doctor's faces but also their order. Mel and later Donna are put on staff, and Kate notes the Doctor's President of the World status is still legitimate enough to outweigh the chaos following UNIT blowing up a non-military Korean satellite. The trilogy takes place over a week, with the Doctor and Donna leaving in the TARDIS on the second day and returning two days later when the world is plunging into chaos. The Toymaker is defeated and the newborn Fifteenth Doctor leaves at the end of the fifth day. The Fourteenth Doctor is later shown living with the Nobles and has been there long enough to take Donna's daughter for a few trips in the TARDIS and Mel to be nominated as an honorary member of the family, so the last scene could be in Spring 2024.
Ghosts in the Machine - November 2119
UNIT still exists after 153 years and is reasonably well-known and respected as Earth's "first line of defense". They recognize the Doctor's security code if not the Twelfth Doctor's voice and follow his instructions without objection. Alice O'Donnell, while not a member, is fascinated with the organization and from her time in military intelligence knows not only of the Doctor and the TARDIS but Rose, Martha and Amy. She considers three of the biggest events of the 21st Century to be Harold Saxon as PM (2008), an event surrounding "the Minister of War" and the moon turning out to be the egg for a giant winged creature (2049) but cannot off the top of her head recall anything from 1980-2000. Captain Jonathon Moran's diary entry says it is the 21st when they find the Tivolian hearse and that day the ghost of Albar Prentis uses the engine boosters to fry him alive and create another ghost.
