Timeline - The 21st Century
The 21st century is when... everything gets really complicated and gives me a headache.
Unsurprising really. Obviously the 21st century is when the bulk of the episodes relevant to this timeline occur, so each year has to hold a lot more information. It's also a period where we're less likely to have exact dates that things happen as they're rarely stated in the episodes. And when they are stated it's not always clear whether they are a precise date or more vague.
For example, in Fragments we have several in-episode captions which I have chosen to treat differently:- the first two say 'Five years earlier' and 'Four years earlier' respectively, I have chosen to treat these as vague dates so they simply refer to the date of the episode (2009) minus the number of years mentioned to give the year that the events shown happened - so five years previously refers generally to 2004. In contrast the caption for Ianto's section states it is '21 months previously' - as this number is in itself more precise, I have chosen to treat this as an exact statement of time.
Because of the sheer amount of information I have as much as possible tried to assign events/episodes to specific months. This has had to be based on a lot of speculation - where speculation is involved I have marked the date with this sign (s).
This seems a fair time to discuss why I've chosen to use this timeline. Basically the direct dating evidence we're given in new-Who provides two potential timelines - what I'd call the Concurrent Timeline (where the present-day episodes are dated approximately to their air date) and the Delayed Timeline (where the present-day episodes occur approximately a year after their air date). These two episodes have almost completely comparative evidence (bizarrely) as shown in the table below.
EVIDENCE TYPECONCURRENT TIMELINEDELAYED TIMELINEA date shown on screen with a passage of time in dialogue.In Torchwood: Exit Wounds we see a computer display which says that Owen was born in February 1980, while in Dead Man Walking we are told that Owen is 27 years old when he dies meaning this episode should occur between February 2007 and February 2008.In Doctor Who: Aliens of London we see a poster that states Rose went missing in March 2005 and the Doctor tells us that it's been 12 months since she left with him. Placing the episode in March 2006.A date of birth and an age are given in dialogue, giving a period of time that the episode should occur within.In Torchwood: Reset Owen states that Meredith Roberts was born in January 1962 and was 45 when she died during the course of the episode - placing the episode between January 2007 and January 2008In Torchwood: To The Last Man we're told that Tommy Brockless was born at the beginning of February 1894 and is (from one perspective) 114 years old. This means the episode must occur between February 2008 and February 2009. This potentially could fit into the Concurrent Timeline with only the first two episodes occuring in 2007. However, for both this evidence and the information about Owen's birth date and death age to be correct, every episode between To The Last Man and Reset would have to occur within the space of a week.A year date is given alongside a non-specific passage of time that could be rounded up or down.In Torchwood: Exit Wounds Jack is unburied by Torchwood in 1901 and states that he needs to be frozen for 107 years. Given the time of the year this could be fitted into the Delayed timeline.In Torchwood: Ghost Machine Thomas Erasmus Flanagan tells us he has lived in Cardiff for 66 years since he was evacuated from the city in 1941 setting the episode in roughly 2007.
Alongside this evidence above we also have a date from Torchwood: Adrift where we are given Jonas' birth and age, which sets the episode between February 2008 and February 2009 - this could fit within either timeline.
There's little to choose between the two lots of evidence, so it's a personal choice which one you choose, the timeline here is the Delayed Timeline (lefaym has laid out an excellent version of the Concurrent Timeline here: lefaym.livejournal.com/22789.html).
I've chosen to follow the Delayed Timeline for the following reasons - firstly I'm placing slightly more value on the Doctor Who date as that so far hasn't been contradicted within the programme, while Torchwood has contradicted itself several times - Owen's birth date in particular, which is the primary evidence for the Concurrent Timeline, has produced reams of debate and problems. Secondly, the producers have stated that they intended the episodes to occur a year after the air date in interview and in Russel T Davies' book The Writers Tale. This is also the timeline that is followed in The Time Traveller's Almanac and the Torchwood: Archives.
Hope that explains it all clearly.
2000
JANUARY
1st - Jack Harkness takes control of Torchwood 3 following the slaughter of the previous team by their leader Alex Hopkins. (Speculation based on TW: F, though it is possible that Jack did not take over the position immediately)
2001
JUNE
15th - Work starts on making Flatholm Island suitable for inhabitation with the extension and redevelopment of the Second World War bunkers. (Archives page 145)
SEPTEMBER
EDU - Owen works on Lucy Marmer's body, she is a victim of 'Mary'. (Date shown on a computer screen in TW: GBG; Archives page 79) *(1)
2002
EDU - Ianto's father dies. (Archives page 49)
2004
OCTOBER / NOVEMBER
EDU (s) - FRAGMENTS (flashback) - Toshiko is caught smuggling information from the MOD to an unknown group in order to protect her Mother's life, she is arrested and imprisoned by UNIT. (The year date is based upon the caption '5 years earlier' seen in the episode, presuming that it isn't an exact number; I've chosen to place it in one of these months to match what Mary tells us in TW: GBG. Mary says that Toshiko joined Torchwood three years ago which appears to be a contradiction to references in the Torchwood Archive that say she joined in 2005 (page 44). However, from what Mary says we also know that Toshiko's history has been altered to hide her period of imprisonmnt - it seems reasonable to suggest that it was altered so that she left the MOD to join Torchwood, instead of being imprisoned at this point. As an alternative, the start of Toshiko's flashback could be placed earlier in 2004 and then following her eight month imprisonment she could come to work for Torchwood in November 2004 and still match Marys information, though not that printed in the Torchwood Archives); Archives page 46)
2005
MARCH
5th & 6th - ROSE - (Posters seen in DW: AOL state that Rose went missing on the 6th March 2005, giving us the end date for this episode; Almanac page 66)
EDU - THE END OF THE WORLD (part) - Either shortly before or more likely just after the previous entry Jackie recieves a phone call from Rose, who is on Platform 1. (It is clear in the episode that Rose is not yet considered missing but is unlikely to be too much before because of the danger of Rose being present during the call. Phone calls appear to follow the character diallings personal timeline to avoid such conflicts)
JUNE / JULY
EDU (s) - FRAGMENTS (flashback) - Jack rescues Toshiko from prison and she comes to work at Torchwood 3. (Based on the speculated date for the beginning of the Fragments sequence and a statement in the Torchwood Archives that says Toshiko was imprisoned for 8 months on page 46; Archives page 44)
EDU (s) - FRAGMENTS (flashback) - Owen's fiance Katie becomes ill when her brain is infected by an alien, Jack Harkness arrives while she is on the operating table but is unable to save her or the medical team operating on her. Owen is told that Katie died of natural causes but is convinced otherwise and because of his obsession with the issue is put on suspension. (The year date is taken from a caption seen in TW: EW, which is reportedly set in Spring 2009 and states the beginning of this sequence happens 4 years previously. I'm assuming that this is not a precise period of time but simply refers to 2009 - 4. In terms of when in the year this happens, it may occur up to roughly seven or eights months before Owen is appointed to Torchwood in February 2006 or may be over a much shorter period. This length of time is based upon there being some time before the first scene and Katie's death and then there may be up to 6 months following her funeral before Jack asks Owen to join Torchwood - this being the length of time a wooden marker can be left in most cemetaries in the UK before being replaced by a grave stone. If a longer time is assumed then this allows time for Owen's suspension to have finished and for him to have undertaken several relationships with patients, as originally suggested on the Torchwood website.)
EDU - Ianto begins working for Torchwood 1, possibly after graduating from university. (Archives page 48)
EDU - 'Adam's' fictional arrival at Torchwood 3. (Archives page 125)
2006
FEBRUARY
20th (approx) (s) / EDU - FRAGMENTS (flashback) - Owen starts work at Torchwood 3 - (We are told in TW: EW that Owen started working for Torchwood roughly two weeks before the space pig incident in DW: AOL - based on the speculated date for that episode (see next entry) we arrive at some date in late February. It is also tempting to place this slightly earlier, so that Owen is visiting Katie's grave on his birthday on the 14th February; Archives page 44)
MARCH
6th & 7th (s) / EDU - ALIENS OF LONDON / WORLD WAR THREE - (In the episode we are told that Rose has been missing an entire year, so this is the earliest date these episodes could occur. Although we have no exact date for the episodes, it seems reasonable to assume that the Doctor hit the date and month he was aiming for but missed by a year so I have placed these episodes on this date; Almanac page 68; Archives page 47)
SEPTEMBER
EDU - BOOM TOWN - well the events of this episode are occuring Torchwood Jack and the team are in lock down in the Hub, directly above them the tremors occur. (An in episode caption tells us that 6 months have passed since DW: AOL and DW: WWT - giving the speculated placing of March for these episodes, we can place this episode in September; Almanac page 74; Archive page 33).
EDU - PARTING OF THE WAYS (parts) - (We know that this episode must occur after DW: BT, because Mickey states he hasn't seen Rose for 6 months prior to that episode and before Christmas, which is when DW: TCI is believed to have occurred)
DECEMBER
24th and 25th - THE CHRISTMAS INVASION - (The date is given in the episode; the year is reached because Jackie's reaction suggests this occurs after she has learnt Rose is travelling with the Doctor and presumably after DW: TPOTW and placing the episode in 2007 or later leads to clashes with dates given in other episodes; Almanac page 76)
EDU - NEW EARTH (first scene) - Rose says goodbye to her mother and Mickey. (It is implied in the episode is Rose's first trip with the newly regenerated Doctor following his recovery, suggesting that these scenes occur slightly after DW: TCI)
2007
JANUARY / FEBRUARY
EDU - SCHOOL REUNION - (The exact date is unknown but Sarah Jane refers to the events of DW: TCI, so it must follow on from then and it must occur prior to DW: L&M which occurs in March as Mickey is present. So the episode must take place in either January, February or early March)
EDU - THE AGE OF STEEL (final scene) - Rose returns to earth to see her Mother following events on the parallel earth and Mickey's decision to stay there. (This must occur after DW: SR and probably before DW: L&M as Jackie appears to know by that episode that Mickey will not be returning)
EDU - Saxon sets up the Archangel Network. (Almanac page 93)
MARCH
EDU - LOVE AND MONSTERS - (We know that this episode happens after DW: TCI because it refers to events that happen in that episode, and before DW: AOG, because there are no ghosts present. Elton also tells us that Kennedy arrived on a "Tuesday night in March", so the majority of the episodes events are likely to occur during this month)
EDU - The Blaidd Drwg Nuclear Reactor is scrapped. Instead the Turnmill Adaptor is started. (Archives page 35)
EDU - The papers are discussing the political fortunes of Harold Saxon who by this stage was recieving 61% support in the latest opinion polls. The currently unpopular Prime Minister who had stepped in following the dismissal of Harriet Jones was forced to elect Saxon as the new Defence Minister. (Almanac page 93)
JUNE
EDU (s) - ARMY OF GHOSTS / DOOMSDAY - (We know at least two months must have passed between the start of these episodes and the end of DW: L&M because in the latter episode the ghosts had not yet appeared and Jackie tells us that they have been appearing for months. I am reluctant to place it much later in the year because we know that Ianto joins Torchwood shortly after these events and before Gwen joins in TW: EC which cannot occur any later than October (see episode entry) and by TW: EC Ianto already seems to be well settled into his position, suggesting at least a month or two at Torchwood Cardiff; Almanac page 95; Archives page 12).
EDU (s) - FRAGMENTS (flashback) - Ianto convinces Jack to let him join Torchwood 3 and installs Lisa in the basement. (Based on the speculated date for DW: AOG and DW: D - see above; Archives page 44)
25th - THE RUNAWAY BRIDE (flashbacks) - (Donna tells us that she met Lance six months before when she first began working for H.C. Clements, the date of the 25th is given in the Time Traveller's Almanac on page 95)
EDU - BLINK - (The date 2007 is stated during the episode; Almanac page36)
SEPTEMBER
EDU / Beginning of the month (s) - EVERYTHING CHANGES - (In TW: TKKS Jack tells Suzie she's been dead for three months, as this occurs at the end of this episode and given my speculated date for TW: TKKS at the end of November this sets this episode at either the end of August or the beginning of September. I've gone for the latter to allow a greater length of time between Ianto and Gwen joining Torchwood; Archives page 44) *(2)
EDU / Beginning of the month (s) - DAY ONE - (This episode occurs shortly after the last one. See reasoning above for placement)
EDU / Middle of the month (s) - GHOST MACHINE - (This episode occurs beween TW: DO and TW: TKKS and we know the episode must occur in 2007 because Thomas Erasmus Flanagan tells Gwen he was evacuated 66 years ago in 1941)
EDU / End of the month (s) - CYBERWOMAN - (This episode occurs beween TW: GM and TW: TKKS. This episode could also be placed in October but I've chosen to place it here to allow Ianto's month of suspension to pass before the start of TW: SW)
OCTOBER
EDU / End of the month (s) - SMALL WORLDS - (This episode occurs beween TW: Cy and TW: TKKS. This episode could occur earlier in the month but I've chosen to place it here to allow Ianto's month of suspension to pass before his return in this episode. Although it is possible that Ianto returned earlier than he was allowed given Jack's reaction at the start of the episode to Ianto's presence) *(3)
EDU - The 'Space Whale' from Meat apparently first arrives, as it drops from the sky into the sea near Worm Head. Witnessed by a small man in a boat which was nearly overturned by the wave created. (Archives page 122)
NOVEMBER
EDU (s) - COUNTRYCIDE - (This episode occurs beween TW: SW and TW: TKKS.)
EDU (s) - GREEKS BEARING GIFTS - (This episode occurs beween TW: Co and TW: TKKS.) *(3)
EDU / End of the month (s) - THEY KEEP KILLING SUZIE - (This episode must occur prior to the 17th/18th December as it occurs prior to TW: OOT, I've chosen to place this at the end of November to allow the greatest length of time between Ianto and Gwen joining Torchwood)
DECEMBER
EDU / Beginning of the month (s) - RANDOM SHOES - (I've places this episode here as a matter of convenience, to keep the episodes in air date order. However, nothing specifically in this episode allows us to date it to a specific time frame within the series arc)
17th - 24th - OUT OF TIME - (In TW: EOD Owen tells Ianto that Diane left him on the 24th December, Ianto responds that he'd only known her a week - giving us these dates. It is tempting to shorten this week by a day and start the episode on the 18th December as Diane says they went missing on the 18th December 1953)
24th and 25th - THE RUNAWAY BRIDE - (The date is given in the episode. In DW: VOTD Wilf tells us that the events of this episode happened last Christmas, and the events of DW: TCI happened the year before that giving us the year date for this episode; Almanac page 102)
2008
JANUARY
EDU / Beginning of the month (s) - COMBAT - (Occurs after TW: OOT and before TW: CJH)
EDU / 21st (s) - CAPTAIN JACK HARKNESS / END OF DAYS - (I've suggested the placement of these two episodes based upon the idea that Jack and Toshiko were transported back exactly 67 years to the 21st January 1941 (the date given for the dance)
EDU / End of the month (s) - UTOPIA (opening scene) - The Doctor and Martha arrive in Cardiff to refuel and Jack leaps onto the Tardis just before their departure. (The date is based on the date of the previous entry plus at least a few days to cover the period where Jack is dead/unconcious. This also partly ties into the information on a missing poster for Jack that was posted on the Torchwood website, which said he went missing at the beginning of February. Although this falls beyond Martha's normal timeline with the Doctor, but I believe that he travelled back to this point when the rift had recently been open to more effectively refuel, not knowing Jack would be there)
JUNE
EDU - Torchwood team sent to Tibet on a wild goose chase organised by Harold Saxon. (Mentioned in DW: TSOD, presumably this happens at some point either before the next few entries or during the next few entries; Archives page 41)
EDU / End of the month (s) - SMITH AND JONES - (Information in this episode states that it is set 5 days before DW: TSOD)
EDU / End of the month (s) - THE LAZARUS EXPERIMENT - (Information in the episode states that it is set 4 days before DW: TSOD)
EDU / End of the month (s) - 42 (francine scenes) - Election day (Francine tells us in these flashbacks that it's election day, setting it one day before DW: TSOD)
EDU (s) - BLINK (final scenes) - Sally Sparrow gives Doctor and the Martha the information she has gathered about the Weeping Angels. (There's nothing to specifically date these final scenes except that they occur at least a year after the rest of the episode and look relatively summery, I've chosen to place them somewhere in between DW: TLE and DW: TSOD to maintain Martha's personal timeline, though this is not definitely the case)
EDU / End of the month (s) - SOUND OF DRUMS - (During the episode, Vivienne Rook says that Harold Saxon appeared 18 months ago just after the fall of Harriet Jones. Presuming that Harriet Jones lost her office just after DW: TCI, this gives us a rough date for this episode of the end of June; During the episode Martha states it is the day after the election; Archives page 53)
EDU / End of the month (s) - THE LAST OF THE TIME LORDS (final scenes) - The Doctor drops off Jack and Martha decides to stay with her family. (This happens on the 2nd day after the election) *(4)
EDU / End of the month (s) - The Torchwood team return to England. (Presumably this happens at some point during the course of DW: TSOD and DW: TLOTL as they have already returned when the Doctor drops Jack off. Alternatively the Doctor may have dropped the team back slightly later than intended)
EDU / End of the month (s) - KISS, KISS, BANG, BANG - (This episode appears to carry on shortly after DW: TLOTL)
EDU / End of the month (s) - ADRIFT (opening scene) - Jonas Bevan goes missing while returning from football practice, Jack appears in the same place an hour later. (This event must occur either before Jack's disappearance or after his return. If we place it before, then the rest of the episode must take place in August, which does not seem to give enough time for the episodes that come between TW : KKBB and TW: A to occur. However, the rest of TW: A must take take place before the 15th February 2009 as Gwen is looking for a 15 year old and on this date Jonas turns 16. For this to work, the opening scene (which is stated several times in the episode as occurring 7 months and 11 days before the start of the episode) must occur at the end of June or beginning of July at the latest.)
JULY
EDU (s) - SLEEPER - (Episode comes after TW: KKBB)
AUGUST
EDU (s) - TO THE LAST MAN - (Based on the speculative date for TW: EC, this episode must come before September 2008, a year after Gwen joined the team - as we are told that Tommy Brockless is unfrozen once every year and this clearly has not happened since Gwen joined the team. It had, however, occurred following Ianto joining, so we know it happened sometime between June and September. Although we twice in the episode see calendars reporting the date as Friday 20th, the only Friday 20th in 2008 occurs in June and would most likely be before Jack's return - generally date/day combinations seen in the Who universe do not exactly match up with those in our own. This episode could also be placed in the previous month. We do know that the episode must take place in 2008 or 2009 because Jack states in the episode that Tommy was born in 1894 and that he is 114 years old - depending on how you look at it)
EDU / End of the month (s) - INVASION OF THE BANE - (The Doctor gave K-9 to Sarah-Jane at the end of School Reunion, which I have speculatively placed in January/February 2007 and in this episode she tells Maria that K-9 has been guiding the black hole for 18 months so there must be at least this length of time between the two episodes, meaning it must start after July/August 2008. During the episode Alan also reminds Maria that she will be starting a new school in a week. Based on what we see in SJA: ROTS, she is not starting part way through a school year but at the beginning - allowing us to place the episode at the end of August or very beginning of September)
SEPTEMBER
EDU / Beginning of month (s) - REVENGE OF THE SLITHEEN - (At the start of the episode the school Head Master welcomes the students to a new year - referring either to the new school year in September or the new year in January - based upon the clothing seen in the episode and the building of the new block which is likely to have required more than the two weeks of the Christmas holidays, I have chosen to place this in September)
EDU (s) - MEAT - (During an argument Rhys says it's taken about a year for Gwen to reveal that her 'Special Ops' job is a cover story. Based on the placement of TW: EC in September 2007, we can place this episode here)
OCTOBER
EDU (s) - ADAM - (Between TW: M and this episode, Rhys has to recover from a gun shot wound - this can take as little as two weeks depending on several variables - however, it seems safer to allow at least a month in between the two episodes)
EDU (s) - EYE OF THE GORGON - (Occurs sometime between SJA: ROTS at the beginning of September and SJA: TLB at the end of January - I have chosen to place it here to evenly space the remaining episodes through the months, with one occuring each month)
EDU (s) - RESET / DEAD MAN WALKING / A DAY IN THE DEATH - (These episodes occur over a relatively short period, some time after TW: A but before TW: SB) *(5)
NOVEMBER
EDU (s) - THE WARRIORS OF KUDLAK - (Occurs sometime between SJA: ROTS at the beginning of September and SJA: TLB at the end of January - I have chosen to place it here to evenly space the remaining episodes through the months, with one occuring each month)
EDU (s) - SOMETHING BORROWED - (This occurs sometime after TW: A DITD and has an autumnal rather than wintery appearance, for this reason I've placed the episode here rather than December)
DECEMBER
EDU (s) - WHATEVER HAPPENED TO SARAH JANE? - (Occurs sometime between SJA: ROTS at the beginning of September and SJA: TLB at the end of January - I have chosen to place it here to evenly space the remaining episodes through the months, with one occuring each month)
24th - VOYAGE OF THE DAMNED - (The date is given in the episode, for the year, Wilf tells us this occurs a year after DW: TRB)
2009
JANUARY
EDU (s) - FROM OUT OF THE RAIN - (This episode occurs sometime between TW: SB and TW: A)
EDU / End of the month (s) - THE LOST BOY - (During this episode, Luke's fake parents claim he has been missing 5 months, presuming that Mr Smith matched the date of Luke's disappearance with the period just before Sarah-Jane met him to avoid raising suspicion, this tells us that 5 months have passed since SJA: IOTB - as I placed that episode at the end of August 2008, this episode should occur at the end of January 2009)
FEBRUARY
EDU / Beginning of month (s) - ADRIFT - (This episode must occur either at the end of January or the very beginning of February to allow Jack to be present in the opening scene seven months and 11 days prior to the main episode; it must also begin at least a few days before the 15th February when Jonas turns 16 as Gwen is looking for a 15 year old)
MARCH
EDU (s) - FRAGMENTS / EXIT WOUNDS - (I have placed this episode in March by adding the 21 months specified in Ianto's caption during the first episode to the speculated date of June 2007 for DW: AOG and DW: D - see specific entry for those episodes.)
EDU - Toshiko receives a funeral, an unusual honour for a Torchwood operative dieing in the line of duty - in attendance were Jack, Ianto, Gwen, Rhys, Martha and Toshiko's Mother. (TW: LS; Archives page 47)
JUNE
EDU (s) - PARTNERS IN CRIME - (This episode and the next two could occur at any point between TW: EW which I have placed in March and SJA: TLS which I have placed in July. I have chosen to place it in June as we know this episode occurs within the same week as DW: TSS and DW: TPS from dialogue in the episode - it is my feeling that these latter episodes are likely to have occurred at a relatively close date to SJA: TLS as from what we know of the Sontaran they tend to favour a quick course of action to long, involved planning stages, though clearly some planning has occurred)
EDU (s) - THE SONTARAN STRATAGEM / THE POISON SKY - (See above)
JULY
EDU (s) - THE LAST SONTARAN - (At the beginning of the episode Luke and Clyde are working on a school project placing this some time within the school year. It's clearly summer in the episode but this could place it some time before the end of the school year in July or at the beginning of the school year in September. If we take the September date, however, and given that Maria and her Alan move to America six weeks after the events shown in the majority of this episode, then there isn't enough time for her to be there by October 9th when she sends Luke an email during SJA: DOTC, to avoid this contradiction I have placed the episode at the end of the previous school year)
EDU (s) - THE STOLEN EARTH / JOURNEY'S END - (It is also possible that these two episodes occur directly after DW: TPS, however, the fact that in between these two episodes Martha has relocated to New York and had some time to settle in suggests this is not the case. We do know that these episodes must occur before August (if the date I have assigned to SJA: TLS is correct), as Luke does not state that Maria and Alan are in America but that they are on holiday in Cornwall - possibly visiting family to say goodbye before their departure)
AUGUST
EDU (s) - THE LAST SONTARAN (final scenes) - Alan and Maria move to America. (This occurs six weeks after the main part of the episode)
OCTOBER
EDU - DAY OF THE CLOWN - (Maria sends Luke dated the 9th October giving us a rough date for the start of this episode.)
EDU - SECRETS OF THE STARS - (Sometime after SJA: DOTC)
EDU - MARK OF THE BERSERKER - (Sometime after SJA: SOTS)
EDU - THE TEMPTATION OF SARAH JANE SMITH - (Sometime after SJA: MOTB)
EDU - ENEMY OF THE BANE - (Sometime after SJA: TOSJS)
EDU - LOST SOULS - (I have no idea where to place this episode as the only information we have is that it happened after Tosh and Owen's death in TW: EW. It clearly does not occur on the same date as the turn on of the Hydron-Collider in our universe - but this date may have been different in the Who Universe)
2012
EDU - DALEK - (The Doctor tells us the year in dialogue)
EDU - THE LONG GAME (final scene) - (At the end of the episode the Doctor returns Adam to his correct timeline)
JULY
27th - FEAR HER - (The episode shows the opening ceremony for the London Olympics currently planned to be held on this date)
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
PROBLEMS / CONTRADICTIONS
*(1) - In the episode we see on the computer screen that Lucy Marmer died in 2001 and we hear Owen thinking that when they brought her body in he had only been qualified six months. This creates difficulties with Owen's age. Martha in Dead Man's Walking states Owen is 27, if as speculated here the episode takes place in 2008 this means Owen was 20 when Lucy Marmer was brought in - it seems unlikely that Owen could be a fully qualified doctor at this age. The problem is worsened further if you take Owen's date of birth as stated on page 44 of the Torchwood Archives which has him aged 19 in 2001. Either there's been a cock up or Owen has been lying about his age extensively and very successfully (which is quite a possibility considering he has access to Toshiko's computer programmes).
*(2) - On page 49 of the Torchwood Archives it states that six months passed between Ianto and Gwen joining Torchwood, it seems impossible to fit this length of time into the timeline. Instead I have left a period of two months between the two joining.
*(3) - Both of these episodes has a decidedly summery feel in both weather and in the clothing of extras. It's impossible to place them in a time period where this weather would seem likely and as both are surrounded by episodes which are decidedly wintery - I've decided to just hum to myself a lot and pretend this problem doesn't exist - or put it down to global warming.
*(4) - When Martha calls Tom at the end of the Last of the Time Lords a board behind him has been marked up to October, suggesting that she doesn't leave the Doctor until then. However, this does not match the 18th months we're told has passed between The Christmas Invasion and The Sound of Drums and as it seems unlikely that Martha would wait over four months before returning to take care of her family I'm going to put this down as a mistake. Or possibly the Doctor's jiggery pokery of Martha's phone has had some unexpected side effects and has called a Tom in a completely different time period to the one she is phoning from.
*(5) - In Reset Owen states that one of the victims, Meredith Roberts, was born on the 11th January 1962 and died while she was 45 - this would mean that the episode should take place between 11th January 2007 and 10th January 2008. As this doesn't match the other dates we are given I'm going to ignore it.
ABBREVIATIONS
GENERAL:
EDU - Exact Date Unknown
(s) - Speculated date
Archives - The Torchwood Archives by Gary Russell
Almanac - The Time Travellers Almanac by
DOCTOR WHO - DW:
AOG - Army of Ghosts
AOL - Aliens of London
BT - Boom Town
D - Doomsday
L&M - Love and Monsters
SR - School Reunion
TCI - The Christmas Invasion
TLOTL - The Last of the Time Lords
TPOTW - The Parting of the Ways
TPS - The Poison Sky
TRB - The Runaway Bride
TSOD - The Sound of Drums
TSS - The Sontaran Stratagem
VOTD - Voyage of the Damned
WWT - World War Three
TORCHWOOD - TW:
A - Adrift
ADITD - A Day in the Death
CJH - Captain Jack Harkness
Co - Countryside
Cy - Cyberwoman
DO - Day One
EC - Everything Changes
EOD - End of Days
EW - Exit Wounds
F - Fragments
GBG - Greeks Bearing Gifts
GM - Ghost Machine
KKBB - Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang
LS - Lost Souls
M - Meat
OOT - Out of Time
SB - Something Borrowed
SW - Small Worlds
TKKS - They Keep Killing Suzie
SARAH JANE ADVENTURES - SJA:
DOTC - Day of the Clown
IOTB - Invasion of the Bane
MOTB - Mark of the Beserker
ROTS - Revenge of the Slitheen
SOTS - Secrets of the Stars
TLB - The Lost Boy
TLS - The Last Sontaran
TOSJS - Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith
Unsurprising really. Obviously the 21st century is when the bulk of the episodes relevant to this timeline occur, so each year has to hold a lot more information. It's also a period where we're less likely to have exact dates that things happen as they're rarely stated in the episodes. And when they are stated it's not always clear whether they are a precise date or more vague.
For example, in Fragments we have several in-episode captions which I have chosen to treat differently:- the first two say 'Five years earlier' and 'Four years earlier' respectively, I have chosen to treat these as vague dates so they simply refer to the date of the episode (2009) minus the number of years mentioned to give the year that the events shown happened - so five years previously refers generally to 2004. In contrast the caption for Ianto's section states it is '21 months previously' - as this number is in itself more precise, I have chosen to treat this as an exact statement of time.
Because of the sheer amount of information I have as much as possible tried to assign events/episodes to specific months. This has had to be based on a lot of speculation - where speculation is involved I have marked the date with this sign (s).
This seems a fair time to discuss why I've chosen to use this timeline. Basically the direct dating evidence we're given in new-Who provides two potential timelines - what I'd call the Concurrent Timeline (where the present-day episodes are dated approximately to their air date) and the Delayed Timeline (where the present-day episodes occur approximately a year after their air date). These two episodes have almost completely comparative evidence (bizarrely) as shown in the table below.
EVIDENCE TYPECONCURRENT TIMELINEDELAYED TIMELINEA date shown on screen with a passage of time in dialogue.In Torchwood: Exit Wounds we see a computer display which says that Owen was born in February 1980, while in Dead Man Walking we are told that Owen is 27 years old when he dies meaning this episode should occur between February 2007 and February 2008.In Doctor Who: Aliens of London we see a poster that states Rose went missing in March 2005 and the Doctor tells us that it's been 12 months since she left with him. Placing the episode in March 2006.A date of birth and an age are given in dialogue, giving a period of time that the episode should occur within.In Torchwood: Reset Owen states that Meredith Roberts was born in January 1962 and was 45 when she died during the course of the episode - placing the episode between January 2007 and January 2008In Torchwood: To The Last Man we're told that Tommy Brockless was born at the beginning of February 1894 and is (from one perspective) 114 years old. This means the episode must occur between February 2008 and February 2009. This potentially could fit into the Concurrent Timeline with only the first two episodes occuring in 2007. However, for both this evidence and the information about Owen's birth date and death age to be correct, every episode between To The Last Man and Reset would have to occur within the space of a week.A year date is given alongside a non-specific passage of time that could be rounded up or down.In Torchwood: Exit Wounds Jack is unburied by Torchwood in 1901 and states that he needs to be frozen for 107 years. Given the time of the year this could be fitted into the Delayed timeline.In Torchwood: Ghost Machine Thomas Erasmus Flanagan tells us he has lived in Cardiff for 66 years since he was evacuated from the city in 1941 setting the episode in roughly 2007.
Alongside this evidence above we also have a date from Torchwood: Adrift where we are given Jonas' birth and age, which sets the episode between February 2008 and February 2009 - this could fit within either timeline.
There's little to choose between the two lots of evidence, so it's a personal choice which one you choose, the timeline here is the Delayed Timeline (lefaym has laid out an excellent version of the Concurrent Timeline here: lefaym.livejournal.com/22789.html).
I've chosen to follow the Delayed Timeline for the following reasons - firstly I'm placing slightly more value on the Doctor Who date as that so far hasn't been contradicted within the programme, while Torchwood has contradicted itself several times - Owen's birth date in particular, which is the primary evidence for the Concurrent Timeline, has produced reams of debate and problems. Secondly, the producers have stated that they intended the episodes to occur a year after the air date in interview and in Russel T Davies' book The Writers Tale. This is also the timeline that is followed in The Time Traveller's Almanac and the Torchwood: Archives.
Hope that explains it all clearly.
2000
JANUARY
1st - Jack Harkness takes control of Torchwood 3 following the slaughter of the previous team by their leader Alex Hopkins. (Speculation based on TW: F, though it is possible that Jack did not take over the position immediately)
2001
JUNE
15th - Work starts on making Flatholm Island suitable for inhabitation with the extension and redevelopment of the Second World War bunkers. (Archives page 145)
SEPTEMBER
EDU - Owen works on Lucy Marmer's body, she is a victim of 'Mary'. (Date shown on a computer screen in TW: GBG; Archives page 79) *(1)
2002
EDU - Ianto's father dies. (Archives page 49)
2004
OCTOBER / NOVEMBER
EDU (s) - FRAGMENTS (flashback) - Toshiko is caught smuggling information from the MOD to an unknown group in order to protect her Mother's life, she is arrested and imprisoned by UNIT. (The year date is based upon the caption '5 years earlier' seen in the episode, presuming that it isn't an exact number; I've chosen to place it in one of these months to match what Mary tells us in TW: GBG. Mary says that Toshiko joined Torchwood three years ago which appears to be a contradiction to references in the Torchwood Archive that say she joined in 2005 (page 44). However, from what Mary says we also know that Toshiko's history has been altered to hide her period of imprisonmnt - it seems reasonable to suggest that it was altered so that she left the MOD to join Torchwood, instead of being imprisoned at this point. As an alternative, the start of Toshiko's flashback could be placed earlier in 2004 and then following her eight month imprisonment she could come to work for Torchwood in November 2004 and still match Marys information, though not that printed in the Torchwood Archives); Archives page 46)
2005
MARCH
5th & 6th - ROSE - (Posters seen in DW: AOL state that Rose went missing on the 6th March 2005, giving us the end date for this episode; Almanac page 66)
EDU - THE END OF THE WORLD (part) - Either shortly before or more likely just after the previous entry Jackie recieves a phone call from Rose, who is on Platform 1. (It is clear in the episode that Rose is not yet considered missing but is unlikely to be too much before because of the danger of Rose being present during the call. Phone calls appear to follow the character diallings personal timeline to avoid such conflicts)
JUNE / JULY
EDU (s) - FRAGMENTS (flashback) - Jack rescues Toshiko from prison and she comes to work at Torchwood 3. (Based on the speculated date for the beginning of the Fragments sequence and a statement in the Torchwood Archives that says Toshiko was imprisoned for 8 months on page 46; Archives page 44)
EDU (s) - FRAGMENTS (flashback) - Owen's fiance Katie becomes ill when her brain is infected by an alien, Jack Harkness arrives while she is on the operating table but is unable to save her or the medical team operating on her. Owen is told that Katie died of natural causes but is convinced otherwise and because of his obsession with the issue is put on suspension. (The year date is taken from a caption seen in TW: EW, which is reportedly set in Spring 2009 and states the beginning of this sequence happens 4 years previously. I'm assuming that this is not a precise period of time but simply refers to 2009 - 4. In terms of when in the year this happens, it may occur up to roughly seven or eights months before Owen is appointed to Torchwood in February 2006 or may be over a much shorter period. This length of time is based upon there being some time before the first scene and Katie's death and then there may be up to 6 months following her funeral before Jack asks Owen to join Torchwood - this being the length of time a wooden marker can be left in most cemetaries in the UK before being replaced by a grave stone. If a longer time is assumed then this allows time for Owen's suspension to have finished and for him to have undertaken several relationships with patients, as originally suggested on the Torchwood website.)
EDU - Ianto begins working for Torchwood 1, possibly after graduating from university. (Archives page 48)
EDU - 'Adam's' fictional arrival at Torchwood 3. (Archives page 125)
2006
FEBRUARY
20th (approx) (s) / EDU - FRAGMENTS (flashback) - Owen starts work at Torchwood 3 - (We are told in TW: EW that Owen started working for Torchwood roughly two weeks before the space pig incident in DW: AOL - based on the speculated date for that episode (see next entry) we arrive at some date in late February. It is also tempting to place this slightly earlier, so that Owen is visiting Katie's grave on his birthday on the 14th February; Archives page 44)
MARCH
6th & 7th (s) / EDU - ALIENS OF LONDON / WORLD WAR THREE - (In the episode we are told that Rose has been missing an entire year, so this is the earliest date these episodes could occur. Although we have no exact date for the episodes, it seems reasonable to assume that the Doctor hit the date and month he was aiming for but missed by a year so I have placed these episodes on this date; Almanac page 68; Archives page 47)
SEPTEMBER
EDU - BOOM TOWN - well the events of this episode are occuring Torchwood Jack and the team are in lock down in the Hub, directly above them the tremors occur. (An in episode caption tells us that 6 months have passed since DW: AOL and DW: WWT - giving the speculated placing of March for these episodes, we can place this episode in September; Almanac page 74; Archive page 33).
EDU - PARTING OF THE WAYS (parts) - (We know that this episode must occur after DW: BT, because Mickey states he hasn't seen Rose for 6 months prior to that episode and before Christmas, which is when DW: TCI is believed to have occurred)
DECEMBER
24th and 25th - THE CHRISTMAS INVASION - (The date is given in the episode; the year is reached because Jackie's reaction suggests this occurs after she has learnt Rose is travelling with the Doctor and presumably after DW: TPOTW and placing the episode in 2007 or later leads to clashes with dates given in other episodes; Almanac page 76)
EDU - NEW EARTH (first scene) - Rose says goodbye to her mother and Mickey. (It is implied in the episode is Rose's first trip with the newly regenerated Doctor following his recovery, suggesting that these scenes occur slightly after DW: TCI)
2007
JANUARY / FEBRUARY
EDU - SCHOOL REUNION - (The exact date is unknown but Sarah Jane refers to the events of DW: TCI, so it must follow on from then and it must occur prior to DW: L&M which occurs in March as Mickey is present. So the episode must take place in either January, February or early March)
EDU - THE AGE OF STEEL (final scene) - Rose returns to earth to see her Mother following events on the parallel earth and Mickey's decision to stay there. (This must occur after DW: SR and probably before DW: L&M as Jackie appears to know by that episode that Mickey will not be returning)
EDU - Saxon sets up the Archangel Network. (Almanac page 93)
MARCH
EDU - LOVE AND MONSTERS - (We know that this episode happens after DW: TCI because it refers to events that happen in that episode, and before DW: AOG, because there are no ghosts present. Elton also tells us that Kennedy arrived on a "Tuesday night in March", so the majority of the episodes events are likely to occur during this month)
EDU - The Blaidd Drwg Nuclear Reactor is scrapped. Instead the Turnmill Adaptor is started. (Archives page 35)
EDU - The papers are discussing the political fortunes of Harold Saxon who by this stage was recieving 61% support in the latest opinion polls. The currently unpopular Prime Minister who had stepped in following the dismissal of Harriet Jones was forced to elect Saxon as the new Defence Minister. (Almanac page 93)
JUNE
EDU (s) - ARMY OF GHOSTS / DOOMSDAY - (We know at least two months must have passed between the start of these episodes and the end of DW: L&M because in the latter episode the ghosts had not yet appeared and Jackie tells us that they have been appearing for months. I am reluctant to place it much later in the year because we know that Ianto joins Torchwood shortly after these events and before Gwen joins in TW: EC which cannot occur any later than October (see episode entry) and by TW: EC Ianto already seems to be well settled into his position, suggesting at least a month or two at Torchwood Cardiff; Almanac page 95; Archives page 12).
EDU (s) - FRAGMENTS (flashback) - Ianto convinces Jack to let him join Torchwood 3 and installs Lisa in the basement. (Based on the speculated date for DW: AOG and DW: D - see above; Archives page 44)
25th - THE RUNAWAY BRIDE (flashbacks) - (Donna tells us that she met Lance six months before when she first began working for H.C. Clements, the date of the 25th is given in the Time Traveller's Almanac on page 95)
EDU - BLINK - (The date 2007 is stated during the episode; Almanac page36)
SEPTEMBER
EDU / Beginning of the month (s) - EVERYTHING CHANGES - (In TW: TKKS Jack tells Suzie she's been dead for three months, as this occurs at the end of this episode and given my speculated date for TW: TKKS at the end of November this sets this episode at either the end of August or the beginning of September. I've gone for the latter to allow a greater length of time between Ianto and Gwen joining Torchwood; Archives page 44) *(2)
EDU / Beginning of the month (s) - DAY ONE - (This episode occurs shortly after the last one. See reasoning above for placement)
EDU / Middle of the month (s) - GHOST MACHINE - (This episode occurs beween TW: DO and TW: TKKS and we know the episode must occur in 2007 because Thomas Erasmus Flanagan tells Gwen he was evacuated 66 years ago in 1941)
EDU / End of the month (s) - CYBERWOMAN - (This episode occurs beween TW: GM and TW: TKKS. This episode could also be placed in October but I've chosen to place it here to allow Ianto's month of suspension to pass before the start of TW: SW)
OCTOBER
EDU / End of the month (s) - SMALL WORLDS - (This episode occurs beween TW: Cy and TW: TKKS. This episode could occur earlier in the month but I've chosen to place it here to allow Ianto's month of suspension to pass before his return in this episode. Although it is possible that Ianto returned earlier than he was allowed given Jack's reaction at the start of the episode to Ianto's presence) *(3)
EDU - The 'Space Whale' from Meat apparently first arrives, as it drops from the sky into the sea near Worm Head. Witnessed by a small man in a boat which was nearly overturned by the wave created. (Archives page 122)
NOVEMBER
EDU (s) - COUNTRYCIDE - (This episode occurs beween TW: SW and TW: TKKS.)
EDU (s) - GREEKS BEARING GIFTS - (This episode occurs beween TW: Co and TW: TKKS.) *(3)
EDU / End of the month (s) - THEY KEEP KILLING SUZIE - (This episode must occur prior to the 17th/18th December as it occurs prior to TW: OOT, I've chosen to place this at the end of November to allow the greatest length of time between Ianto and Gwen joining Torchwood)
DECEMBER
EDU / Beginning of the month (s) - RANDOM SHOES - (I've places this episode here as a matter of convenience, to keep the episodes in air date order. However, nothing specifically in this episode allows us to date it to a specific time frame within the series arc)
17th - 24th - OUT OF TIME - (In TW: EOD Owen tells Ianto that Diane left him on the 24th December, Ianto responds that he'd only known her a week - giving us these dates. It is tempting to shorten this week by a day and start the episode on the 18th December as Diane says they went missing on the 18th December 1953)
24th and 25th - THE RUNAWAY BRIDE - (The date is given in the episode. In DW: VOTD Wilf tells us that the events of this episode happened last Christmas, and the events of DW: TCI happened the year before that giving us the year date for this episode; Almanac page 102)
2008
JANUARY
EDU / Beginning of the month (s) - COMBAT - (Occurs after TW: OOT and before TW: CJH)
EDU / 21st (s) - CAPTAIN JACK HARKNESS / END OF DAYS - (I've suggested the placement of these two episodes based upon the idea that Jack and Toshiko were transported back exactly 67 years to the 21st January 1941 (the date given for the dance)
EDU / End of the month (s) - UTOPIA (opening scene) - The Doctor and Martha arrive in Cardiff to refuel and Jack leaps onto the Tardis just before their departure. (The date is based on the date of the previous entry plus at least a few days to cover the period where Jack is dead/unconcious. This also partly ties into the information on a missing poster for Jack that was posted on the Torchwood website, which said he went missing at the beginning of February. Although this falls beyond Martha's normal timeline with the Doctor, but I believe that he travelled back to this point when the rift had recently been open to more effectively refuel, not knowing Jack would be there)
JUNE
EDU - Torchwood team sent to Tibet on a wild goose chase organised by Harold Saxon. (Mentioned in DW: TSOD, presumably this happens at some point either before the next few entries or during the next few entries; Archives page 41)
EDU / End of the month (s) - SMITH AND JONES - (Information in this episode states that it is set 5 days before DW: TSOD)
EDU / End of the month (s) - THE LAZARUS EXPERIMENT - (Information in the episode states that it is set 4 days before DW: TSOD)
EDU / End of the month (s) - 42 (francine scenes) - Election day (Francine tells us in these flashbacks that it's election day, setting it one day before DW: TSOD)
EDU (s) - BLINK (final scenes) - Sally Sparrow gives Doctor and the Martha the information she has gathered about the Weeping Angels. (There's nothing to specifically date these final scenes except that they occur at least a year after the rest of the episode and look relatively summery, I've chosen to place them somewhere in between DW: TLE and DW: TSOD to maintain Martha's personal timeline, though this is not definitely the case)
EDU / End of the month (s) - SOUND OF DRUMS - (During the episode, Vivienne Rook says that Harold Saxon appeared 18 months ago just after the fall of Harriet Jones. Presuming that Harriet Jones lost her office just after DW: TCI, this gives us a rough date for this episode of the end of June; During the episode Martha states it is the day after the election; Archives page 53)
EDU / End of the month (s) - THE LAST OF THE TIME LORDS (final scenes) - The Doctor drops off Jack and Martha decides to stay with her family. (This happens on the 2nd day after the election) *(4)
EDU / End of the month (s) - The Torchwood team return to England. (Presumably this happens at some point during the course of DW: TSOD and DW: TLOTL as they have already returned when the Doctor drops Jack off. Alternatively the Doctor may have dropped the team back slightly later than intended)
EDU / End of the month (s) - KISS, KISS, BANG, BANG - (This episode appears to carry on shortly after DW: TLOTL)
EDU / End of the month (s) - ADRIFT (opening scene) - Jonas Bevan goes missing while returning from football practice, Jack appears in the same place an hour later. (This event must occur either before Jack's disappearance or after his return. If we place it before, then the rest of the episode must take place in August, which does not seem to give enough time for the episodes that come between TW : KKBB and TW: A to occur. However, the rest of TW: A must take take place before the 15th February 2009 as Gwen is looking for a 15 year old and on this date Jonas turns 16. For this to work, the opening scene (which is stated several times in the episode as occurring 7 months and 11 days before the start of the episode) must occur at the end of June or beginning of July at the latest.)
JULY
EDU (s) - SLEEPER - (Episode comes after TW: KKBB)
AUGUST
EDU (s) - TO THE LAST MAN - (Based on the speculative date for TW: EC, this episode must come before September 2008, a year after Gwen joined the team - as we are told that Tommy Brockless is unfrozen once every year and this clearly has not happened since Gwen joined the team. It had, however, occurred following Ianto joining, so we know it happened sometime between June and September. Although we twice in the episode see calendars reporting the date as Friday 20th, the only Friday 20th in 2008 occurs in June and would most likely be before Jack's return - generally date/day combinations seen in the Who universe do not exactly match up with those in our own. This episode could also be placed in the previous month. We do know that the episode must take place in 2008 or 2009 because Jack states in the episode that Tommy was born in 1894 and that he is 114 years old - depending on how you look at it)
EDU / End of the month (s) - INVASION OF THE BANE - (The Doctor gave K-9 to Sarah-Jane at the end of School Reunion, which I have speculatively placed in January/February 2007 and in this episode she tells Maria that K-9 has been guiding the black hole for 18 months so there must be at least this length of time between the two episodes, meaning it must start after July/August 2008. During the episode Alan also reminds Maria that she will be starting a new school in a week. Based on what we see in SJA: ROTS, she is not starting part way through a school year but at the beginning - allowing us to place the episode at the end of August or very beginning of September)
SEPTEMBER
EDU / Beginning of month (s) - REVENGE OF THE SLITHEEN - (At the start of the episode the school Head Master welcomes the students to a new year - referring either to the new school year in September or the new year in January - based upon the clothing seen in the episode and the building of the new block which is likely to have required more than the two weeks of the Christmas holidays, I have chosen to place this in September)
EDU (s) - MEAT - (During an argument Rhys says it's taken about a year for Gwen to reveal that her 'Special Ops' job is a cover story. Based on the placement of TW: EC in September 2007, we can place this episode here)
OCTOBER
EDU (s) - ADAM - (Between TW: M and this episode, Rhys has to recover from a gun shot wound - this can take as little as two weeks depending on several variables - however, it seems safer to allow at least a month in between the two episodes)
EDU (s) - EYE OF THE GORGON - (Occurs sometime between SJA: ROTS at the beginning of September and SJA: TLB at the end of January - I have chosen to place it here to evenly space the remaining episodes through the months, with one occuring each month)
EDU (s) - RESET / DEAD MAN WALKING / A DAY IN THE DEATH - (These episodes occur over a relatively short period, some time after TW: A but before TW: SB) *(5)
NOVEMBER
EDU (s) - THE WARRIORS OF KUDLAK - (Occurs sometime between SJA: ROTS at the beginning of September and SJA: TLB at the end of January - I have chosen to place it here to evenly space the remaining episodes through the months, with one occuring each month)
EDU (s) - SOMETHING BORROWED - (This occurs sometime after TW: A DITD and has an autumnal rather than wintery appearance, for this reason I've placed the episode here rather than December)
DECEMBER
EDU (s) - WHATEVER HAPPENED TO SARAH JANE? - (Occurs sometime between SJA: ROTS at the beginning of September and SJA: TLB at the end of January - I have chosen to place it here to evenly space the remaining episodes through the months, with one occuring each month)
24th - VOYAGE OF THE DAMNED - (The date is given in the episode, for the year, Wilf tells us this occurs a year after DW: TRB)
2009
JANUARY
EDU (s) - FROM OUT OF THE RAIN - (This episode occurs sometime between TW: SB and TW: A)
EDU / End of the month (s) - THE LOST BOY - (During this episode, Luke's fake parents claim he has been missing 5 months, presuming that Mr Smith matched the date of Luke's disappearance with the period just before Sarah-Jane met him to avoid raising suspicion, this tells us that 5 months have passed since SJA: IOTB - as I placed that episode at the end of August 2008, this episode should occur at the end of January 2009)
FEBRUARY
EDU / Beginning of month (s) - ADRIFT - (This episode must occur either at the end of January or the very beginning of February to allow Jack to be present in the opening scene seven months and 11 days prior to the main episode; it must also begin at least a few days before the 15th February when Jonas turns 16 as Gwen is looking for a 15 year old)
MARCH
EDU (s) - FRAGMENTS / EXIT WOUNDS - (I have placed this episode in March by adding the 21 months specified in Ianto's caption during the first episode to the speculated date of June 2007 for DW: AOG and DW: D - see specific entry for those episodes.)
EDU - Toshiko receives a funeral, an unusual honour for a Torchwood operative dieing in the line of duty - in attendance were Jack, Ianto, Gwen, Rhys, Martha and Toshiko's Mother. (TW: LS; Archives page 47)
JUNE
EDU (s) - PARTNERS IN CRIME - (This episode and the next two could occur at any point between TW: EW which I have placed in March and SJA: TLS which I have placed in July. I have chosen to place it in June as we know this episode occurs within the same week as DW: TSS and DW: TPS from dialogue in the episode - it is my feeling that these latter episodes are likely to have occurred at a relatively close date to SJA: TLS as from what we know of the Sontaran they tend to favour a quick course of action to long, involved planning stages, though clearly some planning has occurred)
EDU (s) - THE SONTARAN STRATAGEM / THE POISON SKY - (See above)
JULY
EDU (s) - THE LAST SONTARAN - (At the beginning of the episode Luke and Clyde are working on a school project placing this some time within the school year. It's clearly summer in the episode but this could place it some time before the end of the school year in July or at the beginning of the school year in September. If we take the September date, however, and given that Maria and her Alan move to America six weeks after the events shown in the majority of this episode, then there isn't enough time for her to be there by October 9th when she sends Luke an email during SJA: DOTC, to avoid this contradiction I have placed the episode at the end of the previous school year)
EDU (s) - THE STOLEN EARTH / JOURNEY'S END - (It is also possible that these two episodes occur directly after DW: TPS, however, the fact that in between these two episodes Martha has relocated to New York and had some time to settle in suggests this is not the case. We do know that these episodes must occur before August (if the date I have assigned to SJA: TLS is correct), as Luke does not state that Maria and Alan are in America but that they are on holiday in Cornwall - possibly visiting family to say goodbye before their departure)
AUGUST
EDU (s) - THE LAST SONTARAN (final scenes) - Alan and Maria move to America. (This occurs six weeks after the main part of the episode)
OCTOBER
EDU - DAY OF THE CLOWN - (Maria sends Luke dated the 9th October giving us a rough date for the start of this episode.)
EDU - SECRETS OF THE STARS - (Sometime after SJA: DOTC)
EDU - MARK OF THE BERSERKER - (Sometime after SJA: SOTS)
EDU - THE TEMPTATION OF SARAH JANE SMITH - (Sometime after SJA: MOTB)
EDU - ENEMY OF THE BANE - (Sometime after SJA: TOSJS)
EDU - LOST SOULS - (I have no idea where to place this episode as the only information we have is that it happened after Tosh and Owen's death in TW: EW. It clearly does not occur on the same date as the turn on of the Hydron-Collider in our universe - but this date may have been different in the Who Universe)
2012
EDU - DALEK - (The Doctor tells us the year in dialogue)
EDU - THE LONG GAME (final scene) - (At the end of the episode the Doctor returns Adam to his correct timeline)
JULY
27th - FEAR HER - (The episode shows the opening ceremony for the London Olympics currently planned to be held on this date)
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
PROBLEMS / CONTRADICTIONS
*(1) - In the episode we see on the computer screen that Lucy Marmer died in 2001 and we hear Owen thinking that when they brought her body in he had only been qualified six months. This creates difficulties with Owen's age. Martha in Dead Man's Walking states Owen is 27, if as speculated here the episode takes place in 2008 this means Owen was 20 when Lucy Marmer was brought in - it seems unlikely that Owen could be a fully qualified doctor at this age. The problem is worsened further if you take Owen's date of birth as stated on page 44 of the Torchwood Archives which has him aged 19 in 2001. Either there's been a cock up or Owen has been lying about his age extensively and very successfully (which is quite a possibility considering he has access to Toshiko's computer programmes).
*(2) - On page 49 of the Torchwood Archives it states that six months passed between Ianto and Gwen joining Torchwood, it seems impossible to fit this length of time into the timeline. Instead I have left a period of two months between the two joining.
*(3) - Both of these episodes has a decidedly summery feel in both weather and in the clothing of extras. It's impossible to place them in a time period where this weather would seem likely and as both are surrounded by episodes which are decidedly wintery - I've decided to just hum to myself a lot and pretend this problem doesn't exist - or put it down to global warming.
*(4) - When Martha calls Tom at the end of the Last of the Time Lords a board behind him has been marked up to October, suggesting that she doesn't leave the Doctor until then. However, this does not match the 18th months we're told has passed between The Christmas Invasion and The Sound of Drums and as it seems unlikely that Martha would wait over four months before returning to take care of her family I'm going to put this down as a mistake. Or possibly the Doctor's jiggery pokery of Martha's phone has had some unexpected side effects and has called a Tom in a completely different time period to the one she is phoning from.
*(5) - In Reset Owen states that one of the victims, Meredith Roberts, was born on the 11th January 1962 and died while she was 45 - this would mean that the episode should take place between 11th January 2007 and 10th January 2008. As this doesn't match the other dates we are given I'm going to ignore it.
ABBREVIATIONS
GENERAL:
EDU - Exact Date Unknown
(s) - Speculated date
Archives - The Torchwood Archives by Gary Russell
Almanac - The Time Travellers Almanac by
DOCTOR WHO - DW:
AOG - Army of Ghosts
AOL - Aliens of London
BT - Boom Town
D - Doomsday
L&M - Love and Monsters
SR - School Reunion
TCI - The Christmas Invasion
TLOTL - The Last of the Time Lords
TPOTW - The Parting of the Ways
TPS - The Poison Sky
TRB - The Runaway Bride
TSOD - The Sound of Drums
TSS - The Sontaran Stratagem
VOTD - Voyage of the Damned
WWT - World War Three
TORCHWOOD - TW:
A - Adrift
ADITD - A Day in the Death
CJH - Captain Jack Harkness
Co - Countryside
Cy - Cyberwoman
DO - Day One
EC - Everything Changes
EOD - End of Days
EW - Exit Wounds
F - Fragments
GBG - Greeks Bearing Gifts
GM - Ghost Machine
KKBB - Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang
LS - Lost Souls
M - Meat
OOT - Out of Time
SB - Something Borrowed
SW - Small Worlds
TKKS - They Keep Killing Suzie
SARAH JANE ADVENTURES - SJA:
DOTC - Day of the Clown
IOTB - Invasion of the Bane
MOTB - Mark of the Beserker
ROTS - Revenge of the Slitheen
SOTS - Secrets of the Stars
TLB - The Lost Boy
TLS - The Last Sontaran
TOSJS - Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith