Timeline questions have plagued the current series of Doctor Who. Ever since the current series started, people have been asking one question over and over again: when are we? We think we may have the answer. *Potential Spoilers*
By evaluating the last couple of episodes from season 6, the “Pond Life” web-episodes, and the current series seven, we think we have narrowed down the timeline. It should be noted that this is conjecture on our parts, and we may be reading the “facts”, such that they are, wrong.
- “The God Complex,” which is episode 6×11, the Doctor gives Rory the car of his dreams and Amy and Rory their house.
- “Closing Time,” which is episode 6×012 – Amy is viewed in a perfume ad, Apparently she has a budding new career as a model.
- There are then 8 years of travel on and off with the Doctor that Amy and Rory partake in, but that, for the most part, we don’t see.
- “Pond Life” web-episodes occur during April to August in a year unspecified during this 8 year period of on and off travel. However it is likely that it is earlier in the 8-year span of travel for two reasons. One: presumably Amy would have discovered she couldn’t get pregnant early on thus setting the actions of the final “Pond Life”, AKA the screaming fight, into motion. Two: she’s still fairly new at modeling and this career is dropped in later episodes.
- “Asylum of the Daleks” takes place right after the final “Pond Life” episode during the early part of that 8-year period.
- “Dinosaurs on a Spaceship” takes place roughly 8 years after finale season 6 because Rory cites his age as being 31. We know exactly how old Amy was at each of her encounters with the Doctor, and since Amy and Rory were in the same class at school as established in the “Let’s Kill Hitler” episode, presumably they are the same age, give or take owing to birthdays.
- “Power of Three” up until the anniversary party takes place in the same year as “Dinosaurs on a Spaceship” because Amy cites having traveled a total of 10 years on and off with the Doctor. The 10 years covers the time jump of two years during “The Eleventh Hour” where the Doctor saves the Earth from the Atraxi says “I’ll be right back” and he actually comes back two years later.
- “Power of Three” up until the Doctor gets bored and leaves almost a year goes by and then the Doctor returns in time for Amy and Rory’s anniversary party. It should be noted that before he leaves, he’s very upbeat, but when he returns he’s very sedate and nostalgic at times.
- “Power of Three” during the anniversary party where the Doctor shows up and takes Amy and Rory with him is a 7-week period where they travel around with him to several locations that are unknown. However, we do know that those locations include Victorian England and the court of Henry VIII.
- “A Town Called Mercy” likely takes place during this 7-week period for two reasons. The Doctor talks about Rory almost leaving his phone in Henry VIII’s en suite, and Amy cites needing to get back to their friends before they notice that we have aged. We also see a very, very, almost uncharacteristically, angry Doctor in this episode.
- “Power of Three” second half of the episode up until the defeat of the Shakri takes place in July of the eight years of on and off travel with the Doctor
- The final moments of “The Power of Three” take place in December because there are Christmas lights everywhere. It seems as though The Doctor may have stayed with the Ponds for a six-month visit before they take off at the end of the episode
- “The Angels Take Manhattan” takes places slightly after they board the TARDIS in the “Power of Three”. The reasoning for this is that in photos from the episode, Amy is seen reading a newspaper that indicates the Detroit Lions have won the Superbowl. Given that the Superbowl is always played in late January or early February (barring delays for player’s strikes etc.) the “Angels Take Manhattan” would occur after that time. It could also be after that time if Amy is reading an old newspaper, because there are leaves on the trees and they are wearing light jackets: not typical in late January New York. Perhaps it’s late March or early April when they in fact did shoot the actual episode, and Amy is just reading an old news paper.
- Codicil: This is the Amy and Rory timeline. It’s possible the Doctor did this timeline slightly out of order. Given all the moodiness and the “I’ll miss you” commentary, it’s likely during the first part of “The Power of Three” where the Doctor travels alone that he encounters future Ponds and knows their demise. Now he can’t alter that fixed point in time, but he can visit them without divulging their future. So he then pops in and out to take fuller advantage of spending time with them.
What do you think about the proposed timeline? Do we have any gaps or unexplained inconsistencies? We also discuss this theory in-depth on the latest episode of WhoHype.
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