Doctor Who: Timelink by Jon Preddle

Timelink is a two-volume book from Doctor Who fan Jon Preddle, exploring the continuity of the series—at least as it existed circa 2010, when David Tennant regenerated into Matt Smith (it very briefly glosses Smith's first series). Obviously, as is typical for me, I came to it very late! The book has five parts across its two volumes, and I'll tackle each of them individually. Before the five parts, though, Preddle lays out his "rules," probably the most important of which is that he only cares about what's on screen, unlike Lance Parkin and Lars Pearson's Ahistory. He is also very into taking things literally: if a character says something happened a thousand years ago, they are very much not rounding.

Timelink: An Unofficial and Unauthorised Exploration of Doctor Who Continuity, Volume One
by Jon Preddle

Published: 2011
Acquired: January 2013
Read: March 2026

The first part, called "The N-Space Universe," lays out a bunch of "facts" we can discern about the Doctor Who universe: how does time work, can you change history, what kinds of time anomalies are there, what are the major places, who speaks English, and so on. There is a lot of detail here, and I skimmed much of it. I very much disagree with his conclusions about language; Preddle is the kind of guy who will not go for the interpretation that people speak English because this is tv; no, Gallifreyan and English must (somehow) be the same language. It ends with a 100-page timeline; this is just a list, and I much more appreciate the detailed footnotes of Ahistory. (That said, we do get rationales for these placements in the story entries in volume two.)

The next part provides a set of histories: what are the chronological sequence of Cyberman stories, Dalek stories, UNIT stories, the 2005-09 contemporary stories, British prime ministers, and the British space program. The real highlight of these is the meticulously thought through Cyberman and Dalek stories; I don't think I've ever read a better, more detailed take on how all their screen adventures fit together. If I were, say, writing a Cyberman or Dalek Big Finish adventure, I would definitely use this. On the other hand, I very much disagree with his take on UNIT dating, because he acts like there's only one possible conclusion from the data on screen, which is very much not the case!

The third part goes into the histories of the Doctor and Gallifrey. Though I don't think it would hold up with what we saw on screen from 2010 onward, and it definitely doesn't hold up with what the comics and novels and audios have done, he provides a very compelling take on how Gallifrey's timeline syncs up with the universe's, and thus how the Doctor's age fits into this, and what counts as the "future" and the "past" from a Time Lord perspective. (His claim is that Arc of Infinity sets the present of Gallifrey as 1983, and thus you can work out everything relative to that using the Doctor's age.) He makes it all work quite nicely; it's very satisfying!

Timelink: An Unofficial and Unauthorised Exploration of Doctor Who Continuity, Volume Two
by Jon Preddle

Published: 2011
Acquired: January 2013
Read: March 2026

From here, I recommend jumping ahead to part five, which makes up the entirety of volume two. It's clearly here so that the two volumes are roughly equal length, not because it would read best last. This is Preddle's story-by-story history of the whole show, from 100,000 BC to The End of Time. For each story, he gives you details on its chronological placement, an estimate of how much time passed within it, links to other stories, and so on. Surely my favorite part was the estimate of time passed; it's an aspect of chronology I feel like people rarely care about! I do think he makes some weird calls sometimes (the pith-helmet-wearing explorers with English names in Kinda are supposedly not humans from Earth!) but he always explains his logic. This isn't designed to be read word for word in order, I'm sure, but I did so as much as I could. It reads very quickly... well it did for me anyway. I would guess a number of people would find it quite dull.

Lastly, part four in volume one is the "appendices": recaps of other writers' thoughts on UNIT dating, a discussion of if the Doctor is half-human (here Preddle struggles a bit, having to willfully misread the TV movie... though there's not much you can do about this if you're insisting all of Doctor Who somehow does fit together), and then story-by-story histories of Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures. I particularly appreciated his meticulous approach to the chronology of Torchwood and SJA; someday maybe I'll rewatch those two shows along with the present-day episodes of the parent show following his order.

Overall, my guess is that you're either a certain kind of person who finds this kind of thing interesting or you're a kind of person who very much does not! To be honest, I think I am less the kind of person who finds this kind of thing interesting than I was thirteen years ago when I bought this book, but I still find it interesting enough.