When are these stories actually set?

[SiHart]

So, on the one hand we've got videophones in use. On the other Jo's fashion is very much 1971.

There's much evidence either way- that it's near future or contemporary...

What do you think?

Si xx

[Si Hunt]

You could excuse the technology as being ahead of its time because UNIT are a top-secret Government organisation who have alien technology at their disposal (in "Terror of the Autons" alone we learn that the Brigadier was in charge of the nestene energy unit, and will dismantle the Volatizer unless the Doctor disables it, so they obviously have an interest). You can't, however, excuse everyone wearing seventies fashions.

So it's set in the seventies.

Si.

[MacNimon]

I agree. And wouldn't that fit in chronologicaly with the 4th Doctor taking Sarah to her alternative 'present day' in 1980 in the Pyramids Of Mars, a few years later?

[Larry]

What do you think?

Si xx

I think UNIT, dating is a very big can of worms...

[Andrew Curnow]

I have a pet theory (I keep him in the outside loo, his name's George) that after Planet of Evil the Doctor, for whatever reason, drops Sarah Jane back home. Maybe she's got a reporting job to do (somebody's got to pay the bills after all!) and asks for a weekend off. After promising to be back in two days, the Doctor turns up four or five years later (hey, it wouldn't be the first time) and off they go again. So that by that time, Sarah is "from 1980". It would account for why suddenly at the start of Pyramids of Mars, the Doctor has a 'new look' and the TARDIS is different, and even Sarah seems a bit more free & easy as though time has passed...

...in which case, I'd say the UNIT stories happen more or less when they're broadcast. I seem to recall DWM running through loads of reasons why they are, many years ago - even down to details such as pre-decimal currency being used in (I think) The Silurians.

But yes, UNIT dating is difficult - after all, Jo & Mike Yates never managed it did they.

[Captain Tancredi]

My own theory is that when SJS talks about being from 1980, she means the events of 'Robot' and 'Terror of the Zygons' (which neatly addresses the female Prime Minister question too).

My other theory is that rather than all these alien invasions happening every six weeks or so (and only for 26 weeks of the year), the Earth-based stories between 'The Invasion' and 'Robot' are spread quite evenly over a period of about 10-12 years, so 'The Invasion' and 'Spearhead from Space' are contemporary but by 'The Sea Devils' (say) you're into the mid-1970s. When you think about it, the pre-decimal currency is a fairly big howler to drop if the production team were aiming for a near-future setting, as the groundwork had been done under the Wilson government of the late 1960s and it would have been known to be imminent in 1969-70.

[SiHart]

That would work wouldn't it? It'd certainly explain why Jo suddenly seems far more grown up and competent between Terror of the Autons and Mind of Evil.
But it doesn't explain Jo's fashions!

Andrew's SJS theory is quite convincing too.

Si xx

[Martin Curnow]

I have a pet theory (I keep him in the outside loo, his name's George) that after Planet of Evil the Doctor, for whatever reason, drops Sarah Jane back home. Maybe she's got a reporting job to do (somebody's got to pay the bills after all!) and asks for a weekend off. After promising to be back in two days, the Doctor turns up four or five years later (hey, it wouldn't be the first time) and off they go again. So that by that time, Sarah is "from 1980". It would account for why suddenly at the start of Pyramids of Mars, the Doctor has a 'new look' and the TARDIS is different, and even Sarah seems a bit more free & easy as though time has passed...

...in which case, I'd say the UNIT stories happen more or less when they're broadcast. I seem to recall DWM running through loads of reasons why they are, many years ago - even down to details such as pre-decimal currency being used in (I think) The Silurians.

But yes, UNIT dating is difficult - after all, Jo & Mike Yates never managed it did they.

Actually, that isn't a bad theory and would kind of explain Sarah saying to the tenth Doctor about his not having come back for her. Maybe she was expecting that after the call to Gallifrey, he'd be back to pick her up again.