Torchwood + Doctor Who timeline

[beccaelizabeth]

About Jack:

How long was Jack away from Torchwood?

Sound of Drums: The Master fell about 18 months back in time. His first appearance was right after Harriet Jones' government fell, after the Sycorax. The next Christmas was the thing with the Bride, so Election Day would be about six months after that for the 18 month total.

The Christmas with the Bride was the same one with the people from out of the past, when Diane went back into the Rift. Yesno?

The website has a missing poster for early February.

So that's still only 13, 14 months since the Christmas Invasion. 18-14=4 months.

Jack was gone months.

If math=logic in Torchwood world.



I think it's better to have been gone a while because then you can make more story of it. I mean, if he was missing for a weekend then you don't get much of a story at all. If he was missing 4 months, got declared a terrorist and associated with the Doctor, you've already generated your first episode where Jack has to persuade his team to trust him again after all that mess.

Otherwise it's just throwing away a story.

Which, you know, also happens.

Comments

[louiex.livejournal.com]

I don't know if they actually feel the need to remember things like dates on TW, its a problem thats come up before yes?

But I agree, having to work back into his team XD It would be a great way to get the ball rolling, especially if Jack has the momentary angst realization that they didn't necessarily need him (greatly ignoring the five member team against all odds to protect the world factor :D).

[beccaelizabeth]

TW can't seem to decide which year it is in. Which is all part of the find tradition of DW. Like trying to decide which decade it was when the Doctor worked with UNIT.

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I like the logic, but I'm pretty sure that there is only ever about a month between the PM asking the Queen to dissolve parliament and the ballot day. I think the whole general election timetable is something like 20 working days or maybe less. I'm curious now...*goes to check* According to the Electoral Commission the statutory timetable is 17 working days from the procalamation of the dissolution of parliament and it's the proclamation that triggers the start of the campaigning.

But there was a vote Saxon poster in either Captain Jack Harkness or a later TW episode on the old dance hall, so he'd have had to have been away for less than 17 working days.

Do we know what time of year it is for SoD and LotTL? If Jack was missing in Feb, they could have held the election early March. Does anyone definitely state that the Master has been on Earth for 18 months? I thought the Doctor was estimating error bars on his locking the TARDIS, but I have a feeling the journalist may have said something... Where did you get that he first appeared after the Sycorax? If he (a) landed less than 18 months before the election, or (b) landed around the October before The Christmas Invasion which would be 18 months before, the timing could still work.

Or they could just ignore all clues and make something up... but a month is still a while.

[beccaelizabeth]

Journalist Vivien Rook to Lucy Saxon about Harold Saxon:

"18 months ago he became real. This is his first honest to god appearance, just after the downfall of Harriet Jones. The exact same time they launched the Archangel network."


Now logic suggests that the Master would have needed to be there for, oh, at least a bunch of days before he could launch his own satellite network, but it still gives us 18 months after the downfall of Harriet Jones, which was after the Christmas Invasion.


there is only ever about a month between the PM asking the Queen to dissolve parliament and the ballot day
in this universe
and it might be the law that such an act triggers the start of campaigning, but...

Saxon was using global mind control to make everyone Vote Saxon. I think the fine points of parliamentary process were not actually his priority.

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

Ah, I thought Ms Rook had said something but I couldn't quite remember.

Still, I think if he was using the global mind control to ignore the proper process, he would have had the election before summer if there were posters up for the voting in TW in ~February - I mean, why wait for months when it's in the bag already? The Archangel network had been up for about a year already by the time Jack's missing person poster appears, the Master is already campaigning... Okay, maybe he was waiting for Lazarus to come through and for Martha to vanish so he knew she was with the Doctor, but then why have Vote Saxon posters up at the start of the year?

Personally, I think the writers just hadn't thought the timelines through when they did the posters for TW.

[beccaelizabeth]

could be the writers didn't know the rule.

I think your logic depends on knowledge that wasn't mentioned on screen so it's not likely to be relevant. 18 months was said repeatedly, 18 months it was.

There's no reason the Master would know precisely when Martha was from. But he needed her travelling with the Doctor because it was her mistake that freed him. He wouldn't want to interfere with that. So he'd have been waiting.

The 'Vote Saxon' mind control worked because it was subtle, the Doctor said. Getting schedules changed isn't subtle.
Posters that most people mostly ignore probably count as subtle.

[ahab99.livejournal.com]

And the Torchwood team should still be sent to the Himalayas, even with the reset, right? So even though Martha was only gone four days, Jack had to have been gone long enough for them to feel comfortable leaving the country instead of staying and looking for him. Which I think means weeks rather than days.

[beccaelizabeth]

They'd still be sent to the Himalayas
but
it could have been to look for him