Settings: Euro Sea Gas Refinery (Fury from the Deep)

Another fifth-season story, another base under siege and, indeed, the fifth story in a row to be set on Earth. As with The Faceless Ones, it takes something that was “modern” but not cutting-edge at the time and builds everything around that. And, as with that one, the resulting setting comes across as rather mundane and perhaps more so to modern eyes than it did then.

The last serial to be missing entirely in its original form, it has been fully animated, which may have rehabilitated it in the eyes of some fans. Even so, it’s generally regarded as middling today, not one of the greats, perhaps best known for featuring both a companion departure and the debut of the sonic screwdriver. But let’s see what we can do with the exciting world of the British gas supply industry…

Where & When

The story is set in and around a refinery somewhere on the east coast of England and in the accompanying gas field in the North Sea. Although there are several indications that it’s the near future, no specific date is given. However, a later straight-to-video fan production gave the date of this story as 1975, and this is widely accepted as accurate today.

Settings: London Underground (The Web of Fear)

We’re back to a base-under-siege format with The Web of Fear, albeit the base is a real-world place in the middle of London. The story is at least as well-known for introducing Alastair Lethbridge-Stewart as it is for its main plot, and this may contribute to its very high favourability with older fans. Even those who started on the modern show, however, still tend to regard this as above-average. From a gaming perspective, there is also something fitting about a story that features a lot of wandering about in subterranean tunnels…

Where & When

The story is near-contemporary, although exactly how near is ambiguous; Travers implies that it’s the mid 1970s, while every other indication places it no more than a year into the future, in early 1969. It takes place in London, almost entirely within the tunnels and stations of the Underground train system.

Settings: The United Zones (The Enemy of the World)

In a season known for consisting almost entirely of variations on the “base under siege” formula, The Enemy of the World stands out as the one exception. It used to have a relatively weak reputation among older fans, but modern viewers give it a much more positive reception, perhaps finding its different take refreshing, along with a plot that’s faster-moving than usual for the era. For our purposes, it’s significant in being a near-future story with a relatively detailed setting that uses a mix of fictional and real-world locations on two different sides of the globe, rather than being restricted to a single base.

Where & When

The story is mostly set in Australia, with a significant diversion in the middle that takes place in Hungary. As confirmed by the newspaper visible in one of the later episodes, it takes place in 2018… which would have been 50 years in the future at the time of broadcast.

Settings: Brittanicus Base (The Ice Warriors)

The next story takes us to a future Earth in the grip of the perils of climate change, if not quite the sort we might be concerned about today. It is, perhaps, most notable for introducing the most-used “monster” of the classic era after the Daleks and Cybermen. Taken on its own merits, it used to be thought of as a middling, if unexceptional, story, but has tended to become less popular with younger audiences, probably because not much happens for four out of the six episodes. For the purposes of this blog, however, it’s significant that the first episode consists largely of an exposition dump, which allows us to say a surprising amount about the setting.

Where & When

The story is set somewhere in Britain several centuries into the future, as a new Ice Age is starting. No date is given on screen; we’re told that “five thousand years” of history are at risk from the ice, but it’s unclear what this is counting from. Pre-publicity for the story suggested it took place around 3,000 AD, but more recent fan theories go for 5,000.

Settings: Det-Sen (The Abominable Snowmen)

With The Abominable Snowmen, we have the first self-contained historical to feature a science fiction ‘monster’, rather than a rival time traveller. The historical elements are, however, relatively minor, due in part to the remote location, which means that the story could almost be contemporary. Traditionally regarded as a middling serial, younger fans have been more critical, although this may be less true now that an animation is available for the missing episodes. Either way, it is, perhaps, better remembered for introducing a threat that recurs in a more popular story later in the season than it is in its own right. Nonetheless, the setting is exotic and, for a historical, surprisingly adaptable to some SF settings, so let’s take a look.

Where & When

The story is set in the Himalayan Mountains of southern Tibet. No specific date is given in the serial, but The Web of Fear later states that it took place in 1935. The animation has plenty of snow on the ground, which may suggest either winter or spring, depending on the altitude.

Settings: Telos (Tomb of the Cybermen)

Season five kicks off with a Cyberman story, cementing the intention of using them as the main villains from here on, instead of the Daleks. It’s widely regarded as one of the better Second Doctor stories and perhaps the single best Cyberman story of the classic era, and it has the obvious advantage of being the earliest Troughton story fully available in its original form. For our purposes here, however, it’s worth noting that little of the appeal has to do with the setting. Having said which, the story does involve exploring and negotiating the traps and monsters in an underground tomb, something that’s not entirely foreign to certain RPGs…

Where & When

Although no specific date is given in the story, it’s stated to be set approximately five hundred years after the events of The Moonbase. Depending on whether Parry is rounding up or down, and how far we want to adjust for the known dates of future Cyberman stories, this places the story somewhere between the late 25th and mid-26th centuries, with most fan theories leaning towards the later date. This is probably shortly before the founding of the original Earth Empire.

It takes place on the planet Telos, a few weeks' travel from Earth. Given the date, this most likely places it in our own galaxy (although one of the audios will later contradict this), but in the relatively unexplored fringes beyond the edge of human colonisation, perhaps even on the opposite side of the galactic nucleus from Earth.

Settings: The Evil of the Daleks

The season finale of season four is arguably the first such serial to actually feel like a season finale. It’s one of the more popular Second Doctor stories, despite all but one episode being missing – albeit they are now animated. From the perspective of these posts, however, it’s very much not an exploratory story, and there’s relatively little to say about the setting. But still, we can work with the basics that we have.

Where & When

The story has three distinct settings. It starts off in southern England on the 20th July 1966, immediately after the events of The Faceless Ones. The main section, however, takes place on the 2nd and 3rd June 1866, at an English country house, with all of the action being confined to the building and its grounds.