Favourite futures that never happened and how we got there?

Cross-Media Discussions
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I was recently relistening to the audio The Harvest and it struck me how funny its version of 2021 is. Britain is still in the EU, Europe seems to be overtaking the rest of the world, China controls the Moon, poor Hex is working as a nurse in what would have been the middle of COVID with no sign of it.

It got me thinking about other Doctor Who stories that are set in what was then the future but is now the past. Obviously the writers weren’t trying to predict the future, and Doctor Who continuity contradicts itself all the time, but it’s fun to try and bridge the gap.

What are your favourite examples of this, and how do you think the timeline diverged from either the real world or the wider Doctor Who universe to create the future shown in those stories?

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Do you mean it’s still in the EU? (It’s been years since I listened to the story). Cos we’re still part of the continent of Europe even in 2026.

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I’m stilling waiting for the South Pole space command we were promised in 1986… :joy:

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No Salamander to threaten the world in 2018. We got a very similar figure though…

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Good idea for a topic!

You’ve reminded me of something which has nothing to do with Doctor Who but it’s one of my favourite Amazon reviews:

A book reviewer criticises a novel for failing to address the COVID-19 pandemic in its 2020 setting, describing this oversight as distracting and a major error. (Captioned by AI)
A book reviewer criticises a novel for failing to address the COVID-19 pandemic in its 2020 setting, describing this oversight as distracting and a major error. (Captioned by AI)634×612 81.9 KB

“Bad assumption” :joy:

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I saw that recently. Some people are idiots.

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By the way, we have the trope Days of Future Past on the main site for these kinds of stories :wink:

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yes i do sorry lol

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I wanted Tennent running with the Olympic Torch.

Also, I want to book my flight to Malebolgia.

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It may be a tad hasty on my part to dismiss it considering we’re still a short while away, but if we’re not on Mars by 2049, I think we’re in for a bit of trouble…

I say that in jest, for the most part, but it’ll be interesting if we ever get to that point as the fictional present in Doctor Who, if only to see them excuse how a supposed fixed point no longer happened if they want to maintain a synchronicity between reality and the programme. It’s not the end of the world… Well, it may be; the last time a fixed point was rewritten, I was minding my business in a park and a bloody pterodactyl swooped down and took my sandwich!

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