Chronology, Continuity & Canon are the eternal obsessions of fans of all TV shows, not just fans of Doctor Who. At its simplest, when something is established we don't like it when it's subsequently contradicted. We like to know the exact order when things happen and we pay attention when characters mention things we haven't seen on TV. It has always been part of the fictional reality of Doctor Who that the characters have a life beyond what we see them doing on TV. The inference is that the adventures we see the Doctor having on TV aren't the only ones he has. Question is, what are those adventures and when do they take place? And before you know it, you're off and playing Hunt The Story Gap, trying to track down the places where those non-TV adventures happened. Cue that other eternal hallmark of the fan - The List.

For the TV stories, it's usually the case that Production Order and Transmission Order are the same, so the order you see them in on telly is pretty much the order they happened to the Doctor, though there have been exceptions over the years. In this timeline there are two clear instances where the production team swapped stories for reasons of contrast that clearly should not have been swapped around so I've corrected those here. With the Big Finish audios, arguably Canon since The Night Of The Doctor, it's not always so easy to know where a particular story takes place. I call it Minding The Gaps.

The Big Finish audios have to take place in the Story Gaps between television adventures, which are the Primary Texts of Doctor Who. Audio adventures, original novels and comic strips are all Secondary Texts. So, when it comes to continuity, the general principle is that the Primary Text takes precedence unless there's a compelling reason not to adhere to it - The Primacy Principle. If it's clear that there is a run of consecutive adventures taking place then the same rules apply as on Television: if A is released before B, then A takes place before B, unless there is a compelling reason for it not to. I call this the rule of Chronological Sequentialism, and it's the same one that applies to the TV stories - the order in which they were transmitted is the order in which they happened, although there are a couple of obvious exceptions!

So in drawing up this chronology, I've only gone by what I've actually heard when listening to the audio when working out where a particular story appears in the Doctor's timeline. Just because a CD release for a particular story says it takes place between two stories that doesn't mean I'll agree with it - I'll listen and come to my own conclusions based only on what I've heard. Of course, some placements are inevitably arbitrary as there is no clear guide as to where they go. In those cases I've just picked a spot where it seems to me that it might fit and isn't too similar to the stories around it.

There are instances where the end of one story clearly leads straight into the start of another - Mindwarp into The Trial of a Time Lord for example - and there is no Story Gap in between. For other stories it's implied that the end of one story leads into the start of another but it's less clear cut. For instance there could be a Story Gap in between the end of The Twin Dilemma and the start of Attack of the Cybermen but the clear inference is that the one follows on very soon after the other, so the continuity jury is out on that one. To my mind it's sheer common sense as to where the gaps are, be they obvious or implied & inferred. And of course, when it comes to poor old Sixie, there are some whacking great gaps to plug, most notably the infamous "I know... I'll take you to Blackpool!". Before setting out on starting to put Sixie's Big Finish adventures in some sort of order, I identified a few obvious Story Gaps:

The first, whatever Sixie and Peri got up to between Revelation of the Daleks and The Mysterious Planet

The second, after The Mysterious Planet and immediately before Mindwarp where Sixie and Peri meet the "Warlord of Thordon" whose dying words lead them to Thoros Beta.

The third, whatever Sixie was up to after he dropped off Mel before meeting her again properly.

The fourth, whatever Sixie and Mel were up to before the TARDIS strayed near Lakertya and the Rani's navigational guidance system distorter...

At first, Sixie's timeline seemed straightforward enough: Peri, The Trial, Sixie Alone, Melanie Bush, Lakertya. If only it was that simple! First of all there's the question of Sixie going back for Peri and then the other question of Mel being from Sixie's future, meaning he has to drop her off after his trial so he can meet her again, properly, later. So that gives us:

Peri, The Trial, Bye Bye Mel, Sixie Alone, Hello Mel, Lakertya.

The first complication we encounter is Evelyn Smythe. Given that Sixie's timeline has to end with Mel, Evelyn has to go in the Story Gap between The Trial and Mel. Which gives us:

Peri, The Trial, Bye Bye Mel, Sixie Alone, Evelyn, Hello Mel, Lakertya.

Then things get further complicated by the addition of Charley Pollard but that's okay, she can go in the Story Gap between Sixie Alone and Evelyn as The Wrong Doctors confirms that Hello Mel happens straight after Bye Bye Evelyn. So that gives us:

Peri, The Trial, Bye Bye Mel, Sixie Alone, Charley, Evelyn, Hello Mel, Lakertya.

And then there's Flip. Following my rule of Chronological Sequentialism, Flip comes after Charley but before Evelyn, giving us:

Peri, The Trial, Bye Bye Mel, Sixie Alone, Charley, Flip, Evelyn, Hello Mel, Lakertya.

And then things really get complicated!

Flip's fate in Scavenger gets referenced in the next release The Widow's Assassin, which sees Sixie return to Krontep to see Peri. We learn - SPOILERS! - that Flip didn't die and Sixie managed to rescue her. But at the end of the story, Peri is still in the TARDIS with Sixie. That gives us two sections of Sixie's timeline where he's travelling with Peri. Like this:

Peri, The Trial, Bye Bye Mel, Sixie Alone, Charley, Flip, Peri Again, Evelyn, Hello Mel, Lakertya.

And then Big Finish gives us The Last Adventure and another new companion - Constance Clarke! So where did she fit in? She had to go after Flip, and since Sixie takes up with Peri again immediately after Flip leaves, she had to go after Peri Again as well. And then, not only does Quicksilver confirm where Constance goes in Sixie's timeline, Flip comes back!

Having finally worked out the proper in which Sixie finally meets his various companions, the last thing to do was to work out where his various solo trips fit into his timeline. The easiest way to do it was to look at the release dates. Knowing when each companion made their audio debut meant that any Sixie Solo audios could be slotted in to the gap between one companion leaving and the next one arriving.

And so the current version of Sixie's Timeline looks like this:

SIXIE and PERI #1

THE TRIAL OF SIXIE

THE WRONG DOCTORS #1

SIXIE SOLO #1

SIXIE and CHARLEY

SIXIE SOLO #2

SIXIE and FLIP

SIXIE AND PERI #2

SIXIE SOLO #3

SIXIE and CONSTANCE

SIXIE and CONSTANCE and FLIP

SIXIE SOLO #4

SIXIE and EVELYN

THE WRONG DOCTORS #2

SIXIE AND MEL