1997 In 1997 , Samantha Jones joined the newly - regenerated Eighth Doctor on his travels . ( PROSE : " The Eight Doctors " ) Dated events . January - July . In the spring , the Eleventh Doctor and Clara Oswald visited London to find that it was frozen by abominable alien s . The Doctor took his TARDIS to the aliens ' base in the ice - solid River Thames and attached it to the machine the aliens used to freeze London . The TARDIS reversed the temporary winter and the aliens left Earth . ( COMIC : " Wintervention " ) On 30 April , Bernice Summerfield was dropped off at the Doctor ' s house , whereupon she discovered he had regenerated into his eighth incarnation . On 6 May , Bernice first met the Doctor in his eighth incarnation . Britain sent the Mars Orbiter to Mars and the three astronaut s on the surface stumbled across the Ice Warrior tomb of the Great Marshall Kyruul of the Argyre Clan under the sands of the Mare Sirenum and were killed . The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom was assassinated in Washington . Lord Xznaal ' s ship arrived over London and ordered the country to submit to his rule . On 7 May , Alexander Christian escaped from his military captors and contacted Brigadier Lethbridge - Stewart . The United Kingdom submitted to Martian rule and set up a Provisional Government . Around this time , Queen Elizabeth II was deposed and Xznaal was crowned King . She had a second coronation on 23 November , at which the Fourth Doctor , Romana II and K9 Mark II were present . ( PROSE : " The Dying Days " ) Shortly after the Mars 97 incident , Carolyn McConnell summoned the Eighth Doctor and Samantha Jones to San Francisco to assist her with vampire s . ( PROSE : " Vampire Science " ) During the adventure , Sam asked UNIT to contact her parents . When a UNIT soldier came to the Jones residence , he learned that Sam hadn ' t yet began travelling with the Doctor and then told Sam ' s parents to not tell Sam that he had came . ( PROSE : " Unnatural History " ) On 14 May , the Seventh Doctor ' s companion Ace met her younger brother Liam McShane for the first time in San Antonio on Ibiza . ( AUDIO : " The Rapture " ) Before the end of the Coal Hill School year , in one version of history , the Eighth Doctor came to 76 Totter ' s Lane shortly after his regeneration . Samantha Jones was in the junkyard at the time getting drugs . Due to the fact that the Doctor had recently regenerated , Faction Paradox were able to use his use biodata to change Sam ' s life to make her into a suitable companion for the Doctor . ( PROSE : " Unnatural History " ) In another version of history , the Eighth Doctor met Sam Jones in Totter ' s Lane while she was trying to stop a group of kids from dealing drugs . The Doctor , who was suffering from amnesia due to a trap left for him by , scared off the drug dealers and picked up their cocaine . The Coal Hill police saw him with the cocaine and assumed that he was the drug dealer . The Doctor was taken in for questioning , but he quickly escaped and ran back to Totter ' s Yard , where Sam was being attacked by the drug dealers . The Doctor ran into his TARDIS and left without saving her . After meeting all his past selves , the Doctor came back and brought Sam into the TARDIS . She began travelling with him . ( PROSE : " The Eight Doctors " ) Before August , Sam Jones ' parents received the first of many postcards from Sam . This postcard came from Fleeble 14 . ( PROSE : " Unnatural History " ) August - December . On 1 August , Sam ' s parents received a letter which had been kept in the mail system since 1894 . ( PROSE : " Unnatural History " ) On 11 October , Mary Barton killed her mother . ( PROSE : " There ' s Something About Mary " ) Before the First Doctor and Susan Foreman settled down in Shoreditch in 1963 , they took a brief trip to St Albans on 17 December 1997 to ensure that the United Kingdom would remain safe during and after the 1960s . Unbeknownst to either of them , the Fourth Doctor , Romana II and K9 Mark II were in the vicinity on the same day . ( PROSE : " The Little Things " ) Undated events . The Seventh Doctor and Ace encountered Arthurian knights in Carbury . ( TV : " Battlefield " ) Afterwards , Alistair Lethbridge - Stewart was promoted to General . ( PROSE : " The Dying Days " ) Torchwood One shot down a Jathaa sunglider over the Shetland Islands around this time . They began reverse - engineering its technology . Rose Tyler ' s maternal grandfather Granddad Prentice died when his heart gave out . ( TV : " Army of Ghosts " ) Carys Fletcher ' s mother was killed in a car crash . ( TV : " Day One " ) James Stewart died . ( PROSE : " Interference - Book Two " ) Alternate universes . In a parallel universe on 30 June , the newly regenerated Doctor , having been exiled to Earth , arrived in Hong Kong on the eve of the Handover of the territory from the United Kingdom to China . On that occasion , he encountered Brigadier Lethbridge - Stewart and the Master . ( AUDIO : " Sympathy for the Devil " ) According to one account , the Doctor and the Brigadier left Earth to never return . ( AUDIO : " Masters of War " ) According to another account , the Doctor stayed on Earth with the Brigadier and grew to enjoy his exile . ( AUDIO : " The 100 Days of the Doctor " ) Behind the scenes . According to the Torchwood House website , the book " It ' s a Mystery " was published in this year . Part of the book concerned the shooting star that fell into the Glen of St Catherine in 1540 .