Live Countdown
Want to see a live countdown to this event? Use the main Sci-Fi Countdown app, select Doctor Who from the Story dropdown, and choose this event from the Event dropdown.
Historical Record
On 23 October 2022, the Thirteenth Doctor faces the most crowded and dangerous alliance of her era. The crisis begins with disappearances, abnormal seismic data, and coordinated hostile activity that spreads across Earth and beyond. The Doctor and Yaz are drawn into a plan engineered by the Master, who has aligned himself with both the Daleks and the Cybermen. This is not a loose partnership of convenience. Each force has a defined role in a shared assault, with the Daleks tied to planetary destruction and the Cyber side linked to the Master's attempt to seize the Doctor's body and identity. The scale of the threat immediately pushes the event beyond an ordinary finale and into a franchise level turning point.
UNIT becomes a central operational base during the emergency, placing Kate Stewart back at the center of Earth's defensive response. Former companions Ace and Tegan also return to active involvement, giving the crisis an unusually broad historical reach. The Master's methods are especially severe. He infiltrates UNIT, unleashes Cyber forces through deceptive means, and forces the Doctor into an involuntary regeneration that allows him to occupy her place. This is one of the most direct attacks ever made on the Doctor's identity. The problem is no longer only whether Earth survives the day. It is whether the Doctor remains the Doctor at all, or whether the Master's victory permanently rewrites that role.
At the same time, the Daleks and the CyberMasters drive separate but connected parts of the plan. Earth faces the possibility of volcanic catastrophe, while Cyber conversion and command structures advance through UNIT and off world locations. Yaz continues to act as the Doctor's closest ally throughout, working with Vinder and others to piece together a counter move. Ace and Tegan each play practical roles in attacking the enemy systems rather than serving only as symbolic returnees. That matters to the timeline because this event brings multiple eras of Doctor Who into one active emergency. The finale does not merely celebrate past history. It uses that history as operational strength.
The crisis ends only after the Master's hold is broken and the Doctor's form is restored. Even then, the damage is not fully avoidable. The Doctor survives the larger conflict but suffers a final mortal injury in its aftermath. Her last hours are quieter than the scale of the battle that precedes them. She returns Yaz home, steps away from the noise of command centers and invasions, and regenerates alone in a final open landscape. In timeline terms, 23 October 2022 marks the end of the Thirteenth Doctor's era. It is the day when Earth resists a three front assault led by the Master, when former companions re enter the field, and when one Doctor's history closes in full view of the future.
Key details
Date: 23 October 2022
Location: Earth and UNIT headquarters, with linked off world Cyber activity
Source: Doctor Who: The Power of the Doctor (2022)
Significance: This event closes the Thirteenth Doctor's era, reunites multiple generations of allies, and ends with her regeneration after defeating the Master's final plan.
Related events
FAQ
Q: When does The Power of the Doctor take place in Doctor Who?
The event is anchored to 23 October 2022, matching its special broadcast slot and its place as the closing Earth date of the Thirteenth Doctor's era. It functions as the final major milestone before the 2023 anniversary specials.
Q: What makes The Power of the Doctor important?
It combines the Master, the Daleks, and the CyberMasters in one coordinated crisis and brings back companions from earlier eras to help stop it. Most importantly, it ends with the Thirteenth Doctor's regeneration, making it a major handover point in the wider Doctor Who timeline.