Hundreds!

Someone has worked out that, on top of everything else, The Time Of The Doctor will be the show’s 800th episode. (The first 253 are in black and white, and Rose was 697, making The Crimson Horror the 100th episode since the series returned.)

In case you’re not partied out already...

Fifties are of course a big deal, but hundreds really do get more attention. Romans organise by centuries, and a century in cricket probably earns you some drinks after the game. Living to one hundred in the UK gets you a telegram from the Queen (even though we don’t have telegrams any more) and a bid of a hundred at out local con’s charity auction will usually get a round of applause, and sometimes a panto-style “ooh!” as well.

So what else can a multiple of a hundred mark?

100:
The Hundred Years’ War.
Napoleon’s Hundred Days.
The metric system.
Century House was about a rift in time and space causing a haunting - but apparently not one going back a century...

200:
The Mighty 200 stories of Doctor Who as of Planet Of The Dead. 800 episode will mark 240 stories...

300:
This! Is! Sparta! An adventure being planned on the DWAITAS forum has Cybermen as Xerxes’ Immortals.

400:
“The Sun is approximately 400 times the size of the Moon but also is approximately 400 times further away, creating the temporary illusion in which the Sun and Moon in Earth's sky appear as if of similar size.” Paul Cornell has suggested that this would make Earth during an eclipse a major tourist spot for alien visitors.

500:
The Indy 500.
I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)!

600:
Noble six hundred! The charge of the Light Brigade is one of those moments the Doctor would want to alter, but it’s probably a fixed point in time. Still plenty of room for unfriendly alien involvement behind the scenes, though. (See Red Ace High for an example from decades later.)

700:
Seven Hundred Elves, a traditional folk song performed here by Steeleye Span. (May have originally been trolls rather than elves.) Where does this idea come from? And how does one farmer defeat an army of monsters in a single night?

800:
Eight Hundred Leagues On the Amazon by Jules Verne. Not one of his SF stories.

900:
The Ninth Doctor’s approximate age. The First Doctor managed to get to over 600 before regenerating! Well, there was a war on...