Doctor Who: Who-ology

TWO
EVERYONE’S FAVOURITE TIME LORD: THE MANY LIVES AND CHANGING FACES OF THE DOCTOR

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Cavan Scott has written numerous books, audio dramas and comics strips based on such series as The Sarah Jane Adventures, Skylanders, Judge Dredd and, of course, Doctor Who. He has written about the good Doctor’s adventures in such magazines as SFX and Doctor Who Magazine and regularly appears at Doctor Who conventions around the country.

Mark Wright is a journalist and author and has written many audios, short stories and comic strips featuring new adventures for the Doctor, along with tie-ins to other series such as The Power Rangers and The Sarah Jane Adventures. He is a regular contributor to Doctor Who Magazine.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Do you know your Sontarens from your Silurians? What are the 40 best ways to defeat a Dalek? What are the galactic coordinates of Gallifrey?

Test your knowledge of the last Time Lord and the worlds he’s visited in Who-ology, an unforgettable journey through 50 years of Doctor Who.

Packed with facts, figures and stories from the show’s entire run, this unique tour of space and time takes you from Totters Lane to Trenzalore, taking in guides to UNIT call signs, details of the inner workings of sonic screwdrivers, and a reliability chart covering every element of the TARDIS.

You won’t believe the wonders that await. Are you ready? Then read on, you clever boy. And remember…

INTRODUCTION

‘Have you ever thought what it’s like to be wanderers in the fourth dimension?’

The Doctor started running on 23 November 1963 and hasn’t stopped since. Fifty years of adventure have given us hundreds of stories, at least 11 Doctors and more monsters than you can shake a sink plunger at.

Who-ology is a miscellany, a rattle-bag of facts, figures and trivia from five decades of time travel in the company of a madman with a box. From that junkyard on Totter’s Lane to a snow-dusted Victorian London at Christmas, we cover the companions that have accompanied him, the planets he has visited and the terrors he has faced.

Here you will discover the many names that the Doctor has used over the years, the exact number of companions he has snogged, and just how mad the Master actually is. Find out what vehicles the Doctor has driven, the tools he’s used, and the songs that have become the soundtrack to his exploits. There are questions to answer – who has written the most Doctor Who television stories and how long would it take to watch every episode back to back? There are survival guides that detail 40 methods of killing a Dalek, a timeline of significant events from all five decades of the show, and a list of every TARDIS control and mechanism ever mentioned.

Above all, Who-ology is a love letter to one of the craziest shows on television. What is it about this mad science-fantasy series that fans get excited about UNIT call-signs or how many episodes Sarah Jane Smith appeared in? After scouring over 200 stories, we still don’t have the answer, but we do know how many times the Daleks say ‘Exterminate’.

A note about stories and statistics

The statistics in this book include all regular televised episodes and stories of Doctor Who between An Unearthly Child (1963) and The Snowmen (2012), not including the untelevised story Shada (1979).

ONE

THE 50-YEAR DIARY
A DOCTOR WHO TIMELINE

‘I tried keeping a diary once. Not chronological, of course. But the trouble with time travel is, one never seems to find the time.’

The Doctor’s adventures began in a junkyard at 76 Totter’s Lane on 23 November 1963, where an impossible police box awaited two inquisitive school teachers. It was the beginning of the trip of a lifetime.

Since then, there have been many firsts and lasts, comings and goings, tearful farewells and exciting new beginnings. Tales of what went on behind the scenes on Doctor Who are as compelling as the Doctor’s on-screen adventures.

A man is the sum of his memories, a Time Lord even more so… Who-ology presents the 50-year diary of Doctor Who.

March 1962–June 1963 The BBC initiates a survey of published science fiction to establish its relevance to television drama. A series of reports and meetings involving Head of Serials Donald Wilson and staff writers Alice Frick, John Braybon and CE ‘Bunny’ Webber culminates in the detailed development of a new science fiction drama serial. Sydney Newman, the BBC’s new Head of Drama, and CE Webber subsequently produce a proposal document under the title ‘Dr Who: General Notes on Background and Approach’. Newman goes on to appoint Verity Lambert as Doctor Who’s series producer.

12 July 1963 Actor William Hartnell attends a lunch with Verity Lambert and director Waris Hussein to discuss playing the Doctor. Initially reluctant, Hartnell eventually agrees to the offer.

27 September 1963 Studio recording takes place at the BBC’s Lime Grove Studios, London, for the very first episode, An Unearthly Child. Head of Drama Sydney Newman is unhappy with the result and orders that the episode be recorded again.

18 October 1963 A second version of An Unearthly Child is recorded at Lime Grove Studios using a revised script.

21 November 1963 The Radio Times, the BBC’s listing magazine, previews Doctor Who for the very first time.

23 November 1963 The first episode of Doctor Who is broadcast at 5.16pm and watched by 4.4 million people.

21 December 1963 An early Christmas present as the Daleks make their first appearance. In fact audiences only see a plunger held by Assistant Floor Manager Michael Ferguson, who would later direct several Doctor Who stories.

1 February 1964 The final episode of The Daleks is watched by an audience of 10.4 million, more than double that of An Unearthly Child ten weeks before.

13 February 1964 Doctor Who features for the first time on the cover of the listings magazine Radio Times. The series will make the cover more times than any other television programme over the next 50 years.

22 February 1964 Marco Polo becomes the first historical figure to be depicted in Doctor Who.

15 August 1964 The second episode of The Reign of Terror features the first ever use of location footage in the series as elements of the story are shot outside the confines of the TV studio.

31 October 1964 After a seven-week break, Doctor Who returns for its second season with Planet of Giants.

November 1964 Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks, the first Doctor Who novelisation, is published.

21 November 1964 The Daleks make their second appearance in the series – this time invading future Earth.

26 December 1964 Carole Ann Ford makes her final appearance as the Doctor’s granddaughter Susan, marking the first departure of a companion.

2 January 1965 The first time the Doctor uses the term ‘materialise’ to describe the TARDIS landing.

26 June 1965 The final appearances of William Russell and Jacqueline Hill as Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright, leaving room for the Doctor Who debut of companion Steven Taylor, played by Peter Purves.

17 July 1965 The first appearance in the series of a TARDIS other than the Doctor’s. The TARDIS belongs to a mysterious monk, played by Peter Butterworth. The Monk is the first member of the Doctor’s own people to appear apart from Susan.

23 August 1965 The cinema release of Dr. Who and the Daleks, the first of two big-screen adventures starring Peter Cushing as ‘Dr Who’. In colour!

September 1965 The first publication of The Dr Who Annual by World Distributors, priced 9s 6d. It contains text stories featuring TV monsters the Voord and the Zarbi, as well as puzzles and features.

9 October 1965 Broadcast of Mission to the Unknown, the first and only episode not to feature either the Doctor or any of his companions.

13 November 1965 The first appearance of actor Nicholas Courtney, here playing Bret Vyon. Courtney will go on to play a significant character in the Doctor’s lives.

4 December 1965 The first on-screen death of a companion, as Adrienne Hill’s Katarina is killed.

21 December 1965 The Curse of the Daleks, a stage play by David Whitaker and Terry Nation, opens at London’s Wyndham’s Theatre.

25 December 1965 Doctor Who’s first broadcast on Christmas Day, an event that will not be repeated until 2005.

28 May 1966 Broadcast of The Savages Episode 1. Up to now each episode has been given individual titles; from now on, they are grouped together under story titles with numbered episodes.

6 August 1966 The official announcement to the press that William Hartnell is to leave the role of the Doctor. On this day, Patrick Troughton signs a contract to appear as the Doctor for 22 episodes.

8 October 1966 The Cybermen make their first appearance, giving Doctor Who its second enduring monster.

29 October 1966 In the closing minutes of The Tenth Planet, the Doctor regenerates for the first time (though that term won’t be used until the Third Doctor changes into the Fourth), and William Hartnell makes his final regular appearance in the series. Patrick Troughton briefly makes his Doctor Who debut.

5 November 1966 Patrick Troughton’s first full episode as the Doctor also sees the return of the Daleks.

17 December 1966 The first appearance of Frazer Hines as Jamie Macrimmon. He will clock up 113 regular episodes of Doctor Who, the most of any companion.

4 March 1967 The series sees its first use of an optical special effect, as the Cybermen blast a hole in the wall of a moonbase with a space cannon.

11 March 1967 The debut of a revamped title sequence featuring the face of Patrick Troughton. This creates a tradition of using the Doctor’s face in the titles that lasts until 1989 – a custom absent from the Eighth, Ninth, Tenth and early Eleventh Doctors’ eras but reintroduced on 25 December 2012.

1 July 1967 The Daleks make what is intended to be their final appearance in Doctor Who. This ‘final end’ is brought about by writer Terry Nation’s desire to launch his creations in their own series. The BBC has turned down the chance to make such a spin-off, and Nation has opened talks with American broadcasters. The monsters that helped cement Doctor Who’s popularity will not return to the series in a new story for nearly five years.

30 September 1967 The first appearances of the Yeti and the Great Intelligence.

17 February 1968 The first appearance of Nicholas Courtney as Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart. The character’s feet have appeared in close-up a week earlier, provided by extra Maurice Brooks.

9 November 1968 The first full appearance of UNIT, the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce, under the command of Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart, now a Brigadier, played once again – and many times in the future – by Nicholas Courtney.

7 January 1969 The announcement to the press that Patrick Troughton is to leave Doctor Who.

7 June 1969 The first use of ‘Time Lord’ to describe the Doctor’s people, uttered by an unnamed scientist played by Vernon Dobtcheff in The War Games.

17 June 1969 Jon Pertwee is announced as the third actor to take on the TV role of the Doctor in a press call held at BBC Broadcasting House. The actor is accompanied by a Yeti.

21 June 1969 Patrick Troughton’s final regular appearance as the Doctor. This episode features the first trip to the Doctor’s as yet unnamed home planet.

3 January 1970 A date marking many firsts in the history of Doctor Who. Jon Pertwee makes his debut, and a format change sees the Doctor exiled to Earth by the Time Lords. The Third Doctor becomes scientific adviser to UNIT with Nicholas Courtney’s Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart joining the series as a regular. The Nestene Consciousness and its plastic servants, the Autons, make their first attempt to invade Earth. Technology is changing in the wider world of television, and Doctor Who is broadcast in colour for the first time with a story recorded entirely on film, something that won’t happen again until 1996. The series sports a new colour title sequence featuring Pertwee’s face, and the number of episodes for the series has been reduced. Instead of running for about ten months of the year, as it has since 1963, Doctor Who is now on air for six months.

31 January 1970 Doctor Who and the Silurians marks the only time the series name is used within an individual on-screen story title. The Doctor’s yellow vintage car Bessie makes her debut. The appearance of a dinosaur marks the first use in the series of a technique known as colour separation overlay, or chromakey. A primary-coloured backdrop is used to ‘key in’ an image from another camera in a similar way to today’s green-screen technique.

21 March 1970 The theme tune ‘sting’ to emphasise the cliffhanger ending to each episode is used for the first time at the suggestion of director Michael Ferguson.

2 January 1971 Roger Delgado arrives as the Doctor’s Time Lord arch nemesis the Master.

1 January 1972 Day of the Daleks Episode 1 sees Skaro’s finest make their first appearance since May 1967.

29 January 1972 The Ice Warriors return as the Doctor faces The Curse of Peladon, although this time they’re goodies!

30 December 1972 A milestone to mark the tenth anniversary of the series, as William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton return to Doctor Who, battling the Time Lord Omega with current Doctor Jon Pertwee in The Three Doctors.

31 March 1973 The final appearance by Roger Delgado as the Master in the story Frontier in Space.

7 April 1973 Dalek creator Terry Nation makes his first script contribution to Doctor Who for seven years with Planet of the Daleks Episode 1.

2 May 1973 Target Books publish reprints of the novelisations Doctor Who and the Daleks, Doctor Who and the Crusaders – both by David Whitaker – and Doctor Who and the Zarbi by Bill Strutton.

18 June 1973 Roger Delgado is tragically killed in a car accident while filming Bell of Tibet in Turkey.

26 June 1973 Elisabeth Sladen is announced to the press as new companion Sarah Jane Smith, with Jon Pertwee joining her at a photo call at BBC Television Centre.

15 December 1973 The first episode of Doctor Who’s 11th season not only sees Sarah Jane Smith join the TARDIS, but also features the debut of the potato-headed Sontarans. The series now sports a brand new title sequence, once again designed by Bernard Lodge, who has created each title sequence since Doctor Who’s first episode. Lodge also designs a diamond-shaped logo to accompany the new series.

22 December 1973 The first on-screen reference to Gallifrey as the home planet of the Doctor and the Time Lords. This is not the first time the name has cropped up: it has been let slip in issue 124 of TV Action comic in July 1973, as the editors responded to a reader’s letter asking which planet the Master came from.

5 February 1974 BBC Head of Serials Bill Slater receives a letter from an out-of-work actor called Tom Baker, asking for work.

8 February 1974 The press announcement that Jon Pertwee will leave Doctor Who at the end of the current series.

15 February 1974 Tom Baker is unveiled to the press as Jon Pertwee’s successor in the role of the Doctor. He is joined by Elisabeth Sladen and a Cyberman at a photo call at BBC Television Centre.

8 June 1974 The final regular appearance by Jon Pertwee as the Doctor after five years. The term ‘regeneration’ is used for the first time.

28 December 1974 Tom Baker makes his full debut as the Doctor at 5.35pm, watched by 10.8 million viewers. Bernard Lodge’s fifth title sequence is unveiled, which now features Tom Baker’s face and the TARDIS for the first time.

1 February 1975 13.6 million viewers tune in to the second episode of The Ark in Space, propelling Doctor Who to its highest rating and chart placing at that point, coming in as the fifth most-watched television programme of the week.

19 April 1975 The first appearance of the Cybermen since 1968’s The Invasion. The story is former script editor and Cybermen co-creator Gerry Davis’s final contribution to Doctor Who. Revenge of the Cybermen makes the first reference to the Cybermen’s vulnerability to gold.

20 September 1975 After 98 episodes, Nicholas Courtney makes his final regular appearance as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart in Terror of the Zygons.

6 March 1976 The original TARDIS prop makes its final appearance after 13 years’ service to adventures in time and space. Years of being battered around studios and locations have taken their toll, resulting in the roof collapsing on Elisabeth Sladen during studio recording for The Seeds of Doom.

23 October 1976 Elisabeth Sladen makes her final regular appearance as Sarah Jane Smith – but Sarah’s story is in many ways only just beginning.

30 October 1976 Companionless for the very first time, the Doctor returns home to Gallifrey for The Deadly Assassin. The Master makes his first appearance since Frontier in Space, now played by Peter Pratt.

1 October 1977 A different kind of companion makes its debut, as robot dog K-9 whirrs into view for the first time.

18 July 1978 The cast and crew of The Stones of Blood enjoy a specially made birthday cake to celebrate making Doctor Who’s 100th adventure. The cake had originally been ordered as a prop for a scene in which the Doctor celebrates his 751st birthday, but the gag was never taped.

2 September 1978 The first appearance of Mary Tamm as Time Lady companion Romanad-voratrelundar – Romana for short. A season-long story arc begins as the Doctor, Romana and K-9 embark on the quest for the Key to Time.

30 September 1978 Douglas Adams contributes his first script to Doctor Who. His famous radio comedy, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, first aired in March 1978.

30 April 1979 The Doctor Who cast and crew travel to Paris to record sequences for the upcoming City of Death, marking the series’ first location shoot abroad.

22 September 1979 Broadcast of Dalek creator Terry Nation’s final script contribution to Doctor Who – Destiny of the Daleks, Episode 4.

20 October 1979 With the BBC’s rival broadcaster ITV in the grip of industrial action that has taken it off the air, the final part of City of Death attracts Doctor Who’s highest-ever audience figure of 16.1 million viewers. It is a record that stands to this day.

10 December 1979 Continued industrial action by various technicians’ unions plagues filming on Shada, the final story of Season 17, forcing producer Graham Williams to officially abandon production. While it is doomed never to be transmitted, the story will eventually be released commercially as a VHS tape in 1992, with new linking material performed by Tom Baker, and reissued on DVD in 2013.

30 August 1980 Doctor Who’s eighteenth season debuts, and with it a new version of the theme tune. Alterations have been made to the theme over the years, but the original mix created by Delia Derbyshire in 1963 has always been retained until now, as Peter Howell, of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, completely reimagines the famous theme. To accompany the new arrangement, the title sequence abandons the ‘time tunnel’ effect for a background of stars, and features a brand new neon-style logo.

24 October 1980 A hastily arranged press conference is held to announce Tom Baker’s departure from Doctor Who at the end of Season 18. Although producer John Nathan-Turner is already in discussions with the actor who will be his new Doctor, Tom Baker’s teasing leads the press to speculate that ‘the new Doctor Who may even be a woman’.

5 November 1980 All Creatures Great and Small star Peter Davison appears on BBC magazine programme Nationwide, confirming that he will be taking over the part of the Doctor from Tom Baker.

24 January 1981 K-9 leaves the series, along with Romana, but the tin dog will return to our screens later in the year.

21 February 1981 Two masterful first appearances in The Keeper of Traken. Geoffrey Beevers makes his debut as the emaciated form of the Master, but is replaced at the end of the story by Anthony Ainley, the fourth actor to play the renegade Time Lord.

21 March 1981 An end that spells a new beginning, as Tom Baker makes his final appearance as the Doctor, making way for Peter Davison’s brief debut as the Fifth Doctor. Davison’s credit in the closing titles is the last time an actor in the role is credited as ‘Doctor Who’ (rather than ‘The Doctor’) until 2005.

28 December 1981 The first Doctor Who spin-off is broadcast. K-9 and Company sees the return of Elisabeth Sladen to the Doctor Who universe as Sarah Jane Smith, joining K-9 Mark III for a spooky festive adventure. The hoped-for spin-off series fails to materialise – for now.

4 January 1982 After the longest-ever gap between seasons of Doctor Who, a new era begins with Castrovalva Part 1, marking Peter Davison’s first full episode as the Doctor. After eighteen years occupying a traditional Saturday teatime slot in the schedules, Doctor Who moves through time and space to a twice-weekly broadcast on Monday and Tuesday evenings at 6.40pm. This episode also marks the first use of a pre-titles scene, reprising the regeneration scene from the end of Logopolis Part 4.

22 February 1982 Millions of Doctor Who viewers watch in horror as the sonic screwdriver makes its final appearance, an old friend blasted to pieces by a Terileptil’s gun.

8 March 1982 In a shock cliff-hanger ending, Earthshock sees the Cybermen make their first full appearance in eight years.

16 March 1982 Companion Adric, played by Matthew Waterhouse, is killed off. In a break with tradition, the closing credits run with no music for the one and only time in the series’ history.

1 February 1983 Mawdryn Undead sees Nicholas Courtney make his first appearance as the Brigadier in eight years.

28 July 1983 Following a press conference, the BBC lunchtime news reveals that Peter Davison will depart the role of the Doctor at the close of the 21st season. His successor has been cast, but is yet to be revealed to the world at large.

19 August 1983 Popular television actor Colin Baker is announced as the sixth actor to play the Doctor. The announcement is made at a press conference in which the actor is joined by Nicola Bryant, who will play the Doctor’s latest companion, Peri Brown.

October 1983 Revenge of the Cybermen becomes the first Doctor Who story to be released on home video on VHS, Betamax and Video 2000 formats.

23 November 1983 Doctor Who’s twentieth anniversary, and the first broadcast of the anniversary special The Five Doctors takes place – in the USA.

25 November 1983 As part of the BBC’s annual Children in Need charity telethon, The Five Doctors is broadcast in the UK. Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee return to the series, with Tom Baker represented through clips from the unfinished story Shada, and Richard Hurndall taking the place of the late William Hartnell as the First Doctor.

8 February 1984 Part 1 of Resurrection of the Daleks is broadcast. Coverage of the Winter Olympics means that the four-part story is stitched together as two double-length episodes.

16 March 1984 After three years, Peter Davison makes his final regular appearance as the Doctor, handing over to Colin Baker who debuts as the Sixth Doctor in the closing moments of the episode. The regeneration takes place in The Caves of Androzani, the penultimate story of the season.

22 March 1984 Colin Baker makes his full debut as the Sixth Doctor in The Twin Dilemma. The Doctor uses the term ‘incarnation’ for the first time to describe his new body.

5 January 1985 Colin Baker’s first full season as the Doctor opens with a return for the Cybermen. Following the success of longer episodes for last year’s Resurrection of the Daleks, the series is now broadcast in longer 45-minute episodes and returns to its traditional Saturday night slot.

16 February 1985 Having enjoyed appearing in The Five Doctors, Patrick Troughton returns to the series once more in The Two Doctors, joined by Frazer Hines as Jamie.

27 February 1985 Michael Grade, the Controller of BBC One, becomes the most vilified person in the history of Doctor Who when his decision to delay the next series by eighteen months is announced.

30 March 1985 The Daleks are seen to hover above the ground for the first time in Revelation of the Daleks Part 2. The confusing camera angle used means that many viewers miss this historic event.

25 July 1985 The first episode of radio drama Doctor Who: Slip-back is broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It stars Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant as the Doctor and Peri, and forms part of the station’s Pirate Radio 4 strand for younger listeners.

6 September 1986 After an enforced hiatus, Doctor Who returns to screens with the first episode of the longest-ever Doctor Who story, the 14-part Trial of a Time Lord.

6 December 1986 Colin Baker makes what will become his final regular televised appearance as the Doctor in the final part of the Trial season.

18 December The official press announcement that Colin Baker will not be returning as the Doctor.

28 February 1987 British newspaper The Sun breaks the story about Sylvester McCoy’s casting as the new Doctor. McCoy, along with Bonnie Langford, attends a photo call for the press on 2 March to confirm the news, and later appears on Blue Peter.

28 March 1987 Patrick Troughton passes away at the age of 67 while attending a Doctor Who convention in the USA.

23 November 1987 On Doctor Who’s 24th birthday, Sophie Aldred makes her first appearance as Ace in Dragonfire.

5 October 1988 A Dalek is seen to hover up a flight of stairs for the first time in Remembrance of the Daleks.

23 November 1988 Doctor Who celebrates its Silver Jubilee with Silver Nemesis, an adventure that appropriately pits the Doctor and Ace against the Cybermen.

23 March 1989 Jon Pertwee stars as the Doctor in the first performance of stage show Doctor Who: The Ultimate Adventure at the Wimbledon Theatre, London. Colin Baker takes over the role from Pertwee on 5 June.

12 July 1989 Roger Laughton, Director of Co-Production at BBC Enterprises, receives a telephone call from American-based television producer Philip Segal. Segal expresses an interest in forging a transatlantic co-production deal with the BBC to continue Doctor Who into the 1990s.

23 November 1989 On Doctor Who’s 26th anniversary, Sylvester McCoy attends a studio session to record the voiceover that will be played in the closing seconds of Survival, the final story of Season 26. These are the final lines recorded for the original 26-year run of Doctor Who.

6 December 1989 After 26 years and 695 broadcast episodes, Doctor Who’s original television run comes to an end as the Doctor and Ace walk off into the distance. But as history will prove, the Doctor still has work to do.

June 1991 Virgin Books publishes the first novel in the Doctor Who New Adventures series, Timewyrm: Genesis by John Peel. The book is the first full-length novel featuring the Doctor not to be based on a TV story or unused script.

27 August 1993 BBC Radio Five broadcasts the first episode of Doctor Who: The Paradise of Death, a brand new radio adventure for Jon Pertwee as the Doctor, with Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah and Nicholas Courtney as the Brigadier, written by Third Doctor producer Barry Letts.

26 November 1993 To celebrate Doctor Who’s 30th anniversary, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy appear as the Doctor in Dimensions in Time, a two-part adventure that forms part of that year’s BBC Children in Need telethon. Broadcast in experimental 3D, the story features members of the cast of BBC soap opera East-Enders and the return of many companions from Doctor Who’s 30-year history, several for the last time. Kate O’Mara makes her third and final appearance as the Rani.

12 September 1994 With continuing rumblings of a US co-production deal for Doctor Who going back to Philip Segal’s phone call to the BBC in July 1989, film and TV actor Paul McGann tapes a screen test for the role of the Doctor in London.

5 January 1996 Over a year after he first auditioned, Paul McGann is confirmed as the new Doctor at a photo call held at the Doctor Who Exhibition at Longleat. Two days later he flies to Vancouver to begin filming the first new Doctor Who in production since 1989. He is joined by Sylvester McCoy to allow a regeneration scene from the Seventh to the Eighth Doctor to be filmed.

14 May 1996 Paul McGann makes his one and only screen appearance as the Doctor with the worldwide debut of the feature-length TV movie Doctor Who on the Fox network in America.

27 May 1996 The first UK broadcast of the Doctor Who TV movie attracts 9.1 million viewers – making it the highest-rated television drama that week. The episode is dedicated to the memory of Jon Pertwee. Sadly, the success of the TV movie in the UK does not lead to a new series. Yet…

2 June 1997 Publication of the novel The Eight Doctors by Terrance Dicks commences BBC Books’ own line of original Doctor Who fiction. Paul McGann’s reading of the novelisation of the TV movie is released as part of the BBC Radio Collection.

7 September 1998 Paul McGann returns to the role of the Doctor with the release of Earth and Beyond, an audiobook short-story collection for the BBC Radio Collection.

19 July 1999 Big Finish Productions releases Doctor Who: The Sirens of Time, a full-cast audio drama starring Peter Davison, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy as the Doctor. It begins a monthly range that, as of May 2013, has released 173 original Doctor Who audio dramas featuring TV Doctors and companions, as well as numerous spin-off adventures.

January 2001 Paul McGann reprises the role of the Doctor once again, with the release of audio drama Storm Warning from Big Finish, the first of a series that is still running 12 years later.

26 September 2003 As Doctor Who approaches its 30th anniversary, the Daily Telegraph breaks the news that a new series of Doctor Who is being developed by acclaimed writer Russell T Davies. The paper’s report quotes BBC One Controller Lorraine Heggessey confirming the news.

13 November 2003 The first episode of The Scream of the Shalka, an animated BBC webcast starring Richard E. Grant as the Doctor, goes live.

20 March 2004 After much tabloid speculation, Christopher Eccleston is announced as the new Doctor.

24 May 2004 Actress and former pop singer Billie Piper is announced as companion Rose Tyler.

18 July 2004 Television-based Doctor Who goes into production for the first time in the 21st century.

20 July 2004 As the Doctor Who cast and crew prepare to film night scenes in Cardiff, regional news programme BBC Wales Today carries interviews with Christopher Eccleston, Billie Piper and Russell T Davies – and the Ninth Doctor’s look is revealed for the first time.

1 January 2005 The first teaser trailer for the new series of Doctor Who is broadcast on BBC One. It is almost time – but not yet…

26 March 2005 With audiences promised ‘the trip of a lifetime’, the first new episode of Doctor Who for nine years, Rose, is broadcast at 7pm. It attracts an average audience of 10.8 million viewers. As well as Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper, Rose also features first appearances from Noel Clarke as Mickey Smith and Camille Coduri as Jackie Tyler. The Autons, last seen in 1971’s Terror of the Autons, are the first monsters encountered by the new Doctor, and a new orchestral arrangement of the theme tune is provided by composer Murray Gold.

30 March 2005 After the success of Rose, the BBC announces that Doctor Who has been commissioned for a second series. While Billie Piper will return as Rose, the news that Christopher Eccleston will not be continuing as the Doctor is also revealed.

16 April 2005 A BBC press release confirms that lifelong Doctor Who fan David Tennant has been cast as the Tenth Doctor.

30 April 2005 The first appearance of the Daleks (or, at least, a Dalek) in the new series.

21 May 2005 John Barrowman makes his debut as Captain Jack Harkness. Steven Moffat contributes his first script to the new series with The Empty Child.

11 June 2005 Bad Wolf features the first on-screen reference to Torch-wood in Doctor Who.

15 June 2005 At a special BAFTA screening of The Parting of the Ways, executive producer Russell T Davies reveals to an ecstatic audience that Doctor Who has been re-commissioned for a third series and a second Christmas special.

18 June 2005 Christopher Eccleston makes his final appearance as the Ninth Doctor, and David Tennant appears, briefly, as the Tenth.

17 October 2005 Press announcement that BBC Three will air a post-watershed Doctor Who spin-off, Torchwood. The series will star John Barrowman as Captain Jack.

18 November 2005 David Tennant’s second appearance as the Tenth Doctor is watched by 10.8 million viewers as part of the BBC Children in Need telethon, in a special episode later titled Born Again by writer Russell T Davies.

25 December 2005 The broadcast of The Christmas Invasion sees David Tennant make his full debut as the Doctor.

29 April 2006 School Reunion sees the Doctor reunited with Elisabeth Sladen’s Sarah-Jane Smith for the first time since The Five Doctors. K-9 Mark III is destroyed to be replaced by Mark IV and Mickey Smith becomes the first non-white companion to join the Doctor.

1 July 2006 Catherine Tate makes her first, surprise appearance as (the unnamed) Donna Noble in the closing moments of Doomsday.

14 September 2006 Press announcement that Elisabeth Sladen will star in a new Doctor Who spin-off, The Sarah Jane Adventures, created for the children’s channel CBBC by Russell T Davies.

13 October 2006 Director James Strong shoots establishing shots in New York for the upcoming Daleks in Manhattan – the first time the series has ever been shot in the United States of America.

1 January 2007 Elisabeth Sladen stars in the debut episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures, ahead of the hugely successful series that will run for five years.

31 March 2007 The first appearance of the Judoon, a rhino-faced alien police force, in Smith and Jones.

CONTENTS

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

ABOUT THE BOOK

INTRODUCTION

ONE

THE 50-YEAR DIARYA DOCTOR WHO TIMELINE

THE 50-YEAR DIARY
A DOCTOR WHO TIMELINE