Timeline for 2006

21st century | 2000s

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In 2006, following the expiration of the thirty year rule for official secrets The Zen Military, Kadiatu Lethbridge-Stewart's exposé of the history of UNIT, was published. (PROSE: Set Piece)

Contents 1 Events 1.1 Before 6 March 1.2 March 1.3 June 1.4 July 1.5 September 1.6 October 1.7 November 1.8 December 1.9 Unknown dates 2 Behind the scenes 2.1 Early 2006 2.2 January 2.3 February 2.4 March 2.5 April 2.6 May 2.7 June 2.8 July 2.9 August 2.10 September 2.11 October 2.12 November 2.13 December 2.14 Unknown dates 3 Footnotes

Events

Before 6 March

• Owen Harper encountered Jack Harkness again at Katie Russell's graveside and was recruited by him as Torchwood Three's medical officer. (TV: Fragments)

March

• 6 - The Ninth Doctor returned Rose Tyler to her home in London. Due to a miscalculation they arrived a year late. Rose learnt that her mother, Jackie Tyler, had been searching for her ever since. At one point, she was believed murdered and Mickey Smith had been a suspect. Big Ben was side-swiped by a UFO which crashed into the Thames. (TV: Aliens of London) Many people witnessed the crash, including Elton Pope, (TV: Love & Monsters) but the crash was later covered up as a hoax. (WEB: whoisdoctorwho.co.uk) An "alien astronaut" from the UFO was taken to Albion Hospital, where the Doctor and Toshiko Sato examined it. "Doctor" Sato was working undercover for Torchwood Three, covering for Owen Harper, who was hungover on his first week working for Torchwood. (TV: Aliens of London, TV: Exit Wounds) Most of the Earth's leading experts on aliens were killed, as was Michael Year, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. (TV: Aliens of London) 10 Downing Street was destroyed by a Harpoon missile targeted by Mickey Smith. The fortitude of backbench MP Harriet Jones during this crisis contributed to her ascent to power and the post of Prime Minister. Mickey Smith, now webmaster of the "Who is Doctor Who?" website, was asked by the Doctor to install a virus that would wipe out all references to him on the Internet. (TV: World War Three) Mickey did not do this. Instead he renamed his website Defending the Earth! and proceeded to chronicle unexplained happenings, usually involving the Doctor. (WEB: whoisdoctorwho.co.uk)

June

• The Tenth Doctor visited St. Nicholas's Hospital, taking on the alias of a consultant. (PROSE: Deep and Dreamless Sleep)
• 25 - Edward Grainger died in his sleep on his hundredth birthday. (PROSE: Forgotten)

July

• 20 - After reading an internet article about Jo Jones, Polly Wright emailed Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and they shared stories of their adventures with the Doctor. (AUDIO: The Three Companions)

September

• The Raxacoricofallapatorian Blon Fel-Fotch Passameer-Day Slitheen, posing as the human Margaret Blaine, mayor of Cardiff, plotted to blow up the Earth with the Blaidd Drwg nuclear power plant and the Cardiff Rift. This would let her escape on her extrapolator. The Ninth Doctor, Rose Tyler, Mickey Smith and Jack Harkness captured her, but she used a fallback plan to make the extrapolator latch onto the TARDIS' energies (having been parked directly on the Rift) and still destroy Earth. The plan backfired and the Heart of the TARDIS opened up, regressing Blon to an egg. The Doctor and his companions returned Blon to Raxacoricofallapatorius to start a new life. (TV: Boom Town) At this moment there were no fewer than three versions of Harkness in Cardiff at different points in his timeline: the Jack travelling with the Doctor, an older Jack now operating Torchwood Three while keeping himself and his team in the Hub during these events (PROSE: The Twilight Streets) and a still older Jack in cryogenic freeze in the Torchwood vaults, unknown to the Torchwood Three team. (TV: Exit Wounds)

October

• Idris Hopper recognised Jack Harkness and chased him. Seeing past its perception filter, he witnessed the invisible lift in action. An attempt to erase Idris' memories with retcon in his dinner failed and Idris became angry with Jack because he thought he was poisoned. (PROSE: The Twilight Streets)

• 31 - The British Rocket Group space probe Guinevere One launched from Earth for a scheduled rendezvous with Mars on Christmas Day. (Date: WEB: http://www.guinevere.org.uk/)

November

• 23 - Retired Torchwood agent Lucia Moretti, a former lover of Jack Harkness and mother of his daughther Alice Carter, died due to heart disease. (TV: Children of Earth: Day Three, AUDIO: Red Skies)

December

• 24 - The Tenth Doctor recovered from his regeneration at the Powell Estate. Sycorax intercepted Guinevere One and sent a threatening message to Earth. The Sycorax ship's pilot fish landed. The Doctor stopped them from taking his regeneration energy. Prime Minister Harriet Jones sought help from UNIT as the Doctor was still in bed. (TV: The Christmas Invasion)
• 24 - Daniel Thompson, age four, was struck by a vehicle and hospitalised at St. Nicholas's Hospital in London. The Doctor, in his tenth incarnation, only older than his encounter with the Sycorax, shared an adventure with Daniel and spent time at St. Nicholas's Hospital waiting for Daniel to recover. (Times Online: Deep and Dreamless Sleep)

This meant there were two versions of the Tenth Doctor in London at the same time.

• 25 - The Sycorax ship entered London airspace at around 0745. (TV: The Christmas Invasion, Love & Monsters) Elton Pope gazed up at the ship in awe. (TV: Love & Monsters) Sarah Jane Smith wondered if the ship had the Doctor onboard, taking care of the situation. (TV: School Reunion) Donna Noble, however, was oblivious to events due to a hangover. (TV: The Runaway Bride) The Sycorax used blood control on one third of Earth's population. Harriet Jones appeared on television to ask for the Doctor's help. The Doctor defeated the Sycorax leader, who was later killed after trying to sneak-attack the Doctor. In the battle the leader cut off the Doctor's hand, which grew back. The Torchwood Institute destroyed the retreating Sycorax ship at Harriet Jones' orders. The Doctor regarded this as murder and engineered Jones' spiral in the polls. Although the Earth had been visited and even invaded many times before by alien races, the Doctor told Rose the Sycorax event marked the first occasion that life beyond Earth became common knowledge, and that Earth itself was now becoming noticed by other worlds. (TV: The Christmas Invasion) This sentiment was later echoed by Jack Harkness in his statement, "The 21st century is when it all changes." (TV: Last of the Time Lords and repeatedly in Torchwood)

Later, Jack Harkness found and retrieved the Doctor's hand, which ended up at Torchwood Three. (TV: Everything Changes et al, TV: Utopia)

• Ursula Blake snapped a photo of the Tenth Doctor celebrating with Rose Tyler in London. Meanwhile, on the Internet, there began frantic speculation among conspiracy theorists as to what had really happened during the Sycorax invasion. (TV: Love & Monsters)

Later, Ursula posted the photo to her blog. (TV: Love & Monsters)

Unknown dates

• The Seventh Doctor and Ruby Duvall stopped the Cybermen's attempt to conquer Earth by preventing the magnetic field reversal that would have created worldwide chaos under which the Cybermen planned to invade. (PROSE: Iceberg)
• After the they met up in Cardiff, but before Christmas: Mickey helped Rose to get back to the Ninth Doctor by connecting a truck to the Heart of the TARDIS to open it. In doing so, Rose allowed the Heart to get inside her head and pilot her to the Game Station in 200,100. (TV: The Parting of the Ways)
• After the destruction of 10 Downing Street but before Christmas, Harriet Jones became the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. (TV: The Christmas Invasion)
• Former teacher Oswald Danes was convicted of the rape and murder of twelve year old Susie Cabina. (TV: The New World)
• The First Doctor lost his TARDIS in a bet in Chicago. He and his companions Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright and Susan Foreman were forced to travel 2,500 miles down Route 66 in a purple Oldsmobile 88 (which the Doctor won in another bet) to California in order to retrieve it. (PROSE: The Mother Road)
• The Sixth Doctor once watched the 2006 cricket Test Match between Australia and South Africa on the Time-Space Visualiser. (AUDIO: The Fourth Wall)

Behind the scenes

Early 2006

• According to his book, The Writer's Tale, Russell T Davies, David Tennant and others involved in Doctor Who, following production of TV: Doomsday, agreed that after the fourth series the program would be rested for a year, except for the occasional special. This idea evolved into the 2009 Specials season and dovetailed with the eventual departures of Davies and Tennant from the series.

January

• The American network Sci-Fi Channel announced it had bought the rights to air the new version of Doctor Who. The first series aired beginning in March 2006, a year after their UK and Canadian broadcasts, and the network had the option of airing Series 2 as well.
• AUDIO: Pier Pressure was first released.
• BFBS: Parallel Lives was first released.
• BFBS: Something Changed was first released.
• 2 - John Woodnutt, who had parts in TV: Spearhead from Space, TV: Frontier in Space, TV: Terror of the Zygons and TV: The Keeper of Traken, died from natural causes at Denville Hall, Northwood, England, UK.
• 7 - Richard McNeff (Baker in TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth) died.
• 16 - The interactive mini-episode NOTDWU: Attack of the Graske was made available on the BBC's Doctor Who website, after it was available exclusively on the BBC's Red Button TV service.
• 19 - PROSE: Deus Le Volt was first published.
• 19 - Gary Downie (an assistant floor manager and production manager for Doctor Who) died.
• 30 - The DVD box set The Beginning, which featured the first three Doctor Who stories TV: An Unearthly Child, The Daleks and The Edge of Destruction, was released.

February

• AUDIO: Night Thoughts was first released.
• AUDIO: Telos, the final episode of the first season of the Big Finish Productions spin-off, Cyberman, was first released.
• AUDIO: Buried Secrets and AUDIO: Snow Blind were first released. They were the first episodes of the spin-off audio series Sarah Jane Smith to be released since 2002. The remaining episodes were released when the character returned to TV in TV: School Reunion.
• BFBS: Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Goddess Quandary was first released.
• 14 - Doctor Who: The Complete First Series, the DVD box set featuring the complete 2005 seasons, was released to Region 1. Due to the fact that the series had yet to be aired in the United States, for which the Sci-Fi Channel belatedly obtained the rights, the set was released on this date only in Canada. American consumers were still able to order it from Canada. The American release occurred later in the summer.

March

• AUDIO: Time Works was first released.
• AUDIO: Fatal Consequences was first released.
• 2 - The DVD set The Beginning featuring TV: An Unearthly Child, The Daleks and The Edge of Destruction was released in Region 4.
• 18 - Michael Attwell (Isbur in TV: The Ice Warriors and Bates in TV: Attack of the Cybermen) died.
• 28 - The Beginning DVD box set featuring TV: An Unearthly Child, The Daleks and The Edge of Destruction was released in North America.

April

• PROSE: The Stone Rose, PROSE: The Feast of the Drowned and PROSE: The Resurrection Casket were first published. These were the first original novels to feature the Tenth Doctor
• AUDIO: The Kingmaker was first released.
• PROSE: Short Trips: Farewells was first published. With BBC Books having retired its BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures and BBC Past Doctor Adventures book lines at the end of 2005, the Short Trips collections were now the only source for original (licensed) literary stories featuring the first eight incarnations of the Doctor.
• AUDIO: Dreamland was first released. It was the final episode of the Big Finish Productions audio spin-off series, Sarah Jane Smith, as the character returned to television later this month.
• Approximately one week prior to the broadcast of TV: New Earth, the BBC released the first Tardisode. These mini-episodes, available online or via mobile phone, featured specially shot scenes setting up elements of the episode to come.
• 05 - BBC Magazines launched Doctor Who Adventures, a weekly magazine promoting the Doctor Who franchise aimed at younger readers (no relation to Doctor Who Magazine). Unlike DWM, it was not distributed internationally.
• 10 - TV: Genesis of the Daleks was released to DVD in the UK.
• 13 - The first episode of Totally Doctor Who aired in the UK. Similar in some ways to Doctor Who Confidential, this BBC series also took a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the series, but with the focus on a kid-friendly point of view.
• 15 - TV: New Earth was first broadcast, launching the second season of the revived series and the first full season to feature David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor
• 15 - Beginning with the day's issue, the BBC's promotional magazine, Radio Times, began extensive coverage of Doctor Who, with weekly features called "Who's Watch" that ran for the duration of each new season.
• 22 - TV: Tooth and Claw was first broadcast; this episode featured the origin of the Torchwood Institute.
• 24 - Elisabeth Sladen and John Leeson appeared on Blue Peter promoting School Reunion.
• 27 - Elisabeth Sladen appeared on BBC One's Breakfast to promote her upcoming appearance on Doctor Who.
• 29 - TV: School Reunion was first broadcast. This landmark episode returned Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith and John Leeson as K9 to Doctor Who. It set the groundwork for the later spinoff, The Sarah Jane Adventures. This episode was also the first to definitively link the new series to the 1963-89 classic series in direct continuity. Anthony Stewart Head, a frequent voiceover contributor to various Doctor Who projects, made his first and, to date only, on-screen appearance. Mickey Smith, played by Noel Clarke, graduated from recurring character to companion with this episode becoming, in the process, the first-ever non-Caucasian television companion (although there had been others in the comic strips previously).
• 29 - BBC Radio Wales broadcast Back in Time - Adventures in Sound.

May

• PROSE: I am a Dalek was first released, launching the BBC Quick Reads novella series, aimed at promoting literacy. The books were roughly the length of one of the shorter Target novelisations and although they were considered part of the BBC New Series Adventures line, were published in paperback. Annual releases of Quick Reads books continued for the next several years.
• AUDIO: The Settling was first released.
• AUDIO: Fractures was first released.
• BBC Books marked its tenth year publishing original Doctor Who fiction.
• 1 - AUDIO: The Dalek Conquests was first released.
• 1 - BBC Video continued its "vanilla" releases of new-series episodes with Doctor Who: Series 2 Volume 1 featuring TV: The Christmas Invasion and New Earth. Not counting his cameo at the end of Series 1, this was the first full DVD release featuring the Tenth Doctor.
• 4 - TV: Genesis of the Daleks was released to DVD in Region 4.
• 6 - TV: The Girl in the Fireplace was first broadcast. This episode wons Doctor Who its second Hugo Award and featured guest star Sophia Myles, who became romantically involved with David Tennant after production.
• 13 - TV: Rise of the Cybermen was first broadcast. This episode introduced the alternate Earth known as Pete's World, as well as the Cybermen created by Cybus Industries.
• 14 - This was the tenth anniversary of the broadcast of the 1996 Doctor Who TV movie.
• 19 - Producer Peter Bryant (from TV: The Web of Fear to TV: The Space Pirates) died.
• 20 - TV: The Age of Steel was first broadcast. Mickey Smith (Noel Clarke) left the series with this episode (though he returned for several guest appearances).
• 23 - Bill Wiesener (a White Robot in TV: The Mind Robber) died.
• 27 - TV: The Idiot's Lantern was first broadcast.

June

• AUDIO: Something Inside was first released.
• AUDIO: Warfare was first released.
• PROSE: Genius Loci was first published.
• AUDIO: The Crystal of Cantus was first released
• 03 - TV: The Impossible Planet was first broadcast. It was the first appearance of the Ood.
• 05 - BBC Video released the DVD Doctor Who: Series 2 Volume 2 featuring TV: Tooth and Claw, School Reunion and The Girl in the Fireplace.
• 06 -TV: Genesis of the Daleks and TV: Revelation of the Daleks were released in North America.
• 10 - TV: The Satan Pit was first broadcast.
• 14 - Jay Neill (a Pikeman in TV: The Masque of Mandragora, Silvey in The Invisible Enemy and Klimt in Underworld) died.
• 15 - PROSE: The Albino's Dancer was first published.
• 17 - TV: Love & Monsters was first broadcast. It was the first "Doctor-lite" episode; beginning this season, the filming schedule demanded at least one episode feature only a brief appearance by the Doctor. The monster featured in this episode was designed by a contest entrant.
• 19 - TV: Inferno was released to DVD in the UK.
• 24 - TV: Fear Her was first broadcast.

July

• AUDIO: The Nowhere Place was first released.
• AUDIO: Appropriation and AUDIO: Mindbomb were first released.
• AUDIO: The Tartarus Gate was first released.
• 1 - TV: Army of Ghosts was first broadcast. Noel Clarke temporarily returned to the series.
• Approximately a week prior to the broadcast of TV: Doomsday, the final Tardisode was released online and to mobile phones; the BBC decided not to continue them after this.
• 4 - The belated release in the United States of the Doctor Who: The Complete First Series DVD box set, which had been available in Canada since February, took place.
• 5 - Newsbeat on BBC Radio 1 reported on the casting of Freema Agyeman as the new companion.
• 6 - TV: Inferno was released to DVD in Region 4.
• 6 - The final episode of the first season of Totally Doctor Who aired in the UK.
• 8 - TV: Doomsday was first broadcast, concluding the second season of the revived series. Billie Piper, Noel Clarke and Camille Coduri left the series with this episode. In a surprise cliffhanger, successfully kept secret from Internet spoilers and the press, popular comic actress Catherine Tate appeared for the first time as Donna Noble, although the character's name was not revealed until months later. This episode was also historic for featuring the first on-screen interaction between Daleks and Cybermen. The broadcast was followed by the final episode of Doctor Who Confidential's second season. The events of Doomsday formed a major piece of backstory for the soon-to-debut spin-off series, Torchwood.
• 8 - Peter Hawkins, one of the original voices for the Daleks and the Cybermen, died.
• 10 - BBC Video released the DVD Doctor Who: Series 2 Volume 3 featuring TV: Rise of the Cybermen, The Age of Steel and The Idiot's Lantern.
• 18 - David Maloney, who directed many serials between TV: The Mind Robber and TV: The Talons of Weng-Chiang, died from cancer.
• 18 - Doctor Who fan sites, including Outpost Gallifrey, began reporting that plans were afoot for a third Doctor Who spinoff series to feature K9. The series would be a non-BBC production; it took several more years before the K9 TV series finally got off the ground, however.
• 19 - Stuntman Tim Condren, who portrayed a guerrilla in TV: Day of the Daleks, died.
• 24 - TV: The Hand of Fear was released to DVD in the UK.

August

• AUDIO: Red was first released.
• AUDIO: Panacea was first released, concluding the third series of Big Finish Productions spin-off series, Gallifrey.
• AUDIO: Timeless Passages was first released.
• Doctor Who won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form, the first time the Doctor Who franchise won an international award of this magnitude. The award was presented for the Steven Moffat two-parter TV: The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances. Two other episodes from the 2005 series were also nominated in this category: TV: Father's Day and TV: Dalek. The competition in the category also included "Pegasus", an episode of Battlestar Galactica; Jack-Jack Attack, an animated short spun-off from the film The Incredibles; Lucas Back in Anger, a short film; and, controversially, the opening segment of the previous year's Prix Victor Hugo Awards Ceremony. Moffat was nominated for his Doctor Who episodes for the next three consecutive years, winning the award in 2007 and 2008 and coming a close second place in 2009.
• 4 - John Alderson (Wyatt Earp in TV: The Gunfighters) died.
• 7 - BBC Video released the DVD Doctor Who: Series 2 Volume 4 featuring TV: The Impossible Planet, The Satan Pit and Love & Monsters.
• 17 - PROSE: The Sideways Door was first published.
• 21 - BBC News revealed details of a cancelled Doctor Who spinoff. Entitled Rose Tyler: Earth Defence, the special would have followed Rose Tyler from the events of TV: Doomsday. Russell T Davies, however, vetoed the idea.^[1]
• 24 - The International Astronomical Union approved an official definition of the term "planet" which resulted in Pluto and several newly discovered Pluto-like worlds being disqualified from planetary status. The decision was immediately controversial, with attempts at overturning it expected in the future. The Doctor Who franchise, retroactively, had made its opinion known by establishing Pluto as a planet in TV: The Sun Makers.

September

• PROSE: The Nightmare of Black Island, PROSE: The Art of Destruction and PROSE: The Price of Paradise were first published.
• AUDIO: The Reaping was first released.
• AUDIO: The Gathering was first released.
• PROSE: Short Trips: The Centenarian was first published.
• AUDIO: Innocence, the first episode of the Big Finish Productions miniseries I, Davros, was first released.
• AUDIO: The Worst Thing in the World was first released.
• BFBS: Collected Works was first published.
• GE Fabbri Ltd launched Battles in Time, a card game/magazine publication released fortnightly in the UK. International distribution did not begin until February 2009 when its content was included on the website for a later Fabbri publication, Doctor Who DVD Files.
• 4 - AUDIO: Doctor Who at the BBC: The Plays was first released, featuring several full-cast audio dramas based upon the real-world impact of Doctor Who. Tom Baker and Sophie Aldred appeared, and one play dramatised the life of Delia Derbyshire.
• 4 - TV: The Mark of the Rani was released to DVD in the UK.
• 4 - Bill Meilen (Froyn in TV: The Daleks' Master Plan) died.
• 5 - TV: The Web Planet and TV: Inferno were released in North America.
• 7 - TV: The Hand of Fear was released to DVD in Region 4.
• 14 - Peter Ling, who wrote TV: The Mind Robber, died from a heart attack.
• 20 - The first issue of Doctor Who: Battles in Time magazine was published in the UK.
• 21 - Tony Lambden, who had appeared in several uncredited roles in Doctor Who, died.
• 23 - Patrick Tull, one of the voices of the Krotons in TV: The Krotons, died.
• 25 - BBC Video released the DVD Doctor Who: Series 2 Volume 5 featuring TV: Fear Her, Army of Ghosts and Doomsday, completing the "vanilla" releases of Series 2.
• 29 - George Lee (Forbes in TV: Spearhead from Space and a farmworker in The Time Monster) died.

October

• AUDIO: Memory Lane was first released.
• PROSE: Short Trips: Time Signature was first published.
• AUDIO: Purity was first released.
• AUDIO: Summer of Love was first released.
• 9 - Series 2 of Doctor Who began airing on the CBC in Canada with TV: New Earth. Due to a month-long hiatus at mid-season, Series 2 didn't conclude until February 2007.
• 9 - TV: The Sontaran Experiment was released to DVD in the UK. This release was seen as an experiment in releasing a two-episode story on its own rather than as an add-on with a longer story.
• 20 - Billie Piper appeared on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross. During her appearance she confessed to being a subscriber to Doctor Who Magazine, even after her departure from the show.
• 21 - Peter Barkworth, who played Leader Clent in TV: The Ice Warriors, died as a result of broncho-pneumonia following a stroke.
• 22 - The Doctor Who spin-off series Torchwood debuted with the broadcast of TV: Everything Changes and TV: Day One (the episodes were edited together to form a single broadcast). It featured the debuts of Eve Myles as Gwen Cooper, Gareth David-Lloyd as Ianto Jones, Burn Gorman as Owen Harper, Tom Price as Andy Davidson, and Kai Owen as Rhys Williams; Naoko Mori reprised her role as Toshiko Sato from TV: Aliens of London.
• 22 - Torchwood Declassified, a behind-the-scenes series similar to Doctor Who Confidential, debuted.
• 22 - Richard Mayes (Chief Baxter in TV: Fury from the Deep) died.
• 26 - REF: Doctor Who: The Inside Story was first published.
• 29 - TV: Ghost Machine was first broadcast.

November

• AUDIO: No Man's Land was first released.
• AUDIO: Corruption was first released.
• BFBS: Old Friends was first published.
• AUDIO: The Oracle of Delphi was first released.
• REF: Howe's Transcendental Toybox Update No. 2 was first published.
• 2 - TV: The Mark of the Rani was released to DVD in Region 4.
• 5 - TV: Cyberwoman was first broadcast.
• 5 - Giant actor R.J. Bell, who appeared as the Garm in TV: Terminus, died in England.
• 6 - TV: The Invasion was released to DVD in the UK. This release was notable for including two episodes currently lost from the BBC Archives, but restored using animation, an experiment that was not repeated until the 2011 announcement that animation would again be used for the missing episodes of The Reign of Terror.
• 6 - Also issued this date in the UK were two compilation box sets released exclusively through the British arm of Amazon. The Cybermen Collection consisted of TV: Tomb of the Cybermen, The Invasion and Earthshock, while the larger Third Doctor Collection features TV: Spearhead from Space, Inferno, The Claws of Axos, The Three Doctors, Carnival of Monsters and The Green Death.
• 7 - TV: The Hand of Fear, The Web Planet and TV: The Mark of the Rani were released in North America.
• 7 - In Region 1 (North America), BBC Video redistributed the episodes of Series 1 in the same four-volume "vanilla" (no-extras) sets the company had issued in the UK in mid-2005. The full-season box set remained in print.
• 10 - Chubby Oates, who had a small role as a policeman in TV: Planet of the Spiders, died from a stroke after giving a performance at a show business luncheon.
• 12 - TV: Small Worlds was first broadcast.
• 14 - John Hallam (Light in TV: Ghost Light) died.
• 15 - Elaine Ives-Cameron died.
• 19 - TV: Countrycide was first broadcast. This episode was notable for being the very first televised Doctor Who franchise storyline that contained no actual science fiction or fantasy elements (beyond the presence of Jack Harkness).
• 20 - BBC Video released the Doctor Who: The Complete Second Series DVD box set in the UK.
• 26 - TV: Greeks Bearing Gifts was first broadcast.
• 26 - BBC Video began issuing Torchwood episodes in "vanilla" (no-extras) DVD editions, similar in format to the Doctor Who releases over the previous two years. Torchwood: Series 1 Part 1 was released.

December

• AUDIO: Year of the Pig was first released.
• PROSE: Short Trips: Dalek Empire was first published.
• AUDIO: Guilt, the final episode of the I, Davros miniseries, was first released.
• AUDIO: The Empire State was first released.
• 3 - TV: They Keep Killing Suzie was first broadcast.
• 3 - Craig Hinton died.
• 4 - TV: The Impossible Planet was broadcast in Canada on the CBC, after which the network decided to place the show on hiatus for the next five weeks.
• 7 - TV: The Sontaran Experiment was released to DVD in Region 4.
• 7 - Peter Brayham, a stunt co-ordinator for Doctor Who, died.
• 10 - TV: Random Shoes was first broadcast.
• 11 - Elisabeth Sladen appeared on Blue Peter to promote The Sarah Jane Adventures.
• 17 - TV: Out of Time was first broadcast.
• 22 - Julie Gardner appeared on the Richard Evans radio call-in program on BBC Radio Wales. During the broadcast, David Tennant called in as a joke, pretending to be a long-lost relative of Julie's who wanted a role on Doctor Who.
• 24 - TV: Combat was first broadcast. The episode was written by Noel Clarke, the first Doctor Who franchise regular to write a televised episode.
• 24 - A Christmas-themed Doctor Who short story, WC: Deep and Dreamless Sleep, was published on the TimesOnline website.
• 24 - BBC Radio Wales broadcast Back in Time - Jingle Hell promoting TV: The Runaway Bride with appearances by David Tennant, Catherine Tate and others.
• 25 - TV: The Runaway Bride, the second Doctor Who Christmas special, was first broadcast, properly introducing Catherine Tate as Donna Noble, although Donna declined an invitation to become a companion at this point.
• 25 - BBC Radio broadcast Jo Whiley Meets Doctor Who, a behind the scenes look at the making of the 2007 series, which was combined with in-studio conversation with David Tennant.
• 26 - The Torchwood: Series 1, Part 1 DVD was released.
• 27 - Matt Smith made his TV acting debut in The Ruby in the Smoke, which aired in the US this date as part of Masterpiece Theatre.
• 28 - This was the twenty-fifth anniversary of the broadcast of TV: A Girl's Best Friend, the pilot for K9 and Company, only a few days before the debut of The Sarah Jane Adventures featuring the same character.
• 31 - BBC Radio 7 debuted a new series of audio dramas co-produced with Big Finish Productions starring Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor. Dubbed The New Eighth Doctor Adventures, these stories were, initially, aired on BBC7 first and later released by Big Finish on CD. The first story was episode 1 of AUDIO: Blood of the Daleks, which introduced new companion Lucie Miller played by Sheridan Smith. This meant that, as of this date, there were actually two series of Doctor Who being broadcast by different arms of the BBC: the main series on BBC TV and the Eighth Doctor series on BBC7.

Unknown dates

• Christopher Eccleston earned a recurring role in the NBC series Heroes. While Eccleston wasn't the first to get a role on American TV after his tenure as the Doctor (he was preceded by Tom Baker, Peter Davison and Colin Baker in this regard), he was the first to gain a recurring role in an American series. His role as Claude, the Invisible Man, included a reference to the Doctor in that he uttered the catchphrase, "Fantastic!". He also shared several scenes with Eric Roberts, who played the Master in the 1996 TV movie. Eccleston appeared in five episodes broadcast in early 2007.

Footnotes

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