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RealWorld
2008 in

the DWU • production history • vital statistics • releases

Timeline for 2008
21st century | 2000s

2002 • 2003 • 2004 • 2005 • 2006 • 2007 • 2009 • 2010 • 2011 • 2012 • 2013 • 2014
WikipediaInfo

2008 was a year in which a number of events important to the production of Doctor Who and its spin-offs occurred.

January

February

March

April

May

June

  • 1 June - Big Finish's Bernice Summerfield audio story The Diet of Worms was recorded.
  • 5-6 June - Big Finish's audio adaptation of the stage show The Ultimate Adventure was recorded at the Moat Studios.
  • Mid-June - American news media, including CNN, ran profiles of Billie Piper in conjunction with the debut of her series Secret Diary of a Call Girl in the US. Coincidentally this spike in US coverage coincided with the lead-up to her return to the series in Turn Left, although her involvement in Doctor Who was given only a passing mention.
  • 13 June - The Big Finish audio story The Magician's Oath was recorded at the Moat Studios.
  • 16 June - The Big Finish audio story The Prisoner's Dilemma was recorded at the Moat Studios.
  • 20 June - The Big Finish audio story Return of the Krotons was recorded at the Moat Studios.
  • 23-24 June - The Big Finish audio story Brotherhood of the Daleks was recorded at the Moat Studios.
  • 23 June - Cast readthrough for The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith and Enemy of the Bane took place.
  • 24 June - Doctor Who won the Best International Series at the Thirty-fourth Annual Saturn Awards, an American entertainment awards program. The category was a new one introduced this year, and nominees included Torchwood, Steven Moffat's Jekyll and Life on Mars (which starred John "Mr Saxon" Simm).
  • 26-27 June - The Big Finish audio story The Raincloud Man was recorded at the Moat Studios.
  • Late June - The Canadian cable network Space announced it had obtained the Canadian broadcast rights to series 2 of Torchwood and would begin airing the series in August. Reportedly its timeslot would, in some parts of Canada, place it in direct competition with series 4 of Doctor Who when the CBC began airing it in September.
  • Late June - Several UK media reports indicated that David Tennant was in negotiations to return to Doctor Who for the 2010 series, but no official announcement was forthcoming (leading to additional speculation in the wake of the cliffhanger of The Stolen Earth a few weeks later), although it was known that he was to appear in the 2008 Christmas special, as photos of him shooting the special had leaked to the press months earlier.

July

  • Early July - The week between the cliffhanger ending of The Stolen Earth and the broadcast of Journey's End was marked by some of the most intense media attention Doctor Who has ever seen, especially given the uncertainty over whether David Tennant would remain with the series.[2]
  • 7 July - The Daily Mail reported that more than 2,500 people actually attempted to phone the Doctor's phone number as shown in The Stolen Earth, in hopes of hearing a special recorded message, but the number was in fact non-functional.[3]
  • 11 July - The Telegraph reported on rumours of David Tennant stepping down from the role of the Doctor, with David Morrissey, John Simm, and Robert Carlyle cited as the book-maker's favourites to replace him, despite Morrissey scheduled to guest star in the 2008 Christmas special and Simm having already played the Master in Season 3. Julie Gardner confirmed in the article that Tennant had made his decision as to whether he would stay on for the 2010 season, but she confirmed he would appear in all of the special episodes scheduled for 2009.[4] Despite this, wildcat Internet rumours persisted that Morrissey would replace Tennant as early as the 2008 Christmas special, while some UK media reported Tennant had signed an agreement to stay with the series through Series 5 in 2010.
  • 12 July - Doctor Who swept the television categories at the second annual Constellation Awards, a Canadian award presented as part of the Polaris science fiction convention. David Tennant won for best Male Performance in a Science Fiction Television episode for his work on the two-parter TV : Human Nature/The Family of Blood; Carey Mulligan won the female equivalent for Blink; and the series itself won for Best Science Fiction Television Series of 2007. Doctor Who was eligible for these awards thanks to its co-production arrangement with the CBC.
  • 15-16 July - Big Finish's audio adaptation of the stage show Doctor Who and the Daleks in Seven Keys to Doomsday was recorded at the Moat Studios.
  • 22 July - The Big Finish audio story Empathy Games was recorded at the Moat Studios.
  • 23-24 July - Big Finish's audio adaptation of the stage show The Curse of the Daleks was recorded at the Moat Studios.

August

September

October

  • October - In multiple interviews conducted in March and April of 2010, Matt Smith indicated he had been chosen to play the Eleventh Doctor "three months" before the official announcement was made in early January 2009. This meant the decision to cast him may have been made during October 2008 - possibly before David Tennant announced his departure.
  • 2 October - The Big Finish audio story Orbis was recorded at the Moat Studios.
  • 8 October - The Big Finish audio story Wirrn Dawn was recorded at the Moat Studios.
  • 14 October - Russell T Davies received an e-mail proposing an idea for Torchwood: The Musical with members of ABBA doing the music. (REF: Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale - the Final Chapter)
  • 21 October - The Big Finish audio story The Scapegoat was recorded at the Moat Studios.
  • 22 October - The Big Finish audio story The Cannibalists was recorded at the Moat Studios.
  • 23 October - Big Finish's two-part audio story The Eight Truths / Worldwide Web was recorded at the Moat Studios.
  • 29 October - David Tennant and the BBC announced that Tennant would leave Doctor Who following production of the "gap season" specials in 2009. Tennant made the announcement on live TV when he accepted the National Television Award for Outstanding Drama Performance. The series also won Most Popular Drama. Tennant's announcement was made hours after The Guardian broke the news first on its website. As the winner of the NTA was not previously known, it was uncertain whether Tennant would be able to deliver his announcement on the air. The announcement was timed to occur during an intermission in his performance of Hamlet, and Tennant pre-recorded a version of it in the event the live transmission broke down. Earlier in the day, Russell T Davies and Benjamin Cook appeared on a TV broadcast discussing their book, REF: Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale, and managed to avoid discussing the yet-to-be-made announcement. (REF: Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale - The Final Chapter)
  • 29 October - Tennant's announcement sparked a period of intense fan and media speculation as to who would be chosen to portray the Eleventh Doctor. Speculated names ranged from well-known to obscure actors, and also included caucasian and black candidates, as well as a revival of speculation about a female actor being cast, an idea that dated back to the 1970s.
  • 30-31 October - Big Finish's audio anthology The Company of Friends was recorded at the Moat Studios.

November

December

Footnotes

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