1987 (releases)

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1987 in

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the DWU • production history • vital statistics • releases

In 1987, a number of things set in or relevant to the Doctor Who universe were released or published.

• John Nathan-Turner attended a performance of The Pied Piper starring Sylvester McCoy. He subsequently offered McCoy the role of the Seventh Doctor.
• 15 January - Doctor Who - Slipback was published in paperback.
• 24 January - Actor Ruth Bradley was born.
• 19 February - Doctor Who - Black Orchid was first published. This was the final Fifth Doctor story to be novelised; plans were made for a novelisation of Resurrection of the Daleks, but the book was never published for a variety of legal reasons. The story remained officially unnovelised.
• 23 February - Esmond Knight (Dom Issigri in The Space Pirates) died.
• 25 February - Actor John Collin died.
• 19 March - Doctor Who - The Ark was first published.
• 19 - REF: The Doctor Who Illustrated A to Z was published in paperback.
• 27 March - The film Withnail & I received its first showings at a film festival in the US. The film was the first major acting role of Paul McGann after several TV projects.
• 28 March - Actor Patrick Troughton suffered a heart attack in his hotel room while appearing at a Doctor Who convention in Columbus, Georgia, USA. He was rushed to hospital, still wearing his Doctor Who costume, but died soon after. Footage of him talking to fans only a few hours earlier (some of which was circulated on YouTube) showed him in good spirits.
• 4 April - Production began on Time and the Rani, the first story of the Sylvester McCoy era.
• 16 April - Doctor Who - The Mind Robber was first published.
• 27 April - Actor Ciara Janson was born.
• REF: The Doctor Who Fun Book was first published.
• 21 May - Doctor Who - The Faceless Ones was first published.
• Guitarist Frank Gambale included an instrumental called "The Tardis" as the closing track of his album A Present for the Future.
• The B-movie action thriller Three Kinds of Heat was released in the United States. Although a US-made film, the picture featured a number of UK actors, including a pre-Who Sylvester McCoy as one of the film's main villains, one-time stage Doctor Trevor Martin and Mary Tamm, playing a gangster's moll. The film had the dubious distinction of including a scene in which a future Doctor was shown killing off a one-time companion.
• 6 June - Actor Fulton Mackay died.
• 15 June - Junior Doctor Who and the Brain of Morbius was reissued by Target Books with a modified cover design.
• 18 June - Doctor Who - The Space Museum was first published.
• 22 June - Actor Joe Dempsie was born.
• 16 July - Doctor Who - The Sensorites was first published.
• 20 August - Doctor Who - The Reign of Terror was first published. Written by Ian Marter, this novel was published posthumously, ten months after his death.
• 5 September - Actor Bill Fraser died.
• 7 September - Time and the Rani Part One debuted on BBC1, launching Season 24. It was the first appearance of Sylvester McCoy as the Doctor; due to Colin Baker declining to return for a cameo appearance, McCoy played both the Sixth and Seventh Doctors for the regeneration sequence. The series introduced a new theme music arrangement by Keff McCulloch, a new computer generated opening credits sequence, and a new series logo.
• 11 September - Director Hugh David died.
• 14 September - Time and the Rani Part Two debuted on BBC1.
• 16 September - Simon Gipps-Kent died.
• 17 September - Actor Stephen Jack died.
• 17 - REF: Doctor Who: The Time-Travellers' Guide was first published.
• 19 September - Doctor Who - The Romans was first published.
• 21 September - Time and the Rani Part Three debuted on BBC1.
• 28 September - Time and the Rani Episode 4 debuted on BBC1.
• 28 - Star Trek: The Next Generation debuted on US television. Over the next two decades it spawned multiple spin-off series and in many ways eclipsed the original Star Trek in commercial success. The revival of Doctor Who in 2005, which also spawned spinoffs with considerable commercial success, is often compared to TNG.
• 1 October - Doctor Who - The Ambassadors of Death was first published. With this book, all stories of the Third Doctor era were now novelised -- the first era to be completed; two additional Third Doctor novelisations based upon radio plays were published in the 1990s.
• 4 October - Actor Daniel Anthony was born.
• 5 October - Paradise Towers Part One debuted on BBC1.
• 12 October - Paradise Towers Part Two debuted on BBC1.
• 15 October - K9 and Company was first published. This was the belated third (and final) volume in the Companions of Doctor Who spin-off series. Unlike the previous two books, however, this was not an original work but an adaptation of the K9 and Company pilot episode, A Girl's Best Friend.
• 15 - The paperback edition of REF: Doctor Who: The Key to Time was published.
• 19 October - Paradise Towers Part Three debuted on BBC1.
• 19 - REF: Build the TARDIS was first published.
• 26 October - Paradise Towers Part Four debuted on BBC1.
• 2 November - Delta and the Bannermen Part One debuted on BBC1. This episode saw the first appearance of the Seventh Doctor's umbrella with the large red question mark-shaped handle, an idea thought of by Sylvester McCoy.
  • According to the 2009 DVD release of this story (production notes), a fan campaign against producer John Nathan-Turner began to receive media coverage during the time Delta and the Bannermen was being broadcast.
• 9 November - Delta and the Bannermen Part Two debuted on BBC1.
• 14 November - Actor Dimitri Leonidas was born.
• 16 November - Delta and the Bannermen Part Three debuted on BBC1.
• 19 November - Doctor Who - The Massacre was first published. An adaptation of the serial The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve, this was the first time in more than a decade that a novelisation title differed from the broadcast serial. In addition, the book made substantial changes to the original story, something not seen since the earliest days of Doctor Who novelisations.
• 22 November - The Max Headroom broadcast signal intrusion incident occurred when unidentified individuals briefly hijacked the broadcast signals of two television stations in Chicago. During the illegal interruptions a man dressed in a Max Headroom mask appeared on-screen and carried on for a brief time. The first interruption took place during a sports broadcast. The second, lasting a minute and a half, occurred during a local PBS station's broadcast of Horror of Fang Rock. The culprits were never caught. In the days following, Doctor Who got a bit of extra (albeit unwanted) publicity as the interrupted scene was rebroadcast on many American TV stations.
• 23 November - Dragonfire Part One debuted on BBC1. This was the debut of Sophie Aldred as the final original-series companion, Ace.
• 23 - REF: Encyclopedia of The Worlds of Doctor Who: A-D was first published.
• 28 November - Actor Karen Gillan was born.
• 30 November - Dragonfire Part Two debuted on BBC1.
• 7 December - Dragonfire Part Three debuted on BBC1, concluding Season 24. Bonnie Langford left the series with this episode.
• 10 December - Doctor Who - The Macra Terror was first published.
• 20 December - Actor Neville Simons died.

Unknown dates

• The independent video production HOMEVID: Wartime was released by Reeltime Pictures. This was the first of a number of non-BBC video productions featuring characters from Doctor Who (but never the Doctor) that were licensed by their creators, that would be released over the next fifteen years.