1987

Events

History of the Doctor Who Universe

February

• 7 - Kathy Costello Wainright (aka Nightingale) writes a letter to her friend Sally Sparrow, entrusting her grandson to deliver it (along with a package of photographs) to Sparrow in the year 2007. (DW: Blink)
• Sometime after 7th February - Death of Kathy Costello Wainright nee Nightingale. (DW: Blink)

April

• 27 - Birth of Rose Tyler, companion of the Ninth and Tenth Doctors. (Note This date is cited in Doctor Who Annual 2006, but is contradicted by information in DW: Rose and Aliens of London.)

July

• The Seventh Doctor, Roz Forrester and Chris Cwej battle an N-Form in London. (NA: Damaged Goods)

November

• 7 - Pete Tyler is killed when he is struck by a vehicle while crossing the road en route to a friend's wedding. This event is witnessed by Rose Tyler and the Ninth Doctor. Initially Pete died alone before help could arrive. Rose creates an alternate timelines by preventing him from being killed, which results in a dangerous paradox. Ultimately, after spending some time with his now-grown daughter, Pete learns that in order for time to continue normally, he must die, so he walks in front of another vehicle. This time Rose is with him when he dies, and the fabric of time is altered so that the record shows Pete died as an unidentified woman knelt beside him. (DW: Father's Day) Technically, since Rose being with Pete becomes part of established time, the alternate timeline is in fact now the one where he dies alone.

Unknown date

• Ace is transported by a time storm from Perivale to Iceworld. (DW: Dragonfire)
• The Eighth Doctor teaches some boars how to talk, enabling them to eventually evolve into the intelligent Boar race. (EDA: Mad Dogs and Englishmen)
• Julia Hardwick, a future victim of the Weeping Angels, is born. It is possible that she becomes her own grandmother in her future. (WC: A Ghost Story for Christmas)

Real World

January

• John Nathan-Turner attends a performance of The Pied Piper starring Sylvester McCoy, and subsequently offers McCoy the role of the Seventh Doctor.
• 15 - DWN: Doctor Who - Slipback is published in paperback.

February

• 19 - DWN: Doctor Who - Black Orchid is 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, and as such the story remains officially unnovelised.
• 23 - Esmond Knight dies.
• 25 - John Collin dies.

March

• 19 - DWN: Doctor Who - The Ark is first published.
  • REF: The Doctor Who Illustrated A to Z is published in paperback.
• 27 - The film Withnail & I receives its first showings at a film festival in the US. The film is the first major acting role Paul McGann after several TV projects.
• 28 - Patrick Troughton dies from a heart attack while appearing at a Doctor Who convention in Columbus, Georgia, USA. Footage of him talking to fans only a few hours earlier exists and has circulated on YouTube, and shows Troughton in good spirits.

April

• 04 - Production begins on DW: Time and the Rani, the first story of the Sylvester McCoy era.
• 16 - DWN: Doctor Who - The Mind Robber is first published.
• 27 - Ciara Janson is born.

May

• REF: The Doctor Who Fun Book is first published.
• 21 - DWN: Doctor Who - The Faceless Ones is first published.
• Guitarist Frank Gambale includes an instrumental called "The Tardis" as the closing track of his album, A Present for the Future.

June

• The B-movie action thriller Three Kinds of Heat released in the United States. Although a US-made film, the picture features 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 has the dubious distinction of including a scene in which a future Doctor is shown killing off a one-time companion.
• 06 - Fulton Mackay dies.
• 15 - DWN: Junior Doctor Who and the Brain of Morbius reissued by Target Books with a modified cover design.
• 18 - DWN: Doctor Who - The Space Museum is first published.
• 22 - Joe Dempsie is born.

July

• 16 - DWN: Doctor Who - The Sensorites is first published.

August

• 20 - DWN: Doctor Who - The Reign of Terror is first published. Written by Ian Marter, this novel was published posthumously, 10 months after his death.

September

• 05 - Bill Fraser dies.
• 07 - DW: Time and the Rani Episode 1 is first broadcast, launching Season 24. First appearance of Sylvester McCoy as the Doctor; due to Colin Baker declining to return for a cameo appearance, McCoy plays both the Sixth and Seventh Doctors for the regeneration sequence. The series introduces a new theme music arrangement by Keff McCulloch, a new computer generated opening credits sequence, and a new series logo.
• 11 - Hugh David dies.
• 14 - DW: Time and the Rani Episode 2 is first broadcast.
• 16 - Simon Gipps-Kent dies.
• 17 - Stephen Jack dies.
  • REF: Doctor Who: The Time-Travellers' Guide is first published.
• 19 - DWN: Doctor Who - The Romans is first published.
• 21 - DW: Time and the Rani Episode 3 is first published.
• 28 - DW: Time and the Rani Episode 4 is first published.
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation debuts on US television. Over the next two decades it will spawn multiple spin-off series and, in many ways, eclipse the original Star Trek in commercial success. The revival of Doctor Who in 2005, which also spawned spinoffs was considerable commercial success, will often be compared to TNG.

October

• 01 - DWN: Doctor Who - The Ambassadors of Death is 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 would be published in the 1990s.
• 05 - DW: Paradise Towers Episode 1 is first broadcast.
• 12 - DW: Paradise Towers Episode 2 is first broadcast.
• 15 - TC: K-9 and Company is first published. This is the belated third (and final) volume in the Companions of Doctor Who spin-off series. Unlike the previous two books, however, this is not an original work but an adaptation of the K-9 and Company pilot episode, KAC: A Girl's Best Friend.
  • Paperback edition of REF: Doctor Who: The Key to Time is published.
• 19 - DW: Paradise Towers Episode 3 is first broadcast.
  • REF: Build the TARDIS is first published.
• 26 - DW: Paradise Towers Episode 4 is first broadcast.

November

• 02 - DW: Delta and the Bannermen Episode 1 is first broadcast.
  • 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.
• 09 - DW: Delta and the Bannermen Episode 2 is first broadcast.
• 16 - DW: Delta and the Bannermen Episode 3 is first broadcast.
• 01 - DWN: Doctor Who - The Massacre is first published. An adaptation of the serial DW: The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve, this is the first time in more than a decade that a novelisation title differs from the broadcast serial. In addition, the book makes substantial changes to the original story, something not seen since the earliest days of Doctor Who novelisations.
• 22 - The Max Headroom broadcast signal intrusion incident occurs when unidentified individuals briefly hijack the broadcast signals of two television stations in Chicago. During the illegal interruptions a man dressed in a Max Headroom mask appears on screen an carries on for a brief time. The first interruption takes place during a sports broadcast. The second, lasting a minute and a half, occurs during a local PBS station's broadcast of DW: Horror of Fang Rock. The culprits are never caught. In the days following, Doctor Who gets a bit of extra (albeit unwanted) publicity as the interrupted scene is rebroadcast on many American TV stations.
• 23 - DW: Dragonfire Episode 1 is first broadcast. Debut of Sophie Aldred as the final original-series companion, Ace.
  • REF: Encyclopedia of The Worlds of Doctor Who: A-D is first published.
• 28 - Karen Gillan is born.
• 30 - DW: Dragonfire Episode 2 is first broadcast.

December

• 07 - DW: Dragonfire Episode 3 is first broadcast, concluding Season 24. Bonnie Langford leaves the series with this episode.
• 10 - DW: Doctor Who - The Macra Terror is first published.

Unknown dates

• The independent video production RP: Wartime is released by Reeltime Pictures. This is the first of a number of non-BBC video productions featuring characters from Doctor Who (but never the Doctor) that have been licensed by their creators, that will be released over the next 15 years.