1981

Events

Doctor Who Universe

Dates Unknown

• Anne Travers becomes the cabinet's scientific advisor. (MA: Downtime)

February

• 28 - The Doctor and Adric land the TARDIS by the side of a motorway to gain measurements of a police box. Air hostess Tegan Jovanka stumbles aboard the TARDIS on her way to work at London's Heathrow Airport. (Events of (parts of) DW:Logopolis)
• 28 - The Doctor tries to return Tegan Jovanka to her own time, but instead the TARDIS lands on Monarch's ship. (DW: Four to Doomsday)

March

• 1 - Following a lethal fall from the Pharos Project's dish, the Doctor regenerates. (DW:Logopolis) The regenerated Doctor and his companions manage to escape.

June

• Peter Tracey is given a suspended sentence for breaking and entering. (KAC: A Girl's Best Friend)

September

• A hailstorm strikes Moreton Harwood. It lasts only thirteen seconds, but destroys Commander Bill Pollock's crops. (KAC: A Girl's Best Friend)

December

• 1 - 14 - Sarah Jane Smith is out of the country working for Reuters. (KAC: A Girl's Best Friend)

• 6 - Lavinia Smith leaves Moreton Harwood for a lecture tour in America. Before departing, she arranges for a mysterious crate addressed to her niece, Sarah Jane Smith, to be left at Moreton Harwood. (KAC: A Girl's Best Friend)

• 10 - Lavinia Smith phones Brendan Richards to tell him he will be spending Christmas with Sarah Jane. Brendan waits for Sarah to pick him up at school, unaware that she is out of the country. (KAC: A Girl's Best Friend)

• 18 - 22 - Sarah Jane Smith opens the crate left by Lavinia and activates K9 Mark III, who has been waiting for her since 1978. (KAC: A Girl's Best Friend)

• 29 - Members of the Hecate Cult at Moreton Harwood are tried for attempted murder. (KAC: A Girl's Best Friend)

Real World

January

• 2 - Victor Carin (Virgil Earp in DW: The Gunfighters) dies from cancer in Edinburgh, Scotland.
• 3 - DW: Warriors' Gate Episode 1 is first broadcast.
• 5 - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy debuts on BBC Television. A mini-series adaptation of Douglas Adams' radio play and novelisation, the series would include a cameo appearance by future Doctor Peter Davison as "The Dish of the Day".
• 10 - DW: Warriors' Gate Episode 2 is first broadcast.
• 15 - DWN: Doctor Who and the Creature from the Pit is first published. Beginning with this release and continuing through 1991, Target Books will begin commissioning the original teleplay authors to adapt their own scripts, whenever possible.
• 17 - DW: Warriors' Gate Episode 3 is first broadcast.
• 24 - DW: Warriors' Gate Episode 4 is first broadcast. Lalla Ward leaves the series with this episode. Also final appearance of K-9 Mark II. This episode concludes the "E-Space Trilogy".
• 28 - Production of DW: Logopolis concludes, bringing an end to the Tom Baker era.
• 31 - DW: The Keeper of Traken Episode 1 is first broadcast. Sarah Sutton debuts as new companion Nyssa (although she officially does not become a companion until the next story), and Anthony Ainley makes his first appearance on the series, though not yet as the Master.

February

• The pop band The Human League releases the instrumental "Tom Baker" (in honour of the actor) on the flipside of their single "Boys and Girls". This piece of music is later reused for the Project Who radio series in 2005.
• 7 - DW: The Keeper of Traken Episode 2 is first broadcast.
• 14 - DW: The Keeper of Traken Episode 3 is first broadcast.
• 21 - DW: The Keeper of Traken Episode 4 is first broadcast. Anthony Ainley becomes the newest, and longest-serving, incarnation of The Master.
  • Doctor Who theme composer Ron Grainer dies.
• 28 - DW: Logopolis Episode 1 is first broadcast. Janet Fielding debuts as new companion Tegan Jovanka.

March

• 7 - DW: Logopolis Episode 2 is first broadcast.
• 14 - DW: Logopolis Episode 3 is first broadcast. Sarah Sutton returns as Nyssa and officially becomes a companion.
• 21 - DW: Logopolis Episode 4 is first broadcast, concluding Season 18 and ending with Tom Baker's regeneration into Peter Davison. For the last time until 2005, the lead actor of the series is credited on screen as "Doctor Who" (beginning with the next season, the credit becomes "The Doctor").
• 28 - Gareth David-Lloyd, who plays Ianto Jones in Torchwood, is born in Newport, Wales.
• 30 - Assassination attempt is made on US President Ronald Reagan.

April

• John Nathan-Turner writes a story outline for the proposed K-9 and Company spin-off pilot episode.
• 13 - Studio taping begins on DW: Four to Doomsday, the first story of the Peter Davison era to be made, though it won't be the first broadcast.
• 17 - DWN: Doctor Who and the Enemy of the World is first published. Written by series actor Ian Marter, the book is controversial at the time of release for its use of adult language in a line of books officially considered children's literature. This was the last novelisation in the Target Books line to use the "diamond logo".

May

• John Nathan-Turner and Anthony Root compose a "format document" for a planned spin-off series to be entitled K-9 and Company.
• 12 - Elisabeth Sladen is officially invited to reprise the role of Sarah Jane Smith for the planned K-9 and Company spin-off.
• 21 - REF: The Doctor Who Programme Guide Volumes 1 and 2, are first published in hardcover.

August

• Doctor Who Annual 1982 published.

October

• 15 - DWN: Doctor Who and An Unearthly Child, an adaptation of the very first Doctor Who serial, is first published. Its publication promotes the upcoming rebroadcast of the serial by BBC Two as part of their "Five Faces of Doctor Who" special series re-broadcasts. The Target Books line switches to the then-current "neon tubing" series logo with this release.
  • Paperback editions of REF: The Doctor Who Programme Guide Volumes 1 and 2 are published. The books have been revised from the hardback versions.

November

• Production of the pilot episode of the planned K-9 and Company spin-off series, KAC: A Girl's Best Friend, takes place this month.
• 2 - "The Five Faces of Doctor Who" special re-broadcast series commences with the third television broadcast of the first episode of DW: An Unearthly Child, the very first episode of Doctor Who. It airs in the UK on BBC Two.
• 3 - Second television Broadcast of "The Cave of Skulls" (the second episode of DW: An Unearthly Child) in the UK on BBC Two
• 4 - Second television Broadcast of "The Forest of Fear" (the third episode of DW: An Unearthly Child in the UK on BBC Two.
• 5 - Second television Broadcast of "The Firemaker", the fourth and last episode of DW: An Unearthly Child in the UK on BBC Two.

December

• Publication of REF: The Doctor Who Quiz Book by Nigel Robinson.
• 21 - The final new episode of Terry Nation's Blake's 7 airs on the BBC.
• 28 - KAC: A Girl's Best Friend, a pilot episode for the proposed spin-off K9 and Company, is first broadcast. The pilot reintroduces Sarah Jane Smith and introduces K9 Mark III.

Unknown dates

• Steven Scott (Kebble in DW: The Power of the Daleks) dies.
• Marvel Comics publishes Marvel Premiere issue 60, bringing to a close the first set of American Fourth Doctor comic strip reprints from Doctor Who Weekly. Another series, Doctor Who, follows in 1984.