1999

Doctor Who Universe

Throughout the year, much concern is raised on Earth over a feared computer glitch known as Y2K or the Millennium Bug, which had the potential to cause technological havoc as clocks changed from 1999 to 2000 (the "00" in the date being expected to cause problems for many computer systems). The concern ends up being unfounded, though not without a little help from one, possibly two incarnations of the Doctor. (PDA: Millennium Shock)

May

• 12 - Adelaide Brooke is born in Finchley, North London. (DW: The Waters of Mars)

December

• Late December - The Doctor saves Earth from Saraquazel, a being from after the universe, and his servant, Ashley Chapel. (MA: Millennial Rites)
• 30-31 December - The Doctor, en route to Gallifrey with the remains of the Master, is forced to land the TARDIS in San Francisco and is caught in the crossfire of a gangland shooting. Although his injuries are not life threatening, when doctors discover what appears to be a heart malfunction, Dr. Grace Holloway conducts heart surgery meant to save him; instead, the Doctor "dies" on the operating table. Meanwhile, the Master, manifesting himself as a ghost-like snake, escapes the TARDIS and hitches a ride with Bruce, the paramedic who helped the Doctor. (DW: Doctor Who)
• 31 - Not long after midnight, the Doctor's body arrives in the morgue and is put into the refrigeration unit. Several hours later - a delay caused by the anaesthetic - the Doctor finally regenerates into his eighth incarnation and escapes (frightening an orderly who is watching the 1931 film Frankenstein on TV). Due to the anaesthetic, the Doctor suffers temporary amnesia. Meanwhile, the Master kills Bruce and takes over the human's body; he subsequently kills Bruce's wife, Miranda, too.
  • During the course of this day, the Master launches a scheme to obtain the Doctor's remaining regenerations. He infiltrates the Doctor's TARDIS with the help of Chang Lee and attempts to use the Eye of Harmony to this end, even though it will destroy Earth. The Doctor and Grace Holloway race to stop him; during this time the Doctor regains his memory and the two share a brief romantic connection. (DW: Doctor Who)
  • Meanwhile, natural phenomenon are reported in the San Francisco Bay area, including unusual tides, flood warnings. Meanwhile, snow is reported in Hawaii. Scientists link this to fluctuations in Earth's gravitational pull that occur only once every 1,000 years (though the real reason involves The Master opening the Eye of Harmony). (DW: Doctor Who)
  • During the battle with the Master, both Grace Holloway and Chang Lee are killed, but the Doctor is able to bring them back to life by reversing time. (DW: Doctor Who)
  • To ring in the New Year, the Institute for Technological Advancement and Research in San Francisco establishes San Francisco Mean Time by unveiling the world's most accurate atomic clock. The Doctor and Grace Holloway crash (and disrupt) the party in order to obtain components needed to defeat the Master. (DW: Doctor Who)
  • The Doctor invites Grace Holloway to travel with him; she declines. (DW: Doctor Who)
    • Other events on 31 December
  • The Doctor and Mel crash a party hosted by the Auton Alisha Hammerson, and defeat another invasion by the Nestene Consciousness. (DWM: Plastic Millennium)
  • The Doctor also stops the millennium bug (probably with a little help from his sixth incarnation) just as the New Year arrives. (PDA: Millennium Shock)
  • While Jack Harkness fights a "Millennium Bug" of his own, Alex Hopkins kills the rest of his Torchwood Three team, then kills himself after Jack returns, just as the New Year arrives. Harkness subsequently takes over Torchwood Three (TW: Fragments)
  • Dave Young spent the entire evening trying to convince his girlfriend, Anji Kapoor, that the millennium wouldn't actually begin for another year. Kapoor, for her part, thought this extreme pedantry meant their relationship was in trouble. This incident would lead to her insisting on New Year's Eve 2000 that the two of them spend 2001 doing "Wild and Spontaneous Things' — the result of which was the couple spontaneously going to Belgium in February 2001. There, she met the Doctor and began travelling with him. (EDA: Escape Velocity)

Due to time zone differences, the above events technically occurred hours prior to the incident in San Francisco.

Behind the scenes

References in the Doctor Who Universe tend to indicate the year 2000 of the start of the millennium, rather than 2001, the technical start of that millennium.

Real World

January

• 04 - EDA: The Face-Eater is first published.
  • PDA: Salvation is first published.

February

• BNA: The Mary-Sue Extrusion is first published.
• 01 - EDA: The Taint is first published. Fitz Kreiner becomes a companion.
  • PDA: The Wages of Sin is first published.
• 09 - Buddy Windrush, aka Bryan Mosley, who played the prop man in DW: The Daleks' Master Plan and a pirate in DW: The Smugglers, dies in Shipley, England.

March

• ST: More Short Trips anthology is first published.
• BBV: Ghosts is first released. This entry in The Time Travellers series sees several major changes made to characters, in order to further distance them from BBC-owned properties. Sylvester McCoy's character is now called The Dominie and is given a background different from that of The Doctor, while Sophie Aldred's character is now called Alice.
• 01 - EDA: Demontage is first published.
  • PDA: Deep Blue is first published.
• 06 - Graham Armitage, who played Barney in DW: The Macra Terror, dies in South Africa.
• 12 - The Curse of Fatal Death, a serialized spoof based upon Doctor Who, is broadcast as part of the BBC's Comic Relief appeal. The special stars Rowan Atkinson as the "Ninth" Doctor, Jonathan Pryce as The Master and is written by Steven Moffat -- his first televised work with the franchise. Also featured is Joanna Lumley as the first female incarnation of the Doctor ever featured in a BBC-sanctioned production (and the last until Arabella Weir in Doctor Who Unbound). The special is also webcast - the first original Doctor Who-related production to be distributed this way.

April

• BNA: Dead Romance is first published.
• BBV: Vital Signs, the second and last episode of The Wanderer spin-off series, is first released.
• 05 - EDA: Revolution Man is first published.
• 26 - PDA: Players is first published.

May

• BBV: Only Human is first released. Last episode of The Time Travellers to feature Sophie Aldred.
• 10 - EDA: Dominion is first published.
• 24 - PDA: Millennium Shock is first published.
• 27 - Donald Morley, who played Jules Renan in DW: The Reign of Terror, dies.

June

• BNA: Tears of the Oracle is first published.
• BBV: The Choice is first released, the first of two audio dramas in the Adventures in a Pocket Universe series starring Lalla Ward as "The Mistress" (though implied to be Romana) and John Leeson as K9.
• 07 - EDA: Unnatural History is first published.
  • PDA: Storm Harvest is first published.
• 30 - Doctor Who Magazine #279 features the first installment of a new monthly feature called the Time Team. In the feature, a group of fans set themselves the task of viewing and reviewing every televised Doctor Who story produced between 1963 and the TV movie of 1996. The Time Team eventually completes this project in DWM #416, published in December 2009.

July

• BFA: The Sirens of Time, a multi-Doctor story co-starring Peter Davison, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy, is released on cassette tape and CD. This audio drama is the first release by Big Finish Productions under its new licence with the BBC, allowing them to produce officially sanctioned audio productions featuring concepts and cast members from Doctor Who (Big Finish had already released audio dramas featuring Bernice Summerfield.) The Big Finish line would prosper over the next decade and help fill the void left by the lack of a television series prior to 2005, and would continue even after the series returned. In 2001, Big Finish will score a coup by launching a long-running series of productions featuring then-current Eighth Doctor, Paul McGann.
• 05 - EDA: Autumn Mist is first published.
  • PDA: The Final Sanction is first published.

August

• BNA: Return to the Fractured Planet is first published.
• REF: The Doctor's Affect, a memoir by onetime K9 assistant operator Stephen Cambden, is first published.
• BBC Audio, after a six-year hiatus, resumes reissuing audio recordings of Doctor Who stories that no longer exist in complete visual form in the BBC Archives. Previously, these recordings were issued exclusively on twin cassette, but they're now also being released on CD. Released this month: DW: The Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Eve, which is released under the shorter title, The Massacre.
• 02 - EDA: Interference - Book One and Interference - Book Two are both first published, the first and only two-volume BBC Books story. Introduction of new companion Compassion. The Third Doctor also appears. Due to both EDA books coming out at once, there is no Past Doctors Adventure this month.

September

• BBV: The Search, the second and last episode of Adventures in a Pocket Universe, is first released.
• 06 - EDA: The Blue Angel is first published.
  • PDA: City at World's End is first published.
• Dance instrumentalists Flytronix + Shere Khan releases the 12-inch single "Tardis", which incorporates sound effects from the TV series, on Moving Shadow Records.

October

• BNA: The Joy Device is first published.
• BFA: Phantasmagoria is released. First solo Fifth Doctor audio adventure.
• REF: The Nine Lives of Doctor Who is first published.
• The first edition of REF: I, Who, a long running guide to Doctor Who fiction, is published.
• 1 - Noel Johnson, who played King Thous in DW: The Underwater Menace and Charles Grover in DW: Invasion of the Dinosaurs, dies.
• 04 - EDA: The Taking of Planet 5 is first published.
  • PDA: Divided Loyalties is first published.
• 17 - 20th anniversary of Doctor Who Magazine.
• 30 - Cavan Kendall, who played Achilles in DW: The Myth Makers, dies.
• 31 - "Treehouse of Horror X", an episode of the American series The Simpsons is broadcast. The episode includes a cameo appearance by the Fourth Doctor, who is kidnapped along with other TV icons such as Xena, by the Comic Book Guy.

November

• BFA: Whispers of Terror is released. First solo Sixth Doctor audio adventure. Nicola Bryant begins a prolific stint with Big Finish Productions, voicing many audios as Peri Brown for both the Fifth and Sixth Doctors.
• REF: A Critical History of Doctor Who on Television by noted literary critic John Kenneth Muir, is first published.
• 01 - PDA: Corpse Marker is first published.
  • DW: The Five Doctors becomes the first episode of Doctor Who to be released to DVD by BBC Video when it is released in the digital format in the UK. This starts an extensive and long-running series of archival DVD releases chronicling the series that continues for more than a decade.
• 13 - Tom Baker and Douglas Adams discuss Doctor Who on the BBC Radio 4 programme Today.
  • Doctor Who is featured on the cover of the Radio Times, promoting upcoming rebroadcasts of classic episodes.
• 28 - EDA: Frontier Worlds is first published.

December

• BNA: Twilight of the Gods is first published, bringing to a close the Virgin Bernice Summerfield New Adventures series of books, which began as the Virgin New Adventures series in 1991. The publication of this book ends an era, concluding the book-publishing relationship between the Doctor Who franchise and Virgin Books/W.H. Allen/Target that had begun in 1973.
• CP: Perfect Timing 2, a Doctor Who short story collection for charity, is first published.
• 06 - 10th anniversary of the broadcast of the final episode of DW: Survival, which ended Doctor Who's original 26-season run on the BBC.
• 21 - Jack Le White, who went uncredited in DW: The Reign of Terror and DW: The Daleks' Master Plan, dies.
• 25 - Peter Jeffrey, who played the pilot in DW: The Macra Terror and Count Grendel in DW: The Androids of Tara, dies at Stratford-upon-Avon from prostate cancer.

Unknown dates

• Who alumni Colin Baker, Wendy Padbury and Carole Ann Ford unite for a direct-to-video thriller entitled Soul's Ark.