1982

Events

April

• The Seventh Doctor and Ace defeated rogue Annarenes. (PDA: Relative Dementias)

July

• 11 - The Eighth Doctor and Charley Pollard stopped the Threllip from invading Earth. (BFA: Living Legend)

Unknown Date

• Pete Tyler married Jackie Prentice. (REF: The Time Traveller's Almanac)
• On Pete's World, Cybus Industries was founded. (REF: The Time Traveller's Almanac)
• The Fifth Doctor, Tegan Jovanka and Nyssa visited Trafalgar Square in London. On a subsequent visit to the area in October 1843, Tegan commented that it was more "tourist friendly" in 1982. (ST: The Lions of Trafalgar)
• Anthony Chambers found a Cyber-conversion unit in a Baltimore cemetery. (BFA: The Reaping)

Behind the scenes

January

• 4 - DW: Castrovalva Part 1 was first broadcast, launching Season 19 and properly introducing Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor. Beginning with this story and continuing until 1989, the lead actor was credited as "The Doctor", not "Doctor Who" or "Dr. Who". Also, beginning with this story, the series moved to a new broadcast schedule, with the series beginning in January rather than the autumn, and airing two episodes a week. This format continued throughout the Davison era.
• 5 - DW: Castrovalva Part 2 was first broadcast.
• 11 - DW: Castrovalva Part 3 was first broadcast.
• 12 - DW: Castrovalva Part 4 was first broadcast.
• 14 - DWN: Doctor Who and the State of Decay was first published.
• 18 - DW: Four to Doomsday Part 1 was first broadcast.
• 19 - DW: Four to Doomsday Part 2 was first broadcast.
• 25 - DW: Four to Doomsday Part 3 was first broadcast.
• 26 - DW: Four to Doomsday Part 4 was first broadcast.

February

• Doctor Who: A Marvel Monthly magazine changed its title to Doctor Who Monthly this month.
• 01 - DW: Kinda Part 1 was first broadcast.
• 02 - DW: Kinda Part 2 was first broadcast.
• 08 - DW: Kinda Part 3 was first broadcast.
• 09 - DW: Kinda Part 4 was first broadcast.
• 15 - DW: The Visitation Part 1 was first broadcast.
• 16 - DW: The Visitation Part 2 was first broadcast.
• 22 - DW: The Visitation Part 3 was first broadcast.
• 23 - DW: The Visitation Part 4 was first broadcast.

March

• 01 - DW: Black Orchid Part 1 was first broadcast. This was the first purely historical story since The Highlanders.
• 02 - DW: Black Orchid Part 2 was first broadcast.
• 08 - DW: Earthshock Part 1 was first broadcast.
• 09 - DW: Earthshock Part 2 was first broadcast.
• 15 - DW: Earthshock Part 3 was first broadcast.
• 16 - DW: Earthshock Part 4 was first broadcast. Matthew Waterhouse left the series, with his character, Adric, becoming the first companion to be killed off since Sara Kingdom. Part 4 ended with the series' first and only silent credit scroll.
• 22 - DW: Time-Flight Part 1 was first broadcast. Part 1 featured the first mention of UNIT since DW: The Seeds of Doom.
• 23 - DW: Time-Flight Part 2 was first broadcast.
• 29 - DW: Time-Flight Part 3 was first broadcast.
• 30 - DW: Time-Flight Part 4 was first broadcast. Part 4 concluded Season 19 (which, thanks to the two-a-week broadcast schedule, had begun only three months earlier). The ending left viewers wondering whether Janet Fielding had left the series (she hadn't).

April

• 06 - Paul McGann made his TV acting debut on "Whistling Wall", an episode of Play for Today.
• 15 - DWN: Doctor Who and Warriors' Gate was first published.

May

• 18 - BBC Broadcasting Research issued a Viewing Panel Report gauging response to Season 19 of Doctor Who, which had seen the show change its broadcast scheduled to twice a week, as well as introduce a new Doctor, Peter Davison. As a whole, the season received a Reaction Index of 66, with the new Doctor and the timeslot change generally accepted.
• 20 - DWN: Doctor Who and the Keeper of Traken was first published.

July

• REF: Doctor Who: The Making of a Television Series was first published.
• 22 - DWN: Doctor Who and the Leisure Hive was first published.

August

• Doctor Who Annual 1983 was published.
• K9 Annual 1983 was published, the first and only annual to be based upon the aborted K9 and Company spinoff.
• 19 - DWN: Doctor Who and the Visitation was first published. First Fifth Doctor story novelisation was published. Beginning with this release, Target Books established the controversial practice of using photographic covers for stories featuring the Fifth Doctor, rather than commissioning artistic covers as had been the practices to this point. Artistic covers continued for adapations of previous Doctors' stories, however.

September

• 02 - An American actor named Tom Baker died in New York City. Although unrelated to Tom Baker, the Fourth Doctor, at least one (possibly more) reference books later erroneously indicated that it was the Doctor Who Tom Baker who had died on this date.
• 16 - DWN: Doctor Who - Full Circle was first published.
• 22 - Billie Piper (Rose Tyler) was born at Swindon, Wiltshire, England.

Fall

• John Nathan-Turner received approval to produce a 90-minute 20th anniversary special Part for broadcast in 1983 and began feeling out the interest of Doctor Who actors, including Tom Baker. At the time, the special carried the working title The Six Doctors, and Robert Holmes was commissioned to write the script; he subsequently left the project and Terrance Dicks wrote the script.

October

• 10 - Laidlaw Dalling, who played Rouvray in DW: The Reign of Terror, died.
• 21 - DWN: Doctor Who - Logopolis was first published.
• 28 - Matt Smith was born. In January 2009, Smith was announced as the actor cast to play the Eleventh Doctor.

November

• 7 - John Bay, who played the Earl of Leicester in DW: The Crusade, died from brain cancer in London.
• 18 - DWN: Doctor Who and the Sunmakers was first published. This was the final Target Books novelisation release to use the title form Doctor Who and....

December

• Publication of REF: The Second Doctor Who Quiz Book.
• Publication of REF: The Doctor Who Crossword Book.
• 1 - Eric Thompson, who played Viscount Gaston de Leran in DW: The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve, died from a heart attack in London.
• 6 - Ryan Carnes, who played Laszlo in DW: Daleks in Manhattan / Evolution of the Daleks was born in Pittsfield, Illinois.
• 24 - KAC: A Girl's Best Friend was rebroadcast on BBC2.

Unknown dates

• Magnet Books, a subsidiary of Methuen Children's Books, published Doctor Who Quiz Book of Dinosaurs by Michael Holt, the first of a series of four in the Doctor Who Quiz Book series (not to be confused with a similarly titled, concurrent series by Nigel Robinson). These illustrated paperback books (published in the same format as Target Books novelisations) contained original short stories featuring the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan Jovanka that set up short quizzes related to the subject matter of the book. The remaining three books in the series would be published in 1983.
• The first edition of The Doctor and the Enterprise by Jean Airey was published; this unauthorised crossover between Doctor Who, Star Trek and Darkover became a cult classic in this initial small-press publication and an edited version was published in 1989 by Pioneer Books.