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, except for Adric, 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 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) - . (KAC: A Girl's Best Friend) - Sarah Jane Smith opens the crate left by Lavinia and activates K-9 Mark III, who has been waiting for her since 1978.

• 29 - Members of the cult of Hecate 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 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 Peter Davison as "The Dish of the Day".
• 10 - DW: Warriors' Gate Episode 2 First Broadcast
• 15 - DWN: Doctor Who and the Creature from the Pit 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 first broadcast.
• 24 - DW: Warriors' Gate Episode 4 first broadcast. Lalla Ward leaves the series with this episode. Also final appearance of K-9 Mark II.
• 31 - DW: The Keeper of Traken Episode 1 first broadcast. Sarah Sutton debuts as new companion Nyssa, and Anthony Ainley makes his first appearance on the series.

February

• 7 - DW: The Keeper of Traken Episode 2 first broadcast.
• 14 - DW: The Keeper of Traken Episode 3 first Broadcast
• 21 - DW: The Keeper of Traken Episode 4 first Broadcast. Anthony Ainley becomes the newest, and longest-serving, incarnation of The Master.
• 21 - Death of Doctor Who theme composer Ron Grainer.
• 28 - DW: Logopolis Episode 1 first broadcast. Janet Fielding debuts as new companion Tegan Jovanka.

March

• 7 - DW: Logopolis Episode 2 First Broadcast
• 14 - DW: Logopolis Episode 3 First Broadcast
• 21 - DW: Logopolis Episode 4 First Broadcast, ending in 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, is born in Newport, Wales.

April

• 17 - DWN: Doctor Who and the Enemy of the World 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".

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.

November

• 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 An Unearthly Child) in the UK on BBC Two
• 4 - Second television Broadcast of "The Forest of Fear" (the third episode of An Unearthly Child in the UK on BBC Two.
• 5 - Second television Broadcast of "The Firemaker", the fourth and last episode of An Unearthly Child in the UK on BBC Two

December

• 28 - KAC: A Girl's Best Friend, a pilot episode for the proposed spin-off K-9 & Company, is first broadcast. The pilot features Sarah Jane Smith and introduces K-9 Mark III.

Unknown date

• Steven Scott (Kebble in DW: "The Power of the Daleks) dies.

1980

20th century 1980s

1982