2006

Events

Before March 6

• Owen Harper encountered Jack Harkness again at Katie Russell's graveside and was recruited by him to Torchwood Three as the resident medical officer. (TW: Fragments)

March

• 6 -
  • The Ninth Doctor returned Rose Tyler to her home in London, but due to a miscalculation they arrived a year late, and Rose subsequently learnt that she was believed murdered and that Mickey Smith was at one point considered a suspect. Big Ben was side-swiped by a UFO which crashed into the Thames. (DW: Aliens of London) Many people witnessed the crash, including Elton Pope, (DW: Love & Monsters) however the crash was later covered up as a hoax (which, in some ways, it was). (WEB: whoisdoctorwho.co.uk) An "alien astronaut" from the UFO was taken to Albion Hospital where the Doctor and Toshiko Sato examined it. "Doctor" Sato was working undercover for Torchwood Three, covering for Owen Harper, who was indisposed due to a hangover on his first week working for Torchwood. (DW: Aliens of London, TW: Exit Wounds) Most of the Earth's leading experts on aliens were killed, as was the Prime Minister of Great Britain. (DW: Aliens of London)
  • 10 Downing Street was destroyed by a Harpoon missile targeted by Mickey Smith. The fortitude that backbencher MP Harriet Jones showed during this crisis contributed to Jones' ascent towards power and the post of Prime Minister. Mickey Smith, who was now webmaster of the "Who is Doctor Who?" website, was asked by the Doctor to install a virus intended to wipe out all references to the Doctor on the Internet. (DW: World War Three) He did not do this, and instead renamed his website Defending the Earth! and proceeded to chronicle unexplained happenings, usually involving the Doctor. (WEB: whoisdoctorwho.co.uk)

June

• The Tenth Doctor visited St. Nicholas's Hospital, taking on the alias of a consultant. (Times Online: Deep and Dreamless Sleep)
• 25 - Edward Grainger died on his 100th birthday. (ST: Forgotten)

July

• 20 - After reading an internet article about Jo Jones, Polly Wright emailed Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and they shared stories of their adventures with the Doctor. (CC: The Three Companions)

September

• The Raxacoricofallapatorian mayor of Cardiff Blon Fel-Fotch Passameer-Day Slitheen, posing as the human Margaret Blaine, plotted to blow up the Earth with the Blaidd Drwg nuclear power plant and the Cardiff Rift while escaping on her extrapolator. The Ninth Doctor, Rose Tyler, Mickey Smith and Jack Harkness captured her, but she used a fallback plan by making the extrapolator latch onto the TARDIS' energies (having been parked directly on the Rift) and still destroy the Earth. The plan backfired and the Heart of the TARDIS opened up, regressing Blon to an egg. The Doctor and his companions returned Blon to Raxacoricofallapatorius to start a new life. (DW: Boom Town) At this point in time there were no less than three versions of Harkness in Cardiff in different places within his timeline: the Jack travelling with the Doctor, an older Jack now operating Torchwood Three while keeping himself and his team in the Hub during these events (TWN: The Twilight Streets), and a still older Jack in cryogenic freeze in the Torchwood vaults, unknown to the Torchwood Three team. (TW: Exit Wounds)

October

• Idris Hopper recognised Jack Harkness and chased after him. Seeing past its perception filter, he witnessed the invisible lift in action. An attempt to erase Idris' memories with retcon in his dinner failed and Idris becomes angry with Jack because he thought he was poisoned. (TWN: The Twilight Streets)

• 31 - The British Rocket Group space probe Guinevere One launched from Earth for a scheduled rendezvous with Mars on Christmas Day. (Date: WEB: http://www.guinevere.org.uk/)

November

• 23 - Retired Torchwood agent Lucia Moretti, a former lover of Jack Harkness and mother of his daughter, passed away due to heart disease.

December

• 24 - The Tenth Doctor recovered from his regeneration at the Powell Estate. Sycorax intercepted the Guinevere One and sent a threatening message to Earth. The Sycorax ship's Pilot fish landed, the Doctor stopping them from taking his regeneration energy. Prime Minister Harriet Jones seeked help from UNIT as the Doctor was still in bed. (DW: The Christmas Invasion)
  • Daniel Thompson, age 4, was struck by a vehicle and hospitalized at St. Nicholas's Hospital in London. The Doctor, again in his tenth incarnation, only older than his encounter with the Sycorax, shared an adventure with Daniel, and spent time at St. Nicholas's Hospital waiting for Daniel to recover. (Times Online: Deep and Dreamless Sleep)

This meant there were in fact briefly two versions of the Tenth Doctor in London at the same time.

• 25 - The Sycorax ship entered London airspace at around 0745 (DW: The Christmas Invasion, Love & Monsters) Elton Pope gazed up at the ship in awe. (DW: Love & Monsters) Sarah Jane Smith wondered if the ship has the Doctor onboard, taking care of the situation. (DW: School Reunion) Donna Noble, however, was oblivious to events due to a hangover. (DW: The Runaway Bride) The Sycorax used blood control on one third of Earth's population. Harriet Jones appeared on television to ask for the Doctor's help. The Doctor defeated the Sycorax leader who was later killed after trying to sneak-attack the Doctor. In the battle the leader cut off the Doctor's hand (which grew back). The Torchwood Institute destroyed the retreating Sycorax ship under Harriet Jones' orders. The Doctor regarded this as murder and so engineered Jones' spiral in the polls. Although the Earth had been visited (and even invaded) many times previously by alien races, the Doctor told Rose that the Sycorax event marked the first occasion that life beyond Earth became common knowledge, and that Earth itself was now becoming noticed by other worlds. (DW: The Christmas Invasion) This sentiment was later echoed by Jack Harkness in his statement, "The 21st century is when it all changes." (DW: Last of the Time Lords and repeatedly in Torchwood)

Later, Jack Harkness found and retrieved the Doctor's hand, which ended up at Torchwood Three. (TW: Everything Changes et al, DW: Utopia)

• Ursula Blake snapped a photo of the Tenth Doctor celebrating with Rose Tyler in London. Meanwhile, on the Internet, there began frantic speculation among conspiracy theorists as to what really happened during the Sycorax invasion. (DW: Love & Monsters)

Later, Ursula posted the photo to her blog. (DW: Love & Monsters)

Unknown dates

• The Seventh Doctor and Ruby Duvall stopped the Cybermen's attempt to conquer Earth by preventing the magnetic field reversal that would have created worldwide chaos under which the Cybermen planned to invade. (NA: Iceberg)
• The Zen Military, Kadiatu Lethbridge-Stewart's exposé of the history of UNIT, was published following the expiration of the thirty year rule for official secrets (NA: Set Piece).
• Mickey helped Rose to get back to the Ninth Doctor by connecting a truck to the Heart of the TARDIS to open it. In doing so, Rose allowed the Heart to get inside her head and pilot her to the Game Station in 200,100. (DW: The Parting of the Ways)
• Mels helped her friend Amy Pond realise her love for Rory Williams .

This happened after September, but before Christmas Eve.

• After March, but before December: Harriet Jones was elected British Prime Minister. (DW: The Christmas Invasion)
• Former teacher Oswald Danes was convicted of the rape and murder of 12 year old Susie Cabina. (TW: The New World)

Behind the scenes

Early 2006

• According to his book, The Writer's Tale, Russell T Davies, David Tennant and others involved in Doctor Who, following production of DW: Doomsday, agree that after the fourth series the program would be rested for a year, except for the occasional special. This idea later evolves into the 2009 Specials season and dovetails with the eventual departures of Davies and Tennant from the series.

January

• The American network Sci-Fi Channel announces it has bought the rights to air the new version of Doctor Who. The first series will air beginning in March 2006, a year after their UK and Canadian broadcasts, and the network has the option of airing Series 2 as well.
• BFA: Pier Pressure is first released.
• BFBS: Parallel Lives is first released.
• BFBS: Something Changed is first released.
• 2 - John Woodnutt, who had parts in DW: Spearhead from Space, DW: Frontier in Space, DW: Terror of the Zygons and DW: The Keeper of Traken dies from natural causes at Denville Hall, Northwood, England, UK.
• 16 - The interactive mini-episode WC: Attack of the Graske is made available on the BBC's Doctor Who website, after it was available exclusively on the BBC's Red Button TV service.
• 19 - THN: Deus Le Volt is first published.
• 30 - UK release of the DVD box set The Beginning, which features the first three Doctor Who stories DW: An Unearthly Child, The Daleks and The Edge of Destruction.

February

• BFA: Night Thoughts is first released.
• BFC: Telos, the final episode of the first season of the Big Finish Productions spin-off, Cyberman, is first released.
• BFSJS: Buried Secrets and BFSJS: Snow Blind are first released. First episodes of the spin-off audio series Sarah Jane Smith to be released since 2002, and the remaining episodes will be released as the character returns to TV in DW: School Reunion.
• BFBS: Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Goddess Quandary is first released.
• 14 - Doctor Who: The Complete First Series, the DVD box set featuring the complete 2005 seasons, is released to Region 1. However, due to the fact that the series has yet to be aired in the United States, for which the Sci-Fi Channel have belatedly obtained the rights, the set is released on this date only in Canada. (Though American consumers are still able to order it from Canada.) American release occurs later in the summer.

March

• BFA: Time Works is first released.
• BFSJS: Fatal Consequences is first released.
• 2 - The DVD set The Beginning featuring DW: An Unearthly Child, The Daleks and The Edge of Destruction is released in Region 4.
• 28 - North American release of the The Beginning DVD box set featuring DW: An Unearthly Child, The Daleks and The Edge of Destruction.

April

• NSA: The Stone Rose, NSA: The Feast of the Drowned, and NSA: The Resurrection Casket are first published. These are the first original novels to feature the Tenth Doctor
• BFA: The Kingmaker is first released.
• ST: Short Trips: Farewells is first published. With BBC Books having now retired its BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures and BBC Past Doctor Adventures book lines at the end of 2005, the Short Trips collections are now the only source for original (licensed) literary stories featuring the first eight incarnations of the Doctor.
• BFSJS: Dreamland is first released. Final episode of the Big Finish Productions audio spin-off series, Sarah Jane Smith, as the character later this month returns to television.
• MB: The Ship of a Billion Years: The True History of Faction Paradox Volume 2 is first released. More than two years will pass before the next entry in this series.
• Approximately one week prior to the broadcast of DW: New Earth, the BBC releases the first Tardisode. These mini-episodes, available online or via mobile phone, featured specially shot scenes setting up elements of the episode to come.
• 05 - BBC Magazines launches Doctor Who Adventures, a weekly magazine promoting the Doctor Who franchise aimed at younger readers (no relation to Doctor Who Magazine). Unlike DWM, it is not distributed internationally.
• 10 - DW: Genesis of the Daleks is released to DVD in the UK.
• 13 - The first episode of Totally Doctor Who airs in the UK. Similar in some ways to Doctor Who Confidential, this BBC series also takes a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the series, but with the focus being more on a kid-friendly point of view.
• 15 - DW: New Earth is first broadcast, launching the second season of the revived series and the first full season to feature David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor
  • Beginning with today's issue, the BBC's promotional magazine, Radio Times begins extensively covering Doctor Who, with weekly features called "Who's Watch" that run for the duration of each new season.
• 22 - DW: Tooth and Claw is first broadcast; this episode features the origin of the Torchwood Institute.
• 24 - Elisabeth Sladen and John Leeson appear on Blue Peter promoting School Reunion.
• 27 - Elisabeth Sladen appears on BBC One's Breakfast to promote her upcoming appearance on Doctor Who.
• 29 - DW: School Reunion is first broadcast. This landmark episode returns Elisabeth Sladen to Doctor Who as Sarah Jane Smith, and John Leeson as K9, and sets the groundwork for the later spinoff, The Sarah Jane Adventures. This episode is also considered to be the first to definitively link the new series to the 1963-89 classic series in terms of direct continuity. Anthony Stewart Head, a frequent voiceover contributor to various Doctor Who projects, makes his first and, to date only, on-screen appearance. Mickey Smith, played by Noel Clarke, graduates from recurring character to companion with this episode becoming, in the process, the first-ever non-Caucasian television companion (although there had been others in the comic strips previously).
  • BBC Radio Wales broadcasts Back in Time - Adventures in Sound.

May

• NSA: I am a Dalek is first released, launching the BBC Quick Reads novella series, which are aimed at promoting literacy. The books are roughly the length of one of the shorter Target novelisations and although they're considered part of the BBC New Series Adventures line, are published in paperback. Annual releases of Quick Reads books continues for the next several years.
• BFA: The Settling is first released.
• BFG: Fractures is first released.
• BBC Books marks its 10th year publishing original Doctor Who fiction.
• 01 - BBCR: The Dalek Conquests is first released.
  • BBC Video continues its "vanilla" releases of new-series episodes with Doctor Who: Series 2 Volume 1 featuring DW: The Christmas Invasion and New Earth. Not counting his cameo at the end of Series 1, this is the first full DVD release featuring the Tenth Doctor.
• 04 - DW: Genesis of the Daleks is released to DVD in Region 4.
• 06 - DW: The Girl in the Fireplace is first broadcast. This episode wins Doctor Who its second Hugo Award and features guest star Sophia Myles, who becomes romantically involved with David Tennant after production.
• 13 - DW: Rise of the Cybermen is first broadcast. This episode introduces the alternate Earth known as Pete's World, as well as the Cybus Cybermen.
• 14 - 10th anniversary of the broadcast of the 1996 Doctor Who TV movie)
• 19 - Producer Peter Bryant (from DW: The Web of Fear to DW: The Space Pirates) dies.
• 20 - DW: The Age of Steel is first broadcast. Mickey Smith (Noel Clarke) leaves the series with this episode (though he returns for several guest appearances).
• 27 - DW: The Idiot's Lantern is first broadcast.

June

• BFA: Something Inside is first released.
• BFG: Warfare is first released.
• BFBS: Genius Loci is first published.
• BFBS: The Crystal of Cantus is first released
• 03 - DW: The Impossible Planet is first broadcast. First appearance of the Ood.
• 05 - BBC Video releases the DVD Doctor Who: Series 2 Volume 2 featuring DW: Tooth and Claw, School Reunion and The Girl in the Fireplace.
• 06 - North American DVD release of DW: Genesis of the Daleks and DW: Revelation of the Daleks.
• 10 - DW: The Satan Pit is first broadcast.
• 15 - THN: The Albino's Dancer is first published.
• 17 - DW: Love & Monsters is first broadcast. First "Doctor-lite" episode; beginning this season, the filming schedule demands at least one episode feature only a brief appearance by the Doctor. The monster featured in this episode was designed by a contest entrant.
• 19 - DW: Inferno is released to DVD in the UK.
• 24 - DW: Fear Her is first broadcast.

July

• BFA: The Nowhere Place is first released.
• BFG: Appropriation and BFG: Mindbomb are first released.
• BFBS: The Tartarus Gate is first released.
• 01 - DW: Army of Ghosts is first broadcast. Noel Clarke temporarily returns to the series.
• Approximately a week prior to the broadcast of DW: Doomsday, the final Tardisode is released online and to mobile phones; the BBC decides not to continue them after this.
• 04 - Belated release in the United States of the Doctor Who: The Complete First Series DVD box set, which has been available in Canada since February.
• 05 - Newsbeat on BBC Radio 1 reports on the casting of Freema Agyeman as the new companion.
• 06 - DW: Inferno is released to DVD in Region 4.
  • The final episode of the first season of Totally Doctor Who airs in the UK.
• 08 - DW: Doomsday is first broadcast, concluding the second season of the revived series. Billie Piper, Noel Clarke and Camille Coduri leave the series with this episode. In a surprise cliffhanger (successfully kept secret from Internet spoilers and the press), popular comic actress Catherine Tate appears for the first time as Donna Noble (although the character's name is not revealed until months later). This episode is also historic for featuring the first on-screen interaction between Daleks and Cybermen. The broadcast is followed by the final episode of Doctor Who Confidential's second season. The events of Doomsday will form a major piece of backstory with regards to the soon-to-debut spin-off series, Torchwood.
  • Peter Hawkins, one of the original voices for the Daleks and the Cybermen, dies.
• 10 - BBC Video releases the DVD Doctor Who: Series 2 Volume 3 featuring DW: Rise of the Cybermen, The Age of Steel and The Idiot's Lantern.
• 18 - David Maloney, who directed many serials between DW: The Mind Robber and DW: The Talons of Weng-Chiang, dies from cancer.
  • Doctor Who fan sites, including Outpost Gallifrey, begin reporting that plans are afoot for third Doctor Who spinoff series to feature K9. The series is to be a non-BBC production; it takes several more years before the K9TV: K9 TV series finally gets off the ground, however.
• 19 - Stuntman Tim Condren, who portrayed a guerrilla in DW: Day of the Daleks, dies.
• 24 - DW: The Hand of Fear is released to DVD in the UK.

August

• BFA: Red is first released.
• BFG: Panacea is first released, concluding the Big Finish Productions spin-off series, Gallifrey.
• BFBS: Timeless Passages is first released.
• Doctor Who wins the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form, the first time the Doctor Who franchise has won an international award of this magnitude. The award is presented for the Steven Moffat two-parter DW: The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances. Two other episodes from the 2005 series are also nominated in this category: DW: Father's Day and DW: Dalek. The competition in the category also included "Pegasus", an episode of Battlestar Galactica; Jack-Jack Attack, an animated short spun-off from the film The Incredibles; Lucas Back in Anger, a short film; and, controversially, the opening segment of the previous year's Prix Victor Hugo Awards Ceremony. Moffat proceeds to be nominated for his Doctor Who episodes for the next three consecutive years, winning the award in 2007 and 2008 and coming a close second place in 2009.
• 7 - BBC Video releases the DVD Doctor Who: Series 2 Volume 4 featuring DW: The Impossible Planet, The Satan Pit and Love & Monsters.
• 17 - THN: The Sideways Door is first published.
• 21 - BBC News reveals details of a cancelled Doctor Who spinoff. Entitled Rose Tyler: Earth Defence, the special would have followed Rose Tyler from the events of DW: Doomsday. Russell T Davies, however, vetoed the idea.[1]
• 24 - The International Astronomical Union approves an official definition of the term "planet" which results in Pluto and several newly discovered Pluto-like worlds being disqualified from planetary status. The decision was immediately controversial, with attempts at overturning it expected in the future. The Doctor Who franchise, retroactively, has made its opinion known by establishing Pluto as a planet in DW: The Sun Makers.

September

• NSA: The Nightmare of Black Island, NSA: The Art of Destruction, and NSA: The Price of Paradise are first published.
• BFA: The Reaping is first released.
• BFA: The Gathering is first released.
• ST: Short Trips: The Centenarian is first published.
• BFD: Innocence, the first episode of the Big Finish Productions miniseries I, Davros, is first released.
• BFBS: The Worst Thing in the World is first released.
• BFBS: Collected Works is first published.
• GE Fabbri Ltd launches Battles in Time, a card game/magazine publication released fortnightly in the UK. International distribution does not begin until February 2009 when its content is included on the website for a later Fabbri publication, Doctor Who DVD Files.
• 04 - BBCR: Doctor Who at the BBC: The Plays is first released, featuring several full-cast audio dramas based upon the real-world impact of Doctor Who. Tom Baker and Sophie Aldred appear, and one play dramatises the life of Delia Derbyshire.
  • DW: The Mark of the Rani is released to DVD in the UK.
• 05 - North American DVD release of DW: The Web Planet and DW: Inferno.
• 07 - DW: The Hand of Fear is released to DVD in Region 4.
• 14 - Peter Ling, who wrote DW: The Mind Robber dies from a heart attack.
• 20 - The first issue of Doctor Who: Battles in Time magazine is published in the UK.
• 23 - Patrick Tull, one of the voices of the Krotons in DW: The Krotons, dies.
• 25 - BBC Video releases the DVD Doctor Who: Series 2 Volume 5 featuring DW: Fear Her, Army of Ghosts and Doomsday and completing the "vanilla" releases of Series 2.

October

• BFA: Memory Lane is first released.
• ST: Short Trips: Time Signature is first published.
• BFD: Purity is first released.
• BFBS: Summer of Love is first released.
• 09 - Series 2 of Doctor Who begins airing on the CBC in Canada with DW: New Earth. Due to a month-long hiatus at midseason, Series 2 doesn't conclude until February 2007.
  • DW: The Sontaran Experiment is released to DVD in the UK. This release is seen as an experiment in releasing a two-episode story on its own rather than as an add-on with a longer story.
• 20 - Billie Piper appears on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross. During her appearance she confesses to being a subscriber to Doctor Who Magazine, even after her departure from the show.
• 21 - Peter Barkworth, who played Leader Clent in DW: The Ice Warriors dies as a result of broncho-pneumonia following a stroke
• 22 - The Doctor Who spin-off series Torchwood debuts with the broadcast of TW: Everything Changes and TW: Day One (the episodes are edited together to form a single broadcast). Debuts of Eve Myles as Gwen Cooper, Gareth David-Lloyd as Ianto Jones, Burn Gorman as Owen Harper, Tom Price as Andy Davidson, Kai Owen as Rhys Williams, and Naoko Mori reprises her role as Toshiko Sato from DW: Aliens of London.
  • Torchwood Declassified, a behind-the-scenes series similar to Doctor Who Confidential, debuts.
  • Richard Mayes (Chief Baxter in DW: Fury from the Deep) dies.
• 26 - REF: Doctor Who: The Inside Story is first published.
• 29 - TW: Ghost Machine is first broadcast.

November

• BFA: No Man's Land is first released.
• BFD: Corruption is first released.
• BFBS: Old Friends is first published.
• BFBS: The Oracle of Delphi is first released.
• REF: Howe's Transcendental Toybox Update No. 2 is first published.
• 02 - DW: The Mark of the Rani is released to DVD in Region 4.
• 05 - TW: Cyberwoman is first broadcast.
  • Giant actor R.J. Bell, who appeared as The Garm in DW: Terminus, dies in England.
• 06 - DW: The Invasion is released to DVD in the UK. This release is notable for including two episodes currently lost from the BBC Archives, but restored using animation, an experiment that would not be repeated until the 2011 announcement that animation would again be utilised for the missing episodes of The Reign of Terror.
  • Also issued this date in the UK are two compilation box sets released exclusively through the British arm of Amazon. The Cybermen Collection consists of DW: Tomb of the Cybermen, The Invasion and Earthshock, while the larger Third Doctor Collection features DW: Spearhead from Space, Inferno, The Claws of Axos, The Three Doctors, Carnival of Monsters and The Green Death.
• 07 - North American DVD release of DW: The Hand of Fear, The Web Planet and DW: The Mark of the Rani.
  • In Region 1 (North America), BBC Video redistributes the episodes of Series 1 in the same 4-volume "vanilla" (no-extras) sets that the company had issued in the UK in mid-2005. The full-season box set remains in print.
• 10 - Chubby Oates, who had a small role as a policeman in DW: Planet of the Spiders, dies from a stroke after giving a performance at a showbusiness luncheon.
• 12 - TW: Small Worlds is first broadcast.
• 19 - TW: Countrycide is first broadcast. This episode is notable for being the very first televised Doctor Who franchise storyline that contains no actual science fiction or fantasy elements (beyond the presence of Jack Harkness).
• 20 - BBC Video releases the Doctor Who: The Complete Second Series DVD box set in the UK.
• 26 - TW: Greeks Bearing Gifts is first broadcast.
  • BBC Video begins issuing Torchwood episodes in "vanilla" (no-extras) DVD editions, similar in format to the Doctor Who releases over the past 2 years. Torchwood: Series 1 Part 1 is released today.

December

• BFA: Year of the Pig is first released.
• ST: Short Trips: Dalek Empire is first published.
• BFD: Guilt, the final episode of the I, Davros miniseries, is first released.
• BFBS: The Empire State is first released.
• FP: Erasing Sherlock is first published. Final Faction Paradox book published by Mad Norwegian Press; a New Zealand company, Random Static, takes over publication after this.
• 03 - TW: They Keep Killing Suzie is first broadcast.
• 04 - Canadian broadcast of DW: The Impossible Planet on the CBC, after which the network decides to place the show on hiatus for the next 5 weeks.
• 07 - DW: The Sontaran Experiment is released to DVD in Region 4.
• 10 - TW: Random Shoes is first broadcast.
• 11 - Elisabeth Sladen appears on Blue Peter to promote The Sarah Jane Adventures.
• 17 - TW: Out of Time is first broadcast.
• 22 - Julie Gardner appears on the Richard Evans radio call-in program on BBC Radio Wales. During the broadcast, David Tennant calls in as a joke, pretending to be a long-lost relative of Julie's who wants a role on Doctor Who.
• 24 - TW: Combat is first broadcast. The episode is written by Noel Clarke, who becomes the first Doctor Who franchise regular to write a televised episode.
  • A Christmas-themed Doctor Who short story, WC: Deep and Dreamless Sleep, is published on the TimesOnline website.
  • BBC Radio Wales broadcasts Back in Time - Jingle Hell promoting DW: The Runaway Bride with appearances by David Tennant, Catherine Tate and others.
• 25 - DW: The Runaway Bride, the second Doctor Who Christmas special is first broadcast, properly introducing Catherine Tate as Donna Noble, although Donna declines an invitation to become a companion at this point.
  • BBC Radio broadcasts Jo Whiley Meets Doctor Who, a behind the scenes look at the making of the 2007 series, which was combined with in-studio conversation with David Tennant.
• 27 - Matt Smith makes his TV acting debut in The Ruby in the Smoke, which airs in the US this date as part of Masterpiece Theatre.
• 28 - 25th anniversary of the broadcast of KAC: A Girl's Best Friend, the pilot for K9 and Company, only a few days before the debut of The Sarah Jane Adventures featuring the same character.
• 31 - BBC Radio 7 debuts a new series of audio dramas co-produced with Big Finish Productions starring Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor. Dubbed The New Eighth Doctor Adventures, these stories are, initially, aired on BBC7 first and later released by Big Finish on CD. The first story is episode 1 of BFA/BBCR: Blood of the Daleks, which introduces new companion Lucie Miller, played by Sheridan Smith. This means that, as of this date, there are actually two series of Doctor Who being broadcast by different arms of the BBC: the main series on BBC TV, and the Eighth Doctor series on BBC7.

Unknown dates

• Christopher Eccleston earns a recurring role in the NBC series Heroes. While Eccleston isn't the first to get roles on American TV after his tenure as the Doctor (he was preceded by Tom Baker, Peter Davison and Colin Baker in this regard), he is the first to gain a recurring role in an American series. His role as Claude, the Invisible Man, includes a reference to the Doctor in that he utters the catchphrase "Fantastic!". He also shares several scenes with Eric Roberts, who played the Master in the 1996 TV movie. Eccleston appears in five episodes broadcast in early 2007.