1995

Events

April

5 - After twenty-four years in a coma, former UNIT officer Francis Cleary died in his mother's arms. (MA: Who Killed Kennedy)

January

• 11 - Peter Pratt, who portrayed the Master in DW: The Deadly Assassin, died aged 71.
• 16 - Star Trek Voyager debuts on UPN. Along with Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Voyager would be the only other Star Trek television series currently in production at the time of the 1996 Doctor Who TV movie.
• 19 - NA: Warlock is first published.
  • MA: The Romance of Crime is first published.

February

• REF: The Doctors: 30 Years of Time Travel is first published.
• 16 - NA: Set Piece is first published. Ace leaves the Virgin New Adventures series a second time with this novel, this time for good, though she would make cameo appearances later.
  • DWN/MA: The Ghosts of N-Space is first published. This novelisation of the BBCR: Ghosts of N-Space audio drama is the first novelisation of any Doctor Who story to not be released under the now-retired Target Books banner. Instead, it is published as part of the Virgin Missing Adventures line, making it the first Third Doctor book of that line (although not an original story). It is the last novelisation of a BBC-produced Doctor Who story to be published by Virgin Publishing and the last until BBC Books published DWN: Doctor Who - The Novel of the Film in 1996. The radio play itself isn't broadcast by BBC Radio until close to a year later.
• 22 - Nicholas Pennell (David Winton in DW: Colony in Space) dies from cancer in Stratford, Ontario, Canada.

March

• 6 - Alan Haywood, who played Hector in DW: The Myth Makers, dies from a heart attack.
• 16 - NA: Infinite Requiem is first published.
  • MA: Time of Your Life is first published. This Sixth Doctor novel introduces new companion Grant Markham. The Sixth Doctor is the only Doctor to receive a new, literary only companion in the MA series.

April

• Jon Pertwee reprises the role of the Third Doctor for the final time, filming scenes for the unofficial fan film Devious.
• 20 - NA: Sanctuary is first published.
  • MA: Dancing the Code is first published. First original Third Doctor novel.

May

• 18 - NA: Human Nature is first published. This novel would later be adapted for television by its author (Paul Cornell) for the third series of the revived Doctor Who in 2007 (see DW: Human Nature/The Family of Blood). The renders Human Nature one of a handful of licensed novels whose canonicity is in question.
  • MA: The Menagerie is first published. First original Second Doctor novel.
  • REF: The Discontinuity Guide is first published.

June

• 15 - NA: Original Sin is first published, introducing new literary companions Chris Cwej and Roz Forrester. Cwej is the first gay companion to be depicted in an official piece of Doctor Who fiction.
  • MA: System Shock is first published.

July

• 20 - NA: Sky Pirates! is first published.
  • MA: The Sorcerer's Apprentice is first published.
  • VD: Decalog 2: Lost Property is first published.
  • Virgin Publishing releases a paperback edition of REF: Doctor Who: A Celebration by Peter Haining, 12 years after the hardcover was first issued.
• 27 - The 1996 edition of the Doctor Who Yearbook is published by Marvel Comics (unlike previous editions, the title bears no date). This is the fifth and final Yearbook to be published by Marvel. The Annual concept would be revived again a decade later.

August

• 7 - Dursley McLinden, who played Mike Smith in DW: Remembrance of the Daleks, dies.
• 10 - Donald Bisset, who played Colin McLaren in DW: The Highlanders, dies in London.
• 17 - NA: Zamper is first published.
  • MA: Invasion of the Cat-People is first published.
  • Virgin Publishing issues a new paperback edition of REF: Doctor Who: The Time-Travellers' Guide.
  • REF: Doctor Who: The Seventies is published in paperback.

September

• Alan Bromly (director of DW: The Time Warrior and DW: Nightmare of Eden) dies.
• 21 - NA: Toy Soldiers is first published.
  • MA: Managra is first published.

October

• 16 - REF: Doctor Who: Companions first published.
• 19 - NA: Head Games is first published, featuring the return of Mel.
  • MA: Millennial Rites is first published.

Late 1995

• Who fandom is taken by surprise with the announcement that the American network, Fox, is to co-produce with the BBC a made-for-television film reviving Doctor Who, as a possible "pilot" for a new series. The producers announce that Paul McGann has been cast as the new Doctor, but Sylvester McCoy will also appear as the Seventh Doctor, making the film a continuation of the original series rather than a remake or reboot. DW: Doctor Who is scheduled to air in the spring of 1996. Filming is to take place in Vancouver, Canada, marking not only the first time a Doctor Who story has been filmed in North America, but also the first time a story had been completely mounted outside the United Kingdom (previously foreign location filming had been done, with studio filming still in Britain).

November

• 16 - NA: The Also People is first published.
  • MA: The Empire of Glass is first published.
  • REF: Blacklight is first published.
• 26 - "Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming", an episode of the American animated series The Simpsons broadcast in the United States. This episode features an animated caricature of Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor and is the first of several on-screen references to Doctor Who the series would make over the next decade.

December

• 07 - DWN/NA: Shakedown is first published. Published under the Virgin New Adventures line, this book is a novelisation of the unofficial fan film RP: Shakedown: Return of the Sontarans and is the second of three post-Target Books novelisations to be published by Virgin Publishing. It is also the first time such a production has been adapted in this way. The middle of the novel adapts the film, with a framing story involving the Seventh Doctor and companions added.
  • MA: Lords of the Storm is first published.
  • REF: Doctor Who - The Handbook: The Fifth Doctor is first published.
• 11 - The Outpost Gallifrey website and Doctor Who Forum are launched by Shaun Lyon. With modifications and name changes along the way, they run until 2009.
• 16 - Tony Then (Lee in DW: The Talons of Weng-Chiang) dies in Singapore.
• 27 - Laurence Belcher, who played the young Kazran Sardick in DW: A Christmas Carol, was born.

Unknown

• Panini Comics takes over the publishing rights to Doctor Who Magazine from Marvel Comics UK.
• A "Special Edition" of DW: The Five Doctors is released by BBC Video, featuring updated special effects, reordered scenes, new musical scoring, and other new footage. The Special Edition is heavily criticised by some fans, as well as by John Nathan-Turner in Doctor Who Magazine.
• The novel The Bloody Red Baron by Kim Newman is first published. Part of the Anno Dracula series, which included as a gimmick the cameo appearances of many varied characters from other novels as well as TV shows and movies. Making an appearance in this book: Lady Jennifer Buckingham from DW: The War Games.

Behind the Scenes

November

• Pixar's Toy Story is released. (SJA: The Man Who Never Was)