2002

2002 in

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the DWU • production history • vital statistics • releases

The most public event of 2002 was likely a political one. As the United Kingdom headed for a general election, Sherilyn Harper's far right New Britannia Party (NBP) threatened to hold the balance of power in a volatile political climate. Several assassination attempts were made against Harper, first by unknown gunmen and then by a terrorist organisation called United Front — which also firebombed some district NBP offices in the southeast. These assassination attempts were later discovered to have been staged by the NBP itself. As the crisis deepened, riots broke out in London just before polling day.

This descent into chaos was partly caused by a creature from a distant world, the Fearmonger, which fed off fear. Still, it was helped by Harper's party's attempts to create fear in the British populace. The Seventh Doctor intervened and destroyed the creature — and exposed Harper and her party — by using the skills of "shock jock" Mick Thompson. (AUDIO: The Fearmonger)

Events

• The Eighth Doctor, Fitz Kreiner and Samantha Jones arrived in San Francisco. Sam and the TARDIS fell into a dimensional anomaly. She was lost, reverting to her original timeline. This version of Sam sacrificed herself to save the TARDIS and San Francisco. (PROSE: Unnatural History)

Undated events

• The main Xhinn fleet was due to arrive. (PROSE: Amorality Tale)
• The 12-year-old child genius Luke Rattigan invented the Fountain Six search engine, which made him a millionaire almost overnight. (TV: The Sontaran Stratagem)
• AUDIO: The Ratings War, a single-episode story, was first released as an exclusive giveaway with Doctor Who Magazine. The DWM comic strip character Beep the Meep appeared. Also included on the CD was episode 1 of AUDIO: Invaders from Mars.
• AUDIO: Invaders from Mars was first released.
• AUDIO: Dalek Empire I: Project Infinity was first released, concluding the first Dalek Empire miniseries.
• BFBS: Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Glass Prison was first published.
• 7 January - PROSE: Mad Dogs and Englishmen was first published.
• 7 - PROSE: Relative Dementias was first published.
• 7 - TV: The Caves of Androzani was released to DVD in Region 4.
• 14 January - TV: The Tomb of the Cybermen was released to DVD in the UK. It was the first solo Second Doctor story and the first story from the 1960s black-and-white era to be released in the format.
• AUDIO: The Chimes of Midnight was first released.
• 4 February - PROSE: Hope was first published.
• 4 - PROSE: Drift was first published. This was the fiftieth release in the BBC Past Doctor Adventures line.
• 4 - BBC Audio released an audio recording of TV: The Faceless Ones.
• 14 February - After a six-month interval, the BBC website resumed the webcast series WC: Death Comes to Time with episode 2: "Planet of Blood, Part 1".
• 22 February - WC: Death Comes to Time Episode 3, "Planet of Blood, Part 2" was released.
• AUDIO: Seasons of Fear was first published.
• Actress Thomasine Heiner died.
• 1 March - WC: Death Comes to Time Episode 4, "Planet of Blood, Part 3" was released.
• 4 March - PROSE: Anachrophobia was first published.
• 4 - PROSE: Palace of the Red Sun was first published.
• 4 - Actress Claire Davenport died from renal failure.
• 4 - Actor Eric Flynn died.
• 6 March - Head of Serials Donald Wilson died.
• 8 March - WC: Death Comes to Time Episode 5, "The Child, Part 1" was released.
• 15 March - WC: Death Comes to Time Episode 6, "The Child, Part 2" was released.
• 16 March - During a broadcast of the NBC series Saturday Night Live, Sir Ian McKellen appeared, dressed as the Fourth Doctor, in a sketch about public television. The TARDIS dematerialisation sound effect was heard.
• 20 March - Several years after the initial filing, the matter of the London Metropolitan Police District's 1998 opposition to the BBC's 1996 application for trademark status on the police box design was heard in court.[1]
• 21 March - Actor Neville Barber died.
• 22 March - WC: Death Comes to Time Episode 7, "The Child, Part 3" was released.
• 28 March - PROSE: Citadel of Dreams was first published.
• 29 March - WC: Death Comes to Time Episode 8, "No Child of Earth, Part 1" was released.
• AUDIO: Embrace the Darkness was first released.
• 1 April - TV: The Tomb of the Cybermen was released to DVD in Region 4.
• 2 April - TV: The Caves of Androzani was released to DVD in Region 1.
• 5 April - WC: Death Comes to Time Episode 9, "No Child of Earth, Part 2" was released.
• 8 April - PROSE: Trading Futures was first published.
• 8 - PROSE: Amorality Tale was first published.
• 8 - TV: The Ark in Space was released to DVD in the UK.
• 12 April - WC: Death Comes to Time Episode 10, "No Child of Earth, Part 3" was released.
• 15 April - TV: Spearhead from Space was released to DVD in Region 4.
• 19 April - WC: Death Comes to Time Episode 11, "Death Comes to Time, Part 1" was released.
• 20 April - AUDIO: Death's Head was first released.
• 21 April - Fight arranger and stunt performer Terry Walsh died from cancer in London.
• 26 April - WC: Death Comes to Time Episode 12, "Death Comes to Time, Part 2" was released.
• AUDIO: The Time of the Daleks was first released.
• The Killing Stone was first released. This was a non-Big Finish Productions direct-to-audio story featuring Mike Yates of UNIT, written and read by Richard Franklin.
• 1 May - Producer John Nathan-Turner died from liver failure in Brighton.
• 3 May - WC: Death Comes to Time Episode 13, "Death Comes to Time, Part 3" was released. This concluded the thirteen-part webcast experiment. It was followed by three more over the next two years. The controversial ending of this episode sparked debate among some fans as to whether the 1996 telefilm or the 2005 revived series was actually canon.
• 3 - Visual effects designer Bernard Wilkie died.
• 6 May - PROSE: The Book of the Still was first published.
• 6 - PROSE: Warmonger was first published.
• 6 - BBC Audio released an audio recording of TV: The Smugglers.
• 13 May - TV: Remembrance of the Daleks was released to DVD in Region 4.
• 19 May - Actor Arnold Chazen died.
• 22 May - PROSE: Nightdreamers was first published.
• AUDIO: Neverland was first released.
• 3 June - PROSE The Crooked World was first published.
• 3 - PROSE: Ten Little Aliens was first published.
• 3 - TV: The Ark in Space was released to DVD in Region 4.
• 6 June - Actor Desmond Cullum-Jones died in Poole, Dorset.
• 26 June - Actress Dolores Gray died in Manhattan.
• AUDIO: Spare Parts was first released.
• AUDIO: Comeback was first released, launching the Big Finish Productions spin-off audio drama series Sarah Jane Smith. Elisabeth Sladen returned as Sarah Jane Smith (her first performance in the role since HOMEVID: Downtime).
• 1 July - PROSE: Combat Rock was first published.
• 3 July - PROSE: History 101 was first published.
• 9 July - Actor Gerald Campion died.
• 13 July - Incidental music composer Carey Blyton died.
• 15 July - TV: Carnival of Monsters was released on DVD in the UK.
• 24 July - Actor Maurice Denham died.
• AUDIO: ...ish was first released.
• AUDIO: The Tao Connection was first released.
• REF: Doctor Who: The Audio Scripts Volume II was first published by Big Finish Productions.
• 2 August - WC: Real Time episode 1, an original six-episode story featuring the Sixth Doctor, was released on the BBC website; the remainder was webcast over the next month. The partially animated story features Evelyn Smythe - the first appearance of a Big Finish Productions character in a BBC venue; the story also introduced a new, less-garish costume for the Sixth Doctor.
• 3 August - Actress Carmen Silvera died from lung cancer in Northwood, London.
• 5 August - PROSE: Camera Obscura was first published.
• 5 - PROSE: The Suns of Caresh was first published. It was the last monthly release in the BBC Past Doctor Adventures line, which reduced in frequency hereafter.
• 5 - BBC Audio released an audio recording of The Enemy of the World.
• 6 August - Actress Katherine Schofield died from cancer.
• 6 - TV: The Tomb of the Cybermen and The Ark in Space were released to DVD in Region 1.
• 9 August - WC: Real Time Episode 2 was released.
• 10 August - Film editor Colin Eggleston died.
• 14 August - After several years of legal wrangling, the Patent Office ruled in favour of the BBC in a trademark challenge brought on by the London Metropolitan Police over the use of the police box design for the TARDIS.[2]
• 16 August - WC: Real Time Episode 3 was released.
• 22 August - PROSE: Ghost Ship was first published. This was the first release in the Telos Publishing novellas line to also be made available in paperback.
• 23 August - WC: Real Time Episode 4 was released.
• 30 August - WC: Real Time Episode 5 was released.
• AUDIO: The Rapture was first released.
• AUDIO: Test of Nerve was first released.
• 2 September - PROSE: Time Zero was first published, introducing a new companion, Trix. It was the last monthly release of the BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures line, which reduced in frequency hereafter.
• 2 - TV: Carnival of Monsters was released to DVD in Region 4.
• 5 September - Big Finish Productions, as part of its Big Finish Talks Back line, released A Soldier in Time: The Nicholas Courtney Memoirs and The Eighth Doctor Writers.
• 6 September - WC: Real Time Episode 6 was released; it was the final episode.
• 15 September - Actor Dwight Whylie died in Barbados.
• AUDIO: The Church and the Crown was first released.
• AUDIO: Ghost Town was first released.
• Actor William Dysart died.
• 1 October - The Key to Time: The Complete Adventure, a DVD box set collecting the complete Season 16, was released in North America. This release marked the first time that BBC Video's North American release schedule significantly differed from the UK, as these stories were not released in Region 2/UK for another five years.
• 4 October BFBS: A Life of Surprises was first published.
• 7 October - PROSE: Heritage was first published.
• 10 October - REF: Dalek Survival Guide was first published.
• 21 October - TV: The Aztecs was released on DVD in the UK, the first solo story featuring the First Doctor to be released in the format.
• AUDIO: The Sandman was first released.
• AUDIO: Mirror, Signal, Manoeuvre was first released. It was the last episode of the Sarah Jane Smith audio series until 2006.
• 4 November - PROSE: The Infinity Race was first published.
• 4 - BBC Audio released an audio recording of TV: The Savages.
• 14 November - AUDIO: The Maltese Penguin was first released. This single-episode audio drama was initially available exclusively to people who subscribed to the Big Finish Productions audio dramas; it was later made available for purchase on its own.
• 18 November - TV: Resurrection of the Daleks was released to DVD in the UK.
• 23 November - PROSE: Foreign Devils was first published.
• 24 November - Actor Peter Whitaker died.
• 30 November - AUDIO: Hidden Persuaders was first released.
• Musician Frank J. Petruccelli, on his album Visual Music, included a track called "Cybermen on the March" inspired by Doctor Who.
• PROSE: Fear of the Dark was first published.
• AUDIO: Bang-Bang-A-Boom! was first released.
• PROSE: Short Trips: Zodiac was first published. This collection of short stories was the first Doctor Who literary fiction to be published by Big Finish Productions. It continued the Short Trips line abandoned by BBC Books.
• AUDIO: Doctor Who: The Audio Scripts was first published by Big Finish Productions.
• 2 December - TV: The Aztecs was released to DVD in Region 4.
• 2 - Actor John Baker died.
• 19 December - Actor Alan Johns died.