1989

History of the Doctor Who Universe

July

• 24 - 26 - The Doctor meets Melanie Bush for the first time. (PDA: Business Unusual)

Unknown dates

• The Doctor and Ace return to Perivale. (DW: Survival)

• Bobby Prescott and a number of other people try and fail to stop a mob from destroying a library during riots in New York. (NA: Cat's Cradle: Warhead)

• The Doctor suggests that Rose and he go to Marbella in this year to avoid the Daleks at the Battle of the Game Station. (DW: The Parting of the Ways)

• Amy Pond and Rory Williams are born. (DW: The Beast Below, The Vampires of Venice)

Real World

January

• 04 - DW: The Greatest Show in the Galaxy Episode 4 is first broadcast, concluding the anniversary Season 25.
• 19 - DWN: Doctor Who - Delta and the Bannermen is first published.
  • REF: The Doctor Who File is published in paperback.
• 28 - Lara Goodison is born.

February

• 16 - DWN: Doctor Who - The War Machines is first published.
• 18 - John Bailey, who played the Commander in DW: The Sensorites, Edward Waterfield in DW: The Evil of the Daleks, and Sezom in DW: The Horns of Nimon, dies in London.

March

• 16 - DWN: Doctor Who - Dragonfire is first published.
  • Two Doctor Who Classics reprint volumes published: DWN: The Dæmons/The Time Monster and DWN: The Mind of Evil/The Claws of Axos.

April

• REF: Doctor Who: The Time-Travellers' Guide is published in paperback.
• 12 - Gerald Flood, who portrayed King John in DW: The King's Demons and provided the voice of Kamelion, dies from a heart attack.
• 20 - DWN: Doctor Who - Attack of the Cybermen is first published.
• 25 - George Coulouris, who played Arbitan in DW: The Keys of Marinus, dies in London from a heart attack after a long battle with Parkinson's Disease.

May

• 18 - TME: Doctor Who - The Nightmare Fair is first published. This is the first of a new spin-off line by Target Books dubbed "The Missing Episodes". These are novels based upon the cancelled Season 23, which was delayed a year due to the BBC-ordered hiatus and which ultimately was replaced by what became DW: The Trial of a Time Lord. Although based upon a teleplay, the fact it was never produced makes this, in effect, the first original-to-print Doctor Who novel in which the Doctor himself is the lead character.
  • Target Books publishes two final Doctor Who Classics reprint volumes before abandoning the venture: DWN: The Face of Evil/The Sunmakers and DWN: The Seeds of Doom/The Deadly Assassin.
• 26 - Doctor Who: Voyager is published by Marvel Comics. This is a graphic novel collecting, in colourized form, the 1985 Doctor Who Magazine comic arc, Voyager and is likely the first single-story Doctor Who graphic novel (albeit not featuring original material).

June

• 15 - DWN: Doctor Who - Mindwarp is first published. This is the fourth and final novelisation based upon segments of DW: The Trial of a Time Lord. It is was also the final Sixth Doctor story to be novelised; plans for a novelisation of DW: Revelation of the Daleks were made, but the book was never published and that story remains officially unnovelised.

July

• 20 - DWN: Doctor Who - The Chase is first published. Written by John Peel, The Chase was the first of a series of Dalek story novelisations by Peel that were commissioned after Target Books reached an agreement with Terry Nation that would allow his remaining Dalek stories to be adapted as novels. (Prior to this, DW: The Chase, and other Nation-penned Dalek episodes, were expected to remain in limbo, novelisation-wise). Around the time of this book's release, it's announced that a similar agreement had been reached with Eric Saward regarding his two Daleks serials, but ultimately these two stories were never adapted.

August

• 03 - The final studio recording session for the 1963-89 series of Doctor Who is undertaken as work is completed on DW: Ghost Light. Discounting a voiceover session conducted in November, this marks the end of BBC production on the series until work on the revival commences in 2004.
• 04 - Maurice Colbourne dies.
• 17 - TME: Doctor Who - The Ultimate Evil is first published. Second release in the "Missing Episodes" line.
• 29 - The second volume of Doctor Who: The Scripts is published: DW: The Tomb of the Cybermen

September

• 06 - DW: Battlefield Episode 1 is first broadcast, launching Season 26, what would ultimately be the final season of the 1963-89 series. Nicholas Courtney returns for the first time since DW: The Five Doctors, and UNIT takes an active role in a story for the first time since DW: The Android Invasion. Jean Marsh, who played companion Sara Kingdom, returns in a different role.
• 13 - DW: Battlefield Episode 2 is first broadcast.
• 16 - Sylvester McCoy appears as The Doctor in a skit on The Noel Edmunds Saturday Roadshow. David Banks also appears as the Cyberleader in what would be his final television appearance to date as a Cyberman.
• 20 - DW: Battlefield Episode 3 is first broadcast. First appearance of Bessie since DW: The Five Doctors (and since DW: Robot in a regular episode).
• 21 - DWN: Doctor Who - Mission to the Unknown is first published. Part one of a two-volume adaptation of DW: The Daleks' Master Plan, the only two-part novelisation ever issued by Target.
• 27 - DW: Battlefield Episode 4 is first broadcast. Final appearance of Nicholas Courtney in a Doctor Who story to date, though he would later appear in the independent spin-off Downtime, as well as SJA: Enemy of the Bane. Final appearance of UNIT until DW: Aliens of London. Final appearance of Bessie to date.

October

• The Ultimate Interview: Colin Baker Talks with David Banks is first released on cassette by Silver Fist Productions.
• 04 - DW: Ghost Light Episode 1 is first broadcast.
• 11 - DW: Ghost Light Episode 2 is first broadcast.
• 17 - 10th anniversary of Doctor Who Magazine.
• 18 - DW: Ghost Light Episode 3 is first broadcast.
• 19 - DWN: Doctor Who - The Mutation of Time is first published, concluding the adaptation of DW: The Daleks' Master Plan.
• 25 - DW: The Curse of Fenric Episode 1 is first broadcast.

November

• 01 - DW: The Curse of Fenric Episode 2 is first broadcast.
• 08 - DW: The Curse of Fenric Episode 3 is first broadcast.
• 15 - DW: The Curse of Fenric Episode 4 is first broadcast.
• 16 - DWN: Doctor Who - Silver Nemesis is first published.
• 22 - DW: Survival Episode 1 is first broadcast.
• 23 - Sylvester McCoy records the monologue that ends episode 3 of DW: ''Survival and, ultimately, the original 1963-89 Doctor Who series. This is a late addition to the serial by John Nathan-Turner, who expects it to be the final episode. Ironically this is also the anniversary of the debut of Doctor Who in 1963. It's also one of the few times since the 1960s that a major element of a televised serial is produced while the serial in question has already begun airing.
• 29 - DW: Survival Episode 2 is first broadcast.
• The Doctor Who: The Scripts release of DW: The Talons of Weng-Chiang is first published.

December

• 06 - DW: Survival Episode 3 is first broadcast. The 26th season finale ultimately proves to be the final episode of the original series, and the last weekly episode to be broadcast until 2005. Final use of the Keff McCulloch theme music arrangement, while the current series logo would continue to be used for merchandise and books until 1996 and it and a version of the 1987 opening credits sequence would be used again in the 1993 special DW: Dimensions in Time. Final 25-minute episode produced (although The Sarah Jane Adventures revives the format in 2007. Although producer John Nathan Turner later says he was aware the series was going off the air, and Sophie Aldred, in the documentary Thirty Years in the TARDIS says she was told it was cancelled, the BBC does not make any cancellation announcement, and it is widely assumed by fans, and hoped, that a 27th season would air in 1990. Final regular-series appearance of Sophie Aldred and Anthony Ainley (though both would reprise their characters in later productions not directly considered part of continuity.
• 12 - Howard Lang, who portrayed Horg in DW: An Unearthly Child, dies.
• 21 - DW: Doctor Who - The Greatest Show in the Galaxy is first published. The title of this release ends up being ironic, as it becomes the first Target Books novelisation to be published after the de facto end of the original 1963-89 series.
  • REF: The Doctor Who Programme Guide, first published in two volumes in 1981, is reissued in a single-volume, expanded and revised edition. Author Jean-Marc Lofficier will follow this release with several more reference volumes over the next decade.
• The Doctor Who: The Scripts release of DW: The Daleks is first published. The next release in this series would not occur until 1992.

Unknown dates

• Pioneer Books publishes the second edition of The Doctor and the Enterprise by Jean Airey. An unauthorized crossover between Doctor Who, Star Trek and The Wizard of Oz, the book had previously been published in a small-press edition in 1982; this new version edits out most overt references to Star Trek character names.
• First edition of the four-track EP, Doctor Who: Variations on a Theme released in 12-inch vinyl, standard CD and as an unusual square-shaped CD. This release features unique rearrangements of the Doctor Who theme by Mark Ayres, Dominic Glynn and Keff McCulloch that had been created for various Doctor Who Appreciation Society conventions in the 1980s. One of these, the "Latin Version", would later be adopted by BBC Video as the theme for its "Years" series of video retrospectives.