2008

2008 in

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the DWU • production history • vital statistics • releases

Events

• Owen Harper went undercover to prevent the Weevils like Janet from being abducted by humans to fight in a Weevil Fight Club. Torchwood Three discovered the club's location and shut it down. (TV: Combat)

Early February

• Jack Harkness and Toshiko Sato were transported back in time to The Ritz in 1941. Owen used the Rift Manipulator to bring them back, opening the Rift. By this point, Harold Saxon's campaign for election was underway as "Vote Saxon" signs were visible in Cardiff. (TV: Captain Jack Harkness)
• As the Cardiff rift opened, the Rift quickly pulled beings through it at a steadier pace. Visions appeared to the Torchwood Three team and Rhys Williams was murdered. As a result, the Rift was closed, undoing the damage, but Abaddon was released, wiping out hundreds of people. Jack killed Abaddon with an overflow of life energy, which left Jack dead for days. (TV: End of Days) Shortly after being restored to life, Jack heard the sound of the Tenth Doctor's TARDIS and re-joined the Doctor as the TARDIS hurtled toward the year 100,000,000,000,000. (TV: End of Days, Utopia)
• Meanwhile, Jack was declared missing by his Torchwood teammates, and Gwen Cooper took charge of the group. Subsequently, Ianto Jones began taking a more active role in field assignments. (TV: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang)
• The Eleventh Doctor met Amy Pond in Leadworth after twelve years of waiting. A Multi-form called Prisoner Zero, who had escaped through the crack in Amy's wall, attacked. The Atraxi arrived, threatening the destruction of Earth if Prisoner Zero did not surrender. The Doctor created a computer virus for the Atraxi to track back to its source in Leadworth (spread by Jeff). The Doctor also transmitted Prisoner Zero's disguises to the Atraxi so it couldn't hide in the bodies it had been disguised as. It then took the form of Amy; the Doctor made Amy think of Prisoner Zero's original form. Now in plain sight, Prisoner Zero was captured by the Atraxi, who left. The Doctor took a test drive of his refurbished TARDIS, only returning two years later. (TV: The Eleventh Hour)

Spring or Summer

• Maria and Alan Jackson moved into 36 Bannerman Road, Ealing, the house opposite Sarah Jane Smith's. The Bane used a 'natural ingredient' hidden in their Bubble Shock! drink to enslave humanity. Sarah Jane and Maria went to the Bubble Shock! factory and stole their human archetype. The archetype used a communication device from a Star Poet to destroy the Bane Mother and freed the mind-controlled people. One Bane, Mrs Wormwood, escaped from the exploding factory. Sarah Jane adopted the Archetype and named him Luke. (TV: Invasion of the Bane)
• The Slitheen family killed overweight teachers and created technology labs for their energy draining machine to cool the Sun, intending to sell the destroyed Earth. In the testing phases, the Earth briefly experienced a worldwide power outage. Luke unwittingly gave the code that would make the machine work properly to the Slitheen. Clyde Langer joined Luke, Maria and Sarah Jane in investigating the schools, fighting the Slitheen off with vinegar. When tried out on the Sun, the Slitheen's fixed machine overloaded and was destroyed in the confusion during its reset, killing two Slitheen while the others teleported to their ship. Sarah Jane used her supercomputer Mr Smith to orchestrate a cover-up that suggested the darkening of the sun and the power outage were caused by a sudden, but temporary, shift in Earth's magnetic field. (TV: Revenge of the Slitheen)
• Royal Hope Hospital was teleported to the Moon with the Tenth Doctor and Martha Jones inside, for the Judoon to search for a murderer. Identified as non-human, the Doctor escaped the Judoon after he was mistaken for the murderer. The Doctor's blood was later sucked by Florence Finnegan (the murderer). Martha revived him. The Judoon positively identified and executed Finnegan. The Doctor stopped a supercharged MRI machine from wiping out Earth. The hospital was returned and Martha joined the Doctor in the TARDIS. Mr. Saxon continued his campaign for British Prime Minister. He was given high support after the hospital's disappearance, then reappearance. (TV: Smith and Jones; The Sound of Drums, et al, establishes this occurs only a few days before the election.)
• Richard Lazarus unveiled an age-reversing machine which initially de-aged him, then transformed him into a possible evolutionary branch of humanity, latent in his DNA, becoming a monster in doing so. The Tenth Doctor killed Lazarus. (TV: The Lazarus Experiment)
• Election Day began and Harold Saxon was voted British Prime Minister. A mysterious woman surveilled Francine Jones' phone, as she knew Francine's daughter Martha was in contact with Saxon's enemy, the Doctor. (TV: 42 / The Sound of Drums)
  • At or around this date, Saxon sent Torchwood Three on a "wild goose chase" mission away from Great Britain (TV: The Sound of Drums) to the Himalayas where they were told (apparently by 'the highest authority') that another Rift had been discovered halfway up K2. When they got there, however, they found it to be a trap. They were almost killed in an avalanche while distracted by a 'Jack-in-a-box' (WEB: torchwood.org.uk)
• The Tenth Doctor, Jack and Martha returned from 100,000,000,000,000 and went on the run as fugitives declared by Harold Saxon, in fact the Master. The Master announced on television that humanity was to make first contact with the Toclafane. President Winters stepped in, allowing UNIT to take control. The Doctor, Martha and Jack snuck aboard the Valiant; the Toclafane murdered President Winters. The Master, seeing through the Doctor and his companions' perception filters, heavily aged the Doctor and captured him and Jack. (TV: The Sound of Drums)
• The Year That Never Was began; the Master built a new "Time Lord Empire" and Martha Jones travelled the world executing the Doctor's plan. Ultimately, the year was negated and the clock reset to just after the Toclafane killed Winters. Lucy Saxon killed the Master. Martha Jones and Jack returned home and left the Doctor on his own. (TV: Last of the Time Lords) Lucy was subsequently imprisoned; unknown to her, a group of Saxon's followers retrieved his signet ring from his funeral pyre and began preparations for restoring the Master to life the following year. (TV: The End of Time, Part One)
• Captain Jack returned to Torchwood Three and met John Hart, who was sent on a wild goose chase to find an Arcadian diamond. In finding the apparent keys to its location, he was implanted with a bomb attached to his DNA. The Torchwood Three team disposed of the bomb and sent John through the Rift. John told Jack he had found Gray. (TV: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang)
• 15 May - Geoff Noble, father of Tenth Doctor companion Donna Noble, died. (PROSE: Beautiful Chaos)
• The Tenth Doctor may have participated in preventing a Graske causing mischief at a 2008 BBC Proms concert in London. (TV: Music of the Spheres)
• 31 July - : NASA confirmed the existence of liquid water on Mars via its Phoenix probe. (TV: The Waters of Mars trailer)

June-August

• Jonah Bevan was taken by the Cardiff Rift, ending up on a burning planet. A much older Jonah was found on the island of Flat Holm seven months later. (TV: Adrift)
• The alien Samarands invaded Greece. (COMIC: Hotel Historia)
• 31 October - The Tenth Doctor and Martha Jones found an unusually creepy Halloween celebration in Blackwood Falls. (PROSE: Forever Autumn)

Spring/Summer - December

• Sarah Jane Smith found a Gorgon. Maria Jackson used a mirror to turn it into stone, and the gateway to the race's galaxy was sealed. (TV: Eye of the Gorgon)
• The Torchwood Three team discovered Cell 114 sleeper agents in Cardiff and stopped them from setting off nuclear warheads hidden under Cardiff. (TV: Sleeper)
• Annual de-frosting of Tommy Brockless, a young soldier first cryogenically frozen in 1918, took place. This turned out to be the final defrosting. Tommy returned back in time to use a 'Rift key' to stop the two timelines in this year and 2008 from colliding with one another. (TV: To the Last Man)
• Teenagers went missing after playing Combat 3000. Luke Smith and Clyde Langer were among them. Sarah Jane Smith discovered they were being teleported by an alien named Kudlak who took them to a war ship to fight in an alien war. After Luke discovered the war had ended ten years earlier, Kudlak returned the children and searched for the children he had sent to distant worlds. (TV: Warriors of Kudlak)
• Rhys Williams discovered the truth about Gwen Cooper's job when he was caught up in Torchwood Three's investigation of a Cash Cow. Owen euthanised the animal. (TV: Meat)
• A being which used the name "Adam Smith" escaped from the Void and lived parasitically by altering and inserting himself into others' memories. Adam was drawn to the unique memories of Torchwood Three and made them believe he was a long-time member of their team and Toshiko Sato's lover. Ianto Jones and Captain Jack Harkness exposed Adam after Ianto found no reference to him in his written diaries, and the team banished him to the Void by retconning themselves to forget the whole incident. (TV: Adam)
• Sarah Jane Smith was given a puzzle box by a Verron soothsayer, with instructions to give it to someone she trusted. The next week she gave it to Maria Jackson. The Trickster retroactively wiped Sarah Jane out of existence, but reality was restored with help from Maria Jackson, Alan Jackson and Andrea Yates, the woman who had caused all this. Mr. Smith pushed a meteorite headed for Earth out of the way. (TV: Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?)
• A few days after the incident with the Trickster and five months after the thwarted Bane invasion, Mr. Smith and the Slitheen tried to use Luke Smith's telekinetic abilities via a MITRE headset to collide the Moon with Earth, freeing his Xylok brothers. He was defeated by Sarah Jane, who infected him with the Armaggedon virus made by Alan Jackson. Mr. Smith was rebooted with a new purpose. (TV: The Lost Boy)
• Dr. Martha Jones arrived in Cardiff on the trail of the the Pharm, who had been experimenting on humans with a drug called Reset. Martha was temporarily assigned to Torchwood Three. The Pharm was shut down, but Dr. Owen Harper was shot and killed by Aaron Copley. (TV: Reset)
• Before Martha Jones could conduct an autopsy on Owen Harper, he was revived by Jack Harkness using the second resurrection gauntlet. For reasons unknown, Harper continued to live past the standard two and a half minute revival time. He was briefly possessed by Duroc, the embodiment of Death. Deaths occurred at a Cardiff hospital as a result of Duroc's manifestation. Owen defeated Duroc, not having any life energy for Duroc to steal. (TV: Dead Man Walking)
• A company called Khrysalis set up operations in Stockbridge, purportedly planning to build a leisure park in the quiet town. Maxwell Edison created the Stockbridge Preservation Society to protest this. (COMIC: The Stockbridge Child)
• 24 December-25 December - The Tenth Doctor, after repairing a hole in space-time with the help of his fifth incarnation, (TV: Time Crash) found himself aboard a space-faring replica of the Titanic in orbit around Earth. Some of the passengers (including the waitress Astrid Peth) briefly landed in the middle of London. As the two previous Christmases had been disrupted by the arrival of alien spacecraft over London, (TV: The Christmas Invasion and TV: The Runaway Bride) most residents of the city had left for the season. Those choosing to remain in the city included Queen Elizabeth II and Wilfred Mott, grandfather of Donna Noble. A series of meteorites were deliberately allowed to collide with the deshielded Titanic, causing the ship and its nuclear storm drive to hurtle towards Earth. Most of the survivors of this collision were killed by the Heavenly Host. After the Doctor used the Host's security protocol to find the man in charge, Max Capricorn, Astrid followed, killing Capicorn but dying with him. The Doctor piloted the Titanic to safety, just missing Buckingham Palace. The only survivors were Midshipman Alonso Frame, Rickston Slade, the Doctor and Mr Copper. Astrid was partially revived as starlight. Mr Copper, having money for the first time in his life, retired to Earth. (TV: Voyage of the Damned) Donna Noble dismissed the near-miss by the Titanic as a hoax. (TV: Partners in Crime)

Unknown Dates

• Following her encounter with the Tenth Doctor and the Empress of the Racnoss, Donna Noble attempted to improve her life by travelling to Egypt. Afterwards, experiencing regret at turning down the Doctor's invitation to travel with him, Donna began investigating unusual events in hopes of encountering the Doctor doing the same. Her investigations led to her learning about the disappearance of bees and Adipose Industries, which eventually led to her reuniting with the Doctor in 2009. (TV: Partners in Crime)
• During an unchronicled adventure in London with Martha Jones, the Doctor met Sally Sparrow, who gave him information he would need to escape when the Weeping Angels sent him back to 1969. After this, Sally began to open up to Larry Nightingale. (TV: Blink)
• Ed Gold, later a member of the crew of Bowie Base One, was born in Australia. (TV: The Waters of Mars)
• The Seventh Doctor destroyed the Forge's alpha facility in Dartmoor. (AUDIO: Project: Lazarus)
• The Eighth Doctor and Lucie Miller visited London. (AUDIO: Sisters of the Flame)

Negated Timelines

Donna's World

• Spring or Summer - The Judoon defeated Florence Finnegan; all but one of the people inside Royal Hope Hospital, which was taken to the Moon, died of asphyxiation, including Sarah Jane Smith and Martha Jones. Luke Smith and Maria Jackson were also reported missing. (TV: Turn Left)
• 25 December - While Donna Noble, her mother and her grandfather holidayed in the English countryside, the alien spaceship Titanic crashed into London, destroying the city and contaminating most of southern England with radioactivity. (TV: Turn Left)

Andrea Yates' World

• Spring/Summer-December - Maria Jackson, remembering Sarah Jane thanks to holding the Verron soothsayer's puzzle box, discovered she had died in 1964, taking the place of Andrea Yates, and that Mr Smith was never installed in 13 Bannerman Road's attic, Andrea having made a deal with the Trickster. As a result, the Earth was susceptible to the meteorite strike, fuelling chaos the Trickster could feed on. Maria was erased by Krislok. Alan, who remembered Maria when no-one else did thanks to holding the puzzle box, confronted Andrea Yates about Sarah Jane. Andrea revoked her deal with the Trickster, returning the timeline to normal. (TV: Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?)
• The announced 2008 production hiatus sparked speculation over whether David Tennant would continue in Doctor Who. Published reports ranged from suggestions Tennant would leave at the end of Series 4 to ones he had negotiated a deal with the BBC to keep him on the series through Series 5 in 2010 or longer. This speculation ended in October with Tennant's announcement about his future on the series.
• Silva Screen Records reissued Doctor Who - Original Television Soundtrack, a CD featuring music from the 2005 and 2006 series. Due to licensing changes, the reissue featured a new cover photograph of David Tennant by himself, with Billie Piper's image removed.
• AUDIO: The Bride of Peladon was first released.
• AUDIO: The Catalyst was first released.
• AUDIO: Dalek Empire IV: The Fearless: Part 4 was first released, concluding Big Finish Productions' fourth Dalek Empire mini-series.
• AUDIO: The Wake was first released.
• Series 1 of The Sarah Jane Adventures debuted in Canada on the BBC Kids cable network.
• 8 January - This was the hundredth birthday of William Hartnell.
• 9 January - Cast readthrough for TV: Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead took place.
• 11 January - Russell T Davies began writing the script for TV: Journey's End.
• 12 January - Steven Moffat informed Russell T Davies he had begun writing the first episode of Series 5 (The Writer's Tale).
• 14 January - The DVD set Beneath the Surface was released in the UK, featuring TV: Doctor Who and the Silurians, The Sea Devils and Warriors of the Deep.
• 16 January - TV: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang was first broadcast, launching the second series of Torchwood.
• 16 - Torchwood Declassified also began its second season.
• 17 January - With issue 47, Doctor Who Adventures switched from a fortnightly magazine to a weekly.
• 19 January - BBC Radio Wales broadcasted the documentary Torchwood: All Access, released later in the year on the CD of AUDIO: Lost Souls.
• 20 January - Actor Kevin Stoney died.
• 22 January - Russell T Davies completed the initial draft of TV: Journey's End.
• 22 - The complete First Series of Torchwood was released in a DVD box set in North America.
• 23 January - TV: Sleeper was first broadcast.
• 24 January - The first issue of Torchwood Magazine was published. According to an article on the making of the crossover episode TV: The Stolen Earth/Journey's End, published in issue 7, the existence of the magazine caught cast members by surprise.
• 24 - John Barrowman published his autobiography, Anything Goes.
• 30 January - TV: To the Last Man was first broadcast.
• PROSE: Revenge of the Judoon, the third novella in the BBC Books Quick Reads series, was first published.
• AUDIO: The Condemned was first released.
• IDW, an American comic book company, launched a new original Doctor Who monthly comic book series. Written and edited by Gary Russell, the six-issue series featured the Tenth Doctor and Martha Jones. The storyline was untitled in the comic book, but later given the title COMIC: Agent Provocateur when IDW published a graphic novel edition of the storyline in the summer of 2008.
• 4 February - AUDIO: Everyone Says Hello and AUDIO: Hidden were first released. These were the first made-for-audio adventures by BBC Audio based upon Torchwood.
• 4 - Audio adaptations of PROSE: Doctor Who and the Brain of Morbius and PROSE: Doctor Who and the Space War were first released.
• 6 February - TV: Meat was first broadcast.
• 6 - TV: Destiny of the Daleks and the box set The Complete Davros Collection were released to DVD in Region 4.
• 11 February - TV: The Time Meddler was released to DVD in the UK.
• 13 February - TV: Adam and TV: Reset were both first broadcast. In Reset, Freema Agyeman temporarily joined the series as Martha Jones.
• 15 February Cast readthrough for TV: The Stolen Earth/Journey's End took place.
• 20 February - TV: Dead Man Walking was first broadcast.
• 27 February - TV: A Day in the Death was first broadcast.
• AUDIO: The Dark Husband was first released.
• PROSE: Short Trips: Defining Patterns was first published.
• The BBC announced it was investigating technology to return colour to Third Doctor episodes only available in black and white.
• 3 March - A new DVD edition of TV: The Five Doctors was released in the UK. This version included the remastered version previously issued on VHS and DVD and the first DVD release of the original 1983 version of the story. A commentary by David Tennant was included as an Easter Egg in the set - the first time a Doctor other than the one featured in the story provided commentary.
• 4 March - Russell T Davies began writing the script for TV: The Next Doctor, the fourth Christmas special.
• 4 - The North American DVD release of TV: Destiny of the Daleks and Planet of Evil took place.
• 5 March - TV: Something Borrowed was first broadcast.
• 5 - The DVD set Beneath the Surface was released in Region 4, featuring TV: Doctor Who and the Silurians, The Sea Devils and Warriors of the Deep.
• 6 March - PROSE: The Twilight Streets, PROSE: Trace Memory and PROSE: Something in the Water were first published.
• 10 March - 11 March - AUDIO: The Nightmare Fair was recorded.
• 10 March - TV: Voyage of the Damned was released to DVD in the UK. Also included in the set was the mini-episode TV: Time Crash.
• 12 March - TV: From Out of the Rain was first broadcast.
• 17 March - Russell T Davies completed his script for TV: The Next Doctor. (REF: Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale - The Final Chapter)
• 19 March - TV: Adrift was first broadcast.
• 21 March - TV: Fragments was first broadcast.
• 23 March - Responding to criticism from his correspondent Benjamin Cook, Russell T Davies agreed to change the ending of TV: Journey's End, removing a planned cliffhanger to lead into TV: The Next Doctor.
• 26 March - Final correspondence between Russell T Davies and Benjamin Cook in terms of material included in the first edition of the book The Writer's Tale took place, but correspondence incorporated into the second edition began immediately.
• 29 March - Production wrapped on TV: Journey's End, ending production of the thirteen episodes of Series 4 proper, though production continued on the Christmas special, TV: The Next Doctor.
• 30 March - The first reviews of TV: Partners in Crime appeared in UK newspapers.

Spring

• For the third year in a row, episodes of Doctor Who were nominated in the Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form category at the Hugo Awards. The 2008 "Doctor Who universe" episode nominees were TV: Blink by Steven Moffat (his third consecutive Hugo nomination), TV: Human Nature/The Family of Blood two-parter by Paul Cornell and the Torchwood episode TV: Captain Jack Harkness by Catherine Tregenna.
• In the weeks preceding the debut of Doctor Who Series 4, the BBC released a trailer to cinemas in Great Britain - a rarity for a television series. It included scenes from most episodes from the first half of the season (except TV: The Doctor's Daughter), and a clip from TV: Turn Left from near the end of the season. The incorporation of a clip of Billie Piper as Rose Tyler from Turn Left made official the character's return in the new season.
• After nearly a decade of being available sporadically through comic shops, distribution of Doctor Who Magazine in Canada was increased considerably, with the magazine now widely available in bookstores and magazine specialty shops, although issues were distributed in Canada two or three months after their UK publication dates.
• AUDIO: The Haunting of Thomas Brewster was first released.
• Early April - Review copies of the Fourth Season premiere, TV: Partners in Crime, were circulated to media. Unknown to the media, they received an edited version omitting the surprise cameo appearance by Billie Piper (a ruse acknowledged by Russell T Davies in later interviews and Doctor Who Magazine).
• 1 April - TV: Timelash and The Time Warrior were released to DVD in Region 1.
• 2 April - Cast readthrough for TV: The Next Doctor.
• 2 - TV: The Time Meddler was released to DVD in Region 4.
• 3 April - Writer Johnny Byrne died.
• 4 April - TV: Exit Wounds was first broadcast, ending Torchwood's second series. Burn Gorman and Naoko Mori left the series with this episode.
• 4 - Torchwood Declassified also ended its second season.
• 5 April - TV: Partners in Crime was first broadcast, launching the fourth season of the revived series. Catherine Tate rejoined the series full-time as companion Donna Noble. Billie Piper made her first newly-filmed appearance in the series since TV: Doomsday in 2006; despite media leaks regarding her filming new episodes, her cameo in this particular episode was a secret until initial broadcast.
• 5 - After the episode was broadcast, the first Series 4 episode of Doctor Who Confidential aired.
• 7 April - Audio adaptations of PROSE: Doctor Who and the Creature from the Pit and PROSE: Doctor Who - The Myth Makers were first released.
• 7 - Filming began on TV: The Next Doctor, the 2008 Christmas special.
• 9 April - Cast readthrough for TV: The Day of the Clown and TV: Secrets of the Stars took place.
• 9 - The BBC announced that Doctor Who and composer Murray Gold would be spotlighted in Doctor Who at the Proms, a special concert during the upcoming Proms classical music performance series. At a press event, violinist Nigel Kennedy, there to promote his own Proms appearance, performed his own arrangement of the Doctor Who theme.
• 12 April - TV: The Fires of Pompeii was first broadcast. Included in the cast was future companion actor Karen Gillan.
• 14 April - TV: Black Orchid was released to DVD in the UK.
• 15 April - 16 April - AUDIO: The Boy That Time Forgot was recorded.
• 16 April - David Tennant met with new series producers Steven Moffat and Piers Wenger to discuss Series 5 and whether he might reconsider his decision to leave. Tennant, who according to Russell T Davies had been "wobbling" on his departure, reaffirmed he would leave the role of the Tenth Doctor after the 2009 specials. (REF: Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale - The Final Chapter)
• 18 April - The American Sci-Fi Channel ended its broadcasts of Series 3 with TV: Voyage of the Damned.
• 19 April - TV: Planet of the Ood was first broadcast.
• 21 April - 22 April - AUDIO: The Destroyer of Delights finished recording.
• 26 April - TV: The Sontaran Stratagem was first broadcast. Freema Agyeman returned to the series (temporarily) as Martha Jones, her first Doctor Who appearance since TV: Last of the Time Lords. The Sontarans appeared for the first time since TV: The Two Doctors.
• PROSE: Martha in the Mirror, PROSE: Snowglobe 7 and PROSE: The Many Hands were first published. Despite Donna Noble being the current companion, BBC Books continued to feature Martha Jones as companion in the novels.
• AUDIO: Assassin in the Limelight was first released.
• PROSE: Short Trips: The Quality of Leadership was first published.
• The CBC announced it would air Series 4 of Doctor Who beginning in September, but would not broadcast the second series of Torchwood.
• 1 May - The BBC's official Doctor Who website began posting a series of exclusive comic strip stories dubbed BBC Writers' Comics. Over the next few months, strips written by writers of Doctor Who novels and TV stories created using the Comic Maker application were featured. This week was WC: In-Flight Entertainment.
• 1 - Still in the midst of shooting TV: The Next Doctor, David Tennant refilmed the now-Cyberman-free closing scene of TV: Journey's End.
• 1 - Actor Bernard Archard died.
• 3 May - TV: The Poison Sky was first broadcast. The episode included a very brief cameo by Billie Piper, lasting approximately one second in length; despite the brevity, she still received screen credit. As with TV: Partners in Crime, advance review copies of the episode did not include this cameo. In an interview with Doctor Who Magazine, Russell T Davies stated that the decision to add Piper's cameo was made shortly before broadcast; the scene was shot for the upcoming episode, TV: Midnight.
• 3 - Production of Series 4 officially concluded with the filming of the mini-episode TV: Music of the Spheres.
• 5 May - TV: The Invasion of Time was released to DVD in the UK.
• 5 - Also released in the UK was the DVD box set Bred for War containing the previously released stories TV: The Time Warrior, The Sontaran Experiment, The Invasion of Time and The Two Doctors. The release coincided with the recent Sontaran two-parter on television.
• 8 May - AUDIO: Pest Control, the first original Doctor Who audio adventure produced by BBC Audiobooks, was released. Considered a spin-off of the BBC Books New Series Adventures line, this marked Donna Noble's debut in such spin-off fiction and was the first officially licenced audio drama not to be produced by Big Finish Productions since the BBC Radio Jon Pertwee radio plays of the mid-1990s. It was read by David Tennant.
• 8 - The special edition of TV: The Five Doctors was released to DVD in Region 4.
• 9 May - WC: Mind Shadows (BBC Writers' Comics) was uploaded.
• 10 May - TV: The Doctor's Daughter was first broadcast, introducing the character of Jenny, played by Georgia Moffett, the daughter of Fifth Doctor actor Peter Davison, and who once had auditioned for the role of Rose Tyler. Freema Agyeman departed for a second time after this episode.
• 12 May - Actor Robert Russell died.
• 15 May - WC: Destiny's Door and WC: Fuel (BBC Writers' Comics) were uploaded.
• 17 May - TV: The Unicorn and the Wasp was first broadcast.
• 19 May - Cast readthrough for TV: The Last Sontaran and TV: The Mark of the Berserker took place.
• 21 May - The BBC formally announced Russell T Davies would step down as executive producer of Doctor Who in 2009, to be succeeded by Steven Moffat, approximately twenty months after Davies first approached Moffat with the idea (per The Writer's Tale).
• 22 May - Plans for Freema Agyeman to return as Martha Jones in the planned third series of Torchwood were derailed when Agyeman was signed to co-star in Law & Order: UK for ITV. (REF: Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale - The Final Chapter)
• 29 May - WC: The Beast Is Back In Town (BBC Writers' Comics) was uploaded.
• 31 May - TV: Silence in the Library was first broadcast, introducing River Song.
• Late May - the BBC released a new television trailer promoting the final episodes of the fourth series.
• AUDIO: The Death Collectors was first released.
• 2 June - The Doctor Who Series 4 Volume 1 DVD, featuring the episodes TV: Partners in Crime, The Fires of Pompeii and Planet of the Ood, was released in the UK.
• 3 June - The Beneath the Surface DVD collection featuring TV: Doctor Who and the Silurians, The Sea Devils and Warriors of the Deep was released in North America.
• 5 June - 6 June - AUDIO: The Ultimate Adventure was recorded.
• 5 June - WC: Mad Martha (BBC Writers' Comics) was uploaded.
• 5 - TV: Black Orchid was released to DVD in Region 4.
• 7 June - TV: Forest of the Dead was first broadcast.
• 10 June - Actor David Brierley died.
• 10 - Actor Derek Murcott died.
• 12 June - Audio adaptations of PROSE: Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion and PROSE: Doctor Who - Black Orchid were first released.
• 12 - Holding out until the last possible moment, the BBC finally announced the title of Episode 12 of Series 4 would be TV: The Stolen Earth.
• 12 - WC: Escape to Penhaxico (BBC Writers' Comics) was uploaded.
• 13 June - Buckingham Palace announced that Russell T Davies would be awarded an OBE.
• 14 June - TV: Midnight was first broadcast. It included the third and last surprise cameo by Billie Piper prior to her proper return to the series. This was the first "companion-lite" episode of the series, as it was filmed simultaneously with the "Doctor-lite" episode TV: Turn Left. David Troughton, son of Patrick Troughton, guest starred.
• Mid-June - American news media, including CNN, ran profiles of Billie Piper in conjunction with the debut of her series Secret Diary of a Call Girl in the US. Coincidentally this spike in US coverage coincided with the lead-up to her return to the series in TV: Turn Left, although her involvement in Doctor Who was given only a passing mention.
• Mid-June - At the same time, it was reported that Christopher Eccleston had been cast as Amelia Earhart's co-pilot in an upcoming film based on the ill-fated aviatrix's life, while John Barrowman made Canadian headlines when he was named a judge for the Canadian edition of the UK talent contest series How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? for the CBC (Barrowman also served as judge on the UK version).
• 16 June - The DVD box set K9 Tales, featuring TV: The Invisible Enemy and the first DVD release of TV: A Girl's Best Friend, the pilot episode of K9 and Company, was released in the UK.
• 19 June - WC: Just Another Thursday (BBC Writers' Comics) was uploaded.
• 21 June - TV:Turn Left was first broadcast, marking the official return of Billie Piper as Rose Tyler after her previous cameo appearances. This was the annual "Doctor-lite" episode.
• 23 June - Cast readthrough for TV: The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith and TV: Enemy of the Bane took place.
• 24 June - Doctor Who won the Best International Series at the Thirty-fourth Annual Saturn Awards, an American entertainment awards program. The category was a new one introduced this year, and nominees included Torchwood, Steven Moffat's Jekyll and Life on Mars (which starred John "Mr Saxon" Simm).
• Late June - The Canadian cable network Space announced it had obtained the Canadian broadcast rights to Series 2 of Torchwood and would begin airing the series in August. Reportedly its timeslot would, in some parts of Canada, place it in direct competition with Series 4 of Doctor Who when the CBC began airing it in September.
• Late June - Several UK media reports indicated that David Tennant was in negotiations to return to Doctor Who for the 2010 series, but no official announcement was forthcoming (leading to additional speculation in the wake of the cliffhanger of TV: The Stolen Earth a few weeks later), although it was known that he was to appear in the 2008 Christmas special as photos of him shooting the special had leaked to the press months earlier.
• 26 June - WC: Who Ate All the Biscuits? (BBC Writers' Comics) was uploaded.
• 28 June - TV: The Stolen Earth was first broadcast. This historic episode marked the first, and following The Sarah Jane Adventures' cancellation in 2011, only three-way crossover between Doctor Who, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures. Returning to Doctor Who were John Barrowman, Elisabeth Sladen, and Freema Agyeman. The episode received an Appreciation Index (AI) rating of 91, the highest in the series' history and a feat considered rare if not unprecedented for a mainstream network series.[1]
• 30 June - The complete Second Series of Torchwood was released in a DVD box set in the UK.
• 30 - COMIC: Beyond the Sea was first published.
• 30 - TV: Voyage of the Damned (with Time Crash) was released to DVD in Region 4.
• AUDIO: The Boy That Time Forgot was first released.
• AUDIO: Here There Be Monsters was first released, marking the first appearance of Carole Ann Ford as the "true universe" version of Susan Foreman since TV: The Five Doctors.
• PROSE: Short Trips: Transmissions was first published.
• Early July - The week between the cliffhanger ending of TV: The Stolen Earth and the broadcast of TV: Journey's End was marked by some of the most intense media attention Doctor Who has ever seen, especially given the uncertainty over whether David Tennant would remain with the series.[2]
• 1 July - The Doctor Who Series 4 Volume 2 DVD, with the episodes TV: The Sontaran Stratagem, The Poison Sky, The Doctor's Daughter and The Unicorn and the Wasp, was released.
• 3 July - TV: The Invasion of Time was released to DVD in Region 4.
• 4 July - WC: The Baktek Illusion was uploaded, concluding the BBC Writers' Comics special series.
• 5 July - TV: Journey's End was first broadcast, bringing to a close the fourth series of the revived Doctor Who. It was the last episode to be produced by Phil Collinson, the first of the revived series' original producers to depart. The episode featured the one-time returns of Noel Clarke, Camille Coduri and K9 to the series; Catherine Tate left the series as a regular with this episode. This was the last regular weekly episode of Doctor Who scheduled until Series 5 in 2010. Like the previous season finales, the broadcast of Journey's End sparked a frenzy of Internet discussion, both pro and con. The episode featured the greatest concentration of active companions (as opposed to illusions and images) in the series' history (not including the non-canonical TV: Dimensions in Time). The episode was viewed by 10.57 million people and became the No. 1 program for the week -- the first time this had occurred for any episode in the forty-five-year history of Doctor Who -- despite competition from the Wimbledon finals; it also repeated the previous week's feat and scored an Appreciation Index figure of 91, again unheard of for both Doctor Who and for a mainstream television production.[3][4]. The episode concluded with a teaser for the 2008 Christmas special, at the time of broadcast left untitled but later announced as TV: The Next Doctor. As K9 did not appear in Series 2 of The Sarah Jane Adventures, this marked his final appearance until the post-season mini-episode TV: From Raxacoricofallapatorius With Love aired in March 2009.
• 5 - Afterwards, the final Series 4 episode of Doctor Who Confidential was broadcast.
• 6 July - TV: Partners in Crime was broadcast on ABC in Australia.
• 7 July - The Daily Mail reported that more than 2,500 people actually attempted to phone the Doctor's phone number as shown in TV: The Stolen Earth, in hopes of hearing a special recorded message, but the number was in fact non-functional.[5]
• 8 July - The Bred for War DVD box set (TV: The Time Warrior, The Sontaran Experiment, The Invasion of Time, The Two Doctors) was released in Region 4.
• 11 July - The Telegraph reported on rumours of David Tennant stepping down from the role of the Doctor, with David Morrissey, John Simm, and Robert Carlyle cited as the book-maker's favourites to replace him, despite Morrissey scheduled to guest star in the 2008 Christmas special and Simm having already played the Master in Season 3. Julie Gardner confirmed in the article that Tennant had made his decision as to whether he would stay on for the 2010 season, but she confirmed he would appear in all of the special episodes scheduled for 2009.[6] Despite this, wildcat Internet rumours persisted that Morrissey would replace Tennant as early as the 2008 Christmas special, while some UK media reported Tennant had signed an agreement to stay with the series through Series 5 in 2010.
• 12 July - Doctor Who swept the television categories at the second annual Constellation Awards, a Canadian award presented as part of the Polaris science fiction convention. David Tennant won for best Male Performance in a Science Fiction Television episode for his work on the two-parter TV : Human Nature/The Family of Blood; Carey Mulligan won the female equivalent for TV: Blink; and the series itself won for Best Science Fiction Television Series of 2007. Doctor Who was eligible for these awards thanks to its co-production arrangement with the CBC.
• 14 July - Actor Margot Van der Burgh died.
• 14 - Actor Hugh Lloyd died.
• 21 July - TV: The Brain of Morbius was released to DVD in the UK.
• 23 July - Copies of issue No. 397 of Doctor Who Magazine came polybagged with randomly chosen original Target Books editions (from a selection of twenty-seven books), giving the Target novelisations widespread exposure for the first time in years; also included in the mix were a few non-novelisation releases such as REF: The Making of Doctor Who. The issue also included a second surprise: when the polybag was removed, all text on the front cover (except around the UPC symbol) was revealed to be "BAD WOLF", including the title banner for the magazine itself. This was a tie-in with the ending of TV: Turn Left.
• 23 - Publication of COMIC: Doctor Who Classics Volume 1, a graphic novel-style release reprinting the first few issues of COMIC: Doctor Who Classics by IDW Publishing, took place.
• 27 July - The first Doctor Who Proms concert was held at Royal Albert Hall in London, featuring music from Doctor Who. An interactive mini-episode, TV: Music of the Spheres, was shown as part of this event, which was initially broadcast on BBC Radio. The concert was hosted by Freema Agyeman, with Catherine Tate appearing to introduce a segment as well. Singer Tim Phillips, who performed "Song for Ten" in TV: The Christmas Invasion, performed the extended version of the song introduced on the Series 1 & 2 soundtrack CD. Davros, the Graske and other monsters made cameo appearances as well. As a tribute to the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and Delia Derbyshire, Music of the Spheres ended with the original 1963 arrangement of the "Doctor Who theme". The BBC later announced that an edited version of the broadcast -- including Music of the Spheres -- would air on 1 January 2009.
• AUDIO: The Doomwood Curse was first released.
• AUDIO: The Great Space Elevator was first released.
• AUDIO: The Adolescence of Time was first released.
• 1 August - The American Sci-Fi Channel broadcasted TV: Journey's End in a special ninety-minute time slot, concluding its broadcasts of Series 4.
• 1 - Actor Gertan Klauber died.
• 4 August - The DVD Doctor Who Series 4 Volume 3, featuring the episodes TV: Silence in the Library, Forest of the Dead and Midnight, was released in the UK.
• 5 August - TV: The Time Meddler, Black Orchid and the special edition of The Five Doctors were released to DVD in Region 1.
• 6 August - The DVD Doctor Who Series 4 Volume 1 was released in Region 4 featuring the episodes TV: Partners in Crime, The Fires of Pompeii and Planet of the Ood. This was the first time Region 4 had seen a release of this nature.
• 8 August - The Canadian premiere of Torchwood Series 2 took place on the Space network, marking a new beginning for Space's association with the Doctor Who franchise; it had previously aired the original Doctor Who series in the late 1990s.
• 9 August - TV: Blink, by Steven Moffat, won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form. This was the third consecutive win for both Moffat and the series.
• 14 August - Audio adaptations of PROSE: Doctor Who and the Dæmons and PROSE: Doctor Who and the Pyramids of Mars were first released.
• 25 August - TV: The War Machines was released to DVD in the UK.
• 29 August - IDW Publishing issued COMIC: Agent Provocateur, a graphic novel compilation of the first six-issue storyline of its original Doctor Who monthly comic book and COMIC: Doctor Who Classics Volume 1, collecting the first several issues of reprints originally published by IDW as the monthly title COMIC: Doctor Who Classics. This edition featured the run from The Iron Legion to The Star Beast.
• 31 August - Doctor Who: Battles in Time published its fiftieth issue.
• IDW Publishing launched a second Doctor Who comic book mini-series, COMIC: The Forgotten, which featured appearances by all ten Doctors.

Late summer

• ITV announced that Freema Agyeman would star in Law & Order: London, a spin-off of the American Law & Order franchise set to air in 2009. Torchwood writer Chris Chibnall was named the show's head writer, and other Torchwood alumni signed to write for the new series included James Moran and Catherine Tregenna.
• PROSE: Ghosts of India, PROSE: Shining Darkness and PROSE: The Doctor Trap were first published. These were the first full-length novels featuring Donna Noble as companion.
• AUDIO: Kingdom of Silver was first released.
• AUDIO: Time Reef was first released.
• AUDIO: The Doll of Death was first released.
• PROSE: Short Trips: How the Doctor Changed My Life was first published.
• AUDIO: The Adventure of the Diogenes Damsel was first released.
• Trailers for the second season of The Sarah Jane Adventures began appearing in cinemas in the UK, following on from the introduction of cinema trailers for the parent series. The trailer included specially shot footage of one of the characters addressing the audience.
• GE Fabbri began test marketing a new multimedia publication called Doctor Who DVD Files in the northeast UK, in preparation for a British Isles roll-out of the publication beginning in January 2009.
• This was the tenth anniversary of the release of the first Doctor Who-related audio drama by Big Finish Productions, an adaptation of the Bernice Summerfield novel, BFBS: Oh No it Isn't!.
• 1 September - The DVD Doctor Who Series 4 Volume 4, featuring the episodes TV: Turn Left, The Stolen Earth and Journey's End, was released in the UK.
• 2 September - TV: The Invasion of Time and the K9 Tales box set featuring TV: The Invisible Enemy and TV: A Girl's Best Friend were released to DVD in Region 1.
• 4 September - The K9 Tales DVD box set featuring TV: The Invisible Enemy and TV: A Girl's Best Friend was released in Region 4.
• 4 - Region 4 also saw the release of Doctor Who Series 4 Volume 2 with the episodes TV: The Sontaran Stratagem, The Poison Sky, The Doctor's Daughter and The Unicorn and the Wasp.
• 8 September - David Tennant: A Life in Time and Space, a biography of the actor, was first published.
• 10 September - The first Torchwood radio drama, AUDIO: Lost Souls, was broadcast on BBC Radio 4. Although there had been exclusive-to-audio books released previously, this was the first full-cast audio drama based upon the series. The story was based upon the activation of the Large Hadron Collider, a real-life event that took place around the time of the broadcast. The current cast of the series reprised their TV roles, along with Freema Agyeman, returning as Martha Jones.
• 11 September - Audio adaptation of PROSE: Doctor Who and the Green Death was first released.
• 15 September - TV: Four to Doomsday was released to DVD in the UK.
• 16 September - Torchwood series 2 was released on standard DVD in the United States (the Canadian release was delayed until November 11).
• 16 - The Times began serialising excerpts from REF: Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale, including Russell T Davies' comment that Russell Tovey was his favourite to play the Eleventh Doctor; other media subsequently reported this.
• 17 September - Russell T Davies and Benjamin Cook were interviewed on BBC Breakfast to promote REF: Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale.
• 18 September - BBC Audio released the Torchwood radio play AUDIO: Lost Souls on CD and for download. The CD version included a documentary featurette, Torchwood: All Access.
• 19 September - The belated broadcast of Series 4 of Doctor Who began on the CBC in Canada. The CBC began the season with TV: Partners in Crime, omitting TV: Voyage of the Damned and, as a result, leaving the Series 3 cliffhanger unresolved for Canadian viewers. In some parts of Canada the broadcasts overlapped those of Torchwood on Space Channel.
• 20 September - Merlin debuted on BBC One. The popular series shared numerous behind-the-scenes personnel with Doctor Who as it was also a BBC Wales production. The Mill, which provided special effects for Doctor Who and Torchwood, also provided SFX for the series. Colin Morgan, who had guest-starred in TV: Midnight, played the lead role, with TV: School Reunion guest star and frequent voiceover contributor Anthony Stewart Head as King Uther. Eve Myles (Gwen Cooper on Torchwood) played a villain in this first episode, while Michelle Ryan (TV: Planet of the Dead) had a recurring role as another villain.
• 23 September - A BBC press release announced the title of the 2008 Christmas special, TV: The Next Doctor, renewing fan speculation regarding David Tennant's future with the series into 2009.
• 25 September - Publication of the first edition of Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale, a collection of e-mails between Russell T Davies and Benjamin Cook between February 2007 and March 2008 discussing the production of Series 4, took place.
• 29 September - TV: The Last Sontaran parts 1 and 2 were first broadcast, launching Series 2 of The Sarah Jane Adventures. The story was a follow-up to TV: The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky.
• 29 - TV: The Trial of a Time Lord - the complete Season 23 - was released to DVD in the UK as a single set.
• 30 September - AUDIO: Doctor Who: the Stageplays - The Ultimate Adventure was first released. This was the first in a series of Big Finish Productions' audio productions adapting Doctor Who-based stage plays, in this case the Colin Baker version of the stage play The Ultimate Adventure.
• AUDIO: Brotherhood of the Daleks was first released.
• AUDIO: Empathy Games was first released.
• Doctor Who Magazine published its four hundredth issue, cover-dated 15 October but available in stores as early as 1 October. This issue featured the start of the comic strip COMIC: Thinktwice, which introduced Majenta Pryce as the Doctor's new comic-strip companion; this was the first time since the departure of Destrii in 2005's COMIC: The Flood that the DWM strip had introduced an original companion.
• IDW Publishing launched its fourth Doctor Who comic book title, the two-issue COMIC: Grant Morrison's Doctor Who, reprinting the 1980s-era Doctor Who Magazine strips by Grant Morrison: The World Shapers, Changes and Culture Shock.
• In multiple interviews conducted in March and April of 2010, Matt Smith indicated he had been chosen to play the Eleventh Doctor "three months" before the official announcement was made in early January 2009. This meant the decision to cast him may have been made during October 2008 - possibly before David Tennant announced his departure.
• 1 October - Actor Ian Collier died.
• 2 October - TV: The Brain of Morbius was released to DVD in Region 4.
• 2 - Also released in Region 4 was Doctor Who Series 4 Volume 3 featuring the episodes TV: Silence in the Library, Forest of the Dead and Midnight.
• 6 October - TV: The Day of the Clown part 1 was first broadcast.
• 7 October - Series 1 of The Sarah Jane Adventures was released to DVD in North America. This predated the UK release of the series by a full month.
• 7 - Also released to DVD in North America were TV: The Brain of Morbius and the The Trial of a Time Lord box set.
• 7 -Actor Peter Copley died.
• 9 October - PROSE:The Forever Trap, the second exclusive-to-audio Doctor Who story by BBC Audio/BBC Books, was first released. It was read by Catherine Tate.
• 13 October - TV: The Day of the Clown part 2 was first broadcast.
• 14 October - Russell T Davies received an e-mail proposing an idea for Torchwood: The Musical with members of ABBA doing the music. (REF: Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale - the Final Chapter).
• 20 October - TV: Secrets of the Stars part 1 was first broadcast.
• 20 - Actor John Ringham died.
• 24 October - Torchwood Series 2 concluded in Canada.
• 26 October - Actor Stacey Tendeter died.
• 27 October - TV: Secrets of the Stars part 2 was first broadcast.
• 27 - PROSE: Almost Perfect, PROSE: Pack Animals and PROSE: SkyPoint were first published. Pack Animals and SkyPoint were the last novels to feature Owen Harper and Toshiko Sato as the series moved into post-Series 2 continuity with Almost Perfect.
• 27 - Actor Roy Stewart died.
• 29 October - David Tennant and the BBC announced that Tennant would leave Doctor Who following production of the "gap season" specials in 2009. Tennant made the announcement on live TV when he accepted the National Television Award for Outstanding Drama Performance. The series also won Most Popular Drama. Tennant's announcement was made hours after The Guardian broke the news first on its website. As the winner of the NTA was not previously known, it was uncertain whether Tennant would be able to deliver his announcement on the air. The announcement was timed to occur during an intermission in his performance of Hamlet, and Tennant pre-recorded a version of it in the event the live transmission broke down. Earlier in the day, Russell T Davies and Benjamin Cook appeared on a TV broadcast discussing their book, REF: Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale, and managed to avoid discussing the yet-to-be-made announcement. (REF: Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale - The Final Chapter)
• 29 - Tennant's announcement sparked a period of intense fan and media speculation as to who would be chosen to portray the Eleventh Doctor. Speculated names ranged from well-known to obscure actors, and also included caucasian and black candidates, as well as a revival of speculation about a female actor being cast, an idea that dated back to the 1970s.
• 30 October - AUDIO: Doctor Who: the Stageplays - Seven Keys to Doomsday was first released, adapting the stage play Doctor Who and the Daleks in The Seven Keys to Doomsday and returning Trevor Martin to the role of the Doctor.
• 31 October - AUDIO: The Diet of Worms was first released.
• AUDIO: Forty-Five was first released. The title was a reference to Doctor Who's forty-fifth anniversary.
• AUDIO: Home Truths was first released.
• 3 November - TV: The Mark of the Berserker part 1 was first broadcast.
• 3 - PROSE: The Lost Boy and PROSE: Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane? were first published; the complete first series of The Sarah Jane Adventures had now been novelised.
• 5 November: PROSE: The Last Sontaran and PROSE: The Day of the Clown were first published.
• 10 November - TV: The Mark of the Berserker part 2 was first broadcast.
• 11 November - The complete First Series of The Sarah Jane Adventures was released to DVD in the UK, one month after it was released in North America.
• 11 - Torchwood Season 1 was released on high-definition Blu-Ray in North America, the first Doctor Who-related release in this format. Also, the release of Torchwood Season 2 on DVD in Canada was delayed (due to the season still being transmitted by a Canadian network at the time of the North American release).
• 11 - TV: The War Machines and Doctor Who Series 4 Volume 4, featuring the episodes TV: Turn Left, The Stolen Earth and Journey's End, were released in Region 4.
• 13 November - AUDIO: The Time Capsule was first released by BBC Audio.
• 13 - Audio adaptation of PROSE: Doctor Who and the Time Warrior was first released.
• 13 - REF: Doctor Who: The Time Traveller's Almanac was first published.
• 14 November - The opening pre-credits sequence of the upcoming Christmas special TV: The Next Doctor was broadcast as part of the BBC's annual Children in Need Appeal. Other than brief snippets seen in a previously released trailer, this showing marked the first broadcast of footage of David Morrissey as "the Other Doctor" and Velile Tshabalala as Rosita, as well as a possible new form of Cyberman.
• 17 November - TV: The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith part 1 was first broadcast.
• 17 - The complete Series Four of Doctor Who was released in a DVD box set in the UK.
• 18 November - The Series 4 DVD box set was released in North America - only one day after the UK release. TV: The Infinite Quest was released in North America (a full year after the UK release for the latter). As The Infinite Quest was never broadcast in North America, this marked the first time that a Doctor Who serial has been released to DVD in North America without first having been broadcast there, discounting prior releases of incomplete and restored serials from the 1960s. Series 4 was released in Canada even though the CBC was only midway through its broadcast of the season.
• 23 November - This was the forty-fifth anniversary of the first broadcast of Doctor Who.
• 24 November - TV: The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith part 2 was first broadcast.
• 25 November - The BBC announced that The Sarah Jane Adventures had been renewed for a third season, scheduled for broadcast in the fall of 2009.
• 30 November - AUDIO: Doctor Who: The Stageplays - The Curse of the Daleks was first released, the third and last in a series of audio adaptations of Doctor Who-based stage plays by Big Finish Productions, adapting The Curse of the Daleks.
• PROSE: Beautiful Chaos, PROSE: The Eyeless and PROSE: The Story of Martha were first published. The Eyeless was the first New Series Adventures release in which the Doctor travelled without a companion; The Story of Martha was an anthology focusing on the activities of Martha Jones during the Year That Never Was between TV: The Sound of Drums and TV: Last of the Time Lords and was the first New Adventures release to tie in directly with a televised story in this fashion. Beautiful Chaos was the final novel to date to feature Donna Noble.
• AUDIO: The Raincloud Man was first released.
• AUDIO: The Darkening Eye was first released.
• PROSE: Short Trips: Christmas Around the World was first published.
• Julie Gardner and other Doctor Who production team members travelled to Dubai, UAE, to scout locations for TV: Planet of the Dead.
• 1 December - TV: Enemy of the Bane part 1 was first broadcast. It was the first television appearance of Nicholas Courtney as Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart since 1989's TV: Battlefield.
• 1 - Actor James Bree died.
• 4 December - TV: Four to Doomsday and the Complete Series 4 of Doctor Who were released to DVD in Region 4.
• 8 December - TV: Enemy of the Bane part 2 was first broadcast, concluding the second season of The Sarah Jane Adventures. This was the final television appearance of Nicholas Courtney as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart prior to Courtney's death in 2011.
• 8 - According to BBC News, a "long-standing back injury" forced David Tennant to miss several performances of Hamlet at London's Novello Theatre. Ultimately, Tennant underwent back surgery.
• 10 December - Although the announcement wasn't made for several weeks, Russell T Davies was informed that Matt Smith had been cast as the Eleventh Doctor. (REF: Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale - The Final Chapter)
• 12 December - TV: Journey's End was broadcast on the CBC in Canada, concluding its broadcasts of Series 4. The network chose to air an extensively edited version of the episode, cut down to approximately forty-four minutes to fit a standard sixty-minute time slot, with commercials, raising the ire of many Canadian fans who afterward flooded the CBC's website with complaints. The season ended with no plans by the CBC to broadcast TV: Voyage of the Damned or TV: The Next Doctor (the CBC ultimately lost the rights to air The Next Doctor and the remaining 2009 Specials, plus Series 5, in the spring of 2009).
• 24 December - A little-known named Matt Smith attended a secret photo shoot; it was so secret, in fact, that the hairstylist and photographer were not informed what it was for. Later, an image of the TARDIS was digitally added to the photos, which were issued on 3 January 2009 to announce Smith as the actor to play the Eleventh Doctor.[7]
• 25 December - TV: The Next Doctor, the fourth Doctor Who Christmas special, was first broadcast. This was considered the last episode of Series 4 before four special episodes planned over the next year in lieu of a full season of Doctor Who, which was scheduled to return to a full thirteen-week season in 2010. This was the first story since TV: The Deadly Assassin in which the Doctor did not share an adventure with a clearly defined companion even in a one-off manner, as the story twisted conventions by placing the Doctor in the companion role. The title of the first special, TV: Planet of the Dead, was unveiled during the closing credits. The episode was notable for including a sequence in which the nine actors who played the Doctor prior to Tennant were shown; in some cases, such as William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton, this marked the first on-screen appearance of their Doctors in more than two decades, and it was the first unambiguous confirmation that the revived series counted Paul McGann's Eighth Doctor in its continuity.
• 25 - An edition of Doctor Who Confidential followed the broadcast.
• 29 December - COMIC: Doctor Who Classics Volume 2, a graphic novel-style release reprinting issues of COMIC: Doctor Who Classics by IDW Publishing, was published.
• 29 - TV: Battlefield was released to DVD in the UK.