2005

History of the Doctor Who Universe

March

• With the help of his new companion Rose Tyler, the Ninth Doctor stops a third attempt to conquer Earth by the Nestenes, recently reduced from a marauding race of conquerors to desperate refugees by the Time War. Rose joins the Doctor on his travels (DW: Rose)

• Clive's website "Who is Doctor Who?", dedicated to uncovering the mystery of a man seen in historical photographs going back more than a century, is left without a webmaster when Clive is killed by Autons. (DW: Rose)

• Rose subsequently contacts her mother from the year 5,000,000,000 using a Doctor-modified version of her cellphone, and makes a brief return trip to her own time (DW: The End of the World), but thereafter she disappears for the next year. During this time her boyfriend, Mickey Smith, is initially held as a suspect in her possible murder; Mickey subsequently takes over running the "Who is Doctor Who?" website. (DW: Aliens of London)

• Sometime after this point, London cabs are replaced with motorcycles in an attempt to relieve the increasing traffic congestion (NA: Cat's Cradle: Warhead)

June

• Der Speigel magazine gives away a personal organiser with every issue (NA: Transit)

Unknown date

• The FLIPback Project begins at the Snowcap base at Earth's South Pole, at the same time that Cybermen left over from their attack on Earth in 1986 once more become active. (NA: Iceberg)
• London police, including DI Billy Shipton, begin investigating the disappearance of a number of people who visited an old abandoned house called Wester Drumlins. The police begin collecting as evidence the vehicles left abandoned by the disappeared, at one point obtaining a police box from the scene. The case would remain unsolved until 2007. (DW: Blink)
• The song "Voodoo Child" is a hit in Australia and Great Britain. A few years later, The Master would reveal a fondness for it when he played it while watching the Toclafane invasion commence. (DW: The Sound of Drums)

History of Doctor Who

January

• 29 - Big Finish announce the production of 3 stand alone hardback novels as part of their New Worlds range. These are Wildthyme on Top, Project: Valhalla, and The Coming of the Queen. They also announced that they would be producing 2 Single Audio CD's featuring Iris Wildthyme

• To the Slaughter First Published

• The Juggernauts First Released

• Sophie Okonedo, who provided the voice of Alison Cheney in the webcast Scream of the Shalka, is nominated for the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for her role in the 2004 film, Hotel Rwanda. Okonedo becomes, to date, the only actor to have played a Doctor or companion in an official Doctor Who production to have been nominated for an Oscar (she ultimately does not win the award, however).

February

• Match of the Day First Published

• The Game First Published

• 10 - Leonard Trolley, who appeared as Supt. Reynolds in The Faceless Ones dies in England.

March

• 08 - Big Finish announce they have agreed a deal with Paul Cornell allowing the company to continue its range of Bernice Summerfield Books and Audio CD's for the next few years

• 22 - Project Who : Bigger on the Inside Airs on BBC Radio 2

• 23 - Billie Piper interviewed on The Chris Moyles Show Airs on BBC Radio 1

The This Morning Program includes coverage of the new series and an interview with Russell T. Davies Broadcast on ITV

Billie Piper interview on Parkinson is repeated on ITV 3

• 25 - Christopher Eccleston interviewed on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross

• 26 - The Doctor Who Story Broadcast on UK Gold

New Series premieres on BBC One

Rose First Broadcast. Christopher Eccleston debuts as the Ninth Doctor, along with Billie Piper as Rose Tyler, Camille Coduri as Jackie Tyler and Noel Clarke as Mickey Smith. Return to 45-minute episodes (last seen in 1985); introduction of a new theme music arrangement by Murray Gold that reinstates elements of Delia Derbyshire's 1963/1967 arrangement not heard on screen since 1980; introduction of a new computer-generated title sequence and new oval-shaped series logo - the first logo to show both words of the title on one line; for the first time since The Moonbase in 1967 the opening credits do not show the Doctor's face (notwithstanding the 1996 telefilm); also notwithstanding the telefilm, the first regular episode to feature actor credits during the opening sequence. The closing credits identify the lead character as "Doctor Who" for the first time since Logopolis in 1981.

In conjunction with the debut of the new series, BBC Three premieres its behind-the-scenes series, Doctor Who Confidential the same night.

• 30 - BBC Announce production to go ahead on a second series and a Christmas Special

A publicity branch of the BBC prematurely announces that Christopher Eccleston will not be returning for a second series as the Doctor, citing his desire to not be typecast. This is quickly disputed and actual reason for his decision to leave is not announced; reportedly this announcement was not to have been made until later in the series, possibly in an attempt to keep the regeneration at the end a secret. Perhaps related to this, initial media reports regarding Eccleston's departure indicate his final appearance will be in the Christmas special, which turns out to be incorrect.

• Short Trips: Seven Deadly Sins First Published

• Dreamtime First Released

• Echoes First Published

April

• 02 - The End of the World First Broadcast. First appearance of the Face of Boe and Cassandra. Significantly, the Doctor is heard to use the word "hell" as an expletive - the first time the Doctor has used such language on screen. Also includes the first reference to bad wolf.

• 09 - The Unquiet Dead First Broadcast. Eve Myles makes her first appearance in a Doctor Who-related production.

• 16 - David Tennant is officially announced as the Tenth Doctor

• 16 - Aliens of London First Broadcast. First appearance of Harriet Jones and the Slitheen, and the first reference to UNIT in the new series. Also, this episode establishes the notion of most "present-day" episodes actually taking place a year into the future.

• 23 - World War Three First Broadcast

• 30 - Dalek First Broadcast. First appearance of Daleks in the revived series; the head a classic-era Cyberman is also seen. Adam Mitchell briefly becomes a companion. First episode to include substantive references to the Last Great Time War and the destruction of the Time Lords and Daleks.

• Three's a Crowd First Released

• The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in Canada begins airing the new series, the first time the CBC has aired Doctor Who since the mid-1960s. For the CBC broadcasts, Christopher Eccleston videotapes special introductions and promotions for a contest sponsored by TV Guide, the first prize being a trip to London to visit the set of Doctor Who. These broadcasts are promoted as the North American debut of the series, as no other broadcaster on the continent had yet picked up the revived series.

May

• 07 - The Long Game First Broadcast. Adam Mitchell leaves the TARDIS.

• 14 - Father's Day First Broadcast. First appearance of Pete Tyler.

• 21 - The Empty Child First Broadcast. First appearance of John Barrowman as Jack Harkness. This episode, plus its second chapter, go on to become the first Doctor Who episodes to win the Hugo Award.

• It is announced that Billie Piper will depart Doctor Who during the 2006 series.

• 28 - The Doctor Dances First Broadcast

• Short Trips: A Day in the Life First Published

• Catch-1782 First Released

• The Clockwise Man, The Monsters Inside, and Winner Takes All First Published. These are the first releases in BBC Books' new hardcover line of books based upon the revived series, and are the first books to feature the Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler. BBC Books adopts a pattern of releasing the books three at a time, usually in the spring and fall. The company will continue to publish its paperback Eighth Doctor Adventures line for one more month, and its Past Doctor Adventures line to the end of the year. Although modified photographs of actors have been used in the PDA and EDA lines, this marks the first major, unadulterated use of actor photos as part of the cover art since the days of Target Books' early Fifth Doctor novelisations in the early-mid 1980s.

June

• The Gallifrey Chronicles First Published. This is the final release in the BBC Books Eighth Doctor Adventures series of books, as BBC Books prepares to move into publishing exclusively novels based upon the soon-to-debut revived series.

• Unregenerate! First Released

• The Tree of Life First Published - Only release in the Big Finish - Bernice Summerfield Series of books in 2005.

• The BBC announces that a Christmas story has been scheduled for 2006, as well as a third season for the new Doctor Who series.

• 1 - Geoffrey Toone, who played Hepesh in "The Curse of Peladon" and Temmosus in "Dr. Who and the Daleks," dies in Northwood, Middlesex, England.

• 4 - Boom Town First Broadcast

• 11 - Bad Wolf First Broadcast. First reference to Torchwood.

• 18 - The Parting of the Ways First Broadcast. Christopher Eccleston regenerates into David Tennant.

Post-production completed for The Christmas Invasion.

July

• Island of Death First Published

• Terror Firma First Released

• Peculiar Lives First Published

August

• Future Nostalgia First Published

• The Council of Nicaea First Released

• 31 - Michael Sheard, who had countless roles in Doctor Who, notably Pyramids of Mars and Remembrance of the Daleks dies of cancer on the Isle of Wight.

September

• Fear Itself First Published

• Thicker Than Water First Released

• Live 34 First Released

• The Deviant Strain, Only Human, and The Stealers of Dreams First Published. To date, these are the last novels featuring the Ninth Doctor.

• 12 - Ronald Leigh-Hunt, who played Commander Radnor in The Seeds of Death and Commander Stevenson in Revenge of the Cybermen dies.

• 23 - Roger Brierley, who portrayed Trevor in The Daleks' Master Plan and Drathro in The Mysterious Planet dies after suffering a heart attack. (On the latter credit, he only did the voice, due to being claustrophobic. Visual effects designer Paul McGuiness stepped in and took his place.)

October

• Scaredy Cat First Released

• 18 - John Hollis, who appeared as Sondergaard in The Mutants dies from natural causes.

• 24 - Robert Sloman, who along with Barry Letts, wrote The Dæmons, The Time Monster, The Green Death and Planet of the Spiders dies. (The pair were credited as "Guy Leopold" on the first story but for the final three, Sloman took the sole credit.)

November

• Singularity First Released

• 18 - The Children in Need Special is broadcast by the BBC as part of the Children in Need Appeal. This 7-minute mini-episode bridges the events of The Parting of the Ways and The Christmas Invasion.

• 29 - Joseph Fürst, known for his performance as Professor Zaroff in The Underwater Menace dies in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

December

• Other Lives First Released

• Atom Bomb Blues is published. This novel featuring the Seventh Doctor is the final release in the BBC Books Past Doctor Adventures line. After this point, BBC Books publishes only novels based upon the current series of Doctor Who, and also moves away from the paperback format, adopting a hardcover format (with the exception of Quick Reads novellas) hereafter. As of the spring of 2008, Atom Bomb Blues is the last novel to be published featuring a Doctor other than the one currently on TV (this includes novels featuring the Ninth Doctor, the last of which were published in September 2005).

• Deus Le Volt First Published

• 19 - Don McKillop (Bert the Landlord in The Dæmons) dies from natural causes in the UK.

• 25 - The Christmas Invasion is first broadcast. The episode closing credits introduce a modified arrangement of the Doctor Who theme restoring the "middle 8" section not used during the 2005 series. At the behest of star David Tennant, the lead character is once again identified in the closing credits as "The Doctor".
• 26 - The Christmas Invasion airs on the CBC in Canada. For this broadcast, Billie Piper videotapes a special introduction. This marks the last time (to date) that the CBC's broadcasts of the series more-or-less coincide with that of the BBC.

Unknown dates

• Broadcast of the revived series in the United States is delayed when the American Sci-Fi Channel unexpectedly passes on picking up the series. Reasons cited in media and fan forums included the show being considered "too British" and concerns over the quality of the preview episodes seen. Sci-Fi eventually reverses its decision and the series is broadcast at a later date and the network subsequently picks up further seasons in a more timely manner.
• Following the conclusion of the 2005 Doctor Who series, the BBC announces that it has commissioned the franchise's first full spin-off series, Torchwood, to debut in 2006 and star John Barrowman, reprising his role of Jack Harkness.
• Fall: During production of the 2006 series, the media reports that Billie Piper will leave the series at the end of the season.

2004

21st century 2000s

2006