1976

1976 in

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the DWU • production history • vital statistics • releases

Events

January

• 12 - Agatha Christie died. (TV: The Unicorn and the Wasp)

Summer

• The Vardans attempted an invasion of Earth with the Monk's assistance. (PROSE: No Future)
• A meteorite landed in New York City's Central Park, temporarily giving Alice Trefusis super-powers. (AUDIO: Starfall)

Late summer or early autumn

• Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart retired from UNIT and became a maths teacher at Brendon Public School. (TV: Mawdryn Undead)

Unknown Dates

• In San Francisco, Carolyn McConnell met the Eighth Doctor and Sam Jones, who were hunting vampires. (PROSE: Vampire Science)
• James Callaghan of the Labour Party became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He served in that position until 1979. (AUDIO: The Oseidon Adventure) He was succeeded by Margaret Thatcher. (TV: Tooth and Claw, Father's Day)
• How I Saved the World by Alexander Lullington-Smythe was published by Aphrodite Press. Although the book was "very publicly discredited" in 1978, a film adaptation entitled Prey for a Miracle was released in November 1980. It was directed by a newcomer named Anthony Jones and starred veteran and horror star Peter Cushing in the lead role of "the mysterious government adviser, Doctor Who," a character loosely based on the First Doctor. (PROSE: Salvation)
• Two priests who were members of the Order of Saint Peter pursued a vampire from Poland to Los Angeles and destroyed it. One of them stayed behind to found a chapter of the order there, and later became the father of Becky Lee Kowalczyck. (AUDIO: Minuet in Hell)

Behind the scenes

January

• 3 - TV: The Brain of Morbius Part 1 was first broadcast.
• 10 - TV: The Brain of Morbius Part 2 was first broadcast.
• 15 - PROSE: Doctor Who and the Loch Ness Monster was first published.
• 17 - TV: The Brain of Morbius Part 3 was first broadcast.
• 24 - TV: The Brain of Morbius Part 4 was first broadcast.
• 28 - Actor James Mellor died.
• 29 - Writer Mark Clapham was born.
• 31 - TV: The Seeds of Doom Part 1 was first broadcast. This was the last serial to feature UNIT in a major way until 1989's TV: Battlefield.

February

• 7 - TV: The Seeds of Doom Part 2 was first broadcast.
• 14 - TV: The Seeds of Doom Part 3 was first broadcast.
• 19 - PROSE: Doctor Who and the Dinosaur Invasion and PROSE: Doctor Who and the Tenth Planet were first published, the latter being the first Target Books-commissioned novelisation of a solo First Doctor story (the initial three published in 1973 were in fact reprints of novels first published in the mid-1960s).
• 21 - TV: The Seeds of Doom Part 4 was first broadcast.
• 24 - Actor Marnix Van Den Broeke was born.
• 28 - TV: The Seeds of Doom Part 5 was first broadcast.

March

• Actor Campbell Singer died.
• 6 - TV: The Seeds of Doom Part 6 was first broadcast, ending Season 13.
• 17 - Actor Stephen Gately was born.
• 18 - PROSE: Doctor Who and the Ice Warriors was first published.
• 27 - Actress Jasmine Breaks was born.

April

• 4 - Actor George Pastell died.
• 10 - Actresses (and twin sisters) Clare Buckfield and Julie Buckfield were born.

May

• 6 - Actress Alethea Charlton died.
• 20 - PROSE: Doctor Who - The Revenge of the Cybermen was first published.

July

• 19 - Actor Benedict Cumberbatch was born.
• 22 - PROSE: Doctor Who and the Genesis of the Daleks was first published.
• 24 - Actor Jack Tarlton was born.

August

• 6 - Actor William Mervyn died in London.
• 9 - Actress Eva Alexander was born.
• 19 - PROSE: Doctor Who and the Web of Fear was first published.

September

• The Doctor Who Annual 1977 was published.
• Terry Nation's Dalek Annual 1977 was published.
• Doctor Who and the Daleks Omnibus was published.
• 4 - TV: The Masque of Mandragora Part 1 was first broadcast, starting Season 14.
• 11 - TV: The Masque of Mandragora Part 2 was first broadcast.
• 18 - TV: The Masque of Mandragora Part 3 was first broadcast.
• 23 - PROSE: Doctor Who and the Space War was first published. This adaptation of TV: Frontier in Space was the last Target Books novelisation to use a title significantly different from that of the source material (other than the practice of adding Doctor Who and... to the titles, which remained in place for several more years, and the occasional spelling deviation).
• 25 - TV: The Masque of Mandragora Part 4 was first broadcast.

October

• 2 - TV: The Hand of Fear Part 1 was first broadcast.
• 4 - AUDIO: A special radio story featuring Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen was broadcast by BBC Radio as part of its Exploration Earth series. This was the first made-for-radio Doctor Who adventure and the last of its kind until AUDIO: Slipback in 1986.
• 9 - TV: The Hand of Fear Part 2 was first broadcast.
• 16 - TV: The Hand of Fear Part 3 was first broadcast.
• 21 - PROSE: Doctor Who and the Planet of the Daleks was first published. Although not widely recognised, the original serials TV: Frontier in Space and TV: Planet of the Daleks formed one story arc. By Target Books' publishing the adaptation of Frontier (as PROSE: Doctor Who and the Space War) in September, followed by part 2 this month, these two books predated the two-volume novelisation of TV: The Daleks' Master Plan (widely considered the first occurrence of this).
• 22 - The New Avengers debuted on UK television. This was a revival of the series The Avengers created by Sydney Newman, and predated both Star Trek: The Next Generation and Doctor Who as one of the first revivals of a "genre" TV series.
• 23 - TV: The Hand of Fear Part 4 was first broadcast. Elisabeth Sladen left the series. She returned to the series thirty years later in 2006's School Reunion.
• 30 - TV: The Deadly Assassin Part 1 was first broadcast. The Master returned; this story was also the first (and to date, only) televised serial in which the Doctor did not share an adventure with a companion or even a companion figure.

November

• 6 - TV: The Deadly Assassin Part 2 was first broadcast.
• 10 - Actor Jeremy Radick was born.
• 13 - TV: The Deadly Assassin Part 3 was first broadcast.
• 13 - Actress Camilla Power was born.
• 20 - TV: The Deadly Assassin Part 4 was first broadcast. Following this episode, Doctor Who took a mid-season break that lasted six weeks (returning on 1st January 1977). This was the first time a season of Doctor Who was divided in such a fashion. The next time a mid-season break like this occurred was in 2011 with Series 6 of the BBC Wales produced series.

December

• 16 - PROSE: Doctor Who and the Pyramids of Mars was first published.
• 16 - The second edition of REF: The Making of Doctor Who was published by Target Books; this was a revised version of an earlier book first released by another company, Piccolo Books, in 1972, but updated to include the Fourth Doctor.
• 16 - The Doctor Who Dinosaur Book was first published.
• 31 - The Daily Mirror published an exclusive short story, Doctor Who and the Hell Planet; this was the first original Doctor Who short story to be published in a newspaper or outside an annual. The next original newspaper-exclusive short story wasn't published for another thirty years.

Unknown

• Doctor Who and the Pescatons was released on LP by Argo Records. Discounting educational programmes, this was the first original audio drama based upon the franchise, predating the releases of Big Finish Productions by decades.