1989 (releases)

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1989 in

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the DWU • production history • vital statistics • releases

In 1989, a number of things set in or relevant to the Doctor Who universe were released or published.

• 4 January - The Greatest Show in the Galaxy Part Four debuted on BBC1, concluding the twenty-fifth anniversary season.
• 19 January - PROSE: Doctor Who - Delta and the Bannermen was first published.
• 19 - REF: The Doctor Who File was published in paperback.
• 28 January - Actor Lara Goodison was born.
• 5 February - Actor Emrys James died.
• 8 February - Actor Cyril Luckham died.
• 16 February - PROSE: Doctor Who - The War Machines was first published.
• 18 February - Actor John Bailey died.
• Actor John Wyse died.
• 1 March - Actor Geoffrey Morris died.
• 2 March - Actor John Bryans died.
• 13 March - Actor Harry Melling was born.
• 16 March - PROSE: Doctor Who - Dragonfire was first published.
• 16 - Two Doctor Who Classics reprint volumes were published: PROSE: The Dæmons/The Time Monster and PROSE: The Mind of Evil/The Claws of Axos.
• REF: Doctor Who: The Time-Travellers' Guide was published in paperback.
• 2 April - Actor Clare Thomas was born.
• 8 April - Actor Adam Kurakin died.
• 12 April - Actor Gerald Flood died.
• 20 April - PROSE: Doctor Who - Attack of the Cybermen was first published.
• 25 April - Actor George Coulouris died.
• 3 May - Actor William Squire died.
• 18 May - PROSE: Doctor Who - The Nightmare Fair was first published. This was the first of a new spin-off line by Target Books dubbed "The Missing Episodes". These were novels based upon the cancelled Season 23, which was delayed a year due to the BBC-ordered hiatus and then replaced by what became 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 was the lead character.
• 18 - Target Books published two final Doctor Who Classics reprint volumes before abandoning the venture: PROSE: The Face of Evil/The Sunmakers and PROSE: The Seeds of Doom/The Deadly Assassin.
• 20 May - Actor Judith Byfield died.
• 20 - Actor Anton Diffring died.
• 26 May - Doctor Who: Voyager was published by Marvel Comics.
• 15 June - PROSE: Doctor Who - Mindwarp was first published. This was the fourth and final novelisation based upon segments of The Trial of a Time Lord. It was also the final Sixth Doctor story to be novelised; plans for a novelisation of Revelation of the Daleks were made, but the book was never published and that story remains officially unnovelised.
• 20 July - PROSE: Doctor Who - The Chase was first published. Written by John Peel, The Chase was the first of a series of Dalek story novelisations by Peel commissioned after Target Books reached an agreement with Terry Nation to allow his remaining Dalek stories to be adapted as novels (before this, 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 was announced that a similar agreement had been reached with Eric Saward regarding his two Dalek serials, but ultimately these two stories were never adapted.
• 3 August - The final studio recording session for the 1963-89 series of Doctor Who was undertaken as work was completed on Ghost Light. Discounting a voiceover session conducted in November, this marked the end of BBC production on the series until work on the revival commenced in 2004.
• 4 August - Actor Maurice Colbourne died.
• 17 August - PROSE: Doctor Who - The Ultimate Evil was first published. It was the second release in the "Missing Episodes" line.
• 25 August - Actor Keegan Joyce was born.
• 29 August - The second volume of Doctor Who: The Scripts was published: The Tomb of the Cybermen.
• 6 September - Battlefield Part One debuted on BBC1, launching Season 26, the final season of the 1963-89 series. Nicholas Courtney returned for the first time since The Five Doctors, and UNIT took an active role in a story for the first time since The Android Invasion. Jean Marsh, who had played companion Sara Kingdom, returned in a different role.
• 13 September - Battlefield Part Two debuted on BBC1.
• 16 September - Sylvester McCoy appeared as the Seventh Doctor in a skit on The Noel Edmunds Saturday Roadshow. David Banks also appeared as the Cyber-Leader in what was his final television appearance to date as a Cyberman.
• 20 September - Battlefield Part Three debuted on BBC1. It was the first appearance of Bessie since The Five Doctors and since Robot in a regular episode.
• 21 September - PROSE: Doctor Who - Mission to the Unknown was first published. It was part one of a two-volume adaptation of The Daleks' Master Plan, the only two-part novelisation ever issued by Target.
• 27 September - Battlefield Part Four debuted on BBC1. It was the final appearance of Nicholas Courtney in a Doctor Who story, though he later appeared in the independent spin-off Downtime, as well as Enemy of the Bane. It was the final appearance of UNIT until Aliens of London. It was also the final appearance of Bessie to date.
• The Ultimate Interview: Colin Baker Talks with David Banks was first released on cassette by Silver Fist Productions.
• 4 October - Ghost Light Part One debuted on BBC1.
• 11 October - Ghost Light Part Two debuted on BBC1.
• 17 October - This date was the tenth anniversary of Doctor Who Magazine.
• 18 October - Ghost Light Part Three debuted on BBC1.
• 19 October - PROSE: Doctor Who - The Mutation of Time was first published, concluding the adaptation of The Daleks' Master Plan.
• 25 October - The Curse of Fenric Part One debuted on BBC1.
• 1 November - The Curse of Fenric Part Two debuted on BBC1.
• 1 - Actor Peter Childs died.
• 8 November - The Curse of Fenric Part Three debuted on BBC1.
• 10 November - Actor Clyde Pollitt died.
• 15 November - The Curse of Fenric Part Four debuted on BBC1.
• 15 - Actor Edward Underdown died.
• 16 November - PROSE: Doctor Who - Silver Nemesis was first published.
• 22 November - Survival Part One debuted on BBC1.
• 23 November - Sylvester McCoy recorded the monologue that ended episode 3 of Survival and, ultimately, the original 1963-89 Doctor Who series. This was a late addition to the serial by John Nathan-Turner, who expected it to be the final episode. Ironically this was also the anniversary of the debut of Doctor Who in 1963. It was also one of the few times since the 1960s that a major element of a televised serial was produced while the serial in question had already begun airing.
• 29 November - Survival Part Two debuted on BBC1.
• The Doctor Who: The Scripts release of The Talons of Weng-Chiang was first published.
• Actor James Hall died.
• 6 December - Survival Part Three debuted on BBC1. The twenty-sixth season finale ultimately proved to be the final episode of the original series, and the last weekly episode to be broadcast until 2005. It was the final use of the Keff McCulloch theme music arrangement, while the current series logo continued to be used for merchandise and books until 1996 and it and a version of the 1987 opening credits sequence were used again in the 1993 special NOTDWU: Dimensions in Time. It was the final twenty-five-minute episode produced (although The Sarah Jane Adventures revived the format in 2007). Although producer John Nathan-Turner later said he was aware the series was going off the air, and Sophie Aldred, in the documentary Thirty Years in the TARDIS said she was told it was cancelled, the BBC did not make any cancellation announcement, and it was widely assumed, and hoped, by fans that a twenty-seventh season would air in 1990. It was the final regular-series appearance of Sophie Aldred and Anthony Ainley (though both reprised their characters in later productions).
• 12 December - Actor Howard Lang died.
• 15 December - Actor Edward Underdown died.
• 21 December - Doctor Who - The Greatest Show in the Galaxy was first published. The title of this release ended up being ironic, as it became the first Target Books novelisation to be published after the de facto end of the original 1963-89 series.
• 21 - Actor Edmund Warwick died.
• 23 December - COMIC: Nineveh was released.
• 23 - REF: The Doctor Who Programme Guide, first published in two volumes in 1981, was reissued in a single-volume, expanded and revised edition. Author Jean-Marc Lofficier followed this release with several more reference volumes over the next decade.
• 23 - Actor Peter Bennett died.
• 24 December - Actor Clive Cazes died.
• The Doctor Who: The Scripts release of The Daleks was first published. The next release in this series did not occur until 1992.
• 27 December - Actor Benjamin Smith was born.

Unknown dates

• Pioneer Books published the second edition of The Doctor and the Enterprise by Jean Airey. An unauthorised 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 edited out most overt references to Star Trek character names.
• Actor Daniel Kaluuya was born.
• Actor Aaron Hanley was born.
• The first edition of the four-track EP, Doctor Who: Variations on a Theme, was released in twelve-inch vinyl, standard CD, and as an unusual square-shaped CD. This release featured 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", was later adopted by BBC Video as the theme for its "Years" series of video retrospectives.