2005

The year 2005 was most significant for being the year when central London on Earth was attacked by the Nestene Consciousness. (DW: Rose) The FLIPback Project began at the Snowcap Base at Earth's South Pole to counter the predicted reversal of the Earth's magnetic field in 2006. (NA: Iceberg)

Events

January

• 01 - Rose Tyler encountered a man who predicts that she will have a great year ahead. Unknown to her, he was the tenth incarnation of the Doctor, an individual whom she had yet to meet. After she leaves, the Doctor succumbs to radiation poisoning and staggers towards his TARDIS, encouraged by a vision of Ood Sigma. After dematerializing the TARDIS, he regenerates into his eleventh incarnation and begins to crash the TARDIS due to the difficulty of the regeneration. (DW: The End of Time)

Since the regeneration occurred after the Doctor dematerialised the TARDIS, it was unclear whether this event actually occurred on 1st January 2005.

February

• Annual de-frosting of Tommy Brockless, a young soldier first cryogenically frozen in 1918. (TW: To the Last Man.) (Date: WEB: torchwood.co.uk)

March

• Monday (exact date unknown) - The Ninth Doctor was in London pursuing the Nestene Consciousness. His investigations take him to the Henrik's department store where he saves Rose Tyler from an Auton attack. He blows up the building. (DW: Rose)
• Tuesday (exact date unknown) - Rose Tyler investigates the Ninth Doctor, talking to Clive Finch about his website on the Doctor called "Who was Doctor Who?". Rose's boyfriend, Mickey, was abducted by Autons and replaced with an Auton duplicate. Using the head of this Auton, the Doctor tracks the the Nestene Consciousness's signal. It had been rendered a scavenger without protein planets by the Last Great Time War. Rose rescues Mickey (and later, the Doctor) and destroys the Consciousness with anti-plastic. She then joins the Doctor on his travels. Meanwhile, Clive was killed by the Autons, leaving his website without a webmaster. (DW: Rose)
• Wednesday (exact date unknown) - Rose called her mother, Jackie, from the year 5,000,000,000, using the superphone and makes a brief return trip to her own time (DW: The End of the World), but promptly disappewered until 2006. (DW: Aliens of London)
• Some time after this, London, cabs were replaced with motorcycles in an attempt to relieve the increasing traffic congestion (NA: Cat's Cradle: Warhead)

June

• Der Spiegel magazine gaves away a personal organiser with every issue (NA: Transit)

Unknown dates

• The FLIPback Project began at the Snowcap Base at Earth's South Pole, at the same time that Cybermen left over from the attack on Earth in 1986 again became active. (NA: Iceberg)
• London police, including DI Billy Shipton, began investigating the disappearance of several people who visited an abandoned house called Wester Drumlins. The police begin collecting as evidence the vehicles left abandoned by the disappewered, at one point taking a police box from the scene. (DW: Blink)
• For most of 2005, Mickey Smith lives with accusations he has kidnapped or killed Rose Tyler. He was taken in for police questioning about her disappearance five times from early 2005 to early 2006. Mickey takes over the "Who was Doctor Who?" website. Jackie Tyler fuels the mistrust of him around the Powell Estate with a "whisper campaign". For Jackie, the year isn't spent just accusing Smith. It was also a year in which she devotes considerable time to the actual search for her daughter. (DW: Aliens of London)
• Owen Harper's fiancée, Katie Russell, who had been diagnosed with the youngest-ever case of early-onset Alzheimer's, was put into surgery after she was found to have a growth in her brain. The tumour was actually an alien parasite, who released deadly gas during the operation, killing Katie and the scientists. Owen encounters Captain Jack Harkness, who recovered Katie's brain and erased the video evidence of what had happened. (TW: Fragments)

Other timelines

• In Pete's World, drinks company Vitex, owned by Pete Tyler, was purchased by Cybus Industries. (REF: The Time Traveller's Almanac) In that world, 2005 was called 20-Point-5. (DW: Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel)

See Pete's World.

Behind the scenes

January

• EDA: To the Slaughter was first published. With the new Doctor Who TV series about to premiere, BBC Books decided to retire both the BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures and BBC Past Doctor Adventures lines in favour of a new series of novels featuring the Ninth Doctor. One more EDA book will follow in June, while the PDA series will continue to the end of 2005 (one of which will be an Eighth Doctor story).
• BFA: The Juggernauts was first released.
• BFU: Snake Head was first released.
• 17 - DW: Horror of Fang Rock was released to DVD in the UK.
• 29 - Big Finish Productions announces the production of three standalone hardback novels as part of its Big Finish New Worlds range. These were BFIW: Wildthyme on Top, BFNW: Project: Valhalla and BFNW: The Coming of the Queen. Big Finish also announced that it would be producing two single audio stories featuring Iris Wildthyme.
• Sophie Okonedo, who provided the voice of Alison Cheney in the webcast WC: Scream of the Shalka, was nominated for the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for her role in the 2004 film, Hotel Rwanda. Okonedo became the first actor to have played a Doctor or companion in an official Doctor Who production to have been nominated for an Oscar. She does not win.
• At some point in January, the BBC was made aware that Christopher Eccleston was not taking part in a second series of Doctor Who. According to a 4th April press release, the BBC agreed not to announce this to the public. It was later revealed that Russell T Davies had hoped to keep the actor's departure secret until the regeneration in DW: The Parting of the Ways was broadcast.

February

• PDA: Match of the Day was first published. This was the final BBC Past Doctor Adventures novel to feature the Fourth Doctor and, as of 2009, the most recent original Fourth Doctor novel. The PDA series was suspended until July to allow for the premiere and broadcast of the first season of the revived series.
• BFA:The Game was first released.
• 03 - DW: Ghost Light was released to DVD in Region 4.
• 05 - At the conclusion of a Saturday Night Live sketch on public access television pledge drives, TV celebrity Paris Hilton dons the Fourth Doctor's hat and scarf and refers to the Daleks and the TARDIS. The sketch was widely circulated among SF fandom, in part via the recently introduced video-sharing website, YouTube. In the coming years, YouTube would be a major outlet for the distribution of fan-made music videos, clips and other material related to Doctor Who and its spinoffs.
• 10 - Leonard Trolley (Supt. Reynolds in DW: The Faceless Ones) died in England.
• 11 - The Doctor Who Information Network (DWIN), the main Canadian Doctor Who fan club, launches its News Blog website.
• 16 - The TARDIS Index File Wikia website was launched.

March

• BFA: Dreamtime was first released.
• ST: Short Trips: Seven Deadly Sins was first published.
• BFU: The Longest Night was first released.
• This month, promotion for the upcoming return of Doctor Who to television enters high gear.
• 01 - DW: The Visitation and The Green Death was released to DVD in Region 1.
• As early reviews of the new Doctor Who series begin to appear, IGN Filmforce reports the American cable broadcaster Sci-Fi Channel, considered the most likely US broadcast home for the series, has chosen not to purchase it. Although there was talk of a related cable network, Universal HD, picking up the series, for the time being United States viewers will not be able to see the new series, with the exception of those close enough to Canada to receive the CBC broadcasts, which will now be the North American premiere of the series.
  
• 07 - DW: The Mind Robber was released to DVD in the UK.
• 08 - Big Finish Productions announces it had agreed to a deal with Paul Cornell allowing the company to continue its range of Bernice Summerfield books and audio CDs for the next few years.
• 09 - BBC Radio 4's Today runs a feature on the new series.
• 12 - Whether by coincidence or design (as the impending change of lead actor was already known behind the scenes), this week's cover of Radio Times features yet-to-be-announced Tenth Doctor actor David Tennant in a very Doctor-like pose promoting the mini-series Casanova - right next to a headline promoting the return of Doctor Who. This was the first of many Radio Times covers for Tennant over the next few years.
• 22 - Project Who Bigger on the Inside, the first episode of a two-part behind-the-scenes documentary on the return of Doctor Who, was first broadcast on BBC Radio 2 (later released on the CD Project: WHO?).
• 23 - Billie Piper was interviewed on The Chris Moyles Show on BBC Radio 1
• 25 - Christopher Eccleston was interviewed on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross.
• 26 - DW: Rose was first broadcast, returning Doctor Who to television as a weekly series for the first time since 1989 and launching Series 1, aka Season 27. Christopher Eccleston debuts as the Ninth Doctor, along with Billie Piper as companion Rose Tyler.
  • In conjunction with the debut of the new series, BBC Three premiers its behind-the-scenes series, Doctor Who Confidential the same night. A new episode of Confidential follows the broadcast of each new episode of Doctor Who.
  • The Doctor Who Story Broadcast on UK Gold.
  • Radio Times features Doctor Who on its cover. With the arrival of the new series, the Radio Times begins featuring the series on a more frequent basis (something not done since the early 1970s).
• 29 - Project Who: Reverse the Polarity, part 2 of the BBC Radio 2 documentary series, was first broadcast (later released on the CD Project: WHO?).
• 30 - The BBC announces production will proceed on a second series and a Christmas Special.
  • A publicity branch of the BBC prematurely announces that Christopher Eccleston will not return for a second series as the Ninth Doctor, citing his desire to not be typecast. This reason was denied immediately by Eccleston and the BBC ultimately retracts it (as of 2009 he has never confirmed his reason for leaving the role). In his 2008 book The Writer's Tale, Russell T Davies confirms that Eccleston's departure was intended to be kept secret until the final moments of DW: The Parting of the Ways.

April

• BFA: Three's a Crowd was first released.
• BFG: Lies was first released. This audio drama features the landmark first meeting between the first two incarnations of Romana, featuring Mary Tamm returning to the role of Romana I.
• 2 - DW: The End of the World was first broadcast.
• 4 - The BBC retracts part of its 30th March announcement of the departure of Christopher Eccleston, indicating it released the information with incorrect attribution and without the actor's consent.
• 7 - DW: Horror of Fang Rock was released to DVD in Region 4.
• 9 - DW: The Unquiet Dead was first broadcast. First appearance of the Cardiff Space-Time Rift; first revival-series story set in Wales; first appearance of Eve Myles in the Doctor Who franchise.
• 16 - DW: Aliens of London was first broadcast. This episode reintroduces UNIT (last referenced on television in DW: Battlefield), establishing that all modern-day stories in the Doctor Who franchise from this point on (spinoffs included) take place approximately one year ahead of their real-life broadcast date. First appearance of the Slitheen. For the first time since DW: The Gunfighters, a multi-part story carries different episode titles.
  • David Tennant was officially announced as the Tenth Doctor. At this time Tennant was best known for playing the title role in Casanova, a BBC miniseries that was written and produced by Russell T Davies. He has also recently filmed a role in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire which will be released to theatres the same day that his first solo performance as the Doctor was broadcast.
• 21 - THN: Echoes was first published.
• 23 - DW: World War Three was first broadcast.
• 25 - DW: The Claws of Axos was released to DVD in the UK; this was the first classic series DVD release in the UK since the revival of the series.
• 30 - DW: Dalek was first broadcast. The Daleks make their revived-series debut. Bruno Langley briefly joins the series as short-term companion Adam Mitchell.
• The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in Canada begins airing the new series, the first time the CBC have 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 were promoted as the North American debut of the series, as no other broadcaster on the continent has yet picked up the revived series.
• Christopher Eccleston becomes a Mencap charity ambassador.

May

• BBC Books launches the New Series Adventures line of original novels tying in with the new series; this line, featuring the Ninth Doctor, replaces the BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures and BBC Past Doctor Adventures lines, though both continue publishing briefly. The new line of books were published in hardcover and have a shorter word count than the EDA/PDA novels. The books were released three at a time. The first three released were NSA: The Clockwise Man, NSA: The Monsters Inside, and NSA: Winner Takes All.
• BFA: Catch-1782 was first released.
• ST: Short Trips: A Day in the Life was first published.
• BFG: Spirit was first released.
• BBCR: Project: WHO? was first released by BBC Audio. This was a CD issue of the two-part BBC Radio documentary Project Who on the return of Doctor Who, featuring interviews with Christopher Eccleston, Billie Piper and others.
• 5 - DW: The Mind Robber was released to DVD in Region 4.
• 7 - DW: The Long Game was first broadcast. Bruno Langley departs the series as his character, Adam Mitchell, became the first TV companion to be forced out by the Doctor.
• 14 - DW: Father's Day was first broadcast.
• 16 - In the UK, BBC Video releass Doctor Who: Volume 1 with the episodes DW: Rose, The End of the World and The Unquiet Dead. This was the first of a series of "vanilla" (extras-free) DVD released by BBC Video featuring episodes from a still-underway season and the first new-series episodes (and first Ninth Doctor episodes) to be released to home video.
• 21 - DW: The Empty Child was first broadcast. John Barrowman makes his first appearance as Jack Harkness. This episode, and part 2 the next week, were Steven Moffat's first serious contributions to televised Doctor Who and will win the series its first Hugo Award.
• 28 - DW: The Doctor Dances was first broadcast.

June

• EDA: The Gallifrey Chronicles was first published. This was the final release in the BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures novel series, as BBC Books prepweres to move into publishing novels exclusively based upon the revived series. One further Eighth Doctor novel will be published in the BBC Past Doctor Adventures line.
• BFA: Unregenerate! was first released.
• BFG: Pandora and BFG: Insurgency were first released.
• BFU: The Wasting was first released. Final episode of the spin-off series, U.N.I.T..
• BFBS: The Tree of Life was first published.
• FP: Warring States was first published.
• The BBC announces that a Christmas special has already been commissioned for 2006, as well as a third season for the new Doctor Who series.
• 01 - Geoffrey Toone (Hepesh in DW: The Curse of Peladon and Temmosus in Dr. Who and the Daleks) died in Northwood, Middlesex, England.
• 02 - DW: The Claws of Axos was released to DVD in Region 4.
• 04 - DW: Boom Town was first broadcast.
• 07 - DW: The Leisure Hive was released to DVD in Region 1.
• 08 - Ed Bishop died. He played General Flint in DWU: Full Fathom Five and was best known as Ed Straker in UFO and Captain Blue in Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons.
• 11 - DW: Bad Wolf was first broadcast. First reference to Torchwood.
  • Christopher Eccleston was interviewed by BBC Radio.
• 13 - The DVD Doctor Who: Volume 2 was released by BBC Video featuring the new series episodes DW: Aliens of London, World War Three and Dalek.
• 18 - DW: The Parting of the Ways was first broadcast, concluding the first season of the revival of Doctor Who. The Ninth Doctor regenerates into the Tenth, introducing David Tennant and marking Christopher Eccleston's final (to date) appearance as the Doctor. John Barrowman also departs the series as a regular with this story. The broadcast was followed by the final transmission of Doctor Who Confidential's first season.
  • Post-production completed for DW: The Christmas Invasion.
• 21 - DW: Ghost Light was released to DVD in Region 1.

July

• PDA: Island of Death was first published. Final PDA novel to feature the Third Doctor and last Third Doctor original novel to date. The PDA series returns to monthly released for the remainder of the year as the final books in the line were published.
• BFA: Terror Firma was first released.
• MB: Coming to Dust: The True History of Faction Paradox Volume 1 was first released. The Faction Paradox series was now being produced by Magic Bullet Productions.
• 11 - DW: Revelation of the Daleks was released to DVD in the UK. Beginning with this release, BBC Video issues Doctor Who DVDs in conjunction with 2 entertain.
• 15 - The first performance of the Doctor Who - Inside the TARDIS live stage tour was held at the Robert Blackwood Hall in Melbourne, Australia.
• 16 - The second performance of the Doctor Who - Inside the TARDIS live stage tour was held at the Palais Theatre in Melbourne, Australia.
• 17 - The third performance of the Doctor Who - Inside the TARDIS live stage tour was held at the Palais Theatre in Melbourne, Australia.
• 21 - THN: Peculiar Lives was first published.
• The fourth performance of the Doctor Who - Inside the TARDIS live stage tour was held at the Burswood Theatre in Perth, Australia.
• 23 - The fifth performance of the Doctor Who - Inside the TARDIS live stage tour was held at the Festival Theatre in Adelaide, Australia.
• 25 - The BBC announces that Elisabeth Sladen will return to the role of Sarah Jane Smith for an upcoming episode of the revived Doctor Who's second series.
• 26 - The sixth performance of the Doctor Who - Inside the TARDIS live stage tour was held at the Canberra Theatre in Canberra, Australia.
• 29 - The seventh performance of the Doctor Who - Inside the TARDIS live stage tour was held at the Theatre Royal in Sydney, Australia.
• 30 - The eighth performance of the Doctor Who - Inside the TARDIS live stage tour was held at the Theatre Royal in Sydney, Australia.

August

• PDA: Spiral Scratch (originally promoted under the title Future Nostalgia) was first published. Final novel to date to feature the Sixth Doctor.
• BFA: The Council of Nicaea was first released.
• BFG: Imperiatrix was first released.
• 01 - The DVD Doctor Who: Volume 3 featuring the episodes DW: The Long Game, Father's Day, The Empty Child and The Doctor Dances.
• The ninth performance of the Doctor Who - Inside the TARDIS live stage tour was held at the Brisbane Convention Centre in Brisbane, Australia.
• 5 - The tenth performance of the Doctor Who - Inside the TARDIS live stage tour was held at the Westpac St James Theatre in Wellington, New Zealand.
• 6 - The last performance of the Doctor Who - Inside the TARDIS live stage tour was held at the Civic Theatre in Auckland, New Zealand.
• 31 - Michael Sheard, who had countless roles in Doctor Who, notably DW: Pyramids of Mars and DW: Remembrance of the Daleks, died of cancer on the Isle of Wight.

September

• NSA: The Deviant Strain, NSA: Only Human, and NSA: The Stealers of Dreams were first published. To date, these were the last novels featuring the Ninth Doctor as BBC Books changes to novels featuring the Tenth Doctor.
• PDA: Fear Itself was first published. This was the last novel to date to feature the Eighth Doctor and was the only time this incarnation was featured in the BBC Past Doctor Adventures line.
• BFA: Thicker Than Water was first released.
• BFA: LIVE 34 was first released.
• ST: Short Trips: The Solar System was first published.
• BFC: Scorpius the first episode of a new Big Finish Productions spin-off series, Cyberman, was first released.
• Doctor Who Annual 2006 was first published. This marks the return of the Doctor Who Annual, a once-traditional publication that was issued during most of the run of the original series. Marvel Comics last made an attempt at reviving the format in the early 1990s.
• 01 - DW: Revelation of the Daleks was released to DVD in Region 4.
• 05 - BBCR: Doctor Who at the BBC Volume 3 was first released, including the first release of an unbroadcast Third Doctor audio mini-episode recorded for Glorious Goodwood.
• BBC Video releases the DVD Doctor Who: Volume 4 featuring the episodes DW: Boom Town, Bad Wolf and The Parting of the Ways. This concludes the series of "vanilla" DVD released of episodes from the first revival season. Discounting the unique appearance of the Eighth Doctor, the Ninth Doctor becomes the first Doctor to have his complete era released to DVD.
  
• 09 - DW: The Web Planet was released to DVD in the UK.
• 12 - Ronald Leigh-Hunt (Commander Julian Radnor in DW: The Seeds of Death and Commander Stevenson in DW: Revenge of the Cybermen) died.
• 23 - Roger Brierley (Trevor in DW: The Daleks' Master Plan and voice of Drathro in DW: The Mysterious Planet) died after suffering a heart attack.

October

• PDA: World Game was first published. Final Second Doctor novel to date.
• BFA: Scweredy Cat was first released.
• BFC: Fear was first released.
• 06 - BBC Video releases a special Dalek Collector's Edition DVD box set exclusively in UK W H Smith stores. The set includes the previously released DW: The Dalek Invasion of Earth, Resurrection of the Daleks and Remembrance of the Daleks.
• 18 - John Hollis (Sondergaard in DW: The Mutants) died from natural causes.
• 24 - Robert Sloman, who along with Barry Letts, wrote DW: The Dæmons, DW: The Time Monster, DW: The Green Death and DW: Planet of the Spiders died. (The pair were credited as "Guy Leopold" on the first story but for the final three, Sloman took the sole credit.)

November

• PDA: The Time Travellers was first published. Final First Doctor novel to date.
• BFA: Singularity was first released.
• BFIW: Wildthyme at Large was first released, launching an ongoing series of audio dramas featuring the character of Iris Wildthyme, played by Katy Manning.
• 03 - DW: The Web Planet was released to DVD in Region 4.
• 06 - DW: Horror of Fang Rock, The Mind Robber and The Claws of Axos were released to DVD in Region 1.
• 07 - BBC Audio releases Travels in Time and Space, a box set collecting three unabridged readings of early novelisations: Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks, Doctor Who and the Zarbi and Doctor Who and the Crusaders, all read by William Russell.
  • DW: City of Death was released to DVD in the UK.
• 18 - The DW: Children in Need Special was broadcast by the BBC as part of the Children in Need Appeal, marking the first solo appearance by David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor. This 7-minute mini-episode bridges the events of DW: The Parting of the Ways and DW: The Christmas Invasion and was the first canonical production of this nature (an earlier CiN production, 1993's DW: Dimensions in Time, was not generally considered part of the canon). It becomes the first production of the series revival not to be broadcast outside of the UK (though it will later be included on international DVDs).
  • Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was released to cinemas in the US and UK, featuring new Doctor David Tennant in a key role.
• 21 - The complete Series 1 (2005) of Doctor Who was released to DVD in the UK as a box set. This was the first time a complete season of Doctor Who has been released all at once (although all episodes had been issued previously in vanilla editions). Included was a bonus disc featuring the first DVD release of episodes of Doctor Who Confidential, although due to licensing and appearance rights issues, the practice of releasing edited-down versions (retitled Doctor Who Confidential Cutdown) to DVD was begun.
• The first Region 1 (North American) release
  
• 29 - Joseph Fürst (Professor Zaroff in DW: The Underwater Menace) died in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

December

• PDA: Atom Bomb Blues was first published. This novel featuring the Seventh Doctor was the final release in the BBC Books Past Doctor Adventures line. After this, BBC Books publishes only novels based upon the current series of Doctor Who, and also moved away from the paperback format, to a hardcover one (with the exception of Quick Reads novellas) hereafter. As of the fall of 2009, Atom Bomb Blues was the last novel to be published featuring a Doctor other than the one currently on TV.
• BFA: Other Lives was first released.
• ST: Short Trips: The History of Christmas was first published.
• BFC: Conversion was first released.
• BFIW: The Devil in Ms. Wildthyme was first released. Last Iris Wildthyme audio drama until 2009.
• 01 - DW: City of Death was released to DVD in Region 4.
• 08 - David Tennant appears on BBC Radio 4's Front Row.
• 19 - Don McKillop (Bert the Landlord in DW: The Dæmons) died from natural causes in the UK.
• 21 - David Tennant appears on BBC One's Breakfast programme.
• 23 - BBC Radio Wales broadcasts Back in Time - New Doctor, New Danger, featuring Russell T Davies and others.
• The BBC Two comedy series Dead Ringers features the parody "Christmas at Doctor Who's" with the cast impersonating David Tennant, Tom Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Patrick Troughton and Christopher Eccleston.
• 25 - DW: The Christmas Invasion was first broadcast, officially launching the Tenth Doctor era. The episode's closing credits introduce a modified arrangement of the Doctor Who theme, restoring the "middle 8" section not used during Series 1. At the behest of star David Tennant, the lead character was once again identified in the closing credits as "The Doctor".
• Following the broadcast, the BBC's "Red Button" service makes available WC: Attack of the Graske, an interactive mini-episode-cum-game featuring David Tennant. Initially this was only available for viewing/playing in the UK.
• 26 - DW: 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.
• 27 - BBC Radio 4's Front Row runs a feature on the new Doctor.

Unknown dates

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