2007 (production)
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| Timeline for 2007 |
2001 • 2002 • 2003 • 2004 • 2005 • 2006 • 2008 • 2009 • 2010 • 2011 • 2012 • 2013 |
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2007 was a year in which a number of events important to the production of Doctor Who and its spin-offs occurred.
January
- 16-17 January - The Big Finish audio story Renaissance of the Daleks was recorded at the Moat Stuidos.
February
- 4 February - Big Finish's Bernice Summerfield audio story The Judas Gift was recorded.
- 5, 6 and 8 February - The Big Finish audio anthology Exotron was recorded at the Moat Studios.
- 12-13 February - The Big Finish audio anthology I.D. (consisting of the main I.D. story and the bonus story Urgent Calls) was recorded at the Moat Studios.
- 18 February - Russell T Davies and Doctor Who Magazine writer Benjamin Cook began exchanging e-mails in a project to document the production of several episodes of the upcoming fourth series for DWM. The project eventually grew into what became the book release The Writer's Tale.
- 25 February - Big Finish's Bernice Summerfield audio story Freedom of Information was recorded.
- Late February - In a meeting with Jane Tranter, Catherine Tate expressed interest in returning as Donna Noble for a couple of episodes of Series 4. At this point there had been no discussion of her returning to the series full-time.[1]
March
- 6 March - American actor Dennis Hopper expressed interest in appearing in Doctor Who and Russell T Davies began considering him for a role in what became the 2007 Christmas special, Voyage of the Damned. Initially considered for the role of Mr Copper and then Max Capricorn, the idea of Hopper appearing did not pan out. Meanwhile, Billie Piper expressed interest in returning for as many as four episodes of Series 4.[1]
- 13 March - Catherine Tate, in a meeting with Julie Gardner, indicated interest in appearing in a full season of Doctor Who. Russell T Davies, still sketching out the introduction of a new companion called Penny for series 4, began retooling his ideas to fit the possible return of Donna Noble.[1]
- 19 March - Catherine Tate officially signed on to return as Donna Noble in the upcoming fourth series; besides retooling the season première, Partners in Crime, Russell T Davies also began rethinking his planned "world without a Doctor" storyline, which became Turn Left.[1]
- 21 March - The press launch for series 3 of Doctor Who took place.
- 22 March - Kylie Minogue, via her management, expressed interest in appearing in an episode of Doctor Who.[1]
April
- 11 April - Russell T Davies, who had already indicated his wish to leave his post as executive producer after series 4, was formally invited by the BBC to stay on for series 5. Davies declined, later writing to Benjamin Cook, "They knew my reply even before they walked in."[1] Davies' impending departure was kept under wraps for the next year.
- 16-17 April - The Big Finish audio story Valhalla took place at the Moat Studios.
- 17 April - Russell T Davies furnished Benjamin Cook with the story outline for what became Voyage of the Damned, but then carried the working title, Starship Titanic.[1]
- 22 April - The News of the World broke the story that Kylie Minogue had been cast in the upcoming Christmas special, but erroneously reported that she was to play a Cyberwoman.
- 22 April - Russell T Davies pulled out of writing the script for the first episode of Torchwood season 2, although a scene he penned, involving a blowfish driving a sports car, was retained in the final script, Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang.[1]
- 24-25 April - The Big Finish audio story Frozen Time was recorded at the Moat Studios.
- 28 April - Torchwood beat Doctor Who for the Best Drama prize at the Welsh BAFTA awards, while David Tennant and Eve Myles received Best Actor and Best Actress and Graeme Harper Best Director.
May
- 6 May - Big Finish's Bernice Summerfield audio story The End of the World was recorded.
- 14 and 17 May - The Big Finish audio anthology The Wishing Beast was recorded at the Moat Studios.
- 16 May - After weeks of sketching out story ideas, Russell T Davies began writing the script for the 2007 Christmas special then titled Starship Titanic.
- 30 May - After discovering a Douglas Adams computer game of the same title, Russell T Davies changed the title of the 2007 Christmas special from Starship Titanic to Voyage of the Damned.[1]
- 31 May - The Sun tabloid reported that Doctor Who would be taken off the air for a year after the conclusion of Series 4 in 2008, except for some specials, with David Tennant leaving midway through the season. The first half of the report proved accurate, the second half less so as Tennant ultimately stayed for all of the specials.
June
- 4 June - Russell T Davies learned the secret of Catherine Tate replacing Freema Agyeman in Series 4 was leaking out, causing concern about the potential for tabloid reports over Agyeman being "fired" before the current season played out.[1]
- 5 June - Russell T Davies completed his initial draft script for Voyage of the Damned.[1]
- 6 June - The Big Finish audio story Mother Russia was recorded at the Moat Studios.
- 26-27 June - The Big Finish audio story Absolution was recorded at the Moat Studios.
- 27 June - David Tennant informed the Doctor Who production staff he had been signed to appear in Hamlet in late 2008 during the already-planned production hiatus.[1]
- 30 June - Plans to simulcast Last of the Time Lords to crowds at Trafalgar Square as part of a Gay Pride event were cancelled at the last minute.
July
- 4 July - The BBC announced in a midnight press release that Catherine Tate would join Doctor Who for Series 4; according to Russell T Davies the announcement was made to preempt an expected story revealing the same by the Sun tabloid the same day. Davies learnt another tabloid The Daily Mail was expected to prematurely break the news of Tennant appearing in Hamlet and the official plan to have a gap year.
- 7 July - Doctor Who won three trophies at the inaugural Constellation Awards, a Canadian-based honour recognising the best in science fiction and presented during the annual Polaris SF convention. David Tennant won Best Male Performance in a 2006 Science Fiction Television Episode for The Girl in the Fireplace, while Doctor Who itself won the overall Best Science Fiction Television Series category. Unusually, Doctor Who also received the award for Outstanding Canadian Contribution to Science Fiction due to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation being a co-producer of the series.
- 9 July - The UK newspaper the Guardian named Russell T Davies the fifteenth most powerful player in the UK media industry.
- 10 July - David Tennant left the set of Voyage of the Damned on learning that his mother was taken gravely ill. She died five days later. Production continued around his absence.[1]
- 16-18 and 23-24 July - Big Finish's Dalek Empire story The Fearless was recorded at the Moat Studios.
- 17 July - Russell T Davies addressed what he described to Benjamin Cook as "the elephant in the room" and initiated discussions with Steven Moffat about Moffat taking over Davies' job on Doctor Who. Moffat replied on the 19th that he was interested in talking about the idea.[1]
- 25 and 27 July - The Big Finish audio anthology The Mind's Eye was recorded at the Moat Studios.
- 26-27 July - The Big Finish audio story The Bride of Peladon took place at the Moat Studios.
- 28 July - Big Finish's Bernice Summerfield audio story Beyond the Sea was recorded at the Moat Studios.
- 29 July - Inspired by reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Russell T Davies began toying with the idea of inviting J. K. Rowling to appear on Doctor Who, possibly in the 2008 Christmas special.[1]
- 31 July - Bernard Cribbins, a veteran of the Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. movie, filmed a cameo for Voyage of the Damned, little knowing he would later return to the series several times in Series 4. Despite his workload, Russell T Davies visited the set.[1]
August
- August - Doctor Who received the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form, for the episode The Girl in the Fireplace, written by Steven Moffat. Also nominated in this category were the episodes School Reunion and the two-parter Army of Ghosts / Doomsday.
- 3 August - Problems with the script for The Fires of Pompeii led to Russell T Davies considering replacing it with a previously aborted Second World War-era story by Mark Gatiss.[1]
- 4 August - Russell T Davies began work on a major rewrite of James Moran's script for The Fires of Pompeii.[1]
- Early August - Colin Teague and Phil Collinson visited the Cinecitta Studios in Rome, Italy, as the Doctor Who production team considered filming part of The Fires of Pompeii in Rome — the first time major filming for a DW TV episode had been conducted outside the UK since 1985. Cinecitta was the home studio of another BBC production, Rome.[1]
- 9 August - Around the time Teague and Collinson were in Rome, the Cinecitta Studios were heavily damaged in a fire.[1]
- 13 August - The Big Finish audio story Max Warp was recorded at the Moat Studios.
- 14 August - The Big Finish audio story Brave New Town was recorded at the Moat Studios.
- 15 August - The Big Finish audio story The Davros Mission was recorded.
- 16 August - The Big Finish audio story The Skull of Sobek was recorded at the Moat Studios.
- 17 August - The Big Finish audio story The Zygon Who Fell to Earth was recorded at the Moat Studios.
- 20 August - The Big Finish audio story Sisters of the Flame was recorded at the Moat Studios.
- 21 August - Russell T Davies hatched the idea of creating a false edit of Partners in Crime for media/review distribution to hide a surprise cameo by Billie Piper as Rose Tyler.[1]
- 21 August - The Big Finish audio story Dead London was recorded at the Moat Studios.
- 22 August - The Big Finish audio story Return to the Web Planet was recorded at the Moat Studios.
- 23 August - Plans for the return of Rose Tyler in Series 4 were jeopardised when it was learned that Billie Piper was planning on getting married at the end of 2007, and might not be available for filming.[1]
- 23 August - The Big Finish audio story The Vengeance of Morbius was recorded at the Moat Studios.
- 30 August - Russell T Davies began writing the script for Partners in Crime, the first episode of Series 4.
- 31 August - Due to a premature announcement by the Royal Shakespeare Company (see 3rd September, below), Doctor Who's producers informed their staff that the fifth series would not go into production until 2009, save for a few interim specials.[1]
- David Tennant switched on the illuminations in Blackpool before a crowd of tens of thousands. He was accompanied by Julie Gardner and Phil Collinson. The somewhat manic race through traffic-clogged motorways to get to the event was immortalised in one of Tennant's video diaries which was subsequently released in the Series 4 DVD set.
September
- 3 September - The BBC officially announced that Series 5 of Doctor Who would not air until 2010. According to Russell T Davies the announcement was originally to have been made prior to an 11 September press conference by the Royal Shakespeare Company announcing David Tennant's appearance in Hamlet in the fall of 2008, but the release of an RSC brochure in late August required an immediate announcement.
- 6 September - Russell T Davies revealed to Benjamin Cook that, despite previous scheduling conflicts, Billie Piper would return as Rose Tyler in Partners in Crime and series 4.[1]
- 6 September - Russell T Davies completed his initial draft of Partners in Crime.
- 13 September - Filming began on The Fires of Pompeii at the Cinecitta Studios in Rome, the first time, save the 1996 telefilm and second-unit filming on Daleks in Manhattan, that major shooting for a regular episode had taken place outside the UK since 1985's The Two Doctors was filmed in Spain.
- 27 September - Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner decided to reject a script by Tom MacRae which was planned for series 4. Davies took on the job of writing a replacement, which ultimately became Midnight.[1]
- 28 September - Steven Moffat informed Russell T Davies that he agreed to take over the executive producer/head writer's position when Davies left.[1]
October
- 7 October - Filming for Time Crash took place at the Upper Boat Studios.
- 10 October - With production of Partners in Crime now under way, Russell T Davies realised how ill Howard Attfield, playing Geoff Noble, was and began to consider how to work this into the season, given the character was supposed to appear in several episodes. A few days later, Davies considered filming Attfield's scenes in the as-yet-unwritten Turn Left as soon as possible, along with his scenes in Partners in Crime.[1]
- Mid-October - British media leaked the news that Billie Piper would be returning to Doctor Who.
- 11-12 October - The Big Finish audio story Masters of War was recorded at the Moat Studios.
- 13 October - Russell T Davies began writing the script for Crusader Five, later renamed Crusader 50 as at the time it was going to be the fiftieth episode of the revived Doctor Who. The script was later retitled Midnight.[1]
- 15 October - An injury forced Howard Attfield to pull out of production of Partners in Crime after filming only a few of his planned scenes. Phil Collinson suggested hiring Bernard Cribbins as a last-minute replacement, and Russell T Davies retconned the newspaper seller Cribbins played in Voyage of the Damned as Donna Noble's grandfather, Wilfred Mott.[1]
- 22 October - Piers Wenger was interviewed as a possible replacement for Julie Gardner when she stepped down as producer after the 2009 Specials were filmed.[1]
- 27 October - Russell T Davies began writing the script for Turn Left.
- Early winter - Doctor Who was nominated in the "Favourite Sci-Fi Show" category for the 2008 People's Choice Awards, to be presented in January 2008 on the CBS network. This was the first mainstream American award nomination for the series (which previously was only nominated for awards in genre awards such as the Hugos). The award winner was determined by an Internet poll, and the award ultimately went to Stargate Atlantis.
November
- November - Doctor Who won Most Popular Drama and David Tennant won Most Popular Actor at the 2007 National Television Awards.
- 29-30 November - The Big Finish audio story The Condemned was recorded at the Moat Studios.
December
- 1 December - Big Finish's Bernice Summerfield audio story The Adolescence of Time was recorded.
- 7 December - The BBC announced that Julie Gardner would end her tenure as executive producer of Doctor Who in 2009, with Piers Wenger succeeding her.
- 10 December - Russell T Davies began writing the script for The Stolen Earth. That same day, Steven Moffat began a dialogue with Davies regarding the changeover in producing regime and the start of series 5.[1]
- 13-14 December - The Big Finish audio story The Haunting of Thomas Brewster was recorded at the Moat Studios.
- 15 December - Catherine Tate let slip on the Jonathan Ross radio show the incorrect news that series 4 would be David Tennant's last. This was followed by a similarly erroneous (or at least premature) report by BBC News.
- 18 December - The press launch for Voyage of the Damned took place.
- 18 and 21 December - The Big Finish audio story The Dark Husband was recorded at the Moat Studios.
- 31 December - Russell T Davies completed the initial draft of The Stolen Earth.
