Doctor Who: Who-ology (Dr Who)
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The 1970s
3 January 1970 A date marking many firsts in the history of Doctor Who. Jon Pertwee makes his debut, and a format change sees the Doctor exiled to Earth by the Time Lords. The Third Doctor becomes scientific adviser to UNIT with Nicholas Courtney’s Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart joining the series as a regular. The Nestene Consciousness and its plastic servants, the Autons, make their first attempt to invade Earth. Technology is changing in the wider world of television, and Doctor Who is broadcast in colour for the first time with a story recorded entirely on film, something that won’t happen again until 1996. The series sports a new colour title sequence featuring Pertwee’s face, and the number of episodes for the series has been reduced. Instead of running for about ten months of the year, as it has since 1963, Doctor Who is now on air for six months.
31 January 1970 Doctor Who and the Silurians marks the only time the series name is used within an individual on-screen story title. The Doctor’s yellow vintage car Bessie makes her debut. The appearance of a dinosaur marks the first use in the series of a technique known as colour separation overlay, or chromakey. A primary-coloured backdrop is used to ‘key in’ an image from another camera in a similar way to today’s green-screen technique.
21 March 1970 The theme tune ‘sting’ to emphasise the cliffhanger ending to each episode is used for the first time at the suggestion of director Michael Ferguson.
2 January 1971 Roger Delgado arrives as the Doctor’s Time Lord arch nemesis the Master.
1 January 1972 Day of the Daleks Episode 1 sees Skaro’s finest make their first appearance since May 1967.
29 January 1972 The Ice Warriors return as the Doctor faces The Curse of Peladon, although this time they’re goodies!
26 February 1972 The first appearance of the Sea Devils.
30 December 1972 A milestone to mark the tenth anniversary of the series, as William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton return to Doctor Who, battling the Time Lord Omega with current Doctor Jon Pertwee in The Three Doctors.
31 March 1973 The final appearance by Roger Delgado as the Master in the story Frontier in Space.
7 April 1973 Dalek creator Terry Nation makes his first script contribution to Doctor Who for seven years with Planet of the Daleks Episode 1.
2 May 1973 Target Books publish reprints of the novelisations Doctor Who and the Daleks, Doctor Who and the Crusaders – both by David Whitaker – and Doctor Who and the Zarbi by Bill Strutton.
18 June 1973 Roger Delgado is tragically killed in a car accident while filming Bell of Tibet in Turkey.
26 June 1973 Elisabeth Sladen is announced to the press as new companion Sarah Jane Smith, with Jon Pertwee joining her at a photo call at BBC Television Centre.
15 December 1973 The first episode of Doctor Who’s 11th season not only sees Sarah Jane Smith join the TARDIS, but also features the debut of the potato-headed Sontarans. The series now sports a brand new title sequence, once again designed by Bernard Lodge, who has created each title sequence since Doctor Who’s first episode. Lodge also designs a diamond-shaped logo to accompany the new series.
22 December 1973 The first on-screen reference to Gallifrey as the home planet of the Doctor and the Time Lords. This is not the first time the name has cropped up: it has been let slip in issue 124 of TV Action comic in July 1973, as the editors responded to a reader’s letter asking which planet the Master came from.
5 February 1974 BBC Head of Serials Bill Slater receives a letter from an out-of-work actor called Tom Baker, asking for work.
8 February 1974 The press announcement that Jon Pertwee will leave Doctor Who at the end of the current series.
15 February 1974 Tom Baker is unveiled to the press as Jon Pertwee’s successor in the role of the Doctor. He is joined by Elisabeth Sladen and a Cyberman at a photo call at BBC Television Centre.
8 June 1974 The final regular appearance by Jon Pertwee as the Doctor after five years. The term ‘regeneration’ is used for the first time.
28 December 1974 Tom Baker makes his full debut as the Doctor at 5.35pm, watched by 10.8 million viewers. Bernard Lodge’s fifth title sequence is unveiled, which now features Tom Baker’s face and the TARDIS for the first time.
1 February 1975 13.6 million viewers tune in to the second episode of The Ark in Space, propelling Doctor Who to its highest rating and chart placing at that point, coming in as the fifth most-watched television programme of the week.
8 March 1975 The first appearance of Davros, the creator of the Daleks.
19 April 1975 The first appearance of the Cybermen since 1968’s The Invasion. The story is former script editor and Cybermen co-creator Gerry Davis’s final contribution to Doctor Who. Revenge of the Cybermen makes the first reference to the Cybermen’s vulnerability to gold.
23 April 1975 William Hartnell passes away, aged 67.
20 September 1975 After 98 episodes, Nicholas Courtney makes his final regular appearance as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart in Terror of the Zygons.
6 March 1976 The original TARDIS prop makes its final appearance after 13 years’ service to adventures in time and space. Years of being battered around studios and locations have taken their toll, resulting in the roof collapsing on Elisabeth Sladen during studio recording for The Seeds of Doom.
23 October 1976 Elisabeth Sladen makes her final regular appearance as Sarah Jane Smith – but Sarah’s story is in many ways only just beginning.
30 October 1976 Companionless for the very first time, the Doctor returns home to Gallifrey for The Deadly Assassin. The Master makes his first appearance since Frontier in Space, now played by Peter Pratt.
1 October 1977 A different kind of companion makes its debut, as robot dog K-9 whirrs into view for the first time.
18 July 1978 The cast and crew of The Stones of Blood enjoy a specially made birthday cake to celebrate making Doctor Who’s 100th adventure. The cake had originally been ordered as a prop for a scene in which the Doctor celebrates his 751st birthday, but the gag was never taped.
2 September 1978 The first appearance of Mary Tamm as Time Lady companion Romanad-voratrelundar – Romana for short. A season-long story arc begins as the Doctor, Romana and K-9 embark on the quest for the Key to Time.
30 September 1978 Douglas Adams contributes his first script to Doctor Who. His famous radio comedy, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, first aired in March 1978.
30 April 1979 The Doctor Who cast and crew travel to Paris to record sequences for the upcoming City of Death, marking the series’ first location shoot abroad.
22 September 1979 Broadcast of Dalek creator Terry Nation’s final script contribution to Doctor Who – Destiny of the Daleks, Episode 4.
20 October 1979 With the BBC’s rival broadcaster ITV in the grip of industrial action that has taken it off the air, the final part of City of Death attracts Doctor Who’s highest-ever audience figure of 16.1 million viewers. It is a record that stands to this day.
10 December 1979 Continued industrial action by various technicians’ unions plagues filming on Shada, the final story of Season 17, forcing producer Graham Williams to officially abandon production. While it is doomed never to be transmitted, the story will eventually be released commercially as a VHS tape in 1992, with new linking material performed by Tom Baker, and reissued on DVD in 2013.
The 1980s
30 August 1980 Doctor Who’s eighteenth season debuts, and with it a new version of the theme tune. Alterations have been made to the theme over the years, but the original mix created by Delia Derbyshire in 1963 has always been retained until now, as Peter Howell, of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, completely reimagines the famous theme. To accompany the new arrangement, the title sequence abandons the ‘time tunnel’ effect for a background of stars, and features a brand new neon-style logo.
24 October 1980 A hastily arranged press conference is held to announce Tom Baker’s departure from Doctor Who at the end of Season 18. Although producer John Nathan-Turner is alr
eady in discussions with the actor who will be his new Doctor, Tom Baker’s teasing leads the press to speculate that ‘the new Doctor Who may even be a woman’.
5 November 1980 All Creatures Great and Small star Peter Davison appears on BBC magazine programme Nationwide, confirming that he will be taking over the part of the Doctor from Tom Baker.
24 January 1981 K-9 leaves the series, along with Romana, but the tin dog will return to our screens later in the year.
21 February 1981 Two masterful first appearances in The Keeper of Traken. Geoffrey Beevers makes his debut as the emaciated form of the Master, but is replaced at the end of the story by Anthony Ainley, the fourth actor to play the renegade Time Lord.
21 March 1981 An end that spells a new beginning, as Tom Baker makes his final appearance as the Doctor, making way for Peter Davison’s brief debut as the Fifth Doctor. Davison’s credit in the closing titles is the last time an actor in the role is credited as ‘Doctor Who’ (rather than ‘The Doctor’) until 2005.
28 December 1981 The first Doctor Who spin-off is broadcast. K-9 and Company sees the return of Elisabeth Sladen to the Doctor Who universe as Sarah Jane Smith, joining K-9 Mark III for a spooky festive adventure. The hoped-for spin-off series fails to materialise – for now.
4 January 1982 After the longest-ever gap between seasons of Doctor Who, a new era begins with Castrovalva Part 1, marking Peter Davison’s first full episode as the Doctor. After eighteen years occupying a traditional Saturday teatime slot in the schedules, Doctor Who moves through time and space to a twice-weekly broadcast on Monday and Tuesday evenings at 6.40pm. This episode also marks the first use of a pre-titles scene, reprising the regeneration scene from the end of Logopolis Part 4.
22 February 1982 Millions of Doctor Who viewers watch in horror as the sonic screwdriver makes its final appearance, an old friend blasted to pieces by a Terileptil’s gun.
8 March 1982 In a shock cliff-hanger ending, Earthshock sees the Cybermen make their first full appearance in eight years.
16 March 1982 Companion Adric, played by Matthew Waterhouse, is killed off. In a break with tradition, the closing credits run with no music for the one and only time in the series’ history.
1 February 1983 Mawdryn Undead sees Nicholas Courtney make his first appearance as the Brigadier in eight years.
28 July 1983 Following a press conference, the BBC lunchtime news reveals that Peter Davison will depart the role of the Doctor at the close of the 21st season. His successor has been cast, but is yet to be revealed to the world at large.
19 August 1983 Popular television actor Colin Baker is announced as the sixth actor to play the Doctor. The announcement is made at a press conference in which the actor is joined by Nicola Bryant, who will play the Doctor’s latest companion, Peri Brown.
October 1983 Revenge of the Cybermen becomes the first Doctor Who story to be released on home video on VHS, Betamax and Video 2000 formats.
23 November 1983 Doctor Who’s twentieth anniversary, and the first broadcast of the anniversary special The Five Doctors takes place – in the USA.
25 November 1983 As part of the BBC’s annual Children in Need charity telethon, The Five Doctors is broadcast in the UK. Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee return to the series, with Tom Baker represented through clips from the unfinished story Shada, and Richard Hurndall taking the place of the late William Hartnell as the First Doctor.
8 February 1984 Part 1 of Resurrection of the Daleks is broadcast. Coverage of the Winter Olympics means that the four-part story is stitched together as two double-length episodes.
16 March 1984 After three years, Peter Davison makes his final regular appearance as the Doctor, handing over to Colin Baker who debuts as the Sixth Doctor in the closing moments of the episode. The regeneration takes place in The Caves of Androzani, the penultimate story of the season.
22 March 1984 Colin Baker makes his full debut as the Sixth Doctor in The Twin Dilemma. The Doctor uses the term ‘incarnation’ for the first time to describe his new body.
5 January 1985 Colin Baker’s first full season as the Doctor opens with a return for the Cybermen. Following the success of longer episodes for last year’s Resurrection of the Daleks, the series is now broadcast in longer 45-minute episodes and returns to its traditional Saturday night slot.
2 February 1985 The first appearance of Kate O’Mara as the Rani.
16 February 1985 Having enjoyed appearing in The Five Doctors, Patrick Troughton returns to the series once more in The Two Doctors, joined by Frazer Hines as Jamie.
27 February 1985 Michael Grade, the Controller of BBC One, becomes the most vilified person in the history of Doctor Who when his decision to delay the next series by eighteen months is announced.
30 March 1985 The Daleks are seen to hover above the ground for the first time in Revelation of the Daleks Part 2. The confusing camera angle used means that many viewers miss this historic event.
25 July 1985 The first episode of radio drama Doctor Who: Slip-back is broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It stars Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant as the Doctor and Peri, and forms part of the station’s Pirate Radio 4 strand for younger listeners.
6 September 1986 After an enforced hiatus, Doctor Who returns to screens with the first episode of the longest-ever Doctor Who story, the 14-part Trial of a Time Lord.
6 December 1986 Colin Baker makes what will become his final regular televised appearance as the Doctor in the final part of the Trial season.
18 December The official press announcement that Colin Baker will not be returning as the Doctor.
28 February 1987 British newspaper The Sun breaks the story about Sylvester McCoy’s casting as the new Doctor. McCoy, along with Bonnie Langford, attends a photo call for the press on 2 March to confirm the news, and later appears on Blue Peter.
28 March 1987 Patrick Troughton passes away at the age of 67 while attending a Doctor Who convention in the USA.
7 September 1987 Sylvester McCoy debuts as the Seventh Doctor.
23 November 1987 On Doctor Who’s 24th birthday, Sophie Aldred makes her first appearance as Ace in Dragonfire.
5 October 1988 A Dalek is seen to hover up a flight of stairs for the first time in Remembrance of the Daleks.
23 November 1988 Doctor Who celebrates its Silver Jubilee with Silver Nemesis, an adventure that appropriately pits the Doctor and Ace against the Cybermen.
23 March 1989 Jon Pertwee stars as the Doctor in the first performance of stage show Doctor Who: The Ultimate Adventure at the Wimbledon Theatre, London. Colin Baker takes over the role from Pertwee on 5 June.
12 July 1989 Roger Laughton, Director of Co-Production at BBC Enterprises, receives a telephone call from American-based television producer Philip Segal. Segal expresses an interest in forging a transatlantic co-production deal with the BBC to continue Doctor Who into the 1990s.
23 November 1989 On Doctor Who’s 26th anniversary, Sylvester McCoy attends a studio session to record the voiceover that will be played in the closing seconds of Survival, the final story of Season 26. These are the final lines recorded for the original 26-year run of Doctor Who.
6 December 1989 After 26 years and 695 broadcast episodes, Doctor Who’s original television run comes to an end as the Doctor and Ace walk off into the distance. But as history will prove, the Doctor still has work to do.
The 1990s
June 1991 Virgin Books publishes the first novel in the Doctor Who New Adventures series, Timewyrm: Genesis by John Peel. The book is the first full-length novel featuring the Doctor not to be based on a TV story or unused script.
27 August 1993 BBC Radio Five broadcasts the first episode of Doctor Who: The Paradise of Death, a brand new radio adventure for Jon Pertwee as the Doctor, with Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah and Nicholas Courtney as the Brigadier, written by Third Doctor producer Barry Letts.
26 November 1993 To celebrate Doctor Who’s 30th anniversary, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker and Sylvester
McCoy appear as the Doctor in Dimensions in Time, a two-part adventure that forms part of that year’s BBC Children in Need telethon. Broadcast in experimental 3D, the story features members of the cast of BBC soap opera East-Enders and the return of many companions from Doctor Who’s 30-year history, several for the last time. Kate O’Mara makes her third and final appearance as the Rani.
12 September 1994 With continuing rumblings of a US co-production deal for Doctor Who going back to Philip Segal’s phone call to the BBC in July 1989, film and TV actor Paul McGann tapes a screen test for the role of the Doctor in London.
5 January 1996 Over a year after he first auditioned, Paul McGann is confirmed as the new Doctor at a photo call held at the Doctor Who Exhibition at Longleat. Two days later he flies to Vancouver to begin filming the first new Doctor Who in production since 1989. He is joined by Sylvester McCoy to allow a regeneration scene from the Seventh to the Eighth Doctor to be filmed.
14 May 1996 Paul McGann makes his one and only screen appearance as the Doctor with the worldwide debut of the feature-length TV movie Doctor Who on the Fox network in America.
20 May 1996 Jon Pertwee passes away at the age of 76.
27 May 1996 The first UK broadcast of the Doctor Who TV movie attracts 9.1 million viewers – making it the highest-rated television drama that week. The episode is dedicated to the memory of Jon Pertwee. Sadly, the success of the TV movie in the UK does not lead to a new series. Yet…
2 June 1997 Publication of the novel The Eight Doctors by Terrance Dicks commences BBC Books’ own line of original Doctor Who fiction. Paul McGann’s reading of the novelisation of the TV movie is released as part of the BBC Radio Collection.
7 September 1998 Paul McGann returns to the role of the Doctor with the release of Earth and Beyond, an audiobook short-story collection for the BBC Radio Collection.