Текст книги "Doctor Who: Who-ology (Dr Who)"

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CONTENTS

COVER

ABOUT THE BOOK

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

TITLE PAGE

INTRODUCTION

ONE

THE 50-YEAR DIARY: A DOCTOR WHO TIMELINE

TWO

EVERYONE’S FAVOURITE TIME LORD: THE MANY LIVES AND CHANGING FACES OF THE DOCTOR

First and Last Words

Doctor Who – The Original Trailer

The Doctor by Numbers

Who’s Who – The Twelve Doctors

What’s in a Name?

John Who?

The Doctor’s Height

Who Goes There

Doctor Doubles

Doctor… Who?

A Doctor of What?

The Doctor Is In

Unseen Adventures

The Last Great Time War

Mid-Life Crisis: The Changing Age of the Doctor

A Mere Slip of a Girl?

A Young, Old Face

Fish Fingers and Custard

The Doctor’s Abilities

Other Time Lord Abilities

The Doctor’s Family Tree

The Many Wives of Doctor Who

The Doctor’s Twin – The Other Doctor

The Doctor’s Companion – The TARDIS

The Doctor’s Daughter – Jenny

Extended Family

The Doctor’s Physiology

Capacious Pockets

The Finest Swordsman in All of Gallifrey

Reasons for Regeneration

Equipment to Aid Regenerative Crisis

THREE

THE DOCTOR’S BEST FRIENDS: COMPANIONS AND OTHER ALLIES

Companions by Numbers

Companion Roll Call: The 1960s

Hello, Goodbye

Haven’t I Seen You Somewhere Before?

Return Performances

Happy Birthday to Who

Companion Roll Call: The 1970s

Mustering the Troops – The Creation of UNIT

UNIT Personnel

The Unknown Soldiers

UNIT Call Signs

The Life and Times of Nicholas Courtney

The Men From UNIT

Companion Roll Call: The 1980s

The Sorry Ballad of Kamelion

Off-Screen Companions

Companion Roll Call: The 1990s

Kissing Companions

Companion Roll Call: The 2000s

Hello Sweetie

Companion Roll Call: The 2010s

They Keep Killing Rory

Occasional Companions

Family Ties

Extended (Unseen) Families

Reasons for Leaving the Doctor

FOUR

A CARNIVAL OF MONSTERS

Monstrous First Lines

Returning Monsters

The Silurians

Dinosaurs in Doctor Who

Designing Dinos

Monster Maker –The Bluffer’s Guide To…

The Lives and Deaths of Davros

Bringing Davros to Life

Monster Maker – The Bluffer’s Guide To…

A Dalek A-Z

Armed and Dangerous

Dalek Servants

The Only Daleks With Names

Dalek Operators

Voices of the Daleks

Familiar Voices

Dalek Variants

Colour-Coded Daleks

40 Ways to Defeat a Dalek

Universal Monsters

Warlords of Mars

Bred for War – Sontaran Factoids

Sontaran Roll Call

Sontaran Forces

Worlds of the Cybermen

Cyber-Spotter

Cyber Converts

Mapping the Web of Fear

Monster Make-Up

FIVE

LOTS OF PLANETS HAVE A NORTH: A ROUGH GUIDE TO EARTH AND OTHER WORLDS

The Doctor’s World Map

The Changing Face of the Oval Office

Namedropper

Historical Celebrities

The Nemesis Comet

Celebrity Culture

Not Quite Themselves

Medical Establishments on Earth

The Mysterious World of Doctor Who

The Moving Earth

TARDIS Log

Solar System Stories

Welcome to Gallifrey

Notable Time Lords

The Master Mad-o-meter

The Things of Rassilon and Other Gallifreyan Stuff

Planets Attacked by the Daleks

Shockeye’s Kitchen

SIX

A KETTLE AND A PIECE OF STRING: TECHNOLOGY IN DOCTOR WHO

TARDIS Components and Equipment

The Time Rotor

Console Room Designers

Some TARDIS Disguises

For Whom the Bell Tolls

Sonic Screwdrivers Galore

Using the Sonic Screwdriver

Known Limitations

Psychic Paper

The Doctor’s Toolkit

Who’s Driving This Thing?

Good Old Bessie

14 Facts About the Whomobile

SEVEN

RELATIVE DIMENSIONS: DOCTOR WHO AND POPULAR CULTURE

Soap Who

Connecting Doctor Who and The Archers

The Name’s Who. Doctor Who

To Boldly Go Where No TARDIS Has Gone Before

Carry On Doctor

A Gallifrey Far, Far Away

Harry Potter and the Bigger on the Inside

TARDIS Library

Songs for Eleven

Original Songs

Doc of the Pops

Variations on a Theme

Pop Picks

Desert Island Discs

Doctor Who, This is Your Life

Big Screen / Small Screen

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Whoniverse

The Other Doctors

EIGHT

THE MATRIX: BEHIND THE SCENES

The Long and Short of it

The Architects of Doctor Who

Prolific Guest Stars

Repeat Performance

Doctor Who’s Most Prolific Writers

Director Who

Stage Plays and Performances

TV Spin-Offs

Wireless Who

Doctor Who on the Big Screen

Stories That Name-Check Themselves

How Long Would it Take to Watch Doctor Who?

APPENDIX STORY LIST

THANKS

COPYRIGHT

ABOUT THE BOOK

Do you know your Sontarens from your Silurians? What are the 40 best ways to defeat a Dalek? What are the galactic coordinates of Gallifrey?

Test your knowledge of the last Time Lord and the worlds he’s visited in Who-ology, an unforgettable journey through 50 years of Doctor Who.

Packed with facts, figures and stories from the show’s entire run, this unique tour of space and time takes you from Totters Lane to Trenzalore, taking in guides to UNIT call signs, details of the inner workings of sonic screwdrivers, and a reliability chart covering every element of the TARDIS.

You won’t believe the wonders that await. Are you ready? Then read on, you clever boy. And remember…

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Cavan Scott has written numerous books, audio dramas and comics strips based on such series as The Sarah Jane Adventures, Skylanders, Judge Dredd and, of course, Doctor Who. He has written about the good Doctor’s adventures in such magazines as SFX and Doctor Who Magazine and regularly appears at Doctor Who conventions around the country.

Mark Wright is a journalist and author and has written many audios, short stories and comic strips featuring new adventures for the Doctor, along with tie-ins to other series such as The Power Rangers and The Sarah Jane Adventures. He is a regular contributor to Doctor Who Magazine.

INTRODUCTION

‘Have you ever thought what it’s like to be wanderers in the fourth dimension?’

The Doctor, An Unearthly Child

The Doctor started running on 23 November 1963 and hasn’t stopped since. Fifty years of adventure have given us hundreds of stories, at least 11 Doctors and more monsters than you can shake a sink plunger at.

Who-ology is a miscellany, a rattle-bag of facts, figures and trivia from five decades of time travel in the company of a madman with a box. From that junkyard on Totter’s Lane to a snow-dusted Victorian London at Christmas, we cover the companions that have accompanied him, the planets he has visited and the terrors he has faced.

Here you will discover the many names that the Doctor has used over the years, the exact number of companions he has snogged, and just how mad the Master actually is. Find out what vehicles the Doctor has driven, the tools he’s used, and the songs that have become the soundtrack to his exploits. There are questions to answer – who has written the most Doctor Who television stories and how long would it take to watch every episode back to back? There are survival guides that detail 40 methods of killing a Dalek, a timeline of significant events from all five decades of the show, and a list of every TARDIS control and mechanism ever mentioned.

Above all, Who-ology is a love letter to one of the craziest shows on television. What is it about this mad science-fantasy series that fans get excited about UNIT call-signs or how many episodes Sarah Jane Smith appeared in? After scouring over 200 stories, we still don’t have the answer, but we do know how many times the Daleks say ‘Exterminate’.

Happy Times and Places,

Cavan Scott and Mark Wright

A note about stories and statistics

The statistics in this book include all regular televised episodes and stories of Doctor Who between An Unearthly Child (1963) and The Snowmen (2012), not including the untelevised story Shada (1979).

ONE

THE 50-YEAR DIARY

A DOCTOR WHO TIMELINE

‘I tried keeping a diary once. Not chronological, of course. But the trouble with time travel is, one never seems to find the time.’

The Doctor, The Caves of Androzani

The Doctor’s adventures began in a junkyard at 76 Totter’s Lane on 23 November 1963, where an impossible police box awaited two inquisitive school teachers. It was the beginning of the trip of a lifetime.

Since then, there have been many firsts and lasts, comings and goings, tearful farewells and exciting new beginnings. Tales of what went on behind the scenes on Doctor Who are as compelling as the Doctor’s on-screen adventures.

A man is the sum of his memories, a Time Lord even more so… Who-ology presents the 50-year diary of Doctor Who.

The 1960s

March 1962–June 1963 The BBC initiates a survey of published science fiction to establish its relevance to television drama. A series of reports and meetings involving Head of Serials Donald Wilson and staff writers Alice Frick, John Braybon and CE ‘Bunny’ Webber culminates in the detailed development of a new science fiction drama serial. Sydney Newman, the BBC’s new Head of Drama, and CE Webber subsequently produce a proposal document under the title ‘Dr Who: General Notes on Background and Approach’. Newman goes on to appoint Verity Lambert as Doctor Who’s series producer.

12 July 1963 Actor William Hartnell attends a lunch with Verity Lambert and director Waris Hussein to discuss playing the Doctor. Initially reluctant, Hartnell eventually agrees to the offer.

27 September 1963 Studio recording takes place at the BBC’s Lime Grove Studios, London, for the very first episode, An Unearthly Child. Head of Drama Sydney Newman is unhappy with the result and orders that the episode be recorded again.

18 October 1963 A second version of An Unearthly Child is recorded at Lime Grove Studios using a revised script.

21 November 1963 The Radio Times, the BBC’s listing magazine, previews Doctor Who for the very first time.

23 November 1963 The first episode of Doctor Who is broadcast at 5.16pm and watched by 4.4 million people.

21 December 1963 An early Christmas present as the Daleks make their first appearance. In fact audiences only see a plunger held by Assistant Floor Manager Michael Ferguson, who would later direct several Doctor Who stories.

1 February 1964 The final episode of The Daleks is watched by an audience of 10.4 million, more than double that of An Unearthly Child ten weeks before.

13 February 1964Doctor Who features for the first time on the cover of the listings magazine Radio Times. The series will make the cover more times than any other television programme over the next 50 years.

22 February 1964 Marco Polo becomes the first historical figure to be depicted in Doctor Who.

15 August 1964 The second episode of The Reign of Terror features the first ever use of location footage in the series as elements of the story are shot outside the confines of the TV studio.

12 September 1964 The first season of Doctor Who comes to an end.

31 October 1964 After a seven-week break, Doctor Who returns for its second season with Planet of Giants.

November 1964Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks, the first Doctor Who novelisation, is published.

21 November 1964 The Daleks make their second appearance in the series – this time invading future Earth.

26 December 1964 Carole Ann Ford makes her final appearance as the Doctor’s granddaughter Susan, marking the first departure of a companion.

2 January 1965 The first time the Doctor uses the term ‘materialise’ to describe the TARDIS landing.

26 June 1965 The final appearances of William Russell and Jacqueline Hill as Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright, leaving room for the Doctor Who debut of companion Steven Taylor, played by Peter Purves.

17 July 1965 The first appearance in the series of a TARDIS other than the Doctor’s. The TARDIS belongs to a mysterious monk, played by Peter Butterworth. The Monk is the first member of the Doctor’s own people to appear apart from Susan.

23 August 1965 The cinema release of Dr. Who and the Daleks, the first of two big-screen adventures starring Peter Cushing as ‘Dr Who’. In colour!

September 1965 The first publication of The Dr Who Annual by World Distributors, priced 9s 6d. It contains text stories featuring TV monsters the Voord and the Zarbi, as well as puzzles and features.

9 October 1965 Broadcast of Mission to the Unknown, the first and only episode not to feature either the Doctor or any of his companions.

13 November 1965 The first appearance of actor Nicholas Courtney, here playing Bret Vyon. Courtney will go on to play a significant character in the Doctor’s lives.

4 December 1965 The first on-screen death of a companion, as Adrienne Hill’s Katarina is killed.

21 December 1965The Curse of the Daleks, a stage play by David Whitaker and Terry Nation, opens at London’s Wyndham’s Theatre.

25 December 1965Doctor Who’s first broadcast on Christmas Day, an event that will not be repeated until 2005.

28 May 1966 Broadcast of The Savages Episode 1. Up to now each episode has been given individual titles; from now on, they are grouped together under story titles with numbered episodes.

6 August 1966 The official announcement to the press that William Hartnell is to leave the role of the Doctor. On this day, Patrick Troughton signs a contract to appear as the Doctor for 22 episodes.

8 October 1966 The Cybermen make their first appearance, giving Doctor Who its second enduring monster.

29 October 1966 In the closing minutes of The Tenth Planet, the Doctor regenerates for the first time (though that term won’t be used until the Third Doctor changes into the Fourth), and William Hartnell makes his final regular appearance in the series. Patrick Troughton briefly makes his Doctor Who debut.

5 November 1966 Patrick Troughton’s first full episode as the Doctor also sees the return of the Daleks.

17 December 1966 The first appearance of Frazer Hines as Jamie Macrimmon. He will clock up 113 regular episodes of Doctor Who, the most of any companion.

4 March 1967 The series sees its first use of an optical special effect, as the Cybermen blast a hole in the wall of a moonbase with a space cannon.

11 March 1967 The debut of a revamped title sequence featuring the face of Patrick Troughton. This creates a tradition of using the Doctor’s face in the titles that lasts until 1989 – a custom absent from the Eighth, Ninth, Tenth and early Eleventh Doctors’ eras but reintroduced on 25 December 2012.

1 July 1967 The Daleks make what is intended to be their final appearance in Doctor Who. This ‘final end’ is brought about by writer Terry Nation’s desire to launch his creations in their own series. The BBC has turned down the chance to make such a spin-off, and Nation has opened talks with American broadcasters. The monsters that helped cement Doctor Who’s popularity will not return to the series in a new story for nearly five years.

30 September 1967 The first appearances of the Yeti and the Great Intelligence.

11 November 1967 The first appearance of the Ice Warriors.

17 February 1968 The first appearance of Nicholas Courtney as Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart. The character’s feet have appeared in close-up a week earlier, provided by extra Maurice Brooks.

16 March 1968 The first appearance of the sonic screwdriver.

9 November 1968 The first full appearance of UNIT, the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce, under the command of Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart, now a Brigadier, played once again – and many times in the future – by Nicholas Courtney.

7 January 1969 The announcement to the press that Patrick Troughton is to leave Doctor Who.

7 June 1969 The first use of ‘Time Lord’ to describe the Doctor’s people, uttered by an unnamed scientist played by Vernon Dobtcheff in The War Games.

17 June 1969 Jon Pertwee is announced as the third actor to take on the TV role of the Doctor in a press call held at BBC Broadcasting House. The actor is accompanied by a Yeti.

21 June 1969 Patrick Troughton’s final regular appearance as the Doctor. This episode features the first trip to the Doctor’s as yet unnamed home planet.

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 1970Doctor 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 1972Day 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 1980Doctor 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 already 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 1980All 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 1983Mawdryn 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 1983Revenge of the Cybermen becomes the first Doctor Who story to be released on home video on VHS, Betamax and Video 2000 formats.

23 November 1983Doctor 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.