2003

History of the Doctor Who Universe

 * Ruby Duvall becomes a reporter for the Sunday Seeker (NA: Iceberg).

April

 * Liz Shaw is Chief of Operations at Tranquility Base on the Moon. She dies from a virus. (NA: Eternity Weeps)

August

 * 23rd of August: The Doctor, Ace and Bernice Summerfield arrive at the Pinehill Crest Hotel in time for: A demonstration of spiritual channelling, a show of a temporal accelerator and a cross stitch convention and an attempt by the Scourge to manifest in our reality. (BFA: The Shadow of the Scourge)

Unknown date

 * Singer Britney Spears debuts her recorded song, "Toxic" on her album In the Zone; it would become an international hit the next year, and be preserved until the year 5,000,000,000 when it would be revered as a piece of classical music from old Earth. (DW: The End of the World)

January

 * BFA: No Place Like Home is first released as an exclusive CD with Doctor Who Magazine. The CD also included Episode 1 of BFDE: Dalek War: Chapter One.
 * BFA: Jubilee is first released.
 * BFDE: Dalek War: Chapter One is first released, launching Big Finish's second Dalek Empire mini-series.
 * TN: Rip Tide is first published.
 * First issue of Miranda, a comic book series featuring Miranda Dawkins, a character introduced in EDA: Father Time, is published.
 * 1 - Cyril Shaps, who had appearances in DW: The Tomb of the Cybermen, DW: The Ambassadors of Death, DW: Planet of the Spiders and DW: The Androids of Tara, dies.

February

 * EDA: The Domino Effect is first published.
 * BFA: Nekromanteia is first released.
 * BFDE: Dalek War: Chapter Two is first released.
 * BBV: Sabbath Dei - Protocols: Volume 3 is first released.
 * 07 - Stephen Whittaker dies.
 * 14 - Neil Seiler, who played a radio operator in DW: The Sea Devils and Commander Stewart in DW: Death to the Daleks, dies.

March

 * PDA: Blue Box] is first published.
 * ST: Short Trips: Companions is first published.
 * BFA: The Dark Flame is first released.
 * MB: Kaldor City: Taren Capel is first released.

April

 * EDA: Reckless Engineering is first published.
 * BFA: Doctor Who and the Pirates is first released.
 * TN: Wonderland is first published.
 * BFDE: Dalek War: Chapter Three and BFDE: Dalek War: Chapter Four are first released, concluding Big Finish's second Dalek Empire mini-series.
 * BBV: In the Year of the Cat - Protocols: Volume 4 is first released.
 * REF: The Nth Doctor, 2nd edition, is published.

May

 * PDA: Loving the Alien is first published.
 * BFA: Creatures of Beauty is first released.
 * DWU: Auld Mortality is first released. This is the first of a new series of audio dramas entitled Doctor Who Unbound, which feature "alternate reality" or "What if?" versions of the Doctor. Geoffrey Bayldon plays the Doctor, with Carole Ann Ford as Susan.
 * TN: Shell Shock is first published.
 * Second issue of the comic book series Miranda is published. At least four more issues are published throughout 2003.
 * Extra Jack Pitt (who appeared during the William Hartnell era) dies from bronchial pneumonia.
 * 02 - The BBC's website launches a six-part webcast production of WC: Shada, remounting the TV story of the same title that was abandoned back in 1979. In this version, Paul McGann appears as the Eighth Doctor, with Lalla Ward and John Leeson reprising their original roles.
 * 09 - WC: Shada webcast Episode 2 is released.
 * Bernard Spear dies.
 * 16 - WC: Shada webcast Episode 3 is released.
 * 23 - WC: Shada webcast Episode 4 is released.
 * 30 - WC: Shada webcast Episode 5 is released.

June

 * EDA: The Last Resort is first published.
 * BFA: Project: Lazarus is first released.
 * DWU: Sympathy for the Devil is first released. This Doctor Who Unbound story features David Warner as an alternate reality Doctor. Future Doctor David Tennant also appears in this drama.
 * ST: Short Trips: A Universe of Terrors is first published.
 * 06 - WC: Shada webcast Episode 6 is released. Final episode.

July

 * PDA: The Colony of Lies is first published.
 * BFA: Flip-Flop is first released.
 * DWU: Full Fathom Five is first released. This Doctor Who Unbound story features David Collings as the Doctor.
 * TN: The Cabinet of Light is first published. This novella features an unspecified incarnation of the Doctor, and results in a spin-off series of books, Time Hunter, featuring characters introduced here.
 * 02 - James Saxon, who played Oscar Botcherby in DW: The Two Doctors, dies after suffering a heart attack in Chichester, England.
 * 25 - Michael Mundell dies.
 * 28 - Peter Russell dies.

August

 * EDA: Timeless is first published.
 * BFA: Omega is first released.
 * TN: Fallen Gods is first published.
 * The first issue of a comic book based upon Faction Paradox is published by US-based Image Comics.
 * 12 - Anne Tirard, who played Locusta in DW: The Romans and the Seeker in DW: The Ribos Operation, dies.

September

 * PDA: Wolfsbane is first published.
 * BFA: Davros is first released.
 * DWU: He Jests at Scars... is first released. This Doctor Who Unbound release features Michael Jayston as the Valeyard.
 * ST: Short Trips: The Muses is first published.
 * BFBS: Life During Wartime is first published. This is the only book release in the Big Finish Bernice Summerfield Series this year.
 * FP: This Town Will Never Let Us Go is first published.
 * MB: Kaldor City: Checkmate is first released.
 * 01 - BBCR: Doctor Who at the BBC is first released by BBC Audio, the first in an ongoing series of compilations released under the Doctor Who at the BBC banned over at least the next six years.
 * 04 - Ben Aris dies.

October

 * EDA: Emotional Chemistry is first published.
 * BFA: Master is first released.
 * DWU: Deadline is first released. In this Doctor Who Unbound story, Derek Jacobi (later to portray two different versions of the Master) plays the Doctor.
 * DWU: Exile is first released. Also a Doctor Who Unbound story, this features Arabella Weir as a female incarnation of the Doctor. David Tennant plays a Time Lord in this story.
 * The second and final issue of the Faction Paradox comic book series is published by Image Comics. The series is cancelled after this issue, mid-story.

November

 * PDA: Deadly Reunion is first published.
 * BFA: Zagreus is first released. Considered a milestone for Doctor Who audio dramas, this story is the first to feature not only the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Doctors, but thanks to the availability fo some recorded dialogue from an unreleased fan film, the late Jon Pertwee is also featured. This was Big Finish Productions' 50th Doctor Who audio drama, and was also marketed as a 40th anniversary story.
 * BFA: The Wormery is first released. First regular-series Doctor Who Big Finish story to feature Iris Wildthyme.
 * BFA: Living Legend is first published; this is a single-episode story released exclusively with Doctor Who Magazine. The disc also includes a documentary featurette on the making of BFA: Zagreus.
 * TN: The Eye of the Tyger is first published.
 * BBC Wales announces that it will produce a new series of Doctor Who for broadcast in 2005, returning the series to weekly television after a 16-year hiatus. Named executive producer is Russell T Davies, best known as the creator of the controversial Queer as Folk series, but who also is a longtime fan of the franchise who even wrote a novel for the Virgin New Adventures book series, NA: Damaged Goods. Little is revealed about the proposed series at this point except that it will be a continuation of the 1963-89 series and not a remake. The immediate impact on Richard Grant's status as the recently unveiled "Ninth Doctor" is not known.
 * 5 - Brian McDermott dies.
 * 13 - The BBC website launches a new webcast serial, WC: Scream of the Shalka, introducing Richard E. Grant as what would come to be known as the Shalka Doctor. At the time of its production and promotion, publicity held that Grant was the official Ninth Doctor, with future Doctor Who adventures expected to be produced in the webcast format. By the time the first episode was uploaded, however, the BBC had already announced the return of Doctor Who to television, with another actor in the lead role of the Ninth Doctor. Episode 1 features the first appearance of Derek Jacobi as the Master (although a different incarnation than he would later play in DW: Utopia). Sophie Okonedo is introduced as Alison Cheney, who as intended to become an ongoing companion for Grant's Doctor.David Tennant, more than a year before his appointment as the Tenth Doctor, voices a supporting character.
 * 20 - WC: Scream of the Shalka episode 2 is released.
 * THN: The Winning Side is first published. This is the first in a series of novellas published by Telos Publishing in the Time Hunter series, a spin-off from from the Doctor Who novella, TN: The Cabinet of Light.
 * 22 - Doctor Who's 40th anniversary is marked by a cover feature in the Radio Times. This is the last Radio Times cover produced before the series returned in 2005.
 * 23 - 40th anniversary of the first broadcast of Doctor Who.
 * 27 - WC: Scream of the Shalka episode 3 is released.

December

 * BFA: Scherzo is first released.
 * BFA: Shada is first released. This is an audio version of the webcast WC: Shada.
 * ST: Short Trips: Steel Skies is first published.
 * TN: Companion Piece is first published. A new companion, Catherine Broome, is introduced.
 * BBV: Movers - Protocols: Volume 5 is first released.
 * REF: Howe's Transcendental Toybox, 2nd edition, is first published.
 * 4 - WC: Scream of the Shalka episode 4 is released.
 * 11 - WC: Scream of the Shalka episode 5 is released.
 * 16 - Alfred Lynch who appeared as Commander Millington in DW: The Curse of Fenric, dies from cancer.
 * 17 - Alan Tilvern, who played Forester in DW: Planet of Giants, dies in London.
 * 18 - WC: Scream of the Shalka episode 6 is released; final episode. Final appearance of Richard E. Grant as the "Shalka Doctor", and as of March 2009 the final production of its kind by the BBC (although it would later produce a series of made-for-Internet live-action video shorts entitled WC: Captain Jack's Monster Files).
 * 29 - Dinsdale Landen, who portrayed Dr. Judson in DW: The Curse of Fenric dies from mouth cancer.

Unknown dates

 * An unofficial audio adaptation of Graham Williams' TME: The Nightmare Fair is produced for CD by Argolis. The release is a fund-raiser for the charity Sense, and includes liner notes by Anthony Read.
 * John Bleasdale dies.