1990s

Doctor Who universe

 * Jack Harkness dropped by the Powell Estate a few times, as Rose Tyler grew up. He didn't dare do more for fear of creating time paradoxes. (DW: Utopia)
 * The Soviet Union collapsed during the early part of the decade. (BFA: Protect and Survive)

Behind the scenes

 * Doctor Who enters its long hiatus, broken in 1996 by the airing of an American co-produced television movie introducing Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor (with a substantial role for Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor). Intended as a pilot for a US-produced revival of Doctor Who, the film fails to garner high enough American ratings for this to happen.
 * The Target Novelisations line comes to an end in 1994.
 * In 1991, the first line of original Doctor Who novels, the Virgin New Adventures, is launched, followed by the Virgin Missing Adventures line and Decalog short story collections.
 * In 1997, BBC Books takes over the licence for original Doctor Who fiction and launches the BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures, BBC Past Doctor Adventures and Short Trips lines; Virgin, meanwhile, launches the Virgin Bernice Summerfield New Adventures line.
 * Big Finish Productions launches an ongoing series of full-licenced audio dramas featuring past Doctors.
 * A number of independently made video and film productions are made by companies such as BBV Productions and Reeltime Pictures, some featuring Doctor Who characters and monsters licenced from their creators, while others feature characters identical in all but name to the Doctor and others.
 * DVDs are released to the public. The format soon supersedes VHS videotape and its compact nature makes it more practical for use in releasing complete TV series, with Doctor Who episodes being released from the late 1990s onward.