2005

The year 2005 was most significant for being the year when central London on Earth was attacked by the Nestene Consciousness. (DW: Rose) The FLIPback Project began at the Snowcap Base at Earth's South Pole to counter the predicted reversal of the Earth's magnetic field in 2006. (NA: Iceberg)

January

 * 01 - Rose Tyler encounters a man who predicts that she will have a great year ahead. Unknown to her, he is the tenth incarnation of the Doctor, an individual whom she had yet to meet. After she leaves, the Doctor succumbs to radiation poisoning and staggers towards his TARDIS, encouraged by a vision of Ood Sigma. After dematerializing the TARDIS, he regenerates into his eleventh incarnation and begins to crash the TARDIS due to the difficulty of the regeneration. (DW: The End of Time)
 * Since the regeneration occurred after the Doctor dematerialised the TARDIS, it is unclear whether this event actually occurred on 1st January 2005.

February

 * Annual de-frosting of Tommy Brockless, a young soldier first cryogenically frozen in 1918. (TW: To the Last Man.) (Date: WEB: torchwood.co.uk)

March

 * Monday (exact date unknown) - The Ninth Doctor is in London pursuing the Nestene Consciousness. His investigations take him to the Henrik's department store where he saves Rose Tyler from an Auton attack. He blows up the building. (DW: Rose)
 * Tuesday (exact date unknown) - Rose Tyler investigates the Ninth Doctor, talking to Clive Finch about his website on the Doctor called "Who is Doctor Who?". Rose's boyfriend, Mickey, is abducted by Autons and replaced with an Auton duplicate. Using the head of this Auton, the Doctor tracks the the Nestene Consciousness's signal. It has been rendered a scavenger without protein planets by the Last Great Time War. Rose rescues Mickey (and later, the Doctor) and destroys the Consciousness with anti-plastic. She then joins the Doctor on his travels. Meanwhile, Clive is killed by the Autons, leaving his website without a webmaster. (DW: Rose)
 * Wednesday (exact date unknown) - Rose calls her mother, Jackie, from the year 5,000,000,000, using the superphone and makes a brief return trip to her own time (DW: The End of the World), but promptly disappears until 2006. (DW: Aliens of London)
 * Some time after this, London, cabs are replaced with motorcycles in an attempt to relieve the increasing traffic congestion (NA: Cat's Cradle: Warhead)

June

 * Der Spiegel magazine gives away a personal organiser with every issue (NA: Transit)

Unknown dates

 * The FLIPback Project begins at the Snowcap Base at Earth's South Pole, at the same time that Cybermen left over from the attack on Earth in 1986 again become active. (NA: Iceberg)
 * London police, including DI Billy Shipton, begin investigating the disappearance of several people who visited an abandoned house called Wester Drumlins. The police begin collecting as evidence the vehicles left abandoned by the disappeared, at one point taking a police box from the scene. (DW: Blink)
 * For most of 2005, Mickey Smith lives with accusations he has kidnapped or killed Rose Tyler. He is taken in for police questioning about her disappearance five times from early 2005 to early 2006. Mickey takes over the "Who is Doctor Who?" website. Jackie Tyler fuels the mistrust of him around the Powell Estate with a "whisper campaign". For Jackie, the year isn't spent just accusing Smith. It is also a year in which she devotes considerable time to the actual search for her daughter. (DW: Aliens of London)
 * Owen Harper's fiancée, Katie Russell, who had been diagnosed with the youngest-ever case of early-onset Alzheimer's, is put into surgery after she is found to have a growth in her brain. The tumour is actually an alien parasite, who releases deadly gas during the operation, killing Katie and the scientists. Owen encounters Captain Jack Harkness, who recovers Katie's brain and erases the video evidence of what had happened. (TW: Fragments)

Other timelines

 * In Pete's World, drinks company Vitex, owned by Pete Tyler, is purchased by Cybus Industries. (REF: The Time Traveller's Almanac) In that world, 2005 is called 20-Point-5. (DW: Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel)


 * See Pete's World.

January

 * EDA: To the Slaughter is first published. With the new Doctor Who TV series about to premiere, BBC Books decides to retire both the BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures and BBC Past Doctor Adventures lines in favour of a new series of novels featuring the Ninth Doctor. One more EDA book will follow in June, while the PDA series will continue to the end of 2005 (one of which will be an Eighth Doctor story).
 * BFA: The Juggernauts is first released.
 * BFU: Snake Head is first released.
 * 17 - DW: Horror of Fang Rock is released to DVD in the UK.
 * 29 - Big Finish Productions announces the production of three standalone hardback novels as part of its Big Finish New Worlds range. These are BFIW: Wildthyme on Top, BFNW: Project: Valhalla and BFNW: The Coming of the Queen. Big Finish also announces that it will be producing two single audio stories featuring Iris Wildthyme
 * Sophie Okonedo, who provided the voice of Alison Cheney in the webcast WC: Scream of the Shalka, is nominated for the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for her role in the 2004 film, Hotel Rwanda. Okonedo became the first actor to have played a Doctor or companion in an official Doctor Who production to have been nominated for an Oscar. She does not win.
 * At some point in January, the BBC is made aware that Christopher Eccleston was not taking part in a second series of Doctor Who. According to a 4th April press release, the BBC agreed not to announce this to the public. It is later revealed that Russell T Davies had hoped to keep the actor's departure secret until the regeneration in DW: The Parting of the Ways is broadcast.

February

 * PDA: Match of the Day is first published. This is the final BBC Past Doctor Adventures novel to feature the Fourth Doctor and, as of 2009, the most recent original Fourth Doctor novel. The PDA series is suspended until July to allow for the premiere and broadcast of the first season of the revived series.
 * BFA:The Game is first released.
 * 03 - DW: Ghost Light is released to DVD in Region 4.
 * 05 - At the conclusion of a Saturday Night Live sketch on public access television pledge drives, TV celebrity Paris Hilton dons the Fourth Doctor's hat and scarf and refers to the Daleks and the TARDIS. The sketch is widely circulated among SF fandom, in part via the recently introduced video-sharing website, YouTube. In the coming years, YouTube will be a major outlet for the distribution of fan-made music videos, clips and other material related to Doctor Who and its spinoffs.
 * 10 - Leonard Trolley (Supt. Reynolds in DW: The Faceless Ones) dies in England.
 * 11 - The Doctor Who Information Network (DWIN), the main Canadian Doctor Who fan club, launches its News Blog website.
 * 16 - The TARDIS Index File Wikia website is launched.

March

 * BFA: Dreamtime is first released.
 * ST: Short Trips: Seven Deadly Sins is first published.
 * BFU: The Longest Night is first released.
 * This month, promotion for the upcoming return of Doctor Who to television enters high gear.
 * 01 - DW: The Visitation and The Green Death is released to DVD in Region 1.
 * As early reviews of the new Doctor Who series begin to appear, IGN Filmforce reports the American cable broadcaster Sci-Fi Channel, considered the most likely US broadcast home for the series, has chosen not to purchase it. Although there is talk of a related cable network, Universal HD, picking up the series, for the time being United States viewers will not be able to see the new series, with the exception of those close enough to Canada to receive the CBC broadcasts, which will now be the North American premiere of the series.


 * 07 - DW: The Mind Robber is released to DVD in the UK.
 * 08 - Big Finish Productions announces it had agreed to a deal with Paul Cornell allowing the company to continue its range of Bernice Summerfield books and audio CDs for the next few years.
 * 09 - BBC Radio 4's Today runs a feature on the new series.
 * 12 - Whether by coincidence or design (as the impending change of lead actor is already known behind the scenes), this week's cover of Radio Times features yet-to-be-announced Tenth Doctor actor David Tennant in a very Doctor-like pose promoting the mini-series Casanova - right next to a headline promoting the return of Doctor Who. This is the first of many Radio Times covers for Tennant over the next few years.
 * 22 - Project Who Bigger on the Inside, the first episode of a two-part behind-the-scenes documentary on the return of Doctor Who, is first broadcast on BBC Radio 2 (later released on the CD Project: WHO?).
 * 23 - Billie Piper is interviewed on The Chris Moyles Show on BBC Radio 1
 * 25 - Christopher Eccleston is interviewed on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross.
 * 26 - DW: Rose is first broadcast, returning Doctor Who to television as a weekly series for the first time since 1989 and launching Series 1, aka Season 27. Christopher Eccleston debuts as the Ninth Doctor, along with Billie Piper as companion Rose Tyler.
 * In conjunction with the debut of the new series, BBC Three premiers its behind-the-scenes series, Doctor Who Confidential the same night. A new episode of Confidential follows the broadcast of each new episode of Doctor Who.
 * The Doctor Who Story Broadcast on UK Gold.
 * Radio Times features Doctor Who on its cover. With the arrival of the new series, the Radio Times begins featuring the series on a more frequent basis (something not done since the early 1970s).
 * 29 - Project Who: Reverse the Polarity, part 2 of the BBC Radio 2 documentary series, is first broadcast (later released on the CD Project: WHO?).
 * 30 - The BBC announces production will proceed on a second series and a Christmas Special.
 * A publicity branch of the BBC prematurely announces that Christopher Eccleston will not return for a second series as the Ninth Doctor, citing his desire to not be typecast. This reason is denied immediately by Eccleston and the BBC ultimately retracts it (as of 2009 he has never confirmed his reason for leaving the role). In his 2008 book The Writer's Tale, Russell T Davies confirms that Eccleston's departure was intended to be kept secret until the final moments of DW: The Parting of the Ways.

April

 * BFA: Three's a Crowd is first released.
 * BFG: Lies is first released. This audio drama features the landmark first meeting between the first two incarnations of Romana, featuring Mary Tamm returning to the role of Romana I.
 * 2 - DW: The End of the World is first broadcast.
 * 4 - The BBC retracts part of its 30th March announcement of the departure of Christopher Eccleston, indicating it released the information with incorrect attribution and without the actor's consent.
 * 7 - DW: Horror of Fang Rock is released to DVD in Region 4.
 * 9 - DW: The Unquiet Dead is first broadcast. First appearance of the Cardiff Space-Time Rift; first revival-series story set in Wales; first appearance of Eve Myles in the Doctor Who franchise.
 * 16 - DW: Aliens of London is first broadcast. This episode reintroduces UNIT (last referenced on television in DW: Battlefield), establishing that all modern-day stories in the Doctor Who franchise from this point on (spinoffs included) take place approximately one year ahead of their real-life broadcast date. First appearance of the Slitheen. For the first time since DW: The Gunfighters, a multi-part story carries different episode titles.
 * David Tennant is officially announced as the Tenth Doctor. At this time Tennant is best known for playing the title role in Casanova, a BBC miniseries that was written and produced by Russell T Davies. He has also recently filmed a role in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire which will be released to theatres the same day that his first solo performance as the Doctor is broadcast.
 * 21 - THN: Echoes is first published.
 * 23 - DW: World War Three is first broadcast.
 * 25 - DW: The Claws of Axos is released to DVD in the UK; this is the first classic series DVD release in the UK since the revival of the series.
 * 30 - DW: Dalek is first broadcast. The Daleks make their revived-series debut. Bruno Langley briefly joins the series as short-term companion Adam Mitchell.
 * The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in Canada begins airing the new series, the first time the CBC have aired Doctor Who since the mid-1960s. For the CBC broadcasts, Christopher Eccleston videotapes special introductions and promotions for a contest sponsored by TV Guide, the first prize being a trip to London to visit the set of Doctor Who. These broadcasts are promoted as the North American debut of the series, as no other broadcaster on the continent has yet picked up the revived series.
 * Christopher Eccleston becomes a Mencap charity ambassador.

May

 * BBC Books launches the New Series Adventures line of original novels tying in with the new series; this line, featuring the Ninth Doctor, replaces the BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures and BBC Past Doctor Adventures lines, though both continue publishing briefly. The new line of books are published in hardcover and have a shorter word count than the EDA/PDA novels. The books are released three at a time. The first three released are NSA: The Clockwise Man, NSA: The Monsters Inside, and NSA: Winner Takes All.
 * BFA: Catch-1782 is first released.
 * ST: Short Trips: A Day in the Life is first published.
 * BFG: Spirit is first released.
 * BBCR: Project: WHO? is first released by BBC Audio. This is a CD issue of the two-part BBC Radio documentary Project Who on the return of Doctor Who, featuring interviews with Christopher Eccleston, Billie Piper and others.
 * 5 - DW: The Mind Robber is released to DVD in Region 4.
 * 7 - DW: The Long Game is first broadcast. Bruno Langley departs the series as his character, Adam Mitchell, became the first TV companion to be forced out by the Doctor.
 * 14 - DW: Father's Day is first broadcast.
 * 16 - In the UK, BBC Video releass Doctor Who: Volume 1 with the episodes DW: Rose, The End of the World and The Unquiet Dead. This is the first of a series of "vanilla" (extras-free) DVD released by BBC Video featuring episodes from a still-underway season and the first new-series episodes (and first Ninth Doctor episodes) to be released to home video.
 * 21 - DW: The Empty Child is first broadcast. John Barrowman makes his first appearance as Jack Harkness. This episode, and part 2 the next week, are Steven Moffat's first serious contributions to televised Doctor Who and will win the series its first Hugo Award.
 * 28 - DW: The Doctor Dances is first broadcast.

June

 * EDA: The Gallifrey Chronicles is first published. This is the final release in the BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures novel series, as BBC Books prepares to move into publishing novels exclusively based upon the revived series. One further Eighth Doctor novel will be published in the BBC Past Doctor Adventures line.
 * BFA: Unregenerate! is first released.
 * BFG: Pandora and BFG: Insurgency are first released.
 * BFU: The Wasting is first released. Final episode of the spin-off series, U.N.I.T..
 * BFBS: The Tree of Life is first published.
 * FP: Warring States is first published.
 * The BBC announces that a Christmas special has already been commissioned for 2006, as well as a third season for the new Doctor Who series.
 * 01 - Geoffrey Toone (Hepesh in DW: The Curse of Peladon and Temmosus in Dr. Who and the Daleks) dies in Northwood, Middlesex, England.
 * 02 - DW: The Claws of Axos is released to DVD in Region 4.
 * 04 - DW: Boom Town is first broadcast.
 * 07 - DW: The Leisure Hive is released to DVD in Region 1.
 * 08 - Ed Bishop dies. He played General Flint in DWU: Full Fathom Five and was best known as Ed Straker in UFO and Captain Blue in Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons.
 * 11 - DW: Bad Wolf is first broadcast. First reference to Torchwood.
 * Christopher Eccleston is interviewed by BBC Radio.
 * 13 - The DVD Doctor Who: Volume 2 is released by BBC Video featuring the new series episodes DW: Aliens of London, World War Three and Dalek.
 * 18 - DW: The Parting of the Ways is first broadcast, concluding the first season of the revival of Doctor Who. The Ninth Doctor regenerates into the Tenth, introducing David Tennant and marking Christopher Eccleston's final (to date) appearance as the Doctor. John Barrowman also departs the series as a regular with this story. The broadcast is followed by the final transmission of Doctor Who Confidential's first season.
 * Post-production completed for DW: The Christmas Invasion.
 * 21 - DW: Ghost Light is released to DVD in Region 1.

July

 * PDA: Island of Death is first published. Final PDA novel to feature the Third Doctor and last Third Doctor original novel to date. The PDA series returns to monthly released for the remainder of the year as the final books in the line are published.
 * BFA: Terror Firma is first released.
 * MB: Coming to Dust: The True History of Faction Paradox Volume 1 is first released. The Faction Paradox series is now being produced by Magic Bullet Productions.
 * 11 - DW: Revelation of the Daleks is released to DVD in the UK. Beginning with this release, BBC Video issues Doctor Who DVDs in conjunction with 2 entertain.
 * 15 - The first performance of the Doctor Who - Inside the TARDIS live stage tour is held at the Robert Blackwood Hall in Melbourne, Australia.
 * 16 - The second performance of the Doctor Who - Inside the TARDIS live stage tour is held at the Palais Theatre in Melbourne, Australia.
 * 17 - The third performance of the Doctor Who - Inside the TARDIS live stage tour is held at the Palais Theatre in Melbourne, Australia.
 * 21 - THN: Peculiar Lives is first published.
 * The fourth performance of the Doctor Who - Inside the TARDIS live stage tour is held at the Burswood Theatre in Perth, Australia.
 * 23 - The fifth performance of the Doctor Who - Inside the TARDIS live stage tour is held at the Festival Theatre in Adelaide, Australia.
 * 25 - The BBC announces that Elisabeth Sladen will return to the role of Sarah Jane Smith for an upcoming episode of the revived Doctor Who's second series.
 * 26 - The sixth performance of the Doctor Who - Inside the TARDIS live stage tour is held at the Canberra Theatre in Canberra, Australia.
 * 29 - The seventh performance of the Doctor Who - Inside the TARDIS live stage tour is held at the Theatre Royal in Sydney, Australia.
 * 30 - The eighth performance of the Doctor Who - Inside the TARDIS live stage tour is held at the Theatre Royal in Sydney, Australia.

August

 * PDA: Spiral Scratch (originally promoted under the title Future Nostalgia) is first published. Final novel to date to feature the Sixth Doctor.
 * BFA: The Council of Nicaea is first released.
 * BFG: Imperiatrix is first released.
 * 01 - The DVD Doctor Who: Volume 3 featuring the episodes DW: The Long Game, Father's Day, The Empty Child and The Doctor Dances.
 * The ninth performance of the Doctor Who - Inside the TARDIS live stage tour is held at the Brisbane Convention Centre in Brisbane, Australia.
 * 5 - The tenth performance of the Doctor Who - Inside the TARDIS live stage tour is held at the Westpac St James Theatre in Wellington, New Zealand.
 * 6 - The last performance of the Doctor Who - Inside the TARDIS live stage tour is held at the Civic Theatre in Auckland, New Zealand.
 * 31 - Michael Sheard, who had countless roles in Doctor Who, notably DW: Pyramids of Mars and DW: Remembrance of the Daleks, dies of cancer on the Isle of Wight.

September

 * NSA: The Deviant Strain, NSA: Only Human, and NSA: The Stealers of Dreams are first published. To date, these are the last novels featuring the Ninth Doctor as BBC Books changes to novels featuring the Tenth Doctor.
 * PDA: Fear Itself is first published. This is the last novel to date to feature the Eighth Doctor and is the only time this incarnation was featured in the BBC Past Doctor Adventures line.
 * BFA: Thicker Than Water is first released.
 * BFA: LIVE 34 is first released.
 * ST: Short Trips: The Solar System is first published.
 * BFC: Scorpius the first episode of a new Big Finish Productions spin-off series, Cyberman, is first released.
 * Doctor Who Annual 2006 is first published. This marks the return of the Doctor Who Annual, a once-traditional publication that was issued during most of the run of the original series. Marvel Comics last made an attempt at reviving the format in the early 1990s.
 * 01 - DW: Revelation of the Daleks is released to DVD in Region 4.
 * 05 - BBCR: Doctor Who at the BBC Volume 3 is first released, including the first release of an unbroadcast Third Doctor audio mini-episode recorded for Glorious Goodwood.
 * BBC Video releases the DVD Doctor Who: Volume 4 featuring the episodes DW: Boom Town, Bad Wolf and The Parting of the Ways. This concludes the series of "vanilla" DVD released of episodes from the first revival season. Discounting the unique appearence of the Eighth Doctor, the Ninth Doctor becomes the first Doctor to have his complete era released to DVD.


 * 09 - DW: The Web Planet is released to DVD in the UK.
 * 12 - Ronald Leigh-Hunt (Commander Julian Radnor in DW: The Seeds of Death and Commander Stevenson in DW: Revenge of the Cybermen) dies.
 * 23 - Roger Brierley (Trevor in DW: The Daleks' Master Plan and voice of Drathro in DW: The Mysterious Planet) dies after suffering a heart attack.

October

 * PDA: World Game is first published. Final Second Doctor novel to date.
 * BFA: Scaredy Cat is first released.
 * BFC: Fear is first released.
 * 06 - BBC Video releases a special Dalek Collector's Edition DVD box set exclusively in UK W H Smith stores. The set includes the previously released DW: The Dalek Invasion of Earth, Resurrection of the Daleks and Remembrance of the Daleks.
 * 18 - John Hollis (Sondergaard in DW: The Mutants) dies from natural causes.
 * 24 - Robert Sloman, who along with Barry Letts, wrote DW: The Dæmons, DW: The Time Monster, DW: The Green Death and DW: Planet of the Spiders dies. (The pair were credited as "Guy Leopold" on the first story but for the final three, Sloman took the sole credit.)

November

 * PDA: The Time Travellers is first published. Final First Doctor novel to date.
 * BFA: Singularity is first released.
 * BFIW: Wildthyme at Large is first released, launching an ongoing series of audio dramas featuring the character of Iris Wildthyme, played by Katy Manning.
 * 03 - DW: The Web Planet is released to DVD in Region 4.
 * 06 - DW: Horror of Fang Rock, The Mind Robber and The Claws of Axos are released to DVD in Region 1.
 * 07 - BBC Audio releases Travels in Time and Space, a box set collecting three unabridged readings of early novelisations: Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks, Doctor Who and the Zarbi and Doctor Who and the Crusaders, all read by William Russell.
 * DW: City of Death is released to DVD in the UK.
 * 18 - The DW: Children in Need Special is broadcast by the BBC as part of the Children in Need Appeal, marking the first solo appearance by David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor. This 7-minute mini-episode bridges the events of DW: The Parting of the Ways and DW: The Christmas Invasion and is the first canonical production of this nature (an earlier CiN production, 1993's DW: Dimensions in Time, was not generally considered part of the canon). It becomes the first production of the series revival not to be broadcast outside of the UK (though it will later be included on international DVDs).
 * Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is released to cinemas in the US and UK, featuring new Doctor David Tennant in a key role.
 * 21 - The complete Series 1 (2005) of Doctor Who is released to DVD in the UK as a box set. This is the first time a complete season of Doctor Who has been released all at once (although all episodes had been issued previously in vanilla editions). Included is a bonus disc featuring the first DVD release of episodes of Doctor Who Confidential, although due to licensing and appearance rights issues, the practice of releasing edited-down versions (retitled Doctor Who Confidential Cutdown) to DVD is begun.
 * The first Region 1 (North American) release


 * 29 - Joseph Fürst (Professor Zaroff in DW: The Underwater Menace) dies in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

December

 * PDA: Atom Bomb Blues is first published. This novel featuring the Seventh Doctor is the final release in the BBC Books Past Doctor Adventures line. After this, BBC Books publishes only novels based upon the current series of Doctor Who, and also moved away from the paperback format, to a hardcover one (with the exception of Quick Reads novellas) hereafter. As of the fall of 2009, Atom Bomb Blues is the last novel to be published featuring a Doctor other than the one currently on TV.
 * BFA: Other Lives is first released.
 * ST: Short Trips: The History of Christmas is first published.
 * BFC: Conversion is first released.
 * BFIW: The Devil in Ms. Wildthyme is first released. Last Iris Wildthyme audio drama until 2009.
 * 01 - DW: City of Death is released to DVD in Region 4.
 * 08 - David Tennant appears on BBC Radio 4's Front Row.
 * 19 - Don McKillop (Bert the Landlord in DW: The Dæmons) dies from natural causes in the UK.
 * 21 - David Tennant appears on BBC One's Breakfast programme.
 * 23 - BBC Radio Wales broadcasts Back in Time - New Doctor, New Danger, featuring Russell T Davies and others.
 * The BBC Two comedy series Dead Ringers features the parody "Christmas at Doctor Who's" with the cast impersonating David Tennant, Tom Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Patrick Troughton and Christopher Eccleston.
 * 25 - DW: The Christmas Invasion is first broadcast, officially launching the Tenth Doctor era. The episode's closing credits introduce a modified arrangement of the Doctor Who theme, restoring the "middle 8" section not used during Series 1. At the behest of star David Tennant, the lead character is once again identified in the closing credits as "The Doctor".
 * Following the broadcast, the BBC's "Red Button" service makes available WC: Attack of the Graske, an interactive mini-episode-cum-game featuring David Tennant. Initially this is only available for viewing/playing in the UK.
 * 26 - DW: The Christmas Invasion airs on the CBC in Canada. For this broadcast, Billie Piper videotapes a special introduction. This marks the last time (to date) that the CBC's broadcasts of the series more-or-less coincide with that of the BBC.
 * 27 - BBC Radio 4's Front Row runs a feature on the new Doctor.

Unknown dates

 * Broadcast of the revived series in the United States is delayed when the American Sci-Fi Channel unexpectedly passes on the series. Reasons cited in media and fan forums include the show being "too British" and concerns over the quality of the preview episodes seen. Sci-Fi eventually reverses its decision and the series is broadcast at a later date. The network subsequently picks up further seasons in a more timely manner.
 * Following the conclusion of the 2005 Doctor Who series, the BBC announces it had commissioned the franchise's first spin-off series, Torchwood, to debut in 2006 and star John Barrowman, reprising his role of Jack Harkness.
 * Autumn: During production of the 2006 series, the media reports that Billie Piper will leave the series at the end of the season.