David Bowie

David Bowie was a singer from Earth. (PROSE: Life on Mars on Mars)

Biography
On the 12th of November, 1969, the newborn Paul Magrs dreamt that David Bowie sung The Laughing Gnome at Dr Oho's party. (PROSE: In the Sixties)

Bowie played different characters while performing his music. One such character was Ziggy Stardust, (PROSE: Verdigris, AUDIO: Conspiracy in Space) otherwise known as just Ziggy. (AUDIO: Friend of the Family) In the summer of 1973, Bowie retired his Ziggy Stardust identity while onstage at the Hammersmith Odeon. (PROSE: Verdigris)

In 1974, the Eighth Doctor mentioned Bowie as one of the great musicians of the period to Lucie Miller. (AUDIO: Horror of Glam Rock)

In 1977, Bowie had been recorded saying that he had just recorded his album called Low, and that he moved to Berlin to "escape all the bad stuff". (PROSE: The Story of Fester Cat)

The Fourth Doctor had once played Find The Lady with a young David Bowie in a punt that Romana was poling. (PROSE: No Future)

Ace and Julian Milton listened to a Bowie tape during their trip to Lincolnshire. (PROSE: Love and War)

David Bowie was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. (PROSE: Time Traveller's Diary)

Evelyn Smythe spoke of her experience in a space suit as "like that David Bowie song." (AUDIO: The Feast of Axos)

Bowie spent time aboard the Doctor's TARDIS while it was in Artron II Recharge Mode, with the arton pulses leaving Bowie's left eye permanently dilated, an incident the Thirteenth Doctor felt guilty about. (PROSE: Press Play)

In early 2012, the BBC unearthed some archived recordings of Bowie from 1977, and they broadcast them on Radio 2. By this time, Fester Cat had listened to many of Bowie's songs on records owned by Paul Magrs and Jeremy. (PROSE: The Story of Fester Cat)

Legacy
After his death, Erimem and Andy Hansen left a copy of Bowie's song "Life on Mars" on Mars. It was discovered by a mars rover on New Year's Eve 2020. (PROSE: Life on Mars on Mars)

The Twelfth Doctor recited some of his song "Ashes to Ashes" to a robot, with the line "I'm Happy, Hope You're Happy Too". (TV: Smile)

While looking through the belongings of the tenants who had lived at 11 Cardinal Road in 1977, Harry found a vinyl single with David Bowie's "Heroes" on the A-side and "V-2 Schneider" on the B-side. (TV: Knock Knock)

Bowie Base One was named after him. (PROSE: The Waters of Mars)

Behind the scenes

 * Bowie Base One being named in tribute to Bowie and his song, Life on Mars, was first revealed in The Waters of Mars' companion Doctor Who Confidential episode. It wasn't until the Target novelisation that this was more explicitly implied in-universe, with the Doctor citing the base as being named after "a music god".
 * In 1983, Bowie was offered the role of Sharaz Jek in TV: The Caves of Androzani but the dates clashed with his Serious Moonlight tour.
 * In 1973, Bowie and his band, The Spiders From Mars, mingled with the cast of Planet of the Daleks at BBC Television Centre, leading a passer-by to ask if they were playing aliens in the show.
 * The Doctor Who Confidential episode Is There Life on Mars? is titled in reference to Bowie's song "Life on Mars".
 * The novel Loving the Alien shares the title of a Bowie song.
 * The comic strip The Woman Who Sold the World is a reference to the Bowie song "".
 * The characters John Jones and Vince Cosmos were heavily inspired by Bowie.
 * Bowie served as the basis for Peter Capaldi's portrayal of the Twelfth Doctor; Capaldi, a fan of Bowie, stated that he believed the musician would be an optimal template after searching through his "scrapbook of ideas".
 * The novel Diamond Dogs shares the title of a Bowie song and album.
 * Bowie's song, Starman, was used extra-diegetically in Random Shoes and was heard in Aliens of London when the Ninth Doctor left the Powell Estate to return to the TARDIS.
 * Bowie had, a condition which left one of his pupils permanently enlarged. The short story Press Play suggests that this was a result of a genetic mutation caused by him being aboard the TARDIS. In real life, Bowie's condition was caused when, as a teenager, he was punched in — and nearly lost the sight of — his left eye during a fight at school.
 * He was one of many actors considered for the role of in the Doctor Who TV movie.
 * David Bowie's albums have been referenced in Titan's Doctor Who comic covers: