1979 (releases)


 * 6 January - The Power of Kroll Part 3 was first broadcast.
 * 13 January -The Power of Kroll Part 4 was first broadcast.
 * 16 January - Actor Peter Butterworth died from an apparent heart attack in.
 * 18 January - PROSE: Doctor Who and the Hand of Fear was first published.
 * 20 January - The Armageddon Factor Part 1 was first broadcast. Lalla Ward made her first appearance on Doctor Who, playing Princess Astra. This part was promoted as the five hundredth episode of Doctor Who.
 * 21 January - Actor Kevin Wickenden was born.
 * 27 January - The Armageddon Factor Part 2 was first broadcast.
 * 3 February - The Armageddon Factor Part 3 was first broadcast.
 * 10 February - The Armageddon Factor Part 4 was first broadcast.
 * 17 February - The Armageddon Factor Part 5 was first broadcast. Twenty-three minutes into transmission, the episode went off the air for approximately twenty seconds due to a technical fault on the playback equipment. BBC continuity apologised to the viewers for the breakdown in transmission, displaying a TEMPORARY FAULT caption slide and playing music, "Gotcha" by Tom Scott, until the fault was rectified. When the episode restarted, the videotape had been slightly rewound so there was a repeat of the action immediately prior to the break.
 * 24 February - The Armageddon Factor Part 6 was first broadcast, concluding Season 16 and the Key to Time arc. Mary Tamm left the series after this episode as did, temporarily, John Leeson. (Another actor took over the voiceovers for K9 for Season 17, although the character didn't appear on screen again until The Creature from the Pit. Leeson returned for Season 18.)
 * 2 March - Actor Jocelyn Jee Esien was born.
 * 20 March - Actor Freema Agyeman was born.
 * 29 March - PROSE: Doctor Who and the Invisible Enemy was first published.
 * American editions of PROSE: Doctor Who and the Day of the Daleks and PROSE: Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon were published by Pinnacle Books. Over the next year, Pinnacle published US editions of ten Target Books novelisations, most slightly reedited for American readers, with some of the more British terms (such as "jelly baby") replaced with American terms. Each book included an introduction by SF author Harlan Ellison, as well as a brief primer on the Doctor and his companions.

April/May

 * 30 April to 3 May - Filming for City of Death took place in Paris, marking the first time Doctor Who was filmed outside the United Kingdom.
 * 24 May - PROSE: Doctor Who and the Robots of Death was first published.
 * 24 - PROSE: Junior Doctor Who and the Giant Robot was first published. It was the first of two attempts by Terrance Dicks at releasing versions of his novelisations for young readers.
 * American editions of PROSE: Doctor Who and the Dinosaur Invasion and PROSE: Doctor Who and the Genesis of the Daleks were published by Pinnacle Books.
 * 31 May - Cinematographer John Wilcox died.
 * American editions of PROSE: Doctor Who and the Loch Ness Monster and PROSE: Doctor Who and the Revenge of the Cybermen were published by Pinnacle Books.
 * 6 July - Writer Malcolm Hulke died.
 * 26 July - PROSE: Doctor Who and the Image of the Fendahl was first published.
 * 31 July - Actor Beatrix Lehmann died.
 * 3 August - Actor Jason May was born.
 * 8 August - Actor Rosanna Lavelle was born.
 * 22 August - Actor Megan Duffy was born.
 * The Doctor Who Annual 1980 was published.
 * 1 September - Destiny of the Daleks Part 1 was first broadcast, marking the debut of Season 17. Lalla Ward returned to the series as the newly regenerated Romana. Although a new voice actor for K9 had been cast, the character did not appear in the serial.
 * 2 September - Actor Derek Seaton died.
 * 8 September - Destiny of the Daleks Part 2 was first broadcast.
 * 9 September - REF: The Adventures of K9 and Other Mechanical Creatures by Terrance Dicks was published.
 * 15 September - Destiny of the Daleks Part 3 was first broadcast.
 * 22 September - Destiny of the Daleks Part 4 was first broadcast. It was the last Doctor Who episode written by Terry Nation.
 * 25 September - PROSE: Doctor Who and the War Games was first published.
 * 29 September - City of Death Part 1 was first broadcast. Partially filmed in Paris, it was the first Doctor Who episode to be produced outside the UK.
 * The American edition of PROSE: Doctor Who and the Talons of Weng-Chiang was published by Pinnacle Books.
 * Prior to October, the Doctor Who comic strip in TV Comic was discontinued to make way for the strip to be featured in the new Doctor Who Weekly.
 * A (vinyl) story record version of Genesis of the Daleks, with original TV dialogue, sound effects and newly recorded narration by Tom Baker, was released.
 * 6 October - City of Death Part 2 was first broadcast.
 * 12 October - In the midst of his TV script for City of Death being broadcast, Douglas Adams' first novel, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, was first published.
 * 13 October - City of Death Part 3 was first broadcast.
 * 17 October - Actor John Stuart died in London.
 * 17 - The first issue of Doctor Who Weekly (later Doctor Who Monthly and Doctor Who Magazine) was released; the long-running DWM comic strip also made its debut. Both were still published more than thirty years later.
 * 20 October - City of Death Part 4 was first broadcast. This episode received the highest viewing figures ever for a Doctor Who episode, with 16.1 million viewers. The increase in ratings was due to the ITV networks being blacked out by industrial action at the time.
 * 24 October - DWM 2 was released.
 * 27 October - The Creature from the Pit Part 1 was first broadcast. David Brierley debuted as the new voice of K9, the character having been absent since the end of The Armageddon Factor.
 * 30 October - Actor Graham Ashley died.
 * Early November - John Nathan-Turner officially began his ten-year stint as producer of Doctor Who (he was not involved in the production of the season then underway). Among the changes he implemented for the coming season were the introduction of a new arrangement of the theme song by Peter Howell, an updated opening credits sequence, and the announcement that the 1980-81 season would be Tom Baker's last as the Doctor.
 * 3 November - The Creature from the Pit Part 2 was first broadcast.
 * 7 November - Totally Doctor Who presenter Barney Harwood was born.
 * 10 November - The Creature from the Pit Part 3 was first broadcast.
 * 17 November - The Creature from the Pit Part 4 was first broadcast.
 * 20 November - PROSE: Doctor Who and the Destiny of the Daleks was first published.
 * 24 November - Nightmare of Eden Part 1 was first broadcast.
 * The American edition of PROSE: Doctor Who and the Masque of Mandragora was published by Pinnacle Books.
 * 1 December - Nightmare of Eden Part 2 was first broadcast.
 * 7 December - was released. It was the first in a series of Star Trek films and the first of six to feature the cast of.
 * 8 December - Nightmare of Eden Part 3 was first broadcast.
 * 11 December - PROSE: Doctor Who and the Ribos Operation was first published.
 * 15 December - Nightmare of Eden Part 4 was first broadcast.
 * 22 December - The Horns of Nimon Part 1 was first broadcast.
 * 29 December - The Horns of Nimon Part 2 was first broadcast.
 * Lalla Ward appeared on Multi-Coloured Swap Shop.

Unknown dates

 * Labour action forced production to be halted on the six-part serial HOMEVID: Shada. Ultimately, it was decided to abandon the serial, which signalled a premature end for the 1979-80 season with The Horns of Nimon.
 * REF: Terry Nation's Dalek Special was first published. This Target Books trade paperback release, edited by Terrance Dicks, included the novella Daleks: The Secret Invasion, written by Terry Nation, which was the first piece of original Doctor Who-related fiction to be published by Target, as well as Nation's only fiction writing for the company. As the book included a synopsis of Destiny of the Daleks, it can be surmised it was probably published after that serial was broadcast.