1988 (releases)


 * Titan Books launched a new line of books entitled Doctor Who: The Scripts, with the publication of the script for An Unearthly Child, which was published under the working title The Tribe of Gum. This series of books continued until 1994, although the second volume was not published for some eighteen months.
 * 21 January - Doctor Who - The Rescue was first published.
 * 18 February - Doctor Who - Terror of the Vervoids was first published.
 * 18 February - REF Doctor Who: The Early Years was published in paperback.
 * Doctor Who - The Time Meddler was first published.
 * REF: Encyclopedia of The Worlds of Doctor Who: E-K was first published.
 * 21 April - Doctor Who - The Mysterious Planet was first published.
 * 5 May - Doctor Who - Time and the Rani was first published. It was the first Seventh Doctor novelisation and the first to use the new Sylvester McCoy-era series logo (though it did not immediately replace the neon-tube logo on all Target Books releases). It was the first photographic cover since Doctor Who - Enlightenment four years earlier. Canadian fans noticed a substantial (but ultimately temporary) jump in the cover price of Doctor Who books (on the order of $2-$3) beginning with this release.
 * 23 May - The musical group called released "Doctorin' the Tardis".
 * 6 June - The Timelords musical group released "Gary in the TARDIS", a follow-up to their earlier single, "Doctorin' the TARDIS", featuring Gary Glitter.
 * 16 June - Doctor Who - Vengeance on Varos was first published.
 * 21 July - Doctor Who - The Underwater Menace was first published.
 * 18 August - Doctor Who - The Wheel in Space was first published.
 * 18 August - In an effort to boost sales of older novelisations, Target Books launched the Doctor Who Classics line of releases. These were omnibus reissues of novelisations, two per volume. Two books were released this date (with the original book titles shortened to their original TV titles in the case of those with Doctor Who and... in the original release): Dalek Invasion of Earth/The Crusaders and The Myth Makers/The Gunfighters.
 * 15 September - Doctor Who - The Ultimate Foe was first published.
 * 15 September - Doctor Who Classics - The Dominators/The Krotons was published.
 * 20 September - REF: Doctor Who: 25 Glorious Years was published in paperback.
 * REF: Encyclopedia of The Worlds of Doctor Who: A-D was published in paperback.
 * 5 October - Remembrance of the Daleks Part One debuted on BBC1, launching Doctor Who's history-making 25th season.
 * 8 October - Sylvester McCoy appeared in costume and in character as the Doctor in the "Clown Court" segment of The Noel Edmunds Saturday Roadshow, which presented outtakes from Delta and the Bannermen, Silver Nemesis and a bonus blooper from The Visitation with Peter Davison.
 * 12 October - Remembrance of the Daleks Part Two debuted on BBC1.
 * 19 October - Remembrance of the Daleks Part Three debuted on BBC1.
 * 20 October - Doctor Who - The Edge of Destruction was first published.
 * 26 October - Remembrance of the Daleks Part Four debuted on BBC1. It was the final appearance of Davros until The Stolen Earth and the final on-screen appearance of the Daleks until Dalek.
 * REF: Doctor Who: Cybermen was first published.
 * It's Bigger on the Inside!, a collection of Doctor Who-related humour, was first published by Marvel Comics.
 * 2 November - The Happiness Patrol Part One debuted on BBC1.
 * 7 November - BBC Audio issued the 1986 radio play AUDIO: Slipback and the 1979 audio version of Genesis of the Daleks on cassette.
 * 9 November - The Happiness Patrol Part Two debuted on BBC1.
 * 16 November - The Happiness Patrol Part Three debuted on BBC1.
 * 16 November - REF: Encyclopedia of The Worlds of Doctor Who: E-K was published in paperback.
 * 17 November - Doctor Who - The Smugglers was first published.
 * 17 November - REF: Doctor Who: 25 Glorious Years was first published.
 * 23 November - Silver Nemesis Part One debuted on BBC1 on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the first broadcast of Doctor Who.
 * 30 November - Silver Nemesis Part Two debuted on BBC1.
 * REF: The Official Doctor Who & the Daleks Book, a retrospective by John Peel and Terry Nation, was first published.
 * REF: Doctor Who Magazine Master Index was published.
 * 1 December - Doctor Who - Paradise Towers was first published.
 * 7 December - Silver Nemesis Part Three debuted on BBC1.
 * 14 December - The Greatest Show in the Galaxy Part One debuted on BBC1.
 * 21 December - The Greatest Show in the Galaxy Part Two debuted on BBC1.
 * 28 December - The Greatest Show in the Galaxy Part Three debuted on BBC1.
 * Unknown - Clown Court special was first broadcast.