The Beatles

The Beatles were a music group from Liverpool during the 1960s and 1970s.

20th century
In 1965, the Beatles performed "Ticket to Ride" at Riverside Studios. The Doctor, Barbara Wright, Ian Chesterton and Vicki observed the performance on the Time-Space Visualiser. (DW: The Chase)

Donna Noble and The Doctor went to see them beform. (DWM:The Time of My Life)

In 1969, Ace prevented Huitzilin from killing the Beatles on the roof of the Apple building. (NA: The Left-Handed Hummingbird)

In 1970, Paul left the Beatles. They acquired two new members, Billy and Klaus. (PDA: The Devil Goblins from Neptune)


 * Although not explicitly identified as such, these were presumably Billy Preston and Klaus Voormann.

In 1985, Fitz Kreiner saw the Beatles perform at Live Aid in an alternate timeline in which they did not break up in 1970. Fitz collected alternate timeline Beatles records during his travels. (EDA: The Gallifrey Chronicles)

21st century and after
In 2008, as a result of disturbances in time caused by inexpert use of the Rift Manipulator, the Beatles were spotted on the roof of Abbey Road studio. (TW: End of Days)

By the 25th century, a museum dedicated to them existed in their home town of Liverpool. Vicki knew of them but had not realized that they played what she referred to as considered classical music. (DW: The Chase)

Behind the Scenes
Initially, the Beatles were to have filmed a cameo for The Chase in which they played elderly versions of themselves, circa 1996. Their manager, Brian Epstein, however, forbade it, saying that to have them appear wearing old age makeup would have detracted from their image. Given Lennon's death in 1980, in retrospect the original plan would have resulted in an anachronism. Instead, a clip from a television performance was used. Ironically, given the loss of many Doctor Who episodes to the BBC's policy of erasing old episodes, the clip of the Beatles used in The Chase originated from a programme that was itself erased, leaving the Doctor Who clip the only known surviving footage of that performance.

Some audio and video releases of televised Doctor Who edit out the Beatles songs originally used in the stories on account of rights issues. This has been cited as one reason for the delay in releasing The Chase to DVD.