Presenting...the "Doctor Who" Millennium Calendar!



This photographic calendar was published by World of Discovery, and was a part of the BBC’s Millennium Collection range of merchandise. Disappointingly, the calendar features photographic stills instead of artwork by Who artists such as Andrew Skilleter, Colin Howard, Alister Pearson, and Chris Achilleos. It departs from the usual two-page spread (upper half = artwork; lower half = calendar), but it’s fairly well-designed. Still, publicity shots aren't enough to warrant posting every single page of it to the blog...maybe one day, I shall come back and do just that. Yes, I shall come back. But, until then, there must be no tears; no anxieties. Just go forward and read the entries, and prove to me that I am not mistaken in writing them. 

Here is a summary of each page:

1. October/November 1999 features the William Hartnell (First Doctor) era (November 1963-October 1966). Accompanying stills: Doctor/Steven/Vicki from “Galaxy 4;” Ian/Susan/Barbara with Doctor at TARDIS console from “100,000 BC;” and a color publicity shot of Hartnell at the TARDIS door. November 1999: Doctor and Susan from “The Daleks;” a Monoid from “The Ark;” and the Drahvins, with a Chumbley, from “Galaxy 4.”
2. December 1999/January 2000 features the Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton) era (November 1966-June 1969). Accompanying stills: Doctor/Jamie McCrimmon/Zoe Herriot from what appears to be “The Wheel in Space” or “The Seeds of Death;” the Second Doctor from “The Five Doctors;” and Doctor/Ben/Polly, story unknown. January 2000: Victoria and an Ice Warrior from “The Ice Warriors;” Fish People from “The Underwater Menace;” and the Cybermen from “The Moonbase.”
3. February/March 2000 features the Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee) era (1970-1974). Accompanying stills: Doctor in Bessie (his roadster) from “The Five Doctors;” the Brigadier, Jo Grant from what appears to be “Terror of the Autons;” the Brigadier, story unknown; and the Doctor and Jo, story unknown. March 2000: Doctor and Draconians, “Frontier in Space;” Axon, “The Claws of Axos;” and a Sea Devil, “The Sea Devils.”
4. April/May 2000 features the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) era (1974-1981). Accompanying stills: Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane, story unknown; Romana II (Lalla Ward) from what I think is “Warriors’ Gate;” Leela from what might be “The Sun Makers;” and K9 from what looks like “The Invisible Enemy.” May 2000: A Sontaran from, oddly, “The Time Warrior” (a Third Doctor story!); Doctor/Sarah Jane with a Krynoid, “Seeds of Doom;” and Leela prepared to fight a knife-wielding Mr. Sin from “Talons of Weng-Chiang.”
5. June/July 2000 features the Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison) era (1981-1984). Accompanying stills: Tegan from what looks like “Resurrection of the Daleks;” group shot of 1, 2, 3, and 5 from “The Five Doctors;” and the Fifth Doctor outside the TARDIS—looks like “The Five Doctors.” July 2000: A Cyberman from “Earthshock;” a Melkur from “The Keeper of Traken” (a Fourth Doctor story!) and Davros from “Revelation of the Daleks (a Sixth Doctor story!).
6. August/September 2000 features the Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker) era (1985-1986). Accompanying stills: Peri, “The Twin Dilemma;” Sixth Doctor, story unknown; and Sixth Doctor in Fifth Doctor’s costume; “The Twin Dilemma” (but notice that the green stain is missing from the right sleeve). September 2000: The Borad, “Timelash;” Peri with Cyberman, “Attack of the Cybermen;” Peri with Sil, “Vengeance on Varos.”
7. October/November 2000 feature the Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) era (1987-1989). Accompanying stills: Doctor with Mel, “Time and the Rani;” Doctor, Ace, Brigadier Winifred Bambera, Bessie, and an unknown girl, “Battlefield;” Doctor and Ace, “Survival.” November 2000: The Rani, “Time and the Rani;” Kandyman, “The Happiness Patrol;” the Cheetah People, “Survival.”
8. December 2000 features the TV Movie, with Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor (1996). Accompanying stills: Doctor in distress, wearing an eye-opening contraption; the Master (Eric Roberts) and Chang Lee (Yee Jee Tso) sharing what must be the lamest punchline in the world; and the Doctor and Grace at the TARDIS console.
9. January 2001 is an epilogue: “Whether the Doctor has a future is yet to be decided, but as the Doctor is a Timelord [sic] he can be regenerated twelve times; so far there have only been eight.” Accompanying stills: Third Doctor, story unknown; TARDIS, possibly “The Leisure Hive;” the Fourth Doctor’s face from the 1974-1979 title sequence.
   
   Overall, I'm not entirely happy with the calendar. There are quite a few misspellings, and several pieces of inaccurate information. But, despite all that, it is a Millennium Artifact, and a worthy one at that.
    

February 17, 1999: US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright meets with Mahmoud Abbas, Yasser Arafat's chief deputy, to discuss the Wye peace agreement between Israel and Palestine. Albright, Arafat, and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu had previously signed this agreement in October 1998. (www.bbcnews.com)

February 17, 2000: The AFL-CIO calls for amnesty for undocumented workers in the USA.