Second half: This is a repeat of a project I did ten years ago in 2010-11, and it's generally been a fun distraction rather than a chore. This time around I have been ioncluding relevant photographs of actors and TV episodes, which is usually a nice little hunt. The Tragical History Tour website is generally reliable

I do the research for each day's anniversaries on the Tardis Index File (Doctor Who wiki), but rather than just use the individual pages for each date (such as the one for today) I use the list of pages linking to that date (again, such as the one for today) and follow through each link to see if it is worth noting. Actors get listed if they have played a significant speaking role in more than one story. Writers, directors, and senior production team get listed if they have worked on any story at all and their birthdate is known to the Tardis Index File. Broadcast anniversaries always get included; other significant performance and production anniversaries almost always. I may sometimes skip dates supposedly specified in canon if it's a spinoff story I haven't heard of, or worse have actually read / watched / heard but can't remember, but will try and err on the side of inclusion as well.

Last time around I morrored the posts to the community, but given how quiet LJ is these days I haven't done that. Instead, I started by crossposting to my own Facebook, and then switched to the main Doctor Who group there. All my LJ entries are tweeted, and every so often I back them up to Dreamwidth.

It would be nice to do this as a permanent publication of some kind, but I don't really have time!

Anyway, on with today: a birth, two deaths, and nine broadcast anniversaries (including a record-breaking three on the same day, 1 January 2007), but no dates specified in canon other than follow-ons from yesterday's rather large crop.

i) births and deaths

1 January 2003: death of Cyril Shaps, who played Viner in The Tomb of the Cybermen (Second Doctor, 1967), Lennox in The Ambassadors of Death (Third Doctor, 1970), Professor Clegg in Planet of the Spiders (Third Doctor, 1974) and the Archimandrite in The Androids of Tara (Fourth Doctor, 1978).

1 January 2015: death of Fiona Cumming, director of four Fifth Doctor stories and variously involved in other ways too.

1 January 2010: broadcast of The End of Time Part Two, the last regular episode for the Tenth Doctor. The Time Lords return; the Master is persuaded to blast them back into the Time War; and the Doctor rescues Wilf, at the cost of his own life. And the new Doctor yells, "Geronimo!!!!"

1 January 2019: broadcast of Resolution. A long-buried creature is beginning to stir. The most dangerous creature in the universe, and it will stop at nothing to claim the Earth. Conquest in 9376 rels.

1 January 2020: broadcast of Spyfall Part One. The head of MI6, C, enlists the Thirteenth Doctor and her team to investigate former agent spy Daniel Barton to see if he's been turned against them. Meanwhile, an alien threat that can pass through walls, even those of the TARDIS, known as the Kasaavin is wiping out spy organisations all over the planet. Can former MI6 agent "O" help them, or is he not who he claims to be?

1 January 2021: broadcast of Revolution of the Daleks.

With ten broadcast anniversaries, 1 January has more than any day except 25 December. (Though only six are Doctor Who rather than spinoff shows, and there are a couple of days in the spring with more than that.)