A very Happy New Year to you.
In the 1960's and 1970's, New Year's Day wasn't all that special. Christmas is much bigger, and the New Year celebration strictly comes on the night of the 31st December and only the early hours of the 1st January.
Despite being a Bank Holiday in the UK, the BBC and ITV were happy enough to broadcast regular TV programmes in the earlier part of the evening - ones that would have been on that day anyway.
This is why we got a couple of Doctor Who episodes broadcast on this day during the Classic era of the programme.
The earliest was on the first day of 1966, when The Daleks' Master Plan gave us Volcano. Like the previous week's Christmas episode, this was another bit of a TARDIS runaround, taking in a cricket test match and New Year celebrations in Trafalgar Square. However, the main storyline with the Daleks was reinstated, as well as the start of a mini-arc involving the return of the Meddling Monk.
Season 9 began on this day in 1972, with Part One of Day of the Daleks. This was the first time the Daleks had been seen in colour, and after a 5 year absence.
When The Face of Evil Part One was broadcast in 1977, it was treated by the media - even the BBC themselves - as the beginning of a new series. There had been a reasonable gap since the end of The Deadly Assassin, and we were being introduced to new companion Leela, so it may have looked that way to the general public as well.
2004 gave us the third instalment of The Scream of the Shalka, and when the series returned to BBC 1 in 2005, it was Christmas which was selected for the special episodes. David Tennant's final story (The End of Time) was to be a two part epic, launching on Christmas night - but the second half would follow on January 1st 2010.
The Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi seasons maintained the Christmas Special tradition, but things changed with the coming of Chris Chibnall. As well as moving the series to a Sunday evening, the festive special would now be a New Year one.
True - they had run out of Christmas traditions to parody, but New Year has very few of its own, so it has been difficult shoehorning NY elements into the recent specials. How many archaeologists do you know who would work on New Year's Day?
The first NY Special - Resolution - was broadcast on 1st January 2019. After a continuity-free Series 11, this brought back a Dalek.
The 2020 special was Spyfall: Part One, which introduced a new incarnation of the Master. It was also the opening episode of Series 12.
In 2021, we had a sequel of sorts to Resolution with Revolution of the Daleks, which saw the return of Captain Jack, after a cameo in Series 12.
This year threatens more Daleks, with Eve of the Daleks, but it appears there won't be anything at all at the next festive season, as Russell T Davies says he won't be writing anything before the 60th Anniversary story in November 2023, and Chibnall and Whittaker will have gone by the end of October 2022 (if the BBC Centenary Special is to be broadcast at the time of the centenary itself).
As well as episodes of the parent programme, New Year's Day has hosted instalments of the spin-offs as well.
The Sarah Jane Adventures launched today in 2007 with the pilot episode Invasion of the Bane.
And the first series of Torchwood ended later that same evening with two episodes - Captain Jack Harkness and End of Days.
Finally, today we remember the character actor Cyril Shaps. He made four memorable appearances in Doctor Who over the years. He passed away on New Year's Day in 2003, at the age of 79.
His first role was as the fussy archaeologist Viner in The Tomb of the Cybermen in 1967. He returned to the programme as discredited scientist Lennox in 1970's The Ambassadors of Death. Producer Barry Letts tried to fill Planet of the Spiders (1974) with many actors who had previously worked with Jon Pertwee, and one of these was Shaps as the psychic "Professor" Clegg.
His final appearance was opposite Tom Baker in 1978's The Androids of Tara, in which he played the priestly Archimandrite.
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