This Week in Doctor Who (preview) - July 13th 1998

Welcome, one and all, to the week before the premeire of This Week In Doctor Who!

This Week In Doctor Who is an attempt to create a weekly digest of all the stations carrying Doctor Who, what times they are showing it "that week", and the specific episodes being shown. It's been tried before by other people, but now, as the 35th anniversary approaches, I'm taking a stab at it myself. Special thanks to Siobahn Morgan's list of stations, which saved me a lot of time in looking up shows. In time, I'd like to be able to report how well or poorly individual stations are airing the show, as a way to alert fans to what to expect. If your station isn't covered here, tell me what Doctor Who material it's airing and when, and I'll include it in future editions. This week's edition is only a test, to work out how best to format these posts and to locate the listings for certain stations which are eluding me. Comments are welcome.

This seems like a good week to pre-launch the list. MPT, my home station, ran part one of An Unearthly Child in episode form for the first time last week (though they started the show late). WQED/WQEX 13/16 Pittsburgh is relaunching Doctor Who beginning with Robot. And most episodes airing this week are highly regarded classics.

Now, how to organize the countries. For this test, I'll begin with England, follow with Australia, then Canada, then Europe, with America completing the set. Let's see how well that works.

England:

Assuming you have Cable over there, UK Gold is meeting your Who needs. William Hartnell's airing Saturday mornings at 10:05AM and Sylvester McCoy's on Sundays at 10:10AM, both complete stories edited into omnibus format. Hmm. Saturday's omnibus is The Aztecs and Sunday's is Battlefield. The second ever 4 part serial and the second to last 4 part serial. You'll never get a combination quite like that again.

Australia:

Another country where you need Cable to see Who. If you have FOXTEL, you can tune into Who on UK-TV (channel 5 in that system). Individual episodes are running weeknights at 11:30PM (for night owls), with omnibus showings at 1PM Saturday, 2AM Sunday, and 8AM Sunday. This week - Monday's episode is the conclusion of Sylvester McCoy's The Happiness Patrol. Tuesday thru Thursday you can experience Silver Nemesis again. Friday night they run part one of The Greatest Show in the Galaxy. You're getting double the fun for your omnibus this weekend, by the way. The Happiness Patrol omnibus runs for 90 minutes, followed by the Silver Nemesis omnibus. 3 hours long, and 3 chances to see it that weekend. Stop gloating!

Canada:

Canada's probably the most Who-broadcast friendly country at the moment, if you're willing to shell out for the specialty tier of Cable. Space: The Imagination Station is running the early episodes 3 times a weekday, with a weekend episode that airs twice. If you're in the Eastern Time Zone, that's 7:30AM, 1:30PM, and 3:30AM on weekdays, with 8AM and 3:30AM on Sundays. This week: Monday thru Thursday - relive The Time Meddler, where a mysterious monk has access to technology that doesn't belong in the 11th Century, and the Doctor must figure out the reason before history is altered. On Friday sit back for part one of The Ark, where The Doctor and Stephen discover the last remnants of humanity, and Dodo develops a cold. On Sunday your VCR can record part 5 of The Sensorites for you to watch when you get home from Church. Classic stories, classic plots, classic Hartnell fluffs!

Europe:

For most of Europe, BBC Prime provides Who service. Currently they're showing the series twice a week, both times on Saturday. At 10AM Central European Time (CET) Saturday they reshow the episode they ran the previous week. Then, at 5:30PM CET, the next episode in the series airs. This week:The Face of Evil: Part One at 10AM, with The Face of Evil: Part Two at 5:30PM. Leela fans can start rejoicing. If only the BBC would dump BBC America and offer BBC Prime here instead.

And now, the USA!!!

Top billing this week to WQED 13/WQEX 16 Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, which is picking up Doctor Who this weekend beginning with Robot part one. Tune in at 10:30PM Saturday night.

MPT Maryland is showing The Cave of Skulls, aka An Unearthly Child pt 2. Thanks to the Are You Being Served? movie delaying the start times of their late night lineup last week, I wound up seeing part of the remastered Red Dwarf. Interesting that they've replacing the original version with a modified one for Americans at the same time that they're going back to the original format for Doctor Who, instead of the modified movie format for Americans they've been using. Catch Doctor Who at the inhumanly late time of 11:30PM Saturdays.

WUFT 5 in Gainesville Florida is showing the movie version of Warriors' Gate at 5PM Saturday. You folks have no idea how lucky you are to get Doctor Who at such a viewable time. Will K9 ever be able to bark properly again?

WUSF 16 in Tampa Bay Florida is offering a movie broadcast of Logopolis at 11PM Saturday for Florida insomniacs. Anthony Ainley's best performance as the Master. Sit back and enjoy the destruction of the universe!

WCET 48 in Cincinnati Ohio is offering the movie format 55 minute conclusion to Trial of a Time Lord, aka The Ultimate Foe, Saturday night at 11PM. At least, I think they are. Their listings didn't extend that far in advance, so I'm extrapolating based on last Saturday. Someone over there's going to have to help me out during pledge season.

WTBU 69 in Indianapolis Indiana offers movie format Who at 6PM Sundays. This week - that swashbuckling epic - The Androids of Tara.

Louisiana Public Television (LPTV - home station channel 27 in Baton Rouge) runs episode format Pertwee stories on Saturday nights from 10 to 11PM. This week - The Dæmons parts 2 and 3. No word on whether you're getting the color or Black and White version.

Iowa Public Television (IPTV) runs episode format Who late night Fridays. This week they're actually starting later then normal, as they don't begin their 2 episodes until 11:35PM. It'll be two episodes of The Seeds of Death. Their listings are not quite specific, so I can't say which two episodes. By next week I'll have a better idea where they are in that serial.

Viewers of New Hampshire Public Television (NHPTV) and KTEH 54 in San Jose California - your stations' websites are down. The last I heard, NHPTV was airing movie format Who on Friday nights at 10PM and KTEH was airing 4 episodes in a mini-marathon on Sunday nights beginning at approximately 11PM. If someone knows of updated links that could lead me to their websites, please tell me.

Speaking of needing links, the following stations appear not to have links at all. Once I can locate a place with listings for them, I can add them to my weekly rounds.

KRCB 22 in Sonoma California is supposedly airing Doctor Who Saturday nights at 11PM in episode format.

KBDI 12 in Denver Colorado airs two episodes Saturday night at 10PM, then repeats them Friday night at 11PM.

WFWA 39 in Fort Wayne Indiana reportedly airs Doctor Who in movie format Saturday nights at 10PM.

KBTC 28 in Tacoma Washington supposedly offers its viewers a great deal of our favorite Time Lord. Movie length broadcasts Monday nights at 9PM, Saturday nights at 8PM, and Saturday nights at 11PM. I'd love to confirm that and let the rest of us know what we're missing.

Now we get to the part I don't like. Stations on Siobahn's list that appear to have dropped the show. Thankfully, there are only two on the list. I was expecting more.

WXEL 42 in West Palm Beach Florida is definitely not airing the show Saturdays at 11PM anymore. However, they only have prime time listings at their site. Doctor Who could still be running before 7PM or after Midnight and I wouldn't know. Unless, of course, someone there could e-mail me with an update.

KPTS 8 in Witchita Kanas appears to be a more definite departure. I searched their July listings and couldn't find it anywhere.

And finally, we mustn't forget BBC America (though heaven knows this newsgroup wishes it could). Their listings didn't extend to the timeslot where they've been airing Who, but last week they had a 45 minute broadcast at 11:15PM. It was part of their umpteenth rebroadcast of Robot. They've promised additional episodes for the fall. Who knows?

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Thank you for reading, and come back next week for the grand launch of the HMS Titanic ... erm, ah, I mean This Week In Doctor Who!

This Week In Doctor Who is a production of Fliction Unincorporated. Special thanks to Siobahn's website that I've forgotten the exact address of at the moment but will be in future editions. The schedule information is copyright to the various stations listed above. Doctor Who is copyright the BBC. Please contact me if you wish to reuse some or all of this article, and I'll say yes.

Benjamin F. Elliott