This Week In Doctor Who USA - July 24th

Welcome to the USA version of This Week In Doctor Who. It's very much like the original on Mondays, except that it covers the US stations airing Who in detail, while the other version focuses on the listings for every other country. Remember, regardless of the version, major developments regarding a station or network anywhere around the world will lead off the edition, followed by the regular updates. If you have interesting information regarding stations airing Doctor Who, want to correct an error I've made, want to give me advance notice of a Who event, or have any other comments, e-mail me. If you don't want your name credited, let me know.

{I have just learned about gunfire in the US Capitol this afternoon. Depending on the severity of the incident, I could easily imagine stations altering their Friday night lineups. If your station pre-empts or reschedules Doctor Who to cover this shocking incident, please tell me how they handle it. Obviously, a national incident takes precedence over a television show, even as good as Doctor Who.}

First off, I need to amend some information regarding BBC Prime. I missed a repeat time. Doctor Who actually repeats twice on this European cable/satellite network - 1:05AM and 10AM Saturday, with the new episode at 5:30PM Saturday. This weekend - The Face of Evil pt 2 at 1:05AM and 10AM, with pt 3 at 5:30PM. Thanks to Alain Berguerand for this update.

Brave heart, fans who watched Doctor Who on WXEL 42 in West Palm Beach Florida. Yes, Doctor Who is off the weekly schedule. Yes, they have no plans to bring it back as a regular series. But, they still like the money it makes. Coming this December ... all three of the colorized Pertwee stories The Silurians, Terror of the Autons, and The Dæmons) will air during their pledge drives. Until then there must be no tears, no regrets, no anxieties. You just go forward in your beliefs, and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine. Goodbye, my dear. Goodbye. (Sound of people lynching the guy who suggested doing such a lame ripoff of Hartnell.) Thanks to Whosaver for the information on WXEL.

I now have details about the status of Doctor Who on KPTS, kindly offered to me by Meg Lahey. "KPTS Wichita Kansas is NO LONGER showing Doctor Who. It hasn't been showing Doctor Who for almost TWO YEARS, BTW!!! ... Basically, Doctor Who was pulled in January 1997 after a HUGE management shake up at the station. The show had been on the air in Wichita do to the efforts of the Programing Director and after he was fired, the new management scraped many of the older shows, such as Doctor Who (which had been running since 1989 or so, non-stop), in favor of a new line up." RIP, Doctor Who on KPTS.

And now, the regular information on Doctor Who. But just because it's regular doesn't mean there aren't any surprises.

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NHPTV in New Hampshire (channel 11 for most of you) offers episodes 3 and four of The Dominators Friday night at 10PM, starring the Who dream team of the 2nd Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe. The best guest performance in this is provided by the Quarks, dangerous robots who struggle to rise above the script. At least they got some followup appearances in the comic strips, which is more then most guest characters can claim. William December Starr remarked that NHPTV has been somewhat erratic in the past reguarding Doctor Who (beginning stories early, changing start times), but that they seem to have settled down for the moment now that they are airing the show in episode format. Still, be advised when you set your VCRs.

WQED 13 Pittsburgh continues its experiment in jump starting fandom with episode 2 of Robot, the first Tom Baker story, Saturday night at about 10:30PM. Remember, they're squeezing the credits and running those pledges for the express purpose of buying more stories for the station to air (at last word, you only have 7 stories purchased, ending with Planet of Evil). Based on the reported figure of $200 an episode for the entire series, you could stop the pledge drives cold with a mere $112,000. [Yes, I know that the station has the rights to air the current shows it has twice, and that the second run won't be pledge drived, but anything I can do to cut back the number of pledge drives in the world is, in my opinion, a good thing.] Whosaver provided the news on pledge material, the rights to a second run, and how many stories were ordered.

MPT Maryland offers its viewers episode 3 of An Unearthly Child Saturday at 11:30PM, right after Red Dwarf Remastered. I managed to see a little bit of the remastered Dwarf, and I want to know what the difference is. It wasn't in widescreen like the reports out of England. The parts of the remastered episode I saw looked just like the episode I saw 9 years ago. It just doesn't grab my attention. And I'm still a bit steamed that that unscheduled Red Dwarf episode in 1989 kept me from getting a complete movie version of An Unearthly Child till 1992. Interesting how life tends to loop and repeat itself, isn't it?

WUFT 5 in Gainesville, Florida nears the end of the 4th Doctor this week with a 5PM Saturday movie broadcast of The Keeper of Traken. A good episode, with Anthony Ainley and Sarah Sutton making their first appearances on Doctor Who. 5PM. Boy do most Doctor Who fans envy you guys!

It's the end, but the moment has not been well prepared for. WUSF 16 in Tampa Bay, Florida has switched to episode format! Instead of an 11PM movie, there will be one episode at 11:30PM, following Red Dwarf. This week - they enter the Peter Davison years, with part one of Castrovalva. I wonder if they'll credit the change in format and time to post-regeneration trauma.

WCET 48 in Cincinnati Ohio enters the realm of the 7th Doctor this week. Saturday night at 11PM you can enjoy the movie version of Time and the Rani. How many eyes do those monsters have anyway?

I had trouble finding listings for WTBU 69 in Indianapolis, Indiana, this week, but assuming they aren't playing games with their schedule they'll show the movie format of The Power of Kroll this Sunday at 6PM. Also on the WTBU front, James Harvey reported that WTBU tends to play around with their schedule in minor ways. If the story is a few minutes long (not a problem with Kroll), they've been known to start a few minutes early. For 6 part stories, they often begin at 5PM. They're actually an independent station, a public broadcaster not affiliated with PBS, and have a great deal of interesting foreign programming. Let's hope they keep Who on for years to come.

LPTV (Louisiana Public Television) offers two episodes of the good Doctor Saturday nights at 10PM. This week, parts 4 and 5 of The Dæmons. Now, I know that this station has aired colorized Pertwee before, but I don't know how they're doing it this time. It should be fun anyway.

It seems that Iowa Public Television (IPTV) has some fans. TR Sammis has put up a web page for their Friday night lineup, which includes Doctor Who. The page is either http://www.mach3ww.com/~trs13 or can be found from there. It looks like he plans to have special information about IPTV's programming and get interviews with people who work there. His page is certainly easier to use then IPTV's. What's that? You actually want to know what IPTV is airing this week? Oh well. IPTV returns Who to its regular time of 11:05PM Fridays after that one week special delay. It's parts 4 and 5 of The Seeds of Death. The Doctor fights one of the greatest dangers mankind has ever faced: killer soap! Good clean fun for the whole family, if they hadn't gone to bed by this hour. Seriously, it's a great story, and I hope you enjoy.

The URL was incorrect - it should have been http://www.mach3ww.com/sffn

KTEH 54 in San Jose California concludes the "Turlough Trilogy" Sunday late night with Enlightenment. The complete story is presented in episode format beginning at 11PM. Will Turlough discover the truth behind the facades of the guardians, or will catastrophe strike an interstellar boat race. Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of non-alcoholic rum!

And get your videotapes ready. You're in for an exciting time next month. Doctor Who monsters speaking out! The Five Doctors in episode format?!? The Curse Of Extended Fenric! And Susan in a non-Doctor Who role! Stay tuned!

Last time I reported that I could not get information on certain stations. Well, through a lot of searching (and some message from the readers), I have been able to get listings for every known PBS station carrying the show. Here's the info I have on those hard to locate stations.

WFWA 39 in Fort Wayne, Indiana is airing Doctor Who, but I'd say the show is in trouble. The movie format stories are now airing at Midnight late Saturday. Worse still, they're running The Androids of Tara, a story that aired on the other Indiana station earlier this week in a much better timeslot. This may be the time for a fan campaign to keep the show on that station.

KBDI 12 Denver, Colorado is going through Jon Pertwee's tales right now. They offer 2 episodes Saturday night at 10PM, with a repeat the following Friday at 11PM. This Friday they're repeating parts 5 and 6 of The Sea Devils, and Saturday they're offering the first 2 episodes of The Mutants. Viewers in Canada getting this station via Cable or satellite will want to know that this is in Mountain Time, so they should adjust the schedule for their own time zones.

KRCB 22 in Sonoma, California (or somewhere around there, as every entry for this station has placed it in a different location) airs 1 episode a week Saturday nights at 11PM. They're airing an episode of Frontios with Peter Davison. Which episode? I don't know. Could someone watch it and find out? There's at least some overlap between this station and KTEH 54, so KTEH fans may want to look for it.

KSPS 7 in Spokane, Washington is moving from Jon Pertwee to Tom Baker this week. Relive Robot this Saturday night at 10:30PM in movie format. This station can also be received in parts of Canada, so once again, compare time zones before setting your VCR. KSPS is in the Pacific Time Zone.

KBTC 28 in Tacoma, Washington (also KCKA 15) must be run by a Doctor Who fan. They air 2 episodes a week. These episodes run 4 times! The episodes first show at 7 and 7:30 Saturday night. They rerun late Saturday night at 12:30 and 1AM, Monday evening at 7:30 and 8PM, and late Monday night at 12:30 and 1AM. This week - parts one and two of a 4 part version of Timelash. Thanks go to Eric Gjovaag, who found a rerun time that wasn't in the online listings of TV Guide.

Finally, BBC America changes the day of Doctor Who and airs an episode other then Robot! They're showing the movie version of The Ark In Space instead. Catch Doctor Who Saturday night at 10PM Eastern Time with a rerun at 4AM Early Sunday. Warning: they do run commercials in shows, and sometimes they have cut scenes to fit in more ads. Thanks to Shaun Lyon and Erin Tumility.

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Thanks for reading. Hopefully there'll be more stations to add to this list soon. Until next week.

This Week In Doctor Who USA was written by Benjamin F. Elliott. Doctor Who is copyright the BBC. The original list of stations I used when I started This Week In Doctor Who belongs to Siobahn Morgan. Any part of this column may be reused if you ask me first.

Benjamin F. Elliott
July 24, 1998