THIS WEEK IN DOCTOR WHO USA - July 31st

Hello again, readers! My computer equipment seems to be behaving itself for once, so hopefully this issue will get out on time to all its locations. This week's US edition features a late-breaking update about WQED's relaunch campaign, a KTEH Doctor Who-ish triple feature without pledge drives, advance news on a change in KBTC's traditional way of scheduling Doctor Who in pledge season, and all of the usual stations and schedules. If you know of any corrections, additions, or suggestions for "This Week", feel free to contact me at bfelliott@jnpcs.com , and I'll try to make a note for the next issue.

I'm considering a few tweaks to make in the Monday worldwide edition of This Week In Doctor Who. One or two things that might make it more interesting and informative, I hope. Expect the improvements there to appear on August 10 or 17.

And now, the listings:

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NHPTV (channel 11 in most of New Hampshire) continues its run of 2nd Doctor episodes Friday night at 10PM with part 5 of The Dominators and part 1 of The Mind Robber. Quarks, lava flows, and the outside of time. Will The Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe survive? Watch and find out!

WQED/WQEX 13/16 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania offers the 3rd episode of Robot Saturday night at 10:30PM. Can Harry Sullivan prove himself to be a real James Bond? How high will Professor Kettlewell's hair stand when he discovers the real plans of the SRS? And what will Bessie do when she realizes that this story is her last appearance for nearly nine years? Find out on WQED. And, for a mere $112,000, you can purchase the entire series for WQED and get rid of the pledge drives! Go for it, Pittsburghians!!!

UPDATE! It has come to my attention that the money raised from the 1st 2 episodes of Robot was enough to purchase The Pyramids Of Mars, bringing the total number of regular stories purchased to 8 and the number of episodes to 32. Maybe this nickel and dime approach to Doctor Who will work after all! And I now have more information on the viewers' choice special scheduled for August 15. The top contenders being considered to run on that night are, in series chronological order, Carinval Of Monsters, Genesis of the Daleks, The Deadly Assassin, The Face of Evil, The Talons of Weng-Chiang, Logopolis, Enlightenment, and The Curse of Fenric. The top choice will air August 15 at 10PM.

MPT Maryland offers viewers the conclusion to An Unearthly Child this week, an episode originally titled The Firemaker. As I've watched this story again, I've noticed that the actress playing Hur actually seems to rise above her dialogue in a way that none of the other cave people do. Wouldn't it have been interesting if her character had wound up travelling in the TARDIS? Catch the episode Saturday late night at 11:30PM.

WUFT 5 in Gainesville, Florida concludes the reign of the 4th Doctor Saturday night at 5PM with the movie version of Logopolis. The Doctor is being Watch-ed, the TARDIS is being washed, and the universe itself hangs in the balance. Confused? Watch the story. 90 minutes.

WUSF 16 in Tampa Bay, Florida is now firmly entrenched in episode format Who. Tune in Saturday late night at 11:30PM for Castrovalva part 2. When last we left the Doctor, Adric was missing, the Doctor's regeneration was failing, and the TARDIS was on the verge of hitting Event One (tm). What happens next? IF we only knew ...

WCET 48 Cincinnati, Ohio offers viewers a grand tour of Paradise Towers in movie format Saturday late night at 11PM. See the fantastic views of muck and mire. Civilization's on the point of collapse. People are eating people. Super powered vacuum cleaners are eating people! Don't you feel like moving in already? A Sylvester McCoy story running 90 minutes.

WFWA 39 in Fort Wayne, Indiana continues airing the Key To Time series Saturday late night at Midnight. This week - The Power of Kroll. Can the Doctor stop an enormous squid from squashing an oil refinery? And why would he want to? And frankly, how on Earth was this the most watched story of Season 16? Watch the story, and wonder for yourself. Movie format.

WTBU 69 in Indianapolis, Indiana offers viewers the conclusion to the Key To Time series Sunday evening with The Armageddon Factor. Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The shadow knows. The movie format version will air at either 5 or 6PM.

Louisana Public Television (LPTV) offers most people in that state 2 episodes of Doctor Who Saturday nights at 10PM. This week - enjoy the first half of Day of the Daleks, a Jon Pertwee story. The Daleks make their first appearance in years, and this time they've really managed to do some harm. Can time survive? (Very probably.)

Iowa Public Television (IPTV - the station Siobahn is mostly to see Doctor Who on) offers 2 episodes Friday night at the regular late time of 11:05PM. This week Iowans can enjoy more of Patrick Troughton's antics, with part 6 of The Seeds of Death and episode 1 of part 1 of The War Games (must have something to do with the old movie format version being divided into two parts). Ice Warriors and World War I generals - separated at birth? You decide. An hour of exciting television.

KBDI 12 in Denver, Colorado offers viewers a chance to see a full 6 part story this week. Friday night at 11PM Mountain (1AM Eastern) they offer an encore of the first 2 episodes of The Mutants. Saturday night at 10PM Mountain (Midnight Eastern) KBDI offers the concluding 4episodes. The bonus feature on Saturday is because they will be airing a pledge special on August 8, and they want to keep the schedule straight. Some viewers in Ontario can also receive these broadcasts.

KTEH 54 in San Jose, California has a special deal for viewers Sunday late night - 3 features, no pledge drives! First, at 11PM, enjoy the two part story The King's Demons, with Gerald Flood as King John. Then, at 1:54PM, meet the masks in front of the monsters in I Was A Doctor Who Monster!. Finally, at 12:45AM, KTEH's late night movie is "Day Of The Triffids". While Day isn't technically a Doctor Who film, it does feature Carole Ann Ford in a pre-Susan appearance! So tune in and enjoy! Or get a good night sleep and set your VCR! :-)

Slightly north of there, KRCB 22 in Sonoma County offers one episode Saturday night at 11PM. This week - Frontios part 3. Why has Turlough freaked out? And what force can drag people beneath the Earth? Thanks to the readers who alerted me to which episode KRCB was showing.

KSPS 7 in Spokane, Washington offers movie format Who to many Washington state and Alberta, Canada viewers. This week they offer the first segment of the "Nerva Chronicles" with The Ark In Space. Tune in at 10:30PM Pacific (11:30PM Mountain). Apart from the "classic" speech about humanity, it's a pretty good story.

KBTC/KCKA 28/15 Tacoma, Washington airs the same Doctor Who episodes 4 times a week. It seems that people want to see the stories twice, and they rerun their prime time schedule in late night, causing the high number of showings. This week's feature is parts 3 and 4 of a 4 part version of Timelash. See it at 7PM Saturday, 12:30AM late Saturday, 7:30PM Monday, and 12:30AM late Monday.

{Alert: special notice about KBTC's pledge plans! KBTC/KCKA is going to pre-empt their Monday broadcasts of Doctor Who during pledge season, beginning with the 2ndhalf of Revelation of the Daleks. The Saturday broadcasts will air at their normal times without pledge interruptions. This is apparently a change from previous drives, where the Saturday broadcasts have been pre-empted and the Monday broadcasts have aired. Thanks to Eric Gjovaag for the information.}

The BBC America cable channel has scheduled the first episode of Robot to air Saturday night at 11:20PM Eastern time with a 5:20AM Eastern repeat. This would be great, if BBC America hadn't already aired this story a number of times since their late March launch. It seems that the programmer at BBC America was either negligent when buying programming or wasn't given an adequate budget, as they seem to have a very small pool of programming to begin with, and only 2 Doctor Who stories. They promise to improve this situation in the fall. I don't really see the need, as it would be so easy to replace BBC America with BBC Prime, which has a wider variety of shows and a 3 year track record of programming. It even has Doctor Who (see the Monday editions for schedules).

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And that wraps up another issue. Thanks for reading.

Benjamin F. Elliott