This Week In Doctor Who - December 17, 1999
(posted 17th Dec 1999, via rec.arts.drwho)

THIS WEEK IN DOCTOR WHO - December 17, 1999
This Week In Doctor Who will be published on Thursdays for Christmas and New Year's weekends, to make life easier on myself and the people who host the column on their pages.

My apologies to anyone who tried to send me updates via org...@zxmail.com in the last week. That account has stopped working. It is being looked into, and I hope to make it the regular address for updates and corrections to be sent. (Org...@logopolis.com died on December 1.) At this moment, I can be contacted at bfel...@jnpcs.com , but that address will either be terminated or redirecting mail to a new address within the next few days. JNPCS has announced imminent plans to cease existence, though they haven't said when exactly they will disappear. If e-mail bounces, forward it to the person operating the site where you are reading the column (or post a message if you are reading it on the newsgroup). The information will get where it needs to go in time for the December 23rd column. And now, something to do with Doctor Who ...

Final ratings are in for the 30 November airing of Spearhead In Space 4 on BBC2. The episode came in at #29 of BBC2 shows, with 2.2 million people watching. Hopefully the ratings will rise, to better show off the potential benefits of making the series again.

FOX has apparently finalized its primetime schedule for the rest of December 1999, and the Doctor Who movie is not airing. FOX's rights to the 1996 movie expire after December 31, 1999, which hopefully means that it can be shopped around to other potential broadcasters at last. At the least, the prohibition against the possibility of a US video release before FOX reruns the movie will no longer exist.

At least one digital cable service is now offering customers both the East and West Coast versions of BBC America. There seems to be no difference between the versions - the West Coast version is just time shifted 3 hours. It must be weird to have the option to watch the same Doctor Who episodes 6 times in the same weekend without using a VCR.

MPT 22 (the Annapolis frequency) has been operating on reduced power this week while their transmitter is upgraded for digital uses. It should be back to full (dare we hope - improved?) power before Tom Baker's opening credits Saturday night. Remember - Doctor Who is now starting at Midnight, not 12:30AM.

Not much else seems to be going on with the TV front at the moment (famous last words). So now, the listings:

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UK/Ireland:

BBC2 http://www.bbc.co.uk/
Tue 6PM GMT Doctor Who And The Silurians ep 3 of 7
Doctor Quinn, Medicine Man tries to manipulate the creatures from the caves. Presumably he hasn't watched much science fiction on TV. You never try to skillfully manipulate the intelligent greenish-brown monsters. Still, at least he gets to do it on freshly cleaned up prints, restored to near their original colour glory. Next episode January 4th.

UK Gold http://www.sceneone.co.uk/s1/tv/listings
Late Fri 12:25-2:55AM GMT The Seeds of Death movie
The Ice Warriors return, taking over the Moon and paralysing Earth's T-Mat system, bringing the planet to the point of chaos. Next Friday rerun January 7th.
Sun 9:20-11:15AM GMT Snakedance movie
Psst. Tegan. The snake guy's back.

UK Gold Classics http://www.sceneone.co.uk/s1/tv/listings
Sun 6-7:55PM GMT Snakedance movie
Replay of the morning broadcast on UK Gold.

TG4/TnaG http://www.tnag.ie/ http://www.sceneone.co.uk/s1/tv/listings
Fri 6:31PM GMT Inferno eps 5+6 of 7
Two of the most downbeat episodes of the show's history. The Doctor was unable to stop the madman, and Earth faces certain destruction. Hopefully this version will contain the 'radio' scene from episode 5 that the original UK broadcasts in 1970 omitted (it appeared overseas and on the video release). It's the scene that comes the closest to pointing out the sheer scale of what the alternate universe people have done, and the scene that most stuck out in my memory when I first saw the story. It's almost criminal to delete it.

EUROPE/AFRICA:

BBC Prime http://www.bbcprime.com/
Late Fri 1AM CET (Not Africa) The Creature from the Pit ep 1 of 4
Sat 5PM, Sun 11:30AM, Mon 11:35AM CET/CAT The Creature from the Pit ep 2 of 4
The Doctor and Romana are sweetly asked at gunpoint to help track down and kill an enormous green blob that the autocratic ruler of a forest planet dislikes. The Doctor tries to learn Tibetan. Organon appears.

CANADA/USA:

SPACE: The Imagination Station http://www.hwcn.org/~an933/spacedw.htm
http://www.spacecast.com/
Sat-Tue 7:30AM EST The Web Planet eps 3 - 6 of 6 (Escape To Danger, Crater Of Needles, Invasion, The Centre)
If the 1st Doctor and company cannot help the Menoptera outwit the Animus, Vortis will be fully taken over, and the Animus will set its sights on galactic conquest.

Wed-Fri 7:30AM EST The Space Museum eps 1 - 3 of 4 (The Space Museum, The Dimensions Of Time, The Search)
The TARDIS jumps a time stream, allowing the crew to see a future where they are dead. The future then begins to occur at a worrying pace. Watch for the scenes involving the Doctor and a 'Dalek'.

BBC America http://www.bbcamerica.com/
Terror of the Zygons movie, pt 1 of 2
Sat 7AM+5PM, Sun 8AM EST East Coast Feed (PST West Coast Feed)
Back into reruns on BBC America. The 4th Doctor goes to all the trouble to come back to Earth, and the Brigadier wants him to investigate a few rotten oil rigs. No Saturday broadcasts next week, only the Sunday one.

NHPTV New Hampshire 11, 49, 52 http://nhptv.org/
Sun 3PM EST Death to the Daleks eps 1+2 of 4
The TARDIS suffers a power failure, forcing a landing on the planet Exillon. Once there, the Doctor and Sarah meet up with an expedition looking for the cure to a space plague. They are not the only ones looking.

WQED/WQEX 13, 16 Pittsburgh, PA http://www.wqed.org/
Sat 11:30PM EST Thirty Years In The TARDIS 1993 documentary
This program has apparently replaced The Deadly Assassin episode 2 as the scheduled episode. The show is 50 minutes long, but has been given a 30 minute slot. Next episode in January.

WYBE 35 Philadelphia, PA http://www.wybe.org/
http://www.tvquest.com/ zip 19128
Sat 11PM EST The Sun Makers eps 3+4 of 4
WYBE went off the air last week part-way through The Sun Makers episode 2. They have not announced if that episode would be rerun, but that has been their standard procedure when glitches have affected their Who broadcasts. In that case, WYBE would be airing episodes 2 and 3, with episode 4 delayed until Christmas night.

MPT Maryland 22, 28, 31, 36, 62, 67 http://www.mpt.org/
Late Sat Midnight EST The Talons of Weng-Chiang movie
(New start time.) The 4th Doctor and Leela go to 19th Century London to take in a night at the theatre. Sadly, they come across a few murderers on the way, and wind up battling an ancient evil from the 51st Century. Blake's 7 fans should note the return of their show, beginning at 2:15AM or when Talons ends, whatever comes second.

WUSF 16 Tampa, FL http://www.wusftv.usf.edu/gateway.htm
Sat 11:30PM EST The Caves of Androzani ep 3 of 4
The President, the smugglers, the army, and Sharaz Jek engage in still deeper deceptions with each other, but the Doctor doesn't care. He's got an antidote to find.

WCET 48 Cincinnati, OH http://www.wcet.org/
Sat 11:30PM EST Doctor Who And The Silurians eps 5+6 of 7
Next week, an episode of Silurians and an episode of The Caves of Androzani. By any chance, has Dr. Johnny Fever taken a job at WCET?

» It was clarified later that the listings were wrong, it was The Time Warrior: Part Four and Invasion of the Dinosaurs: Part One.

WYIN 56 Gary, IN (Chicago, IL) http://www.wyin.org/
Sat 10PM CST The Brain of Morbius ep 1 of 4 (confirmed as actually The Seeds of Doom: Part One)
The Doctor needs a glass of water. Professor Solon needs a head. Each has what the other wants.

KTCA 2 St. Paul, MN http://www.ktca.org/
Sat 11:45PM CST The Android Invasion ep 1 of 4
The Doctor and Sarah land in England, and find the place largely abandoned.

IPTV Iowa 11, 12, 21, 24, 27, 32, 32, 36 http://www.sffn.com/
http://www.iptv.org/
Special programming. Doctor Who returns January 7.

PPTV North Dakota 2, 3, 4, 6, 9, 13, 19 http://www.pptv.org/
Fri 10:30PM CST (9:30PM MST) The Deadly Assassin ep 2 of 4
The Doctor is sentenced to death. Not that he'd let a little thing like that get in the way of his investigations, of course. Next episode in January.

KBDI/K32EO Denver/Colorado Springs, CO http://www.kbdi.org/
http://www.tvquest.com/ zip 80205
Late Fri 12:30AM MST The Brain of Morbius all 4 eps
The TARDIS brings the Doctor and Sarah to a desolate planet near Gallifrey, home to a disreputable scientist, a mystic sisterhood, and an alien graveyard. Both the scientist and the sisterhood seem to want to do terrible things to the Doctor. Maybe he should have introduced himself to the graveyard instead.
Sat 10PM MST The Seeds of Doom eps 1+2 of 6
An Antarctic expedition uncovers two alien plant pods buried in the snow. If the pods are allowed to germinate, all life on Earth will be in danger.

KNME 5 Albuquerque, NM http://www.knmetv.org/
Sat 10:30PM MST Revenge of the Cybermen movie
The stories are airing in production order, so look for Genesis of the Daleks next week. Having survived the Daleks, the TARDIS crew returns to Nerva, many years before they left. The operators of the station are being wiped out by a "plague" that can eat tape logs. It seems that the rumors of the Cybermen's death were greatly exaggerated.

KRWG 22 Las Cruces, NM (El Paso, TX) http://www.nmsu.edu/~krwgtv/
Sat 10:30PM MST The Power of Kroll movie
The quest for the 5th segment of the Key To Time brings the Doctor and Romana to a swampy moon, where disreputable humans are pumping gas, disrupting the climate and annoying the disreputable green aliens. And the hibernating squid that finds itself being prodded in the search for gas, he doesn't like it either. Please don't anger the Kroll.

KUED 7 Salt Lake City, UT http://www.kued.org/
Sat 11PM+12:30AM MST "" ep ? of ?

We're in the dark here. KUED has given no idea which episode is airing, or even which Doctor. Next episode airs January 1?

KSPS 7 Spokane, WA http://www.ksps.org/
Sat 10:30PM PST (11:30PM MST) Revelation of the Daleks movie
The 6th Doctor visits Tranquil Repose to check in on an old friend. But the place is being run by an old enemy. This was the last story produced before the 1985-1986 suspension of the show. The last word of the story was cut to create a clever bookend to the series, in case production had never resumed.

KBTC/KCKA 28, 15 Tacoma/Centralia, WA http://www.kbtc.org/
Sat 7PM+1AM PST Frontier In Space eps 1+2 of 6
Ogrons manipulate both Humans and Draconians into believing that each government is sponsoring attacks on the other's ships. How could the Ogrons be clever enough to pull off a scam of this nature?

KTEH 54 San Jose, CA http://www.kteh.org/
Sun 11PM PST Logopolis all 4 eps
The episodic prints of this story were already complete, so no KTEH-originated restoration work was done. The Master manipulates the entire galaxy in an attempt to gain control of the universe. Not bad for your first real crime after calcifying in a glade for several decades. Final 4th Doctor story.

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That's it for this week. Until next week, take care.

Benjamin F. Elliott

Doctor Who is a BBC trademark. Copyright 1999.