THIS WEEK IN DOCTOR WHO - Christmas 1999 24 Dec 1999

Doctor Who is a BBC Trademark. Copyright 1999.

Welcome to the 2nd Annual Christmas Edition of This Week In Doctor Who. There's a little something at the end of the column for everyone. This Week In Doctor Who is about to get another mirror, courtesy of Mark Phippen and the Doctor Who News Page http://www.whonews.fsnet.co.uk/ . It will be part of the News Page (frames version) or a link opening a new window (non-frames version). Unless you are reading this new version, nothing has changed. The Outpost Gallifrey http://www.gallifreyone.com/ , Nitro-9 http://nitro9.earth.uni.edu/doctor.htm and Fenric http://www.wolvesoffenric.freeserve.co.uk/ mirrors are still up and running, it still goes to the rec.arts.drwho newsgroup, and the Doctor Who Alliance Newsletter (column included) will resume publication in grand style in just a couple of weeks.

Big changes may be coming to the BBC2 reruns. A final decision had not been announced at publication time, but the BBC was leaning towards pulling the Pertwee Doctor Who episodes, and replacing them with Tom Baker installments. This would probably occur once Doctor Who And The Silurians finishes in late January. The speculation is that there was concern that long, slower paced Pertwee stories might turn off casual viewers, while a chance to see the episodes of the most popular Doctor again might bring in extra viewers. The most recent confirmed ratings information is for Doctor Who And The Silurians, episode 1. It aired on December 7 at 6PM, getting 1.9 Million viewers and 10% of the viewing audience. It did not make the BBC2 Top Thirty shows list.

MPT 22 (the Annapolis transmitter) did not get back up to full power in time for last week's airing of The Talons Of Weng-Chiang. It has since returned to full power.

Stations not airing Doctor Who this week:
BBC2 - returns January 4
TG4/TnaG - returns December 31 or January 7?
UKTV in Australia - returns January 13
WQED Pittsburgh, PA - returns January 1
IPTV Iowa - returns January 7?
PPTV North Dakota - returns January 7?
KUED Salt Lake City, UT - returns January 1

Additions and corrections are welcome at bfelli...@jnpcs.com . And now,
the listings:

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UK/IRELAND:

UK Gold http://www.sceneone.co.uk/s1/tv/listings
Sun 9:15-11:10AM GMT Mawdryn Undead movie
1983 and 1977 get a bit muddled, creating danger for the Doctor and a mental breakdown for an old friend.

UK Gold Classics http://www.sceneone.co.uk/s1/tv/listings
Sun 6-7:55PM GMT Mawdryn Undead movie
Time-shifted broadcast.

EUROPE/AFRICA:

BBC Prime http://www.bbcprime.com/
Sun 11:30AM, Mon 11:35AM CET/CAT The Creature from the Pit ep 3 of 4
The Doctor wants to make contact with the mysterious creature, but Lady Adrasta will settle for nothing less than its destruction.
Tue 11PM CET/CAT 30 Years In The TARDIS 1993 documentary
A look back at the series, with profiles and interviews of many of the important people in the story's history, from Deborah Watling to Mary Whitehouse, and many points in-between.

CANADA/USA:

SPACE: The Imagination Station http://www.hwcn.org/~an933/spacedw.htm
http://www.spacecast.com/
Sat 7:30AM EST Space Museum/4}} ep 4 of 4
Vicki: Warrior Teenager and her bumbling comrades decide that the best way to keep the Doctor and company from dying is to overthrow an empire.
Sun-Fri 7:30AM EST The Chase eps 1 - 6 of 6 (The Executioners, The Death Of Time, Flight Through Eternity, Journey Into Terror, The Death Of Doctor Who, The Planet Of Decision)
The Daleks are back, and they are bloody annoyed at the Doctor's interference with their lives. This is the only story where the Daleks are fixated on revenge, as opposed to having a sneaky Master plan.

BBC America http://www.bbcamerica.com/
Terror of the Zygons movie, pt 2 of 2
Sun 8AM EST Eastern Feed, PST Pacific Feed
It appears that the Loch Ness Monster was real after all. Next week - The Sontaran Experiment.

NHPTV New Hampshire 11, 49, 52 http://nhptv.org/
Sun 3PM EST Death to the Daleks eps 3+4 of 4
The Daleks betray their allies (they're Daleks - what do you expect?) and invade the Exillon City. Big mistake.

WYBE 35 Philadelphia, PA http://www.wybe.org/
http://www.tvquest.com/ zip 19128
Sat 11PM EST Underworld eps 1+2? of 4
(Might be Sunmakers 4 and Underworld 1.) The Doctor and Leela land on a spaceship inhabited by a race that was nearly destroyed from its one previous encounter with Time Lords. Will this meeting be any different?

MPT Maryland 22, 28, 31, 36, 62, 67 http://www.mpt.org/
Late Sat Mid EST Horror of Fang Rock movie
Fog-gy Day! Sweeping The - Sun A-Way!
Grumpy Men In A Lighthouse Here - That's Where We've Crashed!
There's a RU-TAN Coming In!  Lo-ok At The Fang Rock Flash!
Lo-ok At The Fang Rock Flash! Lo-ok At The Fang Rock Flash!

WUSF 16 Tampa, FL http://www.wusftv.usf.edu/gateway.htm
Sat 11:30PM EST The Caves of Androzani ep 4 of 4
The 5th Doctor's life ends much as it began. Numerous chemical reactions inside his body are driving him nearly insane. A companion is being held by a madman. And the humanoids are being particularly dense. If you have a copy of it, watch episode 1 of Castrovalva first and see how much better this Doctor has gotten at persevering through no-win situations.

WCET 48 Cincinnati, OH http://www.wcet.org/
Sat 11:30PM EST Doctor Who And The Silurians ep 7 of 7?
Sat 11:58PM EST The Caves of Androzani ep ? of 4?
If this information from various TV listings is somehow correct, then a fair number of Cincinnati Doctor Who fans are going to finish Christmas in a profound state of confusion.

» It was clarified later that the listings were wrong, it was Invasion of the Dinosaurs episodes 2+3.

WYIN 56 Gary, IN (Chicago, IL) http://www.wyin.org/
Sat 10PM CST The Brain of Morbius ep 2 of 4 (confirmed as actually The Seeds of Doom: Part Two)
Professor Solon and the Sisterhood both want to kill the Doctor, but for virulently opposing reasons. "I want to kill him!" "No! Me! Me!" Next week - The Seeds of Doom episode 3?

KTCA 2 St. Paul, MN http://www.ktca.org/
Sat 11:30PM CST The Android Invasion ep 2 of 4
When is Earth not Earth?

KBDI/K32EO 12, 32 Denver/Colorado Springs, CO http://www.kbdi.org/
http://www.tvquest.com/ zip 80205
Late Fri 12:30AM MST The Seeds of Doom eps 1-4 of 6
Sat 10PM MST The Seeds of Doom eps 3+4 of 6
Evil plant pods are brought back to life by a greedy human. Not a good story to show at a Greenpeace or Earth Day event. No episodes next week.

KNME 5 Albuquerque, NM http://www.knmetv.org/
Sat 10:30PM MST Genesis of the Daleks movie Production order strikes Doctor Who once again. The Doctor is sent back to the dawn of Dalek history to alter history. Michael Wisher steals the show as Davros.

KRWG 22 Las Cruces, NM (El Paso, TX) http://www.nmsu.edu/~krwgtv/
Sat 10:30PM MST The Armageddon Factor movie
The final segment of the Key To Time is in the power of a sinister but lazy evil, quite content to let the Doctor do his dirty work for him.

KSPS 7 Spokane, WA http://www.ksps.org/
Sat 10:30PM PST (11:30PM MST) Trial Of A Time Lord: The Mysterious Planet movie
The 6th Doctor is taken out of time and put on trial by his own people on charges of interfering in time and space. Exhibit A - the Doctor's activities on the planet Ravalox.

KBTC/KCKA 28, 15 Tacoma/Centralia, WA http://www.kbtc.org/
Sat 7PM+1AM PST Frontier In Space eps 3+4 of 6
The Doctor and Jo learn who hired the Ogrons to attack Human and Draconian ships. No one believes them, of course.

KTEH 54 San Jose, CA http://www.kteh.org/
Sun 11PM PST The War Machines all 4 eps (1997 BBC Restored Version)
Cleaned-up prints, with footage restored using censor cuts discovered in Australia in 1996, this was the first Doctor Who story set entirely on ‘modern' Earth. The 1st Doctor returns Dodo to Earth in 1966, and becomes involved in the machinations of WOTAN, a computer that decides to take over the world by linking all the computers on Earth in a World Wide Web. One of WOTAN's descendants is believed to have created the Internet.

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And to conclude the column, the final scene of The Daleks' Master Plan: The Feast of Steven, which aired on December 25, 1965, just before the UK premiere of the Munsters TV show. Until next week, take care.

Doctor: "Here we are."
Steven: "What's this?"
Doctor: "Well, we so rarely get a chance to celebrate, that this time we must."
Sara: "Celebrate?"
Doctor: "Yes! It's Christmas. Don't you remember? The police station? Christmas?"
Steven: "So it was. Yes."
Doctor: "Here's a toast. A Happy Christmas to all of us."
Sara: "Oh."
Steven: "Same to you, Doctor."
Doctor: "Incidentally - a Happy Christmas to all of you at home!"