This Week In Doctor Who - December 30, 1999

Somewhere in San Francisco, plans are in motion. Street gangs are being warned not to shoot at anyone who comes out of blue boxes. Doctors named Grace are being given the night off, handing in their beepers, and being ordered not to go anywhere near the Opera. And paramedics are under strict instructions to have their jackets investigated by ghostbusters before going off- shift. And all because of that 1996 Doctor Who movie ...

THIS WEEK IN DOCTOR WHO - December 30, 1999

IPTV is moving the beginning of its Doctor Who broadcasts from 11:05PM to 11:30PM effective next week, to make room for The Invisible Man. For at least the month of January, IPTV will be airing 3 Doctor Who episodes a week instead of 2.

BBC America is moving its Doctor Who broadcasts around beginning next weekend. Now there will be 1 Saturday broadcast (7AM EST Eastern Feed, PST Pacific Feed) and 2 Sunday broadcasts (10AM and 5PM EST Eastern Feed, PST Pacific Feed).

UKTV in Australia has confirmed that they will be airing Doctor Who in order from An Unearthly Child on when the show returns 13 January (no more Who-Files). However, they are changing when the weekend full story reruns air. There will now be only 2 rerun times - Sunday at 7AM AEDT and late Sunday at 1AM AEDT (if you watch on satellite instead of Cable, adjust for your time zone). The first weekend broadcasts will be on Sunday, 23 January.

Also on the Australian front, Jason Fraser, who operates http://www.varos.com/ , has offered to add a mirror of this column to his website. It should be up in the next week or so. Hopefully this will help improve the coverage of Doctor Who on Australian TV in the column.

KRWG Las Cruces, NM is going back to the beginning of the Tom Baker era (Robot) this week instead of airing his final 2 seasons. KNME Albuquerque, NM did the same thing back in November, returning to Robot instead of airing Tom Baker's last 2 years. I suspect a link somewhere.

While WCET Cincinnati indicated that they would be airing the last 3 episodes of Silurians and 1 episode of Caves Of Androzani over the last 2 weeks, they actually continued airing The Time Warrior and Invasion of the Dinosaurs.

One more week with many stations ignoring the series for specials:
UKTV Australia - returns January 13
WUSF Tampa, FL - returns January 8
IPTV Iowa - returns January 7
PPTV North Dakota - returns January 7
KBDI Denver - returns January 7

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

In recognition of the 1996 movie, all the broadcasts this week will
also be listed in San Francisco Mean Time (SFMT).

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UK/IRELAND:

BBC2 http://www.bbc.co.uk/
Tue 6PM GMT (10AM SFMT) Doctor Who And The Silurians ep 4 of 7
The 3rd Doctor tries to prevent a war between humanity and the Silurians, with disastrous results.

UK Gold http://www.sceneone.co.uk/s1/tv/listings
Sun 8:55-10:45AM GMT (12:55-2:45AM SFMT) Terminus movie
Turlough's sabotage leave him and Tegan trapped, Nyssa dying, and the Doctor teamed up with a pair of space pirates. Can the Doctor figure out what's going on in time to save the universe from destruction? Would he ever have found out about it without the Black Guardian's manipulation of Turlough? Does this mean that the Black Guardian should actually get partial credit for saving the universe? The Friday night black & white reruns return next week, though not for very long.

UK Gold Classics http://www.sceneone.co.uk/s1/tv/listings
Sun 6-7:50PM GMT (10-11:50AM SFMT) Terminus movie
Same as UK Gold, only later.

TG4/TnaG http://www.tnag.ie/ http://www.sceneone.co.uk/s1/tv/listings
Wed 6:02PM GMT (10:02AM SFMT) Inferno ep 7 of 7
The Doctor returns to the real universe, where Professor Stahlman is ready to break through the core of the Earth, which would destroy said Earth if Stahlman succeeds. All previous broadcasts have been on Fridays. Not enough information to know yet if this is a one time or permanent change.

EUROPE/AFRICA:

BBC Prime http://www.bbcprime.com/
Fri 11AM CET (2AM SFMT) 30 Years In The TARDIS 50 minute 1993 documentary
Actors, monsters, fans, and opponents of the series are interviewed and profiled for this BBC1 special.
Fri 10:30PM CET (1:30PM SFMT) DOCTOR WHO 1996 movie
The final show on BBC Prime in 1999 is this movie, set on 30 and 31 December 1999. The TARDIS crash lands in San Francisco, where the Master's remains escape to wreak havoc.
Late Fri 1AM CET (4PM SFMT, Not Africa), Sat 5PM CET (8AM SFMT) The Creature from the Pit ep 3 of 4
Sun 11:30AM CET (2:30AM SFMT), Mon 11:35AM CET (2:35AM SFMT) The Creature from the Pit ep 4 of 4
Lady Adrasta's sins are revealed, and an age of tyranny on Chloris may be about to end. But is Adrasta the biggest threat? Organon guest stars. Due to special programming Christmas day, the Saturday afternoon broadcast is airing last week's episode.

CANADA/USA:

SPACE: The Imagination Station http://www.hwcn.org/~an933/spacedw.htm
http://www.spacecast.com/
Sat-Tue 7:30AM EST (4:30AM SFMT) The Time Meddler eps 1 - 4 of 4 (The Watcher, The Meddling Monk, A Battle Of Wits, Checkmate)
While Steven tries to cope with the idea that he has traveled through time, the Doctor faces his most difficult challenge to date. Someone is trying to alter the course of history.
Wed-Fri 7:30AM EST (4:30AM SFMT) The Ark eps 1 - 3 of 4 (The Steel Sky, The Plague, The Return)
An interesting experiment for the series. In episodes 1+2, the Doctor, Steven, and Dodo arrive on a spaceship in the distant future, where the last of humanity are journeying to a new world. After solving what they believe to be the problem going on, the Doctor leaves. But as episode 3 begins, the TARDIS winds up back on the spaceship ...

BBC America http://www.bbcamerica.com/
The Sontaran Experiment movie
Sat 7AM EST Eastern Feed (4AM SFMT); Sat 7AM PST Pacific Feed (7AM SFMT)
The Doctor and company teleport to Earth to see if it has sufficiently recovered from solar flares to be inhabitable again. It appears that not only is Earth inhabitable, but it is already inhabited! Next week - part 1 of The Seeds of Doom, and the show moves into new time slots.

NHPTV New Hampshire 11, 49, 52 http://nhptv.org/
Sun 3:02PM EST (12:02PM SFMT) The Monster of Peladon eps 1+2 of 6
The Doctor returns to Peladon to meet some old friends, but gets caught up in a particularly nasty dispute between the aristocracy and the Pels. Any similarities to the WTO conference in Seattle and the liberal/conservative coalition of protesters there is entirely coincidental.

WQED/WQEX 13, 16 Pittsburgh, PA http://www.wqed.org/
Sat 11:30PM EST (8:30PM SFMT) The Deadly Assassin ep 1 of 4
The 4th Doctor returns to Gallifrey and races to stop the assassination of the President before it occurs, unwittingly setting the stage to allow it to occur for certain.

WYBE 35 Philadelphia, PA http://www.wybe.org/
http://www.tvquest.com/ zip 19128
Sat 11PM EST (8PM SFMT) Underworld eps 3+4? of 4
The quest continues, as the Doctor faces a society that disguises its evil intentions by making themselves look like a film crew that has run out of budget money.

MPT Maryland 22, 28, 31, 36, 62, 67 http://www.mpt.org/
Late Sat Mid EST (9PM SFMT) The Invisible Enemy movie
A highly intelligent microorganism is trying to conquer the galaxy by taking over the brains of highly intelligent humanoids. Its latest target - the Doctor.
» it was reported the following week that an episodic version of Image of the Fendahl had been shown instead.

WCET 48 Cincinnati, OH http://www.wcet.org/
Sat 11:30PM EST (8:30PM SFMT) Invasion of the Dinosaurs eps 4+5 of 6
The Doctor is framed as the mastermind behind the dinosaurs, while Sarah finds herself on board a spaceship heading for a new planet.

WYIN 56 Gary, IN (Chicago, IL) http://www.wyin.org/
Sat 10PM CST (8PM SFMT) The Brain of Morbius? ep 3 of 4 (confirmed as actually Part Three)
This episode should air, but some listings are now indicating that episode 3 or 4 of The Seeds of Doom may air instead.

KTCA 2 St. Paul, MN http://www.ktca.org/
Sat 11:30PM CST (9:30PM SFMT) The Android Invasion ep 3 of 4
The Doctor tries to rescue Sarah and warn Earth about the duplicates heading its way. Warning Earth could be a tad difficult, as the TARDIS accidentally left him behind and is there already.

KNME 5 Albuquerque, NM http://www.knmetv.org/
Sat 10:30PM MST (9:30PM SFMT) Terror of the Zygons movie
Responding to the Brigadier's summons in Revenge of the Cybermen, the Doctor heads for Scotland, where oil rigs are sinking without having the decency to get their operators to leave first. This isn't playing fair, so UNIT must investigate and stop the phenomena.

KRWG 22 Las Cruces, NM (El Paso, TX) http://www.nmsu.edu/~krwgtv/
Sat 10:30PM MST (9:30PM SFMT) Robot movie
KRWG flips back to the 1st 4th Doctor story, an investigation into the
thefts of secret military plans and codes which could be used to set
off a nuclear war.

KUED 7 Salt Lake City, UT http://www.kued.org/
Sat 11PM+12:30AM MST (10+11:30PM SFMT) Robot ep 1 of 4
While recovering from a regeneration, the Doctor is asked to look into the theft of secret military codes.

KSPS 7 Spokane, WA http://www.ksps.org/
Sat 10:30PM PST (11:30PM MST, 10:30PM SFMT) Trial Of A Time Lord: Mindwarp movie
The second part of the Valeyard's case against the 6th Doctor is far more compelling. In the footage, the Doctor appears to suffer a nervous breakdown and sells out the universe. Was it a betrayal of everything he believed in or a cunning ploy to save the day? Even the Doctor's not sure due to leftover amnesia effects from the incident. The differences between reality, fantasy, and hyperbole collide.

KBTC/KCKA 28, 15 Tacoma/Centralia, WA http://www.kbtc.org/
Sat 7PM+12:30AM PST (7PM+12:30AM SFMT) Frontier In Space eps 5+6 of 6
The Master prepares for the war which will enable him to claim the galaxy. The Doctor tries to develop a coalition among the potential warring sides to find the truth. Final appearance by Roger Delgado as the Master.

KTEH 54 San Jose, CA http://www.kteh.org/
Sun 11PM PST (11PM SFMT) Doctor Who And The Silurians all 7 eps
The color-restored version, airing one more time before KTEH's current rights to it expires. An experimental nuclear power plant built into caves is being disrupted by creatures inside the caves. The Doctor's investigation leads to the rediscovery of a culture that is apparently millions of years old - and irretrievably hostile to the continuation of humanity on Earth.

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What a difference a year makes. One year ago, I was nursing a broken elbow, aching in the areas that should have broke but didn't, feeling rather sorry for myself. While I was doing more than I should have been doing either on- or offline, I had just made the reluctant decision that I could not write this column in that state. Too much effort and too little will. Frankly, I considered calling it quits, shutting This Week down, and having it be remembered as an interesting experiment. When somebody named "Jefferson Eng" offered to produce this column for several weeks, I happily passed it off to him.

Whether or not Jefferson realized it, he did a great deal to revive my interest in this project. For most of January, I was no longer in control of my own creation. I was just a spectator, watching helplessly to see if someone I had never met could make it work. And Jefferson did a good job. He had a fair amount of fun, particularly with the column just after ‘The Lion' was discovered in New Zealand. This Week In Doctor Who could be written without me. It took just the right amount of pressure and vanity out of writing this column, and reignited the desire. Now I don't worry (as much) as I used to, I can focus better, and this is a much better written column than it was before I had to give up that control for a while. Thank you, Jefferson.

Jefferson also filled in for me briefly later in the year when I was hundreds of miles from my computer access, and he and long-suffering Siobahn Morgan helped send out the column when I found myself unable to post it to rec.arts.drwho from April to July. Another thank you to Sean Corcoran, who guest wrote the column for one week in March. And then there are the people who host the column on websites - Shaun Lyon, Siobahn Morgan, Raymond Tate (before the Doctor Who section on AOL was discontinued), Roger Clark, Mark Phippen, and now Jason Fraser. Wonderful folks - all of them.

It would take too long to list everyone who has helped make this column be the success it is, but here is a selection of the people who have contributed.

Shannon Patrick Sullivan
Marcus Durham
Ken Patterson
T J Lubinski
T R Sammis
Eric Gjovaag
Dan McGrath
Daniel Frankham
Tom from Canada (Sloth)
David Brunt
Alain Berguerand
Charles Daniels
Mustafa Hirji

Now, 1999 ends. I'm in good health, and the column is in better shape than ever. Doctor Who is on the air on more stations than it has been for several years. FOX's unused US rights to the Paul McGann movie expire Saturday, ending a major psychological hurdle to the show's future.

I think that the next year will be a good one. Maybe there will be a revival of the series. Maybe a motion picture version will begin production. Perhaps more lost episodes will be found ala The Lion. Or maybe there just be a gradual increase in the show's prominence as more stations pick up the reruns than drop them. But things will get better. And I hope to be around to cover what happens.

That's it for 1999. Until 2000, take care.
Benjamin