THIS WEEK IN DOCTOR WHO - January 21, 2000

by Benjamin F. Elliott
Email: bfelliott@gallifreyone.com

This Week has stayed out of the speculation over which Tom Baker story BBC2 would air once Silurians finished. Well, all the speculation can end, just as soon as the BBC makes their Friday update to the online listings on their site (as I go to press, it's not up yet, but it should be by the time most of you read this). The BBC2 schedule for 1 February is/will be at http://www.bbc.co.uk/schedules/2000/02/01/bbc2.html .

I still think that BBC Choice should offer to air the remaining 22 Pertwee stories, as many fans were annoyed over the decision to bypass the rest of Pertwee's era. It would be a nice gesture to Pertwee's fans without getting in the way of showing Tom Baker on BBC2. But that's just my opinion.

Jason Fraser, the person who maintains the Australian UKTV Doctor Who listings that this column links to, has confirmed with UKTV that their current plan is to air every available story in the original order, as opposed to the 1996-1998 run where Hartnell in particular was aired in a crazy, mixed up manner. Even better - they will air The Time Meddler, a Hartnell story that they forgot to run in the 1996-1998 showing and didn't appear in the 1998-1999 Who-Files either. The Time Meddler has not actually aired on TV in Australia since the 1960s! Finally, it turns out that January 13 (the day that UKTV resumed airing episodes this month) is Doctor Who's 35th Anniversary in Australia. Episode 1 of An Unearthly Child aired on January 13, 1965 on ABC Perth, and January 15, 1965 on ABC Sydney and ABC Melbourne. Jason Fraser maintains a mirror of This Week on his website.

Reminder to Canadian readers of this column who have the SPACE channel on their Cable lineups - Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D., the 1966 Peter Cushing colour Dr. Who movie, is airing on SPACE for the first time Monday night at Midnight EST (9PM PST). Here's hoping that many Canadians will be able to tune in, and that the ratings will inspire SPACE to make other Doctor Who-friendly moves in the future.

MPT Maryland aired The Sun Makers in episodic format last weekend. Image of the Fendahl also aired in episodic format when MPT ran it on January 1st (one week early due to unexplained mistake). It seems to be a permanent change in how they show the stories, as MPT has run the series in movies since 1985 (except for a brief experiment with airing just 1 Hartnell episode a week in 1998). So, if Maryland or nearby readers of this column were bored by MPT showing the same versions over and over again - they're airing different versions now, with cliffhangers.

Additions and corrections are welcome at bfelliott@gallifreyone.com . And now, the listings

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UK/IRELAND:

BBC2
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schedules/
Tue 6PM GMT Doctor Who And The Silurians ep 7 of 7
Lower than hoped ratings and Tom Baker's greater popularity will make this the final Jon Pertwee broadcast for a while. The Doctor discovers a cure to the Silurian virus, but the Silurians have no intention of letting him reveal what it is.

TG4/TnaG
http://www.tnag.ie/
http://www.sceneone.co.uk/s1/tv/listings
Tue-Thu 6PM GMT The Mind of Evil eps 3 - 5 of 6
Professor Keller's identity is revealed. It seems that the prisoner treatment, the moving missile, and the endangered peace process are all part of "Keller's" plan for total domination. But what if the mind has a mind of its own? Episode 3 competes with BBC2's broadcast in areas where the two stations overlap, mostly in Ireland.

UK Gold
http://www.sceneone.co.uk/s1/tv/listings
Sun 9:20-11:20AM GMT The Five Doctors 90 minute episode
The original 1983 version of the anniversary story. If it wasn't for the commercials and the 'UK Gold' symbol on the picture, it would be exactly like the original broadcast. Various TV listings are erroneously listing this story as The Three Doctors. After writing this column for 18 months, I wouldn't be at all surprised if they ran The Three Doctors by mistake, but it is not the intended story.

UK Gold Classics
http://www.sceneone.co.uk/s1/tv/listings
Sun 6-8PM GMT The Five Doctors 90 minute episodeTime-shifted showing.

EUROPE/AFRICA:

BBC Prime
http://www.bbcprime.com/
Late Fri 1AM CET (not Africa), Sun 5PM CET Nightmare of Eden ep 2 of 4
Sun 11:30AM, Mon 11:35AM CET Nightmare of Eden ep 3 of 4
The Doctor and Romana are the prime suspects in the reappearance of a supposedly eradicated dangerous drug. The dimensional problems caused by the ships being trapped together enables people and items to enter - and leave - an electronic zoo. Add 1 hour for Central African Time zone viewers.

UKTV Australia
http://www.varos.com/drwho/uktv/
http://www.uktv.com.au/
Sun 7AM, Late Sun 1AM AEDT An Unearthly Child all 4 eps (An Unearthly Child, The Cave Of Skulls, The Forest Of Fear, The Firemaker)
The original Doctor Who story. The Doctor, Susan, Ian, and Barbara leave London in 1963 and wind up in a pre-civilization civilization.
Mon-Thu 11:30PM AEDT The Dead Planet eps 4 - 7 of 7 (The Ambush, The Expedition, The Ordeal, The Rescue)
The Doctor and friends escape the Daleks, but they left behind the fluid link. Unless they can get it back, the TARDIS will never fly again.
» next edition indicated that The Rescue had its cliffhanger cutFri 11:30PM AEDT The Edge of Destruction - The Edge Of Destruction ep 1 of 2
The TARDIS malfunctions, giving the crew strong cases of amnesia and paranoia.

SPACE: The Imagination Station
http://www.hwcn.org/~an933/spacedw.htm
http://www.spacecast.com/
Sat-Tue 7:30AM EST The Dominators eps 2 - 5 of 5
The Dominators try to exploit a deserted island on Dulkis, while the 2nd Doctor and company try in vain to warn the Dulcians about the alien invaders.

Late Mon Mid EST Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. 1966 Colour Movie
Movie version remake of The Dalek Invasion of Earth. After being outwitted in a robbery, a policeman finds himself in the company of Dr. Who, a scientist who's decided to have a quick visit to 2150 to see what life is like then. This is the first time SPACE has aired this movie.

Wed-Fri 7:30AM EST The Mind Robber eps 1 - 3 of 5
The Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe find themselves trapped in a realm where nothing is impossible, except escape.

BBC America
http://www.bbcamerica.com/
The Seeds of Doom movie, pt 3 of 3
Sat 7AM, Sun 10AM+5PM EST Eastern Feed (PST Pacific Feed)
The Krynoid takes over Harrison Chase's mansion and prepares to become a mother, launching its killer seedlings all over Earth.

NHPTV New Hampshire 11, 49, 52
http://nhptv.org/
Sun 3PM EST Planet of the Spiders eps 1+2 of 6
Disgraced UNIT officer Mike Yates stumbles across an invasion of a monastery by aggressive alien spiders.

WQED/WQEX 13, 16 Pittsburgh, PA
http://www.wqed.org/
Sat 11:30PM EST The Deadly Assassin ep 4 of 4
The real assassin is revealed, Gallifrey faces utter destruction, and the actor playing Borusa refuses to dignify to situation by breaking a sweat.

WYBE 35 Philadelphia, PA
http://www.wybe.org/
Sat 11PM EST The Invasion of Time eps 5+6 of 6
The Vardans have been defeated, but another alien species used the chaos to invade Gallifrey while no one was looking. Uh-oh. Final appearance of Leela in the series.

MPT Maryland 22, 28, 31, 36, 62, 67
http://www.mpt.org/
Late Sat Mid EST Underworld
The Minyans, inadvertent victims of Gallifreyan help, search for the race banks that can help rebuild their species. One thing they didn't want was a Time Lord showing up just as they finish their mission.

WUSF 16 Tampa, FL
http://www.wusftv.usf.edu/gateway.htm
Sat 11:30PM EST The Twin Dilemma ep 3 of 4
The 6th Doctor pulls himself together enough to pursue the twins. But is he ready yet for a full confrontation.

WCET 48 Cincinnati, OH
http://www.wcet.org/
Sat 11:30PM EST Death to the Daleks ep 4 of 4
To save humanity from the plague, the Doctor must destroy the alien city that is trapping everyone on the planet. But as soon as he destroys the city, the Daleks will take off and make the planet uninhabitable, keeping the cure from humanity anyway.
Afterwards - The Monster of Peladon ep 1 of 6
The Doctor returns to Peladon to see how things are going, just in time to get caught in a dispute between modernizers and miners.

WYIN 56 Gary, IN (Chicago, IL)
http://www.wyin.org/
Sat 10PM CST The Seeds of Doom ep 6 of 6
UNIT's final appearance as a regular feature of Doctor Who is in this episode, where the Doctor convinces them to make a surgical strike against the mansion where the Krynoid is, to stop it from germinating. Unfortunately, the Doctor is still inside the mansion.

KTCA 2 St. Paul, MN
http://www.ktca.org/
Sat 11:45PM CST The Brain of Morbius ep 2 of 4
The Sisterhood decides that the Doctor is a menace that must be destroyed. But if he is destroyed, how will Solon harvest his head?

IPTV Iowa 11, 12, 21, 24, 27, 32, 32, 36
http://www.sffn.com/
http://www.iptv.org/
Fri 11:35PM CST Planet of the Spiders eps 1,2,+3 of 6
The Doctor tries to explore how people can manipulate matter. Meanwhile, the crystal the Doctor gave Jo as a wedding present is returned because it is wreaking havoc.

PPTV North Dakota 2, 3, 4, 6, 9, 13, 19
http://www.pptv.org/
Fri 10:30PM CST (9:30PM MST) The Face of Evil ep 1 of 4
Technical note: when you are accused of being an incredible evil, do not offer the accuser a jelly baby. The "baby" part will be taken the wrong way.

KBDI/K32EI 12, 32 Denver/Colorado Springs, CO
http://www.kbdi.org/
http://www.tvquest.com/ zip 80205
No episodes. Doctor Who returns next week.

KNME 5 Albuquerque, NM
http://www.knmetv.org/
Sat 10:30PM MST The Android Invasion movie
The 4th Doctor and Sarah return to England and find it apparently abandoned.

KRWG 22 Las Cruces, NM (El Paso, TX)
http://www.nmsu.edu/~krwgtv/
Sat 10:30PM MST Genesis of the Daleks movie
The Doctor is intercepted en route back to the TARDIS and talked into altering the history of the Daleks at the point of their creation.

KUED 7 Salt Lake City, UT
http://www.kued.org/
Sat 11PM+12:30AM MST Robot ep 4 of 4
The Robot, riddled with guilt over killing so many people, decides to atone by wiping out humanity. Erm ...

KSPS 7 Spokane, WA
http://www.ksps.org/
Sat 10:30PM PST (11:30PM MST) Time and the Rani movie
The Rani does something which is usually missing from the movie version, forcing the TARDIS to crash-land and the Doctor to regenerate into his 7th persona. Tricked by the Rani, the Doctor may wind up sentencing a planet to death.

KBTC/KCKA 28, 15 Tacoma/Centralia, WA
http://www.kbtc.org/
Sat 7PM+12:30AM PST Planet of the Daleks eps 5+6 of 6
The Doctor tries to stop the Dalek army from awakening. The Supreme Dalek (who looks suspiciously like the Daleks in the movie that SPACE is airing this week) takes control of the Daleks on Spirodon.

KTEH 54 San Jose, CA
http://www.kteh.org/
Sun 11PM PST The Curse of Fenric - Extended Version all 4 eps
The 7th Doctor and Ace arrive in 1943, where Russian troops are trying to steal a British cypher of German war codes. But the problem is far more complex than that. This is the version used for the video release, with 4 more minutes of footage than the original BBC broadcast.

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