THIS WEEK IN DOCTOR WHO - October 27, 2000

by Benjamin F. Elliott

Welcome to the weekly guide to Doctor Who broadcasts around the world.

NEW STATION - WILL 12 Champaign, IL is returning Doctor Who to its schedule for the first time in years, the first new or returning Doctor Who affiliate in the US since KUED in December 1999. WILL will air the show Saturdays at 11:20PM beginning November 18th, following Robot Wars. First up - Robot episode 1.

NATIONAL WHO NIGHT - I had an interesting time at the National Who Night recording on Saturday. Sylvester McCoy was the featured guest, interacting with TJ Lubinsky of WQED and Elaine Paterniak(sp?) of NHPTV. An Irish music concert delayed the start time by 5 or 6 minutes, leaving no time to have a live introduction before the Who story began. An introductory segment was filmed at 1:05AM for the benefit of the other stations. The movie version of Remembrance of the Daleks won the fan poll, with the pledge drives and Syl's manic antics interspersed. Syl answered some of the phones during the live WQED broadcast. This column writer was in the back row trying to answer pledges, in case anyone is looking for him in the broadcast (I'm the only man in the back row). I hope to provide a behind the scenes look at how it went for Shaun Lyon's Alliance Newsletter in next week's edition if I can remember to write it up. It was a good night for WQED, and hopefully it will be a success for the other 5 stations who purchased it.

The pledge items in National Who Night are:
$40 - Short Trips & Side Steps - book
$90 - The Curse Of Fatal Death - video
$120 - Edge Of Destruction/Pilot/Missing Years/Underwater Menace ep 3 two video set
$120 - Thc Chase/Remembrance Of The Daleks two video set
$250 - The Galaxy Collection (Time And The Rani, Paradise Towers, Dragonfire, Ghostlight) - 1000 copies individually signed by Sylvester McCoy. I saw him doing it. Those signatures are authentic.

Quick notes on the pledge items:

1. Who Night was filmed before certain problems came to light about The Edge of Destruction tape. This is not the place to rehash those problems, but all the news and updates about them will be at http://www.gallifreyone.com/ . Since no other stations are airing the special till December, odds are the issues regarding that release will be adequately resolved before then.
2. The Galaxy Collection are 4 Sylvester McCoy stories that will not be rereleased on VHS by Warner due to poor sales. At this point, they will only be available as a premium with this special. When they all sell, that's it till DVDs come around some years down the line. The other 13 stories being discontinued will presumably be sold through regular stores until they are gone.

National Who Night air dates as of 10/26:
WQED/WQEX Pittsburgh, PA - aired live Saturday, October 21, 10PM to 1AM.
MPT Maryland - Saturday, December 2, 11PM to 2AM.
NHPTV New Hampshire - Sunday, December 10, midafternoon. (tentative)
WCET Cincinnati, OH - a Saturday night in December?
IPTV Iowa - a Friday night during the March festival (tentative)
KBDI/K32EO Denver/Colorado Springs, CO - December?

Only these 6 stations will air the National special. If you live in other areas, you will have to get a friend to tape the special for you to see it. Note that since each broadcast has local cutaways, each broadcast will look slightly different. If possible, I will list the pledge phone numbers for the broadcasts, in case anyone outside the viewing areas of these stations wants to support one of them anyway.

WYBE - WYBE Philadelphia did their own Doctor Who marathon last Saturday evening. I have not heard much about it, although one of the people who was there thinks it did well for the station.

MPT - To clear up a question from last week - MPT in Maryland is going to continue airing Doctor Who in movie format. The broadcast of Planet of Fire in episode version two weeks back was an accident. Apparently the audience when polled supports movie format over episodic by a 10 to 1 margin.

Time zones are changing in many parts of the world this weekend. In most of North America and most of Europe, people are switching from Daylight Savings Time to Standard Time. In the parts of Australia not affected by the Olympics, people are switching from Standard Time to Daylight Savings Time (Sydney and environs went to Daylight Savings Time in late August). All the time changes will occur late Saturday night, so Friday and Saturday listings will be in one time system while listings from Sunday on will be on the other system.

Additions and corrections are welcome. And now, the listings:

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Cable Radio/Real Audio:

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BCB Radio Bradford, UK
http://www.bcb.yorks.com/
Thu 7:05PM GMT(2:05PM EST, 11:05AM PST, Fri 6:05AM AEDT) The Who Review - monthly review of UK Doctor Who developments, hosted by Tim Moon. Start time approximate. Runs approximately 30 minutes or so. Among the book reviews and audio clips, this month's installment includes the first part of a serialized interview.

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TV:

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UK:

BBC1
http://www.bbc.co.uk/
Sat 5:55PM BST "The Generation Game" - weekly game show This week - Doctor Who's the topic.

UK Gold
http://www.sceneone.co.uk/s1/tv/listings
Sun 9:05-11AM GMT The Curse of Peladon movie
"The Doctor did a good job when we sent him on an errand the last time. So this time we'll send him to Peladon to represent Earth and stop efforts to keep Peladon out of the Galactic Federation. What's that? You want to tell him what he's supposed to be doing this time? What fun is that?"

UK Gold 2
http://www.sceneone.co.uk/s1/tv/listings
Sun 6-7:55PM GMT The Curse of Peladon movie
Time-shifted from UK Gold.

EUROPE/AFRICA/ASIA:

BBC Prime
http://www.bbcprime.com/
Late Fri 1:05AM*, Sat 3:30PM CET Four To Doomsday ep 2 of 4
(While most of Europe is switching from Daylight to Standard Time, the acronym remains CET for Central European Time. Go figure.)
Sun 11:30AM, Late Thu 12:35AM CET Four To Doomsday ep 3 of 4
*Not seen in all regions.
Monarch figures that the best way to neutralize the Doctor is to factionalize his companions. To Adric, he promises power. To Nyssa, he promises eternal life, as only he can. To Tegan, he promises nothing.

AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND:

UKTV Australia
http://www.varos.com/drwho/uktv/
Sun 7AM, Late Sun 1AM AEDT Planet of the Daleks all 6 eps
Episode 3 in Black & White. Follow-up story to Frontier In Space, where the Doctor and Jo travel to Spirodon, the new base of the Daleks, hoping to stop them before an invasion force can be developed.
Mon-Fri 11:30PM AEDT The Green Death eps 2 - 6 of 6
Jo falls in love with the leader of the radicals, resulting in a rift with the Doctor. The Brigadier and U.N.I.T decide to take a closer look at Global Chemicals as the substances in the overflow pipe begin to kill people and alter the local insects.

Prime TV New Zealand
http://www.tetrap.com/drwho/nzdwfc/
http://www.primetv.co.nz/
Sun-Wed 6:30PM The Mind of Evil eps 3 - 6 of 6
Last rerun in 1992. Black & White. The Master discovers that some evils are even worse than the Doctor. A nuclear warhead is stolen.
Thu-Fri 6:30PM The Claws of Axos eps 1 - 2 of 4
Last rerun in 1993. The Americans join in the hunt for the Master, with special agent Bill Filer working with U.N.I.T. But before they can search for the evil mastermind, there's a visit by aliens to deal with first.

USA:

BBC America
http://www.bbcamerica.com/
Mon-Thu 8AM EST (5AM PST), reruns following weekday (5AM EST, 2AM PST)
Mon/Tue The Masque of Mandragora eps 3+4 of 4
Mandragora swallows the moon. Again. That's the problem when a station only has the rights to 16 stories, and cycles through them at a rapid rate. Everything happens again, and again, and again.
Tue-Wed/Wed-Thu The Hand Of Fear eps 1 - 4 of 4
See KBTC for details.
Thu/Fri The Deadly Assassin eps 1+2 of 4
The Doctor races home to Gallifrey to try to prevent the assassination of the President of the Time Lords. Just as a vengeful old friend wants him to do.

NHPTV New Hampshire 11,49,52
http://nhptv.org/
Sun 3PM EST The Robots of Death eps 3+4 of 4
The death toll rises, as the Robots shed their pleasant pretense and try to kill everyone. As the Doctor tries to keep the survivors alive, he is faced with the problem that one of them is the leader of the robots in disguise.

WQED/WQEX 13,16 Pittsburgh, PA
http://www.wqed.org/
Sat 11:30PM EDT Underworld ep 4 of 4
The quest ends.
Late Sat Mid EDT The Invasion of Time ep 1 of 6
The Doctor arrives on Gallifrey to claim the inheritance of Rassilon.
» this was actually Resistance Is Useless

WYBE 35 Philadelphia, PA
http://www.wybe.org/
Sat 11PM EDT Kinda eps 1+2 of 4
Nyssa is kinda ill, so she is left behind while the 5th Doctor, Adric, and Tegan wander into the dangerous jungle world where the Kinda people live. It's a nice place, but try not to sleep there.

MPT Maryland 22,28,31,36,62,67
http://www.mpt.org/
Sat 11:30PM EDT The Twin Dilemma movie
The Doctor suffers a mental breakdown as a result of a troubled regeneration. Unfortunately, evil alien menaces are not willing to wait around for good guys to get therapy, so it's up to Peri to rally the Doctor to save the day one more time.

WUSF 16 Tampa, FL
http://www.wusftv.usf.edu/gateway.htm
Sat 11:40PM EDT The Trial Of A Time Lord ep 13 of 14 (The Ultimate Foe ep 1 of 2)
The trial is interrupted when the Master arrives with new evidence - to support the Doctor. This episode represented the final contribution of popular writer Robert Holmes to the series, as he died before writing the conclusion.

WCET 48 Cincinnati, OH
http://www.wcet.org/
Sat 11:30PM EDT The Face of Evil eps 2+3 of 4
The tribe of the Sevateem is engaged in a long term battle for survival against phantom monsters and John Tesh. As the Doctor examines the culture, he begins to think that he may be partly responsible for the chaos after all.

WYIN 56 Gary, IN (Chicago, IL)
http://www.wyin.org/
Sat 10PM CDT The Sun Makers ep 2 of 4
Gatherer Hade becomes intrigued by a tall man with a long scarf who was arrested while trying to use a stolen credit card.

WILL 12 Urbana, IL
http://www.will.uiuc.edu/
Begins November 18.

TPT 2 St. Paul, MN
http://www.tpt.org/
Sat 11:30PM CDT, Sun 4:30AM CST Image of the Fendahl ep 1 of 4
The Sunday rerun seems earlier due to the time change and the program to get TPT on schedule airing later in the day than this rerun. It will be back at 5:30AM next week. While Dr. Fendelman experiments with a device for searching the past of time (a time-television, in a sense), death stalks the perimeter of his property.

IPTV Iowa 11,12,21,24,27,32,32,36
http://www.sffn.com/
http://www.iptv.org/
Fri 11:05PM CDT The Androids of Tara eps 3+4 of 4
The Doctor and the android duplicate of Reynart try to keep Count Grendel occupied while efforts to get the real Reynart crowned are underway. Mary Tamm gets to be Romana, Princess Strella, and a killer android impersonating both of them.

PPTV North Dakota 2,3,4,6,9,13,19
http://www.pptv.org/
Fri 10:30PM CDT (9:30PM MDT) The Invasion of Time ep 5 of 6
"Castellan's log. Galactic date: do you really think I'd be dumb enough to leave a date of when I write things down? Well, it appears that the Vardans were not the brightest of people. The Doctor did them in. No one trusts me, but I've covered enough tracks not to get thrown out of power regardless of who wins. Now, the Sontarans have shown up. A shock, but the universe is full of surprises. They don't like the Doctor at all. This would be a good time to go for President instead of staying in my current position. Wouldn't want to be on the wrong side of that gun."

KBDI/K32EO 12,32 Denver/Colorado Springs, CO
http://www.kbdi.org/
Late Fri 12:30AM MDT The Androids of Tara eps 3+4 of 4
See IPTV for details.
Sat 10PM MDT The Power of Kroll eps 1+2 of 4
The search for segment 5 of The Key To Time brings the Doctor and Romana to a tribe of swamp people living on a moon that humanity wants to mine. John Leeson (normally the voice of K-9) gets to be on- screen as Dugeen.

KUED 7 Salt Lake City, UT
http://www.kued.org/
Sat 11PM, Late Sat 12:30AM MDT The Seeds of Doom ep 3 of 6
Back from Australia/Antarctica/wherever, the Doctor and Sarah search for the idiot who stole the Krynoid pod before it can germinate and threaten humanity.

KBTC/KCKA/K65BU 28,15,65 Tacoma/Centralia/Gray's River, WA
http://www.kbtc.org/
Sat 7PM, Late Sat 12:30AM PDT The Hand Of Fear eps 1+2 of 4 (actually The Masque of Mandragora 3+4)
Thing from The Addams Family guest-stars as a fossilized hand with enormous mental powers. When it takes control of Sarah, death and turmoil are soon to follow.

KTEH 54 San Jose, CA
http://www.kteh.org/
(Reminder - KTEH's own Doctor Who Night with Sylvester McCoy and Carole Ann Ford reruns December 3rd.)

Sun 11:18PM PST Delta and the Bannermen all 3 eps
The 7th Doctor and Ace win a vacation in Disneyland. But someone doesn't want the tour group to meet Mickey Mouse. And someone else is hiding a hope for the future.
Late Sun 12:34AM PST "KTEH Interviews Sylvester McCoy"

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Thanks for reading. Until next week, take care.