THIS WEEK IN DOCTOR WHO - December 8, 2000

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

We begin This Week with Who Night zaniness. National Doctor Who Night, as regular readers know, was the three hour pledge special filmed in Pittsburgh, PA on October 21st with Sylvester McCoy in the studio cutting up the rug and wobbling the set, and the movie version of Remembrance of the Daleks as the featured story. 8 of the 16 stations with Doctor Who contracts already have or will soon air the special.

WYIN in Gary, IN tricked me up again. Last week conflicting listings indicated that either they would air an episode at Midnight or be pre-empted for college basketball. It turns out they chose last Saturday to air the National Doctor Who Night, which was not on any schedules when last week's column went out, but is on their website now. Hopefully they found some way to alert Chicago area viewers to Who Night before it aired. WYIN seems to rerun pledge specials, so maybe it'll air in March - with notice.

» As it turned out, this was wrong too, as the 11th December update reported it was actually The Pirate Planet.

WQED in Pittsburgh, PA also threw on a surprise encore of National Doctor Who Night last Saturday, bumping the planned broadcast of 30 Years In The TARDIS. So, with MPT, KBTC, WCET giving proper notice, WYIN and WQED airing it as a surprise, the special aired in 5 areas last weekend. Hopefully much money was raised to support the show.

MPT in Maryland threw the audience for a loop by starting early. After scheduling the start time at 11:15PM, they began at 10:58PM, catching virtually all the people I know who see Doctor Who on MPT by surprise. Now, I am all in favor of Doctor Who airing when most of the audience is still awake. But please, guys, you're falling into a bad habit of starting early. Starting and/or ending late can be dealt with. Starting early makes it very difficult to enjoy the programming.

KBDI/K32EO in Denver/Colorado Springs, CO has finally scheduled the National Doctor Who Night. It will air twice - Saturday, December 16 from 10PM-1AM MST and Late Friday, December 22 from 12:30-3:30AM. Go to KBDI's website http://www.kbdi.org/ and see the description of the special in their alphabetical list of programs. It looks like they based it on the original plan for the Who Night from July (before it was publicly announced). And yes, I do think the claim that they'll be showing the conclusion to The Daleks' Master Plan is an innocent typo.

NHPTV in New Hampshire has now scheduled National Doctor Who Night to air Sunday, December 10th, from 1:30-4PM. While they have intended to air it on the 10th since the night it was filmed in Pittsburgh, there had been confusion as to exactly what time it would air. Also, it was not in their original December schedule, and for several days a curt comment on their website claimed there were "no" changes to the November/December lineup. The website now indicates the correct information. It's Sunday afternoon, folks. You can't claim you slept in and almost all Church services are over. You have no choice. You must watch. And hopefully pledge. Bwa-ha-ha-ha.

The complete (so far) list of National Who Night Broadcasts:
1) WQED/WQEX Pittsburgh, PA - Sat, October 21st 10PM-1AM EDT (live) (already aired)
2) WCET Cincinnati, OH - Sat, November 18th 9:30PM-12:30PM EST - already aired
3) KBTC/KCKA Tacoma/Centralia, WA - Sat, December 2nd 7PM-10PM PST (already aired)
4) WYIN Gary, IN (Chicago, IL) - Sat, December 2nd 10PM-1AM CST (already aired)
5) MPT Maryland - Sat, December 2nd 10:58PM-1:50?AM EST (already aired)
6) WQED/WQEX Pittsburgh, PA - Sat, December 2nd 11:30PM-2:30AM EST (rerun) (already aired)
7) WCET 48 Cincinnati, OH - Sat, December 2nd 11:30PM-2:30AM EST (rerun) (already aired)
8) NHPTV New Hampshire - Sun, December 10th 1:30-4PM EST
9) KBDI/K32EO Denver/Colorado Springs, CO - Sat, December 16th 10PM-1AM MST
10) KBDI/K32EO Denver/Colorado Springs, CO - Late Fri, December 22nd 12:30-3:30AM MST
11) IPTV Iowa - March
12) Depending on how well it's doing, expect more reruns, advertised or not

In other Doctor Who TV News:

USA - KERA Dallas, TX announced their plans for the series during their pledge broadcast of Spearhead From Space last Saturday. Spearhead (and Doctor Who And The Silurians, airing on the 16th) are supposed to whet the appetite. In mid to late March 2001, the station will begin airing all the Jon Pertwee stories at the rate of 2 25 minute episodes a week on Saturday nights. If the pledge support is good, they will continue into Tom Baker in 2002.

» the series actually started in June 2001.

Canada - In late November, the CRTC approved over 200 potential digital cable channels which could begin to broadcast next year. The BBC and its partners have two of those approvals - BBC Canada and BBC Kids. BBC Canada and BBC Kids have Class II Licenses, so should they launch, digital providers will have a choice in whether to carry them or not. Far too soon to tell, but if some bigger Canadian broadcaster doesn't start airing Doctor Who before next fall, maybe one of these two stations will bring it back.

UK - BCB Radio's The Who Review had its monthly broadcast yesterday (7
December). This time it ran for 32 minutes, from 7:17-7:49PM GMT (7:18-7:50PM GMT on Real Audio). They discussed an extra on the Attack of the Cybermen video; Gary Russell's book Regeneration, the story of the Paul McGann Doctor Who movie; a 37th anniversary retrospective at a museum; and played another segment of a panel discussion with John-Nathan Turner at the Panoptican convention. It ended with a clip from the Christmas episode of The Daleks' Masterplan. Next scheduled installment on Cable Radio and over the internet is Thursday 4 January.

New Zealand - Prime TV has decided to go to 2 episodes of Doctor Who a day, beginning Wednesday 31 January with episodes 1 and 2 of Death to the Daleks. The show will still air 6 days a week, but now begin at 6PM. At that rate, Prime has currently ordered enough stories to last through Thursday 29 March, when episodes 3 and 4 of Image of the Fendahl will air.

Additions and corrections are welcome at bfelliott@earthlink.net, bfelliott@gallifreyone.com, and bfelliott3 on AOL IM. And now, the listings:

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RADIO:

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BBC Radio 4
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/
Realplayer
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/realplayer/index_fm.html or
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/realplayer/index_lw.html
Internet stream only compatible with RealPlayer systems, not with Windows Media Player systems.
Dead Ringers ep 304
Fri 6:30PM GMT (1:30PM EST, 10:30AM PST, Sat 5:30AM AEDT); reruns Sat 12:30PM GMT (7:30AM EST, 4:30AM PST, 11:30PM AEDT)
Another episode of the comedy series from the UK which skewers celebrities from the past, present, and future. Usually with Doctor Who segments.

WPBR-AM 1340 West Palm Beach, FL
http://hometown.aol.com/scifiradioguy/ITradio.html
No internet stream, either RealPlayer or Windows Media Player.
Sun 11:05PM EST Interstellar Transmissions Radio Program ep 3
A weekly look through British sci-fi news of the present and past. Doctor Who's the main focus again this week.

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TV:

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UK:

UK Gold
http://www.sceneone.co.uk/s1/tv/listings
Sun 8:15-11:05AM GMT Frontier In Space movie
Roger Delgado makes his final appearance as the Master as the Doctor and Jo find themselves mired in a conflict between Humans and Draconians that could launch a devastating war.

UK Gold 2
http://www.sceneone.co.uk/s1/tv/listings
Pre-empted this week.

EUROPE/AFRICA/ASIA:

BBC Prime
http://www.bbcprime.com/
Late Fri 1AM*, Sat 3:30PM CET Kinda ep 4 of 4
*Not seen in all regions. The Mara prepares to re-enter the real world. But is it willing to face itself in the mirror and examine its actions?
Sun 11:30AM, Late Thu 12:30AM CET The Visitation ep 1 of 4
The TARDIS arrives at Heathrow Airport - in 1664. Tegan is not amused.

AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND:

UKTV Australia
http://www.varos.com/drwho/uktv/
Sun 7AM, Late Sun 1AM AEDT Planet of the Spiders all 6 eps
Fear. A powerful emotion. We kill out of fear, serve out of fear, die out of fear. It doesn't matter if there is a concrete basis for the fear or not. The 3rd Doctor's final battle is not so much against enormous spiders that plan galactic conquest as much as against his own fears and regrets.
Mon-Thu 11:30PM AEDT Robot eps 1 - 4 of 4
Introducing the adventures of Harry Sullivan, M.D. First up: a patient who claims to be a shape- changing alien. The patient recovers from a near-death experience very quickly, but his work seems to be sending him near the edge, causing Harry to stick around to keep the "alien" out of trouble.
Fri 11:30PM AEDT The Ark In Space ep 1 of 4
The TARDIS lands on a forgotten spacecraft where humanity sleeps away, waiting for the call to return to life.

Prime TV New Zealand
http://www.tetrap.com/drwho/nzdwfc/
http://www.primetv.co.nz/
Sun-Tue The Mutants eps 4 - 6 of 6
Only previous airing in 1985/1986. The Marshall intends to alter the atmosphere of Solos so that it is only habitable for humans, and not the native residents. Some would call this course of action mildly inconsiderate.
Wed-Fri The Time Monster eps 1 - 3 of 6
Only previous airing in 1986. The 3rd Doctor hunts for the Master using a device to track time- travel activities. Meanwhile, the Master has become a professor at Cambridge, developing a mysterious new breakthrough in teleportation.

USA:

BBC America
http://www.bbcamerica.com/
Mon-Thu 8AM EST (5AM PST); rerun following day 5AM EST (2AM PST) - 2 episodes per day
Mon-Tue/Tue-Wed Terror of the Zygons eps 1 - 4 of 4
The Doctor helps the Brigadier to investigate the sinking of oil rigs in Loch Ness. Special guest appearance by Nessie, the mysterious sea monster people have tried to spot for decades.
Wed-Thu/Thu-Fri Planet of Evil eps 1 - 4 of 4
The Doctor and Sarah try to go to London in the TARDIS to meet up with the Brigadier and Harry. Instead, they find themselves on the border between the universes of matter and anti- matter, fleeing from a being that sucks the life out of people.

Due to special programming, the following 9(!) stations are not airing Doctor Who this week:

WQED/WQEX 13,16 Pittsburgh, PA
http://www.wqed.org/
WCET 48 Cincinnati, OH
http://www.wcet.org/
WYIN 56 Gary, IN (Chicago, IL)
http://www.wyin.org/
WILL 12 Urbana, IL
http://www.will.uiuc.edu/
TPT 2 St. Paul, MN
http://www.tpt.org/
IPTV Iowa 11,12,21,24,27,32,32,36
http://www.sffn.com/
http://www.iptv.org/
PPTV North Dakota 2,3,4,6,9,13,19
http://www.pptv.org/
KERA 13 Dallas, TX
http://www.kera.org/
KBDI/K32EO 12,32 Denver/Colorado Springs, CO
http://www.kbdi.org/

NHPTV New Hampshire 11,49,52
http://nhptv.org/
Sun 1:30-4PM EST National Doctor Who Night
Who Night in the Daytime.

WYBE 35 Philadelphia, PA
http://www.wybe.org/
Sat 11PM EST Earthshock eps 3+4 of 4
The 5th Doctor and Adric learn that the Cybermen have a backup plan to wreak havoc on Earth. But why is it so important to risk a cyberarmy?

MPT Maryland 22,28,31,36,62,67
http://www.mpt.org/
Sat 11:30PM EST Timelash movie
Time approximate after pledge programming. In a sequel to an untold story, the 6th Doctor and Peri return to the planet Karfel, where an evil force known as the Borad holds that world in the grip of fear and paranoia.

WUSF 16 Tampa, FL
http://www.wusftv.usf.edu/
Sat 11:30PM EST Time and the Rani ep 3 of 4
I never found out which episode aired last week, but the odds were best that it would be Time and the Rani episode 2. If Paradise Towers episode 2 aired last week, expect episode 3 of that story to air instead.

KUED 7 Salt Lake City, UT
http://www.kued.org/
Sat 11:05 or 11:15PM MST The Masque of Mandragora ep 2 or 3 of 4
The start time is uncertain, as is the episode airing. Is it a rerun of last week's episode which had no 11PM broadcast, or is it part 3?.
» it was reported that this could be The Masque of Mandragora: Part One again instead!

KBTC/KCKA/K65BU 28,15,65 Tacoma/Centralia/Gray's River, WA
http://www.kbtc.org/
Sat 7PM, Late Sat 12:30AM PST The Face of Evil eps 3+4 of 4
Leela and the Doctor break through the Time Barrier, hoping to stop Xoanon before it initiates a massacre between the Tesh and the Sevateem.

KTEH 54 San Jose, CA
http://www.kteh.org/
Sun 11PM PST Battlefield all 4 eps
Nicholas Courtney returns as the Brigadier in the final U*N*I*T story of the series. Soldiers from another dimension come to late 1990s England in search of the last remains of King Arthur. And they all know the Doctor, under a different name.

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Thanks for reading. Until next week, take care.