This Week In Doctor Who - May 11, 2001
(posted 11th May 2001, 12:23pm - TWIDW post #0008)

THIS WEEK IN DOCTOR WHO - May 11, 2001
by Benjamin F. Elliott
Vol 4, No 19
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/thisweekindoctorwho/
thisweekindoctorwho-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Friday evening May 11 through Friday morning May 18
(Australia/New Zealand Saturday morning 12 May through Friday night 18 May)

It's been five years. No, This Week is not 5 years old. But the most recent official Doctor Who television story is. "Doctor Who", starring Paul McGann, Daphne Ashbrook, and Eric Roberts, is turning 5 years old. Some CTV stations in Canada premiered the movie on 12 May 1996. At least one other Canadian station premiered the movie on 13 May 1996. The United States and the rest of Canada saw it on the FOX network on 14 May 1996, where it had the misfortune of battling the famous heart attack episode of Roseanne. In the UK, the movie aired slightly abridged on 27 May 1996. It then spread across the world. Paul McGann received and still has near-universal support from fans as the 8th Doctor, but a TV series did not emerge from the movie. There have recently been several direct-to-CD Doctor Who audios with Paul McGann from Big Finish http://www.doctorwho.co.uk/ , though that is outside the range that this column deals with. Best wishes to Paul, and I'm sure we all hope that if there is a TV or movie series in the future, that he gets a chance to participate.

BBC America http://www.bbcamerica.com/ has announced on their frequently asked questions page that they are dropping Doctor Who from the schedule in July. The reason they cite is an inability to order any additional stories beyond the 16 Tom Baker installments they already had.

It might be worth noting that the last time any "new" Doctor Who material made it to the US was in late 1997, when the extended version of The Curse of Fenric, the more complete version of The War Machines, the revised version of Five Doctors, and the color versions of Doctor Who And The Silurians, Terror of the Autons, and The Daemons came over. Since BBC America launched, they have had the right to halt any efforts to get "new" material which they hadn't already aired.

If BBC America will truly no longer has the rights to get new stories, it is worth a hope that they no longer have the right to halt orders of additional material. Certainly The Dominators and The Time Meddler could now be ordered with some missing scenes restored. The extended Silver Nemesis was made around the same time as the extended Curse Of Fenric. Episodes 1+5 of The Ambassadors of Death are available in color these days. There's the BBC2 Doctor Who Night from 1999. And probably more possibilities out there. If BBC America is out of the way, then it is within the realms of possibility for new to US material to show up in the future. If BBC America retains the right to get in the way, any new material will be less likely, as they haven't allowed new material to come in the last 3 years. It will likely be some time until it is publicly known whether BBC America is truly out of the Doctor Who equation, or merely out of the business of televising Doctor Who.

KTEH 54 in San Jose, CA http://www.kteh.org/ is taking viewer choices for a Doctor Who Night on June 10. Details on the web site, or in last week's TWIDW column.

WCET 48 in Cincinnati, OH http://www.wcet.org/ seems to be skipping over 2 episodes. Their last Doctor Who broadcast was on April 14, when episodes 4+5 of The Invasion of Time aired. They had an auction scheduled that would pre-empt the show on April 21 and April 28. The auction was postponed a week at the last minute, so specials aired on April 21 and the auction pre-empted Doctor Who on April 28 and May 5. Doctor Who returns this Saturday, May 12. But the episodes that originally would have aired on May 5 - Invasion Of Time 6 and Ribos Operation 1 - are not on the schedule. They have Ribos Operation 2+3 scheduled for May 12, as if the auction had never moved. If anyone at WCET or who knows anyone at WCET reads this, you might want to make sure you aren't inadvertently skipping over some episodes this week.

Additions and corrections are welcome at bfelliott@... , bfelliott@... , or bfelliott3 on AOL IM. And now, the listings:

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RADIO:

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WPBR 1340AM West Palm Beach, FL http://hometown.aol.com/scifiradioguy/
MP3 Archive http://www.live365.com/
Sun 11:05PM EDT Interstellar Transmissions sci-fi news/chat show
Includes the usual Doctor Who news early in the hour. Next week the topic will be Jon Pertwee, on the 5th anniversary of his passing.

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TV:

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UK:

UK Gold http://www.sceneone.co.uk/s1/tv/listings
Sun 8:05-10AM BST The Face of Evil movie
Leela, huntress and outcast of the Sevateem, comes across a man with too many clothes and strangely sweet food. But this man looks like the devil she doesn't believe in, and sounds like the god she doesn't believe in. Could she have made a mistake in her beliefs?

EUROPE/AFRICA/ASIA:

BBC Prime http://www.bbcprime.com/
Late Fri 1AM*, Sat 3:30PM, Sun 11:30AM CET Mawdryn Undead ep 4 of 4
*Not seen in all regions. Mawdryn and his fellows have infected Nyssa and Tegan. If the Doctor does not sacrifice his lives to Mawdryn's people, Nyssa and Tegan will never be able to leave Mawdryn's spaceship again.
Late Thu 12:30AM CET Terminus ep 1 of 4
Turlough's sabotage endangers Nyssa's life, and causes the TARDIS to latch onto a spaceship heading for Terminus, one of the worst places in the known universe. Slightly nicer than being in the path of a volcano, slightly nastier than being at a bus depot at night.

AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND:

UKTV Australia http://www.varos.com/drwho/uktv/ http://www.uktv.com.au/
Sun 7AM, Late Sun 1AM AEST Image of the Fendahl all 4 eps
Five million years ago, a planet was destroyed to cover up a deadly secret. But one skull escaped and came to Earth. Watching and waiting for mankind to be technologically advanced enough to resume its existence of pillage. This is the skull's story.
Mon 11:45PM AEST The Pirate Planet ep 4 of 4
Special late time. The Mentiads prepare their attack on Queen Xanxia and the Pirate Captain. Meanwhile, Mr. Fibuli comes up with an idea for another planet to crush for minerals - Earth.
Tue-Fri 11:30PM AEST The Stones of Blood eps 1 - 4 of 4
Romana's Log. Stardate: 3.42 * 6 to the power of Rassilon. "We're going to Earth. The third segment is there. Somewhere near a stone circle. Earth sounds terrible. All those trees, with their leaves, their colours. And it's the Doctor's favourite planet. I don't want to go somewhere that could make me like (gasp) him. I'd sooner regenerate and become a blonde!"

Prime TV New Zealand http://www.tetrap.com/drwho/nzdwfc/
http://www.primetv.co.nz/
Sun-Tue 6PM The Armageddon Factor eps 4 - 6 of 6
Last rerun in 1988. A daring stunt using the uncompleted key has temporarily delayed the destruction of the general area of space. But the Doctor will need the final segment to hold off disaster forever. To get the segment, the Doctor must transform it from its present form. And there are very good reasons why he should not do that.
Wed-Fri 6PM Destiny of the Daleks eps 1 - 3 of 4
Last rerun in 1988. Romana and the Doctor stumble across a Dalek effort to revive their creator - Davros!

USA:

BBC America http://www.bbcamerica.com/
(If you have BBC America but do not have a PBS station with Doctor Who, this could be your last chance to see these stories for a while. Set the VCRs. Of
all the times for BBC America to finally become widely distributed ...)
Mon-Thu 8AM EDT (5AM PDT)/Tue-Fri 5AM EDT (2AM PDT) - 2 episodes in movie format daily
Mon-Wed/Tue-Thu Genesis of the Daleks movie, pts 1 - 3 of 3
The 4th Doctor is sent on a mission to seek-locate-destroy. He must find the Daleks at the point of their creation, figure out if it is possible to alter their nature into less aggressive creatures. If it is not possible to change the Daleks, then they must be wiped out of time and space, altering much of history.
Thu/Fri The Android Invasion movie, pt 1 of 2
The Doctor and Sarah return to Earth, but England is mostly abandoned. Well, one person falls off a cliff and keeps moving. But otherwise, very few people.

NHPTV New Hampshire 11,49,52 http://www.nhptv.org/
No Saturday broadcast.
Late Thu 12:30AM EDT The Androids of Tara eps 3+4 of 4
It's coronation time. Can Prince Reynart be crowned king? Or will a backup
plan be used?

WQED/WQEX 13,16 Pittsburgh, PA http://www.wqed.org/
Returns May 18.
» the station actually showed City of Death 3+4

WYBE 35 Philadelphia, PA http://www.wybe.org/
Sat 4AM EDT Frontios eps 1+2 of 4
The TARDIS crew is marooned on a world where humanity is slowly being decimated by a series of suspicious asteroid bursts. Turlough gets a nagging sense that he knows what's going on. Concludes in June.
Sat 7:45-9PM EDT Doctor Who: Making Of A Scene 1988 documentary about the filming of Silver Nemesis. Aka The Making Of Silver Nemesis or The Making of Doctor Who.
Sat 9-10:30PM EDT Silver Nemesis all 3 eps
The 7th Doctor and Ace have to leave a jazz concert early to deal with Cybermen, neo-Nazis, and a lady from the 17th Century, who have all decided to show up in England in search of the Nemesis statue, a Time Lord artefact of devastating power. Could run late due to pledge drives.
Sat 10:30PM-Mid EDT Mawdryn Undead eps 3+4 of 4
See BBC Prime for description. Could start late.

MPT Maryland 22,28,31,36,62,67 http://www.mpt.org/
Late Sat Mid EDT The Keys of Marinus movie (The Sea Of Death, The Velvet Web, The Screaming Jungle, The Snows Of Terror, Sentence Of Death, The Keys Of Marinus)
The 1st Doctor, Ian, Barbara, and Susan are blackmailed into searching for the Keys that will operate a machine that removes free will from the inhabitants of the planet Marinus. One wonders why the people on that world did not destroy the machine a long time ago. Or maybe they like being mindless sheep.

WUSF 16 Tampa, FL http://www.wusftv.usf.edu/
Sat 11:30PM EDT The Greatest Show in the Galaxy ep 1 of 4
Junk mail infiltrates the TARDIS and tries to lure the 7th Doctor and Ace to a circus, where bad acting can get you killed.

WCET 48 Cincinnati, OH http://www.wcet.org/
Sat 11:30PM EDT The Ribos Operation eps 2+3 of 4
The search for the 1st segment of the Key To Time causes the Doctor and Romana to come across Garron and Unstoffe, criminals who are trying to swindle the nastiest despot this side of the fancy restaurant industry. (Note - WCET seems to have skipped The Invasion of Time episode 6 and The Ribos Operation episode 1. If they realize this, those episodes might air instead of the ones listed above.)
» next week confirmed the latter two were shown.

WYIN 56 Gary, IN (Chicago, IL) http://www.wyin.org/
Note - beginning next week, 2 episodes each Saturday!!
Sat 10PM CDT Destiny of the Daleks ep 2 of 4
See Prime TV New Zealand for description.

WILL 12 Urbana, IL http://www.will.uiuc.edu/
Sat 11:34PM CDT Terror of the Zygons ep 1 of 4
(Postponed from an earlier date.) Back on Earth, the Doctor, Sarah, and Harry help UNIT seek the answers behind the sinking of oil rigs near Loch Ness. For one of them, the price of investigating may be a bullet.
» this is more likely to be Terror of the Zygons: Part Two

TPT St. Paul, MN http://www.tpt.org/
analog KTCA 2, digital KTCI-DT 16 (2.5)
Sat 11:30PM, Sun 5:30AM CDT The Stones of Blood ep 2 of 4
See UKTV Australia for details.

IPTV Iowa 11,12,21,24,27,32,32,36 http://www.sffn.com/ http://www.iptv.org/
Fri 11:05PM CDT Warriors' Gate eps 3+4 of 4
The ship made up out of Dwarf Star Alloy is collapsing the gateway, endangering everyone's lives, and possibly cutting off the Doctor's route home to the normal universe.

PPTV North Dakota 2,3,4,6,9,13,19 http://www.pptv.org/
Fri 10:30PM CDT (9:30PM MDT) The Armageddon Factor ep 3 of 6
K9 discovers a kindred spirit - a smart aleck computer that runs a world.

KBDI/K32EO 12,32 Denver/Colorado Springs, CO http://www.kbdi.org/
No episodes this week. Next broadcast Saturday May 19.

KUED 7 Salt Lake City, UT http://www.kued.org/
Sat 11PM, Late Sat 12:30AM MDT The Talons of Weng-Chiang ep 1 of 6
The Doctor and Leela try to go to the theatre, but stumble into a maze of murder and mayhem in London's Chinatown. This broadcast includes a scene cut from the video version which involved nunchucks.

KBTC/KCKA/K65BU 28,15,65 Tacoma/Centralia/Gray's River, WA
http://www.kbtc.org/
Sat 7PM, Late Sat 12:30AM PDT The Pirate Planet eps 3+4 of 4
See UKTV Australia for details.

KTEH 54 San Jose, CA http://www.kteh.org/
Sun 11PM PDT The Dominators 2 hour movie
A story better remembered for witty lines than for the actual plot. The 2nd Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe land on an island where a nuclear bomb went off 173 years ago. But the radiation, which was fatal minutes earlier, has disappeared.

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Thanks for reading. Until next week, take care.

Doctor Who is a BBC Trademark. Copyright 2001.