TWIDW Update - Doctor Who on Sci-Fi, New PBS Affiliate, Correction about Dallas, and a RIP
(posted 2nd May 2002, 2:24am - TWIDW post #0091)

This is an update to the This Week In Doctor Who column of April 26.

1) The US Sci-Fi Channel http://www.scifi.com/ has put up its preliminary June schedule on its website. Included on the schedule is a 3rd (and probably final, unless they bought the rights to additional airings of the film) airing of the 1996 Doctor Who movie, starring Paul McGann, Daphne Ashbrook, and Eric Roberts. "Doctor Who" is airing as part of a daylong marathon of movie revivals of classic TV shows on June 30. Doctor Who is scheduled for 5PM Eastern/Pacific.

Sci-Fi has an East and a West Feed, and there are a lot of time zones. Remember - satellite providers use the East Coast feed nationwide, cable providers in Eastern and Central zones use the East feed almost exclusively, cable providers in other time zones *usually* use the West feed, but check. Quick way to know which feed you have - when does (ugh) John Edward begin in your city. The East feed will have him at 8PM on the West coast, while the West feed will have him at 11PM on the West Coast.

East Feed:
5PM Eastern Daylight Time
4PM Central Daylight Time
3PM Mountain Daylight Time
2PM Pacific Daylight Time
1PM Alaska
11AM Hawaii

West Feed:
6PM Mountain Daylight Time
5PM Pacific Daylight Time
4PM Alaska
2PM Hawaii
8PM Eastern Daylight Time*
7PM Central Daylight Time*

*Just in case anyone in the Eastern US actually gets the West feed of the Sci-Fi Channel.

2) WCNY 24 Syracuse, NY http://www.wcny.org/ has picked up Doctor Who, bringing the total number of US Doctor Who affiliates to 15. They air Doctor Who Sundays at 5:30PM EDT, 1 episode a week. They actually started on April 14 with the first episode of Robot, but we didn't hear about it till now. So if you live in update New York in the Syracuse/Utica area - Doctor Who is finally back.

2a) Oh dear. On Sunday, June 30, when WCNY will in theory be airing a Doctor Who episode, Sci-Fi will be airing the Doctor Who movie. It's been years since anyone in the US ever had to worry about choosing between Doctor Who on two different stations at the exact same time. Hmm.

3) Last week I corrected a notice that KERA/K24AD 13,24 Dallas/Wichita Falls, Texas was switching to airing Doctor Who in movie format. I noted that it looks like they would stay in episode format. Whoops. They switched to movie format after all. KERA airs complete stories late Friday nights beginning at 12:15AM.

4) Before I end this update, I have to say goodbye to John Nathan-Turner. John Nathan-Turner worked on Doctor Who on and off beginning in 1969, eventually becoming producer at the start of the 1980-1981 season. He was the producer for the last decade of Doctor Who's original run, and had remained a vocal spokesman for the series. John Nathan-Turner passed away on May 1st, 2002 at age 54, after an illness. Mr. Turner was one of the most influential figures in the TV history of Doctor Who, and he will be missed. Rest In Peace, JNT.

Benjamin F. Elliott