November 23rd
The very first episode of Doctor Who was broadcast Saturday afternoon at 5:16pm, but I'm sure you all knew that? 4.4 Million viewers sat down to watch An Unearthly Child, part one in a four part adventure that at the time of broadcast went under the title of 100,000 BC (original working title being The Tribe of Gum). Now, of course, we refer to the whole story as An Unearthly Child, likely thanks to the 1973 Radio Times Tenth Anniversary Special which called it that. We took a look back at An Unearthly Child here.
Also broadcast this day in 1968, and watched by 6.4 million viewers, was episode four of the classic Second Doctor Cybermen adventure The Invasion (our retrospective can be found here). In 1987 5.5 million people tuned into part one of Dragonfly, and the following year 6.10 million people saw the Seventh Doctor do battle with the Cybermen in the first part of Silver Nemesis.
Currently the only story from the revived series which was broadcast on the show's actual anniversary is the 2013 50th Anniversary special, The Day of The Doctor. Simulcast around the world in cinemas and on television, it kicked off at 7:50pm with a huge BBC One audience of 12.8 million viewers.
November 24th
The Fourth Doctor and Romana faced the Nightmare of Eden on this day in 1979. Part one drew an audience of 8.7 million viewers.
November 25th
Part Three of The Ice Warriors is now missing (along with the previous installment), so unless you were one of those 7.4 million people who tuned in for this Second Doctor adventure back in 1967 then you've likely only seen the animated recreation.
The Fourth Doctor began a new adventure on this day in 1978, with part one of The Androids of Tara watched by 8.5 million viewers.
Back in 1983 the 20th Anniversary special The Five Doctors was broadcast as part of that evening's Children In Need appeal -7.7 million people tuned in. It had premiered two days previously in the USA, on Doctor Who's actual anniversary.
November 26th
All of Patrick Troughton's 1966 debut adventure The Power of the Daleks is currently missing, believed wiped. We took a look back at it here, but 7.8 million people watched episode four on this day in 1966.
Part one of The Sun Makers aired today in 1977 to an audience of 8.5 million viewers.
Ten years after Doctor Who last teamed up with Children In Need, the 1993 appeal included the 30th Anniversary 3D special Dimensions In Time. A story that is quite hard to love, as we looked at here, but during the telethon part one was watched by an enormous audience of 13.8 million viewers - making it one of the most watched episodes of Doctor Who ever!
November 27th
As it is now sadly missing from the archives, only the 10.3 million people lucky enough to tune in on this day in 1965 would have seen episode three of The Daleks' Master Plan (entitled Devil's Planet). Our retrospective can be found here.
13.6 million people tuned into watch part two of Dimensions In Time when it aired during Noel's House Party on Saturday Nov 27th 1993.
Episode three of the 40th Anniversary animated web adventure Scream of the Shalka was released onto the BBC's Doctor Who website at noon on this day in 2003. (We checked out the 2013 DVD release here)
November 28th
The second episode of The Dalek Invasion of Earth, entitled The Daleks, was broadcast on this day in 1964 and watched by 12.40 million viewers.
November 29th
Two part two's from two Fourth Doctor stories were both broadcast on this day. Firstly in 1975, an audience of 11.3 million tuned in to The Android Invasion, less than half that were watching in 1980 when 5.3 million saw State of Decay.
The Sixth Doctor was still on trial this day in 1986 when the first part of The Ultimate Foe (part thirteen of The Trial of a Time Lord) was broadcast in 1986 to 4.4 million viewers.
The penultimate episode of classic Doctor Who was broadcast on this day in 1989. That would be part two of Survival (a story we revisited here), which drew an audience of 4.8 million viewers. None of whom liked Coronation Street!
So did you watch any of these adventures live? We'd love to hear your memories about any of them. Tell us in the comments below.
Until next Sunday...
