December 14th
The final part of Doctor Who's first adventure aired today in 1963 to an audience of 6.4 million people - that would be An Unearthly Child episode 4, The Firemaker (Find our look back here). Five years later and Patrick Troughton was starring in the penultimate episode of The Invasion. Episode Seven was broadcast in 1968 and watched by 7.2 million viewers (our retrospective can be found here).
One more classic Who story for December 14th - this day in 1988 (it was a Wednesday by the way) saw the start of a new adventure for the Seventh Doctor, Sylvester McCoy. The Greatest Show in the Galaxy drew an audience of 5 million.
December 15th
On this day in 1973 season 11 of Doctor Who got underway with the Third Doctor meeting a young journalist called Sarah Jane Smith. The story was The Time Warrior, and also marked the very first appearance of The Sontarans. Part one was watched by 8.7 million people.
The final part of the Fourth Doctor adventure Nightmare of Eden was broadcast in 1979, and watched by 9.4 million viewers.
December 16th
The Second Doctor adventure The Ice Warriors reached its conclusion on this day in 1967. Part 6 of the story was watched by 7.5 million viewers. Also reaching its conclusion was the Fourth Doctor adventure The Androids of Tara. The 1978 story had an audience of 9 million.
Not a TV show but one you might've been watching! On this day in 1974 the Fourth Doctor made his stage debut - but it wasn't Tom Baker! Although Tom had been seen briefly at the end of Planet Of The Spiders, when Jon Pertwee regenerated, another actor played the Fourth Doctor before Baker properly took control of the Tardis for his first full adventure. That man was Trevor Martin, (who had already played a Time Lord on screen in the Second Doctor adventure The War Games), he starred in the stage show Doctor Who and the Daleks in Seven Keys To Doomsday. Penned by Terrance Dicks, the show opened at the Adelphi Theatre two weeks before Baker's debut story Robot began.
December 17th
On this day in 1966 the Second Doctor met young Jamie McCrimmon for the first time, and a beautiful friendship began. 6.7 million viewers tuned into episode 1 of The Highlanders to witness the event. Our own retrospective of the sadly missing pure historical story is here.
It was a week for conclusions to Doctor Who stories, and we have yet another one. The Sun Makers part Four was broadcast in 1977 and watched by 8.4 million viewers.
December 18th
Episode 6 of The Daleks' Master Plan entitled Coronas of the Sun was broadcast this day in 1965. It's one of the installments that is on the missing list so only the 9.1 million people who tuned in have ever seen it. Our retrospective can be found here
The final part 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)
December 19th
On this day in 1964 'Grandfather' was getting ready to say goodbye to Susan. She was only going to be around for one more week as part 5 of The Dalek Invasion of Earth, entitled The Waking Ally, was broadcast at 5:40pm, and watched by 11.4 million viewers.
December 20th
December 20th is a rare day in Doctor Who history as to date no actual episodes of the show have received their premiere broadcast on British television. However, back in 2010 there was a series of the popular BBC2 quiz programme Celebrity Eggheads produced in aid of Children In Need - a charity even that Doctor Who has a long relationship with. On this day at 6pm 2.4 million viewers tuned in to a Doctor Who special. The celebrity team featured Colin Baker, Katy Manning, Frazer Hines, Louise Jameson and John Leeson. A clip of the episode is below...
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...
