This Week In DOCTOR WHO History: March 22nd to March 28th - Warped Factor - Words in the Key of Geek.

Home Top Ad

Post Top Ad

This Week In DOCTOR WHO History: March 22nd to March 28th

Join us for another look back into the history of broadcast Doctor Who, and it's a week where two Doctors made their debut...







Click on any red text to read our full retrospectives/reviews for that episode. 

March 22nd 
Starting this week back in 1969 when episode three of the Second Doctor adventure The Space Pirates was broadcast to an audience of 6.4 million. Moving on to 1975 and 8.5 million were tuned in to an adventure that is routinely voted the number one Doctor Who story of all time - part three of Genesis of the Daleks.

In 1982 we had the Fifth Doctor, the Master and Concorde. What could possibly go wrong? Find out in part one of Time-Flight, which was watched by 10 million viewers. And finally on this day in Doctor Who history the Sixth Doctor's controversial era got underway with an adventure that is routinely voted the worst Doctor Who story! There was companion strangling, there was Mestor, there was the coat (oh, the coat!), and there was The Twin Dilemma. Oh yes, and there was also 7.6 million viewers tuned in that Thursday evening at 6.41pm.


March 23rd
On this day in 1968 7.9 million people were watching the Second Doctor in episode two of Fury From The Deep, a story which is, sadly, entirely missing from the archives.

If you took a look at the image above and thought "that's a terrible home made Minion costume" then two things - you're right, and you've likely never seen the Third Doctor adventure The Monster of Peladon, which was broadcast on this day in 1974 watched by 9.2 million. Then on Tuesday March 23rd 1982 the second part of Time-Flight drew and audience of 7.4 million.

On Friday March 23rd 1984 7.4 million people were intrigued enough to check back in for part two of The Twin Dilemma, and exactly the same figure were watching twelve months later for the first part of Revelation of the Daleks.


March 24th 
Just the one episode broadcast on this day, and that was back in 1973. Part five of Frontier In Space was watched by 7.7 million viewers. 


March 25th
In 1967 the Second Doctor faced the episode three of The Macra Terror. Broadcast at 5.51pm to an audience of 8.5 million viewers. Also on this day in 1972 the fifth part of the Third Doctor story The Sea Devils was watched by an audience of 8.3 million.


March 26th
On this day in 1966 7.3 million people were watching part four of Dodo Gets A Cold, or The Ark (this episode entitled The Bomb) as it's more commonly known. Twelve years later, in 1977, 10.1 million deerstalker-lovers tuned in to part five of The Talons of Weng-Chiang. Elementary.

Oh, and on this day in 2005 we were off and running as Christopher Eccleston made his debut as the Ninth Doctor, and Doctor Who returned to our screens in an episode entitled Rose, courtesy of Russell 'Tussle' Davies. Broadcast at 7pm on BBC1, 10.81 million tuned in to catch Graham Norton talking over the start of the show thanks to a sound mix up from the live broadcast of BBC Three's Strictly Dance Fever.


March 27th
The pure historical story The Crusade got underway on this day in 1965, the opening episode was entitled The Lion (as in King Richard the Lionheart and not Lion Bar) and was watched by 10.5 million viewers. Two regenerations and 6 years later, the Third Doctor faced episode three of The Claws of Axos. Broadcast Saturday March 27th 1971 at 5.15pm and watched by 6.4 million viewers.


March 28th
March 28th 1964 saw the sixth episode of Marco Polo (entitled Mighty Kublai Khan) broadcast at 5.29pm and watched by 8.4 million history loving viewers.

Six years later the Brigadier was justifiably peeved. Having been misinformed that the Ambassador would be serving Ferrero Rocher at his party, all the Brig found on offer was death!

Episode 2 of The Ambassadors of Death was broadcast in 1970 and watched by 7.6 million viewers.

That's it for this week, but 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...

Post Top Ad