This Week In DOCTOR WHO History: May 17th to May 23rd - Warped Factor - Words in the Key of Geek.

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This Week In DOCTOR WHO History: May 17th to May 23rd

Seven different Doctors feature in the eighteen episodes broadcast this week in Doctor Who history. Which ones did you watch at the time?


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

May 17th
Starting this week back in 1969 with the epic Second Doctor swansong, The War Games. Episode Five was broadcast at 5:14pm that Saturday tea-time, and watched by 5.1 million viewers. Then it's a 39 year jump to new-Who as the Tenth Doctor meets Agatha Christie in The Unicorn and the Wasp. Broadcast in 2008 at 6:59pm, and watched by 8.41 million viewers.


May 18th
On this day in 1968 8.6 million people were watching the Second Doctor in episode four of The Wheel In Space. Skip forward one regeneration and 6 years and we have the third part of the Third Doctor adventure Planet of the Spiders. Broadcast on this day in 1974 and watched by 8.8 million. It's another big jump to new-Who for our next episode broadcast on this day, that would be 2013's The Name of the Doctor. Giving us our first glimpse of John Hurt as The War Doctor, the series 7 finale was broadcast at 6.59pm and watched by 7.45 million viewers.


May 19th
Maggots! Big old maggots! Yup, it's episode one of The Green Death. Broadcast this day in 1973 at 5:51pm and watched by 9.2 million viewers. Then in 2007 the Tenth Doctor had just 42 minutes to stop a spaceship crashing in to the sun. Joining him on this adventure was Martha Jones and 7.41 million viewers.


May 20th
Back to 1967 for episode 1 of the Second Doctor story The Evil of the Daleks, this installment was watched by 8.1 million viewers and just like parts 3 to 7 it is now sadly missing from the archives. Then in 1972 we have part one of the Third Doctor story The Time Monster drawing an audience of 7.6 million. Today's new-Who comes in the form of 2006's The Age of Steel, a story watched by 7.64 million viewers.


May 21st
On this day in 1966 5.7 million people were watching the fourth and final episode of The Gunfighters (titled The OK Corral), which is the sole classic-Who story for the day. Flashing forward to new-Who, join in everyone - "Are you my mummy?" Yes, it's the Ninth Doctor's ninth episode, 2005's The Empty Child was Steven Moffat's debut Doctor Who script (not counting The Curse of Fatal Death, of course), and was watched by 7.11 million viewers. Then in 2011, the Eleventh Doctor adventure The Rebel Flesh slightly bettered that number, with a viewership of 7.35 million.


May 22nd
The opening episode of The Chase was broadcast on this day in 1965, titled The Executioners it was watched by a mighty 10 million viewers who all got the chance, along with the TARDIS crew, to catch a glimpse of The Beatles, thanks to the Time and Space Visualiser. The First Doctor remarking that the Fab Four had a good sound, but they were not a patch on 1980s German New Wave combo Nena, who he had a particular penchant for! Maybe.

Two regenerations and 6 years later, part one of the highly regarded Third Doctor adventure The Daemons was watched by 8.1 million viewers. Then, on this day in 2010, 6.49 million viewers tuned in to catch the Eleventh Doctor in The Hungry Earth.


May 23rd
No new-Who broadcast on this day, but there were two classic episodes to be seen. Firstly the First Doctor in the first part of The Aztecs, titled The Temple of Evil it was broadcast in 1964 at 5:16pm and watched by 7.4 million viewers. Then in 1970 the Third Doctor starred in the third episode of Inferno, which was watched by 4.8 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...


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