This Week In DOCTOR WHO History: Dec 6th to Dec 12th - Warped Factor - Words in the Key of Geek.

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This Week In DOCTOR WHO History: Dec 6th to Dec 12th

It's a sad week in Doctor Who history...


Click on any red text to read our full retrospectives/reviews for that episode. All dates and viewing figures are for UK premier broadcasts unless otherwise stated.

December 6th
December 6th is a black day in Doctor Who history. We'll get to the reason why shortly, but first we have two part three's from two Fourth Doctor stories; 1975s The Android Invasion, and 1980s State of Decay. The first was watched by a staggering 12.1 million viewers, but oh how the mighty had fallen because in John Nathan-Turner's debut year there were just 4.4 million tuning in!

But now the black day part. December 6th was not kind to the Sixth. The final chapter in The Trial of a Time Lord, part two of The Ultimate Foe was also Colin Baker's last ever episode before being unceremoniously recast. He got an extra 5 minutes for this story, and 5.6 million saw him declare  "Carrot juice, carrot juice, carrot juice!" just before leaving the screen for good at 6.15pm

If that wasn't enough, December 6th also saw the broadcast of part three of Survival. The final ever episode of 'Classic Who', featuring the Seventh Doctor, Ace and the Master. 5 Million viewers saw Sylvester McCoy sign off with:
"There are worlds out there where the sky is burning. And the sea’s asleep, and the rivers dream. People made of smoke, and cities made of song. Somewhere there’s danger. Somewhere there’s injustice.  And somewhere else, the tea’s getting cold. Come on, Ace — we’ve got work to do!"


December 7th
The third part of An Unearthly Child, entitled The Forest of Fear was broadcast in 1963 and watched by 6.9 million viewers. That's a whole million more than part two, and two and a half million more than the opening episode. Doctor Who was gaining some word-of-mouth attention from children up and down the country, but it would be another few weeks until Dalek-mania swept Britain and viewing figures leapt up to over 10 million!

Today is not only Wendy Padbury's birthday - you may know her better as Zoe Heriot - but in 1968 it also saw episode 6 of The Invasion broadcast to an audience of 6.5 million. A story featuring herself, the Second Doctor and Jamie.

December 7th also saw the final episode of season 24 broadcast, that would be part three of Dragonfire. 4.7 million tuned into that, whereas the year after 5.2 million were watching part three of Silver Nemesis.


December 8th
The Fourth Doctor and Romana faced the Nightmare of Eden on this day in 1979. Part three drew an audience of 9.6 million viewers. And look! The Brigadier's back. He's joining in with The Sarah Jane Adventures to tackle part one of Enemy of the Bane, which was broadcast in 2008 at 4:35pm and watched by 0.94 million viewers.


December 9th
One of the surviving episodes of the Second Doctor 1967 adventure The Ice Warriors was broadcast this day. That would be part five, which was watched by 8 million viewers. Fast forward to 1978 and the Fourth Doctor was starring in the penultimate episode of The Androids of Tara, which was watched by 8.9 million viewers.


December 10th
All of Patrick Troughton's 1966 debut adventure The Power of the Daleks is sadly missing from the archives, but 7.8 million people watched episode six on this day in 1966. Eleven years later and Doctor number Four and Leela were drawing an audience of 8.9 million viewers for part three of The Sun Makers.

What's that saying about Random Shoes? They're always hanging from telephone wires, or something like that. If that's the case it hardly needs Torchwood to investigate, does it? Still 1.08 million tuned in back in 2006, so maybe there was more to it?


December 11th
More Daleks, and this time they're in one of only three surviving episodes from the twelve part First Doctor adventure The Daleks' Master Plan was broadcast this day in 1965. Episode 5, entitled Counter Plot was watched by 9.90 million viewers. 38 years later the fifth 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.


December 12th
Even more Daleks to wrap up this week in Doctor Who history, as we go back to 1964 for part four of The Dalek Invasion of Earth. Titled The End of Tomorrow it was watched by 11.9 million viewers.

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...

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