This Week In DOCTOR WHO History: Jan 29th to Feb 4th - Warped Factor - Words in the Key of Geek.

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This Week In DOCTOR WHO History: Jan 29th to Feb 4th

ROBOT FIGHT! This 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.

January 29th
First up for this week in Doctor Who history it's episode 12 of the epic First Doctor adventure The Daleks' Master Plan (entitled The Destruction Of Time). It was the final episode in this story and as it is currently missing presumed wiped only the 8.6 million people tuned into BBC One at 5.50pm that Saturday in 1966 have fully enjoyed it in its entirety.

Moving on to 1972 and episode one of The Curse Of Peladon, which drew an audience of 10.3 million. Also on this day in 1977, Robot Fight!!!! As 12.1 million people tuned in to watch the opening episode of The Robots Of Death. 


January 30th
Episode three of the pure historical adventure The Romans (entitled Conspiracy) was shown this day in 1965 and watched by 10 million viewers. Two regenerations and 6 years later, the Third Doctor began a new adventure, as 6.1 million tuned into The Mind Of Evil. We also have the Torchwood episode To the Last Man broadcast on this day in 2008 at 9:00pm and watched by 3.51 million viewers.


January 31st
January 31st is a day full of Doctor Who opening episodes. First up, from 1970, we have Doctor Who And The Silurians, which was watched by 8.8 million viewers. Then in 1976 its The Seeds Of Doom which drew an audience of 11.4 million. Five years later The Keeper Of Traken had 7.6 million viewers watching.


February 1st
On this day in 1946 the great Elisabeth Sladen was born. On the day of her 18th birthday the Doctor's first adventure with The Daleks came to a close, with an episode entitled The Rescue. I wonder if she was one of the 10.4 million watching, little knowing that a decade later she'd join the series as fan favourite companion Sarah Jane Smith.

In 1969 the Second Doctor faced the second part of The Seeds Of Death, with 6.8 million tuning in to watch, and then in 1975 the Fourth Doctor, Sarah Jane and Harry Sullivan were joined by a whopping 13.6 million viewers for part two of The Ark In Space that Saturday tea time. How's that for a birthday treat!?!

Seven years later the Doctor's much younger looking older self began a new adventure, Kinda, which was watched by 8.4 million. The following year it was time for yet another adventure to get underway for the Fifth Doctor. Mawdryn Undead was broadcast in 1983 to an audience of 6.5 million viewers.


February 2nd
Part four of Invasion of the Dinosaurs was broadcast this day in 1974 and watched by 9 million viewers. Tuesday February 2nd 1982 saw part two of Kinda broadcast at 7:04pm, and watched by 9.4 million viewers. Part two of Mawdryn Undead aired the following year and was watched by 7.5 million. And in his final season, Peter Davison's Doctor faced part three of Frontios, broadcast Thursday February 2nd at 6.40pm to an audience of 7.8 million.

One final story for this day, it's from the Sixth Doctor, and it introduced us to another Time Lord/Lady (who knows nowadays?) - the Rani! Part one of The Mark of the Rani was broadcast in 1985 and watched by 6.3 million of you fine people.


February 3rd
On this day in 1968 7.2 million people were watching the Second Doctor in the opening episode of The Web of Fear. Episode two of the 1973 Third Doctor adventure Carnival Of Monsters was watched by 11 million viewers. Moving onto 1979 and part three of The Armageddon Factor drew an audience of 7.8 million.

Now I know what you're thinking, that picture above shows the Fifth Doctor conversing with "President" Trump about his disproportionately small hands, but no! It's actually a screen-grab from the fourth and final part of Frontios which was first broadcast on your tele-box Friday February 3rd 1984 and was watched by 5.6 million viewers. That's probably substantially more than were listening to the wireless on this day in 1996 when the third part of the Third Doctor radio drama, The Ghosts of N Space was broadcast. 


February 4th
In 1967 episode 4 of The Underwater Menace drew an audience of 7 million viewers. And bringing another week in Doctor Who history to a close we have the first part of The Invasion Of Time, which got underway on this day in 1978, and was watched by a very impressive 11.2 million people.

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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