This Week In DOCTOR WHO History: Sept 1st to Sept 7th - Warped Factor - Words in the Key of Geek.

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This Week In DOCTOR WHO History: Sept 1st to Sept 7th

It's a bit of a Fourth Doctor-fest, 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 listed are for UK premier broadcasts unless otherwise stated.

Summer's over, Autumn's in the air, which means the good people at the BBC scheduling department have lined up loads of Who for us to enjoy.

September 1st
We get things underway this week in Doctor Who history with a veritable Dalek bonanza today - does two stories equal a bonanza? Yes it does! Especially when you consider that just a few weeks back we only had two Doctor Who stories broadcast in the entire week! But now, just like that time we were at the Ambassador's Party, we are truly being spoiled.

Our first pepper-pot adventure sees the Fourth Doctor face the Destiny of the Daleks. The opening episode of 1979's Season 17 was broadcast at 6:13pm, and it was watched by an enormous 13.00 million viewers!

Beat that Matt Smith.

Oh, you can't.

Still, on this day in 2012 Asylum of the Daleks drew a very respectable 8.33 million viewers. Well done mate, well done.

Also, on this day in 2011, the eighth episode of Torchwood: Miracle Day, titled End of the Road, was broadcast, with 4.64 million viewers tuning in. Alas it was not the end of the road of Miracle Day, as there was still some business ahead about the Earth's vagina, or something like that. I'm still not quite sure.


September 2nd
The things you'll find in the Lidl freezer section, eh? Don't open that door, it's The Tomb of the Cybermen. Episode 1 of which was broadcast in 1967 and watched by 6 million viewers. Then we have another Fourth Doctor adventure beginning, and this time it's 1978s The Ribos Operation. Part One was watched by 8.30 million viewers.


September 3rd
"And that's where I dropped my Jelly Babies...."

More from the Fourth, as Season 15 of Doctor Who gets underway with part one of Horror of Fang Rock, broadcast in 1977 to an audience of 6.8 million viewers. Then, in 1993 the second part of the Third Doctor radio adventure The Paradise Of Death was broadcast BBC Radio 5. Back to the TV screen as the Eleventh Doctor experiences some Night Terrors, which in 2011 drew an audience of 7.07 million.


September 4th
"I'm telling you Sarah Jane, I definitely left my Jelly Babies somewhere round here"

Ah, Season 14, you magnificent year you. Shall we get you underway today? OK then, we'll zoom back to 1976 so you can kick off with part one of The Masque of Mandragora. 8.3 million people were sitting comfortably that fine Saturday evening whilst the Fourth Doctor tried to work out where he left his Jelly Babies.


September 5th
Season 14 may have been just starting but Season 1 was almost at an end. Mind you, it had begun over 9 months earlier! Honestly, these modern day Doctors don't know how easy they have it. The penultimate installment of the 1964 pure historical adventure The Reign Of Terror, titled A Bargain of Necessity, was broadcast at 5:31pm to an audience of 6.9 million viewers.


September 6th
First up for this day we have yet another classic Fourth Doctor adventure for you. This time its part 2 of The Terror of the Zygons, broadcast in 1975 at 5:45pm and watched by 6.1 million viewers. We stick with the "all teeth and curls" Doctor for part 2 of The Leisure Hive, which drew 5 million viewers when broadcast on this very day back in 1980.

Then in 1986, having narrowly escaped cancellation, the Sixth Doctor began The Trial Of A Time Lord. The individual story titles did not appear on screen, but what was part one of The Mysterious Planet was broadcast in 1986 at the ridiculously early time of 4:46pm! 4:46pm???? Anyone would think the BBC had it in for the show... oh, right. Well you may be surprised to know that it still attracted an audience of 4.9 million viewers - so suck it Mr Grade!

And we're not done with Classic Who on this day yet as we still have to check in with the Seventh Doctor for part one Battlefield, which was broadcast in 1989 and watched by 3.1 million viewers. That went out at the much more respectable time of 7:35pm - although it was scheduled up against Coronation Street, so 90% of the country didn't even know it was on!

Moving on to 2002, and it's the final part of the Doctor Who webcast Real Time was available to watch from 12:00pm. Starring Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor and featuring the Cybermen, you can view the whole thing here.

And finally, the Twelfth Doctor's third adventure, Robot Of Sherwood, was broadcast on this day in 2014 to an audience of 7.28 million viewers. I know everyone involved with the episode would like to apologise for it. (It was a bit pants, wasn't it?)


September 7th
There's something just so incredibly wrong with the above picture, but we'll get to that shortly as first up we're going back to 1968 to join 5.9 million Second Doctor fans for episode 5 of The Dominators.

So what can be said about Time and the Rani?

Let's just say it's a good job The Twin Dilemma exists so that Time and the Rani is not consistently voted the worst Doctor Who debut story of all time. Part One was broadcast on Monday September 7th 1987 at 6:35pm, and the prospect of a new Doctor manged to entice 5.1 million viewers to tune in. Almost a million of them would not return the following week though. Poor Sylv. Season 24 was not the best, was it? Still, it could've been worse. He could've had Chris Chibnall as showrunner.

Did you watch any of these adventures live? Let us know in the comments below, we'd love to here your memories of them.

Until next Sunday... 

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