This Week In DOCTOR WHO History: Nov 17th To Nov 22nd - Warped Factor - Words in the Key of Geek.

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This Week In DOCTOR WHO History: Nov 17th To Nov 22nd

It's a six day week 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.

November 17th
As mentioned at the top of the page, we're only covering six days in this week's column. That's not because Jeremy Corbyn has instigated a new shorter week policy or anything like that, but rather because November 23rd is a bit of an important one in Doctor Who history so we have a special This Day... article coming next Saturday.

With that cleared up let's get on with it, and now the Doctor has become fully acquainted with The Creature from the Pit it's time to break-up. Parting is such sweet sorrow, and tears were shed as the fourth and final part was broadcast on this day in 1979 at 6:03pm, and watched by 9.6 million viewers viewers.

Ah, Sarah Jane. How we miss the wonderful Elisabeth Sladen. Good job we have The Sarah Jane Adventures to look back upon, and episode one of The Temptation Of Sarah Jane was broadcast on this day in 2008 to 1.18 million viewers.


November 18th
On this day in Doctor Who history we have episode two of the Second Doctor adventure The Ice Warriors. Broadcast in 1967 at 5:24pm and watched by 7.1 million viewers, which was just 0.5 million less than were tuned in to part four of The Stones of Blood eleven years later.

Also on this day, in 1961 the man who would grow up to be Executive Producer of Doctor Who was born. Happy birthday Steven Moffat!

Oh, and if you're not too busy Mr Moffat could you come back please? Otherwise you're successor may commission more episodes like Kerblam! Broadcast on this day in 2018 to 7.46 million viewers.


November 19th
Episode three of the Second Doctor's debut adventure The Power of the Daleks was broadcast on this day in 1966 and watched by 7.5 million viewers. They were the lucky ones as the BBC quite stupidly wiped the tapes meaning no-one else got to see it. Until recently that is, when the new animated version was released. We reviewed episode three of such here.

Also on this day we have part four of Image of the Fendahl, which first aired in 1977 and was watched by 9.1 million viewers.

Let's have a brief break for a birthday celebration. William Russell, who played First Doctor companion Ian Chesterfield, Chesterzoo, Chesterton was born on this day in 1924. He'll be celebrating his 95th birthday today. Happy birthday Sir!

Now it's time for a trio of spin-offs...

First up, we go post-watershed with the Torchwood team who are enjoying a 'nice' day out of the city in the Countrycide. Broadcast in 2006 at 10:00pm, this episode was watched by 1.22 million viewers. The following year we have 1.1 million tuned in for part two of The Sarah Jane Adventures story The Lost Boy. Then, in 2009 it's another episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures, and that would be part one of The Gift which was watched by 0.95 million viewers. Finally, we head online to BBC Three for the Saturday November 19th 2016 release of episode six of Class, the story was titled Detained.


November 20th
It's back to the early days of Who now for the second episode of The Daleks' Master Plan, titled Day of Armageddon, which was broadcast on this day in 1965 and watched by 9.8 million viewers. Eleven years later, the fourth and final part of The Deadly Assassin was watched by 11.8 million viewers.

The second episode 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 in 2003. And finally for this day, CBBC viewers were keen to see episode two of The Sarah Jane Adventures story The Gift, so it was a good job they only had to wait 24 hours between installments! When the second part aired in 2009, 0.89 million were watching.


November 21st
With an anniversary looming, back in 1964 to celebrate the very successful first year of Doctor Who, the most popular of enemies were bought back for their second outing. The Dalek Invasion of Earth began on this day with an episode titled World's End, and a whooping 11.4 million viewers were glued to their televisual sets witnessing the event. Forty nine years later An Adventure In Space And Time admirably recreated this early period of the show, with 2.71 million tuned in to the BBC Two broadcast that Thursday night.

Then we have a bit of an oddity for you broadcast during the wilderness years, almost a year after the final episode of Survival aired. Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred returned to the roles of Seventh Doctor and Ace for Search Out Space, an episode of the children's education programme Search Out Science. And you can 'enjoy' it below...



But is it canon?

One more for November 21st, and that would be 2015's Face The Raven. The episode was watched by 4.48 million viewers overnight in the UK, after a week on time-shifting that total would rise to 6.06 million.


November 22nd
Part one of The Android Invasion was broadcast on this day in 1975 at 5:47pm and watched by huge 11.9 million viewers. Beat that State of Decay! Oh, you can't. Part One of the 1980 Fourth Doctor adventure had just half the viewers, with 5.8 million tuning in.

Poor old Sixie. Twelve weeks now he's been stood in the dock! Still, not long until he gets some refreshing "carrot juice" *shudder*. Part four of Terror of the Vervoids was broadcast on this day in 1986 and watched by 5.2 million viewers.

Three years later the end was nigh. Part one of Survival aired at 7:35pm that Wednesday evening. 5 million loyal fans tuned in, whilst 15 million other Brits watched Coronation Street!

Did you watch any of these adventures live? Just what could be happening on November 23rd? Tell us in the comments below.

Until next Sunday Saturday...

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