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

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This Week In DOCTOR WHO History: Dec 1st To Dec 7th

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 1st
Remember that time when Tom Baker auditioned for Strictly Come Dancing? His inter-species foxtrot was to die for! Oh, hang on - my bad, it's just a screen-grab from the only classic Who episode broadcast on this day. Back in 1979 we have part two of Nightmare of Eden pulling in a very respectable 9.6 million viewers.

Also on this day, episode one of The Sarah Jane Adventures: Enemy Of The Bane was broadcast in 2008 at 4:35pm, and watched by 1.36 million viewers.


December 2nd
Episode four, which is one of the surviving installments from the Second Doctor adventure The Ice Warriors, was broadcast in 1967 at 5:25pm, and watched by 7.3 million viewers. But Uncle Tom easily topped that! With the promise of a Jelly Baby he enticed 10.1 million Brits to tune in for part two of the 1978 story, The Androids of Tara. It's a huge 40 year leap for our next episode and not quite as many stuck around to wait for it (well they had stuff to do). It Takes You Away premiered on this day in 2018 to 6.42 million viewers.


December 3rd
Only the 8 million people who watched episode five of Patrick Troughton's debut adventure, The Power of the Daleks, ever got to see this 1966 missing-presumed-wiped classic adventure. Then in 1977 we have yet another 'part two', this time for The Sun Makers, a story which gained a million viewers from its previous installment and has a recorded audience of 9.5 million.

Why oh why do They Keep Killing Suzie? All was revealed in the Torchwood episode first broadcast on this day in 2006 at 10:00pm and watched by 1.12 million viewers. Also, in spin-off land, the eighth episode of Class debuted on BBC Three on Saturday December 3rd 2016. Titled The Lost, it proved to be the finale of not just the season but the final televisual adventurer.


December 4th
Back to the First Doctor's era now and on this day in 1965 he was neck deep in The Daleks' Master Plan. Episode four, entitled The Traitors, was broadcast that Saturday evening at 5:50pm and watched by 9.5 million viewers.

Also on this day, it may not be considered canon but episode four of the 40th Anniversary animated web adventure Scream of the Shalka was released onto the BBC's Doctor Who website at noon in 2003.


December 5th
The third episode of The Dalek Invasion of Earth, entitled Day of Reckoning, was broadcast on this day in 1964 and watched by 11.9 million viewers.

Some of you may have rushed out on this day in 1997 to purchase the PC Game, Destiny Of The Doctors. It featured specially recorded audio by Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, and Nicholas Courtney, and specially recorded audio and video with Anthony Ainley reprising his role as the Master. Sadly it would be the final time Ainley would reprise the role. He was invited to play the Master for Big Finish Productions' Doctor Who audio stories, beginning with Dust Breeding in June 2001. But Big Finish were unable to reach a suitable deal with him, and so the part went instead to Geoffrey Beevers.

Some new-Who for you, starting with the 2009 Tenth Doctor's animated adventure Dreamland which received it's debut airing at 10am. Having already been available to watch on the BBCs Red Button service since November 21st it still drew an audience of half a million. Not 'alf bad. We also have a Twelfth Doctor adventure broadcast on this day, in fact it was just last year as series nine finished with Hell Bent. The episode was watched by 4.47 million viewers overnight in the UK, that figure rising to 6.17 million after seven days of time-shifiting.


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 threes from two Fourth Doctor stories - Oh! So many numbers!! 1975s The Android Invasion, and 1980s State of Decay are the adventures in question. 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!

Hankies at the ready because it's now the blackest of black days. What December 6th has against 80's Doctor Who we'll never rightly know, but it was not kind to the Sixth Doctor at all. 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.

Did you watch any of these adventures live? Where you there for the final episode of Survival? Let us know in the comments below.

Until next Sunday...

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