The Eleventh Doctor tries surfing in the woods, someone's used the First Doctor's mug without his consent, K-9's guts fall out, and the Third Doctor proves to be useless with a BBQ! All this and more 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.
April 26th
We start this week in Doctor Who history back in 1969 with the epic Second Doctor swansong, The War Games. Episode Two was broadcast at 5:14pm that Saturday tea-time, and watched by 6.3 million viewers. From a mop-top to all teeth & curls, and part two of the Fourth Doctor adventure Revenge of the Cybermen which was broadcast on this day in 1975 to an appreciative audience of 8.3 million. Finally for this day, it's a 33 year jump to new-Who and the first part of the Tenth Doctor's encounter with the Sontarans - The Sontaran Stratagem was broadcast in 2008 at 6:19pm, and watched by 7.06 million viewers.
April 27th
On this day in 1968 7.2 million people were watching the Second Doctor in the opening episode of The Wheel In Space. Skip
forward one regeneration and 6 years and we have the Third Doctor
adventure The Monster of Peladon. Part six was broadcast on this day in 1974 and watched by 8.1 million.
Russell T Davis, the man who steered the good ship Who out of the "wilderness years" and back to our screens, was born on this day in 1963. April 27th is also Jenna Coleman's birthday. Born this day in 1986 she would of course go on to co-star opposite Matt Smith in today's new-Who offering - that would be 2013's Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS, which was broadcast at 6.29pm and watched by 6.5 million viewers.
April 28th
Just like last week, it's Dalek Day again - with one classic Dalek episode and one modern Dalek episode broadcast. The classic being the part four of 1973's Planet of the Daleks, which saw 8.3 million viewers witness Jo returning from Costa to find the Third Doctor has poured too much lighter fluid on the Barbecue. The modern being the second part of the Series 3 two-part Dalek story - Evolution of the Daleks was watched by 6.97 million.
April 29th
Back to 1967 for episode 4 of the Second Doctor story The Faceless Ones, this installment was watched by 6.9 million viewers and just like parts 2, 5 & 6 is now sadly missing from the archives. Then in 1972 we have part four of the Third Doctor story The Mutants drawing an audience of 7.5 million.
Moving on to the Who of the New variety, and first up it's 2006's School Reunion. 8.31 million caught the Tenth Doctor hot-wiring K-9 so Sarah Jane could watch Sky Movies for free. Then in 2017the Twelfth Doctor was on Thin Ice (Sky clearly on to him). 5.61 million viewers took baby steps with him.
April 30th
On this day in 1966 6.5 million people were watching the opening episode of The Gunfighters
(titled A Holiday For The Doctor), which is the sole classic-Who story for the day. We flash forward to
new-Who and have both 2005's Dalek and 2011's Day of the Moon, watched by 8.63 million and 7.3 million viewers respectively.
May 1st
Part two of The Space Museum was broadcast on this day in 1965, titled The Dimensions of Time (Not to be confused with Dimensions in Time! My lord! Please do not confuse it with that!!) it was watched by 9.2 million viewers. Two regenerations and 6 years
later, part four of the
Third Doctor adventure Colony in Space was watched by 8.1 million
viewers. Then, on this day in 2010, Flesh and Stone was broadcast to an audience of 8.5 million viewers, all of whom confused as to why the Eleventh Doctor was surfing through the forest!
And it's Sacha Dhawan's birthday today. The latest actor to portray the Master was born in 1984 and will turn 36 on May 1st 2020.
May 2nd
Susan's been using the Doctor's favourite mug and he's not happy about it! He gives her one last warning, but if she makes a cup of hot beefy Bovril in it one more time then he'll have no choice but to abandon her in war-torn London, circa 2164! She's been warned.
But we're getting ahead of ourselves. First up we have part four of The Keys of Marinus (titled The Snows of Terror) from 1964. It was broadcast at 5.29pm and watched by a 10.4
million viewers. Six years later the seventh and final installment of The Ambassadors of Death
was watched by 6.4 million viewers.
To finish another week in Doctor Who history we head back to 2003 for the opening part of the online animated webcast of Shada which was released at 12:00pm. Originally recorded as a Big Finish audio play featuring Paul McGann as the Doctor, the BBC added Flash animation to finally bring the unfinished Douglas Adams story to the screen - albeit computer screen at a time when people mainly had dial-up connections, meaning it took an eternity to buffer.
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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