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.
May 17th
We start this week in Doctor Who history back in 1969 with the epic Second Doctor swansong, The War Games. Episode Five was broadcast at 5:14pm that Saturday tea-time, and watched by 5.1 million viewers. Then it's a 39 year jump to the only other Doctor Who episode broadcast on this day, the Tenth Doctor meets Agatha Christie in The Unicorn and the Wasp. Broadcast in 2008 at 6:59pm, and watched by 8.41 million viewers.
May 18th
On this day in 1968 8.6 million people were watching the Second Doctor in episode four of The Wheel In Space. Skip forward one regeneration and 6 years and we have the third part of the Third Doctor adventure Planet of the Spiders. Broadcast on this day in 1974 and watched by 8.8 million. It's another big jump to new-Who for our next episode, that would be 2013's The Name of the Doctor. Giving us our first glimpse of John Hurt as The War Doctor, the series 7 finale was broadcast at 6.59pm and watched by 7.45 million viewers.
May 19th
Maggots! Big old maggots! Yup, it's episode one of The Green Death. Broadcast this day in 1973 at 5:51pm and watched by 9.2 million viewers. Then in 2007 the Tenth Doctor had just 42 minutes to stop a spaceship crashing in to the sun. Joining him on this adventure was Martha Jones and 7.41 million viewers.
May 20th
Back to 1967 for episode 1 of the Second Doctor story The Evil of the Daleks, this installment was watched by 8.1 million viewers and just like parts 3 to 7 it is now sadly missing from the archives. Then in 1972 we have part one of the Third Doctor story The Time Monster drawing an audience of 7.6 million.
That's two classic Who for you, so how about two new Who? First it's 2006's The Age of Steel, a story watched by 7.64 million viewers. Then the Twelfth Doctor adventure Extremis premiered in 2017 at 7:27pm to an audience of 5.53 million viewers.
May 21st
On this day in 1966 5.7 million people were watching the fourth and final episode of The Gunfighters (titled The OK Corral), which is the sole classic-Who story for the day. Flashing forward to new-Who, join in everyone - "Are you my mummy?" Yes, it's the Ninth Doctor's ninth episode, 2005's The Empty Child was Steven Moffat's debut Doctor Who script (not counting The Curse of Fatal Death, of course), and was watched by 7.11 million viewers. Then we go to 2011 and the Eleventh Doctor adventure The Rebel Flesh where we are joined by 7.35 million of Britain's finest.
May 22nd
The opening episode of The Chase was broadcast on this day in 1965. Titled The Executioners it was watched by a mighty 10 million viewers who all got the chance, along with the TARDIS crew, to catch a glimpse of The Beatles, thanks to the Time and Space Visualiser. The First Doctor remarked that the Fab Four had a good sound but he didn't think they were a patch on 1980s German New Wave combo Nena, who he had a particular penchant for! Maybe.
Two regenerations and 6 years later, part one of the highly regarded Third Doctor adventure The Daemons was watched by 8.1 million viewers. Then, on this day in 2010, 6.49 million viewers tuned in to catch the Eleventh Doctor in The Hungry Earth.
May 23rd
Look out! Old Firstie is right miffed at Barbara when she says that she doesn't rate Nena's sixteenth studio album, Du bist gut, and it's unremittingly bleak lyrics on tracks like Ich habe dich verloren. So angry is he that he's taking the TARDIS crew back to ancient Mexico for the first part of The Aztecs, titled The Temple of Evil, where he'll seek solace with a young lass called Cameca. Before that, he'll get even more snappy with Barbara, reminding her that you can't rewrite history... or the lyrics to Deine Flügel brechen nicht! This all took place on (and off) screen this day in 1964 from 5:16pm with 7.4 million viewers as witnesses (to some of it).
Finally for this week in Doctor Who history we have the Third Doctor 1970 adventure Inferno. Episode three of which was watched by 4.8 million viewers.
That's it for this week, but did you watch any of these adventures live? What do you think of Du bist gut? Tell us in the comments below.
Until next Sunday...
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