Welcome to our daily round-up of the Doctor Who episodes which received their premiere broadcast on this day throughout the show's long history, along with anything else of note that may have taken place. You can click on any red text to read our full retrospectives/reviews for that episode, and note that all viewing figures listed are for UK broadcasts (unless otherwise stated).
December 16th
Now here's a curio for you! We start today's round-up, not with the TV episodes broadcast but rather, with the stage debut of the Fourth Doctor - but probably not the one you've been expecting.
Tom Baker had been seen briefly at the end of Planet Of The Spiders when Jon Pertwee regenerated, but another actor played the Fourth Doctor before Baker properly took control of the TARDIS for his first full adventure. That man was Trevor Martin, (who had already played a Time Lord on screen in the Second Doctor adventure The War Games), he starred in the stage show Doctor Who and the Daleks in Seven Keys To Doomsday. Penned by Terrance Dicks, the show opened at the Adelphi Theatre on December 16th 1975, two weeks before Baker's debut story Robot began.
And we're not dipping into the episode archive just yet as we have another related item for you, this time as seen on the televisual sets of the nation. The Never Mind the Buzzcocks: Doctor Who Special, with David Tennant as guest host, was shown in 2009 at 10:00pm and watched by 3.72 million viewers. Shall we watch it?...
Now, one more thing before we get to some actual episodes as December 16th is the day that the wonderful Nicholas Courtney was born, in the year 1929 to be exact. We sadly bid a sad farewell to the Courtney in 2011, when he passed away at the age of 81, but what an amazing contribution he made to Doctor Who, leaving a lasting legacy from his many years portraying Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart.
Five rounds rapid in salute to you Sir.
And we're not done yet...
Episodes Broadcast
The Second Doctor adventure The Ice Warriors reached its conclusion on this day in 1967. Part 6 of the story was watched by 7.5 million viewers. Also reaching its conclusion was the Fourth Doctor adventure The Androids of Tara. The 1978 story had an audience of 9 million.
Join us again tomorrow for another round-up of the episodes broadcast, the spin-offs aired, the special events, the birthday's celebrated and anything else of note that went down on this day in Doctor Who history.
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