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 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 as producer there were just 4.4 million tuning in to the bescarfed ones adventure.
Hankies at the ready because it's now the blackest of black days. What December 6th has against 80's Doctor Who we will rightly 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 on Saturday December 6th 1986.
If that wasn't enough, three years later on December 6th 1989 part three of Survival was broadcast. 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!"Like poor Colin above, when the episode was made it wasn't intended to be the final adventure for either the Seventh Doctor or Doctor Who in general (as it very much felt at the time), but when JNT discovered there would be no season 27 he arranged for Sylvester McCoy to come in to record that voice over to be added to the episode.
In a cruel twist of fate, McCoy recorded the last words to be heard in classic Doctor Who on November 23rd 1989. As if that day doesn't have any relevance to the show or anything!
Birthdays
The multi-talented Noel Clarke was born on this day in 1975. You, of course, know him as Mickey Smith in the Ninth and Tenth Doctor's eras, but that's just one small part on Clarke's impressive resume. He appeared in and wrote the screenplay for Kidulthood and wrote, directed, and starred in the sequels, Adulthood and Brotherhood. Clarke wrote the episode Combat for Torchwood, the comic-book The Troop, could be seen in Star Trek Into Darkness and won the Laurence Olivier Award for Most Promising Performer in 2003 as well as being awarded a BAFTA Orange Rising Star Award in 2009.
Happy birthday to you.
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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