Doctor Who in Canada and the United States

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''Doctor Who'' in Canada and the United States refers to the broadcast history of the long-running British science fiction television series '' Doctor Who'' in those countries.

History

The beginning

''Doctor Who'' had an early Canadian connection. The series was conceived by Canadian expatriate

Sydney Newman Sydney Cecil Newman (April 1, 1917 – October 30, 1997) was a Canadian film and television producer, who played a pioneering role in British television drama from the late 1950s to the late 1960s. After his return to Canada in 1970, Newman w ...

while he was the

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...

's Head of Drama. The series may have been inspired by a short-lived segment (canceled because parents complained that it was "too frightening" for their children) on the Canadian version of ''

Howdy Doody ''Howdy Doody'' is an American Children's television series, children's television program (with circus and Western (genre), Western frontier themes) that was created and produced by Victor F Campbell

''. The segment featured a character surprisingly similar to the Doctor, a puppet called Mr. X who traveled through time and space in his "Whatsis Box" teaching children about history. Newman oversaw this series while working as head of programming for the CBC. Newman maintained a guiding influence over ''Doctor Who'' until he left the BBC in 1967 and was in talks with the BBC in 1986, when the show was foundering, to reformat the show and take the role of executive producer. The series made its North American premiere in January 1965 on CBC with the broadcast of

William Hartnell William Henry Hartnell (8 January 1908 – 23 April 1975) was an English actor. He is best remembered for his portrayal of the first incarnation of the Doctor in '' Doctor Who'' from 1963 to 1966. In film, Hartnell notably appeared in '' Bri ...

's first 26 episodes, fourteen months following their first airing on the BBC. The CBC did not renew the program and it would not reappear on the network for 40 years.

The 1970s: ''Doctor Who'' sold to the United States

The BBC series was originally sold to television stations in the United States in 1972, with Time-Life Television syndicating selected episodes of Jon Pertwee's time as the Doctor. The series did not do well, despite an interesting write-up some years earlier in ''

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program listings information as well as entertainment and television-related news. The company sold its print magazine division, TV Guide Magazine LLC, in 2008. Corpora ...

''. Apparently, program directors of the commercial television stations that picked up the Jon Pertwee series did not know that the program was an episodic serial, and so it was constantly being shuffled about in the programming schedules. In 1978,

Tom Baker Thomas Stewart Baker (born 20 January 1934) is an English actor and writer. He is well known for his portrayal of the fourth incarnation of the Doctor in the science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'' from 1974 to 1981.Scott, Danny. (1 ...

's first four seasons as the Doctor were sold to

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

stations across the United States. This time, though, Time-Life was ready to have the Doctor poised for American consumption, by having stage and screen actor Howard Da Silva read voiceover recaps of the previous episode and teasers for the next one which would inform the viewer as to what was going on. To accommodate the teasers up to three minutes of original material was cut from each episode. PBS program planners took the show at face value, but it soon achieved cult status. A few commercial stations including

WOR-TV WWOR-TV (channel 9) is a television station licensed to Secaucus, New Jersey, United States, serving the New York City area as the flagship of MyNetworkTV. It is owned and operated by Fox Television Stations alongside Fox flagship WNYW (ch ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

and

KVOS-TV KVOS-TV, virtual channel 12 (UHF digital channel 14), is a Heroes & Icons owned-and-operated television station licensed to Bellingham, Washington, United States. Owned by Chicago-based Weigel Broadcasting, it is part of a duopoly with Seattl ...

Bellingham, Washington Bellingham ( ) is the most populous city in, and county seat of Whatcom County in the U.S. state of Washington. It lies south of the U.S.–Canada border in between two major cities of the Pacific Northwest: Vancouver, British Columbia (loc ...

also aired the show for a few years.

Return to Canada: TVOntario and CPN

In Canada,

TVOntario TVO Media Education Group (often abbreviated as TVO and stylized on-air as tvo) is a publicly funded English-language educational television network and media organization serving the Canadian province of Ontario. It is operated by the Ontario ...

aired the program starting in 1976 with '' The Three Doctors'' and continued with the rest of the original series on a weekly basis until 1990 with series airing two to three years behind the BBC. TVO was also available to many viewers in the United States living in states bordering the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lak ...

. In order to fulfill the network's originally strict mandate as an educational broadcaster, TVO's transmissions of the Third Doctor's stories were hosted by Dr. Jim Dator, a futurist teaching to the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 ...

, while the first three seasons of Fourth Doctor stories were hosted by science fiction writer

Judith Merril Judith Josephine Grossman (January 21, 1923 – September 12, 1997), who took the pen-name Judith Merril around 1945, was an American and then Canadian science fiction writer, editor and political activist, and one of the first women to be wid ...

, who called herself the "UnDoctor". Both hosts would fill out the show's half-hour time slot through introductions and longer extros which would analyze and discuss the episode critically for several minutes often explaining how a story was at variance with scientific concepts, how it related to science fiction genres, or putting the episodes in a socio-political context. Afterward, this broadcast requirement was relaxed and the extra time was used for the network's standard short subject programming such as '' Eureka!''. TVO continued to broadcast ''Doctor Who'' until it lost the rights to the programme in 1990. Meanwhile, in other parts of Canada, ''Doctor Who'' became accessible again in the late 1970s as cable television provided many areas with

stations piped in from the US, and thus that network's broadcasts of ''Doctor Who''. There were also some local broadcasts of the series outside Ontario: for example, between November 1978 and February 1979 a

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a province in western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dak ...

-based pay-cable provider, the Co-operative Programming Network (CPN), aired ''Doctor Who'' episodes on its Just for Kids channel.

1980s

In the mid-1980s, as more stations began to show the existing 1960s episodes, Lionheart (the program's American distributor in the 1980s) dispensed with the older Time-Life tapes containing the Howard Da Silva narrations. Lionheart also offered stations the choice between the standard 25-minute episodes, or a longer version that some stations termed ''Whovies''. These "omnibus editions", or, "movie versions" as they were also known, edited multi-part serials into a single, feature-length film, by cutting out the opening and closing credits, as well as the recap of the

cliffhanger A cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending is a plot device in fiction which features a main character in a precarious or difficult dilemma or confronted with a shocking revelation at the end of an episode or a film of serialized fiction. A cliffhang ...

, between episodes. (Some edits were clumsy, particularly during Davison-era stories that frequently would have scenes interrupted by partial credit sequences, or feature the sudden appearance of the "electronic scream" sound effect that usually accompanied cliffhangers). This was the most common format used for PBS broadcasts of the series in the 1980s and 1990s. The shortest of these, representing two-episode serials, ran approximately 45 minutes. The longest "Whovie" release, a compilation of the 10-episode ''

The War Games ''The War Games'' is the seventh and final serial of the sixth season of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which originally aired in ten weekly parts from 19 April to 21 June 1969. In the serial, an unnamed alien r ...

'' serial, ran for an uninterrupted four hours, though it was more often shown in two two-hour segments; the 14-episode ''

The Trial of a Time Lord The twenty-third season of British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', known collectively as ''The Trial of a Time Lord'', aired in weekly episodes from 6 September to 6 December 1986. It contained four adventures: ''The Mysterious ...

'' was, however, broadcast as four parts, divided, as with the novelisations of this story, into the serial's four major plot lines. This practice carried into the earliest VHS releases in the U.S. and the UK, particularly the first release of ''

The Brain of Morbius ''The Brain of Morbius'' is the fifth serial of the 13th season of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 3 to 24 January 1976. The screenwriter credit is given ...

'' which was considerably truncated. It was roundly disliked by many fans and the practice was dropped by the early 1990s. Success of the program in America was sealed by personal appearances of cast members and production staff at

science fiction convention Science fiction conventions are gatherings of fans of the speculative fiction genre, science fiction. Historically, science fiction conventions had focused primarily on literature, but the purview of many extends to such other avenues of expre ...

s, and by the national airing on PBS of the 20th anniversary special ''

The Five Doctors ''The Five Doctors'' is a special feature-length episode of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', produced in celebration of the programme's 20th anniversary. It had its world premiere in the United States, on the Chicago ...

'' two days before the BBC. In November 1983, on the weekend after the airing of ''The Five Doctors'', four actors who played the Doctor (

Patrick Troughton Patrick George Troughton (; 25 March 1920 – 28 March 1987) was an English actor who was classically trained for the stage but became known for his roles in television and film. His work included appearances in several fantasy, science fiction ...

, Jon Pertwee, Peter Davison and

) and many of those who played the Doctor's companions over the series' first two decades on television appeared at a standing-room-only event in

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, the start of a

Thanksgiving Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden ...

Day weekend celebration that continues annually ( Chicago TARDIS). In 1986, BBC Enterprises organised the ''Doctor Who USA Tour'', a two-year travelling exhibition of props and memorabilia from the program, showcased in a 48-foot trailer decorated with alien landscapes from the show, police box entrances, and a mock-up of the TARDIS interior. Many tour stops included guest appearances from cast members. The statewide PBS chain

New Jersey Network The New Jersey Network (NJN) was a network of public television and radio stations serving the U.S. state of New Jersey. NJN was a member of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) for television and the National Public Radio (NPR) for radio, br ...

was enthusiastic on the series, scheduling pre-1970 serials as well as being the first to broadcast the new season of the program in 1985. NJN staff member Eric Luskin hosted and produced three documentaries on the series, the latter a "behind the scenes" look at the production of the 25th anniversary story ''

Silver Nemesis ''Silver Nemesis'' is the third serial of the 25th season of the British science fiction television series '' Doctor Who''. It was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC1 in three weekly parts from 23 November (the 25th anniversary) to 7 ...

''. On 22 November 1987, during a broadcast of the serial ''

Horror of Fang Rock ''Horror of Fang Rock'' is the first serial of the 15th season of the British science fiction television series '' Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 3 to 24 September 1977. The serial is set on the fict ...

'' on

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affiliate

WTTW-TV WTTW (channel 11) is a PBS member television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Owned by not-for-profit broadcaster Window to the World Communications, Inc., it is sister to commercial classical music radio station WFMT (98.7 FM). Th ...

an unknown hacker wearing a

Max Headroom Max Headroom is a fictional artificial intelligence (AI) character portrayed by actor Matt Frewer. Advertised as "the first computer-generated TV presenter", Max was known for his biting commentary on a variety of topical issues, arrogant wit, ...

mask jammed WTTW's broadcast signal and replaced it with their own audio and video for 88 seconds, concluding with the masked man being hit on his bare butt with a fly swatter. This incident was investigated by the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdicti ...

but the culprit's identity was never determined. Once the series ceased production in 1989, the number of stations carrying ''Doctor Who'' naturally dropped, although the program's popularity had been waning in the United States for some years. As most stations were in the practice of purchasing the omnibus "movie versions" of the series rather than the fourteen episodes produced annually in its last four years, stations only received four feature-length stories each January. Meanwhile, Iowa Public Television (IPTV), the statewide PBS network for the state of Iowa, saw increased interest in ''Doctor Who'', which was aired on a Friday late-night science fiction marathon alongside ''Red Dwarf'' and other British science fiction pieces. IPTV is the only television network (or station, or channel) in the world to have aired ''Doctor Who'' virtually continuously from its introduction in 1974 until the present. This totals 35 out of 40 years as of 2014, due to one break of about five years between 1979 and 1984, with other breaks of only a few months or weeks.

Proposed Nelvana animated series

In 1990, following the cancellation of the live action series, the BBC approached the Canadian animation house Nelvana to propose an animated continuation of the show. The cartoon series was to feature an unspecified Doctor incorporating elements of various BBC series Doctors and was not to be oriented to an audience younger than that of the live action series but was intended to be a continuation of the cancelled series but in animated form in order to save costs but with design elements that would promote merchandise sales. According to Nelvana's Ted Bastien: "We went through a lot of development on it, then we were scripting and storyboarding it and about 4 scripts had been written. It happened really fast". Concept art was prepared depicting several possible versions of the Doctor modelled on actors such as Peter O'Toole,

Jeff Goldblum Jeffrey Lynn Goldblum (; born October 22, 1952) is an American actor and musician. He has starred in some of the highest-grossing films of his era, such as ''Jurassic Park'' (1993) and ''Independence Day'' (1996), as well as their sequels. ...

and

Christopher Lloyd Christopher Allen Lloyd (born October 22, 1938) is an American actor. He has appeared in many theater productions, films, and on television since the 1960s. He is known for portraying Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown in the ''Back to the Future'' tril ...

with elements of the wardrobes of previous Doctors. and new versions of allies such as K-9 and enemies such as the Daleks and Cybermen. The Master was to be "half-man, half robot with a cybernetic bird accessory and a face modelled after Sean Connery." The show was also to feature female companions from Earth, and space battles which the BBC would not have been able to afford for the live action series. The series would have been Nelvana's biggest show to date, however, according to Bastien, "it was pulled out from under us" after a British animation studio told the BBC that it could do what Nelvana intended for a much lower price. The project did not proceed further and no pilot was produced.

Later years

1996 television movie

National awareness of ''Doctor Who'' temporarily increased when the

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

network broadcast a new

television movie A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie or TV film/movie, is a feature-length film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a television network, in contrast to theatrical films made for ...

on 14 May 1996. The movie, a co-production between the BBC and

Universal Pictures Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...

, received a moderate amount of publicity in U.S. media, including a prominent story in ''

''. The producers of the movie had hoped that it might serve as a "

backdoor pilot A television pilot (also known as a pilot or a pilot episode and sometimes marketed as a tele-movie), in United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a television network or other distri ...

" for a new series of ''Doctor Who'', but sub-par ratings in the U.S. prevented this hope from being realised. Many reasons are given for the ratings failure of the TV movie, most of which focus on strong, "sweeps" competition from programs on other channels, including a pivotal episode of the popular sitcom '' Roseanne''. However, it failed not just against its competition on the night, but against other movies broadcast in the same time slot in other weeks. It netted about a 5.5 rating, or about a 9-share. Fox's ''Tuesday Night Movie'' slot was generally garnering an 11-share during this period. At the same time, Fox was also broadcasting the dimension-hopping science fiction series ''

Sliders Slider or Sliders may refer to: Arts * K.K. Slider, a fictional character within the ''Animal Crossing'' franchise * '' The Slider'', a 1972 album by T. Rex * ''Sliders'' (TV series), an American science fiction and fantasy television series * ...

'' which was facing its own struggles for renewal following average to middling ratings. Coincidentally, ''Sliders'' was owned by Universal Pictures, but when it came to supporting one series or another, the studio predictably backed the one that it wholly owned rather than the one for which it was merely a co-production partner. As a result, when the new Fall schedule was announced, ''Doctor Who'' was not on the list. Universal did try to find ''Doctor Who'' a home on another broadcast or cable network, but were unsuccessful by the time their relationship expired with the BBC on 31 December 1997. The TV movie was the first time a ''Doctor Who'' adventure was broadcast across the United States at the same time. The movie was filmed in

Vancouver, British Columbia Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. The ...

, though it was set in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

, and is to date the only ''Doctor Who'' story to be filmed in Canada. The film had its world premiere on

CITV-TV CITV-DT (channel 13) is a television station in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, part of the Global Television Network. The station is owned and operated by network parent Corus Entertainment, and maintains studios on Allard Way Northwest in the Pl ...

Edmonton, Alberta Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city anch ...

on 12 May 1996, two days before it aired on The Fox Network in the United States, and fifteen days before airing in The U.K. on the BBC. It is the only ''Doctor Who'' story to have had its premiere in Canada.

Later syndication of the original series

The first Canadian cable network to air ''Doctor Who'' was YTV (TV channel), YTV which, from 1989 to the mid-1990s, aired all existing episodes of the series up to Season 26 in a weekday afternoon timeslot. The final two Sylvester McCoy seasons were aired in a separate evening time slot. The original Hartnell and Troughton-era episodes aired daily on the Canadian science-fiction channel Space (now known as CTV Sci-Fi Channel) following the channel's launch in late 1997; however the black and white episodes did not attract the hoped for viewership and were dropped after a year. In the 1990s, fewer PBS stations carried ''Doctor Who'', although a few continued to broadcast the series. In the mid-1990s WXEL-TV, WXEL in West Palm Beach, Florida aired several episodes never before broadcast in America. By the early 2000s, only a small percentage of the 1980s-era tally of PBS stations still carried the program. In late 2004, the BBC began to stop sending any more episodes to PBS stations and not to renew current contracts as they expired. According to a report by the BBC, this was due to negotiations with commercial U.S. networks to broadcast the new series of ''Doctor Who''. This meant that PBS stations had only their in-house libraries of ''Doctor Who'' stories to draw on, and several public television stations stopped broadcasting the programme altogether. By early 2006, only Maryland Public Television and Iowa Public Television still aired the classic series. After it became clear that the Sci Fi Channel would not be purchasing the rights to the classic series, BBC Worldwide offered the show to American broadcast channels again. KBTC-TV, KBTC & KCKA in Washington State began broadcasting the show again in June 2006. On 19 December 2006 it was announced that BBC Worldwide and Vuze, Inc., a peer-to-peer technology firm, had a content agreement and that legal copies of several BBC series; including ''Doctor Who'' are to be distributed by Azureus' Zudeo software to its U.S. users sometime in the future. At present it is unclear whether the series covered by this agreement is the 'Classic' series, the 2005 series, or both. The classic series ran on the Canadian digital channel BBC Kids from 2001 until 2010 showing episodes from Jon Pertwee through Sylvester McCoy. American digital broadcast network Retro Television Network announced that they would begin airing the classic series weeknights from 8-9 PM ET beginning 4 August 2014.

The new series

2005–06: Series 1

In 2005, media reports suggested that the Sci Fi Channel (United States), Sci Fi Channel had expressed interest in the picking up the 2005 series revival, but ultimately did not do so that year. The CBC subsequently became the only North American broadcaster carrying the program that year, debuting it on 5 April 2005 to strong ratings. The Canadian broadcasts are formatted slightly differently than the UK version, with the addition of commercial breaks, introductions specially recorded by Christopher Eccleston (Billie Piper also recorded an additional one for the Christmas special) and behind-the-scenes footage during the closing credits (mostly taken from ''Doctor Who Confidential'') in order to pad the 45-minute instalments to fill a 60-minute time-slot. Initially, the Region 1 DVD release announced for 14 February 2006 was limited to Canada, with the US release delayed until a broadcaster could be found. When none seemed forthcoming, BBC Worldwide announced that the US DVD release would be available at the same time as the Canadian one. In the interim, however, Series 1 was picked up by Sci Fi, so while the Canadian DVD release went ahead as scheduled the US DVD release was pushed back to 4 July 2006. Series 1 began airing on Sci Fi on 17 March 2006. In the Sci Fi Channel's broadcasts of Series 1, the episodes (which appear to run off the same master tapes used in Canada) were edited for time, and for added commercial breaks, although the cuts made for US broadcast appear to differ from those made for Canadian television. With commercials, the total runtime per episode is one hour. In addition, the "Next Time" trailers are edited out in favour of original Sci Fi teasers run on the right two-thirds of the screen while the original credits are "crushed" to the left. The initial Sci Fi Channel broadcasts of Series 1 attained an average Nielsen Rating of 1.3, representing 1.5 million viewers in total. Although these ratings were less than those reached by Sci Fi's original series ''Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series), Battlestar Galactica'', ''Stargate SG-1'' and ''Stargate Atlantis'', they reflect a 44% increase in ratings and a 56% increase in viewership over the same timeslot in the second quarter of 2005, as well as increases of 56% and 57% in two key demographics.

2006–08: Series 2-4

"The Christmas Invasion" aired on the Sci Fi Channel on 29 September 2006, along with the first episode of Series 2, ''New Earth (Doctor Who), New Earth''. They were subsequently followed by the rest of season two, which completed airing on 22 December 2006. The second series did not fare quite as well in the ratings, averaging a 1.05 household Nielsen rating. The third season began airing on the Sci Fi Channel on 6 July 2007. The first two episodes of season three, "The Runaway Bride (Doctor Who), The Runaway Bride" and "Smith and Jones (Doctor Who), Smith and Jones", earned 0.9 Nielsen ratings. Later episode "The Lazarus Experiment" earned a 0.8 rating, but the last two episodes and of the season, "The Sound of Drums" and "Last of the Time Lords" both earned 1.0 ratings. The third season averaged 1.3 million viewers. CBC Television aired the fourth series beginning on 19 September 2008 and repeated the first three series on its digital channel bold (TV channel), bold. CBC was not given an "in association with..." screen credit during the closing credits of season four episodes, unlike its credit during the first three series. On 12 December 2008, CBC aired the season 4 finale episode "Journey's End (Doctor Who), Journey's End" in an extremely edited version that removed approximately 20 minutes of story in order to fit the episode into a standard 60-minute time slot with commercials. The Sci Fi Channel began airing season four on 18 April 2008. The season four premiere episode, "Voyage of the Damned (Doctor Who), Voyage of the Damned", earned a 1.1 rating and captured 1.48 million viewers, making it the best-rated season premiere since the pilot and the episode with the most viewers since 2006. The season finale, broadcast in a special 90-minute time slot, earned a 1.0 rating and 1.26 million viewers. Season four as a whole was rated 25% higher than season three in household ratings, and 17% higher in number of viewers. The cable/satellite network BBC America began re-airing the entire 2005 series in the US on 21 November 2006. In December of the same year it was announced that US

station KQEH, KTEH 54, which services San Jose, California, had acquired the rights to broadcast the 2005 episodes, making it the first public television station to publicise this acquisition of the new series. This news was shortly followed by a press release from WCET (TV), CET, another PBS station this time servicing Cincinnati, Ohio, that they too had acquired the Eccleston episodes for broadcast. On 20 February, Outpost Gallifrey reported that another 38 PBS broadcasters, in total 40, have announced that they have acquired the rights to the Eccleston episodes and that they could begin to broadcast them as early as 1 March. On 3 March 2007, KERA-TV, the PBS station in Dallas, Texas, aired the episodes "Rose (Doctor Who episode), Rose" and "The End of the World (Doctor Who), The End of the World", as well as the episode "Bringing Back the Doctor" of ''Doctor Who Confidential, Doctor Who Confidential: Cut Down''. In addition, WTTW, WTTW 11 in

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has been airing repeats of the new series. Episodes typically air on Saturday evenings at 10:00 pm. Further PBS stations have acquired the rights and begun airing the series at various times.

2008–10: First set of specials and Series 5

The CBC did not broadcast either the 2007 Christmas special, ''Voyage of the Damned (Doctor Who), Voyage of the Damned'' or the 2008 follow-up, ''The Next Doctor'' and did not broadcast the 2009–2010 specials. After airing the 2009–2010 specials BBC America also acquired the American television rights to the 5th season in 2009. BBC America began airing this season on 17 April 2010. Series five was aired on the Canadian cable channel Space (Canadian TV channel), Space. The channel aired the second series of ''Torchwood'' after CBC dropped the show after season one and the channel aired ''Torchwood: Children of Earth'' in July 2009. Space also began airing ''Doctor Who'' specials in 2009. ''The Next Doctor'' aired on 14 March 2009 and ''Planet of the Dead'' aired on 25 July 2009, Waters of Mars aired later in the year and "The End of Time" two-parter aired 2 January 2010. BBC America aired these two specials on 27 June 2009 and on 26 July 2009. respectively. Space aired ''Voyage of the Damned'' in April 2010. BBC America's airing of ''The Waters of Mars'' on 19 December 2009 earned the channel 1.1 million views, its highest ever prime-time ratings to that date. Part one of "The End of Time" aired on 26 December 2009 with part two airing 2 January 2010. ''The Sarah Jane Adventures'' aired on the Canadian digital channel BBC Kids. BBC America aired ''A Christmas Carol (Doctor Who), A Christmas Carol'' on Christmas Day, 2010, making this the first episode of the revived series to be aired in North America on the same day as in the UK.

2011: Series 6

The first part of the Doctor Who (series 6), sixth series of ''Doctor Who'' was broadcast on BBC America in the U.S. and Space in Canada on the same day as it was in the UK – on Saturday, 23 April – making it the first series since the show's revival in 2005 to be broadcast on the same days in America and Canada as the UK broadcast. The BBC America airings also featured a short prelude, with Amy Pond recapping the events of her first meeting with the Doctor in the Doctor Who (series 5), series 5 premiere The Eleventh Hour (Doctor Who), The Eleventh Hour and the rest of the fifth season. Amy then tells the Fourth Wall, audience of her fantastic adventures with the Eleventh Doctor, travelling through time and space, alongside her boyfriend/fiancé/husband Rory Williams. This recap featured short clips from series 5, except for "The Beast Below", "Amy's Choice (Doctor Who), Amy’s Choice", "Vincent and the Doctor" and "The Lodger (Doctor Who), The Lodger". This prologue was dropped after Amy Pond's departure from the show.

2023: Series 14

On 25 October 2022, it was announced that beginning in 2023, future episodes of ''Doctor Who'' would no longer air on BBC America and will instead stream on Disney+ in the U.S., and in Canada.https://mobilesyrup.com/2022/10/25/disney-plus-doctor-who-canada-2023/

Fandom

Initially, the Doctor Who Appreciation Society, ''Doctor Who'' Appreciation Society, the British ''Doctor Who'' fan club, had North American chapters but by the early 1980s decided to divest themselves of international components for administrative reasons. As a result, national fan organisations sprang up in North America, including the North American ''Doctor Who'' Appreciation Society (which took over from DWAS), the ''Doctor Who'' Fan Club of America (which organised regional weekend events with actors headlining the event), the Friends of ''Doctor Who'', and the Canada-based ''Doctor Who'' Information Network (which was originally a DWAS chapter). Most of these organisations folded by the 1990s (Friends of ''Doctor Who'' lasting to the end of that decade) although the ''Doctor Who'' Information Network still continues (celebrating its 33rd anniversary in 2013) and is now the longest-running ''Doctor Who'' fan club in North America. Local fan groups also developed, some disbanding when the series ended production, others which are still running; among those still in operation are The Whoosier Network (Indiana, celebrating its 29th Anniversary in 2013), the North East Wisconsin Friends of The Doctor (NEWFOD), the Prydonians of Prynceton (New Jersey), the Guardians of Gallifrey (Central Florida), Tardis Repairs Inc. (aka TRI, Southern Florida), ''Doctor Who'' New York and the Gallifreyan Embassy of Long Island (New York), the Atlanta Gallifreyans (Georgia) and the Time Meddlers of Los Angeles (California). Other prominent fan groups have included the Unearthly Children (Pennsylvania), Friends of the Time Lord and UNIT (Massachusetts), T.A.R.D.I.S. (Arizona), the Legion of Rassilon (Northern California), Emerald City Androgums (Washington state), Motor City TARDIS (Michigan), the St. Louis CIA (Missouri), Space City Time Lords and the International House of Daleks (Texas) and the Chronicles of Who (Illinois). Many others have existed over the years. Fan support of the 'Classic' series, while not as pronounced as in its heyday in the 1980s, has continued in light of the current revival of the program, with a huge resurgence in mainstream popularity that reached its peak at the height of Matt Smith's tenure as the Doctor. As of 2016, many annual fan-run events occur in America that are exclusively devoted to both 'generations' of the series: the popular Gallifrey One (which has been running annually since 1990) which takes place in February in the Los Angeles area; Chicago TARDIS (begun in 2000) taking place in late November; Hurricane Who (begun in 2009) taking place in Orlando; the Sci Fi Sea Cruise which runs out of different ports annually to destinations such as Mexico and the Caribbean; and such newer events as Long Island Who (New York), Regeneration Who (Maryland), WhoFestDFW (Texas), ConKasterborous (Alabama), Time Eddy (Kansas), Console Room (Minnesota), TimeGate (Georgia) and Anglicon (Washington state). In recent years, many major comic book/media events such as the very popular San Diego Comic Con and other local comic events, plus trade shows such as Wizard World and DragonCon, have featured top-billed ''Doctor Who'' actors as guest stars. Other local events, including those promoted by the Meetup.com website, have spawned local fan gatherings, including the Tampa Time Lord Fest in Florida and the "Galliday" themed event at Disneyland in southern California. Many expressions of fan interest have moved online exclusively. Though the series is a product of the United Kingdom, North American support for the program online has been as fervent and, in some cases, more prominent. Shaun Lyon's Outpost Gallifrey website, statistically the most popular fan-created ''Doctor Who'' website in the series' history, originated out of Los Angeles and supported its extremely popular discussion forum community. While Outpost Gallifrey closed during the summer of 2009, it was succeeded by the Gallifrey Base discussion forum, based in Chicago, Illinois. Dr. Siobhan Morgan's "The ''Doctor Who'' Homepage," one of the earliest ''Doctor Who'' information pages and still a widely regarded portal site, is based in Illinois. Shannon Patrick Sullivan's "''Doctor Who'': A Brief History of Time (Travel)" and Dominique Boies' "The ''Doctor Who'' Guide," both popular ''Doctor Who'' reference sites, are based out of Newfoundland and Ontario, Canada, respectively. More recently, the ''Doctor Who'' pages of scifi.com, the website of the Sci Fi Channel (which broadcasts the new series episodes) attracts hundreds of fans to its own forum community. Dozens of other popular ''Doctor Who'' web pages continue to thrive, and the earlier UseNET newsgroup rec.arts.drwho – a central source of ''Doctor Who'' discussion during the 1980s and 90s – still attracts fans. In the late 2000s, new media developments led to several worldwide internet radio and podcast broadcasts. A variety of popular podcasts from both the United States and Canada serves the population; most notable is the Radio Free Skaro podcast (originating in Edmonton, Alberta and Vancouver, British Columbia in Canada), with countless others available for direct download on various websites as well as through sources such as iTunes.

References

External links

TVOntario clips
TVOntario Dr. Jim Dator 1977
Jim Dator hosted extro to an episode of the ''Doctor Who'' story ''Planet of the Spiders'' (1977)
TVOntario Jim Dator Farewell 1977
Dator's final ''Doctor Who'' extro. (1977)
TVOntario Dr. Who Judith Merril 1978
1978 Judith Merril extro to an episode of ''Terror of the Zygons'' (1978)
TVOntario More Judith Merril 1978
Judith Merril extro to another episode of the same series (1978) General Sites
''Doctor Who''
at SYFY.COM
''Doctor Who''
on BBC America
Outpost Gallifrey
(Nitro 9)
The ''Doctor Who'' Guide"This Week in ''Doctor Who''"
weekly listing of ''Doctor Who'' airings worldwide
List of US ''Doctor Who'' Conventions''Doctor Who'' airdates in the US''Doctor Who'' airdates in Canada
;Conventions
Gallifrey One
(February, Los Angeles, CA)
Chicago TARDIS
(November, Chicago, IL)
New England Fan Experience
formerly United Fan Con (November, Boston area, MA)
L.I. Who
(Long Island, NY)
Sci Fi Sea CruiseTimeGate
(May, Atlanta, GA)
Hurricane Who
(Orlando, FL; begins October 2009)
Anglicon
(Seattle, WA; returns June 2015) ;Fan Organizations
Legion of Rassilon
(Northern California)
''Doctor Who'' Information Network (DWIN)
(Canada)
Prydonians of Prynceton
(New Jersey)
Time Meddlers of Los Angeles
(California)
Gallifreyan Embassy of Long Island
(New York)
''Doctor Who'' New York
(New York)
Guardians of Gallifrey
(Florida)
Atlanta Gallifreyans
Georgia
Emerald City Androgums
Seattle, WA ;Webcasts
''Doctor Who'': Podshock''Doctor Who'': Radio Free SkaroAmerican Who
{{Doctor Who Doctor Who fandom Television in the United States Television in Canada