As I prepare my Whoniversary posts, I’ve been noting the dates of broadcast of Doctor Who stories over the years. Not very surprisingly, they are distributed very unevenly around the calendar.
Month |
Old Who episodes |
New Who episodes |
Others (1996, |
Total |
January |
107 |
1 |
6 |
114 |
February |
95 |
0 |
5 |
100 |
March |
90 |
2 |
5 |
97 |
April |
52 |
21 |
1 |
74 |
May |
51 |
20 |
1 |
72 |
June |
36 |
20 |
1 |
56 |
July |
11 |
2 |
6 |
19 |
August |
11 |
0 |
0 |
11 |
September |
55 |
0 |
2 |
57 |
October |
61 |
0 |
18 |
79 |
November |
69 |
1 |
19 |
89 |
December |
56 |
5 |
6 |
67 |
Total |
693 |
72 |
70 |
835 |
Not totally sure of the counts there but the overall picture is clear: heavy concentration in the colder months of the year (in the British climate), very little in the summer. There are 48 days on which no Doctor Who (or spinoff) episode has been broadcast, and 21 are in August and 16 in July. The longest run of such dates is 2-7 August inclusive (also 26-31 July if you don’t count the 27 July 2008 Proms concert). On the other hand there’s a complete run of 169 days (170 if it’s a leap year) from 28 December to 14 June inclusive when every day is a broadcast Who anniversary, and another run later in the year of 56 days from 25 October to 19 December.
For Old Who, there are seven dates which saw the original broadcasts of Doctor Who episodes in six different years:
5th January | The Time Warrior #4 (1974) | The Horns of Nimon #3 (1980) | Castrovalva #2 (1982) | Arc of Infinity #1 (1983) | Warriors of the Deep #1 (1984) | Attack of the Cybermen #1 (1985) |
12th January | Invasion of the Dinosaurs #1 (1974) | The Horns of Nimon #4 (1980) | Castrovalva #4 (1982) | Arc of Infinity #4 (1983) | Warriors of the Deep #3 (1984) | Attack of the Cybermen #2 (1985) |
8th February | "The Edge of Destruction" / The Edge of Destruction #1 (1964) | The Seeds of Death #3 (1969) | The Ark in Space #3 (1975) | Kinda #3 (1982) | Mawdryn Undead #3 (1983) | Resurrection of the Daleks #1 (1984) |
15th February | "The Brink of Disaster" / The Edge of Destruction #1 (1964) | The Seeds of Death #4 (1969) | The Ark in Space #4 (1975) | The Visitation #1 (1982) | Terminus #1 (1983) | Resurrection of the Daleks #1 (1984) |
2nd March | The Web of Fear #5 (1968) | Death to the Daleks #2 (1974) | Black Orchid #2 (1982) | Enlightenment #2 (1983) | Planet of Fire #4 (1984) | The Two Doctors #3 (1985) |
9th March | The Web of Fear #6 (1968) | Death to the Daleks #3 (1974) | Earthshock #2 (1982) | Enlightenment #4 (1983) | The Caves of Androzani #2 (1984) | Timelash #1 (1985) |
16th March | Fury from the Deep #1 (1968) | Death to the Daleks #4 (1974) | Earthshock #4 (1982) | The King’s Demons #2 (1983) | The Caves of Androzani #4 (1984) | Timelash #2 (1985) |
I had forgotten that the demises of Adric and the Fifth Doctor were precisely two years apart.
For New Who, the winning date is
If you add together all incarnations of Who including Torchwood and the Sarah Jane Adventures,
But that also gives you one day of the year which on which seven episodes of Doctor Who and the spinoffs have been broadcast for the first time. That day is
Well, I hope you appreciate that. It amused me on a wet Sunday afternoon.
Ditto but I’m using Firefox.