Which Doctor Who stories have been broadcast on exactly the same dates?

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A few coincidences have popped out of my research on Whoniversaries, including that both Adric and the Fifth Doctor were written out of the series on the same date, two years apart. Which other pairs, or sets, of stories were broadcast on the same date?

There are a surprising number; I hope that the table below is clear.

Story 1 Story 2 # eps Start End Yr 1 Yr 2
The Faceless Ones The Mutants 6 08-Apr 13-May 1967 1972
The Tomb of the Cybermen The Ribos Operation 4 02-Sep 23-Sep 1967 1978
The Krotons Robot 4 28-Dec 18-Jan 1968-9 1974-5
The Space Pirates Genesis of the Daleks 6 08-Mar 12-Apr 1969 1975
Day of the Daleks The Face of Evil 4 01-Jan 22-Jan 1972 1977
The Curse of Peladon The Robots of Death 4 29-Jan 19-Feb 1972 1977
Terror of the Zygons The Leisure Hive 4 30-Aug 20-Sep 1975 1980
Planet of Evil Meglos 4 27-Sep 18-Oct 1975 1980
The Android Invasion State of Decay 4 22-Nov 13-Dec 1975 1980
Four to Doomsday Snakedance 4 18-Jan 26-Jan 1982 1983
Kinda Mawdryn Undead 4 01-Feb 09-Feb 1982 1983
The Visitation Terminus 4 15-Feb 23-Feb 1982 1983
Earthshock The Caves of Androzani 4 08-Mar 16-Mar 1982 1984
Time-Flight The Twin Dilemma 4 22-Mar 30-Mar 1982 1984
The Mysterious Planet Battlefield 4 06-Sep 27-Sep 1986 1989
Paradise Towers Remembrance of the Daleks 4 05-Oct 26-Oct 1987 1988
Delta and the Bannermen The Happiness Patrol 3 02-Nov 16-Nov 1987 1988
Dragonfire Silver Nemesis 3 23-Nov 07-Dec 1987 1988
The Long Game The Curse of the Black Spot 1 07-May 2005 2011
The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances The Rebel Flesh / The Almost People 2 21-May 28-May 2005 2011

The two cases of six-episode stories coinciding are pretty impressive, as is the eleven-year gap between repetition of dates for The Tomb of the Cybermen and The Ribos Operation. But there are also three cases of triple repetition (the last of which requires a little special pleading):

Story 1 Story 2 Story 3 # eps Start End Yr 1 Yr 2 Yr 3
Spearhead from Space The Brain of Morbius Warriors’ Gate 4 03-Jan 24-Jan 1970 1976 1981
Pyramids of Mars Full Circle The Curse of Fenric 4 25-Oct 15-Nov 1975 1980 1989
Doctor Who: The Movie (on Fox TV) Father’s Day The Doctor’s Wife 1 14-May 1996 2005 2011

So there you are. (See also my notes on dominical letters and distribution of Whoniversaries).

One thought on “Which Doctor Who stories have been broadcast on exactly the same dates?”

  1. This review made me laugh and decide not to bother reading. (If they release them all together as single book, I’d probably buy the collection.)

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