Our little excursion to KBTC yesterday seems to have raised some questions about the current status of Doctor Who in this country, so I'll see if I can clear things up a bit:
- First, our local Who station stopped showing the program because the rights were taken away from them. I presume this was an attempt by BBC America to bundle the rights to showing the revived version of the show with the classic version. It seems that that didn't fly, so the classic version was made available to PBS stations again.
- KBTC will be starting it up again on a regular basis! It won't be on next Saturday, but it will be back in it's old timeslot of 7:00 and 7:30 p.m. the following Saturday, June 24, beginning with "The Three Doctors." This is about where they left off when KBTC lost the rights back in 2004.
- The only other stations that I am aware of still showing classic Who are the Iowa Public Television and Maryland Public Television networks. I think Dallas and Salt Lake City were still showing it back in the final days before it was withdrawn, but no word on if it's coming back there, or in any other market.
- If you want your local PBS station to show Doctor Who, tell them you want it. If they give that tired old line about how it's only available on the Sci-Fi Channel now, tell them that that's not the case, and three stations are currently showing it. If they don't believe you, ask that they contact KBTC in Tacoma.
- No, I have no idea when series 2 of the revival will be on the Sci-Fi Channel, nor on the CBC. But I very much suspect they will before too long.
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