I know that in the Washington, DC area, you can still catch older episodes on the PBS channel 22 (MPT) at around midnight on Saturdays (a little later during pledge drives, but Doctor Who hasn't actually gotten interrupted for those in years).

Anyone know other local stations that still carry the older seasons? I know there aren't too many anymore, but maybe it's possible that, if the new seasons are popular enough, other stations around the country will pick up the older eps.

edited for clarification

Iowa Public Television still carries them. They around midnight on Saturdays and I'm rarely still awake to watch them. I have the urge to stay up late tonight watch even if it is Delta and the Bannermen.

I think those are the only two locations currently showing older episodes in the US.

Iowa and Maryland are the only PBS stations left to continually air the Classic series. Apparently, BBC Worldwide decided not to renew the contracts for Classic Who when they started trying to sell the rights to the new series. Either because they were bundling Classic with New Who, or to remove confusion between the two shows. Classic Who has always been seen as a bit cheap and cheesy to casual American viewers. New Who is anything but cheap.

Anyway, I had heard that MPT recently renewed their contract. Not sure if that means they'll be getting new episodes to show soon. They only had the tapes for about 30 stories, which the recycled over an 18 month period while in contract limbo.

Last Saturday they showed Claws of Axos, a 1970's Jon Pertwee story.

I hope this means that they will replay the Tom Baker and Peter Davison years. They were my original Doctors and I still have great affection for them. I loved Four's snark and Five's slight cluelessness. Tonight they are showing The Time Monster which I am trying to like but I never got in the habit of watching the older Doctors. I'm afraid my love of Christopher Eccleston's number Nine may have ruined me for all other incarnations.

Speaking of Tom Baker though, several years ago he use to make appearances on MPT during pledge drives to get you to donate money to PBS. If you could scrape together enough cash to reach a certain pledge level, you received a silly, silly scarf as a thank you gift. I never had the money back then but he seemed very sweet.

That's gorgeous. I just wanted to say that I think this thread is a VERY good idea. I'll never be a Whovian, but I'd like to know what's available beyond my silly memories combined with three other shows, and my VHS of "Enlightenment."

UKTV Gold are showing omnibus editions of Classic Dr Who on Saturday and Sunday Mornings.

A third American PBS station, KBTC (Tacoma, WA), has picked up Doctor Who starting April 29 with The Three Doctors.

Woohoo! I kind of get that channel! It'll be worth the static. That's so awesome I can barely breathe.

I'd encourage you to write your local PBS stations and point out with the new series doing so well on Sci-Fi, they might think about putting up some dough to get the old epps. I know WUNC used to run them in the 80s and 90s. I would welcome them back.

Well, that was disappointing. My sister and I sat down expecting "The Three Doctors" on KBTC tonight, and instead it was an Inspector Lynley Mystery! that had already run yesterday night! I must go find out when they're actually going to start showing the classic series. I almost want to send them an angry email.

ETA: And now their schedule for next Saturday doesn't list any DW at all! Nooooo...

From Outpost Gallifrey's This Week in Doctor Who:

Thanks, cutecouple! So there's still hope. Hooray!

Can anyone figure out UK Gold's Classic Who scheduling? For the last couple of weeks it's been Jon Pertwee's final season, ending with 'Planet Of The Spiders'. So by any rational scheduling decision, next would be Tom Baker's first story, 'Robot', right?

Nope. According to their website, on Saturday they're showing 'The Twin Dilemma' - Colin Baker's first story (and a pile of steaming crap it is too, but that's by the by). Then on Sunday, it's 'The Ultimate Foe', which is Colin Baker's final story! WTF?

They always used to show the stories in order; anyone know why they've apparently started smoking crack in the scheduling department?

ETA: The week after that it's not on at all, replaced by Baywatch! Seriously, what the fuck?

Would someone out there be able to tell me the first story that Sarah Jane appeared in? I know she was in the last story arc with the 3rd Doctor and continued when Tom Baker took over the role. My PBS station is currently up to the Frontier in Space episode and next week will be The Green Death. I don't even know if this means they are showing them in order but I want to know what to be on the lookout for.

I'm doing the same thing with Colin Baker.

Check the Pertwee thread in Legacy -- Adric's breakdowns by Doctor in each of their threads are brilliant.

Thank you Jacob and Thank you Adric.

The Time Warrior, Sarah Jane's first serial, immediately followed The Green Death. So week after next, probably. Please please tape it, if you have one of those old fashioned VCR thingies! It could, um, be valuable to somebody, or something.

Well, as a matter of fact, my local TV listings just put up the name of the next episode after The Green Death, and it is The Time Warrior. I've seen School Reunion so now I can go back and see why Sarah Jane was such a popular Companion.

Dog bless MPT, I might just have to chip in next time they come begging.

My TV listings shows KBTC as showing "The Dalek Invasion of Earth" this Saturday! Which Doctor is that, and how many episodes? It's supposed to take from 6:00-10:30, I believe, which seems quite a long time (not that I mind).

ETA: Thanks, FW! Excellent.

Edited to fix times.

It's the second ever Dalek story. First Doctor, 6 eps.

I used to be able to watch Dr Who in the 1980's on WEDU (Tampa) and WFSU (Tallahassee), at least until the asshole in charge (who HATED sci-fi) dropped them from the schedule (he worked at the former, then transferred to the latter).

Man, it's too bad I don't live near that station. I would have taped that episode, rather than spend 20 bucks on Amazon to get it on DVD.
But I didn't know there were still PBS stations running classic Doctor Who, Waaaay back in the '80's I had stations in San Jose and Sacramento. Now, my memories have been burned on DVD. It would be great if Sci-Fi did show classic Who, since it was part of their early programming.

What would be really awesome, though I doubt Sci-Fi could/would do it due to licensing and copyright costs and issues and whatnot, would be for them to show all of the Dr. Who eps in the time between the end of the current season they are showing and the start of the next.

They could do like they did when they brought Stargate SG1 over. That whole "see the whole story from the beginning". They could start with the first Dr. Who ep they can get (I understand some of the earliest shows were lost in a studio fire or something) and just show them in order, like one episode a day or something, until they get all the way up to the last episode of their current season and then roll right into the next one and go back to the one per week format.

Again, I doubt that they can or would do that, but it'd be awesome. I know I'd watch.

Actually, a lot of the old tapes were just reused because no one thought they would be needed in the future...but then this was before the home video market. It's a common practice. Except for a few PBS stations, no one is interested in paying for the boradcasting rights for classic Who....not even BBC America. That's a sign Sci-Fi wouldn't be interested either.

Well it looks like KTCB in Tacoma, Washington will be airing classic Doctor Who if they can keep the viewer donations up. They just aired The Dalek Invasion of Earth complete with pledge drives showcasing the new series, some guys wearing Tom Baker scarves, and promotions that if you pledge enough you can get a remote control dalek! Talk about a nostalgia trip, when I was 14 I used to pledge my babysitting and lawnmowing money to my local public TV station in Alaska to ensure I would still get my Saturday night fix of Doctor Who!

Mack the Spoon: Did your Tivo/TiFaux manage to record the whole thing? Mine kicked in episode 2. I'm excited about having an outlet to see classic episodes that might not be on DVD yet.

SpecialBrew, I actually don't have any sort of DVR (I know, I know, way behind the times), but I did watch about two hours of it. I wanted to watch more, but my mom was against the idea for several reasons, including the fact that our TV doesn't get KBTC that well, so it was quite blurry on top of being in black and white. Also, she doesn't like old sci-fi that much, sadly.

But I'm also excited that they're planning to air several eps every Saturday! Did they say what they were doing next week?

I also wish I had had the money to pledge, because the prizes were great. They had a lot of fun with their remote control Dalek! Hee.

Tom Baker episodes must be at a premium and WMPT not able to afford them when they renewed their contract with The BBC.

Last night they showed Planet of the Spiders which made me look forward to the first Four episode next week, but no, next week we bounce back to the Two episode Tomb of the Cybermen.

Again, KBTC lists The Three Doctors for this Saturday, June 24th, starting at 7:00pm. Hopefully it actually shows this time. I must say, the description of part 1, "Space lightning streaks toward Earth", makes me scream with laughter. But it sounds pretty awesome. :-)

ETA: Okay, then! Thanks, Demetrios. I really am looking forward to it.

It may make you scream with laughter - but it's a pretty accurate description of the episode!

Well, I did really like it, and they're showing the concluding episodes next Saturday at 7:00. That description... I guess it was sort of accurate. Don't know how else I would sum up the episode in one sentence. Heh.

KBTC lists "The Carnival of Monsters" part one for July 8, and part two the week after. "Frontier in Space" comes next. The names sound intriguing. Are they more of the Third Doctor?

Yep. Carnival of Monsters is a great story. Written by Robert Holmes, probably the best of the classic writers.

My local PBS affiliate showed the Dominators on Sunday. But about 45 minutes in, some sort of technical problem occured, and the remainder of the episode was black. Very disappointing.

Why don't most PBS stations show episodes of Doctor Who like they used to in the late 70's and the 80's?

Too expensive and perceived lack of interest are, I think, the two main reasons.

Don't worry - the black screen was probably more interesting and entertaining than the rest of that particular story!...

For any classic DW watchers on KBTC: Did they ever air episodes 5 & 6 of "The Green Death"? They are listing "The Time Warrior" as beginning its run tonight, but I don't think the last two episodes of "The Green Death" ever aired. Or is my TiFaux just messing with my sanity and not recording all the aired episodes?

ETA: Turns out the final two episodes were aired and the KBTC just had their DVR listings screwed up.

Well, here's another example of KBTC having their listings messed up: my sister and I were busy this weekend, so we taped the last two episodes of "Planet of the Spiders".

Only to put the tape in Sunday afternoon and fast forward through an hour of "Yankee Workshop" or whatever the heck it's called, with just the intro of DW recorded. We were miffed. Then we read the Wikipedia summary of the ep online, and then we were really, really mad. I can't believe we missed the regeneration into Tom Baker! I sent an angry email to KBTC about it. They better not mess up Four's first episodes, 'cause I'm dying to see them.

ARGH! You know how I was mad about them perhaps messing up Four's episodes? Well, they did! They aren't showing "Genesis of the Daleks"!
At least, they skipped right from "The Sontaran Experiment" to "Revenge of the Cybermen" - which doesn't look good. That was the *one* arc I really, really wanted to see. I'm quite angry now.

I have given up on Maryland Public Television. They seem to have cut at least a whole ep out of "The Sun Makers" last week, and I don't trust them to show "The Invasion Of Time" in its entirety.

Are you watching from Cincinnati? I noticed that too. And did you notice a really weird narrator for "Brain of Morbius"? I was totally confused the whole time.

On the PBS episodes from the early 80s, there was an odd narration that some of them had. I think it was because the Beeb thought we wouldn't be able to understand what was going on. I'm probably wrong here, but I seem to remember that.

No, I'm in the Seattle area. And I missed out on seeing "Brain of Morbius", sadly. But I guess I'm glad a) here is not the only area where GotD was skipped, and b) I didn't have to hear the weird narration. :-)

ETA: Yeah, btcpossee, I guess you're right about that! And I am.

That is odd, since the narration actually threw me off more than anything else! It seemed like they actually cut chunks out of the main story and just filled it in with a narrator. Then they would tease what was coming up in the episode. Hated it.

Mack the Spoon, I guess we should just be happy that we get any old Dr. Who's!

Those are the old Howard de Silva narrations from way back when. I thought they had all been cycled out by this point - the last time WCET (I used to live in Cincy, but now am out here in Arizona) showed Brain of Morbius several years back, I don't remember hearing them.

I've been watching Who on MPT here in Washington for years and years, and never heard any narration.

Hmmm, guess that is kind of neat that I got to watch an alternate version! I wonder if Episodes 3 and 4 will have it as well.

I remember WGBH (PBS channel 2 in Boston) having narrations at the end as "coming attractions" for the next episode way WAY back when I was a kid. They ceased doing that right around the time they brought the Romana episodes over if I recall correctly.

Mack the Spoon: KBTC is driving me crazy too, but I guess as was mentioned we should just be thankful for any classic Doctor Who. I was hoping they would be playing all the stories from this era, though, because I hadn't seen "Brain of Morbius" or "Genesis of the Daleks".

Cross-posted in the scheduling thread:

The public TV station in the Seattle area, KBTC, is continuing Classic Who again this Saturday at 7:00pm. They're showing "Pyramids of Mars". I'm excited!