Sci-Fi Channel

Sci-Fi Channel flyer

The SCI-FI CHANNEL (aka Sci-Fi, and currently stylized as SYFY) is an American basic cable and satellite channel that specialises in science fiction, fantasy, horror, supernatural, paranormal, drama, and reality programming.

It was launched on 24 September 1992.

The channel acquired the rights to Doctor Who, but initially just the available William Hartnell stories and Patrick Troughton stories (23 serials / 110 episodes; this included the recently-recovered The Tomb of the Cybermen). However, by the time the station went to air in September 1992, the senior management had changed...

Doctor Who on SCI-FI

• 24 September 1992: The SCI-FI Channel launches, Thursday, 24 September, at 8.00pm (EST). Included in its regular schedules is Doctor Who, to be screened from 12.00 to 1.00pm, six days a week. The hour-long timeslot is to allow for the half-hour or 45 minute episodes to screen uncut, but with ads and short programming filling the rest of the hour. That episode was then to be repeated at 1.00am.

• The station cites that due to contractual reasons they are not able to screen any Jon Pertwee stories or Tom Baker stories, but that it will run the series from the very beginning, starting with An Unearthly Child – HOWEVER the first story to screen is ... Robot!
• This sudden change was due to the new management wanting to screen the more popular Tom Bakers. Since the original contract was for 110 episodes, that was how many Baker episodes they could acquire - which was Robot to The Stones of Blood. But they also acquired one further serial - The Androids of Tara, making the package now 114 episodes.
• Due to oversight, the 'extra' serial was missed from the schedule, and the first run of episodes ended with The Stones of Blood, then cycled back to Robot!
• The 27 serials / 114 episodes cycled through at least two more times - but if some accounts are correct, one of these cycles also ended early, this time after The Androids of Tara part 3!
• During 1993, SCI-FI screens Doctor Who on Saturdays, at 9.00 to 10.00am, and 9.00 to 10.00am weekdays. Towards the end of the year, the slot shifts to 11.00 am to noon on weekdays.
• November 1993: As part of a three-day 30th Anniversary "Event", The Five Doctors – the only non-Tom Baker story to screen on SCI-FI – K9 and Company and The Making of Doctor Who documentary are aired - SIX times!

• December 1993: By the end of the year, SCI-FI channel drops Doctor Who from its line-up...

• 15 July 2001: The Paul McGann TV Movie airs on SCI-FI. (The TV Movie was later shown on SCI-FI's sister channel in the UK in 2002 and 2003, while classic series omnibuses aired in 2008 and 2010 - see that profile for details.)
• 17 March 2006 to 5 April 2008: The first four full seasons of the new series (Eccleston and Tennant) screen on the SCI-FI Channel.