Difference between revisions of "Sci-Fi Channel Europe"

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==Transmission==
 
==Transmission==
Some of the first '''Doctor Who'''-related content screened by the Sci-Fi Channel were from [[BBV Productions]]. The week that the [[TV Movie]] was first shown on the BBC, the cable channel aired '''"Dr Who - 30 Years of Time Travel"''' on '''29 May 1996''', then in '''mid-1998''', it aired '''"The Making of Auton 2"'''.
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Some of the first '''Doctor Who'''-related content screened by the Sci-Fi Channel were from [[BBV Productions]]. The week that the [[TV Movie]] was first shown on the BBC, the cable channel aired '''"The Doctors - 30 Years of Time Travel and Beyond"''' (billed as "Dr Who - 30 Years of Time Travel") on '''29 May 1996''', then in '''mid-1998''', it aired '''"The Making of Auton 2"'''.
  
 
The [[TV Movie]] itself aired for the first time on Saturday, '''2 November 2002''' at 8pm. It was repeated the following day at 2pm - and was then shown nine more times (!) on various dates and timeslots over the next ten months between '''26 December 2002''' and '''25 October 2003'''.
 
The [[TV Movie]] itself aired for the first time on Saturday, '''2 November 2002''' at 8pm. It was repeated the following day at 2pm - and was then shown nine more times (!) on various dates and timeslots over the next ten months between '''26 December 2002''' and '''25 October 2003'''.

Revision as of 23:12, 15 July 2019

The SCI-FI CHANNEL's UK and Europe service (aka Sci-Fi Channel Europe, and now just SYFY), is the sister station to the US cable / satellite platform. It was launched on 1 November 1995, and was available in the UK and Ireland, and to much of Europe (Benelux and Scandinavia).

The cable feed was available 24/7 in the UK and Europe, but since the Astra was used by Sky, the satellite feed (on Sky channels 130, later 129) was only available on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, from 7pm to 10pm; the other timeslots and days were reserved for alternative programming.

By the end of 1996, the service was also available in Southern Africa.

Like its US counterpart, the channel specialised in science fiction, fantasy, horror, supernatural, paranormal, drama, and reality programming, but mainly US product. The only BBC series it acquired at the time was The Tripods, but other BBC series, such as Doctor Who, were acquired much later.

Jon Pertwee and friends launch the new channel at Waterloo Station, 31 October 1995

The official launch party was held at London's Waterloo Station on 31 October 1995. Although Doctor Who was not part of the channel's line-up, Jon Pertwee was on hand, along with Star Trek's James Doohan and George Takei (and later Brian ("Gordon's aliiiiive?!") Blessed, who, he says, happened to be passing!).

A series of short interviews with Jon Pertwee, Sophie Aldred and Terrance Dicks were later recorded by director Kevin Davies for the channel, but it's not clear when or how they were used, since Doctor Who wasn't shown, and the three had no involvement with any of the stories that were subsequently shown 13 years later!


Stories Bought and Broadcast

Radio Times listing for the TV Movie on 2 November 2002

Seven years after its launch, the channel finally acquired and screened Doctor Who, but only one story - the 1996 TV Movie.

Six years later, the station purchased a small package of selected Doctor Who serials featuring the fourth, fifth and sixth Doctors, all in the omnibus "movie" format:

Ten stories:

TVM TV Movie
4C The Ark in Space
4D Revenge of the Cybermen
4G Pyramids of Mars
4Q The Face of Evil
5V Logopolis
6B Earthshock
6L Warriors of the Deep
6R The Caves of Androzani
6W The Two Doctors


Transmission

Some of the first Doctor Who-related content screened by the Sci-Fi Channel were from BBV Productions. The week that the TV Movie was first shown on the BBC, the cable channel aired "The Doctors - 30 Years of Time Travel and Beyond" (billed as "Dr Who - 30 Years of Time Travel") on 29 May 1996, then in mid-1998, it aired "The Making of Auton 2".

The TV Movie itself aired for the first time on Saturday, 2 November 2002 at 8pm. It was repeated the following day at 2pm - and was then shown nine more times (!) on various dates and timeslots over the next ten months between 26 December 2002 and 25 October 2003.

On 20 April 2003, the film was preceded by "Dalekmania", the one-hour direct-to-video documentary made in 1995, directed by Kevin Davies.

The first Peter Cushing Dalek film, Dr Who and the Daleks, was also shown, five times on various dates between 28 October 2006 and 24 December 2006.

Radio Times "Choice" preview and listings for 23 and 25 August 2008

The package of nine omnibus serials plus the TV Movie (again!) was screened for the first time in 2008 over the August Bank Holiday weekend; Saturday, 23 August to Monday, 25 August 2008, in multi-story marathon sessions running from noon till midnight over the three days.

Some stories screened more than once over the weekend (which the Radio Times preview said was "annoying"), and sometimes twice the same day.

The same package - but this time without the TV Movie - was repeated two years later over Easter weekend 2010 (probably not a coincidence this was the same weekend as the new series debut of Matt Smith in The Eleventh Hour).

The run started on Friday, 2 April at 2pm. Four stories were shown. The next day, Saturday, 3 April, two of those were repeated with two 'new' stories, also starting at 2pm.

The marathons on Sunday, 4 April and Monday, 5 April 2010, both started at midday, enabling five stories to be shown - again some screened more than once across the two days, and some twice the same day.

In summary, across the two marathon runs, the early Tom Baker stories and Earthshock were shown four times each, while Logopolis was shown five times; Warriors of the Deep, The Caves of Androzani and The Two Doctors only three times. The TV Movie had 13 airings between 2002 and 2008.

(Starting from 17 August 2011, Doctor Who was shown on SCI-FI's Australian service, starting with the Tom Baker era...)


TV listings

Airdates in Sci-Fi Channel Europe
← AIRDATES ...... (CLICK ICON TO GO TO TABLE SHOWING EPISODE BREAKDOWN AND AIRDATES - N/S = story title is Not Stated)

Details come from the UK Radio Times, and "This Week in Doctor Who".


External links