Posts by: linuxlore

I can take the early morning showings of Dr Who, that's what a HD recorder (or whichever format) is for after all. I'm managing to cope with the seemingly random nature of whether Dr Who will be shown or not, and if so whether it will be 1, 2,3 or even 4 episodes.

What is going on now though. We have coming up (or passed by the time anyone reads this) the last episode of The Power of Kroll that has been showing, the second episode of The Creature from the Pit (which as far as I know hasn't been shown on UKTV Drama before) and then the first episode of The Armageddon Factor. What on earth happened to part on of The Creature from the Pit? When are the rest and previous episodes of this one going to be shown?

There's a side of me that will be glad when UKTV Drama stop showing Dr Who and I can then give up on the hassle of keeping up with their scheduling. SciFi channel did a far better job of it this past weekend, so if we're luck they'll pick up the idea and run some more of the classic Dr Who - and do it properly!

It is very hard to keep up with what days it is and isn't on too. It isn't regular by any means, not the time or the days on which it is shown. As far as I can see it can be on any day or combination of days of the week and start any time during the hour between 5am to 6am. I think the latest I've seen is 5.45 and the earliest 5.10. They aren't too hot on time keeping either. I generally set up with 2 or 3 minutes at each end, but I've started using 5 minutes at each end having had the beginning cut off one episode even though I started recording 3 minutes before it was scheduled to start. I also set my Sky box to switch over on whatever the previous programme is as it has a habit of popping up with a message saying "This programme has started" a minute or two after it started and then waiting another minute to switch over, which it should have done automatically at the start time - all be it this is nothing to do with UKTV, so I won't go off on a Sky rant (I just wish there was a viable alternative - roll on decent competition from Freesat).

OK, not sure whether this will get through moderation in time, but I've just spotted - purely by chance, that Dr Who is back. They are showing it at 5.15am in the morning (so that's Friday morning, although it shows up as Thursday on my TV paper). If you're subscribed to this thread and it makes it in time set your recorder (unless you're up at that time!). If you get this too late, sorry, I've only just spotted it. Also, they seem to have missed the last story line from the 14th season as they are starting with The Horror of Fang Rock which kicks off the 15th season - unless of course I've missed episodes in previous weeks - I couldn't see any earlier on this week though thankfully. Oh, and it is on Saturday morning (Friday as per the TV paper too).

Agreed, my two sons are both big Dr Who fans since the David Tennant incarnation and have now started wanting to watch the older ones. Oddly they still consider the original Dr Who scarier than the new ones with more believable special effects! They are both very disappointed that the Tom Baker (or hairy doctor as my 3 year old calls him!) episodes have stopped, as well as being annoyed at the missing episode. It is difficult to explain that there is no way of being able to watch it having missed recording it. Modern technology with recorders, repeats, internet TV, etc., etc. has made them think you can watch anything whenever you want!! I'd be happy to record over night and watch at another time, which was pretty much what I was doing anyway with my older son, although we watched the lunch time slot when it was on. Now we just watch a different channel. My wife used to carry on watching UKTV drama quite frequently after the lunch time Dr Who episode, but not anymore.

As an aside, I have also missed the Dalek episodes they screened on BBC4, which is annoying since these were the first appearance of the Daleks an I've never seen them myself

BobSpoons, sorry for the slow reply. It was a complete sound drop. I was away over the Easter and when I checked the recording (actually Tuesdays) there was picture and no sound for a couple of minutes and then the picture vanished too leaving just a black screen. Oddly for another recording later that evening it started with a black screen and no sound, but when the Sky box changed channel everything burst back into life. It recorded OK for one hour and then changed channel again. It was fine for the first 5 minutes of the programme and then the recording returned to the black picture with no sound. As luck would have it we were in watching earlier stuff by this time and noticed what the problem was - the Sky box had switched itself off! I'm not sure how or why, but I'm also curious as to how/why it powered back on when it changed channel. When I've experimented with leaving the box in standby to save electricity I've found that it won't switch itself on automatically to record a programme, you have to leave it on all the time.

OK, I just about managed to survive UKTV dropping the lunch time showings of the old Tom Baker episodes of Dr Who, but this has meant I have to record them. This leaves me at the mercy of the poor quality of every make/model of Sky box I have ever had. Up till episode 3 of The Face of Evil things have gone well, but with this episode it all went wrong, sound dropped for the first minute or so of recording, and then picture went too.

Back in January when UKTV first started showing these series there was the lunch time showing, evening showing, both again on plus and then a repeat on either a weekend of late night. Now I actually need a repeat they have all gone. Are there going to be any catchup showings? I know I've seen them all before, but that was many years ago and I can't remember what happened without the aid of watching it and going 'oh yes, I remember now'!

Oh, and while I'm typing, is everything stopping at the end of The Robots of Death on Tuesday 1st April, or is it just moving or taking a break? I find the way the TV channels play around with the schedules to be a real pain and it is happening more often now. Not as bad as in the US where it isn't surprising they axe so many shows when they make it so difficult to watch them, but it's heading that way. The last break coincided with the school half term, but this doesn't match up with the 'Easter' end of term break quite.