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.

I think when they do the likes of this with tv shows on what you would have to admit is a minor tv channel, it's then no wander that ratings suffer quite a lot. Often to the point where otherwise decent tv shows getting a propper repeat for the first time in years end up getting dropped alltogether due to the ratings being classed as near zero ratings under the current system.

I recall BBC 2 messing about with the networks first ever re-screening of Blake's 7 several years ago. They changed the times that much on a near weekly basis it was no wander the channel dropped it as nobody knew what time it would be shown the next week to watch it.

Can I ask please, was your sound drop a full drop or was it a series of small drops? (like my post a few further down the forum).

Just wondered if it was a similar problem.

Thanks

Alex (BobSpoons)

I also would like to know, when will the repeats start up again? is the gap to coincide with the new Who on BBC 1?

Come on UKTVDRAMA your doing it again ,whats happened to classic who ,when are we going to see The talons of chaing weng ?, you do know Tom Baker has to make a living from these repeats! plus we havn't seen Romana mk1 yet or K9 for that matter

Sorry I meant Weng Chaing,hic

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.

glad to see im not the only one missing classic doctor who. uktv drama told me that the programme wasnt popular with other viewers but it may return later in the year.

This is so annoying! Ive watched these episodes since they started in January as I was too young to see them the first time round. I remember the advert for the series saying every Tom Baker episode was going to be shown. Whats the point in watching things on a channel if half way through it stops? Pretty much lost faith in these channels, too unreliable.

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

So someone actually did get a reply from UKTV Drama! "Not popular with other viewers" - that sounds hardly believable for me. Particularly if you look at, what has replaced Doctor Who in the schedule. First up it was the last few episodes of "Waiting for God" that they had been showing frequently a couple of times a day for the last few weeks, and now it is "Keeping Up Appearances", and again they start somewhere in the middle, rather than the beginning, and anyway, almost the same episodes are running on UKTV Gold at the moment, where they have been shown over and over again for months now. I can hardly believe, that there are more people who want to see that over and over again, than people, who would enjoy an episode of Classic Who a day.

But when the final episode of "Robots of Death" was shown, they announced that Doctor Who would come back later this year, so let's not give up hope.

And about the missing episode, "Genesis of the Daleks": I'm not sure about it, but I think there is some rights issue about the classic Dalek episodes. I can't remember seeing any Dalek episodes on UKTV Gold, when they were showing the 7th or the 3rd Doctor. And if you look at the news on Outpost Gallifrey, at "This Week in Doctor Who", I think you will find, if I remember correctly, that BBC Kids in Canada frequently shows Classic Who, but never the Dalek episodes.

Agreed with all the comments made above..... why have UKTV stopped my week-nightly fix of classic Dr. Who, just when it was getting to my favorite thing in the whole wide world.... K9!!!!! His (its?? whatever) first appearance is in The Invisible Enemy, so we were only 10 episodes (a fortnight) away!! Please excuse my sinicism, but could my forced starvation be caused by the fact that BBC are releasing The Invisible Enemy on DVD 16th June 2008, and they want to avoid a "why buy it when you have just seen it on TV?" scenario. I hope not.

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).

It really makes me angry to see how badly the classic series of Dr Who are being exploited. It must be one of the best viewed programmes on pay TV (when it isn't being shown at 6.00am in the morning that is) yet these programmes are employed as nothing more than space fillers in the schedules.

Alright, the "new" series are pretty useless. OK for anyone who enjoys seeing actors running about like headless chickens with over exposed special effects to fill in the gaps (Star Wars clone,yaaawn!) But for REAL tension and cliff-hanging drama the earlier Dr Who series has 'em beat hands down.

It's about time the UKTV programme schedulers realised that they have a great opportunity here, and started using their brains a little more.
Put the classic series back on at a reasonable time (say lunch time) with a repeat later in the day obviously. And if they want something to show on Saturday & Sunday why not repeat the programmes that were shown earlier in the week (split into two omnibus editions)? The formula is simple.

There is so much tripe being offered up on pay per view channels, much of it with probably only a handful of regular viewers, it just seems so insulting that the thousands (if not millions) of Dr Who fans in the UK are treated so shabbily.

The BBC made the ultimate mistake of removing Dr Who from our screens, and lost a great deal of public goodwill in the process, I only hope UKTV don't make the same mistake. Any company that relies on advertising income to help finance itself and ignores the huge audience of Dr Who fans out there, can only be decribed as having a some sort of death wish.

The fans want MORE classic Dr Who, not less.
(and oh yes, the girls WERE much better looking in the classic series).

It really makes me angry to see how badly the classic series of Dr Who are being exploited. It must be one of the best viewed programmes on pay TV (when it isn't being shown at 6.00am in the morning that is) yet these programmes are employed as nothing more than space fillers in the schedules.

Alright, the "new" series are pretty useless. OK for anyone who enjoys seeing actors running about like headless chickens with over exposed special effects to fill in the gaps (Star Wars clone,yaaawn!) But for REAL tension and cliff-hanging drama the earlier Dr Who series has 'em beat hands down.

It's about time the UKTV programme schedulers realised that they have a great opportunity here, and started using their brains a little more.
Put the classic series back on at a reasonable time (say lunch time) with a repeat later in the day obviously. And if they want something to show on Saturday & Sunday why not repeat the programmes that were shown earlier in the week (split into two omnibus editions)? The formula is simple.

There is so much tripe being offered up on pay per view channels, much of it with probably only a handful of regular viewers, it just seems so insulting that the thousands (if not millions) of Dr Who fans in the UK are treated so shabbily.

The BBC made the ultimate mistake of removing Dr Who from our screens, and lost a great deal of public goodwill in the process, I only hope UKTV don't make the same mistake. Any company that relies on advertising income to help finance itself and ignores the huge audience of Dr Who fans out there, can only be decribed as having a some sort of death wish.

The fans want MORE classic Dr Who, not less.
(and oh yes, the girls WERE much better looking in the classic series).

It seems that not only do they have to bury it in the schedule. Looking at the avaliable listings that currently go up to the end of July, they are only up to episode 2 of The Power Of Kroll the penaltimute story in the Key To Time Season.

They really don't know how to cater for fans.

why didnt we get informed that uktv drama has now started to show tom bakers dr who, with the invasion of time. its also on such a silly time of 05:20 and not repeated during the day.

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).

Come on UKTV Drama

Pull your socks up

Bring back Dr Who,,to the daytime and lets have some repeats, weekend ombinus

During this lack of Dr Who on TV,,i had to buy a few DVDs,,which i guess isn't a bad thing

I have been watching

The Dalek Invasion Of Earth (Hartnell)
The Invasion (Troughton)
Carnival Of Monsters (Pertwee)