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May 22, 2013

U.S. airdate announced for next Doctor Who special

by Brad Trechak, posted Nov 1st 2009 1:01PM

Doctor WhoThe next Doctor Who special, The Waters of Mars, will be broadcast on BBC America on Saturday December 19th at 9 P.M. For those like myself whose cable company doesn't carry BBC America, we're S.O.L.

Of course, the BBC British broadcast date is November 15th. In that gap, I'm sure even the less technically adept fan in the United States can snag a copy of the show, and fans of the show tend to be more capable when it comes to technology. Not that I'm encouraging such behavior. I'm simply saying that a gap of a month is a LONG time in the digital world. The companies involved would have been better off with a gap of 24 hours. At that point, it's less likely that piracy will occur.

However, for those who are sticklers about this whole "copyright law" thing, you have your opportunity to see the program on December 19th. Hopefully you can wait that long.

(P.S. For those who need more David Tennant as the Doctor before his departure, he's currently appearing on the spin-off show The Sarah Jane Adventures in the U.K.)

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tricky

The BBC I-player has Dr Who the day it aires in the UK

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/

November 18 2009 at 9:17 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
George

Back in the eighties, when the classic series really caught on in the US, it generally took months, if not years, for new episodes to undergo the PAL-to-NTSC transfer and debut stateside. If I saw a new episode before that point, it was a camera copy -- made by pointing a camcorder at a PAL TV and pushing "record", resulting in a blurred, flickery, blue-tinged but ultimately watchable copy. And most of the TVs on which I recall watching those camera copies were smaller than my current PC monitor.

From that perspective, waiting a mere 34 days for the US airing of TWoM seems like nothing. However, if you're a true, rabid fan, and you know that you can be watching an HD copy of the episode on your big-screen TV within a couple of hours of the original broadcast, good luck holding out.

November 02 2009 at 12:44 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Nicol Leoraine

Yeah, well, for some poeple who live in the middle of the Europe, where nobody even heard of the Doctor Who franchise and probably never will, the torrents seems to be the only way, because no tv station is airing the show [or planning to]. But if they would, I bet most of the people would download it, then watch it on tv again, cause that's just different from the PC screen.

November 02 2009 at 2:11 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Edward

I bet Comcast On Demand will have it after the US airing. I am catching up to the first series right now!

November 01 2009 at 3:53 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to Edward's comment
M-D

You'd be making a fool's bet, then. BBCA doesn't typically release shows to VOD before their airdate.

November 02 2009 at 3:08 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Edward

did you not read "AFTER" the US air date on BBCA?

November 02 2009 at 6:12 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Claire

I know people who will torrent it in November and then watch it legally in December as well.

I don't blame people living without BBC America at all for torrenting. There is no way for them to get even remotely timely legal copies of it.

November 01 2009 at 2:02 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Claire's comment
snowy2004

iTunes... oh, wait. They'll probably just post it after the US air date. .... iTunes UK?

I don't know. I have to admit that BBC must really hate having people watch their US channel if they make Dr Who fans wait that long. I wouldn't doubt if the groups "US torrent users" and "US Dr Who fans" overlap a lot, either.

November 01 2009 at 3:41 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply

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