SciFi Channel Picks Up Doctor Who For US Broadcast
I’ve been giving myself a short break from posting recently but this piece of news is too big to ignore. Thanks to Andrew Oakley for sending me word of the announcement which has spread all over the web now. For months we’ve been waiting for word of a US broadcaster for the new series of Doctor Who.
And finally we have an announcement. The SciFi Channel have picked up first-run rights for season one (or series 1 if you’re British) of Doctor Who starring Christopher Eccleston. Along with the first-run rights they also have an option for season 2. From the sound of things SciFi will only be able to show the season once (right now at least).
Good news though is that SciFi are going to give the show a great timeslot. They will premiere the show in March as part of their SciFi Friday’s slot. Thats the strongest timeslot that the SciFi Channel has and the 9pm slot means Doctor Who gets prime time. The March schedule means that Doctor Who will start as the Stargates and Battlestar Galactica end their season.
As a result of this announcement, the US DVD release for Doctor Who will be pushed back from February to July 4th. Overall though this can only be seen as good news for Doctor Who in the US as the SciFi Channel will raise its profile amongst science fiction fans in the US.
Eoghann Irving is amongst other things the creator and Editor of Solar Flare. He has a life long interest in all forms of science fiction and fantasy and a pressing need to share this interest with anyone who will listen. Find out more at his personal website eoghann.com..
4 Comments, Comment or Ping
Andrew Oakley
“Season” and “series” get even more confusing that a mere UK:US dialect variant; the BBC used to refer to a “series” as a complete production run which could run over one, two or more calendar “seasons”. For example, a very long production run of, say, 20 Doctor Who episodes (a single “series”) would be broadcast over Autumn [Fall], Winter and into Spring (these being three “seasons”). Hence why there is some disagreement about the numbering of classic Doctor Who “seasons”. To make myself sound more Whovian than is strictly true, I’m trying to stick with the assumption that the Christopher Ecclestone series is “Series 28″, but the Beeb seems to prefer the idea of a numbering reboot, that Christopher Ecclestone’s run is both New Series 1 and New Season 1, which to be honest is probably a better idea all round. Sorry for the dull comment, but what are Sci Fi buffs interested in if not minutae?
Jan 14th, 2006
James
About time eh?
Jan 16th, 2006
stevirobbo
Series/ season 1 was good but I thought series 2 apart from the end with the Daleks
was very poor indeed and it made the doctor look really rubbish
Aug 31st, 2006
stevirobbo
The radio blobby thing was the worst episode of doctor who i have ever seen
even the early shows where better
Aug 31st, 2006
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