MovieChat Forums > Doctor Who (1963) Discussion > Stories skipped by Retro TV

Stories skipped by Retro TV

posted 8 years ago by Dr Wily
18 replies | jump to latest

Since Retro skipped Revelation Of The Daleks, I thought I'd just start a separate thread about all the stories Retro skips. I can just add replies to it as Retro skips them.

The Seeds Of Death
The War Games
Spearhead From Space
Day Of The Daleks

Revelation Of The Daleks

I'm willing to wager Retro will skip all Dalek stories. It will be shown soon when they get to the upcoming Frontier In Space and Planet Of The Daleks, soon followed by Death To The Daleks and then Genesis Of The Daleks. Maybe the Dalek stories are so popular BBC Worldwide sells them in a separate package for a higher fee, of course.

[–] therealboozysmurf 8 years ago

BBC Kids in Canada used to air Classic Who and when they did they skipped most of the Dalek episodes, it's what led to me collecting the classic series DVDs. The only one I remember them playing was the Destiny of the Daleks. I could see there being some kind of added expense to those episodes.

[–] Dr Wily 8 years ago

The Fourth Doctor run starts soon on the Retro weekday rotation. I'll see if Destiny Of The Daleks turns up there. If it does, then, BBC Kids may have received the same package of episodes that were sold to Retro TV.

[–] Dr Wily 8 years ago

Vengeance On Varos was also skipped on Retro TV.

I missed this because I only found out about it while watching The Trial Of A Time Lord and it referencing back to a Sixth Doctor story Retro hadn't shown.

[–] mindbait 8 years ago

Too violent maybe?

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[–] Dr Wily 8 years ago

Personally, I think there's very little rhyme or reason to what they skip.

The only seemingly "rational" thing they're doing is they seem to skip every Dalek story.

Probably the reasons why stories are skipped lies in the fact that BBC Worldwide just didn't include them in their package to Retro. Dalek stories you can kind of "explain" away as they're more popular and thus are probably in a separate package which costs more.

Since I've never seen the skipped stories Spearhead From Space and Vengeance On Varos, I can't say if either story is any too violent.

[–] pferreira86 8 years ago

It's whatever they have the rights to. Same thing happened on Horror with Who repeats as well.

[–] mindbait 8 years ago

Varos is constantly cited as the best C Baker story, Spearhead is mentioned by a lot of people as a great Pertwee story... maybe they actually listen to the fans and group all the popular ones in a separate package?

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New song "Where was I?"

[–] Dallas_Cowboys_Fan 8 years ago

Part of it is that BBC America has the rights to those stories. During the 50th anniversary, they aired one story from each Doctor. I know they aired The Aztecs, Spearhead from Space, and Vengeance, so Retro doesn't have the rights to any of the stories BBCA aired. The Terry Nation estate has the rights to the Dalek stories, so I suppose that's why Retro can't air some of them. As to random stories like The War Games, I have no idea why they weren't included in the package.

[–] Dr Wily 8 years ago

My theory on The War Games? There's a Dalek in it. Granted it's only for a fleeting moment in Part 10, but it's there. So, it depends on if Retro skips Logopolis. They might skip that story because it contains flashbacks to Davros and a Dalek.

[–] mindbait 8 years ago

ha, just think of an entire generation of Who fans raised on retro saying "yeah I'm a huge Dr Who fan... what's a dalek?"

https://soundcloud.com/rhythm-n-weird

New song "Where was I?"

[–] timmdoolen 8 years ago

Even though I know you're joking, Retro TV doesn't have the reach to influence anyone to that level. It only covers about 60% of the USA, and I'm guessing their ratings are fairly low. Even on this board I think only Dr. Wily watches that channel.

[–] Dr Wily 8 years ago

I know there were others before me who posted here about Retro carrying Doctor Who. Whether they actually watched it on Retro, though, is something else different.

Plus, there are episodes that Retro has aired where the Daleks are mentioned. Which should cause some confusion as Retro apparently never shows any stories with them in it.

[–] timmdoolen 8 years ago

Haven't Daleks become known in popular culture, even outside of Doctor Who? I'm sure there are people who could recognize a Dalek who have never seen an episode of Who.

There's a Mr. Bean episode where he plays with a toy Dalek, and no reference is made to Doctor Who. I'm sure there are many similar examples.

[–] Dr Wily 8 years ago

It might depend on your location in the world. A Dalek is probably a cultural icon in Europe. In the US, it was probably something of an Easter egg to merely see a Cushing movie Dalek in Looney Tunes: Back In Action. Now, IMDB says the inclusion of the Dalek was apparently Steve Martin's one condition to appear in the movie. So, who knows?

Then there are the weird cases where it probably appears as a result of the popularity of NuWho on BBC America. Twice now on the current Whose Line Is It Anyway, Jonathon Mangum has done Dalek "EX-TER-MIN-ATE!" jokes during games of Props.

And there are the really "WHAT THE-?!" moments were Daleks appear. I believe one is in a scene in a movie called something like Breakfast On Pluto.

[–] Dr Wily 8 years ago

As I predicted, Frontier In Space and Planet Of The Daleks were skipped. Frontier because Episode 6 contains a Dalek and leads directly into Planet Of The Daleks and Planet because it's a Dalek story.

[–] mindbait 8 years ago

it's kind of like the soup nazi from Seinfeld "NO DALEKS FOR YOU!"

https://soundcloud.com/rhythm-n-weird

New song "Where was I?"

[–] Dr Wily 8 years ago

The Dalek Nazi?

Well, that's kind of repetitious, since the Daleks are essentially a Nazi parallel.

Or better yet the Soup Dalek! "NO THALS FOR YOU! EX-TER-MIN-ATE!"

[–] mindbait 8 years ago

 I don't know how effective their plungers would be for serving up soup, but then daleks can generally do whatever they set their minds to

https://soundcloud.com/rhythm-n-weird

New song "Where was I?"