Canadian airdate for Waters of Mars

[23skidoo]

Space has announced the airdate for Waters of Mars and it's ... the same date as BBC America, Dec. 19:

http://gallifreynewsbase.blogspot.com/2009/11/waters-if-mars-confirmed-canadian-date.html

It looks like Space is doing the same thing BBC America is doing, creating 3-week "mini-season" over the holidays, reairing Planet of the Dead (though, oddly, not The Next Doctor) before Waters of Mars. And then the finale 2-parter the next week (though they've yet to officially announce the airdates so they could go with another plan).

And it looks like we could get the finale around the same time as the UK, or very soon after-- something we haven't seen with a Christmas special since The Christmas Invasion aired here the day after it aired in the UK (this was back when the CBC still cared).

Alex

 

[Worf2DS9]

Maybe they figure with the with Christmas theme of "The Next Doctor", it has that feel of being a year old (last Christmas), whereas "Planet of the Dead" could take place at any time (if you ignore the Doctor mentioning "Easter" on the bus early on).

Anyway, good to know SPACE has firmed up the date for "Waters of Mars". Fantastic!

 

[Mitty]

I think overseas markets are bound to try and air the xmas specials as soon as possible. I'd wager they'll be the most pirated via BT episodes of Doctor Who ever.

 

[The Wormhole]

YAY! Space is so awesome!

 

[23skidoo]

Maybe they figure with the with Christmas theme of "The Next Doctor", it has that feel of being a year old (last Christmas)

I don't see the logic in that. "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and "The Grinch" are almost as old as Docror Who and they get played every year. And The Next Doctor is the ONLY truly standalone Christmas special they've done that either wasn't connected to the current arc (Christmas Invasion, Runaway Bride), or followed up from a cliffhanger (Voyage of the Damned) or had other chores to finish (End of Time). If anything it can run anytime.

That said, Space hasn't announced its Christmas schedule yet, so for all we know The Next Doctor could air on Christmas Day. Space also has a tendency to run day-long marathons on holidays, so they could end up giving us all-day Doctor Who on Christmas or Boxing Day...

I think overseas markets are bound to try and air the xmas specials as soon as possible. I'd wager they'll be the most pirated via BT episodes of Doctor Who ever.

It is nice to see that they've learned their lesson. The CBC waiting almost 6 months to air Season 4 - and then not even bothering to air Voyage of the Damned (which I still don't think has ever been broadcast in Canada), and Sci-Fi being not much better ... back in the 80s and even 90s when most people had no alternatives, that sort of nonsense was something they could get away with. I remember there used to be a year's gap between McCoy's newest season airing in the UK and it finally trickling though over here, for example. But these days, if they want the maximum benefit of their demographic, they need to schedule the showings as close as possible to the UK, otherwise they'll lose out to downloads.

As it is, a month's gap is pushing it. They'd probably have been able to schedule Waters of Mars sooner if the BBC had actually done what US and Canadian networks do and announced the broadcast date earlier, rather than waiting till barely a week before broadcast. And the whole "preventing counter programming" argument is B.S. This is Doctor Who. The season 4 finale got higher ratings than Wimbleton! They don't need to concern themselves about counter-programming anymore. Hell, they could announce the broadcast dates for Season 5 now and it wouldn't make a lick of difference to the ratings. And IMO they should, so that Space and BBC America and the others can get their schedules lined up -- including, perhaps, the possibility of scheduling Doctor Who over here the same day it airs in the UK. Now wouldn't that be a mind-blower.

Alex

 

[kathryn i am]

Thanks for the info, I was wondering when we would get to see it

 

[Worf2DS9]

The CBC waiting almost 6 months to air Season 4 - and then not even bothering to air Voyage of the Damned (which I still don't think has ever been broadcast in Canada)

CBC definitely never aired it, but I seem to recall that VotD might have been one of the first Doctor Who things SPACE did air when they got the airing rights. Though I'm not 100% sure since I first saw it on DVD.

 

[Admiral_Young]

This is good...a little longer than I thought but a month and a half later is not bad. That'd be awesome if we get End of Time a day or so after the BBC airing. I think the first Christmas special aired on CBC on Boxing Day.

 

[Mitty]

Meanwhile it's airing right now (so I'm avoiding the spoiler thread), but I plan to have it in an hour or two

 

[The Wormhole]

The CBC waiting almost 6 months to air Season 4 - and then not even bothering to air Voyage of the Damned (which I still don't think has ever been broadcast in Canada)

CBC definitely never aired it, but I seem to recall that VotD might have been one of the first Doctor Who things SPACE did air when they got the airing rights. Though I'm not 100% sure since I first saw it on DVD.

Space hasn't aired it yet. But apparentally Space is going to air Voyage of the Damned in April 2010.

 

[Admiral_Young]

I watched it...omg...it was brilliant. My favourite of the specials so far. I would rank them in this order to date:

The Waters of Mars
The Next Doctor
The Planet of the Dead

End of Time is going to blow them out of the water though!

 

[23skidoo]

The CBC waiting almost 6 months to air Season 4 - and then not even bothering to air Voyage of the Damned (which I still don't think has ever been broadcast in Canada)

CBC definitely never aired it, but I seem to recall that VotD might have been one of the first Doctor Who things SPACE did air when they got the airing rights. Though I'm not 100% sure since I first saw it on DVD.

Space hasn't aired it yet. But apparentally Space is going to air Voyage of the Damned in April 2010.

Yeah, as I understand it, the CBC officially loses its rights to the first 4 seasons to Space in March, but for some reason VOTD isn't available to Space until April. When CBC Bold began showing DW there was some hope that they'd show VOTD but they skipped it, too. I have no idea why the CBC seems to have such a lack of interest in this one, but ever since reading the article in Enlightenment (DWIN's fanzine) about the CBC's attutude towards DW, they just don't seem to care. Certainly now they don't have any incentive to show it, and if they did, knowing them they'd schedule it opposite the finale.

In answer to the above comment about the first thing Space showed - they showed The Next Doctor initially.

Alex