United States--1991-

Sci-Fi Channel flyer

Print ad for the 1996 "Doctor Who" movie, for FOX affiliate stations in the New York state area: WOLF (38), WICZ (40), WSYT (68), WNYW (5)

• 1991: With sales falling, and their contract with PBS expiring in 1992, Lionheart turns to US cable channels and other networks. They succeed in selling to the newly-established Sci-Fi Channel. The contract with SCI-FI is for only the William Hartnell stories, Patrick Troughton stories and Jon Pertwee stories...

• Mid-1992: The newly-recovered "missing" Patrick Troughton story, The Tomb of the Cybermen, is added to the syndication package, increasing the number of available second Doctor stories from five to six:

PATRICK TROUGHTON (continued)

One story, 4 episodes (also "movie length" omnibus):

MM

The Tomb of the Cybermen

4

• 16 August 1992: KETC in St Louis, Missouri, is one of the first stations to air the serial.
• 24 September 1992: SCI-FI Channel launches. Promising to start with the William Hartnell stories, they instead show Tom Baker stories – again... For some peculiar reason, the package that SCI-FI aired ended at The Androids of Tara part three, after which the series cycled back to Robot...
• December 1993: By the end of the year, SCI-FI drops Doctor Who from its schedule.
• 1994: More and more PBS stations do not renew their contracts.
• 1995-96: Production on the TV Movie commences.

---

PAUL McGANN

TV Movie, 84 minutes:

TVM

The TV Movie

1

• 14 May 1996: The TV Movie screens as the FOX TUESDAY NIGHT MOVIE.

• 20 May 1996: Jon Pertwee dies in Connecticut.

• The TV Movie was to have been repeated on 31 December 1996, but it was pulled at the eleventh hour.

• 1998: By early 1998, only a handful of PBS stations were still regularly screening the series, such as: Iowa, Denver, San Jose, Baltimore, and Cincinnati.

Beyond 1998...

• By the turn of the millennium, sales of Doctor Who had all but dried up, and by 2001, Doctor Who begins to fade from television screens in America... Except for WENH in Denham, New Hampshire, which still airs the series, eventually dropping it in November 2004.

• 17 March 2006 to 5 April 2008: The NEW SERIES (the first four new series only) screens on Syfy.
• 27 June 2009: The NEW SERIES shifts to BBC America, who screen the run of Specials and all subsequent seasons.
• In 2011, KBTC in Tacoma, Washington became the sole USA station screening "classic" episodes of Doctor Who.
• January 2013: BBC America begins showing one story per month leading up to the 50th anniversary.