Pluto TV
PLUTO TV is a US-based 24/7 online service; founded in 2013, it is currently owned by Viacom.
The free - but ad-supported - service is currently only available in the United States.
Doctor Who on Pluto TV
In April 2019 it was announced that Pluto TV had acquired the rights to Doctor Who, with the service showing a selection of over 200 episodes from the "Classic" series (the first seven Doctors only) - all for free on special "pop-up" channels (initially on channels 77 and 360, but mainly on 370). (The episodes air with 'closed-captioning' / subtitles.) By late 2020 the series had moved to Channel 532.
In the initial press announcements, these were some of the stories that would be made available:
- The Dalek Invasion of Earth
- Terror of the Autons
- Planet of the Spiders
- The Ark in Space
- The Deadly Assassin
- The Robots of Death
- Earthshock
- The Caves of Androzani
On 12 June 2019, Doctor Who Channel 77 became available for the first time.
When it was launched, serials were added to Pluto's daily schedules on a random basis, with stories playing in no particular order - for example, one showing of The Curse of Fenric was immediately followed by The Ark in Space.
However, by 2020, the stories were available in story order.
The ones we know of so far are (as at December 2020):
- An Unearthly Child
- The Daleks
- The Edge of Destruction
- The Romans
- The Dalek Invasion of Earth
- The Time Meddler
- The Tomb of the Cybermen
- The War Games
- Doctor Who and the Silurians (remastered colourised version)
- Terror of the Autons
- Colony in Space
- The Daemons
- The Three Doctors
- Planet of the Daleks
- The Monster of Peladon
- Planet of the Spiders
- Robot
- The Ark in Space
- The Sontaran Experiment
- Revenge of the Cybermen
- Planet of Evil
- Pyramids of Mars
- The Brain of Morbius
- The Seeds of Doom
- The Masque of Mandragora
- The Hand of Fear
- The Deadly Assassin
- The Face of Evil
- The Robots of Death
- The Talons of Weng-Chiang
- Image of the Fendahl
- The Sun Makers
- Underworld
- The Invasion of Time
- The Ribos Operation
- The Pirate Planet
- The Stones of Blood
- The Power of Kroll
- Destiny of the Daleks
- The Creature from the Pit
- City of Death
- The Horns of Nimon
- The Leisure Hive
- Meglos
- Full Circle
- Logopolis
- Earthshock
- The Caves of Androzani
- Attack of the Cybermen (2 x 45 mins)
- The Mark of the Rani (2 x 45 mins)
- The Two Doctors (3 x 45 mins)
- Time and the Rani
- Remembrance of the Daleks
- Battlefield
- The Curse of Fenric
Based on the above list of stories so far, the promised "over 200 episodes" have been accounted for. (The actual total here is 247. Note: The Season 22 stories are shown in the original 45 minute edits, with commercials to fill out the hour.)
In November 2020, a number of new stories were added to the selection, including several more William Hartnell and Sylvester McCoy serials.
Some of these broadcasts apparently display the BritBox logo on them, which indicates that Pluto and BritBox have some sort of share arrangement.
SPECIAL EVENTS
On 4 July 2019, Pluto's Channel 370 screened a special Classic Doctor Who Marathon featuring just fourth Doctor stories ("Celebrate the 4th .. with the Fourth Doctor! All day...")
To celebrate the series' 56th anniversary, from midnight 23 November 2019, Pluto had a Doctor Who Day Marathon, showing "all the Doctor's greatest adventures".
On Halloween Night 31 October 2020, the station ran a series of the "spookiest Classic episodes".
In November 2020, the station started screening the UK/Australian spin-off series, K9.
On 23 November 2020, Pluto held an anniversary day run of special episodes, which included The War Games.
