So, here are the episodes we were enjoying on this weekend (or the closest to this weekend) in the past when Doctor Who aired episodes in the Spring:

Season 1: "The Long Game"
Season 2: "The Girl in the Fireplace"
Season 3: "The Lazarus Experiment"
Season 4: "The Doctor's Daughter"
Season 5: "The Vampires of Venice"
Season 6: "The Curse of the Black Spot"
Season 7: "The Crimson Horror"

An interesting mix of episodes - apart from The Girl in the Fireplace I'm not sure any would be considered classics.

Still, its a list that gives me a good feeling to know Who's heading back to the Spring. For me, that's where New Who belongs!

Blown away by Fireplace, enjoyed Crimson, Black Spot was a fun romp (imo!), Long Game was OK - the rest I best not comment on!

The Long Game is criminally underrated. I call him "Max"

I like the autumn airtime. Doctor Who's not as scary when the sun's glaring on the TV screen and the whole family is distracted by the improving weather or exams. Autumn tends to be more friendly on my family bevause everyone's getting back into the swing of things so it's nice to have DW to wrap up to and watch on those weekends.

These also aired on or around the 7th May.

Sentence of Death (The Keys of Marinus, Part Five)
The Search (The Space Museum, Part Three)
Don't Shoot the Pianist (The Gunfighters, Part Two)
The Faceless Ones, Part Five
The Wheel in Space, Part Three
The War Games, Part Four
Inferno, Part One
Colony in Space, Part Five
The Mutants, Part Five
Planet of the Daleks, Part Five
Planet of the Spiders, Part Two
Revenge of the Cybermen, Part Four


Season 12 was the last Classic season to have an episode air in May though the TV movie did air in May.

Also, it means I can have Game of Thrones early in the year, and Doctor Who late, instead of massive year-long gaps where there's nothing on TV I really care for.

It's something I liked about the Series 6 split, in that there was Doctor Who more evenly spread throughout the year. Didn't exactly work the way Series 7 did it, though.

Our 13 year old asked if she could watch Doctor Who (new Who) with me from the beginning. Honest, she asked me.

So far we're midway through season 1 and - I have to agree - The Long Game is actually very watchable. Its very interesting seeing a companion fail as badly as Adam failed, leaving the Doctor no choice but to take him straight home. I think this is what I loved about the show under RTD, that even if the story itself wasn't that compelling, it became compelling because the characters were so engaging. The Long Game is a fairly simple story in many ways, but the 9th Doctor, Rose and Adam (and the two female leads) make it very interesting.

You seem to have missed out the McGann TV Movie which is exactly 20 years old next week. I'm sure makes everyone feel old, especially those of us who remember buying the VHS tape before the actual BBC airing. That was certainly a mixed bag of an episode with some great things, such as McGann and the magnificant Tardis makeover contrasting with the less great things, such as everything else . It was such a memorable month in Whodom as it was also the month Jon Pertwee died I remember thinking it was such an odd coincidence that Pertwee died at the time of a new Doctor arriving. It had happened the previous time a new Doctor had been cast when we lost Troughton around the time McCoy started in the role.

I'd love the BBC to try and schedule it in their New Year's season of programmes someday, something that has yet to be tried out for the new series. A slot not tried out since the days of all of Peter Davison's series and before that, Jon Pertwee's.
As much as I like DW being in it's traditional slot during the autumn months where it gets darker with each week, I felt StrictlyCD was a weight around its neck as its finishing-time dictated DW's inconsistent timeslots and late night finishing.
Now that The Voice has gone, having DW away from any immovable jewel of the Beeb would work far better for it and as their New Year season of programmes that trickle out over the course of January and February now has a void, a mid to late January would be ideal as it is still dark in the evenings and twelve weeks would take us neatly into Easter or thereabouts before the good weather sets in, when most general audiences aren't too fussed on missing any type of programme.

It's a fair viewpoint, but I have to agree with the Op that I prefer it in the spring. Whereas you say 'doctor who's not as scary when the suns glaring' I would counter that by saying that there have been complaints in recent years of the show feeling more downbeat and miserable, and for me, having it in the miserable doldrums of the autumn/winter period doesn't help that.


To me, when the series starts in spring, it feels like we have the series in the first half of the year, and then, when we haven't seen the show for a few months, and have had time to miss it, the Christmas special comes along, as an event, at the end of the year.

In contrast, when the series has been playing at the end of the year these past few years, with the Christmas special coming only mere weeks after the end of the series itself, it has felt like all the who crammed together in one corner of the year, with the Christmas special feeling like nothing more than a tacked on afterthought, coming so soon after the show has only just been on.


Anyway, it's all academic because we know it is coming back is spring despite what any of us think. This is just me saying that like the OP, it feels right to me and I am happy about it.

Agreed. I feel Autumn is the natural home for the show. The problem with this though is Strictly Come Dancings variable episode length meant we can't have a settled time slot.



Therefore this would be my choice. Don't mind Spring but the all important viewing figures would improve. People do tend to watch less tv when the weather is good.

I for one am fine with a spring start for Dr who, anything so i don't have to watch anything at all to that awful strictly thing. Improving weather? Yes it's nice this weekend but a week ago it was snowing around my way! The weather does not come into it IMO, people who watch tv will still watch TV no matter what time of year. We get rubbish summers anyway.

Important to remember that anyone 30 or under won't have any recollection of Doctor Who being broadcast in the Autumn.

I would say that, for that generation of viewers, its traditional for Who to start in the Spring and its all of this split-season/September start nonsense that's new.

I have no problem watching Doctor Who on a sunny evening and have to agree with doctor blue box - seasons 8 and 9 were particularly downbeat and showing them in the midst of a gloomy autumn didn't exactly help. Its also obvious that more and more people watch the show when it suits them, so who's to say some wait until after 9pm before putting it on?

Not for me... I'm too young to have been around when Classic Who initially aired, Rose was essentially the first time I saw a DW episode live, yet I still prefer the autumn start because it feels more natural and fitting for the show, imo.

The darker tone doesn't bother me either, it's the other way round for me; the show was too campy and silly before and the bright weather wasn't a big help there.

And there I was thinking you were an old git like me!

I came in around the Series finale series 1 and Born Again for Children in need.

It's definitely part of it for me, that I'm young enough that spring is what feels traditional to me.

Also though it's the logistic points I mentioned, most importantly having who spring to early summer, then again at Christmas meaning who in both parts of the year, and Christmas feeling like an event , is So much better than all the who crammed into one part of the year, with the rest of the year just spent waiting, which is the case when the series is shown in Autumn.

I remember watching Series 5 in Spring god series .5 was a pleasure to watch every saturday. Up untill you know that whole pandorica fiasco.

I couldn't agree more!

End of summer, back to school, the new bbc1 season being promoted on tv kicking of with 'Its back into time and space with a new adventure for Doctor Who' (done in my best voice over voice), sit waiting for the end of the footy results so we can crack on with 25 mins of awesomeness.

Yes, I know I'm back in the 1970s but it was the best time for me.

I Think autumn would be a good period to show Doctor Who as Summer ends kicking back on a Saturday but The past few series' hasn't really convinced me. Like TSJA was fun to watch during autumn in between Doctor Who. I .see the potential though but don't believe the execution will work out well. But we'll have to wait and see

I think the initial Spring scheduling was a smart decision, and it was a choice based on what was best for the show and the likely audience.

The decision to move it to the autumn was simply a production issue, aimed at buying time because of behind the scenes chaos.

Ironically, the move back to spring is driven by another production issue.