From Tara to Tarantulas...

Time for another nostalgic look back at Doctor Who repeats on UK Gold, with this week's clips coming from late August 1997, the week I turned twelve years old... as I said, nostalgic!

We begin with a clip of the holding slide used during the omnibus edition of The Androids of Tara, broadcast on Sunday 17th August 1997 (11.15am-1.10pm) - note the erroneous use of the Peter Howell theme! Tut tut, they should've known better...

A week later on Sunday 24th, The Power of Kroll was aired at 11.15am - as well as the climax of episode one and the unique holding slide (this time with the correct theme!), you can enjoy Glen Allen's voiceover during the end credits.

At this point in time UK Gold were also airing stories from the fourteenth season - in their original episodic format - weeknights at 7.20pm. Included in the above video for your enjoyment are various announcements and holding slides from the broadcasts of The Deadly Assassin episode four (Weds 20th) and The Face of Evil episodes two and three (Fri 22nd & Tues 26th). Finally, there's the in-vision link from Susanna Boccaccio as she introduced the first part of The Robots of Death on Thursday 28th August 1997, along with the holding slide for that story.

In the early hours of Sunday 31st August 1997, Princess Diana was tragically killed in a car crash in Paris. On that morning, UK Gold were scheduled to broadcast The Armageddon Factor, the final story of The Key To Time season which featured Princess Astra (played by Lalla Ward) in scenes of great peril. Naturally, UK Gold had realised the story was totally inappropriate and so at 10.05am, the Jon Pertwee story Planet of the Spiders was substituted. To ensure that viewers were made aware of the tragic news, the caption "Major news story: please tune to your news channel" appeared on screen several times throughout the broadcast; a couple of these instances are presented here. You can also see the cliffhanger to the exciting but incredibly padded second episode and the holding slide. At the end of the story, Glen Allen acknowledged the late change to the advertised story and said that UK Gold hoped to bring the story to viewers at a later date - it was eventually screneed almost two years later on Sunday 7th August 1999.

Thanks go to hydna1968 on YouTube for the Robots of Death intro clip. Until next week, take care and don't forget to get in contact if you have any clips or comments to share!