31 Who

The 31 Who title card

31 Who was a factual, entertainment magazine programme that ran on British Satellite Broadcasting's Galaxy Channel during its famous Doctor Who Weekend in 1990. It served as a kind of "bumper" between the various serials being shown that weekend, offering moderated discussions on each story before it began. As such, it was one of the earliest examples of televised, behind-the-scenes Doctor Who commentary.

The name was a play on Galaxy's mainstream entertainment magazine programme, 31 West — itself a reference to the position of the Marco Polo satellite which broadcast the network's programming.

Perhaps the best-preserved of these segments is the one that was included on the official BBC DVD release of The Three Doctors. The piece is about 10 minutes long, and features three different presenters holding three separate interview sessions. Writers Bob Baker and David Martin, actor Nicholas Courtney and script editor Terrance Dicks, and former Doctor Jon Pertwee all were interviewed for their thoughts on The Three Doctors.

John Nathan-Turner was likely the highest-profile presenter of 31 Who. Indeed, depending on when the 31 Who segments were filmed, it is possible that he was technically still the producer of Doctor Who at the time, since the Doctor Who production office didn't close until 1990.

Since the network folded little more than a year after the Doctor Who Weekend, it's unclear how many of these 31 Who segments still exist. However, what clips do exist are still technically copyright John Gau, who was the head of programming at Galaxy.

External link

• "A Continuous Panorama of Pure Entertainment": Chris Hughes on the forgotten broadcaster, BSB. December, 2008.