Classic Doctor Who episodes will air on the free-to-air UK channel, Forces TV, from next week.

The run of 20th Century stories begins with Spearhead from Space, the Third Doctor’s debut story from 1970, which also introduced the Autons and the Nestene Consciousness — and set up a new era of the show featuring UNIT, headed by the Brigadier.

Though which serials will follow Spearhead from Space are yet to be revealed, the run will cover the Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Doctors across 12 different tales, i.e. they’re not showing any black-and-white content. Although it’d be cool to see whether The Three Doctors or The Two Doctors make the cut, so we can still see the First and Second Doctors represented.

It looks like episodes will be shown in double bills then repeated three times a day.

Yes, we’re sure dedicated fans will already either have all the DVDs/Blu-rays or have the streaming service, Britbox. But this is great for newcomers, so if you know someone who might be interested in Classic Doctor Who, perhaps someone who has come into the fandom thanks to 21st Century Who and wants to try out the first few Doctors without handing over a shed-load of money, why not mention Forces TV to them?

Forces TV can be found on Sky (channel 181), Virgin (274), Freesat (165), Freeview (96), and YouView (96).

Spearhead from Space begins on Forces TV on 15th February 2022.