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Twitch and BBC are planning to stream 500 classic episodes of Doctor Who

Twitch and BBC are planning to stream 500 classic episodes of Doctor Who

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Catch ‘em all on Twitch Presents, starting on May 29th

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BBC and Twitch Presents have partnered to bring the majority of Doctor Who’s classic episodes — the ones that aired between 1963 and ‘89 — to the live-streaming service’s platform, starting on May 29th and ending seven weeks later. If you missed out on the show or have been interested in the hype around it, now’s a good time to catch up on its earliest seasons and meet the older doctors.

Doctor Who has been around for 55 years, which is an astonishing feat for any television series, and its longevity means that it has literal generations of fans who have grown up with the show. And it’s only become more popular in recent years — though it’s also become harder to watch.

Before 2016, when Amazon bought exclusive rights from BBC to stream the show, fans used to be able to get their Who fix via Netflix and Hulu Plus. Now it’s only available through Prime and BritBox (which is $6.99 per month for just about every canonical series in British television). That means fans without a large disposable income or an Amazon Prime subscription are out of luck — until now.

This isn’t a comprehensive marathon of the series. Twitch will stream 500 episodes from the show’s classic period, which means it won’t include episodes from the latest batch of Doctors (played by Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant, Matthew Smith, and Peter Capaldi). Twitch plans to stream eight hours of Who per day, starting at 11AM PT, and it will repeat those blocks three times a day for a continuous 24-hour stream.

It’s also giving out prizes. “Just by watching 10 minutes of Doctor Who a day, you’re automatically entered into a weekly drawing to win a Doctor Who fan pack that includes a Tardis money box, a themed Monopoly set, and Doctor Who doormat,” Twitch writes. The grand prize is a trip to London Comic Con.

Whovians seem stoked. As of this writing, the announcement has been viewed 56,898,307 times. Take a look at the full streaming schedule here.