The fact that BBC America has chosen not to broadcast the newest episode of Doctor Who until next weekend is now somewhat old news, but I did not realize until today how annoying it would be. “The Almost People” premiered in Britain a couple of hours ago, but we poor Americans won’t get to see it until next Saturday. BBC America apparently thinks that, because this is Memorial Day Weekend, they are in danger of losing a lot of audience share if they show a new episode today.

Except not.

This is the 21st century, for crying out loud! We Americans love our DVRs and TiVos. And “The Almost People” is the second half of a two-parter. Trust me. We want to watch it, and we’re going to watch it as soon as you’ll make it available to us.

The wait is not the only thing that gets to me, either. You see, I am now going to be one week behind the majority of the Doctor Who fandom. If I want to avoid spoilers (and Doctor Who is like Lost in this respect: you want to avoid spoilers at all costs), I have to spend all of this week avoiding all of my favorite blogs and websites. They’ll all be discussing what happened in this episode, what it might mean for the rest of the season, etc. By putting American fans one week behind schedule, BBC America is effectively excluding them from participating in the fandom. Unfortunately for me, that is one of the joys of watching a cult TV show like Doctor Who.

So thanks, BBC America, for screwing with my enjoyment of my favorite show. I hope that, when you air the rest of season six this fall, you’ll stop be silly and keep your American viewers on the same schedule as those in Britain.