The Flying Doctors (1986)

Name: The Flying Doctors
Genre: Drama
Rating: 6.8
Cast: Robert Grubb, Lenore Smith, Nikki Coghill, David Reyne, Christopher Stollery

Drama

The Flying Doctors is an Australian drama series produced by Crawford Productions that revolved around the everyday lifesaving efforts of the real Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia. It was initially a 1985 mini-series based in the fictional outback town of Cooper's Crossing starring Andrew McFarlane as the newly arrived Dr. Tom Callaghan. The success of the mini series led to its return the following year as an on-going series with McFarlane being joined by a new doctor, Chris Randall, played by Liz Burch. McFarlane left during the first season and actor Robert Grubb came in as new doctor Geoff Standish. The series' episodes were mostly self-contained but also featured ongoing storylines, such as Dr. Standish's romance with Sister Kate Wellings. Other major characters included pilot Sam Patterson, mechanic Emma Plimpton, local policeman Sgt. Jack Carruthers and Vic and Nancy Buckley, who ran the local pub/hotel, The Majestic. Andrew McFarlane also later returned to the series, resuming his role as Dr. Callaghan. The popular series ran for nine seasons and was successfully screened internationally.

IMDb rating: 6.8 (1,156 votes)
Seasons: 9
Language: EN
Type: TV series

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Ratings refreshed Aug 19, 2026 · 9 seasons indexed

Cast

Seasons

Season 1 (1986)

8.43 avg 26 episodes 7.9 → 9.4

Season 1 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	Will to Survive	7.9	29
2	Trial by Gossip	8.5	14
3	Hot Enough for You	8.5	13
4	Dreams of Sand	8.8	15
5	Public Property	7.4	12
6	Is Nothing Sacred?	8.8	15
7	Square Pegs	7.9	13
8	Sins of the Father	8.5	13
9	Rally to the Cause	8.3	16
10	Talk of the Town	8.4	13
11	Do You Read Me?	8.4	15
12	E.T - New Girl in Town	9.2	16
13	A Choice of Enemies	9.0	12
14	Departures	8.3	11
15	A Lost Generation	8.1	10
16	Someone Special	8.1	11
17	Return of the Hero	8.7	13
18	Eye of the Beholder	8.4	11
19	Million-Acre Prison	8.6	12
20	Like a Death in the Family	8.4	11
21	Fearless Frank	8.0	13
22	Forgiveness	8.3	13
23	Acceptance	8.1	12
24	The Show Goes On	8.6	12
25	To the Rescue	8.6	12
26	Into the Future	9.4	16

Season 2 (1987)

8.10 avg 24 episodes 8.1 → 8.1

Mid-peak

Season 2 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	Good Day for It	8.1	10
2	Horses for Courses	8.0	10
3	The Unluckiest Boy in Town	7.8	11
4	It Isn't Cricket	8.4	11
5	An Only Child	8.0	10
6	A Love Story	8.0	11
7	Keeping Up Appearances	8.0	10
8	All Things Bright and Beautiful	8.2	11
9	My Name Is Sky	8.2	10
10	Bachelors & Spinsters	8.0	10
11	Fifty-two Hours Straight	9.4	21
12	A Friend of a Friend	8.0	10
13	Friends and Lovers	8.2	11
14	Realms of Gold	7.7	12
15	The Hometown Hero	8.2	12
16	A Distant Echo	8.4	10
17	No Laughing Matter	7.9	10
18	No Quarter Asked	8.1	10
19	Myths & Legends	8.0	10
20	The Hitch-hiker	7.9	11
21	Give a Dog a Bad Name	8.0	10
22	Every Day a Gift	8.0	10
23	Bearing Gifts	7.8	11
24	Repeat Performance	8.1	10

Season 3 (1987)

8.39 avg 26 episodes 8.6 → 8.3

Season 3 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	The Noble Art	8.6	13
2	Sapphire	8.0	12
3	Cries from the Heart	8.5	11
4	All in a Day's Work	7.9	12
5	Out of a Clear Blue Sky	7.8	12
6	Affirmative Action	8.2	13
7	Figures in a Landscape	8.2	13
8	The Devil You Know	8.5	11
9	Operating Solo	8.9	13
10	The Path of True Love	9.1	12
11	The Kid	8.4	10
12	The First Step	8.4	10
13	Hopscotch	8.0	10
14	Jacks High	8.1	12
15	Clapped Out	8.8	11
16	Private Lives, Public Faces	8.0	10
17	Wedlock	9.0	13
18	The Wranglers Daughter	8.5	13
19	Borrowed Time	8.3	10
20	The Forbidden	8.7	10
21	She'll Be Right	8.6	10
22	One Final Request	8.4	11
23	Roxanne	8.6	11
24	Don't Tell Anybody	8.3	10
25	No Way Back	8.1	10
26	Johnnie Come Home	8.3	10

Season 4 (1988)

8.36 avg 24 episodes 8.3 → 9.3

Season 4 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	Look, Up in the Sky	8.3	10
2	Preacher Man	8.0	10
3	The Fear: Part 1	8.2	11
4	The Fear: Part 2	8.1	10
5	Fair Go	8.0	11
6	Broken Airwaves	8.7	14
7	Bed and Board	8.4	11
8	Breaking the Drought	7.9	10
9	Family Secrets: Part 1	8.6	12
10	Family Secrets: Part 2	8.9	12
11	All You Need Is Luck	8.4	11
12	The Silly Season	8.0	9
13	Every Situation	8.6	12
14	The Storyteller	8.1	11
15	The Choice	8.4	12
16	A Shade of Doubt	8.0	10
17	Mick & Julia	8.7	12
18	The Deal	8.1	11
19	A Thing of Beauty	8.1	10
20	Cadenza	8.1	11
21	Mates	8.8	14
22	The Child	8.2	12
23	Next to Go	8.8	12
24	Gotta Have Friends	9.3	19

Season 5 (1989)

8.42 avg 26 episodes 7.7 → 8.2

Season 5 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	The Gift	7.7	14
2	Second Chance	9.2	18
3	Not the Malarvys	8.4	11
4	The Adventure	8.1	12
5	No Man's Land	8.9	11
6	Rising Sundown	7.9	11
7	Man and Boy	9.0	13
8	The Longing	8.3	13
9	Bitter Harvest	7.0	11
10	The Instrument	8.2	12
11	Word & Deed	8.8	12
12	All That Glitters...	8.8	12
13	Fly Past	9.5	18
14	The Last Rodeo	8.3	10
15	Sky Above, Earth Below	9.2	13
16	Lucky Lady	8.1	11
17	The Chips Are Down	8.7	10
18	Guardian Angel	8.6	11
19	Battlers	8.4	10
20	No Tears	9.0	12
21	Doctor's Dreaming	9.2	14
22	Blues for Judy	8.0	14
23	The Claim	8.0	12
24	A Rhyme for Reason	7.8	15
25	Dad's Little Bloke	7.7	14
26	A Sporting Life	8.2	11

Season 6 (1990)

8.18 avg 20 episodes 8.4 → 8.7

Season 6 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	A Good Drop of Red	8.4	15
2	The Hero	8.2	11
3	Suspicion	8.7	12
4	Daddy's Girl	8.0	11
5	Two Sisters Running	7.2	11
6	Dangerous Games	8.8	12
7	Milk Run	7.9	11
8	Point of No Return	8.5	11
9	Small Mercies	8.1	10
10	A Painful Extraction	8.0	10
11	The Climber	8.8	12
12	Dead Reckoning	9.0	12
13	A Bride to Be	7.7	10
14	A Place for the Night	7.3	12
15	End of the Rainbow	8.0	10
16	Double Vision	8.4	12
17	The Boy in the Boot	7.9	9
18	Windows of the Soul	8.1	10
19	Rest in Peace	8.0	9
20	Life Line	8.7	10

Season 7 (1990)

7.97 avg 20 episodes 7.2 → 7.9

Rollercoaster

Season 7 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	Fly Like a Bird	7.2	9
2	A Day to Remember	8.7	13
3	A Place to Call Home	8.1	15
4	Divided Loyalties	8.4	11
5	A Rural Education	8.5	14
6	The Ties That Bind	8.4	11
7	Brother's Keeper	7.9	11
8	Wilderness	8.1	12
9	Valentine's Day	8.6	12
10	A Little Tenderness	7.9	12
11	Poet's Corner	7.0	12
12	The Family Farm	7.9	10
13	A Place Where You Belong	7.5	11
14	Break Away	7.2	12
15	Billie and Pete	8.3	13
16	Old Man Weed	8.0	10
17	David and Goliath	8.4	12
18	The Last Carnival	8.0	12
19	Innocence Lost	7.3	10
20	Bush Christmas	7.9	12

Season 8 (1991)

8.27 avg 26 episodes 8.3 → 7.9

Mid-peak

Season 8 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	What a Guy	8.3	12
2	Bad Moon Rising	8.0	10
3	A New Life	7.8	11
4	Through Thick and Thin	8.0	12
5	Deceptions	8.8	12
6	None So Blind	7.9	11
7	The Sleep of Reason	8.8	10
8	My Mother's Child	8.8	12
9	Swinging on the Rope	7.9	11
10	Father & Son	8.0	11
11	A Little Miracle	8.0	11
12	Murphy's Law	8.6	11
13	Breaking Down the Wall	8.1	10
14	Once Bitten	9.1	12
15	Clipped Wings	8.2	12
16	Walk, Don't Run	8.4	11
17	Masquerade	8.1	10
18	Against the Current	8.1	12
19	Last of the Cochranes	8.4	11
20	Double Life	8.1	12
21	Something, Nothing	8.4	11
22	Family	8.4	10
23	Being Positive	8.5	11
24	Open Day	8.2	11
25	Changing Times	8.3	13
26	Freedom	7.9	11

Season 9 (1991)

7.89 avg 29 episodes 7.4 → 8.0

Season 9 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	Nymphs and Nightmares	7.4	13
2	Out of the Blue	8.4	13
3	The Last Dance	7.9	12
4	Unfinished Business	8.0	11
5	Jacqueline	8.2	14
6	Monkey	8.2	11
7	The Stranger	7.9	11
8	The Christening	6.8	14
9	The Good Book	9.0	16
10	My Little Patch	8.2	12
11	Two Splatt Shuffle	7.5	11
12	Secrets	8.1	10
13	The Games We Play	7.9	10
14	Bone China	7.7	10
15	Johnno Be Good	8.2	11
16	Lost Rainbows	8.1	10
17	Broken Promises	7.8	9
18	Visitors Welcome	8.1	10
19	Yesterday's News	8.4	10
20	Dirty Linen	8.1	10
21	Chasing Rainbows	7.9	11
22	Uncle Cyrano	7.7	10
23	Luck of the Draw	8.3	10
24	Trouble with M.E	7.9	10
25	The Accomplice	8.0	10
26	Blind Obsession	7.9	10
27	Wimp	6.0	11
28	Visionaries	7.3	10
29	Life Lessons	8.0	11