Malta

MALTA is a small island in the Mediterranean, off the southern tip of Sicily (Italy).

Profile

Country Number (6)	1965	FIRST and SECOND WAVE
Region	Europe	Commonwealth
Television commenced	1962
Colour System	1978	PAL
Population	1966	326,130
TV Sets	1966	29,000
Population	1980	350,000
TV Sets	1980	80,000
Language/s	English

Television Stations / Channels

Malta began its television service in 1962.

At the time there was just one television station: The Malta Television Service Ltd (MTV) (channel 10), a government-owned commercial broadcaster.

Doctor Who returned to Malta soon after the launch of PAL colour transmissions in 1978.

Due to its close proximity to Italy, viewers in Malta could also receive TV transmissions from RAI-TV.

Language/s

The principal language of Malta is English, with Maltese and Italian recognised as second languages.

DOCTOR WHO IN MALTA

Dr Who – 24 May 1965

Dr Who, 20 April 1979

Dr Who, generic listing 1979

Spearhead from Space preview, 20 April 1979

The Three Doctors preview, 18 May 1979

The Monster of Peladon preview, 13 July 1979

The Sontaran Experiment preview, 28 September 1979

The Ark in Space preview, 2 November 1979

Revenge of the Cybermen preview, November 1979

Revenge of the Cybermen preview, November 1979

Malta was the 6th country to screen Doctor Who, and the second in Europe. (See Selling Doctor Who).

BBC Records

The Stanmark Productions Ltd advertisement from 1966, identifies Malta as one of sixteen countries screening Doctor Who by January 1966.

Malta is not included in the list of countries in The Making of Doctor Who 1972 Piccolo edition.

Malta is not named in The Seventies, although it should be.

In DWM, Malta is identified in 8 story Archives: A, B, C for Hartnell; just YYY for Pertwee; and 4A, 4C, 4D, and 4E for Baker. (The record for 4E is an error; it is a misreading of a handwritten 4C.)

The Eighties - THE LOST CHAPTERS records a sale of "(4)" stories (by 10 February 1987). As the airdates show, Malta screened four Jon Pertwee and four Tom Baker stories, so the 1987 document is only partially accurate.

Stories bought and broadcast

WILLIAM HARTNELL

Eleven stories, 53 episodes:

A	An Unearthly Child	4
B	The Daleks	7
C	Inside the Spaceship	2
D	Marco Polo	7
E	The Keys of Marinus	6
F	The Aztecs	4
G	The Sensorites	6
H	The Reign of Terror	6
J	Planet of Giants	3
K	The Dalek Invasion of Earth	6
L	The Rescue	2

Malta therefore bought the standard package GROUP A, B and C of the William Hartnell stories.

The programme was supplied as 16mm black and white film prints with English soundtracks.

Origin of the Prints?

It's likely that Malta was the first country in one of the Bicycling Chains that covered the Mediterranean.

JON PERTWEE

Four stories, 18 episodes:

AAA	Spearhead from Space	4
RRR	The Three Doctors	4
UUU	The Time Warrior	4
YYY	The Monster of Peladon	6

Malta therefore bought only a small number of the nine full colour PAL stories that the BBC still had on offer in 1979. These were supplied as PAL colour video tapes with English soundtracks. (Other countries to purchase the same set of four Pertwee serials were: Sierra Leone, Swaziland and Sri Lanka. Malta's tapes may have been supplied from Swaziland.)

TOM BAKER

Four stories, 14 episodes:

4A	Robot	4
4B	The Sontaran Experiment	2
4C	The Ark in Space	4
4D	Revenge of the Cybermen	4

Malta therefore bought part of GROUP A of the Tom Baker stories, supplied as PAL colour video tapes with English soundtracks.

Origin of the Tapes?

The tapes of the four Tom Baker stories may have been supplied by Swaziland.

Transmission

WILLIAM HARTNELL

Doctor Who began on Monday, 24 May 1965, at 6.30pm, and screened for 53 uninterrupted weeks until 23 May 1966. None of the listings gave story title, so it is assumed that the stories aired in the correct story order.

Fate of the Prints?

The first nine serials were most likely sent to Cyprus; the series started there on 12 March 1966, only a week after The Reign of Terror part six had screened in Malta. Of particular note is that only serials A to H are known to have been sent to Cyprus (with some of the films being recovered in 1984). Malta therefore returned, retained, or destroyed the other three serials.

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Times of Malta article 1977

On 16 August 1977, The Times ran a full page feature about the series – some two years before it actually returned to the airwaves. The article – "DR WHO COULD BE MAKING HIS LAST TRIP IN 2011" – (see below) featured an interview with then-producer Philip Hinchcliffe, and made the interesting comment that given the Doctor has only thirteen lives, the series could come to a natural end in 2011!

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JON PERTWEE

Thirteen years later, an 18-week run of Jon Pertwee stories in colour commenced on Friday, 20 April 1979, at 6.30pm, running until 17 August 1979. As noted above, Malta purchased only four of the nine available Pertwee stories that the BBC was selling in full colour.

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TOM BAKER

The week after part six of The Monster of Peladon, Tom Baker's debut serial Robot aired, on 24 August 1979, at the usual time of 6.30pm. After a one week break on 21 September, the series continued for a further ten weeks, with the serials airing in production order.

The final episode of Revenge of the Cybermen aired on 30 November 1979.

There is no clear record that Doctor Who aired in Malta again after 1979.

TV listings

TV listings have been obtained from the newspapers The Times of Malta and Daily News.

The Times gave the title as either "Dr Who" or "Doctor Who". None of the Hartnell episodes titles were identified by title, so the order is assumed. The 24 May 1965 issue had a short preview, saying: "DR WHO: A new series of space adventures for children, starting on MTV today at 6.30pm".

While the main listings for the 1979 episodes did not have titles, the TV Highlights section often previewed and named each new story.

Novelisations

Target Books - Maltese Prices 30c and £M1.40c

During the 13 year gap between the Hartnell and Pertwee transmissions, and for a number a years after the series had ended on MTV, residents of Malta could enjoy the adventures of the Doctor in the form of the Target novelisations, which were available on the island from 1974 until at least 1983. The back covers of the following novels carry a price in Maltese currency:

• The Auton Invasion (1974) 30c
• The Doomsday Weapon (1974) 35c
• The Cybermen (1974) 40c
• The Giant Robot (1975) 40c
• The Revenge of the Cybermen (1976) 45c
• The Web of Fear (1976) 50c
• The Making of Doctor Who (1976) 65c
• The Seeds of Doom (1977) 55c
• The Tomb of the Cybermen (1978) 65c
• The Hand of Fear (1979) 65c
• The Day of the Daleks (1979 reprint) 75c
• The Dinosaur Invasion (1980 reprint) 80c
• The Stones of Blood (1980) 80c
• The Power of Kroll (1980) 90c
• The Enemy of the World (1981) £M1.00
• The Programme Guide Vols 1 & 2 (1981) £M1.30c
• The Leisure Hive (1982) £M1.30c
• The Ice Warriors (1982 reprint) £M1.40c
• The Auton Invasion (1982 reprint) £M1.55c
• The Revenge of the Cybermen (1983 reprint) £M1.25c
• Meglos (1983) £M1.35c
• Earthshock (1983) £M1.35c

Some later reprints from 1983 (such as Time-Flight) carry a price of £M1.40c

Times of Malta – Doctor Who to end in 2011? – 16 August 1977

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