Nicaragua

Nicaragua is located in the Central American isthmus, next to XXXX and XXXX.

Population

When Doctor Who screened in Nicaragua in 1980, the population was less than NEED TO REFER TO 1979 WRTH (per WRTH, 1979).

TV & system

Nicaragua began its television service in 1956.

There is just one television station: Televicentro de Nicaragua, a government-owned commercial broadcaster.

SSTV (??) had two channels - 2 and 6. Dr Misterio screened on channel 2.

Colour transmissions began in 1973 with the NTSC colour broadcast system.

Language/s

The main language of Nicaragua is Spanish.

DOCTOR WHO IN NICARAGUA

Nicaragua was the 56th country to screen Doctor Who, and the fourth in Category:Central America (see Selling Doctor Who).

BBC Records

The Eighties - The Lost Chapters records a sale of 24 stories (by 10 February 1987), which could be an error, as the same number was assigned also to Guatemala and Honduras.

Nicaragua is not identified in any of the DWM story Archives.

Stories bought and broadcast

TOM BAKER

Presumably 23 stories, 98 episodes:

4A	Robot	4
4B	The Sontaran Experiment	2
4C	The Ark in Space	4
4D	Revenge of the Cybermen	4
4E	Genesis of the Daleks	6
4F	Terror of the Zygons	4
4G	Pyramids of Mars	4
4H	Planet of Evil	4
4J	The Android Invasion	4
4K	The Brain of Morbius	4
4L	The Seeds of Doom	6
4M	The Masque of Mandragora	4
4N	The Hand of Fear	4
4P	The Deadly Assassin	4
4Q	The Face of Evil	4
4R	The Robots of Death	4
4S	The Talons of Weng-Chiang	6
4V	Horror of Fang Rock	4
4T	The Invisible Enemy	4
4X	Image of the Fendahl	4
4W	The Sun Makers	4
4Y	Underworld	4
4Z	The Invasion of Time	6

Nicaragua therefore bought GROUPs A to D of the standard package of Tom Baker stories in Spanish that were distributed by Time-Life.

Origin of the Prints?

Guatemala and Costa Rica had both been screening Tom Baker stories around this time.

Transmission

TOM BAKER

The series started on Wednesday, 6 August 1980, at 6.00, but only for four weeks! Unusually for a Spanish language nation, this brief run was called "Dr Who". (It is possible that the series started earlier than August; TV listings prior to 1 July were not available.)

On Monday, 3 November 1980, what was now billed as "Dr Misterio" recommenced, at 6.00pm. Later that week on Friday, 7 November, it aired at 5.30pm. This twice per week schedule continued for nine weeks; with the week starting 5 January 1981, the series aired Monday, Wednesday and Friday, at 6.00pm on all three days.

This three episodes-per-weeks cycle continued until the week of 29 June 1981, when it also aired on the Thursday (2 July). From this date onwards, the series aired five nights a week, always at 6.00pm.

This change to a five-nights-a-week schedule began after 98 episodes had played; it can't be a coincidence that 98 is also the number of episodes in the Baker package.

74 more episodes played before the series took a break for one day, to allow for a documentary to screen the night of Tuesday, 13 October (6.00pm to 8.00pm). A further 37 episodes aired, then another break – on Friday, 4 December, on which a movie aired (5.30pm to 7.30pm). If the episode count is correct, both of these breaks occurred part-way through a story...

Another 19 episodes screened, after which the run came to an end, on Thursday, 31 December 1981, after fourteen months non-stop bar two days! 228 episodes had been aired since the series debuted in August 1980.

After a two month break, nine more episodes played, from 2 March 1982, until 27 April 1982, but only once a week on Tuesdays, at 6.00pm. There were no further episodes after this date. The fact that this last run consisted of only nine episodes is difficult to reconcile (which had to consist of the unlikely combination of a 3-parter and a 6-parter, or a 4-parter and a 5-parter...)

There are 237 airdates identified between 6 August 1980 and 27 April 1982. On the assumption that the package consisted only of the Tom Baker 23 stories / 98 episodes (and not 24 as noted in The Eighties), all episodes must have aired at least twice (196) with a further 41 for a third time.

TV listings

TV listings have been obtained from the newspaper El Nuevo Diario.

TV listings didn't start to appear until 1 July 1980 - so it is possible that Dr Misterio commenced earlier than its first appearance on 6 August 1980...

The first four episodes were billed as "Dr Who". For all others it was "Dr Misterio". From 17 August 1981, it was usually given as "Dr Misterio (color)".

Nicaragua in Doctor Who

There are no instances where Nicaragua is mentioned in the series.

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