CKVU

CKVU (Vancouver) (1976-1982)

Channel Profile

Vancouver-based CKVU was launched on Sunday, 4 September 1976, with its first broadcast going out at 4.00pm. At that time, its official number was Channel 21, but was located on cable 13 on the TV dial.

Both CKVU and TVO commenced regular broadcasts of Doctor Who on the same day – Saturday, 18 September 1976, however TVO's screening were at 7.30pm, whereas CKVU's were at 10.00am, making CKVU the first Canadian television station to screen Doctor Who since CBC in 1965.

Stories bought and broadcast

PETER CUSHING

A week ahead of the regular screenings of Doctor Who, CKVU screened the Peter Cushing movie, "Dr Who and the Daleks" on Saturday, 11 September 1976, from 10.00 to 11.30am.

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JON PERTWEE

In the DWAS publication TARDIS issue Volume 8 / Number 1 (c. March 1983), Canadian fan Dean Shewring wrote an overview of Doctor Who in Canada: "CKVU an independent TV station in Vancouver, British Columbia has also been showing Jon Pertwee serials (including The Green Death, Inferno and The Claws of Axos). However they have been broadcast with episodes out of sequence and with major gaps for sports and other show between some of the serials."

In DWM issue #102 (July 1985), Shewring wrote that "CKVU, an independent TV station in Vancouver, British Columbia ... ran a small selection of Jon Pertwee stories over a four-year period during the late seventies and early eighties."

On the DOCTOR WHO MEET UP GROUP BLOG, Canadian fan Ray Seredin says: "I have been a fan of Doctor Who since September 1979, when as a thirteen year old I [became] hooked on the series [with the] Jon Pertwee story Inferno while it was airing on CKVU Saturday mornings."

Based on these comments, and other scattered information about the station, the following 14 Pertwee stories appear to be the only ones to have been aired by CKVU:

14 stories, 73 episodes:

DDD	Inferno	7
GGG	The Claws of Axos	4
HHH	Colony in Space	6
KKK	Day of the Daleks	4
MMM	The Curse of Peladon	4
LLL	The Sea Devils	6
NNN	The Mutants	6
OOO	The Time Monster	6
RRR	The Three Doctors	4
TTT	The Green Death	6
UUU	The Time Warrior	4
XXX	Death to the Daleks	4
YYY	The Monster of Peladon	6
ZZZ	Planet of the Spiders	6

CKVU therefore bought parts of GROUPs A, B and D, and all of GROUPs C and E of the Jon Pertwee stories.

The programme was supplied as NTSC colour video tapes with English soundtracks.

Some of these same fourteen stories aired on other Canadian stations:

• TVO

Origin of the Tapes?

The tapes would have been supplied via Time Life Films / Television, who were the BBC's distribution agents in North America.

Interestingly, seasons 10 and 11 were not made available to the United States until mid 1983, which means that NTSC conversions of the last six stories in the above table were done specifically for the sale to Canada.

Of note, The Three Doctors and The Green Death were the only ones from that season that BBC London still had in full PAL colour at that time. Frontier in Space and Planet of the Daleks would not have been supplied because by 1976 there were already episodes missing. (Could it be that Carnival of Monsters was also missing some of its episodes in 1976, which is why it was not sold to Canada?)

Transmission

Dr Who and the Daleks; Vancouver Sun, 11 September 1976

Dr Who and the Daleks; Vancouver Sun, 11 September 1976

Dr Who and the Daleks preview; Vancouver Sun, 11 September 1976

After an eleven year gap, Doctor Who returned to Canada, skipping the entire Patrick Troughton era, and starting with Jon Pertwee.

A week after the 11 September 1976 screening of "Dr Who and the Daleks", CKVU commenced regular weekly broadcasts of the Doctor Who series from Saturday, 18 September 1976, at 10.00am. (TV Ontario also commenced regular weekly screenings on this same day, but in the later timeslot of 7.30pm.)

The first billing was for 10.00 to 11.00, but the following week it was 10.00 to 11.30. The next six were 10.00 to 11.00. From 13 November through to the end of the run on 18 December 1976 the slot was for only half an hour, 10.30 to 11.00. Presumably the hour-long slots were two episodes aired back to back.

It's not clear whether the 90 minute slot given to the 25 September billing was a printing error or it's an indication that three episodes aired that day.

This fourteen week run therefore consisted of either 22 or 23 episodes. This could be four 4-parters and one 6-parter, or one 4-parter and three 6-parters, or four 4-parters and one 7-parter.

The series returned seven months later, on Saturday, 9 July 1977, in half hour slots at 10.30am. This moved to 10.00am from 17 September. For one single day - 8 October - the timeslot was a full hour, 10.00 to 11.00. It was back to half hours from 10.30 the following week until 5 November. There were no TV listings in the 12 November issue of the newspaper, but the series was absent from all subsequent listings.

Due to the 8 October 'double-up' and the absence of listings on 12 November, it is not clear exactly how many episodes aired in this second block,; the episode count is therefore 18, 19 or 20.

Like the previous block, the possible combinations of 4-, 6- and 7-parters are numerous. (It's possible that Ray Seredin is out by two years; did Inferno screen in September 1977?)

There were no listings at all for Doctor Who during 1978; there were no newspapers available from November 1978 to June 1979, and no listings for the series between July 1979 and August 1980.

The series returned in half hour slots on Saturday, 6 September 1980, at 10.00am. This twelve-week run ended on 22 November 1980. These would have been three 4-parters or two 6-parters.

Accordingly to this POSTER to an old rec.arts.drwho forum, one of these two serials was The Green Death.

(Assuming there had been no repeats or pre-emptions - and not taking into account there being screenings during the period in which newspapers were missing - potentially 55 episodes had screened on CKVU by this time.)

Seven months later, from Saturday, 25 July 1981, now at the later time of 11.30am, Doctor Who returned for a non-stop run of 59 weeks, which ended on 4 September 1982.

With there being (we assume) 73 episodes to account for, presumably this final run consisted entirely of repeats.

As Dean Shewring noted in TARDIS, there were often pre-emptions for sports and other shows, so there may have been breaks we've not accounted for during these four runs.

With 22 or 23 episodes in the first run; 18, 19 or 20 in the second, and 12 in the third, that leaves as many as 20 unaccounted for. Allowing for double episodes, there may very well have been ten weeks of screenings in the "missing" period.

Fate of the Tapes

CKVU's rights to screen Doctor Who ended in December 1982.

A number of the NTSC colour video tapes of the Pertwee stories that had screened across Canada, were found and returned to the BBC, who had those episodes only on black and white 16mm film:

CKVU returned to the BBC copies of three complete colour stories:

• - by March 1983:
  • Colony in Space
  • The Sea Devils
• - by December 1983:
  • Inferno

TV Listings

One hour listing; Vancouver Sun, 18 September 1976

Generic one hour listing; Vancouver Sun, 6 November 1976

TV listings have been obtained from the Vancouver Sun. In all cases, the series was billed as "Dr Who". None of the listings gives a story title.

In the Sun, TV schedules were presented in a grid table, with each 'square' representing an hour, with the square containing four rows of text, each representing 15 minute intervals. An hour-long show would therefore be listed inside the square four times, a half-hour twice. Programmes of longer durations would carry over into the square below.

For the "Movie: Dr Who and the Daleks", the listing filled one square, and half the next, which is 90 minutes. (The movie also had a preview in the same issue.)

For the following week's listing, the billing was given as "Dr Who And The Daleks Cont". It's unlikely this was still the same movie, or the 1966 sequel, as the next six listings also used the same unusual billing. (The word "Daleks" was misprinted as "Delecks" for some of these.)

From 6 November 1976, the billings were shortened to just "Dr Who", initially appearing four times inside the square (one hour) then from 13 November just on the third and fourth lines (half an hour).

Issues of the Vancouver Sun were not available from 1 November 1978 to the end of June 1979, so it is not known if any episodes aired during that eight month period.

According to Ray Seredin (above) he saw Inferno in September 1979, however there were no billings for the series in that month. (He may have his dates slightly wrong; is he referring instead to the September 1977 screenings?)

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