Poland

POLAND is in Eastern Europe.

Profile

Country Number (N/K)	1990s	THIRD WAVE
Region	Europe
Television commenced	1951 (post war)
Colour System	1971	SECAM
Colour System	1995	PAL
Language/s	Polish	Dubbed or Narrated

Television Stations / Channels

Poland began its television service in 1953. There is one national television broadcaster - Telewizja Polska (TVP1). The country is also served by numerous private stations.

Colour transmissions began in 1971 using the SECAM colour broadcast system that was common throughout Europe. TVP changed to the PAL system in 1995.

In Poland, foreign programmes are usually always dubbed.

By the 2000s, Poland had satellite stations. It was on digital station TELE5 (launched on 19 April 2002) that Doktor Who aired 2002 to 2003. (TELE 5 broadcast off the Astra-satellite, orbital position: 19,2° East, 10.832Ghz, horizontal, 27500Bytes)

DOCTOR WHO (DOKTOR WHO) IN POLAND

Poland was one of the last – at least ahead of Sweden – countries in Europe to screen the series (see Selling Doctor Who).

In Polish, the series was probably called Doktor Who or Doktora Who.

BBC Records

Poland is not mentioned in The Seventies, The Handbook or DWM.

The Polish version of WikiPedia: (POLISH DOCTOR WHO) says:

W Polsce widzowie mogli po raz pierwszy zobaczyć Doktora Who w październiku 1979 r., kiedy TVP1 pokazała dwa niekanoniczne filmy kinowe o jego przygodach (Dr Who wśród Daleków oraz Inwazja Daleków). Na początku lat 90. XX w. jedna z prywatnych stacji telewizyjnych wyemitowała kilkanaście odcinków z Tomem Bakerem w roli czwartej inkarnacji Doktora. W 1997 r. TVP1 pokazała film telewizyny BBC Doctor Who z 1996 r.

This translates as:

In Poland, viewers could see Doctor Who in October 1979, when TVP1 showed two non-canonical motion picture adventures ("Dr Who and the Daleks" and "The Invasion of the Daleks"). In the early 1990s, one of the private television stations aired a dozen episodes with Tom Baker as the fourth incarnation of the Doctor. In 1997, TVP1 showed the 1996 BBC TV Movie "Doctor Who".

2003 Panopticon Handbook – 40 Fabulous Facts

It is not known what "private station" this is, as no private TV stations are recorded in the 1990 or any subsequent World Radio Television Handbook. A list of current Polish TV stations – both public and private - can be seen HERE.

Of these, the most likely station to have carried Doctor Who in the early 1990s is the privately-owned commercial station Polonia 1, as it appears to be the only one that was in operation at the time in question, having been launched in March 1993.

(An unofficial site by fans of Polonia 1 has quite an extensive online "archive" of material, including lists and examples of daily schedules of the various programmes the station aired over the years (see POLONIA 1), but despite our searching for references to Doctor Who or Doktor Who, none could be found. Of course, not being able to read Polish doesn't exactly help...)

Poland is mentioned as having aired the series in the 2003 Panopticon Convention souvenir handbook, under the 40 Fabulous Facts section: "Doctor Who has been shown in 66 countries around the world, from Abu Dhabi and Algeria, to Poland, Qatar, Taiwan and Zimbabwe". (The reference to 66 countries is out slightly – at best count, Polish was nearer the 70th mark...)

The inclusion of Poland in this publication would probably be in relation to the then-recent screenings of Tom Baker stories on the Polish satellite station TELE5, from early 2002 to mid-2003, which oddly enough is not mentioned in the Wikipedia entry... Unless the Wiki entry reference to "early 1990s" is actually wrong, and they are instead referring to the TELE5 broadcasts...?

Stories bought and broadcast

PETER CUSHING MOVIES

• "Dr Who and the Daleks"
• "Daleks Invasion Earth 2150 AD"

TOM BAKER

1990s

It is not known which Tom Baker stories would have been screened in the 1990s, but since the BBC always seemed to offer new purchasers Baker's first season - starting with Robot – it's likely these stories were the ones seen.

If the Wikipedia summary is correct, the dozen episodes would be three 4-parters, or one 2-parter plus a 4-parter and a 6-parter.

PAUL McGANN

TVM

The TV Movie

1

TOM BAKER (Continued)

2000s

Nine stories, 36 episodes (not in correct story order):

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
4A	Robot	4
4B	The Sontaran Experiment	2
4C	The Ark in Space	4

TELE5 may have purchased the same dubbed episodes that had been used by the other Polish station, plus additional episodes, which were either dubbed into Polish, or broadcast in English but with Polish "narration" voice-over.

Transmission

• The two Peter Cushing Dalek movies aired on television in October 1979.
• A run of Tom Baker stories (a dozen episodes?) aired in the early 1990s.
• The 1996 Paul McGann TV Movie was screened by Filmnet. The sale of the film was reported in issue 235 (October 1996) of the DWAS newsletter Celestial Toyroom. Reportedly, Filmnet had the rights to screen the movie fifteen times!

TELE5 (2002-2003)

First TELE5 listing for "Doktor Who", 20 April 2002

"Doktor Who", episode 7 of 26, 10 August 2002

"Doktor Who", episode 8 of 26, 11 August 2002

Starting from Saturday, 20 April 2002, the Polish satellite station TELE5 commenced a run of 26 Tom Baker episodes, running Saturdays and Sundays at 9.30am. As far as can be determined, this run of episodes consisted of Genesis of the Daleks through to The Android Invasion. The run was cycled through at least three times. For the second run, the times shifted to 8.25, 8.30 or 8.35am. (Episodes 7 and 8 were repeated on 10 and 11 August 2002 – see clippings.)

These episodes aired in Polish, or English, but with Polish narration.

At some point in early 2003, the slot changed to weekdays, at 4.40pm, then to 7.00pm by July 2003. It appears that for this 2003 run of episodes, TELE5 aired season 12 only – being 20 episodes covering Robot to Revenge of the Cybermen; there were 10 new episodes not included in the 2002 package. After being cycled through several times, this 20 episode run ended by August 2003.

TV listings

No detailed TV listings have been found for the early runs. If you are able to assist, please drop us a line.

The TELE5 screenings summary has been collated from Benjamin F Elliott's online THIS WEEK IN DOCTOR WHO, and from TELE5 LISTINGS

Novelisations

Three of the Target novels were published in Poland, issued by Publishing Empire in 1993-1994:

• Dzień Daleków (translates as Day Daleks) (Day of the Daleks)
• Wladcy Czasu (translates as Rulers of Time) (The Three Doctors)
• Zemsta Cyborgów (translates as Revenge Cyborgs) (Revenge of the Cybermen)

Poland in Doctor Who

• The Doctor mentions Polish astronomer, Nicolas Copernicus (Robot).
• Actress Ingrid Pitt (The Time Monster, Warriors of the Deep) was born in Poland.
• Poland was annexed by Hitler in 1938, an event the Doctor attributes to the influence of the Silver Nemesis.
• Tomek Bork (Captain Sorin, The Curse of Fenric), was born in Poland.
• The Doctor claims to have known Polish-born scientist, Marie Curie (TV Movie).

Links

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• Doctors
  • Tom Baker stories
  • Paul McGann stories