The Tomb of the Cybermen

Story Code: MM / Season 5	UK Airdate: 2 Sep to 23 Sep 1967	Doctor: Patrick Troughton
First airings by location	UK Repeats / Foreign Cable and Satellite	Previous Story / Next Story

This story aired in the following four countries. They are listed in chronological order according to known airdate. (Refer also to Selling Doctor Who for expanded airdates.)

Australia	Jul 68	b/w
Singapore	Feb 70	b/w
Hong Kong	Jun 70	b/w
New Zealand	Aug 70	b/w

• The films were evaluated by the Australian censors on 10 January 1968, but they had to be reclassified due to issues of violence. Likewise, the New Zealand censors, who viewed their copies in December 1969, had to assess the serial twice.

• Curiously, the same four countries to screen this, were also the same four to screen The Evil of the Daleks. Why did Gibraltar, Zambia and Nigeria not pick up the serial in 1973?

• In DWM #187 (June 1992), it is claimed by writer, Adrian Rigelsford, that the film prints for The Tomb of the Cybermen were sent to Hong Kong when war broke out in an unnamed country...

• The serial was recovered in full from Hong Kong in late 1991. It was subsequently released in late 1992 for inclusion in syndication packages:

United States	1992	b/w
Canada	1990s	b/w

• The serial screened on UK Gold in October 1998.

Movement of the Films

Being one of the missing stories from the 1960s to have been recovered in its entirety, and for which there were only a few countries in which it aired, The Tomb of the Cybermen is a perfect case study for investigating and tracking the possible movements made by the prints.

Let's bullet-point the key dates:

• Australia:
  • Censored: 10 January 1968
  • Airdate: from July 1968
  • Repeat: December 1969 (Perth)

• New Zealand
  • Censored: 24-30 Oct 1969
  • Airdates (regional): August to November 1970

• Singapore
  • Airdate: February 1970

• Hong Kong
  • Originally scheduled for October 1969
  • Airdate: June to July 1970

What we can see here is that Australia had prints from January 1968 to August 1969. New Zealand held prints for over a year, from October 1969 to November 1970. New Zealand was the last of the four countries to screen the serial - so it's clear that New Zealand did not sent its prints to Singapore or Hong Kong. Presumably they were destroyed.

Hong Kong originally had the serial scheduled for October 1968, but that screening was replaced by The Abominable Snowmen. The serial did eventually air in June 1970. Why the delay? Maybe there was an issue with censorship? (Both Australia and New Zealand experienced censorship issues with this serial.) Maybe the expected film prints did not arrive on time? (Australia had finished a repeat run in August 1969 - only six weeks earlier... Was Hong Kong waiting for Australia to send these prints, and for whatever reason, they didn't arrive in time?) Maybe Australia sent the prints to New Zealand instead. (But even so, there was still plenty of time for NZ to send the prints to Hong Kong in time to meet the October airdates...)

It is also possible that Hong Kong's prints came from Singapore; there is a four month window between the two screenings. And did Singapore in turn receive its prints from Australia?

We don't know how many prints there were in circulation. The maximum would be four (one for each country), and the minimum would be two.

• If two prints in circulation:
  • A1 - Australia to Singapore to Hong Kong (found in 1991)
  • A2 - New Zealand - destroyed?

or

• • B1 - Australia to Hong Kong (found in 1991)
  • B2 - New Zealand to Singapore back to New Zealand - destroyed?

or

• • C1 - Australia to New Zealand - destroyed?
  • C2 - Singapore to Hong Kong (found in 1991)

• If three prints in circulation:
  • D1 - Australia - destroyed?
  • D2 - New Zealand - destroyed?
  • D3 - Singapore to Hong Kong (found in 1991)

or

• • E1 - Australia to Hong Kong (found in 1991)
  • E2 - New Zealand - destroyed?
  • E3 - Singapore - destroyed?

For what it's worth, we favour "three print" scenario E, as that best accommodates the fact that the serial was delayed and screened in Hong Kong months after its original scheduled airdates.

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