Turkey

TURKEY is located in eastern Europe.

Profile

Country Number (N/K)	1970s	SECOND WAVE?
Region	Europe
Television commenced	1968
Colour System	15 March 1984	PAL
Language/s	Turkish	Dubbed

Television Stations / Channels

Turkey began its television service in 1968.

There is just one television station: Turkish Radio Television Corporation (TRT).

Colour transmissions commenced on 15 March 1984, using the PAL colour broadcast system.

BBC Records

Turkey is not named in any of our main BBC Records sources.

The only reference to Turkey possibly screening Doctor Who was in DWM issue #52 (May 1981), in which a reader states: "Turkey has had the Doctor Who series for many years now but apparently the show goes out over there under the banner of "comedy"".

Given the early 1981 publication date (the letter would have been written a few months earlier), and that colour broadcasts did not commence in Turkey until 1984, any episodes of Doctor Who would have been in black and white, which probably rules out these being Tom Baker stories. (However, since early Tom Baker stories did air as black and white in Zimbabwe in 1980/81, it is not entirely impossible for Turkey to have aired Bakers rather than, say, Pertwees...)

Some indistinct BBC records indicate that sales of some early Pertwees stories were "Cancelled" in 1977/1978.

Novelisations (1975)

Turkish novelisation

Long before the television series aired (if it did!), publisher Remzi Kitabevi of Istanbul released seven of the early Hartnell, Troughton and Pertwee Target novelisations in 1975. They used the same artwork as that adorning the Target novels. These were released under the name "DOKTOR KIM":

• DOKTOR KIM VE DALEKLER (The Daleks) (The Daleks)
• DOKTOR KIM VE SIBERMENLER (The Cybermen) (The Moonbase)
• DOKTOR KIM VE KORKUNÇ KARADAMLARI (The Scary Snow Priests) (The Abominable Snowmen)
• DOKTOR KIM VE OTONLAR (The Autons) (Spearhead from Space)
• DOKTOR KIM VE GIZLI SILAH (The Secret Weapon) (Colony in Space)
• DOKTOR KIM VE DALEK BASKINI (The Dalek Attack) (Day of the Daleks)
• DOKTOR KIM VE PELADON GEZEGENI (The Peladon Planet) (The Curse of Peladon)

. .

Doktor Kim ve Dalek Baskini, as an example, has the following points of interest:

• • The Turkish equivalent of "EXTERMINATE!" is "ONLARI YOK EDIN!"
  • The head of UNIT gets a promotion to: General Alasteyr Lethbric-Stüvirt
  • The Doktor is a Zaman Lordlari
  • The Daleks have ape-like servants called Ogronlar

Stories bought and broadcast

File:TRT listing.JPG

Generic TRT TV listing, 1980 – is "Program for Children" the elusive Doctor Who?

TV listings

TOM BAKER?

The English-language newspaper, Turkish Daily News, has TV listings for TRT; the majority of programmes are local or American.

Issues covering 1977 to June 1981 have been checked, but there were no listings for Doctor Who. In the 6.30 to 7.00pm timeslot there is a generic "Program for children", so it is possible that the series did air, but without being identified by its own billings.

Turkey in Doctor Who

• The Trojan War was in Asia Minor, which is now Turkey (The Myth Makers).
• Kemel (played by Sonny Caldinez) was a wrestler from Turkey (The Evil of the Daleks).
• There was a T-MAT terminal in Izmir (The Seeds of Death).
• The Doctor thought he might have been wounded at Gallipoli (The Sea Devils).
• The Brigadier was impressed with the muscular-control of Music Hall "Turkish delight of the East", belly-dancer, Scheherezade (Planet of the Spiders).
• The Doctor acquired a hookah pipe from a Cash N Carry in Constantinople (The Deadly Assassin).
• The Doctor mentions Troy in The Stones of Blood.
• The Rani visited the Trojan War during her travels (The Mark of the Rani).
• And it was in Turkey that actor Roger Delgado (the Master) was tragically killed, on 18 June 1973.

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