Gibraltar
GIBRALTAR lies at the mouth of the Mediterranean Sea, on a peninsula to the south of Spain.
Profile
| Country Number (5) | 1965 | FIRST WAVE |
| Region | Europe | Commonwealth |
| Television commenced | 1962 | |
| Colour System | 1969 | PAL |
| Population | 1966 | 25,000 |
| TV Sets | 1966 | 4,500 |
| Language/s | English |
Television Stations / Channels
Gibraltar began its television service in 1962. There is just one television station: Gibraltar Broadcasting Corporation (GBC-TV), a government-owned commercial broadcaster.
Colour transmissions began in 1969 using the PAL colour broadcast system.
While the principal language of Gibraltar is English, Gibraltans could also receive broadcasts from the Spanish television station, Televisión Española (TVE); the newspapers often carried TV listings for that channel.
DOCTOR WHO IN GIBRALTAR
Gibraltar was the 5th country to screen Doctor Who; it was the first in Europe (see Selling Doctor Who).
BBC Records
The Stanmark Productions Ltd advertisement from 1966, identifies Gibraltar as one twelve countries screening Doctor Who in that year.
The Seventies records a sale of "(26)" stories by 28 February 1977. The Handbook identifies 16 of these as being: M, P, R, S, NN, OO, QQ, RR, SS, TT, UU, VV, WW, XX, YY, ZZ. The remaining 10 are Pertwees.
The Eighties - THE LOST CHAPTERS records a sale of "(44)" stories (by 10 February 1987). This total includes the same 10 Pertwees from the 1977 list, plus an additional 34 stories. (Our Airdates summary actually accounts for 37 additional stories, so presumably when the February 1987 tally was compiled, three stories had not yet been officially "purchased"...)
In DWM, sales to Gibraltar are identified in 38 story Archives: the above 16, plus an additional 22: A, C, N, Q, PP, AAA, BBB, CCC, EEE, GGG, HHH, KKK, MMM, LLL, OOO, QQQ, SSS, UUU, 4A, 4C, 4B, and 4D. These sales span 1965 to 1978.
Stories bought and broadcast
WILLIAM HARTNELL
Seventeen stories, 81 episodes:
| A | An Unearthly Child | 4 |
| B | The Daleks | 7 |
| C | Inside the Spaceship | 2 |
| D | Marco Polo | 7 |
| E | The Keys of Marinus | 6 |
| F | The Aztecs | 4 |
| G | The Sensorites | 6 |
| H | The Reign of Terror | 6 |
| J | Planet of Giants | 3 |
| K | The Dalek Invasion of Earth | 6 |
| L | The Rescue | 2 |
| M | The Romans | 4 |
| N | The Web Planet | 6 |
| P | The Crusade | 4 |
| Q | The Space Museum | 4 |
| R | The Chase | 6 |
| S | The Time Meddler | 4 |
Gibraltar therefore bought GROUP A, B and C of the William Hartnell stories.
The programme was supplied as 16mm black and white film prints with English soundtracks.
Origin of the Prints?
Gibraltar was the first country in Europe to screen the series, so it would have been supplied with brand new prints from its distributor, which was Television International Enterprises Ltd (TIE Ltd).
PATRICK TROUGHTON
Thirteen stories, 80 episodes, which aired out of order:
| TT | The Dominators | 5 |
| UU | The Mind Robber | 5 |
| VV | The Invasion | 8 |
| WW | The Krotons | 4 |
| XX | The Seeds of Death | 6 |
| YY | The Space Pirates | 6 |
| ZZ | The War Games | 10 |
| NN | The Abominable Snowmen | 6 |
| OO | The Ice Warriors | 6 |
| PP | The Enemy of the World | 6 |
| The Web of Fear | 6 | |
| RR | Fury from the Deep | 6 |
| SS | The Wheel in Space | 6 |
Gibraltar therefore bought GROUP D, E and F of the Patrick Troughton stories, albeit out of order.
The programme was supplied as 16mm black and white film prints with English soundtracks.
Origin of the Prints?
The Troughton prints may have come from Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore or New Zealand.
JON PERTWEE
Sixteen stories, 82 episodes, some of which aired out of order:
| AAA | Spearhead from Space | 4 |
| BBB | Doctor Who and the Silurians | 7 |
| CCC | The Ambassadors of Death | 7 |
| EEE | Terror of the Autons | 4 |
| GGG | The Claws of Axos | 4 |
| HHH | Colony in Space | 6 |
| KKK | Day of the Daleks | 4 |
| MMM | The Curse of Peladon | 4 |
| NNN | The Mutants | 6 |
| OOO | The Time Monster | 6 |
| SSS | Planet of the Daleks | 6 |
| LLL | The Sea Devils | 6 |
| PPP | Carnival of Monsters | 4 |
| QQQ | Frontier in Space | 6 |
| RRR | The Three Doctors | 4 |
| UUU | The Time Warrior | 4 |
Gibraltar therefore bought parts of GROUPs A, B, C, D and E of the Jon Pertwee stories. Three of the stories not sold – DDD, FFF, JJJ - were not available to Commonwealth countries, due to the censorship problems in Australia. Gibraltar also did not screen the bulk of season 11, which was available only on PAL video tapes.
This may seem odd, after all, the GBC had been broadcasting colour since 1969 – however it is more than likely that colour transmissions were from film only; the broadcaster was not geared up for transmitting from video tape until late 1977/early 1978, in time to screen Tom Baker stories.
The TV listings during the Pertwee runs often included those for TVE in Spain – and these listings often included a (c) symbol, which indicated colour. The fact that none of the Gibraltar listings for Doctor Who are noted as being colour, does support that they were all in black and white up until 1978.
The programme was supplied as 16mm black and white film prints with English soundtracks.
Origin of the Prints?
The Pertwees may have come from Australia, Hong Kong or Singapore.
TOM BAKER
Seventeen identified stories, 68 episodes:
Seven unidentified stories, 32 episodes:
| 4A | Robot | 4 |
| 4B | The Sontaran Experiment | 2 |
| 4C | The Ark in Space | 4 |
| 4D | Revenge of the Cybermen | 4 |
| . | several unknown stories | 32 |
| 4Y | Underworld | 4 |
| 5A | The Ribos Operation | 4 |
| 5B | The Pirate Planet | 4 |
| 5C | The Stones of Blood | 4 |
| 5D | The Androids of Tara | 4 |
| 5E | The Power of Kroll | 4 |
| 5F | The Armageddon Factor | 6 |
| 5G | The Creature from the Pit | 4 |
| 5L | The Horns of Nimon | 4 |
| 5K | Nightmare of Eden | 4 |
| 5N | The Leisure Hive | 4 |
| 5Q | Meglos | 4 |
| 5R | Full Circle | 4 |
Gibraltar therefore bought from (at least) GROUPs A, D, E, F and G of the Tom Baker stories.
The programme was supplied as PAL colour video tapes with English soundtracks.
PETER DAVISON
Seven stories, 26 episodes, some of which aired out of order:
| 5W | Four to Doomsday | 4 |
| 5Z | Castrovalva | 4 |
| 5Y | Kinda | 4 |
| 5X | The Visitation | 4 |
| 6A | Black Orchid | 2 |
| 6B | Earthshock | 4 |
| 6C | Time-Flight | 4 |
Gibraltar therefore bought most of GROUP A of the Peter Davison stories.
The programme was supplied as PAL colour video tapes with English soundtracks.
Transmission
WILLIAM HARTNELL
The series started on Thursday, 8 April 1965, at 8.00pm. With the third episode, the series moved to Tuesdays, at 7.50pm. From 5 March 1966 it moved to Saturdays, at 7.40pm, where it remained for the rest of the run, which finished on 12 November 1966, a 19-month continuous run.
There are 84 weeks on which the series is listed, but only 81 episodes to account for, so presumably three episodes were pre-empted. One of these extra dates appears to have been 30 July 1966, as there are five listings for The Crusade. It's possible the other two pre-emptions occurred when the day of the week changed.
Ironically, the programme that followed Doctor Who during much of this run was the ITV series "Richard the Lionheart", which played its final episode, "The People's King", on 2 July 1966, the week before the Doctor Who serial The Crusade aired!
On a connected note, the Peter Cushing film, "Dr Who and the Daleks" (U certificate) commenced its four day run at the Queen's Cinema, 2 to 5 July 1966, with sessions at 6.30 and 9.30pm daily. The Web Planet was on TV at the time.
Fate of the Prints?
Aden and Nigeria were the next two countries to screen the series that had distribution by Television International Enterprises Ltd (TIE Ltd), so it's possible that the first eleven Hartnells were sent to either of those two countries.
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PATRICK TROUGHTON
Five years and three months later, Doctor Who returned – on Monday, 14 February 1972, at 8.00pm. This was the Patrick Troughton story The Dominators. For one week only, the series shifted to Tuesday, 25 April - part one of The Invasion.
44 weeks later, on 11 December 1973, viewers saw the Doctor exiled to Earth...
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JON PERTWEE
The following week, 18 December 1973, the Pertwee era commenced at 8.00pm. The next episode was moved to 26 December, to allow for the Christmas Day schedules. The run of 18 episodes from Pertwees first season ended on 16 April 1973.
(Inferno did not screen, due to censorship problems with the serial in Australia, an issue which affected all sales of that serial to other Commonwealth territories.)
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PATRICK TROUGHTON (continued)
The week following part seven of The Ambassadors of Death, viewers saw the return of Patrick Troughton as the Doctor! Six 6-part Troughton stories played, over a period of 36 weeks and episodes from 23 April to 22 December 1973, with a shift from Mondays to Saturdays from 20 October 1973. The final Troughton episode was part six of The Wheel in Space on 22 December 1973.
The timeslot changed several times, from 8.00pm, to 7.30pm, to 7.04pm.
Fate of the Prints?
Gibraltar was the last ever country to screen Fury from the Deep and The Mind Robber in the 1970s. The other Troughtons may have been sent on to Zambia or Nigeria.
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JON PERTWEE (continued)
One week later, in the final week of 1973, was the return of Jon Pertwee, at 7.06pm. This was Terror of the Autons, 29 December 1973.
This run lasted for 34 weeks, taking the series to the end of season 9, with The Time Monster on 15 August 1974.
As before, two stories (The Mind of Evil and The Daemons) did not air, due to censorship issues in Australia. Also skipped at this time was The Sea Devils, but unlike the other two serials, this would be scheduled for screening at a later time...
By this time, viewers had enjoyed a non-stop run of 132 episodes, over a 30 month period, skipping from Troughton to Pertwee to Troughton to Pertwee!
Two and a half years later, on 4 January 1977, the GBC recommenced the series, on Tuesdays, at 8.00pm. This was a 30 week run, that ended on 26 July 1977.
Although GBC-TV could transmit in colour, these episodes were still in black and white. (By late 1975, the BBC had wiped the colour video tapes of Frontier in Space and Planet of the Daleks, so at least those two serials certainly played in black and white in Gibraltar.)
For reasons unknown, the run opened with Planet of the Daleks, followed by The Sea Devils, which had been missed during the 1974 run. This was followed by the remaining season 10 stories (aired in production code order), with the run ending with The Time Warrior; this was the final story that the BBC supplied on 16mm film. (The Green Death was missed, as it had been rejected in Australia.)
Fate of the Prints?
Gibraltar was the last country to screen these Pertwees in black and white.
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TOM BAKER
Just over a year later, from Tuesday, 12 September 1978, the first colour episodes of Doctor Who aired in Gibraltar. This run lasted for 16 weeks (but with a fortnight's break in November), screening at 7.55pm.
For reason not clear, the GBC skipped over Jon Pertwees final three stories (which would have been available in colour), and instead elected to screen the first fourteen Tom Baker episodes, as identified in the DWM Archives.
Doctor Who did not air at all during 1979.
A new 14-week run commenced on Tuesday, 29 January 1980, at 7.25pm. No titles were given, but this run would have been made up of one 6-parter and two 4-parters. (The 6-parter would most likely be Genesis of the Daleks; the other stories probably from season 13.) The run ended on 29 April 1980.
After a break of three months, a 35 week / 34 episode run (there was no episode on 25 December 1980) commenced on 24 July, at 7.00. The 1 January 1981 episode aired at the earlier time of 5.40pm. The last 14 episodes of this run can be identified by name: Underworld, The Ribos Operation (billed as "The Rivals Operation"!) and The Stones of Blood are named.
The first 18 episodes of this run are not so readily indentifiable – but must consist of one 6-parter and three 4-parters. The 6-parter would be either The Seeds of Doom or The Talons of Weng-Chiang; it’s unlikely to have been The Invasion of Time. At a guess, these episodes were probably all from season 13. (Therefore, season 14 and all but one story from season 15 did not screen in Gibraltar.)
This run ended on 19 March 1981 with part four of The Stones of Blood.
Three months later, the series picked up from where it left of, with The Androids of Tara, on 19 June 1981, playing on Fridays at 7.30pm or 7.25pm. The 18 week run concluded with part four of The Creature from the Pit on 16 October 1981. (Like many countries, Gibraltar was not sold Destiny of the Daleks or City of Death.)
After a six month break, 29 April 1982 had part one of The Horns of Nimon at 7.25pm. This 8-week run (on Thursdays) ended on 17 June, with part four of Nightmare of Eden; for reasons unknown these two stories were swapped in order.
Almost a whole year to the day, the series returned on Friday, 8 July 1983, at 7.30pm, with Tom Baker's final run of episodes, commencing with with The Leisure Hive, followed by Meglos and Full Circle.
Viewers in Gibraltar saw part four of Full Circle on 23 September 1983, almost exactly five years after they had seen Baker's debut in 1978...
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PETER DAVISON
The following week, on 30 September 1983, Gibraltans found themselves watching a new Doctor, as Peter Davison's second story Four to Doomsday aired. Four weeks later, on 21 October, the 16 week run came to an end.
(Exactly one month later, on 29 October 1983, viewers in Swaziland also experienced this unusual jump from Full Circle to Four to Doomsday... This can't have been a coincidence, and must be due to some sales restriction or policy of the BBC's at the time.)
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TOM BAKER (repeats)
When Doctor Who returned a year later, on 9 October 1984, it was for eight weeks of repeats, with two Tom Baker serials from the 1981 runs, The Stones of Blood and The Androids of Tara. The repeats (at a 7.25pm timeslot) ended on 27 November 1984.
Seven months later, from 5 to 26 June 1985, on Wednesdays at 7.25pm, there was a repeat screening of The Pirate Planet. An odd choice as this came before the two serials that were repeated in 1984!
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PETER DAVISON (continued)
Two and a half years after Four to Doomsday had aired, a further run of 22 Peter Davison episodes commenced on Friday, 11 April 1986, at 7.25pm. The first serial was billed as "Castrouala" (sic), a misspelling of Davison's debut serial Castrovalva. Given that Four to Doomsday had already played in 1983, this rest of this run most likely consisted of his first full season; ending with Time-Flight on 5 September 1986.
Between April 1965 and September 1986 (21 years) GBC had screened 369 episodes of Doctor Who (plus 12 repeats), and which consisted of 77 stories.
There is no clear record that Gibraltar screened the series again after 1986.
TV listings
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← AIRDATES ...... (CLICK ICON TO GO TO TABLE SHOWING EPISODE BREAKDOWN AND AIRDATES - N/S = story title is Not Stated) |
All listings are from Gibraltar Chronicle.
1960s
The series was billed as "Dr Who". The first episode that could be identified was billed as "E6" (e.g. The Keys of Marinus, part six) on 5 October 1965.
Interestingly, rather than using the individual episode titles, several of the stories are named with the overall title for the complete serial: "Dr Who and The Sensorites, "Dr Who and The Romans, "Dr on The Web Planet" and "Dr Who and The Crusade".
The second episode of The Web Planet was incorrectly billed as "Crater of Needles, which is the fourth episode.
The 4 July 1966 issue of the Chronicle also ran a review of the Peter Cushing film, "Dr Who and the Daleks". The Evening Standard reviewer is quoted as saying: "It thrilled even someone like me, who doesn't give a damn who's who".
There were five listings for The Crusade – presumably one of these was pre-empted.
1970s
The series was still billed as "Dr Who". On 17 September 1973, a misprint gave the series title as "Dr Wo".
Frontier in Space was pluralised as "Frontiers in Space". The fourth episode of The Three Doctors was also billed as "Frontiers in Space".
None of the episodes during the 12 September to 26 December 1978 run were named; the first was simply billed as "Dr Who "Episode 1", the next was "Dr Who (c)", which indicated that this was in colour. The 10 October listing was labelled "Dr Who – Episode One", signalling the start of a new serial.
There was no episode on 14 November 1978, and both 7 and 21 November listings had "To be announced" in the 7.55pm timeslot; presumably Doctor Who played the latter of these.
1980s
The series was still "Dr Who".
For the 1981 runs, some misprints in the titles occurred, with "The Rivals Operation", "The Power of the Kroll", and "The Armagedon Factor" (minus one "D") appearing in the paper. The 22 July 1983 billing had "The Leisure Have".
Gibraltar in Doctor Who
- Jago mentions the Rock of Gibraltar in The Talons of Weng-Chiang.
