Yugoslavia
YUGOSLAVIA (now Macedonia, Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina) is in eastern Europe.
Profile
| Country Number (61) | 1986 | THIRD WAVE |
| Region | Europe | |
| Television commenced | 1971 | |
| Colour System | 1971 | PAL |
| Population | 1987 | 22.875 million |
| TV Sets | 1987 | 4 million |
| Language/s | Serbo-Croatian, Slovene, Macedonian | subtitled |
Television Stations / Channels
Yugoslavia began its television service in 1971, adopting the PAL colour broadcast system.
There is just one television station: Jugoslovenska Radiotelevizija, a government-owned commercial broadcaster based in Belgrade, which operates two channels.
Foreign programmes usually retained their original soundtracks, with subtitles.
DOCTOR WHO (DOKTOR WHO) IN YUGOSLAVIA
Yugoslavia was about the 61st country to screen Doctor Who (see Selling Doctor Who). It was the seventh in Europe.
BBC Records
The Eighties - THE LOST CHAPTERS records a sale of "(3)" stories (by 10 February 1987).
The country is not named in any of the DWM story Archives.
Stories bought and broadcast
TOM BAKER
Given the proliferation of the Tom Baker stories being sold to European countries during the late 1980s (such as Spain, Turkey, France, Greece and Poland), it is more than likely to have been his stories that aired from Zagreb.
This comment on a general Croatian website (Do Croats ‘get’ the series?), which mainly covers the new series, has a general reference to the "old series":
- "The problem with the reception of Doctor Who in Croatia lies in the fact that it has been ‘marketed’ (and scheduled) as a show for kids, which – despite some episodes – it is not. On top of that, the gap between the airings of the original series (way back when) and the new is so large, the ‘new’ Doctor Who was completely lost on the generations that might have watched or have watched the ‘old’ series."
Presumably these three stories, 12 episodes:
| 4A | Robot | 4 |
| 4C | The Ark in Space | 4 |
| 4D | Revenge of the Cybermen | 4 |
Yugoslavia therefore bought three GROUP A Tom Baker stories.
The series would have been supplied as PAL colour video tapes with English soundtracks, which aired with Croatian subtitles.
Transmission
The series commenced on Sunday (Nedjelja), 5 October 1986, screening from 2.15pm to 3.15pm – presumably two episodes aired back to back.
Other timeslots during the run were 2.15 to 3.05pm, 2.00 to 2.50pm, or 2.15 to 3.15pm.
The sixth and final instalment aired on 9 November 1986, at 2.15pm to 3.15pm.
Assuming the reference to "(3)" in The Eighties is accurate, these six extended episodes were probably made up of three 4-parters, likely to have been Robot, The Ark in Space and Revenge of the Cybermen, as those three aired elsewhere at that time.
There is no clear record that "Yugoslavia" (or Croatia) screened further classic Doctor Who after 1986.
TV listings
Listings are from Glas Podravine, which is online at GLAS PODRAVINE. The paper was published weekly on Fridays but had TV listings for the upcoming full week.
All listings were for "Doktor Who", and described as a "serijski film za djecu", which is "film series for children".
Websites
The new series gets general coverage on these Croatian websites:
Yugoslavia in Doctor Who
- Chameleon Tours fly to Dubrovnik (The Faceless Ones).
- The city Belgrade is mentioned in Frontier in Space.
- The Doctor's companion Tegan Jovanka was named after Yugoslav President Tito's wife, Jovanka.
- It was because of the 1984 Winter Olympics in Yugoslavia that the BBC was forced to re-edit Resurrection of the Daleks and screen it as two-45 minute episodes.
- The abandoned Coast to Coast Doctor Who movie was to be have location-filming in Yugoslavia.
