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).
DALEK MOVIES
PETER CUSHING Movies
The first Peter Cushing Dalek 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 – see below.
BBC Records
The Stanmark Productions Ltd advertisement from 1966, identifies Gibraltar as one of the sixteen countries screening Doctor Who by January 1966.
Gibraltar is named in the list of 27 countries in The Making of Doctor Who 1972 Piccolo edition.
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 probably includes the same 10 Pertwees from the 1977 list, plus an additional 34 stories. This could be three more Pertwees, seven Davisons, and 24 Bakers... OR just three Pertwees, seven Davisons and 34 Bakers…
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 outside the UK 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 (Programmes) Ltd).
PATRICK TROUGHTON
Thirteen stories, 80 episodes, which aired out of order:
| 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 |
| TT | The Dominators | 5 |
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 prints of the first stories six stories in the above table most likely came directly from the BBC (it's possible the film prints were ones originally struck for but not bought by New Zealand).
The other seven stories would probably have been supplied directly by the BBC, struck especially for this sale (and perhaps for the purposes of establishing a new Bicycling Chain for Africa?).
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. Four of the stories not sold – DDD, FFF, JJJ and TTT - 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 first three Pertwees were likely supplied by the BBC directly (and could be prints originally struck for but not purchased by New Zealand), or they were bicycled over from Singapore, whilst the prints for seasons eight and nine were (also) supplied by Singapore and season ten from Hong Kong. The Time Warrior was likely provided by Australia.
TOM BAKER
Seventeen identified stories, 70 episodes:
| 4A | Robot | 4 |
| 4B | The Sontaran Experiment | 2 |
| 4C | The Ark in Space | 4 |
| 4E | Genesis of the Daleks | 6 |
| 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.
(*) There are 32 unnamed episodes in the newspapers. This is made up of two 6-parters and five 4-parters, so seven stories in total. That's 25 Tom Bakers accounted for. Two stories from season 17, and the last four from season 18 were skipped, which leaves 10 others not accounted for. 25 plus 10 = 35, plus seven Davisons is 42, two short of the "44" recoded on BBC records. (Anecdotal evidence suggests there were more Bakers to screen than we've accounted for – the reasons for this are covered below.)
On that basis, those marked # might be the unnamed stories that fill the 32 airdates that have been found, and those marked * may have aired in 1979:
| 4D | Revenge of the Cybermen * | 4 |
| 4F | Terror of the Zygons * | 4 |
| 4G | Pyramids of Mars * | 4 |
| 4H | Planet of Evil * | 4 |
| 4J | The Android Invasion * | 4 |
| 4K | The Brain of Morbius * | 4 |
| 4L | The Seeds of Doom * | 6 |
| 4M | The Masque of Mandragora * | 4 |
| 4N | The Hand of Fear * | 4 |
| 4P | The Deadly Assassin * | 4 |
| 4Q | The Face of Evil * | 4 |
| 4R | The Robots of Death # | 4 |
| 4S | The Talons of Weng-Chiang # | 6 |
| 4V | Horror of Fang Rock # | 4 |
| 4T | The Invisible Enemy # | 4 |
| 4X | Image of the Fendahl # | 4 |
| 4W | The Sun Makers # | 4 |
| 4Z | The Invasion of Time # | 6 |
Gibraltar did skip some stories from season 17, so there is the possibility that some of these were also skipped. Remember, there are "44" stories sold to be accounted for…
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, and 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.
Doctor Who would not return to GBC for another five years…
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!
As noted above, 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?
Gibraltar most likely sent its prints of the first eleven stories to Aden, which was the next country in the TIE Ltd distribution network to screen the series (starting in July 1965).
The remaining season two serials probably went to Zambia.
.
PATRICK TROUGHTON
After a log gap of five years and three months, Doctor Who returned – on Monday, 14 February 1972, at 8.00pm – but with an entirely new Doctor. If BBC records are accurate, the first serial to air was the season six Patrick Troughton story, The Mind Robber. (Gibraltar viewers had therefore completely missed out on all of seasons three to five.)
For one week only, the series shifted to Tuesday, 25 April – for part six of The Invasion.
39 weeks later, on 6 November 1972, viewers saw the Doctor exiled to Earth...
.
JON PERTWEE
The week following, on Monday, 13 November 1972, the Pertwee era commenced, at 8.00pm. The third episode of Doctor Who and the Silurians was moved to 26 December, to allow for the Christmas Day schedules. The run of 18 episodes from Pertwees first season ended on 12 March 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.)
.
PATRICK TROUGHTON (continued)
The week following part seven of The Ambassadors of Death, viewers saw the return of Patrick Troughton as the Doctor! But this time GBC jumped back to the previously-skipped season five. Starting with The Abominable Snowmen, this run of six 6-parters and one 5-parter played over a period of 41 weeks, from Monday, 19 March 1973, with a shift to Saturdays from 20 October 1973 with The Wheel in Space part two. The final Troughton episode to air was part five of The Dominators on 22 December 1973.
The timeslot changed several times, from 8.00pm, to 7.30pm, to 7.04pm.
Fate of the Prints?
The first four season five serials probably went to Zambia soon after broadcast.
Gibraltar was the last ever country to screen Fury from the Deep, The Mind Robber and The Invasion in the 1970s.
All the other Troughton stories were probably junked or returned to the BBC. (There's a very high likelihood that the small batch of random episodes from season six still held in 1978 came from the GBC. Indeed, the existing prints of The Invasion may have come from Gibraltar.) .
JON PERTWEE (continued)
One week later, in the final week of 1973, viewers saw the return of Jon Pertwee, at 7.06pm. Picking up from where the previous run of third Doctor adventures had left off, the new run opened with Terror of the Autons, on 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, starting with Troughton who turned into Pertwee, then back to Troughton, and back 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 those two serials at least 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. (It's possible that the GBC had sent its unaired prints of The Sea Devils to Ascension Island and didn't get them back, and thus had to procure a replacement set!)
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 had been 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. The films were either junked or returned to the BBC.
.
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, with all but the last episode – on 26 December 1978 - screening at 7.55pm.
For reasons not clear, the GBC skipped over Jon Pertwees final three stories (which would have been available in colour), and instead elected to screen the Tom Baker stories.
The next billed episodes of Doctor Who do not appear in the newspapers until January 1980. However, Duncan, who lived in Gibraltar until early 1980, clearly recalls watching the series early evening on Saturdays (around 5.30pm) during 1979 (ON THIS FORUM). Newspapers for that whole year were checked, but it was noted that the TV listings for Saturdays started from 7.30pm, so if Doctor Who did indeed air at the earlier time of 5.30pm, then the listings for that timeslot were not published in the Chronicle.
- Indeed, the World Radio Television Handbooks published during the 1970s record the Gibraltar television schedules as running from 1100-1300, then from 1500-2300, which does support there being several hours of programming in the afternoon / early evening that wasn't advertised in the newspaper.
The next clear billing for Doctor Who in the Chronicle is for Tuesday, 29 January 1980. It's possible that the series was moved from Saturday 5.30pm to Tuesday 7.00pm at this point, and therefore this block of 14 episodes is only the tail end of the longer (missing) 1979 run.
As noted above, the episodes that could have aired in 1979 would be Revenge of the Cybermen to The Face of Evil (eleven stories, 46 episodes), with The Robots of Death being the first to air in the new Tuesday time slot…
This new 14-week run commenced on Tuesday, 29 January 1980, with episodes at 7.25, 7.30 or 7.35pm. No titles were given, but this run would have been made up of one 6-parter and two 4-parters, so probably The Robots of Death, The Talons of Weng-Chiang and Horror of Fang Rock.
After a break of three months, a 35 week / 34 episode run (there was no episode on 25 December 1980) commenced on Thursday, 24 July, at 7.00pm. 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. Aside from two of them being Underworld parts one and two, the 20 first unnamed episodes of this block would be presumably the rest of season 15: The Invisible Enemy, Image of the Fendahl, The Sun Makers, and a very much out-of-order The Invasion of Time, being the required 6-parter to make up the episode count.
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 1982, with part four of Nightmare of Eden; for reasons unknown these two stories were swapped in order.
Almost a whole year to the day later, the series returned on Friday, 8 July 1983, at 7.30pm, with Tom Baker's final run of episodes, commencing 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...
.
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.)
Fate of the Tapes?
Some of (if not all) the Tom Baker stories and Four to Doomsday were likely sent to Swaziland, where they aired a matter of only months after the Gibraltar screenings.
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!
.
PETER DAVISON (continued)
Two and a half years after Four to Doomsday had aired, a further run of 23 Peter Davison episodes commenced on Friday, 4 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 most of the episodes of Doctor Who (plus a run of repeats).
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.
NOTE: The dates that appear in some of the scans are for the answers to the previous day's crossword (the puzzle was printed above the TV listings).
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 Who 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.
The 7 and 21 November listings had "To be announced" in the 7.55pm timeslot; presumably Doctor Who played both of these, and coincided with the start of a new serial.
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".
There were five listings for "Castrouala" (sic), so presumably one of these episodes was pre-empted.
The edition that covered 11 July 1986 carried a short article called "REGENERATED DOCTOR – SERIES SAVED", which looked at how the series is "saved" with each change of lead actor. Peter Davison is said to be "3 years old", clearly a typo for 30! The timing of this article is rather odd, as it was published mid-way through rather than at the start of Peter Davison's run – and although it mentions "Logopolis" and (with correct spelling) "Castrovalva" there's no certainty that Tom Baker's last story screened in Gibraltar…
BUT: There is the minute possibility that the final 4-parter in 1983 wasn't Four to Doomsday after all but was State of Decay or Warriors' Gate or The Keeper of Traken or Logopolis, and that the 1986 run opened with the subsequent Tom Baker episodes, with Castrovalva airing in July to coincide with the article. But that means the Chronicle published the wrong episode titles for four weeks running in October 1983 and again in April to May 1986. Is that likely? Wouldn't they have been notified of the 'correct' titles by the GBC, who would have provided them with the billings in the first place? And that also means that following Castrovalva was one more 4-parter and a 2-parter (presumably Black Orchid).
Gibraltar in Doctor Who
- Jago mentions the Rock of Gibraltar in The Talons of Weng-Chiang.
