Czech Republic
The CZECH REPUBLIC (also known as Czechia; formerly part of Czechoslovakia, until 1 January 1993) is in Central Europe. It is bordered by Germany, Poland, Austria and Slovakia.
Profile
| Country Number (N/K) | 2000s | Selling Doctor Who |
| Region | Europe | |
| Television commenced | May 1953 | |
| Colour System | 1973 | SECAM |
| TV Sets | 1990 | 4,400,000 |
| Language/s | Czechoslovakian / Czech / Czechia | Dubbed |
Television Stations / Channels
When it was Czechoslovakia, the country had one television provider - Czechoslovak Television (founded in May 1953), which launched a SECAM colour service in 1973.
Following the formal division of the country at the end of 1992, this was replaced by Česká Televize (also known as Československa Televize), which had been launched in January 1992. The station currently operates seven channels of content.
BBC Prime was available on satellite from 1995.
Classic Doctor Who was shown briefly on CT1, and the New Series on CT2.
Languages
All foreign language programmes are dubbed.
DOCTOR WHO IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC
The only Classic series story available in the Czech Republic was the 1996 TV Movie -- but curiously, and somewhat confusingly, it was known there under two different names!
When the New Series debuted a few years later, a third distinctive title was applied.
And to add to the confusion, it was under a fourth title (!) that merchandise was available.
Stories bought and broadcast
PAUL McGANN
| TVM | The TV Movie | 1 |
Video Tape
The TV Movie was made available in the Czech Republic as a rental tape, distributed by MCA/Universal/CIC Video, and local distributor Hollywood Classic Entertainment.
Under the title "Boj S Časem" (which translates as Battle with Time), with the tag line "Ve hȑe je čas!" (It's Time!), the tape was released probably in 1996 or 1997.
The story was dubbed, with the following actors providing the voices:
- Aleš Procházka (The Doctor)
- Ljuba Krbová (Grace)
- Josef Carda (the Master)
- Saša Rašilov (Chang Lee)
Transmission
Two years later, the movie was shown on television - but under the alternative title "Doktor Kdo". This dubbed broadcast was on CT1 at 11.35pm on Saturday, 9 September 2000, with a repeat four months later, on Sunday, 25 February 2001 at 1.25am.
The translation used on television was different to that used on the earlier VHS, with another group of actors providing the voices - but with one exception:
- Aleš Procházka (The Doctor)
- Kateřina Brožová (Grace)
- Ladislav Županič (the Master)
- Michal Kozelka (Chang Lee)
Two and a half years later, the NEW SERIES commenced on channel CT2, with episodes running on a daily basis, from 9 September 2013 until 30 October 2014 (only Series 1 to 7 were shown).
The modern series was known under the new title of Pán Času - (pronounced "Pan Cha-su") which translates as Lord of Time. (The translated series title was given on screen by a voice-over rather than by replacement graphics, so the caption Doctor Who still appears on screen.)
All subsequent series (series 8 onwards) were available on AXN or AXN Sci-Fi. See our New Series page for more detail.
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Trailer for the New Series (2001) |
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- Pán Času (Wikipedia)
- List of Dubbing Actors
Merchandise
As well as the VHS release of the movie (see above), the only other known forms of merchandise to be sold were books, all of which had the Doctor Who logo on them, a title that would be familiar to TV viewers.
In November 2015, Jota Books published the short story anthology Doctor Who - 11 Doctors, 11 Stories in hardback, under the title Doctor Who - 11 Doktorů, 11 Příběhů.
Several of the novels based on the New Series have been translated and released in the Czech Republic along with an edition of Doctor Who - The Visual Dictionary (Updated and Enhanced) (as Pan Času - Doctor Who Obrazový Průvodce Aktualizovaný a Rozšířený) in April 2017.
Also released were the three Classic series novelisations based on Douglas Adams scripts, which were published by Argo Books under the Doctor Who name:
- SHADA (March 2016)
- MĚSTO SMRTI (City of Death) (October 2016)
- PIRÁTSKÁ PLANETA (The Pirate Planet) (March 2018)
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) |
Details come from the Česká Televize website:
Czechoslovakia / Czech Republic in Doctor Who
- The word "robot" comes from the Czech 'robota' meaning "forced labour". Czech writer Karel Čapek was one of the first to apply the word to mean a mechanical device (in his 1920 play R.U.R (Rossumovi Univerzální Roboti - Rossum's Universal Robots)
- Quite a few robots have appeared in Doctor Who over the years. The first story written to feature robots was dropped at the early scripting stage and was never made: The Robots (aka The Masters of Luxor) by Anthony Coburn
- The first time the word "robots" was spoken on screen (along with "Robomen", "robotised" and "robotisation") was in The Dalek Invasion of Earth
- The first use of the singular term "robot" was in The Chase, when the Daleks refer to their "humanoid robot" of the Doctor
- The first actual mechanised robots to appear on screen were the Frankenstein's monster and Dracula automatons, also in The Chase
- The first story to feature the word in its title was the 1974 serial called … er… Robot
- Karel Čapek became the inspiration for the naming of Taren Capel in The Robots of Death
- Martin Miller (Kublai Khan in Marco Polo) was born (as Johann Rudolph Müller) in what is now the Czech Republic.
- George Pravda (Denes, in The Enemy of the World; Jaeger The Mutants; Castellan Spandrell The Deadly Assassin) was born in Czechoslovakia
- Sarah mentions "Good King Wenceslaus" in Genesis of the Daleks
- European UNIT's Czech engineering group was assisting with flood relief in the low countries before being deployed to Carbury; Major Husak was in charge of the evacuation. Lavel told the Brigadier she could speak Czechoslovakian "only when I'm drunk" (Battlefield)
