Ecuador
ECUADOR lies on the Pacific coast of the South American continent. It shares borders with Colombia and Peru.
Profile
| Country Number (52?) | 1980 | SECOND WAVE |
| Region | South America | |
| Television commenced | 1959 | |
| Colour System | 1974 | NTSC |
| Population | 1980 | 7.56 million |
| TV Sets | 1980 | 275,000 |
| Language/s | Spanish | Dubbed |
Television Stations / Channels
Ecuador began its television service in 1959. Colour was introduced to the country in 1974. In the late 1970s, it had seven television broadcasting services.
Canal 10 (Channel 10) was owned by the Cadena Ecuatoriana de Television, headquartered in Guayaquil; it was on that station that "Dr Misterio" aired from 1980…
Language/s
The principal language of Ecuador is Spanish. Foreign television programmes are dubbed into Spanish.
DOCTOR WHO IN ECUADOR (EL DOCTOR MISTERIO)
In Spanish speaking countries, the series was known as Doctor Misterio. Ecuador was (approximately) the 52nd country to screen the series.
BBC Records
In DWM, Ecuador is identified in 22 story Archives, all Tom Baker stories from his first four seasons 4A to 4Z, but not 4L, which is probably an oversight. The year of sale is given as 1978.
According to other BBC records, the sale to Ecuador was actually completed by November 1978. Time Life Television was the distributor who provided programming to Latin American countries. It may have been at the March 1978 NATPE exhibition that the programme was offered to Ecuador (and Mexico, Chile and Venezuela) (for more on NATPE, see also United States--1978).
Ecuador is not named in the 1987 memo mentioned in The Eighties - THE LOST CHAPTERS, which is very odd indeed...
Stories bought and broadcast
TOM BAKER
23 stories, 98 episodes:
| 4A | Robot | 4 |
| 4B | The Sontaran Experiment | 2 |
| 4C | The Ark in Space | 4 |
| 4D | Revenge of the Cybermen | 4 |
| 4E | Genesis of the Daleks | 6 |
| 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 |
| 4Y | Underworld | 4 |
| 4Z | The Invasion of Time | 6 |
Ecuador therefore was offered and bought the standard package of Tom Baker stories in Spanish that were distributed by Time Life.
- For the Spanish story titles, go to: SPANISH
Transmission
TOM BAKER
Despite a sale taking place by the end of 1978, it wasn't until Wednesday, 19 March 1980 that Doctor Misterio was broadcast on Canal 10 in Ecuador.
This long delay may have been due to the time it took to have the episodes dubbed, and that other countries subsequently "jumped the queue" and aired the series before tapes could be supplied to Ecuador. (See THE MYSTERY OF THE MISSING MISTERIOS for more on this.)
The series played weekly on Wednesdays from 9.00 to 10.00pm, two episodes back to back.
The 25 July 1980 episode was pre-empted by football, from 9.00 till 11.00pm that night.
Newspapers after 13 August 1980 were not available, so we only have listings covering the first 42 episodes. (If the serials aired in the correct story order, those last two were (potentially) the first two parts of The Seeds of Doom.)
The other 56 episodes presumably aired during the rest of 1980, and into 1981. Not allowing for any breaks in the run, the odd interruption due to seasonal (i.e. Christmas) or sports priorities, the final two episodes would potentially have aired on 25 February 1981.
PAUL McGANN
The 1996 TV Movie was available via the HBO OLE cable station in 1999.
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) |
The Ecuador newspaper El Comercio was available for 1978, 1979, the first half of 1980, and most of 1982 only. Papers for the last four months of 1980, all of 1981 and the first three months of 1982 were not available.
The first clear billing for Dr Misterio was on 19 March 1980, some 15 months after the series was officially recorded as being sold to the country.
The series title was printed (in error) as "Mister Misterio" for the first three billings, before "Doctor" or "Dr Misterio" became the standard. No episode titles were given.
The listings appeared in a grid, with each 'box' representing an hour. The 9.00 to 10.00 hour was printed as:
- 9.00 PM Dr Misterio
- 9.30 PM Micro informativo
At first glance this looks like "Dr Misterio" filled the first half of the hour, and "Micro informativo" the other half. But some of the other 'boxes' in the TV schedule also had "Micro informativo" listed in them. In two of the papers, "Dr Misterio" was the only billing in the box.
In one of the other newspapers we looked at for 1979, the ""Micro informativo" listing was for only five minutes. Therefore we feel certain that "Dr Misterio" occupied most of the hour, with the remaining five to ten minutes filled with a short "Little Information" or news update. Accordingly, our analysis and Airdates table is based on there being two episodes back to back. (This thought may change once we've located and accessed papers for the rest of 1980 and 1981, especially if the listings extend beyond the broadcast equivalent of 98 episodes.)
The available collection of El Comercio ended with the 13 August 1980 issue, so only 21 listings have been located. The collection didn't recommence until 1 April 1982, and there were no listings for "Doctor Misterio" in or after that month. As noted above, the series may have concluded in February 1981, which would certainly fit with there being no further listings in April 1982.
Ecuador in Doctor Who
- The Doctor mentions the Ecuadorian volcanic mountain Cotopaxi in The Brain of Morbius.
