Qube
| Qube | |
| Network: | Channel(s): P5 |
| First airing: 1978 | Last airing: 1979? |
== AIRDATES == |
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QUBE was an experimental two-way, interactive cable television system, launched in Columbus, Ohio, on 1 December 1977. It was owned by Warner Communications, who later acquired Time Inc, which owned Time-Life Films which distributed Doctor Who in the USA!
Doctor Who appeared on channel P5 ("Better Living"). Users were charged 50¢ per episode in addition to the $10.95 per month subscription for the QUBE service. Each episode screened two or three times during the day, and on weekends an entire serial was often played in full.
QUBE was the final US television 'station' to screen a selection from the original run of Jon Pertwee episodes (and as such, may have been broadcasting from the original Time-Life master tapes?).
(Airdates come from the Ohio edition of OnQUBE, the station's monthly listings magazine (see clippings below). It is unknown whether the other cities in Ohio where QUBE was available had the exact same schedule.)
- 6 February 1978: QUBE in Columbus, Ohio begins airing the batch of selected Jon Pertwee stories episodically.
- March 1978: Doctor Who and the Silurians and The Ambassadors of Death air thoughout the month.
- April 1978: Day of the Daleks and The Claws of Axos air.
- May 1978: Inferno premieres.
- July 1978: The Mind of Evil and Terror of the Autons premiere.
- August 1978: These airings of The Mind of Evil are probably the last in color in the United States.
- 1 January 1979: The series resumes after a break for another block of repeats; QUBE continues to show the same Jon Pertwee stories while the rest of the country is seeing the brand new Tom Baker stories.
- 29 January 1979: A repeat of part 7 of Inferno is the last airing of Doctor Who on QUBE, and the last ever US screening of a Jon Pertwee story until 1983...
(Immediately, after their final airing, the tapes of Inferno may have been sent across the border to Canada; BBC Toronto then dispatched them to Vancouver, where they were shown by CKVU only a week later...)
