Barbados
Bardados is a small island of 431 sq km in the Caribbean sea. Part of the West Indies, it was a British colony until it achieved independence in 1966. It is a member of the British Commonwealth.
Contents
Population
When Doctor Who screened in Barbados from 1966, the population was 250,000, and licensed TV sets numbered only 4,500 (per WRTH, 1966). During the second phase of broadcasts in 1985-87, the population had increased only to 250,500, but TVs receivers to 52,000 (per WRTH 1984).
TV & system
Barbados commenced its television service in 1964. Colour transmissions began sometime around 1980, using the NTSC colour broadcast system.
There is just one television provider, the government-owned Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation (CBC-TV).
Language/s
The official language of Barbados is English.
DOCTOR WHO IN BARBADOS
Barbados was the 16th country to screen Doctor Who (see Selling Doctor Who).
BBC Records
The Stanmark Productions Ltd advertisement from 1966, identifies Barbados as one of twelve countries screening Doctor Who in that year.
The Seventies identifies only two stories being sold to Barbados: Y and AA. However the book also names "Caribbean" as purchasing 16 stories: G, K, L, M, N, P, Q, R, S, T, U, W. X, Z, BB and CC, all of which are stories that aired in Barbados.
In DWM, Barbados is identified in 11 story Archives: F, G, H, K, M, N, Q, R, S, U, AA, and Caribbean under ten: L, P, Q, R, T, W, X, Z, BB, CC.
In The Eighties (The Eighties lost chapters), a sale of 12 stories is recorded for Barbados; this might be an error, as only 11 Tom Baker stories have been identified as screening from 1985-1986, the period covered by the February 1987 memo that is being referred to.
The Tom Baker stories were sold to Barbados (and eight other Caribbean countries) "amongst a package of a ¼ million pounds worth of programmes. These sales were a direct result of a three-day screening of the Beeb's top programmes by BBC Enterprises in Nassau during July", as was reported in the DWAS newsletter Celestial Toyroom (September 1985 issue) (See also Trinidad & Tobago).
Stories bought and broadcast
WILLIAM HARTNELL
Barbados was one of only two countries (the other being Zambia to purchase the entire package of available Hartnell stories which ran from An Unearthly Child to The Smugglers), which consisted of 26 stories, 117 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 |
| T | Galaxy 4 | 4 |
| U | The Myth Makers | 4 |
| W | The Massacre | 4 |
| X | The Ark | 4 |
| Y | The Celestial Toymaker | 4 |
| Z | The Gunfighters | 4 |
| AA | The Savages | 4 |
| BB | The War Machines | 4 |
| CC | The Smugglers | 4 |
The programme was supplied as 16mm black and white film prints with English soundtracks.
Mission to the Unknown and The Daleks Master Plan were not available for purchase by Barbados, as both stories had been rejected by the Australian censors, a ruling which also prevented the sale of those stories to all Commonwealth countries. Also, Terry Nation was still refusing to permit the BBC selling certain Dalek stories during 1967 while he attempted to sell a Dalek spin-off series to American networks; this moratorium denied Barbados the opportunity of purchasing both The Tenth Planet and Patrick Troughton's first adventure.
TOM BAKER
After the Nassau-based sales junket, Barbados screened a package of eleven Tom Baker stories (48 episodes) in 1985 to 1986; the same package of stories was also sold to Trinidad & Tobago.
| 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 |
| 4N | The Hand of Fear | 4 |
| 4M | The Masque of Mandragora | 4 |
| 4L | The Seeds of Doom | 6 |
These programmes were supplied as NTSC colour video tapes.
Transmission
WILLIAM HARTNELL
Viewers in Barbados enjoyed a non-stop run of the series that lasted for over two years.
The series started on Monday, 25 April 1966, at 6.20pm. The day of the week and timeslot changed to Tuesdays at 6.00pm midway through Marco Polo, where - apart from one timeslot variance during Christmas 1966 period - it remained for the entire 117 week run. The last episode, The Smugglers part 4 aired on 16 July 1968.
TOM BAKER
18 years after the William Hartnell run, CBC-TV (channel 3) screened further adventures of the good Doctor; eleven Tom Baker stories commenced from Monday, 30 December 1985 at 5.25pm, and screened weekly until 8 December 1986 (the World Cup football, Argentina vs Republic of Korea, interrupted the run on 2 June 1986, and the programme did not play on 1 December 1986)).
The timeslots changed a couple of times during the 50 week period: most episodes aired at 5.25pm, however the final instalment of Pyramids of Mars aired at 11.25pm, and most of The Seeds of Doom played at 5.40pm.
Interestingly, the stories aired in a somewhat unusual order, with Revenge of the Cybermen, Genesis of the Daleks, Pyramids of Mars and Planet of Evil playing in production code order. The final three stories aired in the sequence The Hand of Fear, The Masque of Mandragora and The Seeds of Doom for no apparent reason.
The same eleven Baker serials were repeated from 1 February 1987, Wednesdays, at variable timeslots, 5.00pm, 4.50 before settling in at 5.25pm. Again, the stories aired in the same out of order sequence. The repeat run ended on 6 January 1988.
The same repeat run of Baker stories was also repeated in Trinidad & Tobago a few weeks earlier, although it's unlikely they shared or exchanged the same set of video tapes.
TV listings
TV listings have been obtained from the newspaper Barbados Advocate.
For the Hartnell episodes, the majority of listings named the series as Doctor Who; from 13 February 1968 ) (The Ark part 2), it was shortened to Dr Who. Only one episode was identified by name during the first year – part one of The Daleks. From 1 August 1967, the newspaper named all but a few episodes by title. In the entries for The Savages and The Smugglers, the paper used the longer "DR WHO AND THE" format.
All the 1980s Tom Baker listings were named Dr Who. A couple of errors crept into the listings, with Genesis of the Daleks called "Genesis on the Daleks" (also for the repeat), and part 3 of Planet of Evil was named "Planet of the Eagle".
Barbados in Doctor Who
In The Highlanders, Solicitor Grey was planning to send the captured Highlanders to the West Indies to be sold as slaves.
References
