Gibraltar
Gibraltar is in Europe, and is located at the mouth of the Mediterranean Sea, at the south of Spain. A British colony, it is a member of the British Commonwealth.
Contents
Population
When Doctor Who screened in Gibraltar in 1965, the population was 25,000, and licensed TV sets numbered 4,500 (per WRTH, 1966).
ALSO NEED TO DO 1974, 1979, 1984
TV & system
Gibraltar began its television service in 1962. There is just one television station: Gibraltar Television (BBC-TV), a government-owned commercial broadcaster.
Colour transmissions began in 1969 using the PAL colour broadcast system.
Language/s
The main language of Gibraltar is English. Gibraltans could also receive broadcasts from the Spanish station, TVE; the newspaper contained listing from that channel.
DOCTOR WHO IN GIBRALTAR
Gibraltar was the 5th country to screen Doctor Who; it was the first in Europe (after the UK) (see Selling Doctor Who).
BBC Records
The Stanmark Productions Ltd advertisement from 1966, identifies Gibraltar as one twelve countries screening Doctor Who in that year.
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 includes the same 10 Pertwees from the 1977 list, plus an additional 34 stories.
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.
PATRICK TROUGHTON
Thirteen stories, 80 episodes, which aired out of order:
| TT | The Dominators | 5 |
| 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 |
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.
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. The stories not sold were the ones that were not available to Commonwealth countries, due to the censorship problems in Australia, and the bulk of season 11, which was supplied by the BBC only on PAL video tape.
The programme was supplied as 16mm black and white film prints with English soundtracks.
TOM BAKER
Seventeen identified stories, 100 episodes:
| 4A | Robot | 4 |
| 4B | The Sontaran Experiment | 2 |
| 4C | The Ark in Space | 4 |
| 4D | Revenge of the Cybermen | 4 |
| . | 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.
PETER DAVISON
Seven stories (?); 26 episodes:
| 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.
Gibraltar screened 369 episodes in total, made up of 77 stories.
Origin of the Prints?
Gibraltar was the first country in Europe to screen the series, so it would have been supplied with brand new prints from its distributor, which was TIE Ltd. Gibraltar was also the first country to be supplied prints by TIE Ltd.
For the Troughtons, the prints may have come from Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore or New Zealand. The Pertwees may have come from Australia, Hong Kong or Singapore.
Transmission
WILLIAM HARTNELL
The series started on Thursday, 8 April 1965, at 8.00pm. There are 84 weeks on which the series is listed, but only 81 episodes to account for, so presumably three of these were pre-empted. One of these extra dates was 30 July 1966; it's possible the other two occurred when the day of the week changed.
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, which finished on 12 November 1966, a 19-month continuous run.
Taking into account the episodes that are titled, it is easy to ascertain what screened and when.
Ironically, the programme that followed Doctor Who during much of this run was the ITV series Richard the Lionheart, which played its last episode, The People's King, on 2 July 1966, the week before the Doctor Who serial The Crusade aired!
On a connected note, the Peter Cushing film, Dr Who and the Daleks commenced its cinematic run on 2 July 1966 (The Web Planet was running n TV at the time).
PATRICK TROUGHTON
Five years and three months later, Doctor Who returned – on Monday, 14 February 1972, at 8.00pm, with the Patrick Troughton story The Dominators. For one week only, the series shifted to Tuesday, 25 April, with part one of The Invasion.
44 weeks later, viewers saw the Doctor exiled to Earth...
JON PERTWEE
The Pertwee era commenced on Monday, 18 December 1972, at 8.00pm. The next episode was moved to 26 December, to allow for the Christmas Day schedules. The run of 18 episodes from Pertwees first season ended on 16 April 1973. (Inferno did not screen, due to censorship problems with the serial in Australia, which affected all other sales of that serial to Commonwealth territories.)
PATRICK TROUGHTON (continued)
The following week – 23 April – viewers saw Patrick Troughton as the Doctor, from an earlier season! Six 6-part Troughton stories played, over a period of 36 weeks/episodes (the series moved to Saturdays from 20 October 1973). The final Troughton episode was part six of The Wheel in Space on 22 December 1973.
The timeslot changed several times, from 8.00pm, to 7.30pm, to 7.04pm.
JON PERTWEE (continued)
The last week of 1973 saw the return of the third Doctor, from 29 December 1973, at 7.06pm. This run lasted for 34 weeks, taking the series to the end of season 9, with The Time Monster. As before, two further stories (The Mind of Evil and The Daemons) did not air, due to censorship issues in Australia. Also skipped was The Sea Devils.
Viewers had enjoyed a non-stop run of 132 episodes, over a 30 month period, skipping from Troughton to Pertwee to Troughton to Pertwee!
Two and a half years later, GBC recommenced the series, from 4 January 1977, on Tuesdays, at 8.00pm, for a 30 week run, that ended on 26 July 1977. Although GBC-TV was transmitting colour (from 1969), these episodes appear to have been all in black and white. (By late 1976, the BBC had wiped the colour video tapes of Frontier in Space and Planet of the Daleks, so at least those two serial 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. Then followed the remaining season 10 stories (aired in production code order), with the run ending with The Time Warrior, which was the final story that the BBC supplied on 16mm film. (The Green Death was missed, as it had been rejected in Australia.)
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 (but with a fortnight's break in November), screening at 7.55pm. Presumably these 14 episodes were the first four serials of Tom Baker's first series, as identified in the DWM archives.
Doctor Who did not air at all during 1979, but a 14-week run commenced on Tuesday, 29 January 1980, at 7.25pm. No titles were given, but this run would have been made up of one 6-parter and two 4-parters. (The 6-parter would most likely be Genesis of the Daleks.) The run ended on 29 April 1980.
After a break of three months, a 34 episode run (no episode aired on 25 December 1980) commenced on 24 July, at 7.00. The 1 January 1981 episode aired at the earlier time of 5.40pm.
14 of these at the end of the run can be identified; the first 18 are not identified, but must consist of one 6-parter and three 4-parters. (The 6-parter would be The Seeds of Doom or The Talons of Weng-Chiang; it’s unlikely to have been The Invasion of Time as it would have played before Underworld).
Underworld, The Ribos Operation (billed as "The Rivals Operation"!) and The Stones of Blood are named.
Part four of The Stones of Blood ended the run on 19 March 1981.
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. Tis 18 week run concluded with part four of The Creature from the Pit on 16 October. (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, with part four of Nightmare of Eden; for reasons unknown these two stories were swapped in order.
A year later, on Friday, 8 July 1983, at 7.30pm, Tom Baker's final run of episodes commenced 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 his debut, Robot, in 1978...
PETER DAVISON
The following week, 30 September 1983, Gibraltans watched Peter Davison's second story (but his first one recorded): Four to Doomsday. Four weeks later, on 21 October, the 16 week run came to an end.
TOM BAKER (repeats)
When Doctor Who returned a year later, on 9 October 1984, it was for eight weeks of repeats of two Tom Baker serials, 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, Wednesdays at 7.25pm, was a repeat screening of The Pirate Planet. An odd choice as this came before the two serials that wee repeated in 1984!
PETER DAVISON (continued)
Nearly a whole year later, a final run of 22 episodes commenced on Friday, 11 April 1986, at 7.25pm The first serial was billed as "Castrouala", a misspelling of Davison's debut serial Castrovalva. Given that Four to Doomsday had already played in 1983, this run most likely consisted of the rest of his first full season; ending with Time-Flight on 5 September 1986.
TV listings
All listings are from Gibraltar Chronicle.
- 1960s
The series was billed as XXXXX. The first episode to be identified was "E6" (e.g. The Keys of Marinus, part 6) on 5 October 1965. Interestingly, rather than using the individual episode titles, several of the stories are named by the overall title for the complete serial: The Sensorites, The Romans, The Web Planet – billed as "Dr Who on the Web Planet" - and The Crusade were also named.
The second episode of The Web Planet was incorrectly billed as "Crater of Needles, which is the fourth episode.
The 2 July 1966 issue of the Chronicle also ran a review of the Peter Cushing film, Dr Who and the Daleks.
There were five listings for The Crusade – presumably one of these was pre-empted.
- 1970s
The series was billed as XXXXX. On 17 September 1973, a misprint gave the series title as "Dr Wo".
Frontier in Space was billed 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 Dr Who "Episode 1", the next was "Dr Who (c)", which indicated this was in colour. The 10 October listing was labelled "Dr Who – Episode", signalling a new serial. There was no episode on 14 November 1978, and both 7 and 21 November listings had "To be announced" in the 7.55pm timeslot; presumably Doctor Who played the latter of these.
- 1980s
The series was billed as XXXXX.
For the 1981 runs, some misprints in the titles occurred, with "The Rivals Operation", "The Power of the Kroll", and "The Armagedon Factor" appearing in the paper. The 22 July 1983 billing had "The Leisure Have".
Fate of the Prints?
Aden and Nigeria were the next countries to screen the series that had distribution by TIE Ltd, so it's possible that the first eleven Hartnells were sent to either of those two countries.
Gibraltar was the last ever country to screen Fury from the Deep and The Mind Robber in the 1970s. The other Troughtons that Gibraltar had may have been sent on to Zambia or Nigeria.
Gibraltar in Doctor Who
There are no instances where Gibraltar is mentioned in the series.
References
