Australia TX 1967-1971

AUSTRALIAN TRANSMISSION HISTORY (Part Two) (1967-1971)

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Block 3: HARTNELL / TROUGHTON ---- March 1967 to July 1968

"Dr Who" (this is The Power of the Daleks, part one); The Australian, Sydney, 21 July 1967

First Run	AA----BB----CC----DD----EE----FF----GG----HH----JJ----KK
Repeats	P----Q----R----S----T----U----W----X----Y----Z----AA----BB----CC----DD----EE----FF----GG----HH----JJ----KK

The third Block of episodes, which saw the departure of William Hartnell and the arrival of Patrick Troughton, opened in four regions on Friday 24 March 1967.

In order for four different regions to start with the same story on the same date, there could have been four duplicate copies in use, or some of the regions had pre-taped a number of the episodes from a central feed well in advance of transmission.

But BRISBANE fell out of step with the other three regions with DD onwards, so if there were duplicates prints in use and the pre-emption by one week was pre-planned in order to reduce the number of prints required, only three copies of DD to KK would have been in circulation to accommodate the remaining airdates.

• PERTH, ADELAIDE and HOBART: all screened the same episodes on the same day (the episodes played weekly on Fridays at 6.30pm) for the entire run, which concluded with KK on 19 January 1968. William Hartnell bowed out on 7 July 1967, and Patrick Troughton made his debut on 14 July 1967.
• BRISBANE also started on that same date, but fell out of step with the other three regions twelve weeks later, from 23 June 1967, when DD part 1 was postponed by a week. The run ended on 26 January 1968.
• SYDNEY and CANBERRA began the new run a week later, on 31 March 1967, which also ended on 26 January 1968
• MELBOURNE: Victoria was the last region to air this new run, starting on 19 May 1967. The run concluded one story early, after JJ part four (rather than with KK) on 2 February 1968.

REPEATS

Each region also had a run of REPEATS, screening four days a week, Mondays to Thursdays (at 5.40pm, 5.25pm or 5.20pm):

• PERTH: from 26 February 1968, Q to KK all in correct story order, ending 16 July 1968. The next block started the following week…

• ADELAIDE: from 26 February 1968, was a repeat of P. Next came Q followed by all stories in correct order up to KK; this run concluded on 23 July 1968. A week later, a new Block commenced…

• HOBART: repeats started 11 March 1968, with Q to KK all in the correct order, ending 30 July 1968. The following week, the next Block commenced… It was in HOBART that the run of episodes T to JJ aired for the final time in Australia (any additional later regional screenings not withstanding).

• BRISBANE: repeats of Q to KK all in order, started 19 February 1968 and ended 9 July 1968. The following week, Block four commenced…

• SYDNEY and CANBERRA: from Monday 12 February 1968 a run of repeats commenced, starting with R and concluding with KK on 25 June 1968. Two weeks later, the fourth Block commenced…

• MELBOURNE: repeats of Q to JJ ran from 12 February 1968 to 25 June 1968. The very next day, the skipped-over KK aired, Wednesday, Thursday, then Monday to Thursday, 4 July 1968, the following week. The next block of new episodes commenced the following week…

RECOVERED PRINTS

A print of R part one, BB part two and KK part one were all saved from destruction (by incineration) circa late 1969/early 1970. A slightly edited print of Y part four was later found in the ABC's Frenchs Forest studios film store in 1984. The prints of T part three and GG part two that were recovered in 2011 both appear to have been ex-Australian prints.

8mm OFF-SCREEN CLIPS

As noted in Part One, an Australian viewer filmed short clips of Doctor Who by pointing a 8mm silent film camera at his television screen. The other stories captured included: AA, BB, DD, EE, JJ, and KK, most likely captured during the first run screenings in SYDNEY between March 1967 and January 1968.

PERSPECTIVE – "'C' FOR COMPUTER"

The ABC retained its prints of EE until early 1974; extracts from parts four and five appeared on a documentary programme broadcast on 29 May 1974. (See BLOCK 7 below for more on this.)

SUMMARY

• This run saw the last appearance of William Hartnell – he had been seen on Australian screens over a three and a half year period, from January 1965 to June 1968.

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Block 4: TROUGHTON ---- July 1968 to February 1970

The Evil of the Daleks part three repeat, Sydney, 12 May 1969

First Run	MM----NN----OO----PP----QQ----LL----RR----SS
Repeats	LL----MM----NN----OO----PP----QQ----RR

This fourth Block commenced the week following the conclusion of the weekday regional repeats that played after Block Three. The first ten new episodes played weekly on Fridays, at 6.05pm in all regions, before shifting to Sundays at 5.35pm for the rest of the run. This meant that part one of OO aired only two days after part six of NN. All seven regions were screening on Sundays from 13 October 1968.

This run included the Dalek serial, LL, which played out of sequence - after QQ in all regions. One thought as to why it was delayed was that the ABC was not permitted to screen the serial until after it had been repeated in the UK, which it did so from June to August 1968; the serial was not formally offered to the ABC until 29 August 1968…

• SYDNEY and CANBERRA: The new run commenced from Friday, 5 July 1968. The run concluded on 18 May 1969. From 8 to 16 May 1969, during the May school holidays, LL was repeated (timeslots vary, between 2.30pm and 3.20pm).

• MELBOURNE: Victoria was the second region to screen MM (from Friday, 12 July 1968, however as was noted above, this was actually proceeded (from Wednesday, 26 June 1968 to Thursday, 4 July 1968) by the first run KK, which had been held over from the February 1968 run that had concluded with JJ. It would appear that PP episode 4 might not have screened in Melbourne, having been bumped from the schedules by cricket, and then two weeks later, part 6 of the serial is listed as a "stand-by" programme in case the cricket scheduled for that evening was cancelled. The run drew to a close on 25 May 1969. From 12 to 16 May 1969, during the May school holidays, KK was repeated weekday early afternoons (with parts five and six back to back on the same day). This repeat was the final screening of KK in Australia, any additional later regional screenings in Queensland notwithstanding. (A cut print of part one was saved from destruction, and is held in a private collection.)

• BRISBANE: The run opened on Friday, 19 July 1968, and concluded on 1 June 1969. From 5 to 8 May 1969, during the May school holidays, MM was repeated weekday afternoons.

• PERTH: The run opened on Friday, 26 July 1968, and ended 8 June 1969. The May school holiday weekday afternoon repeat was NN, 5 to 12 May 1969.

• ADELAIDE: The run opened on Friday, 2 August 1968, and finished 15 June 1969. The May school holiday weekday afternoon repeats were MM and NN, from 16 May to 26 May 1969.

• HOBART: The run opened on Friday, 9 August 1968, and concluded 22 June 1969. For the May school holidays, Tasmania had NN, from 1 to 8 May 1969.

REPEATS

From August 1969 through until the start of the next Block of new episodes (in April 1970), each region had a further run of mid-afternoon (around 3.00pm) weekday (Monday to Friday) repeats, but with occasional breaks for sporting events, Christmas and New Years programming:

• BRISBANE: From 11 to 22 August 1969; NN and OO, with part five and six of both serials screening back to back on the last day. Then after a four month break, between 8 December 1969 and 21 January 1970 (for the school holidays), weekday repeats of LL, QQ and RR.

• SYDNEY and CANBERRA: From 22 August to 4 September, MM and NN. Between 12 December 1969 and 22 January 1970, school holiday weekday repeats of OO, PP, QQ, and RR, with two episodes of the latter back to back over the final three days.

• HOBART: Also from 22 August to 5 September 1969, LL and MM. Weekday holiday repeats, between 22 December 1969 and 1 February 1970 were OO, PP, and QQ, with the final two episodes of the latter screening back to back on the Sunday.

• ADELAIDE and PERTH: Both regions screened OO from 29 August to 12 September 1969 and 1 to 15 September 1969, respectively; both aired PP on the same dates. For the school holiday repeats, PERTH had MM from 15 to 18 December (it appears that that was the only repeat in that region); ADELAIDE had LL, QQ and RR between 22 December 1969 and 12 February 1970.

• MELBOURNE: From 4 to 5 September 1969, two episodes of MM screened back to back. Between 2 January and 30 January 1970, holiday repeats were LL, NN, and OO, all of which were the final screenings in Australia of those three serials (any additional later regional screenings not withstanding).

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Block 5: TROUGHTON ---- April 1970 to March 1971

The "comedy" The Mind Robber, 5.43pm, 5 June 1970 (Queensland)

First Run	TT----UU----VV----WW----XX
Repeats	PP----QQ----RR----SS----TT----UU----VV

Troughton's final season was split in two, with the first run ending at XX. Episodes aired weekly on Fridays or Sundays, at 5.20pm, 5.40pm, 5.45pm or 5.50pm. There are no instances where 'dual' screenings occurred. From 9 July 1970, the west and east coats of Australia were permanently connected via microwave link, which potentially meant that multiple prints of episodes (if indeed there ever were any) were no longer required, as video copies of programming for later playback could be made off the microlink feed.

• MELBOURNE: The next block kicked off in Victoria, from Friday, 24 April 1970. During the August school holidays, while WW was airing in its usual Friday slot, PP (its last-ever screening in Australia) and QQ were repeated (or in the case of the two skipped episodes of PP, their first airing in Victoria) at 2.00pm on weekday afternoons, 24 August to 3 September 1970, with the final two episodes of each playing back to back on the Friday, ahead of WW parts one and two. The run concluded on 30 October 1970. Two months later, on weekdays between 18 December 1970 and 5 January 1971, repeats of SS and TT aired.

• SYDNEY / CANBERRA: the run opened on Sunday, 26 April 1970, and ended 1 November 1970. August school holiday weekday repeats of SS ran from 31 August to 7 September 1970, at 2.00pm. There were further repeats, weekdays from 6 to 28 January 1971, of TT, UU and VV (parts seven and eight back to back on the last day).

• BRISBANE: the fifth block opened Friday 1 May 1970, and ended 5 November 1970. PP was repeated weekdays from 18 to 21 August 1970, with parts three and four, and five and six airing back to back, with the latter two the same day as part seven of VV. There were more weekday afternoon repeats, from 14 to 29 December 1970, of SS and TT, then from 18 to 22 January 1971 of UU.

• PERTH: from Sunday 3 May 1970 to 8 November 1970, with weekday afternoon repeats from 24 to 31 August 1970 of RR. After a break of a month, a repeat of SS – its final screening in Australia (any additional later regional screenings not withstanding) - occurred weekdays, between 8 and 15 January.

• ADELAIDE: the series returned from Friday, 8 May 1970 and ran until 13 November 1970. Weekday repeat of SS screened between 4 and 11 September 1970. Weekdays between 11 and 24 December 1970, repeats of TT and UU aired.

• HOBART: Tasmania was the last to see the new episodes, from Friday, 22 May 1970 to 4 December 1970 (there was no episode on 27 November). A repeat of RR was seen weekdays, between 28 August and 4 September, with parts one and six airing the same days as VV parts five and six. A repeat of SS took place weekdays, from 29 December 1970 to 6 January 1971. Then two weeks later, from 20 to 25 January 1971, TT was repeated, with the last two parts airing back to back.

AUDIO RECORDINGS

Off-air audio recordings exist that were made during transmissions of RR and VV. It is believed these were recorded during transmission in Victoria.

• CONTINUED: 1971-1975

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