CKVU

CKVU (Vancouver) (1976-1982)

Channel Profile

Vancouver-based CKVU was launched on Sunday, 4 September 1976, with its first broadcast going out at 4.00pm. At that time, its official number was Channel 21, but was located on cable 13 on the TV dial.

Both CKVU and TVO commenced regular broadcasts of Doctor Who on the same day – Saturday, 18 September 1976, however TVO's screening were at 7.30pm, whereas CKVU's were at 10.00am, making CKVU the first Canadian television station to screen Doctor Who since CBC in 1965.

Stories bought and broadcast

PETER CUSHING

A week ahead of the regular screenings of Doctor Who, CKVU screened the Peter Cushing movie, "Dr Who and the Daleks" on Saturday, 11 September 1976, from 10.00 to 11.30am.

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JON PERTWEE

In the DWAS publication TARDIS issue Volume 8 / Number 1 (c. March 1983), Canadian fan Dean Shewring wrote an overview of Doctor Who in Canada: "CKVU an independent TV station in Vancouver, British Columbia has also been showing Jon Pertwee serials (including The Green Death, Inferno and The Claws of Axos). However they have been broadcast with episodes out of sequence and with major gaps for sports and other show between some of the serials."

In DWM issue #102 (July 1985), Shewring wrote that "CKVU, an independent TV station in Vancouver, British Columbia ... ran a small selection of Jon Pertwee stories over a four-year period during the late seventies and early eighties."

On the DOCTOR WHO MEET UP GROUP BLOG, Canadian fan Ray Seredin says: "I have been a fan of Doctor Who since September 1979, when as a thirteen year old I [became] hooked on the series [with the] Jon Pertwee story Inferno while it was airing on CKVU Saturday mornings."

Based on these comments, and other scattered information about the station, the following 14 Pertwee stories appear to be the only ones to have been aired by CKVU:

14 stories, 73 episodes:

GGG	The Claws of Axos	4
MMM	The Curse of Peladon	4
KKK	Day of the Daleks	4
NNN	The Mutants	6
RRR	The Three Doctors	4
UUU	The Time Warrior	4
LLL	The Sea Devils	6
HHH	Colony in Space	6
OOO	The Time Monster	6
DDD	Inferno	7
XXX	Death to the Daleks	4
TTT	The Green Death	6
YYY	The Monster of Peladon	6
ZZZ	Planet of the Spiders	6

CKVU therefore bought parts of GROUPs A, B and D, and all of GROUPs C and E of the Jon Pertwee stories.

(The stories have been tabled above based on the order in which they were "sold" between February 1977 and March 1978 according to BBC sales documentation, and which may also reflect to some degree the screening order.)

The programme was supplied as NTSC colour video tapes with English soundtracks.

Some of these same fourteen stories aired on other Canadian stations:

• TVO

Origin of the Tapes?

The sale would have been completed by the BBC's office in Toronto, but the NTSC tapes for the season 7, 8 and 9 stories were supplied to BBC Toronto via Time Life Films / Television, who were the BBC's distribution agents in America, whilst the season 10 and 11 serials would have been supplied by the BBC directly. (Either the BBC in London converted them from PAL to NTSC or that process was done in Toronto.)

It appears highly likely that BBC Toronto was provided with the original PAL to NTSC masters (or at least whatever still existed) of the original 13 story / 72 episode set that Time Life had. Toronto then duped copies of both CKVU and TVO. Since Doctor Who and the Silurians, The Ambassadors of Death, The Mind of Evil and The Daemons were not sold to CKVU or TVO, it's likely those master tapes no longer existed (and the only copies of them still in circulation within the States were poor quality presentation dupes?)

Interestingly, seasons 10 and 11 were also sold to Boston's WGBX in 1977, which means that the NTSC conversions of the last six stories in the above table were done specifically for the sales to Canada and the United States, presumably as some sort of shared co-deal. (The sale to WGBX was not done through Time Life; it would have been a special one-off deal between WGBX and the BBC.)

Of note, The Three Doctors and The Green Death were of the only ones from that season that BBC London still had in full PAL colour at that time. (Frontier in Space, Planet of the Daleks and Invasion of the Dinosaurs would not have been supplied because by 1976 there were already episodes missing.)

It's not clear why Carnival of Monsters was not part of the package sold to CKVU and TVO, since the serial was sold to WGBX in 1977. (Maybe there was a problem / delay with the PAL to NTSC conversion which meant the serial was not available in 1976?)

Transmission

Dr Who and the Daleks; Vancouver Sun, 11 September 1976

Dr Who and the Daleks; Vancouver Sun, 11 September 1976

Dr Who and the Daleks preview; Vancouver Sun, 11 September 1976

"Dr Who and the Deleks" (sic), 90 minutes?; Vancouver Express, 25 September 1976

JON PERTWEE

After an eleven year gap, Doctor Who returned to Canada, skipping the entire Patrick Troughton era, and starting with Jon Pertwee.

A week after the 11 September 1976 screening of "Dr Who and the Daleks", CKVU commenced regular weekly broadcasts of the Doctor Who series from Saturday, 18 September 1976, at 10.00am. (TV Ontario also commenced regular weekly screenings on this same day, but in the later timeslot of 7.30pm.)

The first billing was for 10.00 to 11.00am, but the following week it was 10.00 to 11.30am. The next six were 10.00 to 11.00am. From 13 November 1976 through to the end of the run on 18 December 1976 the slot was for only half an hour, 10.30 to 11.00am. Presumably the hour-long slots were two episodes aired back to back.

It's not clear whether the 90 minute slot given to the 25 September 1976 billing was an indication that three episodes aired that day, or a printing error (it's possible that since they couldn't fit both entries for "Dr Who and the Deleks" in the one 'box', they carried the second over into the 'box' beneath – see image of billing below.

This fourteen week run therefore consisted of either 22 or 23 episodes. This could be four 4-parters and one 6-parter, or one 4-parter and three 6-parters, or four 4-parters and one 7-parter.

Taking into account what the BBC paperwork tells us, and the order in which the stories were "sold", we're leaning towards this run being GGG, MMM, NNN and DDD, but not necessarily in that order. (This would contradict Ray Seredin's memory of seeing Inferno in 1979 -- but see below…)

The series returned seven months later, on Saturday, 9 July 1977, in half hour slots at 10.30am. This moved to 10.00am from 17 September 1977. For one single day - 8 October 1977 - the timeslot was a full hour, 10.00 to 11.00am; this is either an indication that two episodes aired back to back, or it's a printing error.

It was back to half hours from 10.30 the following week until 5 November 1977.

Due to the 8 October 1977 possible 'double-up', it is not clear exactly how many episodes aired in this second block; the episode count is therefore 18 or 19; we're leaning towards it being 18, as that is an even number in which three 4-parters and one 6-parter can fit. (We think these might have been KKK, LLL, RRR and UUU; again, not necessarily in that order.)

Newspapers for the rest of 1977, all of 1978 and 1979 were checked, but there were no further listings for Doctor Who until September 1980.

NOTE: The TV listings in all the newspapers we checked only ever started at 10am for all channels. The Canadian stations certainly transmitted prior to 10am, particularly at weekends, so it’s clear that not all TV listings were published. It's doubtful that Doctor Who would have been off the air for three years, especially when factoring in comments made by Dean Shewring, who noted in TARDIS that the series was often pre-empted by sports and other shows, plus Ray Seredin's recollection of seeing Inferno on Saturday mornings in September 1979.

On that basis, we feel sure that there were further screenings of Doctor Who between November 1977 and September 1980 in timeslots prior to 10am that we have no record of…

Listings for the series at 10am return from Saturday, 6 September 1980, in half-hour slots. This twelve-week run ended on 22 November 1980. These would have been three 4-parters or two 6-parters. (Based on BBC records, we think these were HHH and OOO; however accordingly to this COMMENT on an old "rec.arts.drwho" forum, one of these two serials may have been The Green Death, which the poster recalls seeing at 8.30am on a Saturday in September 1980…)

Ten of the 14 stories had (presumably) aired on CKVU by this time.

Seven months later, from Saturday, 25 July 1981, now at the later time of 11.30am, Doctor Who returned for a non-stop (billed) run of 59 weeks, which ended on 4 September 1982.

Taking into account from BBC records the sales dates, and how many repeats of each story had been contracted, this run probably contained the first screenings of the remaining four stories - TTT, XXX, YYY and ZZZ (22 episodes) – plus repeats, which taking into account there being 37 episodes, was probably DDD, HHH, KKK, LLL, OOO, RRR and UUU. (In our Airdates table we have placed those serials in story order, but that is not necessarily how they were transmitted…)

Fate of the Tapes

CKVU's rights to screen Doctor Who ended in December 1982, and their tapes were returned to the BBC's offices in Toronto.

A number of those NTSC colour video tapes were subsequently returned to the BBC in London, where only black and white 16mm film prints were held:

CKVU returned to the BBC copies of three complete colour stories:

• by March 1983:
  • Colony in Space
  • The Sea Devils
• by December 1983:
  • Inferno

TV Listings

One hour listing; Vancouver Sun, 18 September 1976

Generic one hour listing; Vancouver Sun, 6 November 1976

TV listings have been obtained from the Vancouver Sun and Vancouver Express. In all cases, the series was billed as "Dr Who". None of the listings gives a story title.

In both papers, TV schedules were presented in a grid, with each 'square' representing an hour, with the square containing four rows of text, each representing 15 minute intervals. An hour-long show would therefore be listed inside the square four times, a half-hour twice. Programmes of longer durations would carry over into the square below.

For the "Movie: Dr Who and the Daleks", the listing filled one square, and half the next, which is 90 minutes. (The movie also had a preview in the same issue.)

For the following week's listing, the billing was given as "Dr Who And The Daleks Cont". It's unlikely this was still the same movie, or the 1966 sequel, as the next six listings also used the same unusual billing. (The word "Daleks" was misprinted as "Deleks" for some of these.)

From 6 November 1976, the billings were shortened to just "Dr Who", initially appearing four times inside the square (one hour) then from 13 November just on the third and fourth lines (half an hour).

According to Ray Seredin (above) he saw Inferno in September 1979, however there were no billings for the series in that month (or at all for the whole year, for that matter!). He may have his dates slightly wrong; is he instead referring to the screenings in July 1976 and/or September 1981?

But as noted above, none of the published TV schedules have listings for any programmes prior to 10am, but it is highly that Doctor Who did screen earlier than 10am during some of the "gaps" we have no listings for.

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