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:
| DDD | Inferno | 7 |
| GGG | The Claws of Axos | 4 |
| HHH | Colony in Space | 6 |
| KKK | Day of the Daleks | 4 |
| MMM | The Curse of Peladon | 4 |
| LLL | The Sea Devils | 6 |
| NNN | The Mutants | 6 |
| OOO | The Time Monster | 6 |
| RRR | The Three Doctors | 4 |
| TTT | The Green Death | 6 |
| UUU | The Time Warrior | 4 |
| XXX | Death to the Daleks | 4 |
| 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 programme was supplied as NTSC colour video tapes with English soundtracks.
Some of these same fourteen stories aired on other Canadian stations:
Origin of the Tapes?
The sale would have been completed by the BBC's office in Toronto, but the tapes were supplied to BBC Toronto via Time Life Films / Television, who were the BBC's distribution agents in America. (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. 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 not made available to the United States until mid 1983, which means that NTSC conversions of the last six stories in the above table were done specifically for the sale to Canada.
Of note, The Three Doctors and The Green Death were the only ones from that season that BBC London still had in full PAL colour at that time. Frontier in Space and Planet of the Daleks would not have been supplied because by 1976 there were already episodes missing. (Could it be that Carnival of Monsters was also missing some of its episodes in 1976, which is why it was not sold to Canada?)
Transmission
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 contradicts Ray Seredin's memory of seeing Inferno in 1979; does he mean 1976 instead?)
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.
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. (The newspapers TV listings start at 10am for all channels, but it's just possible that TV broadcasts started earlier than 10am, and that Doctor Who was airing before 10am during 1978 and 1979…)
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.)
The series returned in half hour slots on Saturday, 6 September 1980, at 10.00am. 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…)
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…)
NOTE: As Dean Shewring noted in TARDIS, there were often pre-emptions for sports and other shows, so there may have been breaks we've not accounted for during any of these four block of episodes.
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:
- by December 1983:
TV Listings
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← AIRDATES ...... (CLICK ICON TO GO TO TABLE SHOWING EPISODE BREAKDOWN AND AIRDATES - N/S = story title is Not Stated) |
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 referring instead to the screenings in July 1976 and/or September 1981?)
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