Chile
CHILE is on the west coast of the South American continent.
Profile
| Country Number (30) | 1969 | FIRST and SECOND WAVE |
| Region | South America | |
| Television commenced | 1957 | |
| Colour System | 1972 | NTSC |
| Population | 1969 | 8.5 million |
| TV Sets | 1969 | 40,500 |
| Population | 1980 | 10.65 million |
| TV Sets | 1980 | 1.225 million |
| Language/s | Spanish | Dubbed |
Television Stations / Channels
Chile began its television service in 1957. In 1969, the country had two national broadcasters. In 1979, there were five.
Doctor Who aired on Universidad Catolica, Channels 13 and 5. (See also CANAL 13.)
Colour transmissions began in Chile in 1972 using the NTSC broadcast system.
Language/s
The principal language of Chile is Spanish.
DOCTOR WHO (EL DOCTOR MISTERIO) IN CHILE
Chile was the 30th country to screen Doctor Who, and second in South America. It was the fourth and last to broadcast the series in Spanish (see Selling Doctor Who).
BBC Records
Chile is not listed in The Seventies, or The Handbook.
The Eighties - THE LOST CHAPTERS records a sale of "(23)" stories (by 10 February 1987).
In DWM, Chile is identified in 28 story Archives: K, L, N, Q and R for Hartnell, and all 23 stories from 4A to 4Z for Tom Baker.
Stories bought and broadcast
WILLIAM HARTNELL
Twelve stories, 56 episodes:
| A | An Unearthly Child | 4 |
| B | The Daleks | 7 |
| C | Inside the Spaceship | 2 |
| E | The Keys of Marinus | 6 |
| F | The Aztecs | 4 |
| G | The Sensorites | 6 |
| J | Planet of Giants | 3 |
| K | The Dalek Invasion of Earth | 6 |
| L | The Rescue | 2 |
| N | The Web Planet | 6 |
| Q | The Space Museum | 4 |
| R | The Chase | 6 |
Chile therefore bought the standard package of GROUP A, B, C and D of the William Hartnell stories dubbed into Spanish.
The programme was supplied as 16mm black and white film prints with Spanish soundtracks.
Origin of the Prints?
Venezuela and Mexico (and Dominican Republic?) were the previous Spanish language countries to screen the Hartnell episodes in the late 1960s, so Chile may have received its prints from one or more of those countries.
TOM BAKER
23 stories, (the equivalent of) 98 episodes, although the stories did not air in the correct order.
| 4A | Robot | 4 |
| 4B | The Sontaran Experiment | 2 |
| 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 |
| 4L | The Seeds of Doom | 6 |
| 4M | The Masque of Mandragora | 4 |
| 4N | The Hand of Fear | 4 |
| 4P | The Deadly Assassin | 4 |
| 4Q | The Face of Evil | 4 |
| 4R | The Robots of Death | 4 |
| 4S | The Talons of Weng-Chiang | 6 |
| 4V | Horror of Fang Rock | 4 |
| 4T | The Invisible Enemy | 4 |
| 4X | Image of the Fendahl | 4 |
| 4W | The Sun Makers | 4 |
| 4Y | Underworld | 4 |
| 4Z | The Invasion of Time | 6 |
Chile therefore bought the standard package of Tom Baker stories that was packaged for the North, Central and South American markets by Time-Life Television.
The programme was supplied as NTSC colour video tapes with Spanish soundtracks.
Curiously, some of the Chilean episode titles differ from those used in Mexico - see the Spanish page for a list of the different translations.
Mexico was five days ahead of Chile in screening the Tom Baker episodes.
Transmission
WILLIAM HARTNELL
The series started on Sunday, 5 January 1969, at 5.30pm on channel 13. During March and April, the starting time jumped around a bit – from 5.30, 5.43, 6.30, 5.50 – until it stabilised as 6.00pm from 27 April.
From 19 October the start moved to the much earlier time of 1.35, 1.15, 1.30 or 1.00pm.
There were no episodes on four of the weeks during the run, which ended on 15 March 1970. There was a two week gap in June 1969, which - if our episode allocation is correct – is midway through The Aztecs. (There is, of course, no absolute certainty that the serials screened in strict story order. For instance, in Mexico, each serial aired in a seemingly random order...)
59 airdates have been identified for 56 available episodes, which suggests that at least three episodes were pre-empted during the 14 month run.
Fate of the Prints?
Chile was the last country to air Doctor Who in Spanish in the 1960s.
TOM BAKER
The Tom Baker episodes aired on a regional basis – we have airdates for the Santiago (Channel 13) and Concepcion (Channel 5) runs. (There may have been others across the country.)
SANTIAGO (Canal 13)
A run of 24 colour episodes commenced on Wednesday, 9 May 1979 (only five days after the Baker episodes debuted in Mexico), airing episodically, week days at 5.45pm, without interruption. Six stories aired, of which only five can be identified:
- unknown 4 parter
- El Planeta del Mal
- La Venganza de los Hombres Metalicos
- Robot
- El Experimento de Sontaran
- Las Semillas de la Ruina
Six months later, on Sunday, 6 January 1980, the series returned (at 3.00pm), now playing in the omnibus "movie" format rather than episodically. Again, the stories did not air in the correct story order. There were 27 weeks uninterrupted, but only 23 stories to account for.
The billings do suggests that The Ark in Space, Pyramids of Mars, The Brain of Morbius, The Hand of Fear and The Face of Evil were repeated, which accounts for five "extra" episodes!
CONCEPCION (Canal 5)
A week after the Santiago run started, Canal 5 in Concepcion commenced episodic screenings on weekdays from Monday, 14 May 1979. The start times were all over the place, with 5.47, 5.52, 5.42pm, etc, listed.
If the Preview in the 11 May 1979 paper is accurate, the first serial appears to have been Genesis of the Daleks rather than Planet of Evil, which suggests Canal 5 might have played the stories in a different order to those on Canal 13 – and therefore suggests there may have been two sets of tapes in use by the two channels, rather than one being shared by both.
The run concluded on Friday, 15 June 1979, which covered 25 episodes, one more than Canal 13 had. There were some dates for which the billings did not include a listing for the series; only 20 listings clearly identify the series as being on. Since Canal 13 in Santiago had aired 24 episodes, it is likely that Canal 5 aired the same.
The series returned to Canal 5 six months later, on Sunday, 13 January 1980, a week after the Canal 13 screenings; these were the same omnibus editions.
Comparing the two separate runs, it appears that – with just the one clear exception (Underworld vs The Robots of Death in March) - the same story order was adopted by both channels. It's therefore possible to extrapolate what aired on the dates in which no story title is given for each station.
Once again Concepcion has one more airdate than Santiago had; so was there a pre-emption, or is the lack of TV listings on 24 January significant? Or was the billing on 20 June a printing error, and the run actually ended on 13 June with The Sun Makers as had been the case for Canal 13?
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) |
1960s
TV listings have been obtained from the newspaper El Mercurio and La Nacion from Santiago.
Listings give the title as El Dr Misterio, Doctor Misterio or just Dr Misterio.
The 5 January 1969 billing said it was a "nueva serie ciencia ficcion" ("a new science fiction series"). Only three episodes of the entire run were identified by title, and these were the same titles that were used in Mexico. There were also brief plot synopses given for these.
A printing error gave the full title of part two of The Daleks as "La Selva del Terror: Los Sobrevivientes", the first four words of which were actually the title of part three of An Unearthly Child!
1979-1980
SANTIAGO
A preview feature in the 9 May 1979 issue of El Mercurio - "¡CUIDADO, MONSTRUOS, VIENE EL DOCTOR MISTERIO!" (Lookout! Monsters from Dr Who!") - was illustrated with a photo of the Anti-man from Planet of Evil. The article makes no mention of the fact that Dr Misterio had previously screened on channel 13 in the 1960s.
The first three episodes in this run are not titled, but the next five (!) are labelled "El Planeta del Mal"' (Planet of Evil); presumably the first story was actually a different four parter.
The next five are identified as "La Venganza de los Hombres Metalicos" (Revenge of the Cybermen), the first of which was most likely part four of Planet of Evil. A further error crops up on the 4 June episode, which should have been part one of The Seeds of Doom rather than The Sontaran Experiment.
For the omnibus editions starting from January 1980, the first was previewed with a statement that the series starred Tom Baker and Liz Shaw (!), and that the stories were based on the books written by Terrance Dicks!
Only thirteen of the adventures are identified by a title. The Brain of Morbius is listed twice - for 16 March and 22 June. There are also two listings for The Ark in Space; presumably these were repeats?
The story we know as Underworld is called "Bajo Mundo", whereas in Mexico it was "El Mundo Subterraneo". Revenge of the Cybermen is "La Venganza del los Hombres Metalicos", but in Mexico it was "La Venganza del Hombre Cibernetico" (which is in the singular). "La Cara del Mal" (The Face of Evil) was "La Cara del Demonio" in Mexico.
There are a few typographical errors in the listings: "Las Garras de Yeng-Chiang" is more likely to be the same as the Mexican title "Las Garras de Weng-Chiang", "los Alesios" is probably a misspelling of "los Dalekios". "Los Summakers" seems to be a misprint of the English title.
CONCEPCION
TV listings have been obtained from the newspaper El Sur.
TV billings gave the title as El Dr Misterio, El Doctor Misterio or just Dr Misterio. Some of the listings name the lead actor as "Tom Baxter" or "Bazer"!
The 11 May 1979 issue had a preview feature; this gave the title of the opening story as "La Genesis de los Dalecios" (which is probably a typo of Dalekios, as is used elsewhere). However given that Planet of Evil opened the run on Canal 13, it's possible Canal 5 duplicated the same story order instead.
For the 1979 run, only one other story title was printed – "Semilla de Maldad", which is slightly different to the title that was used in Santiago and in Mexico.
For the 1980 run, the paper presented a unique title for the fourth Doctor's first serial: "Muerte de un Robot" ( Death of a Robot), and from time to time they also printed the (or slight variations of) English titles: El Sur identifies The Invisible Enemy, The Robots of Death, The Face of Evil and Horror at Fang Rock in English.
