New Zealand

NEW ZEALAND is an island country in the south-western Pacific ocean. Its closest neighbour is Australia.

Profile

Country Number (Number 1)	1964	FIRST WAVE
Region	Australasia/Asia	Commonwealth
Television commenced	1 June 1960
Colour System	31 October 1973	PAL
Population	1966	2,640,117
TV Sets	1966	352,076
Language/s	English

Television Stations / Channels

Between 1964 and 2002, Doctor Who screened on a number of different channels in New Zealand.

Television commenced on 1 June 1960, initially under the control of the state-owned New Zealand Broadcasting Service (NZBS), which also managed all radio stations. Following changes to the Broadcasting Act in 1961, the NZBC was created to oversee all forms of broadcasting. This change took effect from 1 April 1962.

Television was broadcast on a regional basis – with transmitters in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin – until 29 October 1973, when television across the country became fully networked. Two days later, colour broadcasts commenced, although it wasn't until June 1975, with the introduction of the second channel, that black and white broadcasts ceased. (In the mid-1980s regular black and white programming made a welcome return to prime-time schedules.)

Summary of broadcasters in New Zealand:

• 1964 to May 1975: Doctor Who screens on the NZBC (later known as TV1).
• June 1975: NZBC is formally dissolved, and the station is renamed Television One. Second channel TV2 is formed, which becomes a separate corporation called South Pacific Television a year later. (TV2 is available only in Auckland and Christchurch to begin with; coverage to the rest of the country is staggered over the next few years.)
• September 1975 to February 1980: Doctor Who airs on TV2 / South Pacific Television.
• February 1980: TV One and South Pacific Television merge and become Television New Zealand (TVNZ); the channels are re-named TV1 and TV2.
• February 1980 to July 1999: Doctor Who screens on either TV1 and TV2 at various times during this period.
• From May 2000 to June 2001: PRIME becomes the new home for classic Doctor Who, and from 2005, the channel for the new series...
  • PRIME TV WEBSITE
• A selection of classic series then airs on the New Zealand satellite channel BBC UKTV from January 2013 to August 2013, and later in November 2013 until 2015.
• The next NZ station to screen classic Doctor Who is the Sky satellite station The Zone, which screens episodes from January 2017 until June 2017, when the station is closed.
• The series then switches over to the newly-launched Sky satellite station Jones! too. This channel continues to screen random stories - three episodes back to back every Saturday morning - until 21 September 2019; the final serial to air was The Curse of Fenric.
• Prime screened every new series episode through until December 2017, with the final Peter Capaldi Christmas special.
• The series then returned to TVNZ after nearly 20 years - from October 2018 to late 2022; they aired all the Jodie Whittaker serials.

DOCTOR WHO IN NEW ZEALAND

New Zealand was the FIRST country after the UK to screen Doctor Who (see Selling Doctor Who).

New Zealand and Australia are the only two countries to screen all Doctors more or less in chronological order.

DALEK MOVIES

PETER CUSHING Movies

Movie billings, NZ Herald, 31/12/1965, 15/12/1967

Both Peter Cushing Dalek movies played in theatres across New Zealand; "Dr Who and the Daleks" in late 1965 and "Daleks Invasion Earth 2150 AD" in late 1967. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the films often played at provincial theatres.

The first film has screened three times on television: 25 April 1979, 3 March 1981, and 20 November 1988; the second twice: 26 December 1989 and 6 February 2002.

BBC Records

The Stanmark Productions Ltd advertisement from 1966, identifies New Zealand as one of sixteen countries screening Doctor Who in that year (although New Zealand had actually stopped screening the series in 1965).

New Zealand is one of the 27 countries listed in The Making of Doctor Who (1972 Piccolo edition).

The Seventies records a sale of "(40)" stories by 28 February 1977. The Handbook identifies these 40 as being 22 Hartnells, 11 Troughtons and 7 Pertwees. This total is incorrect: NZ is listed against four stories it didn't air (E, F, G, KK), but not on three that it did (SS, AAA, BBB), which makes the true correct total only "(39)".

The Eighties - THE LOST CHAPTERS records a sale of "(71)" stories (by 10 February 1987). This total seems to be made up of the 10 original Jon Pertwee serials (1970s), 37 Tom Bakers, 10 Davisons, and the 14 additional Pertwees (1980s).

New Zealand is identified in only 124 of the DWM Archives; two of these are E and G from the inaccurate 1977 list.

Stories bought and broadcast

WILLIAM HARTNELL (Block One 1964-65)

Three stories, 13 episodes:

First-ever newspaper billing for Doctor Who outside the UK - 18 September 1964, Christchurch Press, New Zealand. Not exactly awe-inspiring, is it...

An Unearthly Child, Auckland debut, 30 October 1964 (NZ Listener)

A	An Unearthly Child	4
B	The Daleks	7
C	Inside the Spaceship	2

Origin of the Prints

These 13 films were censored between September and December 1964. They would have been supplied directly by the BBC in London or BBC Sydney. Assigned Y ratings, the episodes were screened in a late evening slot.

Transmission

The airdates of the stories in this 'Block' can be read at:

• 1964-1965

Fate of the Prints

Three years after broadcast, all 13 films were sent to Denmark on 26 March 1968 as Audition Prints, although as it transpires the Danish station did not take up the offer to purchase the series.

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WILLIAM HARTNELL (Block Two 1966-67)

One story, 7 episodes:

Clipping from NZ Herald (?) 1965, re uncertainty about future of Doctor Who on NZ TV…

D

Marco Polo

7

Origin of the Prints?

The NZBC delayed purchasing further episodes of Doctor Who during 1965 because the censors had assigned Y ratings to the initial batch of episodes they had wanted to screen in a children's early evening timeslot. This ultimately lost them their position of being the front-runner foreign purchaser / broadcaster of the new series.

They eventually decided to give the series another shot, and purchased the next serial – Marco Polo - possibly after observing how the ABC in Australia responded to similar censorship issues.

However the NZBC programme selectors were still unsure about the new serial, especially given its violent content, and themes – such as child marriage.

The seven films were censored between July and October 1966. In all likelihood, they were supplied by one of the many countries that had aired the serial during 1965 and 1966; Singapore is the likely candidate.

One possible reason as to why NZBC did not acquire The Keys of Marinus, The Aztecs and The Sensorites in 1966 or 1967, was that the ABC in Australia (who was not only the supplier of some of the next set of 31 episodes, but maybe also of Marco Polo), needed to hold onto the prints of those three serials for possible repeat screenings...

Transmission

The airdates of the stories in this 'Block' can be read at:

• 1966-1967

Fate of the Prints

Episodes one and two only were sent to Iran as Audition Prints on 20 October 1967. The fate of the other five films is unknown; in all likelihood they were junked.

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WILLIAM HARTNELL (Block Three 1968)

Four stories, 15 episodes:

H	The Reign of Terror	6
J	Planet of Giants	3
L	The Rescue	2
M	The Romans	4

Origin of the Prints

These 15 episodes, plus The Dalek Invasion of Earth (6), The Web Planet (6) and The Crusade (4), were received in NZ by mid-1967. The prints for (at least) the first 17 episodes in the batch (The Reign of Terror to The Rescue) were ones previously used by the ABC in Australia (the prints exhibited the AFCB censor cuts), the first two serials had completed a repeat screening in late 1966.

The origin of the other serials is not clear; they could also have been ex-ABC prints, but the fact that the ABC repeated The Crusade in February 1968, does suggest that the print of that serial sent to New Zealand was not the ABC's…

It's far more likely they were sourced from Singapore.

The seven serials were censored in NZ between September and November 1967. Four were passed with G ratings (with or without cuts), the other three were given Y ratings, and therefore could not be screened in the NZBC's preferred early evening timeslot.

Transmission

The airdates of the stories in this 'Block' can be read at:

• 1968

Fate of the Prints

The Reign of Terror was "destroyed" on 18 June 1971, and Planet of Giants on 14 July 1971. (A method employed by the NZBC to "destroy" films was by feeding them through a band-saw, and the shredded remains taken to a landfill site.)

Episode one of The Crusade was part of a consignment of old films that were found at a Wellington rubbish tip, having been junked there by the NZBC in late 1974.

The fate of the other 21 prints is unknown, but most likely they went to the same landfill as The Crusade in late 1974.

• • See THE LION'S TALE for the story of the recovery of "The Lion".

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WILLIAM HARTNELL (Block Four 1968-69)

11 stories, 44 episodes:

Q	The Space Museum	4
S	The Time Meddler	4
T	Galaxy 4	4
U	The Myth Makers	4
W	The Massacre	4
X	The Ark	4
Y	The Celestial Toymaker	4
AA	The Savages	4
BB	The War Machines	4
CC	The Smugglers	4
DD	The Tenth Planet	4

Origin of the Prints?

This consignment of 44 episodes was purchased in 1968.

The Chase, Mission to the Unknown and The Daleks Master Plan were not included in this batch because by this time (1966 to 1967) all three had been withdrawn due to an agreement between the BBC and Terry Nation. The latter two had also been "rejected" in Australia, which prevented them from being sold anywhere else.

New Zealand was the only country that bought this run of season 3 serials but without The Gunfighters. It is possible the NZBC did acquire the film prints along with the other 11 serials (although there are no clear records indicating that they did receive the films or submitted them to the censor for classification), and they declined to air the 4-parter, perhaps due to it not meeting their strict quality control?

The Space Museum and The Time Meddler were most likely sourced from Singapore. The other episodes would have been supplied directly from the BBC (via BBC Sydney).

These 44 episodes were censored between May and August 1968. It is possible that the first two serials, which formed part of earlier batches sold by the BBC, were provided by a previous broadcaster. The other serials were likely to all be fresh prints supplied by the BBC London in the new Stored Field telerecording format.

Transmission

The airdates of the stories in this 'Block' can be read at:

• 1968-1969

Fate of the Prints

The fate of The Space Museum is unknown. It was most likely junked in 1974 at the same time as The Crusade.

Galaxy 4 to The Tenth Planet were all sent to Singapore in two separate batches in January and September 1972. (If NZ did not supply them with The Gunfighters, Singapore must have acquired the film prints they used from elsewhere.)

The Time Meddler was sent to Nigeria on 2 March 1973.

The ex-NZ prints of The War Machines and The Time Meddler were subsequently recovered from Nigeria in 1984.

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PATRICK TROUGHTON (Block One 1969-70)

Eight stories, 39 episodes:

Discarded film can for The Moonbase episode three - NZBC sticker (with thanks to Graham Howard)

EE	The Power of the Daleks	6
FF	The Highlanders	4
GG	The Underwater Menace	4
HH	The Moonbase	4
JJ	The Macra Terror	4
LL	The Evil of the Daleks	7
MM	The Tomb of the Cybermen	4
NN	The Abominable Snowmen	6

Origin of the Prints

The Tenth Planet and The Power of the Daleks had both been withdrawn from sale by the BBC in 1966/1967, an act which meant a number of countries missed seeing Patrick Troughton's arrival as the Doctor. However, by the time the NZBC had scheduled and screened the last few William Hartnell stories, The Tenth Planet and The Power of the Daleks were once again on offer, and available to the NZBC. Australia and New Zealand were therefore the only two foreign countries to screen the second Doctor's debut in the correct order.

It's possible that that bulk of the season four serials (FF to KK) were bicycled over from Uganda, where that run of stories had concluded in early March 1969.

All films were censored between February and November 1969.

The Faceless Ones was given a Y rating, and therefore could not screen in NZBC's preferred early evening timeslot.

The serials aired on a regional basis, with a break of a few months scheduled either after The Moonbase or The Macra Terror.

Transmission

The airdates of the stories in this 'Block' can be read at:

• 1969-1970

Fate of the Prints

The Power of the Daleks was sent to Singapore in 1972. The Highlanders, The Macra Terror and The Evil of the Daleks were destroyed – The Macra Terror on 27 June 1974. The Faceless Ones films were sent to London in July 1970.

The fate of the other four serials is unknown; in all likelihood they were junked in late 1974, at the same time as The Crusade.

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PATRICK TROUGHTON (Block Two 1971)

Three serials, 18 episodes:

The Enemy of the World, Auckland; 10 May 1971

PP	The Enemy of the World	6
QQ	The Web of Fear	6
SS	The Wheel in Space	6

Origin of the Prints?

These three serials, plus The Ice Warriors (6) were censored between October and December 1970. They would likely have been new prints supplied directly by BBC Sydney. The Ice Warriors was given a Y rating, and therefore could not screen in NZBC's early evening timeslot. Fury from the Deep (6) was rejected by the programme selectors, possibly due to it not meeting their strict quality control.

NZBC did not purchase or screen any further Patrick Troughton serials in the 1970s. The most likely reason for this was, with the approaching launch of colour broadcasts in late 1973, and with a fairly large stockpile of unscreened black and white programmes 'on the shelf', they had enough useable material to fill the schedules for at least two to three years, and acquiring more Doctor Who was not a high priority...

Transmission

The airdates of the stories in this 'Block' can be read at:

• 1971

Fate of the Prints?

The fate of all five serials is unknown; in all likelihood they were junked in late 1974.

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JON PERTWEE (Block One 1975-76)

Seven stories, 31 episodes:

NZ Herald, introducing Jon Pertwee, 14 March 1975; although the article says "In Colour", the first 11 episodes were in black and white!

AAA	Spearhead from Space	4	b/w
BBB	Doctor Who and the Silurians	7	b/w
KKK	Day of the Daleks	4
PPP	Carnival of Monsters	4
RRR	The Three Doctors	4
UUU	The Time Warrior	4
XXX	Death to the Daleks	4

Origin of the Prints/Tapes

By mid-1974, the original PAL colour tapes of the bulk of the Pertwee serials had been wiped by the BBC, leaving only eight complete serials available to foreign broadcasters.

After a three year break, and with the imminent launch of full colour schedules on two channels from June 1975, NZBC was ready to give Doctor Who another go. However the Audition Prints they received were in black and white! Spearhead from Space and Doctor Who and the Silurians were censored between July and August 1974. These were prints previously used in Australia.

The NZBC opted to screen these two in b/w in early 1975 (ahead of the launch of the two channel, colour-only schedules in June), however all subsequent purchases had to be in colour to be aired after June. (Frontier in Space was not known to exist in colour at the time, so was not included in the offer, and The Green Death had been "rejected" in Australia and was therefore not yet available for sale elsewhere.)

The other serials were supplied on PAL colour video tape. The tapes would have been provided directly by BBC Sydney. Episode two of Carnival of Monsters was the 29 minute extended 71-Edit with the alternative arrangement of the theme that had been sent to Australia in 1973.

Death to the Daleks was viewed first by the censor in December 1974, with the others during the first three months of 1975.

The first two serials screened on TV1, which covered the whole country. The other five screened on the new channel, TV2, which at launch was available only in parts of the country for the first year.

The serials aired in three distinct 'blocks' from 1975 to 1976.

Death to the Daleks did not screen until 1976, by which time TV2 coverage had been extended to much of the rest of the country.

Transmission

The airdates of the stories in this 'Block' can be read at:

• 1975-1976

Fate of the Prints/Tapes

The master tapes of Death to the Daleks were sent to Brunei in February 1976; TV2 had made a broadcast copy to screen six months later.

The two b/w serials were still held by TVNZ in 1984; instructed by BBC Enterprises, Spearhead from Space was junked, and Doctor Who and the Silurians (albeit it with censor cuts to some of the episodes) was returned to London.

The fate of the other tapes is not known.

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JON PERTWEE (Block Two 1977)

Two stories, 12 episodes:

YYY	The Monster of Peladon	6
ZZZ	Planet of the Spiders	6

Origin of the Tapes?

The PAL colour tapes would have been supplied via BBC Sydney. Censorship dates are not known.

Transmission

The airdates of the stories in this 'Block' can be read at:

• 1977

Fate of the Tapes?

It is not known what happened to the tapes.

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TOM BAKER (Block One 1978-80)

Seventeen stories, 40 episodes:

"Doc of all Trades", NZ Herald, June 1979

4A	Robot	4
4B	The Sontaran Experiment	2
4C	The Ark in Space	4
4D	Revenge of the Cybermen	4
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
4T	The Invisible Enemy	4

Origin of the Tapes?

The tapes of these and all subsequent Tom Baker serials would probably have been supplied by BBC Sydney. Genesis of the Daleks did not screen; according to BBC Records, music clearances for the serial were "purchased" by New Zealand, but the serial might have been dropped due to censorship issues after this payment was recorded.

The Brain of Morbius and The Deadly Assassin had both been given an A rating in Australia in 1978 and did not screen, however since these two serials did screen in New Zealand in 1979, the pricing policy that had previously restricted other countries buying serials that Australia had "rejected" appears to have been relaxed.

The main factor for the change of policy was that since 1977, there were two television companies in New Zealand competing for BBC product. Prior to 1975, the old single-channel NZBC had negotiated with the BBC a set rate for programmes; since there was no competition driving up the prices, the fees that the NZBC paid for BBC programmes were very low, since the bulk of the rights costs (e.g. Actors' Equity, Writers' Guild, Musicians' Union) for the Australasia region had been met by the ABC. But now that rival channel South Pacific Television was carrying Doctor Who, they probably paid the BBC a much higher fee, which now included the rights costs for the whole region, and thus stories that had previously been "rejected" by the ABC could now be picked up in New Zealand. The same Jon Pertwee episodes that had been "rejected" in Australia had also been 'skipped' in Hong Kong and Singapore; however The Brain of Morbius and The Deadly Assassin did air in Hong Kong, in 1980, because the region clearances had been paid for by TV2!

The 17 serials aired in four distinct 'blocks' from 1978 to 1979.

Transmission

The airdates of the stories in this 'Block' can be read at:

• 1978-1979

Fate of the Tapes?

It is not known what happened to these tapes; certainly by mid-1985 when the Tom Baker episodes were repeated, TVNZ had to source new tapes.

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JON PERTWEE (Block Three 1979)

One story, 6 episodes:

TTT

The Green Death

6

Origin of the Tapes

When the ABC applied to the censors in 1978 for a reassessment of this story's previous A rating from 1973, it was given a new G rating. The serial was also offered to TV2, who screened it after The Android Invasion in 1979.

Transmission

The airdates of the stories in this 'Block' can be read at:

• 1979

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TOM BAKER (Block Two 1980-81)

13 stories, 54 episodes:

Scruffy Tom Baker, NZ Herald, 17 March 1980

4X	Image of the Fendahl	4
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
5H	City of Death	4
5J	Destiny of the Daleks	4
5K	Nightmare of Eden	4
5L	The Horns of Nimon	4

Origin of the Tapes

In early 1980, the old separate two channel system (operating since 1975) was dissolved and replaced by TVNZ. Programmes that had been bought by South Pacific Television did not automatically 'transfer' to TVNZ. The Invisible Enemy was the last serial to air under the old regime. It would appear that Horror of Fang Rock, The Sun Makers and The Invasion of Time did not get purchased prior to the change-over; or if they had been acquired by South Pacific Television, they were not screened by the new TVNZ.

The tapes would probably have been supplied by BBC Enterprises in London.

Transmission

These thirteen stories screened as an uninterrupted run from 1980 to 1981. The airdates of the stories in this 'Block' can be read at:

• 1980-81

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TOM BAKER (Block Three 1981-82)

Seven stories, 28 episodes:

Full Circle part 4; sent from BBC Enterprises London to Television New Zealand in January 1981

5N	The Leisure Hive	4
5Q	Meglos	4
5R	Full Circle	4
5P	State of Decay	4
5S	Warriors' Gate	4
5T	The Keeper of Traken	4
5V	Logopolis	4

Origin of the Tapes

The tapes were supplied by BBC Enterprises in London.

The final seven Tom Baker serials were censored between February and July 1981.

Transmission

New Zealand was the first country outside the UK to air the first six of these stories in 1981. Logopolis was held over for a year and did not screen until mid-1982. This delay was highly likely the direct result of the ABC in Australia delaying their own purchase of Tom Baker's final serial until 1982.

The airdates of the stories in this 'Block' can be read at:

• 1981-1982

Fate of the Tapes

Less than a month after transmission, the tape for part four of Full Circle was wiped by TVNZ and used to record an instalment of a locally-produced magazine-style programme which screened on 7 July 1981 at 6.00pm, immediately after Doctor Who! (It is likely that other episodes from this run of Doctor Who were similarly re-used by TVNZ.)

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PETER DAVISON (1983)

Ten stories, 38 episodes:

NZ Listener, 11-17 June 1983

5Z	Castrovalva	4
5W	Four to Doomsday	4
5Y	Kinda	4
5X	The Visitation	4
6A	Black Orchid	2
6B	Earthshock	4
6C	Time-Flight	4
6E	Arc of Infinity	4
6D	Snakedance	4
6F	Mawdryn Undead	4

Origin of the Tapes

TVNZ therefore purchased GROUP A of the Peter Davison stories, as these ten serials appear to have been sold by the BBC as a complete batch, despite consisting of one full and half a season (see Peter Davison stories Group A).

The tapes would probably have been supplied by BBC Enterprises in London.

Transmission

The airdates of the stories in this 'Block' can be read at:

• 1983

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"REPEATS" (TVNZ) (1985-1989)

Start of Repeats, NZ Listener, April 1985

From 1985, the BBC reissued all the surviving Jon Pertwee stories specifically for the United States market. The package was also offered to Australia and New Zealand. At the same time, the BBC started to negotiate for a reissue of the surviving complete William Hartnell stories and Patrick Troughton stories also for syndication in the US. By early 1985, only two of the Troughton serials had been cleared (presumably because the writers of those two were still alive, and be the first to sign new sales contracts), and these were offered to Australia and New Zealand first.

TVNZ bought a package that included Hartnell, Troughton, Pertwee, Baker, and Davison.

Although promoted as a run of "Repeats", there were 20 stories that had never before screened in New Zealand.

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PATRICK TROUGHTON

Two 'new' stories, nine episodes:

UU	The Mind Robber	5
WW	The Krotons	4

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JON PERTWEE

14 'new' stories, 78 episodes:

NZ Listener, 28 June 1986

CCC	The Ambassadors of Death	7	b/w
DDD	Inferno	7
EEE	Terror of the Autons	4	b/w
FFF	The Mind of Evil	6	b/w
GGG	The Claws of Axos	4
HHH	Colony in Space	6
JJJ	The Daemons	5	b/w
MMM	The Curse of Peladon	4
LLL	The Sea Devils	6
NNN	The Mutants	6
OOO	The Time Monster	6
QQQ	Frontier in Space	6
SSS	Planet of the Daleks	6	ep 3 b/w
WWW	Invasion of the Dinosaurs	5

Origin of the Tapes

Ten Jon Pertwee stories had previously aired between 1975 and 1979; TVNZ purchased the full reissue package of the 24 stories (in various formats), and repeated those ten (with Spearhead from Space in colour for the first time), plus the other 14 'new' serials. Although part three of Planet of the Daleks aired in b/w, part one of Invasion of the Dinosaurs was not included in the package, so the serial aired as a five-parter with modified episode number title captions.

These tapes were sourced from the BBC in London. Part two of Carnival of Monsters was the shorter standard "UK" version.

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TOM BAKER

Four 'new' stories, 20 episodes:

4E	Genesis of the Daleks	6
4V	Horror of Fang Rock	4
4W	The Sun Makers	4
4Z	The Invasion of Time	6

Origin of the Tapes

All 41 Tom Baker stories screened during the 'repeat' season, including the four that had been missed from the 1978 to 1980 runs. For reasons unknown, Genesis of the Daleks aired out of sequence, months after the rest of season 12.

All the Tom Baker tapes were sourced from the ABC, and exhibited the Australian censor edits.

Transmission

The airdates of the stories in this 'REPEAT Block' can be read at:

• 1985-1989

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SILVER JUBILEE WEEK (1988)

NZ Listener featuring Silver Jubilee Week, November 1988

In November 1988 TVNZ hosted a special week long 25th Anniversary celebration, playing five complete serials, featuring all seven Doctors, plus the Peter Cushing film, "Dr Who and the Daleks" (which had previously played on TV in 1979 and 1981).

Five stories, equivalent of 23 episodes:

K	The Dalek Invasion of Earth	6
XX	The Seeds of Death	6
6K	The Five Doctors	1
6Z	Revelation of the Daleks	4
7K	Silver Nemesis	3

The two b/w serials aired as 'movies' (these were not the US Omnibus editions, but the episodes playing back to back minus the middle opening and closing titles). The Five Doctors aired in its original 90 minute format, and the Colin Baker serial played as a 4-parter.

Most significantly, in the case of Silver Nemesis – which played 'episodically' (but with the middle opening and closing titles removed and recaps intact) - episodes two and three had their worldwide broadcast premiere in New Zealand, screening respectively a week and fortnight ahead of the UK.

Transmission

The Silver Jubilee season aired between the repeats of Time-Flight and Arc of Infinity.

The airdates of the stories in this 'Special Block' can be read at:

• 1988

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NEW EPISODES (1989-1990)

The "Repeat" run (that had commenced in 1985) concluded in April 1989 with a replay of Mawdryn Undead, the last 'new' serial to air in 1983. This was followed by an almost non-stop run of new episodes, commencing with the remaining nine Peter Davison stories, followed by all the Colin Baker stories (there was a repeat of Revelation of the Daleks) and the twelve Sylvester McCoy stories (with a repeat of Silver Nemesis).

PETER DAVISON (1989)

Nine stories, equivalent of 32 episodes:

6G	Terminus	4
6H	Enlightenment	4
6J	The King's Demons	2
6L	Warriors of the Deep	4
6M	The Awakening	2
6N	Frontios	4
6P	Resurrection of the Daleks	(2/4)
6Q	Planet of Fire	4
6R	The Caves of Androzani	4

Origin of the Tapes

As before, these tapes, as well as those of the ten Davison repeats, were sourced from the ABC, and exhibited the Australian censor edits. Resurrection of the Daleks played in its modified 4-part version.

The Five Doctors was not repeated.

Transmission

The airdates of the stories in this 'Block' can be read at:

• 1989

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COLIN BAKER (1989-1990)

Seven stories, equivalent of 40 episodes:

Colin Baker episodes begin, NZ Listener, 10 August 1989

6S	The Twin Dilemma	4
6T	Attack of the Cybermen	2/4
6V	Vengeance on Varos	2/4
6W	The Two Doctors	3/6
6X	The Mark of the Rani	2/4
6Y	Timelash	2/4
7A	The Trial of a Time Lord	14

Origin of the Tapes

The serials were played in their modified half-hour versions. Again, these tapes were sourced from the ABC, and exhibited the Australian censor edits. Revelation of the Daleks was repeated with these episodes.

Transmission

The airdates of the stories in this 'Block' can be read at:

• 1989-1990

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SYLVESTER McCOY (1990)

Eleven stories, 39 episodes:

Silver Nemesis billing, New Zealand Listener, 25 November 1988

7D	Time and the Rani	4
7E	Paradise Towers	4
7F	Delta and the Bannermen	3
7G	Dragonfire	3
7H	Remembrance of the Daleks	4
7J	The Greatest Show in the Galaxy	4
7L	The Happiness Patrol	3
7N	Battlefield	4
7Q	Ghost Light	3
7M	The Curse of Fenric	4
7P	Survival	3

Origin of the Tapes

The season 25 stories aired in production order. Silver Nemesis was repeated with these episodes.

The Curse of Fenric did not have the Russian to English subtitles over the opening moments of Part One.

Transmission

The airdates of the stories in this 'Block' can be read at:

• 1990

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REPEATS (TVNZ) (1991-1993)

Over this three year period, TVNZ aired repeats of K, XX, UU, WW, AAA, BBB, CCC, DDD, EEE, FFF, GGG, HHH and JJJ, plus The Time Meddler, which had recently had a repeat screening in the UK. (Ironically, part 4 of this story was a restored copy of the very same film print that had previously aired in NZ in 1969!)

During November and December 1993, Day of the Daleks aired as TVNZ's celebration of the series' 30th Anniversary. The BBC documentary "Resistance is Useless" also aired in December.

Transmission

The airdates of the stories in this 'Repeat Block' can be read at:

• 1991-93

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PAUL McGANN (1996/99)

TV Movie, 84 minutes:

TVM

TV Movie

The movie first screened in NZ on 30 October 1996, at 8.30pm. A repeat screening on 3 July 1999, at 9.00pm, is, to date, the last time Doctor Who screened on TVNZ.

Transmission

The airdate for the TV Movie can be read at:

• 1996/99

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"REPEATS" (PRIME) (2000-2001)

Return of the Doctor, NZ Herald, 6 April 2000

In May 2000, Prime commenced a repeat run of Doctor Who, starting at the very beginning. The run featured the 17 complete William Hartnell stories, the six complete Patrick Troughton stories (including The Tomb of the Cybermen), plus all 24 Jon Pertwee serials (with some episodes newly re-colourised), and Tom Baker from Robot to The Horns of Nimon.

This package included eight serials and one episode that had not previously screened in New Zealand:

WILLIAM HARTNELL (2000)

Six 'new' stories, 32 episodes:

E	The Keys of Marinus	6
F	The Aztecs	4
G	The Sensorites	6
N	The Web Planet	6
R	The Chase	6
Z	The Gunfighters	4

These tapes may have been supplied from Australia, where the same black and white stories were also being shown on the satellite channel, UKTV.

It had taken 35 years for The Keys of Marinus to reach TV screens in New Zealand!

The version of The Time Meddler part 1 shown by Prime was missing parts of the opening TARDIS scene; this cut film print was the one that had been recovered from Nigeria in 1984/85 but had originated from New Zealand - and was therefore the very same one that had previously been aired by the NZBC back in 1968/69!

The package also included the restored 1996 VHS version of The War Machines using the film prints that had also been recovered from Nigeria; these prints too originated from New Zealand, where they had aired in 1969!

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PATRICK TROUGHTON (2000)

Two 'new' stories, 15 episodes:

TT	The Dominators	5
ZZ	The War Games	10

These tapes may have been supplied from Australia, where the black and white stories were also being shown on the satellite channel, UKTV.

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JON PERTWEE (2000-2001)

One 'new' episode:

WWW

Invasion of the Dinosaurs

1

The b/w first episode of this serial aired for the first time in New Zealand during this run.

Prime was initially supplied with b/w prints of various Pertwee stories, but following viewers' queries, they checked with the BBC and were supplied with colour versions where available. Doctor Who and the Silurians and part one of The Ambassadors of Death had already aired in b/w by this time, but the fifth episode, and all of Terror of the Autons and The Daemons screened in their re-coloured format.

Prime also played the extended first edit of Invasion of the Dinosaurs part three.

Prime had intended to continue the repeat run beyond The Horns of Nimon, but a change of ownership of the station brought the repeat run to an end in June 2001.

Transmission

The airdates of the stories in this 'REPEAT Block' can be read at:

• 2000-2002

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"REPEATS" (Other Stations) (2003 onwards…)

New series episodes aired on both PRIME and satellite station BBC UKTV for the next few years. UKTV then started airing classic Doctor Who from 6 January 2013, starting with An Unearthly Child, then a random selection of stories up to Survival.

In November 2013 UKTV aired a selection of stories, one from each Doctor, to celebrate the 50th anniversary. After that, it was back to the new series, which then switched to The Zone from July 2016.

UKTV BBC 50th Anniversary trailer 2013

From January 2017 to June 2017, Sky's The Zone screened a selection of classic stories (i.e. no Daleks!) starting with An Unearthly Child and ending with The Deadly Assassin, when The Zone shut down.

Four days later, the series switched over to another new Sky channel, Jones! too, starting again at An Unearthly Child, and screening the same selection of stories that had been on The Zone.

Jones! too showed more Tom Baker stories, skipping quite a few along the way. A few Peter Davison stories were followed by Colin Baker (with Season 22 stories being a mix of both the original 45-minutes and 25-minute edits). After some Sylvester McCoys in February 2018, the station went back to screening a random selection of stories in no particular order. The screenings on Jones! too concluded on Saturday, 21 September 2019 with The Curse of Fenric parts 2-4.

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Stories not bought and broadcast

All bar eight Doctor Who stories and one spin-off have aired in New Zealand – although many did air out of sequence during later 'repeat' runs.

The 50 episodes that have never screened in New Zealand are noted below, with the reason for their omission from the initial runs. These Doctor Who stories were not able to be screened in later "repeat" packages because they no longer existed in the BBC Archives.

	Title		Why did it not air in 1960s/70s/80s?
P	The Crusade	4	Y rating, Unsuitable for children
T/A	Mission to the Unknown	1	Rejected in Australia; withdrawn by Nation; not offered for sale
V	The Daleks' Master Plan	12	Rejected in Australia; withdrawn by Nation; not offered for sale
KK	The Faceless Ones	6	Y rating, Unsuitable for children
OO	The Ice Warriors	6	Y rating, Unsuitable for children
RR	Fury from the Deep	6	Rejected by programme selectors
VV	The Invasion	8	B/W, not purchased pending switch to colour?
YY	The Space Pirates	6	B/W, not purchased pending switch to colour?
	K9 and Company	1	Not offered?

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TRANSMISSION and TV LISTINGS

Collage of billings from NZ Listener, 1960s/1970s

NEW ZEALAND AIRDATES 1964-2002

• • 1964-1968
  • 1968-1970
  • 1970-1977
  • 1978-1983
  • 1985-1988
  • 1989-1999
  • 2000-2002

A full account of the broadcast history of Doctor Who in New Zealand, with clippings from the TV listings magazine, The New Zealand Listener, airdates can be seen at:

• • ANOTHER TIME AND SPACE – DOCTOR WHO IN NEW ZEALAND

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SUMMARY OF KEY DATES AND EVENTS

1960s

• 16 June 1964: The New Zealand government censors classify the first batch of 13 Doctor Who episodes as being unsuitable for younger audiences.
• 18 September 1964: New Zealand becomes the first country outside the UK to screen Doctor Who. It debuts on CHTV-3, in Christchurch, at 7.57pm. This first run consists of those first three serials, 13 episodes. The other three stations air the series over the coming months. (The film prints are cycled around the country from station to station.)
• 1965-1966: The NZBC is indecisive about purchasing further episodes of the series, mainly due to it having been classified by the censors as being suitable only for older viewers.
• December 1965: The Peter Cushing film, "Dr Who and the Daleks", goes on general release in theatres.
• 27 October 1966: After a break of a year, the series returns, but only one serial, Marco Polo, screens.
• By 19 September 1967: The NZBC receives a batch of 31 episodes, some of which (at least the first 17) are ones previously held and aired by the ABC in Australia; spanning The Reign of Terror to The Crusade, sixteen of these cannot be screened due to censors' classifications.
• December 1967: The film, "Daleks Invasion Earth 2150AD", goes on general release in theatres.
• 26 January 1968: A run of fifteen episodes commences.
• 26 March 1968: The NZBC sends the first 13 episodes as "Audition Prints" to Denmark.
• By 23 September 1968, the NZBC receives a further batch: a selection of 44 episodes from The Space Museum to The Tenth Planet.
• March to October 1969: The NZBC receives its first batch of Patrick Troughton episodes, from The Power of the Daleks to The Abominable Snowmen. The Faceless Ones gets "rejected" by the censor.
• 31 August 1969: The Power of the Daleks debuts on CHTV-3, in Christchurch at 6.07pm.

1970s

Collage of billings from NZ Listener, 1970s/1980s

• October to December 1970: The next batch of episodes, The Ice Warriors to The Wheel in Space is received. The Ice Warriors and Fury from the Deep are "rejected".
• 20 September 1971: The Wheel in Space part six airs in Dunedin, the last ever regional screening of Doctor Who.
• 1971 to 1973: As the NZBC gears up for the switch to colour transmissions, no further black and white episodes of Doctor Who are purchased or screened.
• 1972: The NZBC sends a large batch of season three episodes - including The War Machines - to Singapore. (The prints of The War Machines are subsequently found in Nigeria in 1984.)
• March 1973: The NZBC sends its prints of The Time Meddler to Nigeria. (These prints are subsequently recovered from Nigeria in 1984.)
• 26 July 1974: The NZBC receives and assesses black and white prints of Spearhead from Space and Doctor Who and the Silurians. The station purchases more, but only in colour.
• 14 March 1975: Jon Pertwee debuts in Spearhead from Space, at 6.01pm.
• 1 September 1975: Day of the Daleks airs on the new station, TV2 (which not all regions in the country can receive). This is the first ever colour broadcast of Doctor Who in New Zealand. This is also the first time this Dalek 4-parter has aired as a PAL broadcast in English since its original UK screening in 1972...
• 1975-1977: Only a selection of the complete PAL colour Pertwee stories airs.
• 5 June 1977: Planet of the Spiders part six airs.
• 4 February 1978: Tom Baker makes his debut in Robot on South Pacific Television at 6.30pm. His first and half of his second season airs during 1978, in production code order, although Genesis of the Daleks is skipped over.
• 26 January 1979: The Green Death airs after The Android Invasion.
• February 1979: Jon Pertwee brings his cabaret tour to NZ.
• 25 April 1979: The movie, "Dr Who and the Daleks", airs for the first time on New Zealand television.
• 12 May 1979: The Brain of Morbius commences an almost two-year uninterrupted run of episodes. Three serials don't screen: Horror of Fang Rock, The Sun Makers and The Invasion of Time.

1980s

Collage of billings from NZ Listener, 1980s

• February 1980: TVNZ comes into existence.
• February 1981: Jon Pertwee returns for a second New Zealand tour.
• 23 February 1981: The two-year non-stop run ends, with The Horns of Nimon part four.
• 24 March 1981: New Zealand is the first country outside the UK to screen Tom Baker's final run of stories, starting with The Leisure Hive. The runs ends after The Keeper of Traken in September 1981.
• 20 September 1982: A whole year later, Logopolis screens.
• 14 March 1983: Peter Davison makes his debut at 5.30pm; Castrovalva to Mawdryn Undead airs on TV1.
• 1984: Doctor Who does not screen at all during 1984.
• From 24 November 1984, Porirua Little Theatre performs the first-ever foreign performances of the stage-play "Doctor Who and the Daleks: Seven Keys to Doomsday".
• 12 April 1985: Doctor Who returns - but it's a two-year run of repeats (the first time New Zealand has had Doctor Who repeats) which also includes many stories that have not screened before in New Zealand: the run opens with The Mind Robber. This 'replay' season also features the recently reissued package of 127 Pertwee episodes (in colour and black and white) that had also been sold to Australia and the United States. Also playing for the first time were the four Tom Baker stories that were missed in the 1978-1980 run.
• June 1987: In the wake of the announcements of Sylvester McCoy as the seventh Doctor, and the death of Patrick Troughton, New Zealand's first Doctor Who fanzine, the highly-acclaimed Time Space Visualiser (TSV), is published.
• March 1988: The New Zealand Doctor Who Fan Club (NZDWFC) is formed, based in Christchurch. They take over publication of TSV.
  • CLUB WEBSITE: NZDWFC
• 26 August, 2 and 9 September 1988: The novelty song, Doctorin' the TARDIS by The Timelords, is number one in the NZ singles charts, for three weeks.
• 19 to 25 November 1988: To celebrate the series' 25th anniversary, TVNZ screens a week-long Doctor Who Silver Jubilee. This run features the (so far) one and only NZ telecast of The Five Doctors, and the world premiere of Silver Nemesis parts two and three.
• 20 April 1989: After a six year gap, the rest of season 20 finally screens, followed by seasons 21 and 22 (the latter cut into half-hour episodes), although the episodes are heavily edited to allow for commercials.
• 22-23 July 1989: Trakon, the first ever New Zealand Doctor Who convention, is held in Christchurch.
• 10 August 1989: The Twin Dilemma airs.
• 26 December 1989: The movie, "Daleks Invasion Earth 2150 AD", airs for the first time on New Zealand television.

1990s

• 3 January 1990: The Trial of a Time Lord airs.
• 23 January 1990: The Sylvester McCoy run commences, TV2 at 4.30pm.
• 11-13 May 1990: Mark Strickson is the first Doctor Who guest to feature at an organised New Zealand Science Fiction convention.
• 14-16 September 1990: WhoCon, the second New Zealand Doctor Who convention is held, with Jon Pertwee and Mark Strickson as guests.
• 16 September 1990: Survival part three airs.
• January 1991: Management of the New Zealand Doctor Who Fan Club relocates to Auckland.
• 1991-1993: A selective run of Hartnell, Troughton and Pertwee repeats screens, including The Time Meddler.
• 28 November 1993: Day of the Daleks is repeated as a 30th anniversary celebratory story.
• 26 December 1993: The documentary Resistance is Useless screens.
• 30 October 1996: The Paul McGann TV Movie airs.
• January 1997: Tom Baker makes a rare appearance at a fan event when he comes to Auckland to film a series of television commercials for a New Zealand Superannuation campaign:

CLIP: NEW ZEALAND SUPERANNUATION ADS

• 20 September to 4 October 1997: The radio serial Slipback airs on National Radio.
• 3 January 1999: A print of The Lion, the missing first episode of The Crusade, is discovered in Auckland and returned to the BBC.

2000s

• 15 May 2000: Prime-TV commences a 13-month run of all complete stories on a daily basis, starting with An Unearthly Child and ending with The Horns of Nimon. This run includes many first-ever screenings of black and white Hartnell and Troughton stories that were missed in the 1960s, as well as some of the newly re-coloured Pertwee episodes. The black and white first episode of Invasion of the Dinosaurs also airs during this run.
• Prime planned to screen a further run from January 2002, commencing with The Leisure Hive, but the schedules were revised following a change in ownership of the station.
• 6 February 2002: A screening of the movie, "Daleks Invasion Earth 2150 AD", is the last of Doctor Who to be seen on Prime for three years...
• February 2002 to July 2005: Doctor Who is absent from New Zealand television screens for three years, but returns in mid-2005 with the start of the NEW SERIES...
• 23 November to 28 December 2003: Slipback is repeated.
• From July 2005 through into the 2020s, both New and Classic Doctor Who is shown on a number of different New Zealand stations and channels: Prime, UKTV, The Box, The Zone, Sky 5, Jones!too, and TVNZ 2…

New Zealand in Doctor Who

• New Zealand is mentioned on page 7 of the novelisation of The Daleks.
• In The Tenth Planet, the space capsule Zeus IV passes over the south island of New Zealand (see page 21 of the novel). And when the planet Mondas is seen on screen, the upside-down image of the Mondas equivalent of 'New Zealand' can be glimpsed briefly.
• Two New Zealanders are crewmen in the Gravitron base: Sam Becket (No 7) and N Stacey (No 15). The character played by Victor Pemberton (Jules?) has a New Zealand flag on his tunic. (The Moonbase)
• In The Web of Fear, a Yeti smashes its way through a stack of boxes labelled "New Zealand Apples".
• A billboard advertising New Zealand Cheddar cheese is glimpsed in Spearhead from Space.
• Scientist Ernest Rutherford is named by the Doctor (The Five Doctors).

-

• There have been a number of actors - either New Zealand-born, or who were born overseas but live/lived in New Zealand for many years - appearing in the series:
  • Ilona Rogers (Carol: The Sensorites).
  • Edward Brayshaw (Colbert: The Reign of Terror; The War Chief: The War Games).
  • Ewen Solon (Chal: The Savages; Vishinsky: Planet of Evil).
  • Martin King (Earth Examiner: The Power of the Daleks).
  • Alan Rowe (Dr Evans/Space Control voice: The Moonbase; Edward: The Time Warrior; Skinsale: Horror of Fang Rock; Garif: Full Circle).
  • Rhys McConnochie (Rod: The Enemy of the World).
  • Louise Pajo (Gia Kelly: The Seeds of Death).
  • Gordon Gostelow (Milo Clancey: The Space Pirates).
  • Terence Bayler (Barrington: The War Games).
  • Denis Lill (Fendelman: Image of the Fendahl; Sir George: The Awakening).
  • Bruce Purchase (The Captain: The Pirate Planet).
  • John Carson (Ambril: Snakedance).

• Michael Wisher was unable to revise his role as Davros in Destiny of the Daleks in 1979 as he was touring New Zealand with a D'Oyly Carte production of one of Gilbert and Sullivan's operas at the time.
• Ian Marter (Harry Sullivan) worked on a New Zealand soap-opera, Close to Home, for several years in the early 1980s, a job which excluded him from making an appearance in The Five Doctors.

• There have also been New Zealanders working behind the scenes too: TVNZ producer, the late Brian Lenane, claimed to have worked on Doctor Who although it is not known in what capacity, and apparently Peter Bartlett, the locations film cameraman on The Abominable Snowmen, was a Kiwi.
• New Zealand-born entrepreneur, Walter Tuckwell, could be said to have been responsible for the Dalekmania craze in the mid-1960s, when he assumed the role of the BBC's merchandising liaison.
• The Doctor Who stageplay The Ultimate Adventure, with Colin Baker, was to have toured New Zealand in 1989, but this fell through.
• Colin Meek, the writer of webcast Doctor Who - Death Comes to Time, was said to have been a New Zealander. Colin Meek was actually a pseudonym for the webcast's producer, Dan Freedman.
• The opening scenes of the 2003 web-cast animated adventure, Scream of the Shalka, are set at Mount Ruapehu.
• And although the new series is outside the scope of BroaDWcast, New Zealand is mentioned twice in Voyage of the Damned.

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