Australia TX 1965-1966

AUSTRALIAN TRANSMISSION HISTORY (Part One) (1965-1966)

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These pages offer an Overview of the screenings of Doctor Who in Australia, as detailed on the Airdates Tables (click on the RED "Airdates in Australia" Navigation bar at the foot of the page to access). The screenings have been divided into "Blocks", each representing "new" first-run episodes, usually but not always corresponding with each new 'season' of Doctor Who. In most cases each block of new episodes was preceded or followed – and sometimes interrupted – by a run of "Repeats". For the sake of simplicity, only the story codes are used -- but hovering your cursor over the code will pop-up the full story title.

This History overview and series of Airdates tables are based upon published TV listings from the main city or cities within each of the eight regions, as well as directly from ABC documentation held at the National Australian Archives in Sydney, with a smattering of 'eye-witness' accounts, so we are certain that the airdates are as accurate as they are ever going to be.

For the sake of simplicity, and unless otherwise stated, when we identify a CAPITAL CITY in the Australia Profile, Australia Transmission History and Table of Airdates in Australia pages, this is understood to include all the remote stations that were attached to that capital's network. (Any scheduling differences within a region are noted where such deviations are known from the available documentation.)

An overview of the ABC's regional and network structure can be found on the GUIDE TO ABC'S STATIONS page.

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Block 1: HARTNELL ---- January 1965 to July 1966

First Run	A----B----C----D----E----F----G----H----J----K----L----M----N----P
Repeats	D----F

The first run of Doctor Who commenced in January 1965. With only one set of film prints to be moved around the country, episodes aired weekly on different days of the week in each region, at 7.30pm; this timeslot had been dictated by the censors' "A" classification which applied to serials A, B, C, E, G, J, K and L. Each of the "A" rated episodes was preceded by an onscreen caption which read "Unsuitable for Children".

Once all the "A" rated episodes had played, the timeslot was brought forward to 6.30pm; the first serial to go out at the new earlier time was N.

First repeat: Marco Polo, part one repeated; 1.30pm, Sydney, 20 December 1965

Marco Polo repeated weekdays at 1.30pm; Canberra Times, 20 December 1965

• PERTH: Doctor Who made its Australian DEBUT in Western Australia, on Tuesday, 12 January 1965. From Monday, 22 March 1965, the PERTH screenings shifted to Mondays. The first run ended with P4 on Monday, 18 April 1966.
  • Between Wednesday, 12 January and Thursday, 20 January 1966, while L and M were showing, D was repeated.

• SYDNEY and CANBERRA: Three days after the PERTH debut, SYDNEY welcomed the new series on Friday, 15 January 1965. The opening run concluded with P4 on Friday, 22 April 1966. K part 6 was broadcast from a Video-Tape copy, since transportation delays over the Christmas period may have meant the film print, which was held in PERTH, might not have been delivered in time. (See Part 2 on the next page for more on the ABC's use of VTR copies…)
• During this run, ABMN-0 in Wagga Wagga joined the network; the first episode available on that channel was D4.
  • Mid-way through K, the first-ever Australian holiday repeats occurred in SYDNEY -- both D and F were rerun at 1.30pm weekday afternoons, from Monday, 20 December 1965 to Monday, 3 January 1966. (It was during this repeat that a series of Off-Screen Photos were taken -- see below.) Because the film print for F part 3 was required in HOBART, the episode was repeated from a Video-Taped copy.

• BRISBANE: The series started on Friday, 22 January 1965. The run ended with P4 on Friday, 29 April 1966. L2, M1 and M2 were broadcast from Video-Tape since the film prints were required in TOWNSVILLE.
  • Unlike all the other regions D was not repeated by the BRISBANE network (but it was by the Townsville network -- see below). It's possible that the Townsville repeat counted as Queensland's second showing.

• MELBOURNE: Victoria had to wait until Saturday, 20 February 1965 to see the new series. From 16 April, mid-way through B, the series moved to Fridays at the later time of 8pm. The 7.30pm slot was taken by "Focus on Football". The run came to a premature end on Friday, 14 May 1965, with only the first three serials airing. After a seven week break, the series returned on Monday, 5 July 1965. It's not readily clear why there was a 'pause' for seven weeks. The fact that the 'gap' was the same length as the next serial, D, doesn't seem to be related, since the MELBOURNE screenings did not overlap with another region thus necessitating a "catch up". At a guess, the ABC wanted to screen Doctor Who at 7.30pm in all regions, but in MELBOURNE that time was occupied by "Focus on Football". But when a 7.30pm slot was available on Mondays, that became the new home for Doctor Who for the remainder of this run, which ended with P4 on Monday, 23 May 1966. Since the region fell seven weeks 'behind' the rest of the country the MELBOURNE screenings needed to 'catch up', so eight episodes, the "A" rated serials K and L, did not screen at all in Victoria.
  • Mid-way through H, there was a repeat of D, weekdays at 1.30pm, from Thursday, 30 December 1965 to Friday, 7 January 1966.

• TOWNSVILLE: On Thursday, 4 March 1965, the north Queensland city of TOWNSVILLE was the fifth "network" to debut the new series. The second Dalek serial K was skipped completely, a move taken to bring Townsville closer in sync with BRISBANE, so that when Townsville became part of the BRISBANE network the following month the last episode to air on the ABTQ network was M2 on 3 February 1966, and the first episode seen by northern viewers now tuning into the BRISBANE network feed on 4 February 1966 was also M2!
  • D was repeated on weekday afternoons from Monday, 5 January 1966 to Thursday, 13 January 1966 (this was the only time D was repeated in Queensland).

• ADELAIDE: On Monday, 15 March 1965, the series commenced in the sixth region. ADELAIDE skipped the "A" rated L. The run ended with P4 on Monday, 6 June 1966.
  • There were no repeats in ADELAIDE during this run.

• ROCKHAMPTON: The seventh "network" to air the new series was based in the Queensland city of ROCKHAMPTON, which lies between BRISANE and TOWNSVILLE. The series started on Thursday, 18 March 1965, and ran until 30 December 1965, with part 6 of H. On 1 January 1966, ROCKHAMPTON no longer had its own network and its affiliates joined the BRISBANE network feed midway through the second Dalek serial K, which meant that ex-ABRQ network viewers did not see J or the first few episodes of K.
  • There were no repeats in ROCKHAMPTON during this run.

• HOBART: On Friday, 11 June 1965, Doctor Who made it to the island of Tasmania. Serials K and L were also both skipped; the first run ended Friday, 29 July 1966.
  • There were no repeats in TASMANIA during this run.

"OFF-SCREEN PHOTOS"

Off-screen images from Marco Polo (x7) and The Aztecs (x2)

Nine off-screen photographs -- two from part six and five from part seven of Marco Polo and one each from parts two and four of The Aztecs -- were taken by a viewer during the broadcasts of those two serials.

It is believed that these were taken during the December 1965 to January 1966 SYDNEY repeats, for the simple reason that those two serials aired together in that region only. In fact, the images taken are from episodes that aired just after 25 December -- maybe the photographer received a new camera for Christmas, and was testing its functionality? (It should be noted that the photographer may have taken more than just these nine photos. Any others that may have been taken have not been found.)

What is fascinating about the image from part four of The Aztecs (the final image in the gallery at right) is that in the broadcast episode this particular close-up shot of William Hartnell is a very quick cut-away to him within a long scene that consists of a series of two-shots of the Doctor and the Aztec woman, Cameca. Given the suddenness of the cut to the one shot, it is highly unlikely, even with it being from a repeat screening, that the photographer had anticipated this, and was instead likely to be aiming to capture a two-shot, but at the moment the shutter button was pressed, the on-screen shot changed for a matter of seconds, which resulted in the photographer capturing this close-up of the Doctor's face instead. (Of course, as stated above, the photographer may have held down the shutter button during the entire scene, capturing several continuous shots, and kept only the close-up.)

• CONTINUED: 1966-1967

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