New Zealand

UNDER CONSTRUCTION – STAY TUNED!!!

New Zealand was the first country after the UK to screen Doctor Who.

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

A full account of the broadcast history of Doctor Who in New Zealand can be found at: NZDWFC

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  Key Dates and Events

  • 16 June 1964: The New Zealand government censors view and classify the first batch of 13 Doctor Who episodes.
  • 18 September 1964: New Zealand becomes the first country outside the UK to screen Doctor Who. It debuts on CHTV- in Christchurch, at xxxpm. This first run consists of just the first three serials, 13 episodes.
  • 1965-1966: The NZBC is indecisive about purchasing further episodes of the series, mainly due to it having been classified as "Adults Only" by the censors.
  • 1965: Dr Who and the Daleks goes on general release in theatres.
  • 1966: Daleks Invasion Earth 2150AD 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 'used' episodes from the ABC, spanning The Reign of Terror to The Crusade. Sixteen of these cannot be screened due to their classifications.
  • 26 January 1968: A run of fifteen episodes commences.
  • 26 March 1968: The NZBC sends its prints of the first 13 episodes to Denmark.
  • By 23 September 1968, the NZBC receives a batch of 44 episodes, from The Space Museum to The Tenth Planet.
  • March to October 1969: The NZBC receives Patrick Troughton episodes, from The Power of the Daleks to The Abominable Snowmen. Of these, only The Faceless Ones gets "rejected" by the censor.
  • 31 August 1969: The Power of the Daleks screens.

  October to December 1970: The next batch of episodes, The Ice Warriors to The Wheel in Space are received. The Ice Warriors and Fury from the Deep are "rejected".

  • 20 September 1971: The Wheel in Space part six airs in the fourth and final region.
  • 1971 to 1973: As the NZNC gears up for the switch to colour transmissions, no further black and white episodes of Doctor Who are ordered.
  • 1972: The NZBC sends a large batch of season three episodes - including The War Machines - to Singapore. (These 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.)
  • XXXXX 1974: The NZBC receives black and white prints of Spearhead from Space and Doctor Who and the Silurians. The station purchases more, but only wants stories in colour.
  • 15 March 1975: Jon Pertwee debuts in Spearhead from Space, at XXXXpm.
  • 1 September 1975': Day of the Daleks airs - the first colour broadcast of Doctor Who in New Zealand. This is also the first time this serial has aired as a PAL broadcasts since its original UK screening in 1972…
  • 1975-1977: Only the complete PAL colour Pertwee stories air.
  • 5 June 1977: Planet of the Spiders part six airs.
  • 4 February 1978: Tom Baker makes his debut in Robot. His first, and half of his second seasons air 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.
  • 12 May 1979: The Brain of Morbius commences a two-year uninterrupted run of episodes. Three serials don't screen: Horror of Fang Rock, The Sun Makers and The Invasion of Time.
  • February 1981: Jon Pertwee returns for a second New Zealand tour.
  • 23 February 1981: The two-year run ends, with The Horns of Nimon part four.
  • 24 March 1981: New Zealand is the first country 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: A run of stories from Castrovalva to Mawdryn Undead airs.
  • 1984: Doctor Who does not screen at all during 1984.
  • 12 April 1985: Doctor Who returns - but it's a two-year run of repeats (the first time New Zealand has had repeats) and first-run episodes, starting with The Mind Robber. This 'replay' season includes the recently reissued package of 127 Pertwee episodes (in colour and black and white) that was also sold to Australia and the United States, and the four Tom Baker stories that got missed in the 1978-198 run.
  • June 1997: 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 fanzine Time Space Visualiser (TSV), is published:
    • TSV
  • March 1988: The New Zealand Doctor Who Fan Club (NZDWFC)' is formed, based in Christchurch. They takeover publication of TSV.
    • CLUB WEBSITE: (http//:www.doctorwho.org.nz NZDWFC)
  • 19 to 25 November 1988: To celebrate the series' 25th anniversary, TVNZ screens its Doctor Who Silver Jubilee week of special screenings of one story for each Doctor. This sees the one and only NZ telecast of The Five Doctors, and the world debut of Silver Nemesis parts two and three.
  • 20 April 1989: After a six year break, the rest of season 20 screens, followed by seasons 21 and 22.
  • 22-23 July 1989: TRAKON, the first ever New Zealand Doctor Who convention is held in Christchurch.
  • 10 August 1989: The Twin Dilemma airs.
  • 3 January 1990: The Trial of a Time Lord airs.
  • 23 January 1990: The Sylvester McCoy run commences.
  • 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.
  • 1991-1993: A selective run of Hartnell, Troughton and Pertwee repeats screens.
  • 28 November 1993: Day of the Daleks is repeated as a 30th anniversary celebratory story.
  • 26 December 1993: The Time Meddler and the documentary Resistance is Useless screen.
  • 30 October 1996: The Paul McGann TV Movie airs.
  • 1 June 2000: Independent station PRIME-TV commences a year-long 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 colourised Pertwee episodes.
  • Doctor Who is absent from New Zealand television screens for the next four years, not returning until 2005 with the new series…

  
  

  New Zealand in Doctor Who

  • There have been a number of actors - either New Zealand-born, or who were born overseas but live/lived in New Zealand - appearing in the series:
    • Ilona Rogers (Carol: The Sensorites)
    • Edward Brayshaw (Jules: The Reign of Terror; The War Chief: The War Games)
    • Ewen Solon (xxxx: The Savages)
    • Alan Rowe (Dr xxxx: The Moonbase; Edward: The Time Warrior; Skinsale: Horror of Fang Rock; xxxxxxx Full Circle).
    • Louise Pajo (Gia Kelly: The Seeds of Death)
    • Gordon Gostelow (Milo Clancey: The Space Pirates)
    • Terence MayXXXXX (xxxxxxx: The War Games)
    • Denis Lill (Fendelman: Image of the Fendahl; Sir George: The Awakening)
    • Bruce Purchase (The Captain: The Pirate Planet)
    • John Carson (xxxx: Snakedance)
  • 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.
  • 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'Oyley Carte production of Gilbert and Sullivan's XXXXXX at the time.
  • 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 (this appears on 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.
  • The character played by Victor Pemberton in The Moonbase has a New Zealand flag on his tunic. ANY OTHERS IN MOONBASE - SEE FOF
  • The Enemy of the World - ON THE MAP IN ASTRID'S OFFICE???
  • A behind the scenes photograph from The Web of Fear shows a Yeti smashing its way through a stack of boxes labelled "New Zealand Apples". Whether this actual scene appears like this in the televised version is not known.
  • In The Seeds of Death, a map of the world is seen and New Zealand features rather prominently in several shots.
  • There have been a number of New Zealanders working behind the scenes too, TVNZ producer, 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.
  • And although the new series is outside the scope of BroaDWcast, New Zealand is mentioned twice in Voyage of the Damned.
  • The Doctor Who stageplay The Ultimate Adventure, with Colin Baker, was to have toured New Zealand in 1989, but this fell through.
  • Colin XXXX, the non-existent script-editor of Dan XXXXX's radio-serial Doctor Who - Death Comes to Time, was said to have bee a New Zealander.

  
  

  
  

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