Australia TX 1966-1967

AUSTRALIAN TRANSMISSION HISTORY (Part Two) (1966-1967)

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Block 2: HARTNELL ---- October 1966 to February 1967

ABC print advert; Australian Women's Weekly,12 October 1966

The Space Museum, part one, 6.30pm, 3 October 1966 (Sydney)

First Run	Q----R----S----T----U----W----X----Y----Z
Repeats	D----F----H----J----M----N----P

FILM AND VIDEO-TAPES

This Block of stories was the first to be seen by the most number of viewers since the series started. As noted on the Australia Stations page, by the middle of 1966, the number of Country Stations receiving a live feed from their regional 'parent' station or via the network of translators and relays had nearly doubled the number that had been transmitting in 1965.

The ABC gave this new run of episodes some heavy promotion, including a semi-full-page ad that ran in the Australian Women's Weekly cover dated 12 October 1966. The ad – with the caption "Not a peep out of them thanks to ABC-TV" – featured a group of children watching "Dr Who" on a TV. (The photo of Hartnell was the same one that had appeared in the premature publicity given when the series had originally been scheduled to air in May 1964.)

This second Block of Doctor Who episodes screened four days a week (Monday to Thursday, at 6.30pm). For the first time, the ABC made a concerted effort to synchronise the start of this new Block by having four stations debuting on the same date -- 3 October 1966 -- and the other three the following week -- on 10 October 1966. This was achieved by bicycling between the stations one complete set of film prints as well as a set of Video Tape copies of three of the serials: R, S, and T.

Films were copied onto 2 inch Quad Video Tape. The right to do so came under a clause in the ABC's purchase agreement which gave them the "right to videotape for normal syndication" purposes.

All the transmission logs and schedules for the ABC up until 1974 are held at the National Archives in Sydney - confusingly these were catalogued under a number of different names, which made identifying the full set something of a challenge, and it took a few years for us to access them all. These ledgers record which station/s were supplied with the film prints (indicated by an "F"), and which received the "VTR".

Most other series shown on the ABC at this time were stand-alone which meant the episodes could be played in any order, and thus only one set of film prints was required, but Doctor Who was almost unique because of its multi-part serialised nature, and so it was necessary to carefully pre-plan the schedules accordingly.

With only one set of film prints and one set of tape copies to share, it was necessary for each station to open the run with a different serial, and to then screen the other serials out of sequence -- an unusual strategy that had the unfortunate effect of disrupting the continuity regarding the permanent departure of Ian and Barbara, and the arrival of the new regular, Steven Taylor.

This method of scheduling was a very complicated affair, requiring the careful planning and co-ordinating of each set of film prints and video tapes to be flown from 'parent' station to 'parent' station each week, as each story took a route completely different to that of all the others as they criss-crossed the country. The films and tapes (where applicable) for each "parallel" serial were thus flown in the sequence shown below, a detail that is recorded in transmission logs held at the Australian National Archives.

Although it was usually part of the NSW network and received the live feed from SYDNEY, uniquely for this Block only, CANBERRA's TV schedule was different to that of Sydney, and therefore it became an additional link in the delivery chain:

Q	Film only	SYDNEY ----> CANBERRA ----> BRISBANE ----> MELBOURNE ----> ADELAIDE ----> PERTH ----> HOBART
R	Film	MELBOURNE ----> SYDNEY ----> BRISBANE ----> HOBART ----> PERTH
	VTR	CANBERRA ----> ADELAIDE
S	Film	BRISBANE ----> PERTH ----> SYDNEY ----> CANBERRA
	VTR	ADELAIDE ----> HOBART ----> MELBOURNE
T	Film	HOBART ----> PERTH ----> SYDNEY ----> ADELAIDE ----> MELBOURNE
	VTR	BRISBANE ----> CANBERRA
U	Film only	MELBOURNE ----> SYDNEY ----> HOBART ----> CANBERRA ----> BRISBANE ----> PERTH ----> ADELAIDE

(The episodes that were broadcast from VT are underlined in the Airdates tables.)

The ABC's transmission logs record how one set of films ("F") and one set of video tapes ("VTR") were bicycled between the regions for this particular run of episodes. In this example here from 1 November 1966, Brisbane aired Galaxy 4 part 4 from VTR, Adelaide screened The Chase 6 from VTR, while Perth had the 16mm film print of The Chase ep 5.

Once the films had completed their cycle around the centres, they were returned to the Film Library in SYDNEY, while the tapes were wiped for reuse.

When T/A and V could not be scheduled to follow U due to ongoing censorship issues, the resulting gap of more than 12 weeks was filled with repeats.

When it came to screening the next run of new episodes, the ABC dropped any notion of repeating the overly-complicated scheduling operation as attempted previously, and instead staggered the debut airdates by a week so each film print could be delivered to and screened in the correct order by each subsequent region; for this run of episodes, only one station – BRISBANE - required video tape copies:

W X Y Z	Film	SYDNEY ----> MELBOURNE ----> PERTH ----> ADELAIDE ----> HOBART
	VTR	BRISBANE

• SYDNEY: commenced the second run on 3 October 1966 with Q, the next story in sequence from where "Block 1" ended, and screened all subsequent serials (on film) in the correct order up to U, after which came repeats (in the same 6.30pm timeslot) of H, J, M, N, and P, followed by new episodes W to Z in order. SYDNEY did not repeat Q, although Canberra did (see below). SYDNEY was the first region to complete this run, which concluded on 16 January 1967. SYDNEY was the only network to screen these serials in the correct order.

Why isn't "Dr Who" being shown on Thursdays?; Canberra Times, 10 October 1966

• CANBERRA: the ACT station was usually part of the SYDNEY network, and thus also commenced this run on 3 October 1966 with Q. However, ABC-3 aired a long-running locally-made educational programme called "Studio 11" on Thursdays at 6.30pm, so it had to skip the Thursday episode and screen it on Monday instead, with the Monday episode playing on Tuesday, and so on. This was achieved by the station transmitting some of the episodes from video tape. (The Bega-Cooma station ABSN-0 was attached to ABC-3, and thus received the same delayed episodes.) CANBERRA aired Q to U in story order, then repeats of H, J, M, and N. By this time, "Studio 11" had finished its season, and Doctor Who was now able to screen five days a week, albeit still out of sync with SYDNEY. Repeats of P and Q followed, with the run ending on 12 January 1967. Because it had been out of sync with SYDNEY, CANBERRA did not screen any of the serials from W to Z. (The Canberra Times does print a single isolated listing for Doctor Who on Thursday, 19 January 1967, but this appears to be a printing error.) CANBERRA had repeated Q but SYDNEY did not; presumably the repeat was dropped from NSW to ensure that SYDNEY and CANBERRA both ended their respective runs at the same time rather than a week apart. It is therefore odd that a repeat of Q was not scheduled for 1968, when the next run of repeats aired.
  • The policy of not screening Doctor Who on Thursday prompted several viewers to ring the station, who published an open response in the Canberra Times on 10 October 1966 (see clipping right).
  • We believe that it was from this run of isolated episodes on CANBERRA's channel 3 that short extracts were filmed by a viewer using an 8mm camera. See the next page for more on this.

• MELBOURNE: also commenced the second run on 3 October 1966 with the out of sequence R, followed by Q, S, then U, after which came a repeat of F, then new episodes of T, then repeats of H, J, M, N and P, after which came new episodes W to Z in order, ending the second run on 23 January 1967.

• BRISBANE: was the fourth station to open the second run on 3 October 1966, commencing with an out of sequence S, followed by Q, R, then T, after which came repeats of H and J, then came new episodes of U, followed by out of sequence repeats of F, P, M, and N, back to new episodes W to Z in order. (These episodes were broadcast off Video Tape copies, since the 16mm films were needed in MELBOURNE.) The run concluded on 23 January 1967.

• PERTH: commenced the second Block a week later, on Monday, 10 October 1966, with an out of sequence S, followed by T, Q, and R, then came repeats of F and M, then new episodes of U, followed by repeats of H, J, N (on Video Tape, since the films were being used in BRISBANE), and P, followed by new episodes W to Z in order, ending the run on 31 January 1967.

• ADELAIDE: also opened the run on 10 October 1966 with an out of sequence S (on Video Tape); this was followed by Q, then R (since no episode aired on 20 October, both Q4 and R1 aired back to back on 24 October 1966), then T, followed by repeats of D, N and F (in that order), after which came new episodes of U, then a repeat of H, J and M, followed by new serials W to Z in order. The ADELAIDE run concluded on 6 February 1967.

• HOBART: Tasmania also started the run on Monday, 10 October 1966, with a very much out-of-sequence screening of T, which was followed by the reverse-ordered S (on Video Tape), R, and Q, after which came new episodes U, then repeats of F, D (which was the last time this serial aired in Australia, although it appears that part 7 did not screen on 5 December 1966 due to technical issues; it does not appear to have been rescheduled for a later date), H, M (on Video tape, since the films were being used by CANBERRA), N (with just the first four episodes on Video Tape, since the films were being used by CANBERRA), J and P, then new episodes W to Z. The run came to an end on 13 February 1967.

NOTE ABOUT REPEATS: Serials A, B, C, E, G, K and L had all been rated "A" and therefore could not be repeated in the early afternoon timeslots. In early November 1966, when the Season 1 stories with "G" ratings were being scheduled for repeats, the ABC applied to have serial G reassessed. The censor reviewed the Sensorites serial, and it was granted a lower "G" rating - however the new classification wasn't confirmed until mid-December 1966, by which time the repeat run was over. Despite its new rating, G was never repeated.

FATE OF THE PRINTS

In mid-July 1967, the ABC's prints of H, J, K and L (still exhibiting the censor cuts) were sent to New Zealand…

• CONTINUED: 1967-1971

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