Talk:Doctor Who in Australia

2003 repeat run

"In 2003 the ABC began repeating almost every episode. These were screened chronologically every week night, and included almost every surviving episode from 1963 to 1989 - except those featuring Daleks."
I could have sworn that there were Dalek episodes included in that run. Am I imagining things? - Gobeirne 03:19, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

This is what was broadcast on ABC during 2003-06: - 22.09.03-01.10.03 The Daleks - 10.11.03-18.11.03 The Dalek Invasion Of Earth - 17.12.03-29.12.03 The Chase - 15.09.04-21.09.04 Death To The Daleks - 01.11.04-09.11.04 Genesis Of The Daleks Day, Planet, Destiny, Ressurection, Revelation and Remembrance were skipped. I thought this was something to do with the ongoing issue of Terry Nation's estate and broadcast rights, which I think was sorted by the time te latter skipped stories could have been broadcast, but by then I guess the ABC must've decided it was too late to bother getting the rights or whatever. --Tinascousin (talk) 03:46, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

All surviving William Hartnell Dalek stories were shown (The Daleks, The Dalek Invasion of Earth, The Chase) and Tom Baker's The Genesis of the Daleks was shown. (The Daleks' Master Plan and the two Patrick Troughton Dalek stories no longer survive.) The three Jon Pertwee Dalek stories were skipped (Day of the Daleks, The Planet of the Daleks and Death to the Daleks) as were Tom Baker's other story (Destiny of the Daleks) and those of the 1980s.

Two other stories which are complete were not shown: Troughton's final story The War Games, presumably because the Doctor conjures the image of a Dalek in his defence at his trial, and Pertwee's Frontier in Space, presumably because Daleks appear at the very end as a prelude to The Planet of the Daleks, which follows. The Five Doctors was shown (in the four-episode edit) with the sequence showing the first Doctor and Susan's encounter with the Dalek omitted.

Paul McGann's untitled tv movie was not shown.

We should change the statement for another reason: it was not almost all surviving episodes that were shown but rather almost all surviving stories. (Surviving episodes in incomplete stories were not shown.) Klippa 06:44, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

the dalek and sydney uni

I don't think the dalek was originally part of the Doctor Who club; indeed i don't recall a dr who club at sydney uni earlyt on, although records might prove me wrong. I think it was used in the science fiction club. I've emailled Syd Uni in the hope that someone can dig up the archives of clubs from that era.

I do recall in 1987 that Kate Orman told me that she was nearly pushed down a set of stairs by someone who decided that the modified trike she was 'piloting' was a symbol of the patriarchy. I also recall a manuscript of what might of been a very good doctor who story, but which was, alas, unreadable due to hasty typing.

58.168.98.200 19:35, 14 July 2007 (UTC) Brett Caton

I was at Sydney Uni in 1976 and helped build that Dalek, it was done by members of the Sci-Fi club - NOT built for a Syd Uni Dr Who club - THAT came later. I added information on this to the main article - on 27th Dec 2008 - Antony Howe.

Thanks for the update, Antony (I found place markers with your name on them in the files at the NAA), but I remain suss that the gap created by ABC losing the cricket had more of an impact on content than any viewer protest could. MartinSFSA (talk) 09:17, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

Hey?? I never mentioned the ABC losing the cricket??? I said the ratings in England improved which got the ABC interested again. Antony Antony Howe (talk) 14:31, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

I'm sorry, don't understand your comment. The need for content to replace the cricket is as relevant as anything else in the broadcast section. MartinSFSA (talk) 05:10, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Is such a statement particularly verifiable? Is there an official source that ties this cricket theory into Doctor Who?Mmm commentaries (talk) 05:36, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Torchwood airing schedule

I'm not sure about the timings for this show when it aired on TEN last year. I'm not sure that it was six episodes before the time shift to midnight - I thought it was just 3 episodes but again, I'm not 100% sure - could someone please verify the info in the article. Also, I am sure that on one night - the night of the (Big Brother finale) the show didn't air until about 11, though it was scheduled for earlier. The remainder of the time (prior to the reschedule to midnight) the show was supposed to air at 9:30, but sometimes didn't come on until closer to 10pm because of the prior show running overtime. There was some online and print media coverage of this at the time (might still be able to track some down) in relation to ratings. Torchwood had excellent audience share the first week but went down in the following two weeks - interestingly, this was when the show aired at a later time to the 9.30pm listing. TEN had also cut back on advertising the program, prior to, and once the spot had changed to 12:00am. I remember thinking they had just cancelled it until I looked it up on the web. Tinkstar1985 11:29, 9 January 2008 (UTC)

Countrycide, (the sixth episode of the series) was the episode that was screened at around 21:50 after the Big Brother finale (35 minutes later than scheduled). It was after this episode that the series was moved to midnight. 122.108.218.80 09:25, 9 December 2008 (UTC) GSirone

School holiday screenings

That's a great piece of research, but it does leave the article unbalanced on both detail in this section and regional bias. MartinSFSA (talk) 08:00, 23 November 2008 (UTC)

Hi Martin: you have a valid point - I only put in information of which I am aware. But I am intrigued by the possibility that because of the state based arrangements of the ABC this could - just possibly - be an avenue whereby some lost episodes might be traced, and this is no doubt something dear to our hearts. Assuming you are South Australia, can you recall the school holiday arrangements in SA? Best wishes Adamm (talk) 08:17, 23 November 2008 (UTC)

Better than that; I'm the author of two articles on the screenings on a State/Territory basis from 1965 to 1986, the first is cited in the article. I found there were as many as three copies of some missing stories being flown back and forth across the nation, and dispelled some myths about what had or hadn't screened. Unfortunately the Varos site ceased being updated when I was going to give the Webmaster the raw data, which now forms the basis for my MA. In turn I drew inspiration from Gary Zimmer's articles on Victorian screenings in Sonic Screwdriver; and he forgot to investigate the holiday screenings. There was also listings research done for NSW and QLD, and the obscure Tasmanian listings were collated for me by a couple of friends there. While I'm confident I got all the regular and holiday listings there is no end of pre-empts and simply wrong data which the press may have put out there. For a period it seemed listings research was going to be a major international project, as the New Zealand fans (particularly Jon Preddle) have got this down.

To answer your question, all States and the ACT had similar arrangements with May and August holidays seeing major runs of recently screened shows (on a regional basis; they were still cycling prints) and December holidays seeing repeats much interrupted by sport. The Northern Territory was the odd one out; when they got television they had a huge backlog of first run material they screened instead of Who. School holiday screening were big events in the young Who watcher's life from 1969 to 1974, when colour tv started there was an apparent famine probably due to the ABC's reluctance in playing B&W material. And in terms of recovery this is all a footnote, as I've contacted an ex-ABC employee who destroyed prints which weren't being cycled out of the country. What is has done is help identify which episodes there were extra prints of for the benefit of hoaxers who start unfounded rumours or worse. MartinSFSA (talk) 10:18, 23 November 2008 (UTC)