Early Repeat Broadcasts on ABC in Australia

[Tom Tellam]

Hi. I recently read an account of Space Pirates 2 being found on a domestic video tape in the UK (although in deteriorated condition). This got me thinking about the likelihood of recordings being made in Australia. Unlike the UK I believe almost all the missing episodes were transmitted twice and some as late as 1972 in Australia. According to both the First and Second Doctor Handbooks by Messers Howe-Stammers-Walker the first repeat season of Doctor Who began 9th of November 1966 (at least in Sydney) beginning with The Reign of Terror (The Dalek Invasion and The Rescue being skipped due to A ratings given by hypersensitve censors). There had been two surges of "new episodes" before then showing everything available except Mission to the Unknown/Master Plan. After two new crops of virgin episodes ending with The Faceless Ones Episode 6 on the 26th of January 1968 (in Sydney at least), a second repeat season began on the 12th of February 1968, beginning this time with The Chase and ending with The Faceless Ones again (minus of course Master Plan et al) on 25 June 1968. It may have been during this repeat season that the famous 8mm footage was shot - although that wouldn't explain the Reign of Terror material so perhaps he or she did indulge in that over a longer period of time?

Interestingly this suggests that the stories leading up to The Reign of Terror were only shown once on Australian TV (including most importantly Marco Polo) This also seems to suggest that The Rescue and The Dalek Invasion of Earth were also only ever shown once in Australia until 2003/4). All three though would have been shown in that initial 67 week surge that started in Perth on the 12th of January 1965 and lasting until 22nd of April 1966 when Episode 4 of The Crusade was shown. The second surge had started on 3rd of October 1966 (persumably with The Space Museum).

What is really interesting is the very, very slow and confused manner in which the Troughton stories were broadcast - mostly due to the obstructiveness of the censors... err, I mean Classification Board, which could have made McCarthy blush! A fourth "season" of virgin episodes started (persumably with The Tomb of the Cybermen as The Evil of the Daleks had not yet been purchased) on 5th of July 1968 and ended on 6 January 1969 with Episode 6 of The Web of Fear (just assume Sydney unless told otherwise!).

Can you begin to see what I'm driving at...? The later the better...

The Evil of the Daleks was finally broadcast weekly on the 12 January 1969 to bridge the gap until Fury From the Deep could be offically disected) and it began screening on the 2nd of March 1969. The Wheel in Space is screened weekly as well from the 16th of April 1969.

Then the material between The Faceless Ones (already shown twice) and the Wheel (what the Brits knew as the end of Season 4 and all of Season 5) was then repeated between May and December: Evil 7th May to 16th of May (the School holidays); Tomb and Abominable through August; Ice Warriors to Fury From the Deep was repeated between December 1969 and 23rd of January 1970.

1970 and it's still years before anyone is going to see any of Jon's episodes...

New episodes (from your Season 6), The Dominators to The Seeds of Death, were then transmitted from April 1970. Wheel then got its chance to be repeated across weekday afternoons from 31st of August to 7th of September 1970. Before the remainder of Season 6 is transmitted for the first time, The Dominators, The Mind Robber and The Invasion are repeated from January 1971. Then from 11 April 1971 the rest of the season 6 stories were shown for the first time here.

These last episodes were repeated as well. In January 1972, The Krotons and The Seeds of Death got their second airing. The War Games was repeated from the second week of May 1972 in 50 minute blocks! That was the end of Troughton as the Doctor on Australian TV until 1986!!!

Recently I visited this great page on antique video recorder machines run by this fellow called "Labguy". Although I realise that the machines and the tape would have cost a a fortune, there was at least one model available in the US as early as 1967!!! One machine was marketed with the comment "If you owned one last year, you would have taped the moon landing!"

I just wonder if anyone has any information about the types of video recorders available in Australia, at least by 1972 when the last of Troughton's episodes were played for the last time (some forever it seems and others until 1986 - which I do remember clearly). It seems likely that the early Pertwee episodes were shown here in B&W. Also after the switch to colour no Who was shown in B&W again until 1986 - which may limit the chances of a domestic recording of a missing colour episode of the Pertwee era. Still the Third Doctor Handbook only details the New Zealand experience. Perhaps some more intricate research on the actual dates of broadcasts of Third Doctor material across Australia is warranted? I was recently watching a clip from a Countdown episode in early 1979 and Tom Baker was being interviewed about the new series to be shown in Australia... starting with The Horror of Fang Rock! Clearly we were a bit behind still by the end of the decade.

Also I think the tardiness of broadcasts in Australia, matched with the arguable higher standard of living here during the period might mean that something was captured and maybe transferred to other media. I think that is all food for thought.

[Joe Haynes]

Iv thought about this too. Maybe there is a club in Oz where collectors of old TV recordings meet? i have always believed there is more in OZ

[LanceM]

When I first heard of this domestic recording of Space Pirates, I was having similar thoughts on how to go about researching vintage reel to reel video recordings of DR Who in Australia. I have since been able to talk to and ask several vintage video collectors in Australia about the tapes and reels in their collection. As there is not an official group that they all meet from the sound of what I have been hearing from them.

I have seen domestic recordings of ABC TV made at home in Australia which date as early as 1964 ! Which proves that there were people recording old TV on these early reel to reel formats, know most the models of VTR which were available were available in Australia around the same time as well. Video Reels, Film Reels,N1500,N1700,U-Matic and all other manner of formats can be found there. So the possibility exists that there may well be some old who episodes on reel to reel format, or other format residing in Australia. However there are also other factors, these machines and tapes were quite expensive in their heyday, also the hot climate there does not bode well for 40 year old video reels or tapes if stored improperly. Keeping an eye for jumble sales, Internet auctions, libraries, university archives, and many more resources are available which may have merit for some material being located, if only clips, would still be better than nothing at all, wouldn't you say ?

At this point I am open to any possibilities existing for further material being recovered from obsolete video formats, whether it be from domestic or professional sources.

Cheers, Lance.

[Jon Preddle]

timelash85 said:

Perhaps some more intricate research on the actual dates of broadcasts of Third Doctor material across Australia is warranted?

Full details of the complicated Australian screenings was researched by Martin Dunne and published in a couple of issues of the Chameleon Factor fanzine. A google search might result in a contact website for the club to get back issues.

Jon Preddle

[Adrian Gregg]

This may come as a shock but we (the ABC) broadcast the troughtons starting as late as 1975 (Queensland). This i found out by a 3 year period when i printed as much info as i could from Miro-fish (is that the correct term) this was long before the INTERNET and was pretty much the only research method.. but yep it came as a shock and it cemented in my mind (20 years ago) that the chance of any missing epps being out there were slim. i mean it was something like less than 10 years since they were broadcast at the time and the ABC (in correspondence to the Queensland Arm of the Broadcaster) at the time yielded nothing they had either sent the prints back or sent them to Sydney.. no one could tell me. I get a chill even now when I'm in a multi level car-park next to the Qland ABC. only a few meters away from the last place the entire 2nd doctors epps lived until well after i was born. weird,, weird


The idea that someone might have recorded the stuff here has haunted me for 30 odd years.
Here is somthing i wrote about it last year.. i never finished writting this though..

But before i copy and paste the thing i'd like to ask that if anyone has any leads or hints that i could be your "man" down under. i have sevral years of experiance reparing all manner of electronic VT and Audio devices (which is more importrant than a "love of old tv !!)

there is another misconception about the playback units, I was "hired" to transfer a load of Umatic and half inch (sony type reels) for a few collectors recently and these guys uaslly get me because I never spill the beans on their holdings or even their locations/names, Many of these collectors have been "stung" at least (on one case) over 2 dozen times over a 30 year period (ok well since the early days of VHS) It generally goes like this. Collector or A for short, goes to many photo labs, camera shops, transfer labs etc to get some of their tapes transferred.
For arguments sake lets say it’s a long lost pop show. shop assistant says he'll try to get it copied , A says he won't let tape out of his sight, Assistant "cons" A into believing to transfer to DVD and or Digital Tape will take days or weeks and baffles A with technical bullshit. A leaves tape under strict conditions that it takes 2 days and no one makes copies. assistant thinks all the cloak and dagger stuff a bit bloody weird so talks about "whets on the tape" to others and vola within days assistant tells A that tape was "destroyed in transfer" baffles him with technical bullshit again and sells or keeps the tape, usually sells. ( you won't believe how many nut-case collectors have their Business cards left in these transfer suites and pay "finders fees" for the staff to pass on tapes) anyhow that kind of thing happens a lot. Or A takes to someone who is apparently an "expert" in playing back tapes. Expert can't even get vertical sync on playback then proceeds to scratch the tape to buggery with his poorly maintained equipment. And yes he belviels and others too that he is an expert. and in video formats and knowledge perhaps he is.. but on an electronic level. no. and that’s where I come in.
Due to unemployed and a Flood I had to "sell to a good home" my playback units. but what I usually do is go to collector’s home a few days before a transferring session and Look over their gear, most of these guys have a few players knocking about and most run well too.
The first thing i do is Replace ALL the capacitors, Ceramic and most importantly Electrolytic.
as these components over time of non use degrade rapidly. for example if you have ever turned on a old sony CV unit and had it "pop" and "Smell Funny" and wont go. usually its a case of a Elerto Cap failing.

(thats where i stopped writting, unemployment is a very depressing and hungry buisness and i write this kinda stuff all the time for here and never finish it.. )

[Bobby Clark (synthpopalooza)]

Troughton was broadcast on ABC in 1975? This is good news ... because VHS (or at the very least Betamax) was available around that time.

My brother in law in New Zealand purchased a VHS machine sometime around the mid 70's and still has about 400 or so VHS tapes stashed away, that I would love to have a look at sometime, the next time I can make it over the ocean. There likely won't be any missing Who in there (Troughton Who's stopped broadcasting over there around 1972 or so) although I do know he taped Pertwee Who's (likely all in B&W) ... but there may be other missing material from other shows.

The Reel to reel clubs in Aussie sound like a good route to go, and also New Zealand as well. Theoretically you should be able to turn up anything from the old days barring the Dalek Master Plan.

[Adrian Gregg]

The Reel to Reel clubs you speak of are mainly made up of DR Who fans !! so no hope there !!!
Been there done that

What are the 1964 Off airs you speak of Lance? any chance of seeing them? And i know it aint who but im a collector of Coutinuity!! I have some from the abc my earlist is a Home Cut Accete (profess done) with an announcer giving us the abc's posh chat from 1948 !!

[madman]

I'm a serial straw-clutcher, but this sounds pretty promising to me. It's a question of awareness, I'd have thought – here in the UK the BBC has had a number of high-profile campaigns to make people aware that they may have recordings of interest in their homes. Much has thus been recovered (particularly old radio recordings, but plenty of visual stuff, too). Is there such an awareness in Australia? An article in a Sydney newspaper might make all the difference.

As a positive anecdote, remember what happened re the last few missing episodes of (classic sitcom) Steptoe and Son – they turned up on very early domestic video (in the home of one of the writers behind the series) long after all hope of original prints coming to light had dried up. The quality is not good, but this TV was of such interest it was broadcast as it was, and the programmes have been released on DVD. Once a digital copy has been made, no further deterioration will occur and improvements in technology mean actually that the quality can only get better. (And with all of Who extant via good-quality domestic audio recordings, a picture is all that's required. All, he says!) One other miraculous example of a survival – the live-broadcast 1954 Casino Royale (first ever screen version of James Bond) – now widely available, but only because someone recorded it onto cinefilm off their TV set!

[Rich Cornock]

good idea about putting an article in the Sydney press, I'm convinced that the most likely source of TV recovery is with videos that the general public hold and are unaware of there importance. quite possibly in new Zealand and Australia ex pats may have taken tapes from the UK when they emigrated so that they could watch shows from 'home'. so its possible that missing UK TV could be hiding in a loft in Sydney or Aukland!

[Daniel O'Brien]

madman said:

One other miraculous example of a survival – the live-broadcast 1954 Casino Royale (first ever screen version of James Bond) – now widely available, but only because someone recorded it onto cinefilm off their TV set!

At the risk of nit-picking, the surviving copy of the 1954 'Casino Royale' is a 16mm film recording. I don't know of any instances where someone filmed an entire show off their TV screens with a cine camera. My Super 8mm magazines only lasted for three minutes. I think other home movie cameras could shoot for longer but it would have been a very expensive business. There's a good reason why the 8mm 'Doctor Who' clips tend to run for a matter of seconds rather than minutes.

[Rich Cornock]

i have just converted some of my wife grandfathers super 8 cine film to dvd and some of his reals from the 60s were about 20 minutes long so tv recording could have been possible

[B Thomas]

madman said:

Once a digital copy has been made, no further deterioration will occur and improvements in technology mean actually that the quality can only get better.

No it doesn't. How would today's technology give us better quality than the original captured image and/or sound?

[Daniel O'Brien]

funkyfarmer said:

i have just converted some of my wife grandfathers super 8 cine film to dvd and some of his reals from the 60s were about 20 minutes long so tv recording could have been possible

I've got Super 8 cine reels that run for 20 minutes or so, but they were assembled from the shorter cartridges. Maybe some cameras could shoot continuously for 20 minutes but that's still a very expensive way to record a TV show. In the case of 'Doctor Who' it would also be frustrating to have a recording that finished before the episode ended (even if the camera operator dispensed with the credits).

[Richard Bignell]

ade42 said:

This may come as a shock but we (the ABC) broadcast the troughtons starting as late as 1975 (Queensland).

You don't say what your source of information is for this Ade. Can you enlighten us?

Richard

[myreignofterror]

Hi,

I'm new in this forum but i have been reading these things for a long time. I'm Australian and i do beleive that we might have the missing episodes, all except for The Feast of Steven, which was never released anywhere else. All signs point to Ausrtalia having most of the Episodezs because the australian government hardly listens to anyone.
My hopes is that episodes like that come into view soon. I think i read somewhere, that because they were such popular shows they didn't want to get rid of any of them.
Thanks My Reign of Terror