Evil of the Daleks - Did Singapore send prints back?

[maxstenner]

So to my knowledge, all Troughton serials from Evil of the Daleks were sent from Hong Kong to Singapore. Singapore sent their Season 4 prints to Hong Kong, but Evil had already aired in Hong Kong and was the only Season 4 story to be sent to Singapore from Hong Kong. Did Singapore retain Evil at the time or did they send the prints back to Hong Kong?

[John Wall]

overseas broadcasts of evil and tomb 2 2.pdf (9.2 KB)

Here’s a diagram I put together a while ago. I think Tomb was sent prematurely to Singapore and had to be returned to Hong Kong from where it was later returned to the UK. Evil had been shown in Hong Kong before being sent to Singapore and I suspect that’s where the prints ended up.

[Luke Sherlaw]

If your theory on Tomb is correct, John, then this may be the most fortuitous of all of the survivals. This or "The Lion" are strong contenders for the title.

[John Wall]

Nov 1, 2021 11:34:10 GMT Luke Sherlaw said:

If your theory on Tomb is correct, John, then this may be the most fortuitous of all of the survivals. This or "The Lion" are strong contenders for the title.

It’s about the only theory that fits the facts. The first two parts of Tomb were advertised in Hong Kong - but then all four parts were advertised, and presumably shown, some time later. Obviously things like listings magazines are prepared in advance, hence the first two parts of Tomb being included. It’s a lesson to remember.

I suspect the prints of Evil in Singapore are long gone. I’ve previously asked about the prevalence, or otherwise, of 16mm collecting in places like Singapore and Hong Kong, but it seems to have been, at best, minimal.

[Jon Preddle]

From what I can gather, programmes were bought on a film share basis by HK and Singapore, since both were Commonwealth in the same region. The films were flown from the UK to HK (there were more regular flights to HK than there were to Sing in the 60s/70s?)

RTV HK therefore usually had first use of the films, then they were sent to RTS Singapore. After RTS used them, they were most likely sent back to RTV for the return to the UK - or to the next station if there was one already lined up (usually in Africa).

I don't think either RTV or RTS held prints for any longer than necessary after broadcast. They would both have limited storage capacity, and there was really no need for them to keep them.

'Tomb' was a one-off because of the issues discussed above and elsewhere, and that's why the films were 'misplaced'.

We do know that the films of 'The War Machines' that were sent to Nigeria came from NZ via Singapore, but that doesn't necessarily mean the films went straight from Singapore to Nigeria. There's a 16 month gap between screenings, so they had probably already been sent back to the UK by then, soon after RTS's transmission in 1972. The sale to MidWest TV in Nigeria came after this, and the films were flown to Benin City direct from London in early 1973.

[John Wall]

Nov 1, 2021 21:54:11 GMT Jon Preddle said:

From what I can gather, programmes were bought on a film share basis by HK and Singapore, since both were Commonwealth in the same region. The films were flown from the UK to HK (there were more regular flights to HK than there were to Sing in the 60s/70s?)

RTV HK therefore usually had first use of the films, then they were sent to RTS Singapore. After RTS used them, they were most likely sent back to RTV for the return to the UK - or to the next station if there was one already lined up (usually in Africa).

I don't think either RTV or RTS held prints for any longer than necessary after broadcast. They would both have limited storage capacity, and there was really no need for them to keep them.

'Tomb' was a one-off because of the issues discussed above and elsewhere, and that's why the films were 'misplaced'.

We do know that the films of 'The War Machines' that were sent to Nigeria came from NZ via Singapore, but that doesn't necessarily mean the films went straight from Singapore to Nigeria. There's a 16 month gap between screenings, so they had probably already been sent back to the UK by then, soon after RTS's transmission in 1972. The sale to MidWest TV in Nigeria came after this, and the films were flown to Benin City direct from London in early 1973.

Looking at a map of the world I’d suspect more flights to Singapore than Hong Kong - or Singapore being served on a “stopping” service before HK.

[Robert Lia]

Well both have major international airports and both are places where one change flights en route to other countries but I would say that back in the 1960's to mid 1970's Hong Kong would have been the bigger airport with more flights in and out. Singapore defiantly caught up though by the 1980's and like Seoul/Inchon, South Korea is a major airline hub in the South Pacific.

[richardwoods]

What an interesting thread this is

[John Wall]

Nov 2, 2021 3:01:44 GMT Robert Lia said:

Well both have major international airports and both are places where one change flights en route to other countries but I would say that back in the 1960's to mid 1970's Hong Kong would have been the bigger airport with more flights in and out. Singapore defiantly caught up though by the 1980's and like Seoul/Inchon, South Korea is a major airline hub in the South Pacific.

It’s the overflying of China to get to HK that concerns me.

[Robert Lia]

I have flown Los Angeles to Hong Kong via Cathay Pacific and at best the air lines hug the coast of China and come in over Repulse Bay to land in Hong Kong. Mind you in an emergency you want to have land nearby to put down on. I would not worry about international air travel.

Now on my last trip to the Philippines in September 2019 we took of from New York's Kennedy Airport and instead of heading west over Northern Canada we went east over Greenland and the Bearing Sea, crossed over Russia and the capital of Mongolia and threw China straight into Manila International Airport (and arrived on deck 2 minute ahead of schedule. It was a quiet flight threw those international air corridors. I flew over countries I never got to visit in the Navy for sure.

Had there been any trouble in the area once we reached the eastern Pacific US Naval and Air Force facilities in Japan, South Korea and Guam would be there to step, naturally no need for that

[Jon Preddle]

Nov 2, 2021 14:01:32 GMT John Wall said:

Nov 2, 2021 3:01:44 GMT Robert Lia said:

Well both have major international airports and both are places where one change flights en route to other countries but I would say that back in the 1960's to mid 1970's Hong Kong would have been the bigger airport with more flights in and out. Singapore defiantly caught up though by the 1980's and like Seoul/Inchon, South Korea is a major airline hub in the South Pacific.

It’s the overflying of China to get to HK that concerns me.

Planes had no choice but to fly over China to reach HK. The approach to the old airport which was in the middle of Kowloon (it was decommissioned once the new and current field was opened in the early 2000s) was from the north.

I flew from NZ to HK, and came back London to HK in 1996, and both flight paths took us over southern China.

[John Wall]

It’s important to remember that we’re talking about the situation more than fifty years ago - and it’s been said that if you can remember the sixties you weren’t there!

Obviously the final approach to HK airport was, and is, complicated and would be the subject of a local agreement.

I’m thinking of air services in the sixties, and there may be an online resource somewhere. The airline would’ve been BOAC as BA wasn’t formed until the seventies.

The starting point has to be the sea routes and from the UK it was the Mediterranean, Suez Canal, Indian Ocean, Bay of Bengal, along the west coast of what was then Malaya (now Malaysia) to Singapore and then on to Hong Kong. The British had a string of naval bases along that route which subsequently gained runways. When air services are introduced you get as far as the Bay of Bengal - Calcutta as was - but where do you go next? Looking at the map I’d head for Singapore first, and then Hong Kong as a direct route from somewhere like Calcutta to Hong Kong was, and is, over rather unfriendly territory.

[Jon Preddle]

There are copies of old airline timetables and brochures here, some of which have flight maps. It's a bit of a clumsy site to navigate, as each page of the documentation is a separate image, and there isn't OCR:

www.timetableimages.com/ttimages/complete/complete.htm

For example, this one shows QANTAS routes including those to HK;

www.timetableimages.com/ttimages/qf/qf6806/qf686-20.jpg

[Robert Lia]

Flying into the new airport in Hong Kong is defiantly a much safer approach than flying into the old one. I never flew into the old one but have seen pictures of the planes flying over Kowloon to land. You can tell that place was built before the big long haul planes were built. The new airport is much nicer and modern.

[gbaker]

Nov 3, 2021 6:29:59 GMT Robert Lia said:

Flying into the new airport in Hong Kong is defiantly a much safer approach than flying into the old one. I never flew into the old one but have seen pictures of the planes flying over Kowloon to land. You can tell that place was built before the big long haul planes were built. The new airport is much nicer and modern.

Yes, I heard that aircraft descending into the old airport risked snagging their undercarriage on washing lines..........

Returning to the 'exam question',  from the above discussion it seems that although the trail ends at Singapore for many episodes (e.g. Evil), some were moved on (e.g. Tomb and War Machines).  Unfortunately, it seems that the only way of knowing which episodes were moved on from the 'black hole' of Singapore is to find them elsewhere.   Perhaps PM has more of an idea about what happened to them, if so I dare say we'll find out eventually.