Difference between revisions of "Brunei"

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'''[[Wikipedia:Brunei|Brunei]]''' is a tiny nation located on the island of Borneo in the South China Sea to the north of [[Australia]].
+
'''[[Wikipedia:Brunei|BRUNEI]]''' is a tiny state on the island of Borneo in the South China Sea to the north of [[Australia]]. It was inducted as the 49th member of the British Commonwealth in 1984.
 +
{{TOC right}}
 +
==Profile==
 +
{| {{small-table}}
 +
|-
 +
|'''Country Number (40?)'''||1976||[[Selling Doctor Who|SECOND WAVE]]
 +
|-
 +
|'''Region'''||[[:Category:Australasia/Asia|Australasia/Asia]]||Commonwealth (later)
 +
|-
 +
|'''Television commenced'''||1 March 1975||
 +
|-
 +
|'''Colour System'''||1 March 1975||[[:Wikipedia:PAL|PAL]]
 +
|-
 +
|'''[[WRTH|Population]]'''||1976||150,000
 +
|-
 +
|'''[[WRTH|TV Sets]]'''||1976||12,000
 +
|-
 +
|'''Language/s'''||English||
 +
|-
 +
|}
  
{{Place-name
 
|First broadcast        = 1975
 
|First colour broadcast = 1975
 
|Colour                = [[wikipedia:PAL|PAL]]
 
|Doctors seen          = [[Jon Pertwee stories|Pertwee]], [[Tom Baker stories|T Baker]]
 
}}
 
  
==Population==
+
==Television Stations / Channels==
  
When '''Doctor Who''' screened in Brunei in 1976, the population was 145,000, and licensed TV sets numbered only 2,000 (per [[WRTH]], 1966). In 1984, the population was 195,000, and TVs were 30,000, with 28,000 in colour.  
+
Brunei began its television service in March 1975, adopting the [[Wikipedia:PAL|PAL]] colour broadcast system.
  
==TV & system==
+
There is just one television station: '''[[wikipedia:Radio Television Brunei|Radio Television Brunei]]''', a government-owned commercial broadcaster.
  
Brunei began its television service in 1975, adopting the [[Wikipedia:PAL|PAL]] colour broadcast system.
 
  
There is just one television station: '''Radio Dan Talivishen Brunei''', a government-owned commercial broadcaster.
+
==Language/s==
  
==Language/s==
+
The official language of Brunei is Malay, however all television broadcasts were in English.
  
The main language of Brunei is English, plus XXXXXXXX.
 
  
 
=='''DOCTOR WHO IN BRUNEI'''==
 
=='''DOCTOR WHO IN BRUNEI'''==
  
Brunei was the 40th country to screen '''Doctor Who''' (see [[Selling Doctor Who]]).
+
Brunei was the '''40th''' country to screen '''Doctor Who''' (see [[Selling Doctor Who]]). It was not a member of the Commonwealth when the series was first shown.
 +
 
  
 
==[[BBC Records]]==
 
==[[BBC Records]]==
  
'''The Seventies''' records a sale of '''10''' stories by 28 February 1977.  
+
'''The Seventies''' records a sale of '''"(10)"''' stories by 28 February 1977.  
 +
 
 +
'''The Eighties''' [http://www.shillpages.com/howe/b-dw80s.htm - THE LOST CHAPTERS] records a sale of '''"(43)"''' stories (by 10 February 1987).
 +
 
 +
In '''DWM''', Brunei is identified in '''11''' story Archives: {{RRR}}, {{PPP}}, {{QQQ}}, {{UUU}}, {{YYY}}, {{ZZZ}}, {{4A}}, {{4B}}, {{4C}}, {{4D}} and {{4H}}, with a sales date of '''1977'''.
 +
 
 +
The tally from '''The Seventies''' is made up of the above six Pertwees and the first four Bakers.
 +
 
 +
 
 +
There is an overlap between the 1977 (10) and 1987 (43) sales, which leaves a further '''33''' stories to account for. Two of these are {{KKK}} and {{XXX}}, which means the remaining '''31''' are all [[Tom Baker stories]]. (Although it's possible one of these is a single Peter Davison story – see [[Seychelles]] and [[Swaziland]].)
  
'''The Eighties''' [http://www.shillpages.com/howe/b-dw80s.htm - The Lost Chapters] records a sale of '''43''' stories (by 10 February 1987).
+
We know from the listings the identity of five 6-parters. The maximum number of 6-parters available to fit the 170 known airdates is eight. Therefore, three haven't been accounted for - {{4S}}, {{4Z}} and {{5F}}.
  
In '''DWM''', Brunei is identified in '''11''' story Archives: {{RRR}}, {{PPP}}, {{QQQ}}, {{UUU}}, {{YYY}}, {{ZZZ}}, {{4A}}, {{4B}}, {{4C}}, {{4D}}, {{4H}}, with a sales date of 1977.
+
Using a simple mathematical formula we can determine the maximum and minimum number of 4-parters and 6-parters needed to fit within 170 airdates:
 +
*170 - (5 x 6) = 140 / 4 = 35
 +
*170 – (6 x 6) = 134 / 4 = 33.5
 +
*170 – (7 x 6) = 128 / 4 = 32
 +
*170 – (8 x 6) = 122 / 4 = 30.5
 +
Of these, only the first and third formulae give a whole number for the number of 4-parters. But none of these equates to 43 stories – the first totals 40 stories, and the third is only 39.  
  
The tally from '''The Seventies''' is made up of the above six Pertwees and the first four Bakers. Taking into account that the 1987 list has a degree of overlap with the 1977 list, there are two possible formulae to make up the 43:
+
There '''has''' to be one 6-parter in the fifth run of 18 episodes, while the number of airdates in the fourth run caters for either one or two 6-parters.
  
* (6 JP + 4 TB) + 2 JP + 31 TB = 43
+
Therefore, we are three or four stories short of the recorded '''43'''. There are two possibilities to explain the discrepancy:
* (6 JP + 4 TB) + 33 TB = 43
+
* the stories unaccounted for were purchased but did not screen
 +
* the stories unaccounted for '''did''' screen, but we did not find them during our newspaper research, but since that's between 12 and 18 episodes, we honestly can't see how we missed them...
  
There are 8 Pertwees and 17 Baker stories identified by title, leaving 18 Baker stories that are unidentified. The number of episodes without titles is 62 (not taking into account the possibility that there were no episodes over the Christmas 1980 period), which doesn't allow for very many combinations of 6 and 4-parters to fit that episode count. Taking into account the number of episodes in each of the six runs of Bakers (see Transmission below), there are not enough slots for there to be more than the one 6-parter, so the other slots must be taken by 14 4-parters. 
 
  
 
==Stories bought and broadcast==
 
==Stories bought and broadcast==
  
 
===[[Jon Pertwee stories|JON PERTWEE]]===
 
===[[Jon Pertwee stories|JON PERTWEE]]===
 +
[[File:Brunei Day.JPG|thumb|right|250px|Day of the Daleks, 8 August 1976]]
 +
[[File:Brunei PPP.JPG|thumb|right|250px|Carnival of Monsters, 5 September 1976]]
 +
[[File:Brunei QQQ.JPG|thumb|right|250px|Frontier OF Space, 3 October 1976]]
 +
[[File:Brunei RRR.JPG|thumb|right|250px|The Three Doctors, 12 November 1976]]
 +
[[File:Brunei XXX.JPG|thumb|right|250px|Death OF The Daleks, 9 January 1977]]
 +
[[File:Brunei 4A.JPG|thumb|right|250px|Robot, 23 November 1978]]
 +
[[File:Brunei 4B.JPG|thumb|right|250px|The Sontaran Experiment, 21 December 1978]]
 +
[[File:Brunei 4D.JPG|thumb|right|250px|Revenge of the Cybermen, 1 February 1979]]
 +
[[File:Brunei 4E.JPG|thumb|right|250px|Genesis of the Daleks, 1 March 1979]]
 +
[[File:Brunei 4M.JPG|thumb|right|250px|The Mask of Mandragora, 23 January 1980]]
 +
[[File:Brunei 4R.JPG|thumb|right|250px|The Robots of Death, 27 August 1980]]
 +
[[File:Brunei 5Q.JPG|thumb|right|250px|Meglos (?), 19 June 1985]]
  
 
Eight stories, 38 episodes:
 
Eight stories, 38 episodes:
Line 67: Line 105:
 
|}
 
|}
  
Brunei therefore bought what was available of the extant full colour PAL [[Jon Pertwee stories]]. ([[The Green Death]] was not available due to censorship issues in [[Australia]].)
+
Brunei therefore bought what was available of the extant full colour PAL video [[Jon Pertwee stories]]. ([[The Green Death]] was not available due to censorship issues in [[Australia]].)
  
 
The programme was supplied as PAL colour video tapes with English soundtracks.
 
The programme was supplied as PAL colour video tapes with English soundtracks.
 +
 +
====Origin of the Tapes?====
 +
 +
The three season 10 and three of the season 11 video tapes may have been supplied by the ABC in [[Australia]].
 +
 +
[[New Zealand]] sent the tapes of [[Death to the Daleks]] to Brunei on '''18 February 1976''', a year ahead of its transmission in January 1977. (The ABC's tapes of [[Death to the Daleks]] had been edited by the censor; that may have been why the NZBC was sourced for the tapes instead.)
 +
 +
[[Day of the Daleks]] may have been sourced from the [[United Arab Emirates]].
 +
  
 
===[[Tom Baker stories|TOM BAKER]]===
 
===[[Tom Baker stories|TOM BAKER]]===
  
XXX stories, XX episodes:
+
17 identified stories, 70 identified episodes; 14 or 15 unidentified stories, 62 unidentified episodes:
 
 
  
 
{| {{small-table}}
 
{| {{small-table}}
Line 110: Line 156:
 
|4R||[[The Robots of Death]]||4
 
|4R||[[The Robots of Death]]||4
 
|-
 
|-
|}
+
|.||14 or 15 unidentified stories||62
 
 
 
 
{| {{small-table}}
 
|-
 
|.||group of unknown episodes||4
 
 
|-
 
|-
 
|5Q||[[Meglos]]||4
 
|5Q||[[Meglos]]||4
Line 121: Line 162:
 
|}
 
|}
  
Brunei bought GROUP A, B, C and at least parts of GROUP F of the [[Tom Baker stories]].  
+
Brunei bought GROUP A, B, C and some of GROUPs D to F of the [[Tom Baker stories]].  
  
 
The programme was supplied as PAL colour video tapes with English soundtracks.
 
The programme was supplied as PAL colour video tapes with English soundtracks.
  
==Origin of the Tapes?==
+
====Origin of the Tapes?====
 +
 
 +
It's possible that [[New Zealand]] sent its Tom Baker episodes to Brunei soon after broadcast, as the [[New Zealand]] screenings were a matter of only a few months ahead of Brunei's own screenings from 1978 onwards.
  
It is known that [[New Zealand]] sent the video tapes of [[Death to the Daleks]] to Brunei on 18 February 1976, a year ahead of its transmission in January 1977. (It's possible that [[New Zealand]] sent its Tom Baker episodes to Brunei, as the [[New Zealand]] screenings were several months ahead of Brunei's from 1978 onwards.
 
  
 
==Transmission==
 
==Transmission==
Line 133: Line 175:
 
===[[Jon Pertwee stories|JON PERTWEE]]===
 
===[[Jon Pertwee stories|JON PERTWEE]]===
  
The first screenings in Brunei were from Sunday, 8 August 1976, staring with [[Day of the Daleks]]. The timeslot start was usually around 6.32pm, give or take the odd minute.  
+
The first screenings in Brunei were from Sunday, '''8 August 1976''', starting with [[Day of the Daleks]]. The timeslot was usually from around 6.32pm, give or take the odd minute.  
 +
 
 +
The stories aired in production order.
 +
 
 +
Part two of [[Carnival of Monsters]] would have been the extended version that had been supplied to [[BBC Sydney]].
 +
 
 +
Brunei appears to have been the first country to screen [[Frontier in Space]] in '''colour'''. (The master tapes had been held by [[BBC Sydney]] since 1973; it wasn't until the mid-1980s that these master tapes were returned to BBC in London.)
  
Brunei appears to have been the first country to screen [[Frontier in Space]] in colour. (The master tapes had been held by [[BBC Sydney]]; it wasn't until the mid-1980s that these master tapes were "found" and returned to BBC in London.)
+
Although [[New Zealand]] had screened [[Day of the Daleks]], [[Carnival of Monsters]], [[The Three Doctors]], [[The Time Warrior]], and [[Death to the Daleks]] ahead of Brunei, Brunei screened [[The Monster of Peladon]] and [[Planet of the Spiders]] a month ahead of [[New Zealand]]!
  
Although [[New Zealand]] had screened {{KKK}}, {{PPP}}, {{RRR}}, {{UUU}} and {{XXX}} ahead of Brunei, Brunei screened {{YYY}} and {{ZZZ}} a month ahead of [[New Zealand]]!
+
The 39 week run ended on '''1 May 1977'''; there was no episode on '''13 March 1977'''.
  
The run ended on 1 May 1977; a run of 39 weeks, with no episode on 13 March 1977.
 
  
 
===[[Tom Baker stories|TOM BAKER]]===
 
===[[Tom Baker stories|TOM BAKER]]===
  
The Baker era commenced on Thursday, 23 November 1978, at 6.30pm. Stories aired in production code order. 36 weeks later, on 26 July 1979 the first run ended with part four of [[The Android Invasion]].
+
The Tom Baker era commenced on '''Doctor Who''''s 15th anniversary, Thursday, '''23 November 1978''', at 6.30pm. Stories aired in production code order. 36 weeks later, on '''26 July 1979''', the first run ended with part four of [[The Android Invasion]].
 +
 
 +
Viewers had to wait four months to see the series again, on Thursday, '''15 November 1979''', picking up from where the run left off, with [[The Brain of Morbius]]. The series moved to Wednesdays from '''23 January 1980''', at 6.05pm, with [[The Masque of Mandragora]]. This 22 week run ended on '''9 April 1980''', with [[The Deadly Assassin]], a story that had been unable to screen in [[Australia]] due to censorship issues, but which had screened in [[New Zealand]] in September 1979.
 +
 
 +
(As noted elsewhere, the tapes of these five stories may have been sent to [[Hong Kong]], as those same five aired there as a "block" a few months later.)
 +
 
 +
After a three month break, the series (its fourth run) was back from '''16 July 1980''', again on Wednesdays. [[The Face of Evil]] aired at 5.10pm or 5.05pm, then the timeslot shifted ahead to 6.30pm (or thereabouts) for the rest of the run: 36 episodes later on '''25 March 1981''' (with no episode on 13 August) the run came to an end.  
  
Viewers had to wait four months to see the series again, on Thursday, 15 November 1979, picking up from where the run left off, with [[The Brain of Morbius]]. The series moved to Wednesdays from 23 January 1980, at 6.05pm, with [[The Masque of Mandragora]]. This 22 week run ended on 9 April 1980, with [[The Deadly Assassin]], a story that had been unable to screen in [[Australia]] due to censorship, but which had already screened in [[New Zealand]] in 1979.
+
The newspaper listings stopped providing story titles from '''3 September 1980''', so it is unknown what stories the last 28 episodes were. This episode count equates to seven 4-parters, or two 6-parters ({{4S}} and {{4Z}}?) and four 4-parters. The '''11 March 1981''' listing gives a timeslot of 5.30pm to 7.00pm – is this a misprint, or an indication that more than one episode aired?
  
After a three month break, the series was back from 16 July 1980, on Wednesdays still. [[The Face of Evil]] aired at 5.10pm or 5.05pm, then the timeslot shifted ahead to 6.30 (or thereabouts) for the rest of the run: 36 episodes later on 25 March 1981 (with no episode on 13 August) the run came to an end. The listings stopped printing story titles from 3 September 1980, so it is unknown what the last 28 episodes consisted of. 28 episodes equates to seven 4-parters, or two 6-parters and four 4-parters. The 11 March 1981 listing gives a timeslot of 5.30pm to 7.00pm – is this a misprint, or an indication that more than one episode aired? There were no papers available for seven weeks between mid-November and the end of December, so it's not known if there were any breaks, especially over the Christmas / New Years' period.  
+
There were no papers available for the seven weeks between 19 November and the end of December, so it's not known if there were any breaks, or even doubled-up episodes, especially over the Christmas / New Years' period. (If there '''had''' been several double-ups, that could help account for some of the 'missing' stories required to make up the total of 43 given in [[BBC Records]].)
  
The series returned on Friday, 4 July 1981, for 18 weeks, at 6.05pm or 5.10pm. Again, what aired is unknown – but there would have been at least three 4-parters and one 6-parter.
+
('''IF''' all of Brunei's tapes were supplied by [[New Zealand]], and as a result they only purchased the same episodes that aired there, then the stories that aired in this gap would have been [[The Talons of Weng-Chiang]], [[The Invisible Enemy]], [[Image of the Fendahl]] and [[Underworld]]. That's 18 episodes; it's possible there was a two week break at some point (at Christmas?).  
  
Nine months later, on Friday, 2 July 1982, at 5.05 began a further run of eight unidentified episodes presumably two 4-parters. (The timeslot varied from 5.00pm to 5.30pm.)
+
The series returned on Friday, '''4 July 1981''', for 18 weeks, at 6.05pm or 5.10pm. Again, it is not known what stories aired during this fifth run – but there would have been at least three 4-parters and one 6-parter. (This may have been serials from season 16, the search for the Key to Time, or the first two or three from season 17.)
  
After ten month gap, the final run of twelve episodes commenced on Sunday, 19 June 1983. The first listing was illustrated with a photo of Bill Fraser as General Grugger from [[Meglos]]: the accompanying caption merely stated it was a '''"a new series"'''. (There's no absolute certainty that [[Meglos]] screened first; it could have been the second or third story of that block.) The series came to an end on 4 September 1983.
+
Nine months later, a further eight episodes aired, starting on Friday, '''2 July 1982''', at 5.05pm. Again, these eight are unidentified – presumably two 4-parters. (The timeslot varied from 5.00pm to 5.30pm.) Since the next run included stories from Tom Baker's final season, it's likely this run consisted of two season 17 stories. (If so, then [[Nightmare of Eden]] and [[The Horns of Nimon]] are the likely contenders, since those two from that season were more widely sold.)
  
As noted in the BBC Records section above, the unidentified stories could only be made up of one 6-parter and 14 4-parters. With an educated guess, given how these stories were 'missed' by other countries, we think {{4S}} or {{4Z}}, one 4-parter from season 15, {{5G}}, {{5H}}, {{5J}}, {{5P}}, {{5S}}, {{5T}} and {{5V}} didn't screen in Brunei. This leaves most of season 15, all of season 16 and a handful from seasons 17 and 18 as the stories that did go to air.
+
After a long ten month gap, the seventh and final run of twelve episodes commenced on Sunday, '''19 June 1983''', at 4.50pm. The first listing was illustrated with a photo of Bill Fraser as "the nasty General Grugger" from [[Meglos]]: the accompanying caption merely stated it was a '''"a new series"'''. (There is no absolute certainty that [[Meglos]] screened first; it could have been the second or third story of that block.) With the fourth episode, the timeslot shifted to 5.00pm for the remainder of the run. (Since the first three serials from season 18 were more widely sold that the other four, it's likely that this block was [[The Leisure Hive]], [[Meglos]] and [[Full Circle]] – see [[Swaziland]] and [[Gibraltar]] for comparison.)
  
See the AIRDATES page for our take on what may have screened.
+
The series came to an end on '''4 September 1983'''.
 +
 
 +
'''170''' identifiable episodes therefore screened in Brunei. 38 Pertwees and the rest were (presumably) Bakers.
 +
 
 +
As we've noted in the BBC Records section above, the unidentified stories could only be made up of one 6-parter and fourteen 4-parters, or three 6-parters and eleven 4-parters.
 +
 
 +
{| {{small-table}}
 +
!Run No!!Episodes!!Eps!!Stories!!!!or!!
 +
|-
 +
|1||1-38||'''38'''||8||known Pertwee stories||||
 +
|-
 +
|2||39-74||'''36'''||9||known Baker stories||||
 +
|-
 +
|3||75-96||'''22'''||5||known Baker stories||||
 +
|-
 +
|4||97-132||'''36'''||'''9''' or '''8'''||{{4Q}}, {{4R}} plus 7 x 4||{{4Q}}, {{4R}} plus 2 x 6, 4 x 4||1
 +
|-
 +
|5||133-150||'''18'''||'''4'''||3 x 4, 1 x 6||||2
 +
|-
 +
|6||151-158||'''8'''||'''2'''||2 x 4||||3
 +
|-
 +
|7||159-170||'''12'''||'''3'''||{{5Q}}, 2 x 4||||4
 +
|-
 +
|Totals||||'''170'''||'''40''' or '''39'''||||
 +
|-
 +
|}
 +
 
 +
*1 – The seven 4-parters would have to be made up of any combination of 4-part serials from seasons 15 and 16. For the alternative, the two 6-parters can really only be {{4S}} and {{4Z}}, with four of the five season 15 4-parters screening in between.
 +
*2 – The 6-parter would have to be {{5F}}, in which case all the 4-parters would have to be from season 16. If the seven 4-parters from the 4th run were made up of five from season 15 and two from season 16, then the three 4-parters in the 5th run would be the balance from season 16.
 +
*3 – If the 6-parter in the 5th run was indeed {{5F}}, these two are likely to be season 17 stories – perhaps {{5K}} and {{5L}} if anything, because on balance those two were widely sold together but without the other season 17 stories.
 +
*4 – These two are likely to be season 18 stories – probably {{5N}} and {{5R}}, as those were the only stories from that season to be widely sold. And depending on whether [[Meglos]] was indeed the first to screen determines whether or not {{5N}} is included in this run.
 +
 
 +
There is no clear record that Brunei screened '''Doctor Who''' again after 1983.
 +
 
 +
 
 +
====Fate of the Tapes?====
 +
[[Hong Kong]] aired the same five Tom Baker stories running from [[The Brain of Morbius]] to [[The Deadly Assassin]] as a "block" soon after Brunei, so it's possible that's where Brunei's tapes went.  
  
There is no record that Brunei screened '''Doctor Who''' again.
 
  
 
==TV listings==
 
==TV listings==
 +
{{Airdates-left|}}
 +
TV listings have been obtained from the newspaper ''Borneo Bulletin''. The paper named the series as '''"Dr Who"'''.
  
TV listings have been obtained from the newspaper ''Borneo Bulletin''. Most of the Pertwee listings contained detailed synopses of the episodes. Some of the titles were incorrect: "'''Frontier'''" or "'''Frontiers of''' Space" used for that serial. Serial XXX was named '''"Death OF the Daleks"'''; "The '''MASK''' of Mandragora" was used for all four parts, and a missing letter "S" gave us "The Deadly '''Assasin'''".
+
Most of the Pertwee listings and the first contained synopses of the episodes. Some of the titles were incorrect: "'''Frontier'''" or "'''Frontiers of''' Space" used for that serial. Serial {{XXX}} was named as '''"Death OF the Daleks"'''; "The '''Mask''' of Mandragora" was used for all four parts, and a missing letter "S" gave us "The Deadly '''Assasin'''".
 
 
As note above, there were seven issues 'missing' from mid-November to the end of the year, so it's impossible to know if the series took a break over this time.  
 
  
==Brunei in Doctor Who==
+
As noted above, there were seven issues 'missing' from mid-November to the end of the year, so it's impossible to know if the series took a break over this time.
  
There are no instances where Brunei is mentioned in the series.
+
The ''Borneo Bulletin'' later carried TV schedules for [[Malaysia]].
  
==References==
 
<references />
 
  
 
==Links==
 
==Links==

Revision as of 22:23, 31 December 2018

BRUNEI is a tiny state on the island of Borneo in the South China Sea to the north of Australia. It was inducted as the 49th member of the British Commonwealth in 1984.

Profile

Country Number (40?) 1976 SECOND WAVE
Region Australasia/Asia Commonwealth (later)
Television commenced 1 March 1975
Colour System 1 March 1975 PAL
Population 1976 150,000
TV Sets 1976 12,000
Language/s English


Television Stations / Channels

Brunei began its television service in March 1975, adopting the PAL colour broadcast system.

There is just one television station: Radio Television Brunei, a government-owned commercial broadcaster.


Language/s

The official language of Brunei is Malay, however all television broadcasts were in English.


DOCTOR WHO IN BRUNEI

Brunei was the 40th country to screen Doctor Who (see Selling Doctor Who). It was not a member of the Commonwealth when the series was first shown.


BBC Records

The Seventies records a sale of "(10)" stories by 28 February 1977.

The Eighties - THE LOST CHAPTERS records a sale of "(43)" stories (by 10 February 1987).

In DWM, Brunei is identified in 11 story Archives: RRR, PPP, QQQ, UUU, YYY, ZZZ, 4A, 4B, 4C, 4D and 4H, with a sales date of 1977.

The tally from The Seventies is made up of the above six Pertwees and the first four Bakers.


There is an overlap between the 1977 (10) and 1987 (43) sales, which leaves a further 33 stories to account for. Two of these are KKK and XXX, which means the remaining 31 are all Tom Baker stories. (Although it's possible one of these is a single Peter Davison story – see Seychelles and Swaziland.)

We know from the listings the identity of five 6-parters. The maximum number of 6-parters available to fit the 170 known airdates is eight. Therefore, three haven't been accounted for - 4S, 4Z and 5F.

Using a simple mathematical formula we can determine the maximum and minimum number of 4-parters and 6-parters needed to fit within 170 airdates:

  • 170 - (5 x 6) = 140 / 4 = 35
  • 170 – (6 x 6) = 134 / 4 = 33.5
  • 170 – (7 x 6) = 128 / 4 = 32
  • 170 – (8 x 6) = 122 / 4 = 30.5

Of these, only the first and third formulae give a whole number for the number of 4-parters. But none of these equates to 43 stories – the first totals 40 stories, and the third is only 39.

There has to be one 6-parter in the fifth run of 18 episodes, while the number of airdates in the fourth run caters for either one or two 6-parters.

Therefore, we are three or four stories short of the recorded 43. There are two possibilities to explain the discrepancy:

  • the stories unaccounted for were purchased but did not screen
  • the stories unaccounted for did screen, but we did not find them during our newspaper research, but since that's between 12 and 18 episodes, we honestly can't see how we missed them...


Stories bought and broadcast

JON PERTWEE

Day of the Daleks, 8 August 1976
Carnival of Monsters, 5 September 1976
Frontier OF Space, 3 October 1976
The Three Doctors, 12 November 1976
Death OF The Daleks, 9 January 1977
Robot, 23 November 1978
The Sontaran Experiment, 21 December 1978
Revenge of the Cybermen, 1 February 1979
Genesis of the Daleks, 1 March 1979
The Mask of Mandragora, 23 January 1980
The Robots of Death, 27 August 1980
Meglos (?), 19 June 1985

Eight stories, 38 episodes:

KKK Day of the Daleks 4
PPP Carnival of Monsters 4
QQQ Frontier in Space 6
RRR The Three Doctors 4
UUU The Time Warrior 4
XXX Death to the Daleks 4
YYY The Monster of Peladon 6
ZZZ Planet of the Spiders 6

Brunei therefore bought what was available of the extant full colour PAL video Jon Pertwee stories. (The Green Death was not available due to censorship issues in Australia.)

The programme was supplied as PAL colour video tapes with English soundtracks.

Origin of the Tapes?

The three season 10 and three of the season 11 video tapes may have been supplied by the ABC in Australia.

New Zealand sent the tapes of Death to the Daleks to Brunei on 18 February 1976, a year ahead of its transmission in January 1977. (The ABC's tapes of Death to the Daleks had been edited by the censor; that may have been why the NZBC was sourced for the tapes instead.)

Day of the Daleks may have been sourced from the United Arab Emirates.


TOM BAKER

17 identified stories, 70 identified episodes; 14 or 15 unidentified stories, 62 unidentified episodes:

4A Robot 4
4B The Sontaran Experiment 2
4C The Ark in Space 4
4D Revenge of the Cybermen 4
4E Genesis of the Daleks 6
4F Terror of the Zygons 4
4G Pyramids of Mars 4
4H Planet of Evil 4
4J The Android Invasion 4
4K The Brain of Morbius 4
4L The Seeds of Doom 6
4M The Masque of Mandragora 4
4N The Hand of Fear 4
4P The Deadly Assassin 4
4Q The Face of Evil 4
4R The Robots of Death 4
. 14 or 15 unidentified stories 62
5Q Meglos 4

Brunei bought GROUP A, B, C and some of GROUPs D to F of the Tom Baker stories.

The programme was supplied as PAL colour video tapes with English soundtracks.

Origin of the Tapes?

It's possible that New Zealand sent its Tom Baker episodes to Brunei soon after broadcast, as the New Zealand screenings were a matter of only a few months ahead of Brunei's own screenings from 1978 onwards.


Transmission

JON PERTWEE

The first screenings in Brunei were from Sunday, 8 August 1976, starting with Day of the Daleks. The timeslot was usually from around 6.32pm, give or take the odd minute.

The stories aired in production order.

Part two of Carnival of Monsters would have been the extended version that had been supplied to BBC Sydney.

Brunei appears to have been the first country to screen Frontier in Space in colour. (The master tapes had been held by BBC Sydney since 1973; it wasn't until the mid-1980s that these master tapes were returned to BBC in London.)

Although New Zealand had screened Day of the Daleks, Carnival of Monsters, The Three Doctors, The Time Warrior, and Death to the Daleks ahead of Brunei, Brunei screened The Monster of Peladon and Planet of the Spiders a month ahead of New Zealand!

The 39 week run ended on 1 May 1977; there was no episode on 13 March 1977.


TOM BAKER

The Tom Baker era commenced on Doctor Who's 15th anniversary, Thursday, 23 November 1978, at 6.30pm. Stories aired in production code order. 36 weeks later, on 26 July 1979, the first run ended with part four of The Android Invasion.

Viewers had to wait four months to see the series again, on Thursday, 15 November 1979, picking up from where the run left off, with The Brain of Morbius. The series moved to Wednesdays from 23 January 1980, at 6.05pm, with The Masque of Mandragora. This 22 week run ended on 9 April 1980, with The Deadly Assassin, a story that had been unable to screen in Australia due to censorship issues, but which had screened in New Zealand in September 1979.

(As noted elsewhere, the tapes of these five stories may have been sent to Hong Kong, as those same five aired there as a "block" a few months later.)

After a three month break, the series (its fourth run) was back from 16 July 1980, again on Wednesdays. The Face of Evil aired at 5.10pm or 5.05pm, then the timeslot shifted ahead to 6.30pm (or thereabouts) for the rest of the run: 36 episodes later on 25 March 1981 (with no episode on 13 August) the run came to an end.

The newspaper listings stopped providing story titles from 3 September 1980, so it is unknown what stories the last 28 episodes were. This episode count equates to seven 4-parters, or two 6-parters (4S and 4Z?) and four 4-parters. The 11 March 1981 listing gives a timeslot of 5.30pm to 7.00pm – is this a misprint, or an indication that more than one episode aired?

There were no papers available for the seven weeks between 19 November and the end of December, so it's not known if there were any breaks, or even doubled-up episodes, especially over the Christmas / New Years' period. (If there had been several double-ups, that could help account for some of the 'missing' stories required to make up the total of 43 given in BBC Records.)

(IF all of Brunei's tapes were supplied by New Zealand, and as a result they only purchased the same episodes that aired there, then the stories that aired in this gap would have been The Talons of Weng-Chiang, The Invisible Enemy, Image of the Fendahl and Underworld. That's 18 episodes; it's possible there was a two week break at some point (at Christmas?).

The series returned on Friday, 4 July 1981, for 18 weeks, at 6.05pm or 5.10pm. Again, it is not known what stories aired during this fifth run – but there would have been at least three 4-parters and one 6-parter. (This may have been serials from season 16, the search for the Key to Time, or the first two or three from season 17.)

Nine months later, a further eight episodes aired, starting on Friday, 2 July 1982, at 5.05pm. Again, these eight are unidentified – presumably two 4-parters. (The timeslot varied from 5.00pm to 5.30pm.) Since the next run included stories from Tom Baker's final season, it's likely this run consisted of two season 17 stories. (If so, then Nightmare of Eden and The Horns of Nimon are the likely contenders, since those two from that season were more widely sold.)

After a long ten month gap, the seventh and final run of twelve episodes commenced on Sunday, 19 June 1983, at 4.50pm. The first listing was illustrated with a photo of Bill Fraser as "the nasty General Grugger" from Meglos: the accompanying caption merely stated it was a "a new series". (There is no absolute certainty that Meglos screened first; it could have been the second or third story of that block.) With the fourth episode, the timeslot shifted to 5.00pm for the remainder of the run. (Since the first three serials from season 18 were more widely sold that the other four, it's likely that this block was The Leisure Hive, Meglos and Full Circle – see Swaziland and Gibraltar for comparison.)

The series came to an end on 4 September 1983.

170 identifiable episodes therefore screened in Brunei. 38 Pertwees and the rest were (presumably) Bakers.

As we've noted in the BBC Records section above, the unidentified stories could only be made up of one 6-parter and fourteen 4-parters, or three 6-parters and eleven 4-parters.

Run No Episodes Eps Stories or
1 1-38 38 8 known Pertwee stories
2 39-74 36 9 known Baker stories
3 75-96 22 5 known Baker stories
4 97-132 36 9 or 8 4Q, 4R plus 7 x 4 4Q, 4R plus 2 x 6, 4 x 4 1
5 133-150 18 4 3 x 4, 1 x 6 2
6 151-158 8 2 2 x 4 3
7 159-170 12 3 5Q, 2 x 4 4
Totals 170 40 or 39
  • 1 – The seven 4-parters would have to be made up of any combination of 4-part serials from seasons 15 and 16. For the alternative, the two 6-parters can really only be 4S and 4Z, with four of the five season 15 4-parters screening in between.
  • 2 – The 6-parter would have to be 5F, in which case all the 4-parters would have to be from season 16. If the seven 4-parters from the 4th run were made up of five from season 15 and two from season 16, then the three 4-parters in the 5th run would be the balance from season 16.
  • 3 – If the 6-parter in the 5th run was indeed 5F, these two are likely to be season 17 stories – perhaps 5K and 5L if anything, because on balance those two were widely sold together but without the other season 17 stories.
  • 4 – These two are likely to be season 18 stories – probably 5N and 5R, as those were the only stories from that season to be widely sold. And depending on whether Meglos was indeed the first to screen determines whether or not 5N is included in this run.

There is no clear record that Brunei screened Doctor Who again after 1983.


Fate of the Tapes?

Hong Kong aired the same five Tom Baker stories running from The Brain of Morbius to The Deadly Assassin as a "block" soon after Brunei, so it's possible that's where Brunei's tapes went.


TV listings

Airdates in Brunei
← AIRDATES ...... (CLICK ICON TO GO TO TABLE SHOWING EPISODE BREAKDOWN AND AIRDATES - N/S = story title is Not Stated)

TV listings have been obtained from the newspaper Borneo Bulletin. The paper named the series as "Dr Who".

Most of the Pertwee listings and the first contained synopses of the episodes. Some of the titles were incorrect: "Frontier" or "Frontiers of Space" used for that serial. Serial XXX was named as "Death OF the Daleks"; "The Mask of Mandragora" was used for all four parts, and a missing letter "S" gave us "The Deadly Assasin".

As noted above, there were seven issues 'missing' from mid-November to the end of the year, so it's impossible to know if the series took a break over this time.

The Borneo Bulletin later carried TV schedules for Malaysia.


Links