Korea (South)
The REPUBLIC OF KOREA (aka South Korea) is located in Central Asia.
Profile
| Country Number (53?) | 1977 | SECOND WAVE |
| Region | Australasia/Asia | |
| Television commenced | 1956 | |
| Colour System | 1975 | NTSC |
| Population | 1977 | 34.3 million |
| TV Sets | 1977 | 3.1 million |
| Language/s | Korean and English | Subtitled |
Television Stations / Channels
The Republic of Korea began its television service in 1956. The country has four main publicly owned TV stations.
The largest of these is the Korean Broadcasting System (KBS), transmitting in Seoul (on channel 9); Pusan (ch 9); Taegu (ch 8); Taejon (ch 4); Kwangju (ch 7); Ulsan (ch 5) and Wonju (ch 12). It was apparently on this station that Doctor Who aired in the late 1970s.
The series was later available in South Korea on the American Armed Forces Network in 1986 – see the separate profile for that cable station.
DOCTOR WHO IN SOUTH KOREA
South Korea was about the 53rd country to screen Doctor Who, and the eighth in Australasia/Asia (see Selling Doctor Who).
BBC Records
In DWM, Korea is identified in the story Archive for BBB, with a date of 1977.
But BBC sales paperwork indicates that the following six stories were sold to "Korea", but with some subsequently "cancelled":
- Spearhead from Space (sold by January 1978, cancelled by April 1978)
- Doctor Who and the Silurians (sold by January 1978, cancelled by April 1978)
- The Ambassadors of Death (sold by February 1978, cancelled by April 1978)
- Terror of the Autons (sold by May 1978)
- The Mind of Evil (sold by May 1978)
- The Daemons (sold by May 1978)
The Korean equivalent of WIKIPEDIA says Doctor Who aired on KBS from Sunday 6 November 1977 from 6:00pm until 9 April 1978. Third Doctor serials "Devil's Cave" (Doctor Who and the Silurians), "Secrets of the Androids" or "The Secret Cyborgs" (Terror of the Autons), "Evil Spirits" (The Mind of Evil) and "Space Colony" (Colony in Space) aired. (NOTE: These are our own rough translations of the Korean titles.)
These four stories are slightly at odds with what the BBC has recorded (…Silurians was apparently cancelled) and Colony in Space is named instead of The Daemons (unless an administration error had the sale of the former written onto the page of the latter?)
Although these titles do (sort of) match up with those named in the records, with no direct listings to support these dates, we must treat the Wikipedia information with a degree of caution…
In The Eighties - THE LOST CHAPTERS, records a sale of "(4)" stories to Korea Republic by 10 February 1987. Since the Tom Baker stories were aired on the Armed Forces Network channel (see separate profile for those screenings), the "sale" to that broadcaster would be recorded as a sale to the United States. Therefore, these "(4)" probably apply to the four Pertwees.
Stories bought and broadcast
JON PERTWEE
Apparently these four stories, 23 episodes:
| BBB | Doctor Who and the Silurians | 7 |
| EEE | Terror of the Autons | 4 |
| FFF | The Mind of Evil | 6 |
| HHH | Colony in Space | 6 |
The programme was supplied on 16mm black and white film or video tape in the NTSC format, with English soundtracks.
Given that the station had switched to NTSC in 1975, there's a very strong likelihood that the episodes supplied were in colour, and the selection (and the fact that some sales were cancelled) would have been limited to which tapes could still be sourced in 1977 and 1978. (It's known that by 1978, Time Life no longer had a complete set of master tapes of the Pertwees.)
If not supplied from Time Life, the tapes may have been bicycled in from Guam, the Philippines, or Saudi Arabia.
Transmission
JON PERTWEE
If the Wikipedia information is correct and accurate, the series commenced on Sunday, 6 November 1977. The episodes aired weekly, with the 23rd and final episode on 9 April 1978. The 6.00pm start time identified in the Wikipedia article actually applies to the "Children's Hour" slot during which Doctor Who would have aired, rather than to the start-time of the series itself.
(The stories were likely broadcast with Korean subtitles.)
TV listings
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← AIRDATES ...... (CLICK ICON TO GO TO TABLE SHOWING EPISODE BREAKDOWN AND AIRDATES - N/S = story title is Not Stated) |
We have viewed the English language newspapers Korean Herald and Korean Times for all of 1972 through to all of 1984, and there were no direct listings for Doctor Who.
The Wikipedia article says the series aired on KBS at 6.00pm. In the Times, the 6.00 to 7.00pm slot simply said "Children's Hour" (or sometimes "Hours"). Oddly, that programme was given the earlier slot of 5.00 to 5.50pm in the Herald! The Herald also had programmes other than "Children's Hour" listed in that slot for 18 and 25 December 1977, while the Times also identified different programmes for 13 November 1977 and 1 January 1978.
Therefore, it appears that Doctor Who aired at some point as part of this Children's Hour schedule.
