Doctor Who in Australia - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

For Science Fiction South Africa/SFSA, see SFSA.

Doctor Who in Australia refers to the Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n history and culture around the British Broadcasting Corporation TV series British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

science fiction programme

Science fiction on television

Science fiction first appeared on a television program during the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Special effects and other production techniques allow creators to present a living visual image of an imaginary world not limited by the constraints of reality; this makes television an excellent medium...

Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...

. In many understated ways Australians have had many links to the series from its origins. Two Australian writers played key roles in the gestation of the whole series, C.E. "Bunny" Webber, and Anthony Coburn

Anthony Coburn

Anthony Coburn was an Australian television writer and producer, who spent much of his professional career living and working in the United Kingdom. He moved to the UK in the 1950s, where he joined the staff of BBC Television...

, who worked on the pre-production and first story, and the iconic Doctor Who theme music, was written by an Australian musician Ron Grainer

Ron Grainer

Ronald Erle “Ron” Grainer was an Australian-born composer who worked for most of his professional career in the United Kingdom. He is mostly remembered for his film and television music.- Biography :...

. This theme has been used (with variations) in every series to date (bar the films), was copied by disco bands, and can be heard from time to time as uncredited background for a variety of programmes to make a point. One-time Australian Ballet composer, Dudley Simpson

Dudley Simpson

Dudley Simpson is an Australian television composer who is best known for his work on Doctor Who.Prior to leaving Australia, Simpson composed for the Borovansky Ballet Company, forerunner to the Australian Ballet. Among his early television work was the music for Moonstrike...

, wrote the incidental music for a great number of stories in the 1960s and 1970s. Janet Fielding

Janet Fielding

Janet Fielding is an Australian actress, known for her role in the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who as Tegan Jovanka, a companion of the Fourth Doctor, played by Tom Baker, and the Fifth Doctor, played by Peter Davison. She was born in Brisbane...

played the popular companion, Tegan

Tegan Jovanka

Tegan Jovanka is a fictional character played by Janet Fielding in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. An Australian airline stewardess and a native of Brisbane who was a companion of the Fourth and Fifth Doctors, she was a regular in the programme from 1981 to...

, in the 1980s. Outside the production itself, the Australian Broadcasting Commission was one of the first and longest term purchasers of the series from the BBC from its beginning, initially planning to screen the series in May 1964, within months of the UK premiere. The ABC later put up production money for an anniversary special The Five Doctors
The Five Doctors
The Five Doctors is a special feature-length episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, produced in celebration of the programme's twentieth anniversary. It had its world premiere in the United States, on the Chicago PBS station WTTW and various other PBS member stations...

(1983), and organised a nationwide promotional tour by the then current Doctor, Tom Baker

Tom Baker

Thomas Stewart "Tom" Baker is a British actor. He is best known for playing the fourth incarnation of the Doctor in the science fiction television series Doctor Who, a role he played from 1974 to 1981.-Early life:...

in 1979. Australia was also a key market for the many products licensed by BBC Enterprises, and the success of the series in Australia was an important factor in the worldwide penetration of the series. Generally speaking many other English-language countries in the Asia-Pacific bought whatever episodes the ABC had cleared for its use, and BBC Enterprises' office for the entire region was in Sydney and dealt with the censors and marketing. It was one of the largest English speaking countries to regularly purchase the series until a variety of local networks in the United States began regular screenings in the 1980s. Refer to the main article

Doctor Who

Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...

for details on the series itself.

Broadcast history

The series was initially scheduled for May 1964, but it appears after the censors classified most of the episodes "A" for Adult the ABC had to find a later time-slot, so it was held over until the start of 1965, thereafter becoming an important part of the ABC's schedule, often with at least one repeat of each story during school holidays which meant Australian viewers saw the series more times than those in Britain where it was very rare for any part to be repeated. However, the BBC switch to colour for the series featuring the Third Doctor

Third Doctor

The Third Doctor is the third incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by actor Jon Pertwee....

was not reflected in Australia due to the late start of colour broadcasting there (1975), so nearly the entire set of Jon Pertwee

Jon Pertwee

John Devon Roland Pertwee , was an English actor. Pertwee is best known for his role in the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who, in which he played the third incarnation of the Doctor from 1970 to 1974, and as the title character in the series Worzel Gummidge...

era stories were first seen in black and white. A few from his last series were screened in colour in 1976-77, but the earlier stories were not until the ABC repurchased them for extra repeats in the mid 1980s.

The early black and white era

Doctor Who was first broadcast in Australia by ABW-2

ABW-2

ABW is the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's television station in Perth, Western Australia. The station began broadcasting on 7 May 1960 from studios are in East Perth and its transmitter is at Bickley...

, the Perth station of the national broadcaster, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Tuesday 12 January 1965. The episodes were transported to Australia by the BBC in the form of 16mm black and white film (one per episode), if simultaneous broadcasts were wanted the ABC had to make copies to send around the country to be screened by local transmitters, as until the later 1960s there was no uniform national broadcast network. But in many instances the episodes were physically transported from city to city and so shown in each on different dates. For example after screening in Perth the first episode An Unearthly Child
An Unearthly Child
The serial that became An Unearthly Child was originally commissioned from writer Anthony Coburn in June 1963, when it was intended to run as the second Doctor Who serial. At this stage, it was planned that the series would open with a serial entitled The Giants, to be written by BBC staff...

was screened in the Sydney area on Friday 15 January 1965; in the Brisbane area on the 22nd; in Melbourne, 20 February. As a result different areas saw different episodes on different days, or even weeks apart. Later improvements in the capacity of cable or microwave and other broadcasting links, enabled the ABC to broadcast on an increasingly national basis. But even into the 1970s the screenings could be weeks apart, the first screening of Jon Pertwee's Third Doctor was first in Melbourne, 11 July 1971, followed by Sydney on 1 August.

The switch to colour in Britain with Jon Pertwee

Jon Pertwee

's first series in 1970, was not matched in Australia until the screening of the last Jon Pertwee

Jon Pertwee

story in 1976, with the next three Tom Baker

Tom Baker

stories, so all material before that date was shown in black and white. The launch of a satellite in the mid-1980s enabled the broadcasting on a truly national scale, although there have been regional variations due to different time zones (the west being 2 hours behind the easternmost states), and to precedence being given occasionally to local events (sport, elections, etc.).

The switch to the Second Doctor

Second Doctor

The Second Doctor is the second incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by character actor Patrick Troughton....

, Patrick Troughton

Patrick Troughton

Patrick George Troughton was an English actor most widely known for his roles in fantasy, science fiction and horror films, particularly in his role as the second incarnation of the Doctor in the long-running British science-fiction television series Doctor Who, which he played from 1966 to 1969,...

, was first seen in Australia (Sydney) on 21 July 1967, and to the Third Doctor

Third Doctor

The Third Doctor is the third incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by actor Jon Pertwee....

(Jon Pertwee) on 11 July 1971. In Victoria from 1969 into the 1970s the early Troughton stories (series 4 & 5) were screened on a Sunday afternoon in a weekly format at 4:30pm, until being moved to the Friday 6:30pm timeslot from series 6 onwards. This arrangement continued until the commencement of the first episodes of Countdown in 1974, which briefly took over this timeslot. Between series of Doctor Who other shows of a similar genre were shown, such as Timeslip
Timeslip
Timeslip is a British children's science fiction television series made by ATV for the ITV network and broadcast between 1970 and 1971. The series centres around two children, Simon Randall and Liz Skinner who discover the existence of a strange anomaly, known as the “Time Barrier”, that enables...

, Phoenix Five
Phoenix Five
Phoenix Five is a low-budget Australian science fiction television series produced in 1970 by Artransa Park in association with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation....

and Frank and Francesca. In the early 1970s reruns of B&W Troughton stories were shown during the May and September school holidays at approximately 2:10pm daily: stories included Fury from the Deep
Fury from the Deep
Fury from the Deep is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in six weekly parts from 16 March to 20 April 1968...

, The Enemy of the World
The Enemy of the World
The Enemy of the World is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in six weekly parts from 23 December 1967 to 27 January 1968...

, The Mind Robber
The Mind Robber
The Mind Robber is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in five weekly parts from September 14 to October 12, 1968...

, The Krotons
The Krotons
The Krotons is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from December 28, 1968 to January 18, 1969...

, The Wheel in Space
The Wheel in Space
The Wheel in Space is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in six weekly parts from 27 April to 1 June 1968...

, The Invasion
The Invasion
The Invasion was a professional wrestling storyline in the World Wrestling Federation that began shortly after the WWF's purchase of World Championship Wrestling...

and The Space Pirates
The Space Pirates
The Space Pirates is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in six weekly parts from 8 March to 12 April 1969.-Plot:...

, immediately followed by episodes of The King's Outlaw
Thierry La Fronde
Thierry La Fronde was a French television series that aired 1963-66 on the sole French TV station, ORTF. Dubbed into English, it was shown in the 1960s in Canada, where it was referred to both under the original name and as The King's Outlaw. It was shown as well in Poland as Thierry Śmiałek...

. Generally speaking, a six part story would be shown in the May school holidays as these lasted for one week and a day, and a four part was coupled with a six part for the September school holidays as these lasted for two weeks. Later on when the May school holidays were extended to a fortnight, a six part story would have two episodes shown on the Friday, resulting in The King's Outlaw being omitted.

1970s and 1980s

The last of the Second Doctor series were repeated in impressive bursts in some of the school holidays, around the same time as the first two series of the new Doctor played by Jon Pertwee, in some instances there were up to 11 episodes screened in one week. But by about 1973 this lavishness was running down and for several years in the mid 1970s, there was a haphazard, on and off scheduling of "Doctor Who" - with cancellations, abrupt unannounced screenings when the Cricket was washed out, and so Doctor Who was put on as a sudden back-up. Furthermore, always about a year behind British screenings the series drifted further behind. From 1975-77 the number of new episodes screened shrank each year as the ABC let it drift ever further behind the BBC screenings in the UK. Doctor Who was shown in colour for the first time in 1975, however only 14 new episodes of the new season 11 were shown - The Time Warrior

The Time Warrior

The Time Warrior is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from December 15, 1973 to January 5, 1974. This serial introduced Elisabeth Sladen as new companion Sarah Jane Smith. It also marked the debut of the Sontarans...

, Death to the Daleks

Death to the Daleks

Death to the Daleks is a four-part serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. First broadcast from February 23 to March 16, 1974, it comprises four 25-minute episodes. The narrative begins as the TARDIS suffers an energy drain and crash-lands on the planet Exxilon...

and The Monster of Peladon

The Monster of Peladon

The Monster of Peladon is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 23 March to 27 April 1974.-Synopsis:...

. Invasion of the Dinosaurs

Invasion of the Dinosaurs

Invasion of the Dinosaurs is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 12 January to 16 February 1974.-Synopsis:...

was not screened as BBC Enterprises had authorised the master tapes to be wiped in August 1974, effectively withdrawing it from sale. Planet of the Spiders

Planet of the Spiders

Planet of the Spiders is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from May 4 to June 8, 1974. It was Jon Pertwee's last serial as the Doctor and marks the first, uncredited appearance of Tom Baker in the role. It also marks...

, the concluding story of that eleventh season, was unaccountably not screened until the following year, being grouped with the first three Tom Baker stories which started on 23 April 1976: Robot

Robot (Doctor Who)

Robot is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 28 December 1974 to 18 January 1975...

, The Ark in Space

The Ark in Space

The Ark in Space is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 25 January to 15 February 1975.-Plot:The TARDIS materialises in a darkened room on board the station...

, and The Sontaran Experiment

The Sontaran Experiment

The Sontaran Experiment is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was originally broadcast in two weekly parts on 22 February and 1 March 1975.-Synopsis:...

, thus making another year with an incomplete season, this time of just 16 new episodes. The final 10 episodes of Baker's first season were held over from 1976 until 1977 (Genesis of the Daleks

Genesis of the Daleks

Genesis of the Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who that was originally broadcast in six weekly parts from 8 March to 12 April 1975. It marks the first appearance of Davros, the creator of the Daleks.-Plot:...

, and Revenge of the Cybermen

Revenge of the Cybermen

Revenge of the Cybermen is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 19 April to 10 May 1975.-Synopsis:...

).

The ABC decided in mid-1976 to cease purchasing any new Doctor Who episodes. This left it with the first Tom Baker

Tom Baker

(new material) and some rights to repeat the last Jon Pertwee

Jon Pertwee

series. Fans discovered this and staged an on-going series of protests (see below). With a new Controller of Television, James Fitzmaurice, the ABC changed its mind about 18 months later, and thereafter regularly screened much Doctor Who in prime time, from Mondays to Thursdays at 6:30 pm. The ratings of the second and third Tom Baker

Tom Baker

series marked a major up-turn in the show's popularity, and the ABC bought up many older colour episodes from the Jon Pertwee

Jon Pertwee

era, including ones that had previously been blocked by the censors. For a nationwide promotional campaign the ABC also brought Tom Baker himself out to tour Australia and do a media blitz. He later made a second visit (this time only to Sydney) to popularise the new line of merchandise centred on him as the Doctor (posters, buttons, etc.). New episodes would be shown, followed by a rerun

Rerun

A rerun or repeat is a re-airing of an episode of a radio or television broadcast. The invention of the rerun is generally credited to Desi Arnaz. There are two types of reruns—those that occur during a hiatus, and those that occur when a program is syndicated. Reruns can also be, as the...

of selected colour episodes from Spearhead from Space

Spearhead from Space

Spearhead from Space is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 3 January to 24 January 1970. The serial opened Series 7 of the show and was the first to be produced in colour. The serial introduced Jon Pertwee as the...

onwards.

The 1980s saw the departure of the longest running Doctor, Tom Baker, replaced by the new Producer seeking a more youthful image with Peter Davison. The ABC continued screening the series almost as soon as it was shown by the BBC in Britain, and for the 20th anniversary special, The Five Doctors

The Five Doctors

The Five Doctors is a special feature-length episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, produced in celebration of the programme's twentieth anniversary. It had its world premiere in the United States, on the Chicago PBS station WTTW and various other PBS member stations...

, it even put in some production money and made a big promotional effort, although the nation-wide visit by Peter Davison in 1983 was organised by commercial department stores. The pattern of new episodes and repeats continued, with both colour and black and white episodes now being shown. Two Patrick Troughton

Patrick Troughton

stories (The Mind Robber

The Mind Robber

The Mind Robber is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in five weekly parts from September 14 to October 12, 1968...

and The Krotons

The Krotons

The Krotons is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from December 28, 1968 to January 18, 1969...

) were repeated in 1986, as were nearly all Pertwee episodes that only existed in black and white, with the exception of Invasion of the Dinosaurs part 1 (although the remaining colour episodes were shown as a five part story). A full run of available black and white material was not done until 2003, but without some Dalek

Dalek

The Daleks are a fictional extraterrestrial race of mutants from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Within the series, Daleks are cyborgs from the planet Skaro, created by the scientist Davros during the final years of a thousand-year war against the Thals...

stories due to disputes with Terry Nation

Terry Nation

Terry Nation was a Welsh screenwriter and novelist.He is probably best known for creating the villainous Daleks in the long-running science fiction television series Doctor Who...

's estate. The problems within the BBC over what direction to take the series were reflected Down-Under by delays, but the ABC continued as a faithful host of the series until the BBC finally axed it in 1989. Even after the last airing in Britain, the ABC showed some series again as repeats.

Minor points:
A full BBC 1970s documentary "Whose Doctor Who" about the show (with much material on the making of "Talons of Weng-Chiang"), has not been shown on free to air TV in Australia. Nor have other shorter BBC programmes with material on the Doctor Who series such as guest appearances (often shown as segments within other BBC shows such as Blue Peter

Blue Peter

Blue Peter is the world's longest-running children's television show, having first aired in 1958. It is shown on CBBC, both in its BBC One programming block and on the CBBC channel. During its history there have been many presenters, often consisting of two women and two men at a time...

.) Furthermore, several stories were not purchased on first run, Invasion of the Dinosaurs
Invasion of the Dinosaurs
Invasion of the Dinosaurs is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 12 January to 16 February 1974.-Synopsis:...

, apparently as the first episode was not available in colour, another, The Brain of Morbius
The Brain of Morbius
The Brain of Morbius is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 3 January to 24 January 1976...

was played many years later (in 1978) at a late time slot, in the BBC's "omnibus" version (a Christmas holiday special, cut down from the full four episodes to a 60 minute telefilm), as it was deemed to be too dark and violent for children. Later in the 1980s it was screened by the ABC in full.

Outside of the UK, Australia is the only country to have usually aired every series shortly after it had been produced (despite some big delays in the mid-1970s), with the possible exceptions of a truncated series 7 and series 8 (commenced in late 1973) and series 18 (held over until early 1982, the show having been absent from ABC TV for over a year).

The Revival

1996: The Telemovie
The first attempt to revive the series was with the made for TV telemovie made with US money by FOX in 1996 with Paul McGann

Paul McGann

Paul McGann is an English actor who made his name on the BBC serial The Monocled Mutineer, in which he played the lead role...

as the Eighth Doctor

Eighth Doctor

The Eighth Doctor is the eighth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by Paul McGann...

, this was screened in Australia on the ABC on 7 July at 8.30 PM (delayed from a 3 July schedule to avoid clashing with the X Files). The response to McGann's portrayal was generally highly positive. There was a burst of merchandise, some follow-on enthusiasm, and FOX even had a "Doctor Who Message board" on their website, but the various plans for a follow on series that were mooted, never eventuated. Despite that, McGann's Doctor had quite an impact on fans, and he has lived on, subsequently featuring in audio dramas, novels and comic books. Material in the "film" was cut in the US for extra advertising, but these cuts were largely restored for the screening in Australia. A publicity screening of the cut version had been held earlier on 5 June, at "Planet Hollywood" in Sydney with several fan built Daleks operated by fan club members acting as ushers.

2005: Doctor Who returns
For a few years it seemed that was the end of the series again. But the BBC took on the production of a new series with Russell T. Davies as the new producer from 2005. Series 1

Doctor Who (series 1)

The new first series of British science fiction series Doctor Who began on 26 March 2005 with the episode "Rose", which marked the end of the programme's 16-year absence from episodic television following its cancellation in 1989, and aired its finale episode "The Parting of the Ways" on 18 June 2005...

of the revived Doctor Who began airing with "Rose

Rose (Doctor Who)

"Rose" is the first episode of Series One of the British science-fiction television series Doctor Who. Written by show runner Russell T Davies and directed by Keith Boak, the episode was first broadcast on 26 March 2005....

" on 21 May 2005. All series of his new Doctor Who has been screened by the ABC in Australia soon after the premier screenings in the UK. These screened revivals, starring Christopher Eccleston

Christopher Eccleston

Christopher Eccleston is an English stage, film and television actor. His films include Let Him Have It, Shallow Grave, Elizabeth, 28 Days Later, Gone in 60 Seconds, The Others, and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra...

and David Tennant

David Tennant

David Tennant is a Scottish actor. In addition to his work in theatre, including a widely praised Hamlet, Tennant is best known for his role as the tenth incarnation of the Doctor in Doctor Who, along with the title role in the 2005 TV serial Casanova and as Barty Crouch, Jr...

respectively, were all screened in Australia by late 2008 (including Christmas Specials). Unlike the previous eras, which had numerous instances of censorship, the new series has generally been free of editing, indeed an episode was edited in Britain but screened in full in Australia.

In 2005, the ABC began screening the new Russell T Davies series starring Christopher Eccleston

Christopher Eccleston

as the Doctor

Doctor (Doctor Who)

The Doctor is the central character in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who, and has also featured in two cinema feature films, a vast range of spin-off novels, audio dramas and comic strips connected to the series....

. The third series was broadcast on the ABC on Saturday evenings from 30 June 2007, following "The Runaway Bride

The Runaway Bride (Doctor Who)

"The Runaway Bride" is a special episode of the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who, starring David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor...

" on 28 June. Series 4 saw the series move to a Sunday night timeslot, commencing on 29 June 2008 with Voyage of the Damned

Voyage of the Damned

Voyage of the Damned is the title of a 1974 book written by Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts, which was the basis of a 1976 drama film with the same title.The story was inspired by true events concerning the fate of the MS St...

, with the rest of series 4 screened on subsequent Sundays at 7:30pm. For the first time, the ABC achieved audiences of 1 million+ viewers for every episode. The ABC also began screening Doctor Who Confidential
Doctor Who Confidential
Doctor Who Confidential is a documentary series created by the British Broadcasting Corporation to complement the revival of the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Each episode was broadcast on BBC Three on Saturdays, immediately after the broadcast of the weekly...

(in Cut-Down form) in 2008, immediately following each week's episode. In early 2009 some episodes of the second season with David Tennant were repeated on Tuesday nights but the season was cut halfway through to be completed at a different timeslot on ABC2. The first episode of the Fifth Season starring Matt Smith aired on 18 April 2010, on ABC1. It could also be viewed on ABC's website iView two days prior to the television air date. Each episode is being broadcast only two weeks after its air date in Britain due to the fact it is one of ABC's most successful shows.

Channel Ten has broadcast Davies' spin-off series, Torchwood

Torchwood

Torchwood is a British science fiction television programme created by Russell T Davies. The series is a spin-off from Davies's 2005 revival of the long-running science fiction programme Doctor Who. The show has shifted its broadcast channel each series to reflect its growing audience, moving from...

, after both the ABC

Australian Broadcasting Corporation

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...

and SBS

Special Broadcasting Service

The Special Broadcasting Service is a hybrid-funded Australian public broadcasting radio and television network. The stated purpose of SBS is "to provide multilingual and multicultural radio and television services that inform, educate and entertain all Australians and, in doing so, reflect...

passed on buying the rights. The series premiered on 18 June 2007. Torchwood

Torchwood

started to air every Monday at 9:30pm or 9:40pm - depending on the programme preceding it - for the first six episodes but was then moved to 12am Wednesday, apparently due to lower than anticipated ratings.
Torchwood was bought by the ABC and series 1 and 2 were shown on ABC2 in 2009, on Fridays at 8.30 from 19 June, and followed by a cut version of Torchwood Declassified. Children of Earth

Children of Earth

Children of Earth is the banner title of the third series of the British television science fiction series Torchwood, which broadcast for five episodes on BBC One in 2009. The series had new producer Peter Bennett and was directed by Euros Lyn, who had considerable experience on the revived Doctor...

was shown on Friday nights at 8:30 as well, however, only one episode was shown per week instead of the 'one per day over a week' format it was created for. Torchwood: Miracle Day (series four) has been bought by Eleven

Eleven (TV channel)

Eleven is an Australian free-to-air standard definition digital television channel, which was launched by ElevenCo, on 11 January 2011.-Joint venture:...

, a Network Ten

Network Ten

Network Ten , is one of Australia's three major commercial television networks. Owned-and-operated stations can be found in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, while affiliates extend the network to cover most of the country...

digital only channel.

Other appearances in the 2000s:
Between September 2003 and January 2006 the ABC repeated the majority of the earlier series. These were screened in chronological order every Monday to Thursday night, and included almost every surviving complete story from 1963 to 1989. Part 1 of Invasion of the Dinosaurs finally received its ABC premiere, with all six episodes of the story being screened for the first time. A few surviving serials were skipped due to the BBC's disputes with the Estate of Terry Nation over the rights to the Daleks. These included Day
Day of the Daleks
Day of the Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 1 January to 22 January 1972.-Synopsis:...

, Planet
Planet of the Daleks
Planet of the Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from April 7 to May 12, 1973.-Synopsis:...

, Destiny
Destiny of the Daleks
Destiny of the Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 1 September to 22 September 1979. The story introduces Lalla Ward as the newly-regenerated Romana....

, Resurrection
Resurrection of the Daleks
Resurrection of the Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in two weekly parts between 8 February and 15 February 1984...

, Revelation
Revelation of the Daleks
Revelation of the Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in two weekly parts on 23 March and 30 March 1985...

and Remembrance of the Daleks
Remembrance of the Daleks
Remembrance of the Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 5 October to 26 October 1988....

, as well as Frontier in Space
Frontier in Space
Frontier in Space is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from February 24 to March 31, 1973...

. The War Games
The War Games
The War Games is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in ten weekly parts from 19 April to 21 June 1969. It was the last regular appearance of Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor, and of Wendy Padbury and Frazer Hines as companions Zoe...

, a ten-part serial which features a Dalek for a few seconds, was skipped, while The Five Doctors
The Five Doctors
The Five Doctors is a special feature-length episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, produced in celebration of the programme's twentieth anniversary. It had its world premiere in the United States, on the Chicago PBS station WTTW and various other PBS member stations...

had its Dalek scenes edited out. Some episodes of Inferno
Inferno (Doctor Who)
Don Houghton came to Terrence Dicks with an idea for the story based on the real life Project Mohole. A smaller budget for the serial drove the idea of a parallel world, where the studio could use the same actors in multiple roles...

, Carnival of Monsters
Carnival of Monsters
Carnival of Monsters is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 27 January to 17 February 1973....

, Invasion of the Dinosaurs
Invasion of the Dinosaurs
Invasion of the Dinosaurs is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 12 January to 16 February 1974.-Synopsis:...

and The Trial of a Time Lord
The Trial of a Time Lord
The Trial of a Time Lord is a fourteen-part British science fiction serial of the long running BBC series Doctor Who. The serial, produced as the twenty-third season of the Doctor Who television series, aired in weekly episodes from 6 September to 6 December 1986...

were shown as early edits which differed from the final versions broadcast by the BBC. Other episodes were cut to reduce violent scenes.

UK.TV a pay television channel in Australia has also broadcast the old series, and after the free to air screening on the ABC it showed Series 1 of the new episodes which began on 7 October 2006. The Series 1 Finale first aired on 17 December 2006. The versions shown by UKTV were edited, meaning portions of each episode were not shown. Starting 2007, the repeats of the new series 2 have been accompanied by cut-down version episodes of Doctor Who Confidential
Doctor Who Confidential
Doctor Who Confidential is a documentary series created by the British Broadcasting Corporation to complement the revival of the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Each episode was broadcast on BBC Three on Saturdays, immediately after the broadcast of the weekly...

, reportedly the first time that a broadcaster has shown this programme outside of the UK. These were also shown by ABC TV in 2008 and 2009, immediately after each broadcast episode. SciFi Australia, a pay television channel in Australia, commenced on 17 August 2011 a screening of all the Tom Baker stories.

Lost Episodes

Since some states differed in their school holiday dates, the ABC had no alternative but to have multiple copies of some of the early 16mm format episodes for different states. Hence it was hoped by fans in the 1990s that copies of episodes deemed lost by the BBC, might yet be found in Australia, having been mis-shelved in the various state based offices of the ABC. The agreement with the BBC required that all such episodes should be destroyed or returned, although it is known that some were souvenired by staff, since at least five ended up in the hand of a private collector, and three were seen by some Sydney fans in the 1970s. But despite these, and a few episodes turning up in the ABC in the 1990s, nothing new has since come to light (as of Mar. 2009). The ABC archive went through a major review following the closure of the ABC's old Sydney studio headquarters at Gore Hill, and many "lost" film and video resources were rediscovered and the ABC has also begun the process of archiving old film and video materials in digital format (such as segments from the 1970s pop music series GTK, which are now available for viewing on the ABC's YouTube channel. However, no new Dr Who finds have been reported to date, and if anything more is likely to be found it will be during this enormous sorting and conversion process, which may take years, depending on the resources available.

Censorship

All overseas imported films had to be checked and rated by the Australian censors, so all stories were viewed by them, prior to purchase by the ABC. At this point some Doctor Who episodes failed to obtain a clearance for a pre 7pm timeslot, so they were not purchased by the ABC (such as The Daleks' Master Plan
The Daleks' Master Plan
The Daleks' Master Plan is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The twelve episodes were aired from 13 November 1965 to 29 January 1966...

). Although, a few stories, such as the first two Dalek stories, despite being rated "A" (for Adult), were run in the first batch in 1965 because the ABC had initially scheduled the series to run after the national 7 PM news, so these stories were allowed to be screened at 7.30 PM. But they could not be repeated, as the ABC subsequently shifted the series from this later slot to the more family oriented time of 6.30 PM. In addition, stories could be accepted by the censors, but only if certain scenes, or even brief shots, were deleted. The issue of "A" rating again became a problem with the Jon Pertwee era and several stories were not screened as a result, e.g. The Ambassadors of Death
The Ambassadors of Death
The Ambassadors of Death is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in seven weekly parts from March 21 to May 2, 1970.-Plot:...

, Inferno
Inferno (Doctor Who)
Don Houghton came to Terrence Dicks with an idea for the story based on the real life Project Mohole. A smaller budget for the serial drove the idea of a parallel world, where the studio could use the same actors in multiple roles...

, The Dæmons
The Dæmons
The Dæmons is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in five weekly parts from May 22 to June 19, 1971.-Plot:...

, and The Mind of Evil
The Mind of Evil
The Mind of Evil is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 30 January to 6 March 1971.-Plot:...

). Only a few Tom Baker stories were thus rejected in full, such as The Deadly Assassin
The Deadly Assassin
The Deadly Assassin is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 30 October to 20 November 1976...

, and Brain of Morbius. All were later re-rated and screened in the 1980s when the decision on these issues was decentralised down to the ABC, which passed these items. Some broadcast delays being due more to poor quality video tapes (sourced from countries with differing video format, such as the USA), or to episode availability in black and white only (having originally been filmed in colour). In many cases some of the cuts now seem utterly inconsequential, and it is hard to imagine why anyone was bothered, but they stand as a testament to changing community values over the decades.

In 1996, about 25 minutes worth of some very short censored black and white 16mm film clips were recovered from the National Archive vaults, snipped by the censor from a variety of 1960s episodes, these cut portions of 16mm film had not been in the hands of the ABC, and had been impounded by the Australian censors.

The Cinema

The two Aaru Dalek

Dalek

films, produced by Milton Subotsky

Milton Subotsky

Milton Subotsky was an American TV and film writer/producer. In 1964, in England, he formed Amicus Productions with Max J Rosenberg.Together they produced a number of low budget science fiction and horror films....

based on the first two BBC TV Dalek stores, were screened in Australia, but only for about a week each, during Christmas holidays. Doctor Who and the Daleks premiered in Sydney on 23 December 1965, with one of the Daleks (apparently the Red one) from the film in the foyer, while the next, Daleks' Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. was unaccountably delayed for well over a year after its first British screening (from 22 July 1966), not being shown in Sydney until 15 December 1967. It is probable that one of the film Dalek casings was acquired from the film distributor by the new TV station, Channel Ten, as a Dalek made a number of appearances introducing children's programmes, it had been re-equipped so the many dots on its sides flickered as it spoke. The original 35mm Cinemascope

CinemaScope

CinemaScope was an anamorphic lens series used for shooting wide screen movies from 1953 to 1967. Its creation in 1953, by the president of 20th Century-Fox, marked the beginning of the modern anamorphic format in both principal photography and movie projection.The anamorphic lenses theoretically...

film prints would subsequently have been sent around the South Pacific and on to other areas with links to Britain (presumably Singapore and Hong Kong), so were no longer available in Australia by 1974. Copies of the films were, however, retained as 16mm colour prints by "British Empire Films" later renamed "Australiasian Film Hire", but these prints were not widescreen, but based on the standard TV format, available for hire to home and small scale screenings. In late 1975, such a screening of Daleks' Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. organised by Antony Howe for a group of fans may be said to mark the first organised fan activity in Australia, certainly in Sydney. The first film was to appear on TV not on the ABC but on a commercial station, Channel Seven, in black and white, but the second film did not get broadcast (on Channel Ten) until about 1980.

The films' director Gordon Flemyng

Gordon Flemyng

Gordon William Flemyng was a Scottish director of six theatrical features, several television films and numerous episodes of TV series, some of which he also wrote and produced. Flemyng directed both of the Dalek feature films of the 1960s, Dr...

was later to work on several ABC TV productions in the 1980s and the leading Dalek operator, Robert Jewell

Robert Jewell

Robert Jewell was an English actor who mostly worked as a Dalek or other robot operator on Doctor Who in the late sixties, also playing a cameo as Bing Crosby in the serial The Daleks' Master Plan. He later emigrated to Australia and played small recurring roles in Prisoner during the eighties....

also migrated to Australia.

Merchandise

Apart from imports of products from overseas, there have been a number of commercial products licensed to be made especially for the Australian market. Over the decades, the national broadcaster, the ABC

Australian Broadcasting Corporation

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...

, has produced a variety of items and promoted them vigorously on-air and in its shops. Several have basically been reprints of British products with the ABC logo on the covers replacing a British one, such as an Australian edition of what in Britain had been the "Doctor Who 20th Anniversary Special" (in 1983). There was also a "Technical Manual" with supposed plans of Daleks, robots, the TARDIS, guns K9 and sundry aliens.

In 1980 sets of Tom Baker

Tom Baker

merchandise which included posters, cards, buttons, and writing sets, was also largely a reissue of British product, marketed in Australia from Sydney by an Ian Nichols who had moved from Britain to handle the items. These were vigorously promoted in Sydney by "Grace Brothers" (nothing to do with the BBC comedy series "Are You Being Served") a chain of department stores which brought Tom Baker out to conduct a whirl-wind autographing blitz in its many suburban stores. But after that these items were not very successful.

Other stray items have been "Show Bags" full of ephemeral bits and pieces, usually of a fairly poor quality for children, and sold at major "shows" (usually related to rural production with fun fairs and other activities) such as the "Royal Easter Show

Royal Easter Show

Royal Easter Show may refer to:* Sydney Royal Easter Show* Auckland Royal Easter Show...

" in Sydney where the stall holder also distributed some leaflets to promote the national club, and he had plans to tour many rural towns throughout the state of New South Wales, and maybe to go further afield. A similar (or even identical) product was sold at the Royal Melbourne Show

Royal Melbourne Show

The Royal Melbourne Show is an agricultural show held at the Royal Melbourne Showgrounds every September. The Royal Show began in 1848. The focus of the show is the display of rural industry, including livestock and produce. There are associated competitions and awards...

.

The distributor of BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

DVDs Roadshow has for several years issued the BBC product but for Australian format, and often with the address of the Australian club on the wrapping.

Pre-history

There may have been some isolated Australian branches of Keith Miller's British Doctor Who club, and there was at least one small suburban club-ette in Sydney around 1974 (recalled by Kerrie Dougherty), as well as occasional signs of fan activity here and there (e.g. a fan organised film screening in Sydney of Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150 AD

Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150 AD

Daleks – Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. is the second of two films based on the British science-fiction television series Doctor Who. It was the sequel to Dr. Who and the Daleks , and starred Peter Cushing in his return to the role of the eccentric inventor and time traveller "Dr. Who". It also...

in 1975, and an issue of a Tolkien fanzine devoted to Doctor Who, issued as "Macra" in late 1975. But before 1976 there was no solid fan organisation. The last three of these strands came together at Sydney University in 1975-76 which led to the formation of a national club in August 1976. Members of the Sydney University Science Fiction Association ("SUSFA"), decided to build a Dalek to enter in a planned Dalek race to be held over Easter 1976 year to race other Daleks at a University Science Fiction Convention "Unicon 2" at Melbourne University over Easter (for photos of these Daleks and others, go to "External Links" below for the site "Daleksdownunder"). Although the Melbourne students had built their Dalek in 1975, and Adelaide students also built one, there is no evidence either group went on to form a Doctor Who club. However, after winning this race the SUSFA members were fired up and organised screenings of both Dalek films, and arranged a number of other activities involving the Dalek around campus at Sydney University during 1976.

But why this led to a dedicated Doctor Who club at Sydney University and not elsewhere must remain a mystery. Perhaps their Daleks were just student pranks, and not signs of dedicated fan obsession. The change at Sydney into a Doctor Who fanclub with fanzine (Zerinza

Zerinza

Zerinza was the first, and for many years the only regular Australian Doctor Who fanzine. It ran continuously from 1976 to 1986 when edited and published by Antony Howe, for the Australasian Doctor Who Fan Club , reaching issue number 35...

) requires an outline of some of the broadcasting context as it related to fans (in more detail above). By the mid 1970s the series was not rating well and the ABC used less and less new material every year, slowly getting well over a year behind the BBC's screenings in Britain, and missing several stories. Fed up with such sporadic sequencing during 1974-77, a Sydney fan, Antony Howe, began to agitate to have the series shown in full, and soon after the premieres in Britain rather than being screened years later. Other demands were to stop the censorship of whole stories (many had been rated "A" by the censor, limited to screening after 7.30 pm which the ABC refused to do), and to have more repeats. Such criticisms were made public in the special "Dalek

Dalek

Soit" science fiction edition of the famous student newspaper Honi Soit
Honi Soit
Honi Soit is the student newspaper of the University of Sydney, first published in 1929 and produced by an elected editorial team as part of the activities of the Students' Representative Council...

which featured news and photographs of the club Dalek's conquest of the campus, and an appreciative quasi-academic article on the Doctor Who TV series, by local science fiction author Terry Dowling. Also flagged was the launch of a Doctor Who fanzine (see Zerinza

Zerinza

) and addresses were given for overseas Doctor Who fan clubs, so a local club was not yet envisaged.

This rapidly changed, however, as petitions and letter writing campaigns got nowhere. After being fobbed off again in mid 1976 by the ABC, Howe, by then the new President of the SUSFA, brought the matter up with the Uni. club for action. SUSFA had several other active members who were keen Doctor Who fans, such as Kerrie Dougherty, Dallas Jones, and Jon Noble (who also published a roneoed Tolkien fanzine, South of Harad, East of Rhun, with material on the Daleks, etc., in some issues). The SUSFA agreed that in the August vacation it would hold a protest at the ABC Head office in Elizabeth Street, Sydney, complete with the SUSFA's Dalek. The "Demo" was to urge more screenings.

"Save Doctor Who":
During the vacation Antony Howe learned the ABC had actually decided to cease purchasing ANY new episodes of the series, and the planned "Dalek Demo" now had a more urgent goal - to "Save Doctor Who" (perhaps the Dalek wanted to "Save" the Doctor to avoid unemployment!) Organised by Howe, SUSFA members and others, the "Dalek Demo" of 24 August 1976 helped create a small core of people who formed fandom in Sydney, then the rest of Australia, but only about 20 turned up at the peak, with a dozen people or so were present at other times. Even ABC Programme Dept. staff said they knew nothing about the top level decision. Management's decision was also widely revealed in the student newspaper and fans urged to begin a letter writing campaign, and to join the new Australasian Dr Who Fan Club, and attend a screening of the film Doctor Who and the Daleks where further details were announced. Thus was a longer term campaign to "Save Doctor Who" had been launched: complete with posters and leaflets; networking with existing Science Fiction enthusiasts around the country; a radio interview; and letter writing campaigns to the rest of the media, not just the ABC. The "Demo" and other efforts are widely thought by fans and others to have encouraged the broadcaster to change its mind. Howe, however, has doubts that such a small "Demo," and club, had much effect on a huge bureaucracy like the ABC. Eventually the ABC did buy the new series (season 2 and 3 of Tom Baker), Howe believes this was probably due to the high ratings in Britain, rather than to his own efforts.

The campaign did however, lead to a fan magazine and club. Reporting on the "Demo" and associated activities, Howe formed a club, linked up with the UK club (DWAS

Doctor Who Appreciation Society

The Doctor Who Appreciation Society is a society for fans of the television series Doctor Who. It was founded in May 1976, emerging from the Westfield College Doctor Who Appreciation Society and the editors and readers of the fanzine Tardis...

), and launched his fanzine "Zerinza

Zerinza

: the Australasian Doctor Who Fanzine" in August 1976 at a Sydney University screening of "Doctor Who and the Daleks" he had organised for SUSFA (on 21 Sept. 1976). His fanzine was only possible because the SUSFA had a printing machine for its own fanzine "Enigma." Its editor-printer, Van Ikin kindly printed the first 3 years or so of "Zerinza" for Howe. "Zerinza" was claimed to be a Dalek word for "Good Success" in a Dalek Annual of the 1960s. The 'zine was available at fan events and some specialist shops ("Galaxy" in Sydney, and "Space Age" in Melbourne), but it was mainly sold through the post, appearing with some (more or less) regularity every year with the last routine issue #35 in mid-1984.

The associated club was announced in the first issue, but held no public or regular meetings until November 1979 as it so completely overlapped with the SUSFA in membership that there was no point in holding separate activities until the students had mostly graduated and moved on. Initially all "Zerinza" subscribers were notionally members of the "Australasian Doctor Who Fan Club" run by Antony Howe with the help of his mother who did much of the typing, and articles by other members of SUSFA and increasingly outside people who networked as part of the on-going protest over the ABC policy toward the series. The broadcaster abruptly changed its mind with a new Controller of TV and from 1978 the series was to be screened with great regularity.

The Doctor Who Club of Australia

Initially called the Australasian Doctor Who Fan Club, this, the national club, is also the oldest and largest Doctor Who club in Australia, formed in 1976, but initially closely entwined with the SUSFA (see above). By 1979, with the visit of Tom Baker

Tom Baker

to promote the series for the ABC, Doctor Who fandom was increasingly separate from SUSFA and other university based clubs around the country. The visit by Baker also stimulated a greater level of fan activity in Melbourne and Brisbane with clubs forming there as well. After Antony Howe resigned as President of SUSFA in 1980, he remained with the ADWFC organising a series of events, the fanzine, and a mail order business of imported Doctor Who merchandise, often unavailable in dozens of tiny rural towns outside the main cities. The ADWFC's most successful event to then was in mid-1980, when Jon Pertwee

Jon Pertwee

toured Sydney for cabaret shows, and kindly attended a half day "Dr Who Party." Having its founders and core workers resident in Sydney, with the ABC head office there as well, the club administration has thus been based in the state of New South Wales, and therefore runs the main club events in Sydney. From 1979, there have been "Parties" held nearly every year (or more often), conventions were seen as too expensive to risk until 1990, when Nicholas Courtney

Nicholas Courtney

William Nicholas Stone Courtney was an English television actor, most famous for playing Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who.-Early life:...

best known for his role as the Brigadier was flown out to be the main guest at a "Whovention".

Howe had issued a few one-off newsletters to announce the Baker and Pertwee visits, and as the fanzine was often months late, Dallas Jones offered to produce a more regular newsletter, and Howe agreed, helping with typing, proof reading, and printing it using the SUSFA printing machine, thus the future "Data Extract" was launched. When Antony Howe resigned from the Presidency of the ADWFC in 1984, and ceased regular publication of Zerinza

Zerinza

, he was succeeded by Dallas Jones, who also edited a few special issues of Zerinza

Zerinza

. Other presidents have been Kate Orman, Neil Hogan, Todd Beilby, James Sellwood and Karen Carpenter.

Over the years, as the national club, the DWCA had several name shifts, and a changing number of regional chapters around the country, and a few of these are part of the state based clubs listed below. The club still publishes the regular club magazine "Data Extract" which has had an unbroken run of publication since 1980. The current editor is Lauren Davis, and the current president is Paul Deuis. The club continues to offer a large range of merchandise for sale through the club's merchandise store at the club's website.

Other clubs and groups

Metebilis 3, a Doctor Who fan club based in Penrith, New South Wales; moved to form a united Doctor Who fan movement. After discussion with other clubs including the Doctor Who International Fan Club's president Chris Bayliss, Time Loop editor Paul Kennedy, and Metebilis 3's founding members Tim Aldwinckle, Lynne Churchyard and Colin Briscoe, they formed the Supreme Council of Timelords (SCOT) in 1983. Invitations were made to all known Doctor Who Clubs and Fanzines, with members joining from all Australian states and from New Zealand. It produced a newszine, The Pharos Project edited by David Farrar to keep all members up to date. It organised the first national Doctor Who convention - "Who Do 84" with special guest - Dalek operator Robert Jewell, and fan guest of honour - Gary Armstrong.

The Supreme Council of Time Lords also introduced the first Australian and New Zealand fan award system, the Double Gammas awards, open to all Australia and New Zealand Doctor Who fanzines, fan writers, fan artists, with fans members of any Australian or New Zealand Doctor Who club or readers of any Australian or New Zealand Doctor Who fanzine or newsletter, able to nominate and vote. These awards were first presented in 1984 at "Who Do 84", during the Time Lord Ball. SCOT faded out, but after a hiatus of several years, the awards were resumed, being run by arrangement amongst other Australian fan groups.

Australia also has a number of regional (state based) clubs.

The Doctor Who Club of Victoria based in Melbourne has been continuously operating for more than 25 years. In 1978, some fans had been planning a fanzine or newsletter (later appearing as "Supervoc") but this was delayed until about 1979, after Tom Baker

Tom Baker

's visit early that year, when local fandom (as in many other states), flared into more vigorous life. It organised a "convention" (really a day-time event) on 24 November 1979. The club has an active social program ranging from screenings to club outings and has hosted a number of conventions with guests including Sophie Aldred and Sylvester McCoy. The Club publishes a regular bi-monthly magazine "Sonic Screwdriver".

The Queensland Doctor Who Fan Club was formed by Maun Henry (President), Stephen Collins and others, in about 1978, issuing a it enjoyed a fairly good relationship with the local ABC TV office which had a float with several appalling looking Daleks which were entered into a major parade in Brisbane. It was also actively involved with the ABC in 1979, helping provide volunteers during the promotional tour by Tom Baker

Tom Baker

which gave the club a significant boost. With impressive regularity, it published a large sized (foolscap) fanzine "Scope" with impressive articles, but poor printing, mostly edited by Stephen Collins, Maun Henry, and others from late 1978 to 1980 approx., and a newsletter "Miniscope." It closed in late 1980, but other successor clubs almost immediately sprang up, usually affiliated to the national club, such as the Brisbane Doctor Who Fan Club (closed 2000). Leading Brisbane area fans, such as Ellen Parry, played key roles in organising conventions such as "Conquest" in several years.

The West Lodge is Western Australia's only Doctor Who

Doctor Who

fan club, and was founded by fan William Duffy in 1983. It has met on a monthly basis continually since that time - and continues to meet on the first Saturday of each month in South Perth.

The South Australian Doctor Who Fan Club was formed on 1 June 1980 and incorporated on 7 September 1982. It held Conpanion, the first Australian Doctor Who convention, on 8 to 11 October 1983 with Katy Manning as Guest of Honour. On 18 November 2000 the club was rebadged as SFSA. It meets from 3pm to 10pm on the third Saturday of each month except December at Adelaide High School

Adelaide High School

Adelaide High School is a coeducational state high school situated on the corner of West Terrace and Glover Avenue in the Adelaide Parklands. It is the first government high school in South Australia...

. Publications include the Doctor Who yearbook "Chameleon Factor", regular general SF magazine "SFSA" and the bi-monthly newsletter "The Wall of Lies".

University students also organised clubs and related activities - the University of Sydney

University of Sydney

The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...

had the SUSFA (see above) which built a full size Dalek

Dalek

in 1976 which would sometimes make appearances on campus at student functions, and it was wheeled out to gain extra members during Orientation Week. Later a notional S.U. Dr Who Club was set up - but mainly to facilitate booking of on-campus rooms for the ADWFC, a few lunchtime events may have been held. Melbourne University students had built a Dalek in 1975, and others did so in Adelaide in 1976, to hold a race over Easter in Melbourne, won by the Sydney University Black Dalek - which was secretly mounted on an adapted tri-cycle to give it greater manoeuvrability and speed. Some other universities might have had short-lived DW clubs.

Conventions

During the 1980s there had been many large scale fan events in various cities (see above), some rather grandly called "conventions," others by the less grand label "parties." The Sydney based national club organised "parties" (half day events) at halls in the city or Sydney University every year from 1979, some were fairly low-key, but others had important guests from the series such as Katy Manning

Katy Manning

Katy Manning is an English actress best known for her part as the companion Jo Grant in the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who. She has also made many theatre appearances, and is now a citizen of Australia. She is myopic...

(1981 and 1983), Jon Pertwee

Jon Pertwee

(1980), Peter Davison

Peter Davison

Peter Davison is a British actor, best known for his roles as Tristan Farnon in the television version of James Herriot's All Creatures Great and Small and the fifth incarnation of the Doctor in Doctor Who, which he played from 1982 to 1984.-Early life:Davison was born Peter Moffett in Streatham,...

and Janet Fielding

Janet Fielding

in two events close together in 1983, and later in the year, Dr John Tulloch (who has written two academic textbooks on the series ), and foundation producer of the series Verity Lambert

Verity Lambert

Verity Ann Lambert, OBE was an English television and film producer. She is best known as the founding producer of the science-fiction series Doctor Who, a programme which has become a part of British popular culture, and for her association with Thames Television...

in 1985 when out in Australia to film Evil Angels. The national club also holds regular events at smaller venues previously at Drummoyne RSL and now at The Burwood Club, a couple were in alliance with the Sydney Friends of Science Fiction.

A Sydney convention held in 1988 called, "Console 88" featured Mark Strickson and his then wife, Julie Brennan, among other guests.

Queensland saw a variety of events called "Conquest" with overseas stars brought out as guests. Other such events were held in Adelaide and Melbourne in various years, there is a little information on the names and dates of a wide variety of conventions in the article on the Double Gammas, the Australian Doctor Who fan awards.

There was a yearly national convention held in Australia, under the auspices of Supreme Council of Time Lords but this ended when SCOT faded out. Since 1990 the Doctor Who Club of Australia has held a number of conventions under the banner of "Whovention". The first simply called "Whovention" was held in 1990 with Nicholas Courtney

Nicholas Courtney

as the main guest from the UK. These are held every two or three years and a number of the better known actors and writers from the Doctor Who series have appeared at these conventions as guests over the years, including Colin Baker

Colin Baker

Colin Baker is a British actor who is known for playing Paul Merroney in The Brothers from 1974 to 1976 and as the sixth incarnation of the Doctor in the long-running science fiction television series Doctor Who, from 1984 to 1986.- Background:Colin Baker was born in London, but moved north to...

, Sylvester McCoy

Sylvester McCoy

Sylvester McCoy is a Scottish actor. As a comic act and busker he appeared regularly on stage and on BBC Children's television in the 1970s and 80s, but is best known for playing the seventh incarnation of the Doctor in the long-running science fiction television series Doctor Who from 1987 to...

, Janet Fielding

Janet Fielding

, Wendy Padbury

Wendy Padbury

Wendy Padbury is a British actress from Warwickshire, England. She is most famous for her involvement in various Doctor Who projects....

, Mary Tamm

Mary Tamm

Mary Tamm is an English actress. She is best known for being the first actress to play the character of Romana in the science fiction television series Doctor Who, opposite Tom Baker as the Doctor, from the 1978–1979 season known collectively as The Key to Time.-Early life:Mary Tamm was born in...

, Anneke Wills, Katy Manning, Deborah Watling, Fraser Hines, Nicola Bryant, Elisabeth Sladen

Elisabeth Sladen

Elisabeth Clara Heath-Sladen was an English actress best known for her role as Sarah Jane Smith in the British television series Doctor Who. She was a regular cast member from 1973 to 1976, alongside both Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker, and reprised the role many times in subsequent decades, both on...

and Rob Shearman. Recently in 2011 to celebrate the 21st anniversary of Whovention the DWCA held three separate one day conventions under the title of Whovention: Celebration; with Janet Fielding and Mark Strickson as guests at the first event and Sylvester McCoy as guest at the second and Louise Jameson at the third.

Australian contributions to Doctor Who

As stated at the opening, Australians have played significant roles in the creation of Doctor Who. For example, the first Doctor Who story to air, An Unearthly Child
An Unearthly Child
The serial that became An Unearthly Child was originally commissioned from writer Anthony Coburn in June 1963, when it was intended to run as the second Doctor Who serial. At this stage, it was planned that the series would open with a serial entitled The Giants, to be written by BBC staff...

, was written by Australian author Anthony Coburn

Anthony Coburn

. Another Australian writer for Doctor Who was Bill Strutton

Bill Strutton

Bill Strutton was a prolific British screenwriter who worked on some of the best-remembered 1960s television shows including Ivanhoe, The Saint, The Avengers, Riptide and Doctor Who. Born in Australia, Bill Strutton won a state scholarship to university at 14 but dropped out after two years to go...

who wrote The Web Planet

The Web Planet

The Web Planet is the fifth serial in the second season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 13 February 1965 to 20 March 1965...

.

Much of Doctor Who's signature music was created by Australian composers. The haunting, highly original and so iconic Doctor Who theme music

Doctor Who theme music

The Doctor Who theme is a piece of music composed by Ron Grainer and realised by Delia Derbyshire at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Created in 1963, it was one of the first electronic music signature tunes for television and after nearly five decades remains one of the most easily...

was written by Australian Ron Grainer

Ron Grainer

. This piece of electronic music

Electronic music

Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...

has been used for the opening and closing credits in various arrangements since 1963, and has become indelibly associated with the programme, being released on L.P. In 1981 the theme was even adapted into a "raunchy song" by an Australian "Bush Rock Band", the group "Bullamakanka", which in 1983 was re-released by BBC Records and used in the United States for the series' 20th anniversary.

Also significant for his major musical contribution is Australian composer Dudley Simpson

Dudley Simpson

who wrote the incidental music for a great number of stories in the 1960s and 1970s and retired back to Australia in the 1980s and he has appeared at a number of Australian Dr Who events. Composer Tristram Cary

Tristram Cary

Tristram Ogilvie Cary, OAM was a pioneering English-Australian composer.-Early life:Cary was born in Oxford, England, and educated at the Dragon School in Oxford and Westminster School in London. He was the son of a pianist and the novelist, Joyce Cary, author of Mister Johnson...

, who lived in Australia for many years until his death in April 2008, also wrote incidental music for several serials.

More visibly, many Australian actors and actresses have appeared on the programme, or British actors and technicians (etc.) have migrated there. These include the well known leading man Ray Barrett

Ray Barrett

Raymond Charles "Ray" Barrett was an Australian actor. He was one of the more popular leading men on British television in the 1960s, where he was best known for his appearances in The Troubleshooters . Back in Australia he was a leading man in many TV series over the years.-Biography:Barrett was...

who appeared as a murderer in The Rescue a very early First Doctor

First Doctor

The First Doctor is the initial incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by the actor William Hartnell from 1963 to 1966. Hartnell reprised the role in the tenth anniversary story The Three Doctors in 1973 - albeit in a...

story, actress Janet Fielding

Janet Fielding

who played the companion Tegan in the early 1980s, Dalek operators Bob Jewell and Kevin Manser, globally famous Singer/Actress Kylie Minogue

Kylie Minogue

Kylie Ann Minogue, OBE - often known simply as Kylie - is an Australian singer, recording artist, songwriter, and actress. After beginning her career as a child actress on Australian television, she achieved recognition through her role in the television soap opera Neighbours, before commencing...

, Australian horse trainer

Horse trainer

In horse racing, a trainer prepares a horse for races, with responsibility for exercising it, getting it race-ready and determining which races it should enter...

and former actress Gai Waterhouse

Gai Waterhouse

Gai Waterhouse is a Scottish-born, Australian resident horse trainer, businesswoman and a former actress-Career:...

, and the very well known long-term Science broadcaster Robyn Williams

Robyn Williams

Robyn Williams AM is a science journalist and broadcaster resident in Australia who has hosted the Science Show on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation since 1975, Ockham's Razor and In Conversation .-Background:Robyn Williams was born in Buckinghamshire, England, and educated in Vienna and...

was once inside a Cyberman suit, Katy Manning

Katy Manning

(who played the companion Jo Grant

Jo Grant

Josephine "Jo" Grant is a fictional character played by Katy Manning in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...

) who resided in Australia for many years and became an Australian citizen, she is the patron of the DWCA.

Australian mime and actor Roslyn de Winter appeared in the first series as the Grey Lady in The Chase

The Chase (Doctor Who)

The Chase is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 22 May to 26 June 1965. The story is set on multiple locations including the Mary Celeste, the Empire State Building, and the planet Aridius...

and as the Menoptra Vrestin in The Web Planet

The Web Planet

. In the same story, she was credited with choreography (as "Insect Movement by"). At one time she worked in the office of the Melbourne Theatre Company. Also appearing in Web Planet as Nemini was Barbra Joss who lives in Sydney, she has written a book "My Left Breast" based on her battle with breast cancer. Melbourne Theatre Company actor Bob Hornery

Bob Hornery

Bob Hornery is an Australian actor.As well as other stage roles, Bob Hornery appeared in the stage production of "The Importance of Being Earnest" as the "Rev. Canon Chasuble"...

appeared as a pilot in Tom Baker story The Horns of Nimon

The Horns of Nimon

-Outside references:The plot of this serial incorporates aspects of the story of Theseus and the Minotaur - a fact the Doctor comments on at the end of the last episode...

.

Dolore Whiteman played Aunt Vanessa in Logopolis

Logopolis

Logopolis is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 28 February to 21 March 1981. It was Tom Baker's last story as the Doctor and marks the first appearance of Peter Davison in the role...

, originally it has been planned for Jeannie Little to play the role but she could not get the equivalent of a "Green card". Dolore's daughter played one of the Lorrells in Delta and the Bannermen
Delta and the Bannermen
-Preproduction:*This was the first three-part story since Planet of Giants , not counting the 3 x 45 minute episodes of The Two Doctors, which had been broadcast two years previously, and the first intended to be this length....

.

Others to have worked/appeared on the show are:

Viktors Ritellis (AFM for The Crusade
The Crusade (Doctor Who)
The Crusade is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from March 27 to April 17, 1965. The story is set in Palestine, near Jerusalem, during the Third Crusade.-Plot:...

)
Bruce Wightman (William de Tornebu in The Crusade, Scott in The Daleks' Master Plan
The Daleks' Master Plan
The Daleks' Master Plan is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The twelve episodes were aired from 13 November 1965 to 29 January 1966...

and a Radio Operator in Terror of the Zygons
Terror of the Zygons
Terror of the Zygons is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 30 August to 20 September 1975...

)
John Maxim
John Maxim
John Maxim , sometimes credited as John Wills, was an English film and television actor.-Career:...

(Frankenstein's monster
Frankenstein's monster
Frankenstein's monster is a fictional character that first appeared in Mary Shelley's novel, Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus. The creature is often erroneously referred to as "Frankenstein", but in the novel the creature has no name...

in The Chase
The Chase (Doctor Who)
The Chase is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 22 May to 26 June 1965. The story is set on multiple locations including the Mary Celeste, the Empire State Building, and the planet Aridius...

and a Cyberman in The Moonbase
The Moonbase
The Moonbase is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 11 February to 4 March 1967...

, the latter credit as John Wills)
Lyn Ashley
Lyn Ashley
Lyn Ashley is an Australian actress who worked in the United Kingdom on television during the 1960s.Her credits include: Danger Man, Compact, Doctor Who , The Saint and Monty Python's Flying Circus....

(a Drahvin in Galaxy 4
Galaxy 4
Galaxy 4 is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 11 September to 2 October 1965.-Plot:...

), former wife of Eric Idle
Eric Idle
Eric Idle is an English comedian, actor, author, singer, writer, and comedic composer. He was as a member of the British comedy group Monty Python, a member of the The Rutles on Saturday Night Live and author of the play, Spamalot....
William Emms
William Emms
William Emms wrote the Doctor Who serial Galaxy 4 in 1965 and also adapted the script for a Target novelisation. Later scripts for the programme from the 1960s to the 1980s were not commissioned...

(writer of Galaxy 4)
Alan White (Schultz in The Tenth Planet
The Tenth Planet
The Tenth Planet is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 8 October to 29 October 1966. It was William Hartnell's last regular appearance as the First Doctor, and the first story to feature the Cybermen...

)
Pamela Ann Davy
Pamela Ann Davy
Pamela Ann Davy is an Australian actress, who was born in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia and is best known for her roles on British television during the 1960s...

(Janley in The Power of the Daleks
The Power of the Daleks
The Power of the Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 5 November to 10 December 1966. It is Patrick Troughton's first full story as the Doctor.-Plot:...

)
Ron Pinnell (a Scientist in The Moonbase)
Bill Kerr
Bill Kerr
William 'Bill' Kerr is an Australian film and television actor. He was born into a performing arts family in Cape Town, South Africa, but grew up in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, Australia....

(Giles Kent in The Enemy of the World
The Enemy of the World
The Enemy of the World is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in six weekly parts from 23 December 1967 to 27 January 1968...

, a serial set in Australia)
David Nettheim
David Nettheim
David Cosman Nettheim was an Australian actor.Born in Sydney, and brought up in Cremorne Point the eldest son of actor Roy Nettheim and the actress Mary Hosking, he was introduced to the theatre when his parents joined Doris Fitton's Independent Theatre.He...

(Fedorin in The Enemy of the World)
Reg Lye (Griffin in The Enemy of the World)
Dibbs Mather (Guard in Caravan in The Enemy of the World)
Gordon Stothard (a Yeti in The Web of Fear
The Web of Fear
The Web of Fear is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 3 February to 9 March 1968. This serial — which marks the return of the Yeti, the Great Intelligence, and Professor Travers — is the sequel to The Abominable...

and a Cyberman in The Wheel in Space
The Wheel in Space
The Wheel in Space is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in six weekly parts from 27 April to 1 June 1968...

)
Lennie Mayne
Lennie Mayne
Lennie Mayne was an Australian television director, who started out as a dancer before becoming a choreographer and then spent much of his career working in British television....

(director of four serials between 1972 and 1976)
Norman Atkyns (the Guardian in Colony in Space
Colony in Space
Colony in Space is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in 6 weekly parts from April 10 to May 15, 1971.- Synopsis :...

and Rear Admiral in The Sea Devils
The Sea Devils
The Sea Devils is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from February 26 to April 1, 1972.-Synopsis:...

)
Sarah Kemp
Sarah Kemp
Sarah Kemp is an actress best known for starring in the Australian soap opera Sons and Daughters, playing the highly popular but rather dizzy character, Charlie Bartlett, from 1982 to 1987....

, a.k.a. Gypsie Kemp (UNIT Radio Operator in Day of the Daleks
Day of the Daleks
Day of the Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 1 January to 22 January 1972.-Synopsis:...

)
Damon Sanders (a Skybase Guard in The Mutants
The Mutants
The Mutants is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 8 April to 13 May 1972....

)
Kevin Lindsay
Kevin Lindsay
Kevin Lindsay was an Australian actor, based in Britain, best known for his appearances in Doctor Who serials....

(Linx in The Time Warrior
The Time Warrior
The Time Warrior is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from December 15, 1973 to January 5, 1974. This serial introduced Elisabeth Sladen as new companion Sarah Jane Smith. It also marked the debut of the Sontarans...

, Cho-je in Planet of the Spiders
Planet of the Spiders
Planet of the Spiders is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from May 4 to June 8, 1974. It was Jon Pertwee's last serial as the Doctor and marks the first, uncredited appearance of Tom Baker in the role. It also marks...

and Styre/The Marshal in The Sontaran Experiment
The Sontaran Experiment
The Sontaran Experiment is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was originally broadcast in two weekly parts on 22 February and 1 March 1975.-Synopsis:...

)
John Gregg (Lycett in The Ark in Space
The Ark in Space
The Ark in Space is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 25 January to 15 February 1975.-Plot:The TARDIS materialises in a darkened room on board the station...

)
Edmund Pegge
Edmund Pegge
Edmund Pegge is an Australian actor, who has worked in both Australia and the United Kingdom.His television credits include: Division 4, Matlock Police, Moonbase 3, Doctor Who , Secret Army, Return of the Saint, Codename Icarus, Bird of Prey, Tenko, The Day of the Triffids, One by One, Howards' Way,...

(Meeker in The Invisible Enemy)
Adrienne Burgess
Adrienne Burgess
Adrienne Burgess is a British actress, mainly seen on television.Her credits include: Doctor Who , Blake's 7, Terry and June, Just Good Friends Dickens of London and The Bill....

(Veet in The Sun Makers
The Sun Makers
-Cast notes:*Michael Keating also appeared in the audio play The Twilight Kingdom as Major Koth and in Year of the Pig as Inspector Chardalot...

)
Lewis Fiander
Lewis Fiander
- Biography :Fiander was born in Melbourne and educated at Trinity Grammar School, Kew, the son of Mona Jane and Walter Lewis Fiander. Moving to the UK from his native Australia, initially to appear in the play "The One Day of the Year", he appeared in such films as Dr. Phibes Rises Again, Dr....

(Tryst in Nightmare of Eden
Nightmare of Eden
Nightmare of Eden is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 24 November to 15 December 1979.-Synopsis:...

)
Peter Dahlsen (Horton in Time-Flight
Time-Flight
Time-Flight is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four twice-weekly parts from 22 March to 30 March 1982...

)
Sue Wills (as a Production Secretary for Galaxy Four and The Invasion).
Adam Garcia
Adam Garcia
Adam Garcia is an Australian actor and tap dancer of partial Colombian descent .-Career:...

(Alex in The Christmas Invasion
The Christmas Invasion
"The Christmas Invasion" is a 60-minute special episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It is Christmas, but there is little cause for celebration as planet Earth is invaded by aliens known as the Sycorax...

)

Sundry technical staff have tended to migrate from the BBC to the ABC and vice versa, and they have had various roles in the series from time to time.

External links

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