Korea (South)
From BroaDWcast
The REPUBLIC OF KOREA (aka South Korea) is located in Central Asia.
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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 |
| Population | 1987 | 40.4 million |
| TV Sets | 1987 | 10.1 million (incl 5 million colour) |
| 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), broadcasting 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.
Doctor Who also aired on the AMERICAN FORCES KOREA NETWORK (established in South Korea in 1957); the series was part of the line-up on the AFKN Nickelodeon channel, which operated in Seoul (on cable channel 2); Pusan (ch 2); Taegu (ch 12); Taejon (ch 12); Kwangju (ch 13) and Wonju (ch 2).
All programming on AFKN was in English.
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 five stories were sold to "Korea", but with some subsequently "cancelled":
- 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 American Forces channel, the "sale" to that broadcaster would be recorded as a sale to the United States. Therefore, these "(4)" probably apply to the 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. The stories were broadcast with Korean subtitles.
The tapes may have been bicycled in from Guam or the Philippines.
TOM BAKER
37 stories?, equivalent of 156 episodes?:
We can determine that at least these 16 stories did screen:
The following stories are assumed:
The programme would have been supplied on NTSC colour video tape in English.
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 aired, rather than to the start-time of the series itself.)
The programme was in black and white with Korean subtitles.
TOM BAKER
Doctor Who screened in omnibus movie format on Saturday mornings, on the Nickelodeon cable channel on AFKN-TV.
The first clear listing for Doctor Who is on 5 April 1986, with a timeslot of 9.45am to 12.00 given for the 6-parter, Genesis of the Daleks. However, all subsequent listings are for 10.20am to 12.00, even for The Seeds of Doom, which is also a 6-parter.
The last clear listing for Doctor Who is on 28 June 1986, with The Robots of Death. All subsequent listings just say Nickelodeon, with the same 10.20 to 12.00 timeslot, so we can only assume that Doctor Who continued airing, and stopped from 29 November, when the billings for "Nickelodeon" stop.
As noted above, The Eighties records a sale of only "(4)" stories, which is clearly inaccurate; there are 37 airdates, which potentially takes the run of stories up to mid-way into Season 18...
Alternatively, some of the 16 identified stories could have been repeated.
There is no clear record that South Korea screened classic Doctor Who again.
TV listings
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← AIRDATES ...... (CLICK ICON TO GO TO TABLE SHOWING EPISODE BREAKDOWN AND AIRDATES) |
1977 – 78
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". 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.
1986
The Korea Times, however did contain some listings for the Tom Baker stories in 1986.
The first listing with the 10.20m to 12.00 timeslot headed "Nickelodeon", was on 15 March 1986. Three weeks later, on 5 April, the first billing specifically identifying "Nickelodeon: Dr Who" appears – for Genesis of the Daleks - which supports that the series did indeed start on 15 March.
Listings are inconsistent: they either say "Nickelodeon: Dr Who" with the story title, or they just say "Nickelodeon", albeit with the same timeslot. And for three listings in September and October there are no TV listings for programmes prior to noon.
On 24 May and 31 May 1986, a printing error places both The Android Invasion and The Seeds of Doom in the same listing.
The last "Nickelodeon: Dr Who" listing is on 22 November 1986. Assuming Doctor Who aired on the dates with no listing, then a total of 37 "movies" aired. It is impossible to determine what the other stories to air could have been, but if we assume that there were no repeats, and no stories were skipped, then the final story may have been Full Circle.
