in Australia

Doctor Who first aired in Australia in January 1965. This made Australia the third country to show Doctor Who (after the U.K. and New Zealand). Since then every episode of Doctor Who has been aired, with the exception of Mission to the Unknown (aka Dalek Cutaway), The Dalek Masterplan and episode one of Invasion of the Dinosaurs.

Doctor Who has always aired on ABC TV (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). The time it was shown has varied, from it's heyday in the early 1980's, when it was shown at 6:30pm weeknights (right after The Goodies), to 4:00am weekdays in the early 1990's. The Doctor Who TV movie fared quite well, first being shown at 8:30pm on Sunday 7th July, 1996, and then repeated at 8:30pm on Wednesday 15th January 1997. The program has often suffered quite badly from over zealous censorship in Australia. Many stories from the Pertwee era were not broadcast until the mid-1980s. Other stories were quite badly edited, the most notable example being The Caves of Androzani. In particular, episode four had the entire confrontation between Trau Morgus and Sharez Jek cut.

Despite the treatment of Doctor Who by the censors, Australia has probably faired better than any other country apart from the U.K. In fact, the TV Movie was censored in the U.K. both for transmission and for it's video release. In Australia neither was cut, so in that instance we did better than the U.K. Now all we have to do is wait and hope that more new Doctor Who is produced...

Last modified: January 21, 1997

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