Peru
PERU is on the west of the South American continent. It shares a border with Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Brazil.
Profile
| Country Number (N/K) | 1980s? | SECOND WAVE |
| Region | South America | |
| Television commenced | 17 January 1958 | |
| Colour System | 1976 | NTSC |
| Language/s | Spanish | Dubbed |
Television Stations / Channels
Peru commenced its television service on 17 January 1958. The first was public broadcasting station Radio y Televisión Peruana (RTP) (Canal 7).
Colour transmissions (using the NTSC format) were introduced by Televisión del Estado in 1976, and on Canal 7 in 1978.
It was on Canal 7 that "Doctor Misterio" apparently aired. (The station is now known as TV Perú.)
Language/s
The principal language of Peru is Spanish.
DOCTOR WHO IN PERU
In Spanish-language countries, the series was known as Doctor Misterio.
BBC Records
Peru is not named in any of our regular BBC Records sources. It should probably have at least been named in the 1987 list, published in The Eighties, but like many other Latin American countries, is not:
- See also THE MYSTERY OF THE MISSING MISTERIOS
We became aware that the series may have screened in Peru from this BLOG, which says: “Yo he sido fan de Doctor Who, la clásica serie británica de ciencia ficción, desde que era niño, cuando la daban en Canal 7.“
- this translates as:
- “I’ve been a fan of Doctor Who, the classic British science fiction series, ever since I saw it as a kid on Canal 7.”
And "Anna", who later got in touch with us, remembers "national TV channel Canal 7 Peru aired Doctor Misterio back in the 80s, I remember seeing it when I was very little..."
However, we don't know how old Anna is now, so we can't work backwards to establish when she would have been a young child.
Stories bought and broadcast
Transmission
We have no definite information about what screened and when. Time-Life had actively promoted and sold the standard Tom Baker package of 23 stories / 98 episodes to Spanish-speaking countries in Central and South America from late 1978 onwards, soon after the Tom Baker series launch in the United States that year.
Most of the countries in those Latin American regions debuted the series in 1979, 1980 or 1981, or much later in 1987.
From the anecdotal evidence to hand, the series may have screened in Peru sometime in the early to mid 1980s.
One possibility is that TV signals from neighbouring countries could be received in parts of Peru, and "Anna" saw the Tom Baker stories that aired on one of those: of note, Colombia aired Doctor Misterio on its own Canal 7 in 1987. Could it have been that Canal 7 that "Anna" saw?
Chile's Channel 13 screened the Baker episodes from May 1979 to July 1980, but that would be too early to fit Anna's stated timeframe. Ecuador's Channel 10 also aired the series then, from March 1980 to March 1981.
Of note, Peru's Canal 7 did screen The Tomorrow People (called La Gente del Mañana) in the 1980s; is it possible that this is what Anna and the Blogger recall watching?
PAUL McGANN
The 1996 TV Movie was available in Peru via the HBO OLE cable station in 1999.
TV listings
The Peruvian newspaper, El Comercio, was checked for mid-1979 to the end of 1989, and despite there being very comprehensive TV listings for Canal 7 (as well as the other channels, 2, 4, 5 and 9) there was no sign of "Dr Misterio".
Peru in Doctor Who
- The Doctor says he has seen markings like Exxilon writing on a pyramid in Peru (Death to the Daleks)
