Nicaragua
Nicaragua is part of on the Central American isthmus, between Honduras and Coast Rica.
Profile
| Country Number (N/K) | 1980 | SECOND WAVE |
| Region | Central America | |
| Television commenced | 1956 | |
| Colour System | 1973 | NTSC |
| Population | 1980 | 2,250,000 |
| TV Sets | 1980 | 100,000 |
| Language/s | Spanish |
Television Stations / Channels
Nicaragua began its television service in 1956. There were two television stations, Channel 2 and Channel 6, both privately-owned.
After the July 1979 revolution, both channels became part of the state-owned television service, The Sandinista Television System (SSTV).
Doctor Who – or, as it was known in Latin America, El Dr Misterio – aired on Channel 2.
Spanish is the official language of Nicaragua. Most foreign television programmes were dubbed into Spanish.
DOCTOR WHO IN NICARAGUA
Nicaragua was about the 53rd country to screen Doctor Who, and the fourth in Category:Central America (see Selling Doctor Who).
BBC Records
The Eighties - THE LOST CHAPTERS records a sale of "(24)" stories (by 10 February 1987), which could be an error, as the same number was assigned also to Guatemala and Honduras.
Nicaragua is not identified in any of the DWM story Archives.
Stories bought and broadcast
TOM BAKER
Presumably 23 stories, 98 episodes:
| 4A | Robot | 4 |
| 4B | The Sontaran Experiment | 2 |
| 4C | The Ark in Space | 4 |
| 4D | Revenge of the Cybermen | 4 |
| 4E | Genesis of the Daleks | 6 |
| 4F | Terror of the Zygons | 4 |
| 4G | Pyramids of Mars | 4 |
| 4H | Planet of Evil | 4 |
| 4J | The Android Invasion | 4 |
| 4K | The Brain of Morbius | 4 |
| 4L | The Seeds of Doom | 6 |
| 4M | The Masque of Mandragora | 4 |
| 4N | The Hand of Fear | 4 |
| 4P | The Deadly Assassin | 4 |
| 4Q | The Face of Evil | 4 |
| 4R | The Robots of Death | 4 |
| 4S | The Talons of Weng-Chiang | 6 |
| 4V | Horror of Fang Rock | 4 |
| 4T | The Invisible Enemy | 4 |
| 4X | Image of the Fendahl | 4 |
| 4W | The Sun Makers | 4 |
| 4Y | Underworld | 4 |
| 4Z | The Invasion of Time | 6 |
Nicaragua therefore bought GROUPs A to D of the standard package of Tom Baker stories in Spanish that were distributed by Time-Life.
Origin of the Prints?
Mexico, Chile, and Costa Rica had all been screening Tom Baker stories around this time.
Transmission
TOM BAKER
The series started on Wednesday, 6 August 1980, at 6.00, but only for four weeks!
Unusually for a Spanish language nation, this brief run was called "Dr Who" in the listings. (It is possible that the series started earlier than August; not all TV listings prior to 1 July were available.)
On Monday, 3 November 1980, the series returned – now billed as as "Dr Misterio". The timeslot was 6.00pm. Another episode aired on the Friday, 7 November, at the earlier time of 5.30pm. This twice per week schedule continued for nine weeks. From 2 January 1981, the Friday timeslot changed to 6.00pm.
From the week starting 5 January 1981, the series aired three times a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, at 6.00pm on all three days.
This three episodes-per-weeks cycle continued until the week of 29 June 1981, when a fourth airdate was added, Thursdays at 6.00pm. The following week, Tuesday was added to the schedule, meaning the series was screening five days week.
Coincidentally (?), the change to a five-nights-a-week schedule commenced the week after the 98th episode had aired – 98 being the number of episodes in the Baker package.
74 episodes played uninterrupted until 13 October, when the series took a break for one day to allow for a documentary to screen that Tuesday night (6.00 to 8.00pm). A further 37 episodes then aired, with another break on Friday, 4 December, on which a movie aired 5.30 to 7.30pm. If our episode counts are correct, both of these breaks occurred part-way through a story...
Another 19 episodes screened, after which the run came to an end, on Thursday, 31 December 1981, after fourteen months non-stop bar two days! 228 episodes had been aired since the series debuted in August 1980. (If our episode count is correct, the 31 December episode was Planet of Evil part four.)
Two months later, nine more episodes played, from 2 March 1982, until 27 April 1982, but now only once a week, on Tuesdays, at 6.00pm. We checked to the end of 1982 and random dates in 1983, but there were no further episodes. The fact that this last run consisted of only nine episodes is difficult to reconcile. (Our episode count would make The Brain of Morbius the last full story to air.)
Was the ninth and last scheduled episode pre-empted? Or did further episodes screen without being billed? (The 4 May replacement at 6.00pm was "Nuestro Planeta" (New Planet).)
There are 237 airdates accounted for between 6 August 1980 and 27 April 1982. On the assumption that the package consisted only of the Tom Baker 23 stories / 98 episodes (and not 24 as noted in The Eighties), all episodes must have aired at least twice (196) with a further 41 for a third time.
TV listings
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← AIRDATES ...... (CLICK ICON TO GO TO TABLE SHOWING EPISODE BREAKDOWN AND AIRDATES - N/S = story title is Not Stated) |
TV listings have been obtained from the newspaper El Nuevo Diario and La Prensa.
TV listings didn't start to appear until 1 July 1980 - so it is possible that Dr Who / Dr Misterio commenced earlier than its first appearance on 6 August 1980...
The first four episodes were billed as "Dr Who". For all others it was "Dr Misterio". From 17 August 1981, it was usually given as "Dr Misterio (color)".
None of the listings gave story tiles, so our Airdates table is mostly Not Stated (N/S).
