Taiwan
TAIWAN is an island off the east coast of China.
Profile
| Country Number (58?) | 1986 | THIRD WAVE |
| Region | Australasia/Asia | |
| Television commenced | 1962 | |
| Colour System | 1969 | NTSC |
| Population | 1987 | 19.4 million |
| TV Sets | 1987 | 6 million (incl. 5.3 million colour) |
| Language/s | Chinese (Mandarin) and English | (Subtitled into Traditional Chinese) |
Television Stations / Channels
Taiwan began its television service in 1962.
There are three major television broadcasters: Doctor Who aired on Taiwan Television Service (TTV).
Language/s
The principal language of Taiwan is Chinese Mandarin. Most programmes were broadcast in English with Traditional Chinese subtitles. Doctor Who aired in English with subtitles.
DOCTOR WHO IN TAIWAN
Taiwan was approximately the 58th country to screen the series, and one of the last countries in Australasia/Asia (see Selling Doctor Who).
Peter Cushing and the Daleks?
The Dalek films were shown in Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia in the late 1960s and early to mid-1970s, and possibly also in mainland China around that same time. It's therefore likely that one or both played in theatres in Taiwan as well; if so, they'd have been subtitled in Mandarin using Traditional Chinese text.
BBC Records
The Eighties - THE LOST CHAPTERS records a sale of "(6)" stories (by 10 February 1987). Only five serials have been accounted for.
Taiwan is not identified in any of the DWM Archives.
Stories bought and broadcast
TOM BAKER
Five (identified) stories, 20 (identified) episodes:
| ? | Unidentified 4 parter | 4 |
| 5P | State of Decay | 4 |
| 4D | Revenge of the Cybermen | 4 |
| 4E | Genesis of the Daleks (*) | 4 |
| ? | Unidentified 4 parter | 4 |
(*) It's possible the story that aired was actually Destiny of the Daleks
Taiwan therefore bought an assortment from GROUPs A and G of the Tom Baker stories.
The programme was supplied as NTSC colour video tapes with English soundtracks.
Transmission
TOM BAKER
Episodes were broadcast in English, with Chinese subtitles. (These would be in Mandarin.)
The series started on Monday, 18 August 1986, at 3.30pm. The listings merely state the programme was "in (English)". It is not known what the first 4-part serial was. The 8 September episode was pre-empted by a Variety Show.
The 20 October episode of the second serial was identified as being State of Decay Part IV. The following week, Revenge of the Cybermen commenced. On 24 November, Genesis of the Daleks started; this was advertised as being a four-parter. Was this a re-edit of the special two part (2 x 45 minutes) version that had been created by the BBC for the 1982 Doctor Who and the Monsters repeat? Or was it that they had ordered and purchased Genesis of the Daleks but were instead sent the 4-part Destiny of the Daleks?
The fifth serial screened eight months later, from Wednesday, 12 August 1987, with all episodes starting at 3.57pm: no title was given so it is not known what the four-parter was. The final episode aired on 2 September 1987.
As noted above, The Eighties stated that six serials had been sold to Taiwan by February 1987. Airdates for the sixth serial were not located. (Of course it's possible the 1987 memo was inaccurate.)
Taiwan Prints?
In 2013 and 2014, ten black and white film prints of Doctor Who were apparently located in Taiwan -- see the Taiwan Prints page for more info.
Merchandise
PAUL McGANN
The 1996 TV Movie was released as a rental VHS in Taiwan circa June 1997. Subtitled in Mandarin with Simplified Chinese text, it was distributed by King's Video with the new title "時空 怪客".
A literal translation of that is "Time Space Oddity/Strange Guest/Visitor", which could be reinterpreted as "Strange Visitor from Time and Space".
The white text across the top are the names Paul McGann and Eric Roberts. The white text in the middle – "他回来了，而且来得正是时刻！" – is the equivalent of the usual "He's Back - And It's About Time!" declaration, while the text along the bottom – "时间是1999年12月31日，这个世界能安全地继续向21世纪前进吗？" – translates as "The date is 1999 December 31. Can the world safely enter the 21st Century?"
Books
A set of seven Target books reprinted in 2016 (the ones with the white covers and spines) was distributed through Dunhuang Publishing House / Caves Books in Taipei; the company was a specialist publisher, importing books to help readers learn English:
TV listings
 |
← 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 China News, an English-language newspaper. The paper says that Doctor Who is broadcast "in English, with Chinese subtitles". (These would be in Mandarin.)
The paper carried basic listings in the main daily page. For the first seven episodes, the listing usually just said "Dr Who" or "Film: Dr Who (English)" or similar variants. It wasn't until the eighth episode that a title was given: State of Decay. Unusually, the episode numbers were always identified in Roman numerals – Part I, II, III, IV.
The newspaper also sometimes had a "TV Highlights" section, in which story titles and/or brief synopses were often given. There was no Highlights section to identify the four 1987 episodes.
Papers for most of 1982, 1983, 1984, and all of 1985 to 1987 were checked; December 1987 to March 1988 were not available, so it's possible that the unaccounted for sixth serial aired on its own during the date ranges that could not be checked.
