Arabic

Al-Doctor Who

To the Arabic speaking countries, the series was known as Al-Doctor Who. Al is Arabic for The, the definite article; curiously the name Who is used and spoken as per the English pronunciation rather than being translated into the Arabic equivalent for the word "Who".

In Arabic script (read from right to left), the programme title is written:

Al-Doctor Who

WILLIAM HARTNELL (ادكتورهو)

Egyptian actors living in London were used by the BBC for the dubbing of radio plays into Arabic for consumption in the Middle East. For television programmes, the BBC used the services of an external company, Ettehaad el Fanny - which translates into English as The Art Union, Artistic Union or The Union of Art.

Only nine of the first eleven William Hartnell stories (37 episodes) were dubbed into Arabic:

ادكتورهو

A	An Unearthly Child	1
B	The Daleks	7
C	Inside the Spaceship	2
E	The Keys of Marinus	6
F	The Aztecs	4
G	The Sensorites	6
J	Planet of Giants	3
K	The Dalek Invasion of Earth	6
L	The Rescue	2

These nine serials in Arabic were sold to:

• Tunisia
• Morocco
• Saudi Arabia
• Jordan
• Libya
• Algeria

In these countries, only the first episode of An Unearthly Child was screened, making the total episodes seen 37. (The other three episodes of the first serial were dubbed, as BBC Enterprises held copies of all four instalments in that language in late 1976 – see below.)

For reasons not readily clear, two stories were not dubbed into Arabic: Marco Polo and The Reign of Terror. These two were also not dubbed into Spanish. It is possible that these historical serials were not made available to non-English speaking countries simply due to their subject matter being of little interest to Muslim nations.

There has been a long-held belief that The Crusade wasn't sold to Muslim countries because of its subject matter, and therefore some prints of the sixth episode of The Web Planet were re-edited so the NEXT EPISODE caption read THE SPACE MUSEUM rather than THE LION. However, none of the stories after The Rescue were dubbed into Arabic or sold to Muslim countries, so the change to the caption was done for other reasons (see The Web Planet page for a possible answer.)

BBC Archive Holdings

In late 1976, when the Lively Arts documentary Whose Doctor Who was being researched, the BBC still held at least the following Arabic prints:

A	An Unearthly Child	ALL
B	The Daleks	ALL
C	Inside the Spaceship	ALL
E	The Keys of Marinus	ALL
F	The Aztecs	ALL
G	The Sensorites	ALL
J	Planet of Giants	ALL
K	The Dalek Invasion of Earth	ALL
L	The Rescue	ALL

By late 1978, only the following were still held:

C	Inside the Spaceship	ALL
E	The Keys of Marinus	1
J	Planet of Giants	ALL
K	The Dalek Invasion of Earth	1,2,4,6
L	The Rescue	ALL

It is known that a couple of additional episodes with Arabic soundtracks exist in private hands, such as The Aztecs part four, which was used as a alternative language option on the DVD release of that story.

Extracts on DVD / video

• An Unearthly Child part 4 - a November 1973 edition of Blue Peter (available as an extra on The Three Doctors DVD) includes clips from part 4, although all the Arabic dialogue has been carefully edited out! (Is this because at the time anniversary tribute was compiled the BBC only had access to the Arabic positive print of this serial?) (This Arabic print was subsequently disposed of between 1973 and 1976.)
• Inside the Spaceship part 1 - a brief clip appears on the Nationwide interview extract on The Stones of Blood DVD release
• Inside the Spaceship part 2 - a brief clip appears on The Hartnell Years video
• Planet of Giants] part 1 – a brief clip appears in the 1983 US documentary "Once Upon of a Time Lord", made in conjunction with station KRMA in Denver
• The Dalek Invasion of Earth part 6 - two clips are included in the "Missing in Action" mini-documentary from 1993 that aired before a BBC repeat of Planet of the Daleks 3 (although the first clip is erroneously attributed to The Edge of Destruction!)

DVD Translations

The following is a translation of the narration that accompanies the opening and closing titles of the two Arabic soundtracks that feature as the alternative audio options on the DVDs for Inside the Spaceship part two, and The Aztecs episode four. For these foreign versions, some of the detail in the dialogue has been changed; for instance in the original English, the Doctor tells Ian that his Ulster was given to him by Gilbert and Sullivan whereas in the Arabic, the Doctor tells Ian that his coat was like one that Ferdinand de Lesseps - who built the Panama and Suez canals - used to wear.

Curiously, the narration spoken over the closing credits of The Aztecs part four appears to describe to viewers what they will be seeing in the next episode, and yet the plot description bears absolutely no resemblance whatsoever to The Sensorites; if anything, it sounds like it's describing a story concerning a convoy of cars and an ambush... Alternatively, the narration might be describing an adventure that occurred during the fade-to-black.

---

Inside the Spaceship (episode 2)

• OPENING TITLES:

NARRATOR: "Al-Doctor Who". This episode, Edge of Disaster, written by David Whitaker. Translated into Arabic and prepared by The Art Union.

• END OF EPISODE:

IAN: Does this coat suit me?

DOCTOR: Yes, it does suit you. Did you know that Ferdinand de Lesseps, the man who built the canals, wore a similar coat to this?

IAN: Really? No, I didn't know that. Shall we go out now?

DOCTOR: Yes, my pleasure.

SUSAN: Grandfather. Look. It's a footprint on the ground. It must be a monster!

NARRATOR: The ship has now landed on another planet. Wonder - what type of adventure they will face. The truth will be revealed in the next episode of the television series "Al-Doctor Who". The director of this episode is Frank Cox. Translated into Arabic and prepared by The Art Union.

---

The Aztecs (episode 4)

• OPENING TITLES

NARRATOR: "Al-Doctor Who". This episode: The Day of the Darkness. Written by John Lucarotti. Translated into Arabic by The Art Union.

• END OF EPISODE

IAN: What's going on, Doctor?

DOCTOR: This is very mysterious, my boy.

IAN: What's mysterious?

DOCTOR: It's the engines. These instruments indicate that we've stopped, but these controls show we are still moving.

IAN: Maybe we've stopped on top of something.

DOCTOR: Sure.

BARBARA: Or maybe inside something.

NARRATOR: The convoy moved away after the conspiracy and whoever was involved had been discovered. But Doctor Who has managed to discover at the right moment how to escape from the ambush that could have trapped them. The engines of Doctor Who's ship started and they went through time and space – but stopped very soon after. On what new planet and what new adventure will Doctor Who and his companions be experiencing this time? This is what you are going to see in the next episode of this thrilling series of Al-Doctor Who. Directed by John Crockett.

(With thanks to Fady and Rami for the translations.)

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JON PERTWEE (ادكتورهو)

Some (but certainly not all) of Jon Pertwee's stories screened in the following Arabic countries:

• United Arab Emirates (from 1973?)
• Lebanon (from April 1977)
• Saudi Arabia (from April 1977)
• Qatar (also 1977)

The Pertwee series apparently also screened in Kuwait, but this country is not named in any BBC records, nor have any broadcast airdates been found.

It is known that both Lebanon and Saudi Arabia broadcast the episodes in black and white. The other countries broadcast only the handful of PAL colour stories that existed in their entirety.

In the 1974 edition of the World Radio Television Handbook (WRTH), BBC Managing Director Huw Weldon mentions in a speech that he had seen "Dr Who in my own office in Arabic, and a curious experience it was". Given the April 1973 date of his address, it is very likely that he was referring to viewing dubs of Pertwee stories rather than Hartnell.

It is known that some Arabic countries broadcast in both English and Arabic simultaneously – with the English soundtrack broadcast over the radio.

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TOM BAKER (ادكتورهو)

Some (but certainly not all) of Tom Baker's stories were screened in the following countries:

• United Arab Emirates (from 1975?)
• Bahrain (1975 and 1981)
• Jordan (1981)

It is possible episodes also aired in Kuwait, but no broadcast details have been confirmed for that country.

All episodes that aired in these countries were in PAL colour.

The United Arab Emirates broadcast Tom Baker's first two seasons on the all Arabic-language station, Channel 10, and the rest on the English-only Channel 33. The Channel 10 broadcasts might also have had radio-simulcasts in English.

In his 1997 autobiography, Who on Earth is Tom Baker?, Baker makes the observation that he is popular in Abu Dhabi.

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