Morocco
MOROCCO is in North Africa, to the west of Algeria, at the mouth of the Mediterranean Sea.
Profile
| Country Number (26) | 1968 | FIRST WAVE |
| Region | Africa | |
| Television commenced | March 1954 | |
| Colour System | 1972 | SECAM |
| Population | 1966 | 12.5 million |
| TV Sets | 1966 | 26,000 |
| Language/s | Arabic and French | Dubbed |
Television Stations / Channels
Morocco began its television service in March 1954. It was the first country in North Africa to establish a television service. The privately-owned station went bankrupt and stopped broadcasting in 1955. It was bought by the Moroccan government in 1960, becoming Radiodiffusion Télévision Marocaine (RTM) in January 1962 when transmissions recommenced.
The television service was only for four hours per day (a third of which was in French), reaching mostly only the large cities in the north.
Colour transmissions began in 1972 using the French SECAM colour broadcast system, although less than 3% of licence receivers were colour sets!
Television transmissions could also be received from Gibraltar.
Language/s
The principal languages of Morocco are Arabic and French. Television was broadcast in both languages.
DOCTOR WHO IN MOROCCO
الدكتور هو
Morocco was the 26th country to screen Al-Doctor Who; it was the second to broadcast the Arabic language versions (see Selling Doctor Who).
BBC Records
The Seventies records a sale of "(3)" stories by 28 February 1977. The Handbook, however, identifies 5: C, E, G, J and K.
In DWM, Morocco is named for a slightly different set of five story Archives: E, G, J, K and L, and dates than as being 1968.
In mid-1970, while his first season was airing on TV in the UK, Jon Pertwee went to Morocco on holiday. Speaking with reporters on his return to the UK, he recalled an incident in which he was stopped by a Moroccan policeman, who waived him on, having recognised him as "Docteur Who". (This anecdote first appeared in the 2-8 January 1971 issue of the Radio Times; is repeated in the 1972 edition of The Making of Doctor Who (page 1); Peter Haining's book The Key to Time (page 102); and Pertwee's biography, I am the Doctor (but minus the policeman!, page 41). But it's clear that Pertwee was elaborating on this story somewhat, as his episodes never aired in Morocco; certainly not in 1970 - nor since! If there was any truth to the tale, then the policeman must have known who Pertwee was by some other means.
Stories bought and broadcast
WILLIAM HARTNELL
Nine stories, 37 episodes:
| 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 |
Morocco therefore bought the standard Arabic package of GROUP A, B and C of the William Hartnell stories; like most other Arabic countries, only part one of An Unearthly Child aired.
The programme was supplied as 16mm black and white film prints with Arabic soundtracks.
Origin of the Prints?
Tunisia was the previous Arabic speaking country in Africa to screen the series – a year earlier - so it’s possible that Morocco was sent the same set of prints shortly after transmission in Tunisia.
Transmission
TV listings
We have checked a number of newspapers (in French) from Casablanca, but few of them contained detailed or regular TV listings; what few listings they did have only gave the type of programme (e.g. "serial"; "documentary"; "film") rather than by title. Le Petit Marocain was missing the run of issues for July to December 1968; if the series aired more than once a week, then all 37 episodes could certainly have aired during this six month period.
During the likely dates when Doctor Who could have aired, there was a TV listing in the Petit Marocain that said "Télé-feuilleton en arabe", which means "television serial in Arabic", which may very well have been Doctor Who.
In the BROADWCAST FORUM, "Duncan of Rassilon", who lived in Gibraltar in the late 1970s, says "after my first exposure to Tom Baker Who - so we must be talking between late 1978 and the start of 1980 - I was flicking through Moroccan TV and discovered Hartnell episodes dubbed into Arabic (sadly all I can recall is scenes inside the Tardis), and that marked by realisation that there was more to this show than I'd realised".
This suggests that the Hartnell episodes may actually have aired much later than 1968, unless what "Duncan" recalls seeing were in fact repeats.
We are investigating this further...
Fate of the Prints
The next Arabic country to air Doctor Who in mid-1968 was Saudi Arabia. It is therefore possible that Morocco sent its prints of the Arabic dubbed Hartnell stories to Saudi Arabia.
The DVD release for The Aztecs has an alternative language option for part four; this Arabic soundtrack apparently came from a film print that was recovered from Morocco. If that were the case, then Saudi Arabia's prints may have come from elsewhere...
(A partial translation of that soundtrack can be read on the ARABIC page.)
Morocco in Doctor Who
- In The Time Monster, Stuart Hyde produces an empty bottle of "Moroccan burgundy" to help the Doctor with his time-jamming experiment.
- In Planet of Fire, Peri is planning to join two English friends in Morocco.
