Belgium

Doctor Who did not air on any local terrestrial stations in BELGIUM, but it was available through other means.

DALEK MOVIES

PETER CUSHING

As far as we can tell, only the second of the two Peter Cushing Dalek movies was shown in cinemas in Belgium in the late 1960s, under the usual French title "Les Daleks Envahissent la Terre".

The poster below was printed in Belgium, and also displays a title in Dutch - "De Daleks Veroveren de Aarde". The official languages of Belgium are French, Dutch and German, so this version of the film would have been dubbed into French with added Dutch subtitles.

(While it's possible this edition also screened in the other Benelux countries - Luxembourg and the Netherlands - we could find no evidence of this; it would appear that film didn't reach Dutch cinemas until the mid-1970s, and under a different title...)

The first film later appeared on the Netherland's Sci-Fi channel (launched in May 2007, previously Sci-Fi Benelux, and which was also available in Belgium) on Tuesday, 16 September 2008 (at 10.20pm) and again on Sunday, 21 September 2008 (11.50pm). Also released in Belgium was the 1967 US/Japan feature "King Kong Escapes". The film was dubbed into French and was also available with Dutch subtitles. It was re-released in the 1970s, this time with Flemish subtitles.

For this edition, the film was given the alternative title "King Kong Contre Dr Who" (French) / "King Kong Tegen Dr Who" (Flemish). (The principal villain of the piece was called "Dr Who" -- see our Japan profile page for more information about this character.)

• King Kong Poster Gallery

Poster with French and Dutch titles

1970s Belgian poster for "King Kong Escapes"

TV Series

Under the right atmospheric conditions, and with specially modified aerials, some viewers on the coast could tune in to transmissions directly from the BBC propagating across the English Channel.

In 1975 and 1976, and again in 1985 and 1986, viewers could see the programme on cable or terrestrial transmissions from the Netherlands.

From the late 1980s, residents in Belgium may have been able to view the British Forces channel BFBS / SSVC via the antenna array network from the Netherlands.

BBC1 became officially available on the Belgium subscriber cable network 'Intergem' from October 1983 (with BBC2 added months later), so Doctor Who would have been seen from season 21 on-wards. (And by 1984 (if not earlier) BBC1 and BBC2 may have both been available "live" via satellite.)

From 24 March 1987, Doctor Who was available via the UK satellite station Super Channel.

Netherlands channel TROS could be viewed in Belgium - the listing here is for Robot ep1 on 28 July 1975; Belgian newspaper, De Voorpost

French station TF1 could be seen in Belgium - this listing shows the Saturday and Sunday morning airings on 22-23 April 1989; Belgian newspaper, De Voorpost

The series could also be viewed on cable or satellite from France (in 1989), and Germany (1989-1995), and on BBC Prime in the mid-1990s.

Merchandise

The eight paperback novelisations that were published in the Netherlands in 1976 were also released in Belgium; the books are pre-printed with the Belgian Franc price of Bfr.66.

Belgium in Doctor Who

• The Gatwick airport Commandant took a call from Brussels (The Faceless Ones)
• The Doctor says he has met Napoleon Bonaparte - perhaps on the eve of the battle of Waterloo (1815) (Day of the Daleks)
• Dr Cook mentions Brussels in The Time Monster
• The Doctor mentions Waterloo in The Sontaran Experiment
• The cities of Antwerp and Brussel [sic] are listed on the flight 'Arrivals and Departures' board at Schiphol Airport in Arc of Infinity
• The Doctor was with Puccini before he died (in Brussels) (TV Movie)