Mauritius

MAURITIUS is a small island located off the east cost of Africa. It is a French colony, but is a member of the British Commonwealth.

Population

When Doctor Who screened in Mauritius in 1966, the population was 750,000, and licensed TV sets numbered only 4,000 (per WRTH, 1966).

TV & system

Mauritius began its television service in 1964.

There is just one television station: Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation, a government-owned commercial broadcaster.

Colour transmissions began in 1973 using the SECAM colour broadcast system.

Language/s

The main languages of Mauritius are French and English. Television broadcasts were in both or either language (possibly supported by subtitles).

DOCTOR WHO IN MAURITIUS

Mauritius was the 21st country to screen Doctor Who (see Selling Doctor Who).

BBC Records

The Seventies records a sale of 15 stories by 28 February 1977. The Handbook identifies these as being: A, C, D, E, F, G, H, J, L, M, N, P, Q, R, S.

In DWM, Mauritius is identified in 16 story Archives: the same as above, but omitting A, and adding B.

It's clear from the listings that a combination of both publications gives an accurate record: however, as the listings show, R did not air.

Kenya was the previous African country to screen the series; since both countries were serviced by the programme distributor Television International Enterprises Limited (see WRTH), it’s possible that Mauritius was supplied with some of the same set of prints that had aired in Kenya.

Stories bought and broadcast

WILLIAM HARTNELL

Sixteen stories, 75 episodes (but note the out of order sequencing of two stories):

A	An Unearthly Child	4
B	The Daleks	7
C	Inside the Spaceship	2
D	Marco Polo	7
E	The Keys of Marinus	6
G	The Sensorites	6
H	The Reign of Terror	6
F	The Aztecs	4
K	The Dalek Invasion of Earth	6
L	The Rescue	2
M	The Romans	4
N	The Web Planet	6
J	Planet of Giants	3
P	The Crusade	4
Q	The Space Museum	4
S	The Time Meddler	4

Mauritius therefore bought GROUP A, B and C (bar one story) of the standard package of William Hartnell stories, although some played out of order.

Although The Chase is recorded as being sold to Mauritius, the fact that it is absent from the listing indicates it wasn't actually broadcast. The fact that Mauritius screened Doctor Who during 1966 and 1967, which was when the BBC had placed a moratorium on the sale of Dalek stories, might explain why The Chase was absent from the schedule.

The programme was supplied as 16mm black and white film prints with English soundtracks.

Transmission

WILLIAM HARTNELL

The series started on Friday, 21 October 1966, at 6.33pm. It completed its run 82 weeks later, on 29 March 1968. Episode five of The Keys of Marinus is listed twice: 7 and 14 April, indicating it was pre-empted.

Both The Aztecs and Planet of Giants screened out of sequence, per the table above.

The timeslots ranged from 6.25pm to 6.33pm.

There is no record that Mauritius screened Doctor Who again, even after the switch to colour in 1973.

TV listings

TV listings have been obtained from the French newspaper Le Mauricien.

The first episode was billed as "Nouvelle serie de science fiction avec Dr Who, sa petite fille Susan et ses deux élèves: Ian Chesterton et Barbara Wright", which translates as "New science fiction series with Dr Who, his granddaughter Susan, and her two pupils, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright" (in which case they mistook the actual relationship between Susan, Ian and Barbara!)

The listings sometimes capitalise part of the title as "Doctor WHO". Episode titles were always given in English. Some of titles given were incorrect, such as part two of Inside the Spaceship printed as "The Bunk of Disaster"; part one of Marco Polo was "The Side of the World", part three was "Five Hundred Edges", and part five was "Rider from Shan"; episode two of [[The Reign of Terror" was shortened to just "Paris".

For an 18 week period, the listings from 21 July to 17 November were out of sync by two weeks with what should have been airing that week, an 'error' that corresponds with when the stories began to screen out of order. The listings errors are either printing/administration mistakes, or they do indeed reflect the actual screening order, which does mean two episodes aired twice, and two didn't screen at all! With part two of The Web Planet, the listings fell back into sync with what should have been on screen.

Interestingly, one of the listings for The Romans gives the full title as: "Dr Who and the Romans: The Conspiracy", while "Dr Who and the Crusade" is used with three of the listings for that story. "Doctor Who and the Space Museum" is also named in full three times.

Fate of the Prints

The next TIE Ltd serviced country to air Doctor Who was Sierra Leone, from April 1967, so it's possible that Mauritius sent its prints of the Hartnell stories to Sierra Leone.

Mauritius in Doctor Who

• The first Doctor travelled with Dodo (Dorothea Chaplette); the now extinct dodo bird was indigenous to Mauritius.

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