Spanish

EL DOCTOR MISTERIO

To Latin American audiences, Doctor Who is commonly known as El Dr / Doctor Misterio (Dr Mystery) (El is Spanish for "The", the definitive article.)

In newspapers, the programme was billed as Dr Who, El Doctor / Dr Misterio or just Doctor / Dr Misterio.

According to the 1983 Radio Times 20th Anniversary Special, some Latin American countries knew the series as "Dr Insolito", but we have found no evidence of the series having ever been called that in Spanish-language countries. However, see the foot of this page for how that title was used...

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WILLIAM HARTNELL

Twelve of the first seventeen William Hartnell stories, comprising 56 episodes, were dubbed into Spanish and sold to Latin American countries. Some of the Spanish titles assigned to the episodes differed from the English titles; only those that varied significantly are noted below:

Title	Spanish	Variant Translation
An Unearthly Child
An Unearthly Child	Senorita Sistema Solar	Miss Solar System
	Una Niña Que No Es De Este Mundo	A Girl Who Is Not Of This World
The Cave of Skulls	La Caverna de las Calaveras
The Forest of Fear	La Selva del Terreno	The Forest of the Land
The Firemaker	El Que Sabe Hacer Fuego	The One Who Makes Fire
The Daleks
The Dead Planet	El Planeta Muerto
The Survivors	Los Sobrevivientes
The Escape	La Huida
The Ambush	La Emboscada
The Expedition	La Expedición
The Ordeal	El Ataque	The Attack
The Rescue	El Rescate
Inside the Spaceship
The Edge of Destruction	La Edad de la Destrucción	The Age of Destruction
The Brink of Disaster	Al Borde del Desastre	At the Border of Disaster
The Keys of Marinus
The Sea of Death	El Mar de la Muerte
The Velvet Web	La Trampa de Terciopelo	The Trap of Velvet
The Screaming Jungle	La Selva de los Gritos	The Forest of Shouts / Screams
The Snows of Terror	Las Nieves del Terror
Sentence of Death	Sentencia de Muerte
The Keys of Marinus	Los Micro Circuitos de Marino	The Microcircuits of Marinus
The Aztecs
The Temple of Evil	El Templo del Mal
The Warriors of Death	Los Guerreros de la Muerte
The Bride of Sacrifice	La Novia del Sacrifício
The Day of Darkness	El Día de la Obscuridad
The Sensorites
Strangers in Space	Extraños en el Espacio
The Unwilling Warriors	Guerreros Involuntarios	Involuntary Warriors
Hidden Danger	Peligro Oculto
A Race Against Death	Carrera Contra la Muerte
Kidnap	Secuestro
A Desperate Venture	Una Aventura Desesperada
Planet of Giants
Planet of Giants	Un Planeta de Gigantes
Dangerous Journey	Jornada Peligrosa
Crisis	Crisis
The Dalek Invasion of Earth
World's End	El Fin del Mundo
The Daleks	Los Dalekios
Day of Reckoning	El Día del Juicio	The Day of Judgement
The End of Tomorrow	El Fin de la Mañana
The Waking Ally	El Vigilante Aliado	The Allied Vigilante
Flashpoint	Exterminación	Extermination
The Rescue
The Powerful Enemy	El Poderoso Enemigo
Desperate Measures	Desesperación	Desperation
The Web Planet
The Web Planet	El Planeta Misterioso	The Mysterious Planet
The Zarbi	Los Zarbi
Escape to Danger	Escape del Peligro
The Crater of Needles	El Cráter de las Agujas
Invasion	Inserción
The Centre	El Centro
The Space Museum
The Space Museum	El Museo del Espacio
The Dimensions of Time	Las Dimensiones del Espacio	The Dimensions of Space
The Search	La Búsqueda
The Final Phase	La Fase Final
The Chase
The Executioners	Los Verdugos
The Death of Time	La Muerte del Tiempo
Flight Through Eternity	Vuelo a Traves de la Eternidad	Flight Across Eternity
Journey into Terror	Viaje al Terror
The Death of Doctor Who	La Muerte del Doctor Misterio
The Planet of Decision	El Planeta de la Decision

- The first episode appears to have been known by two different translations of the title: "Senorita Sistema Solar" and "Una Niña Que No Es De Este Mundo".

- BBC Records indicate that Venezuela also "purchased" Marco Polo and The Reign of Terror in early 1967 at the same time as all the other serials, but that both sales were later "cancelled". From this, we can postulate that Radio Caracas had pre-bought those two serials before the decision had been made (by the BBC?) to exclude all the historicals from the Latin American and Arabic packages. One possible reason for why the historicals were not included may have due to "past" stories set in 13th century China, revolutionary France, Nero's Rome, Palestine during the Third Crusade, and 1066 Northumbria, would hold little interest or historical significance to Latin American and Middle Eastern viewers. The sole historical that was dubbed into Spanish - The Aztecs - was, of course, set in Mexico, and therefore had some relevance to Latin Americans. - Given that Venezuela was the first country to screen Doctor Who in Spanish, it is highly likely that Radio Caracas Televisión was responsible for the commissioning of and arranging for the first batch of Spanish dubs to be made – see below.

WHO DUBBED WHO?

If the split airdates are anything to go by, it appears that the stories were dubbed in separate batches, and possibly commissioned by different countries.

• Venezuela aired the first two serials in early 1967.
• Venezuela then aired Inside the Spaceship to Planet of Giants from October 1967 to February 1968. (The Dalek Invasion of Earth was not available, due to the BBC's arrangement with Terry Nation. The Rescue was also not available at that time.)
  • From this we could conclude that Venezuela was responsible for arranging the dubbing of that block of seven serials in 1967. (It's possible that the actual dubbing sessions were performed in Mexico, as that was where the majority of film and television dubs were produced for the Latin American markets.)
  • It's worth noting here that in order for these dubs to be made, the BBC created and provided soundtracks that had only sound effects and music (often the scores differed from the ones that featured in the UK version, and usually consisted of stock non-copyrighted material), but no dialogue. These "M/E Track" copies would have been created by the BBC in late 1966. A transcript of each broadcast episode was also supplied so a translation into Spanish could be undertaken. As noted above, it was likely to be at the "M/E Track" creation stage that the decision was made (by the BBC?) to exclude all the historical stories with the sole exception of The Aztecs in the package that was sold to Latin American / Spanish countries.
  • The same "M/E Track" prints for the same seven serials were also supplied in late 1966 / early 1967 to Tunisia, so they could be the first Arabic country to screen the series. And as was the case with Venezuela, Tunisia also could not get "M/E Tracks" for The Dalek Invasion of Earth and The Rescue.
• Mexico aired all available serials, from An Unearthly Child to The Chase, albeit wildly out of sequence, throughout 1968.
• Venezuela did not air the serials The Dalek Invasion of Earth to The Space Museum until September 1968 to January 1969. (They did not screen The Chase.)
  • From this we could conclude that it was the Mexican TV station that was responsible for commissioning the dubbings for the other five serials in 1967/68. (The "M/E Tracks" created for The Dalek Invasion of Earth and The Rescue were also supplied in 1968 to Morocco and Saudi Arabia, the next two Arabic countries to screen the series.)
• Chile aired the full run of twelve stories, from January 1969. It would not have needed to dub any of the episodes.

This link is to a voice recording of the opening voice-over giving the series title:

• DOCTOR MISTERIO

DUBBING DIFFERENCES

• Despite the series title being given as El Doctor Misterio in print, the voice-over provided for the opening sequence only says "Doctor Misterio" (with no definite article). Episodes would be introduced as "Today we present for you..." (in Spanish, natch) followed by the episode title. It has been noted that the dubbing was rather haphazard in places, in that the actor's mouth would open but there would be a short delay before the spoken words were heard in Spanish.
• At the end of each episode, the voice-over would say, "In our next episode, we will present for you…" followed by that instalment's title.
• In the original English, the voice of the Animus in The Web Planet is female, but in the Spanish dub, it is male.
• Interestingly, at the end of the final episode of The Web Planet, the Spanish narrator gives the title of the next episode as "El Lion", although The Crusade was not included in the package of episodes...

SCREENED IN

These twelve stories screened in the following countries:

• Venezuela – from 26 Feb 1967
• Mexico – from 25 Mar 1968
• Dominican Republic (1968? - although no airdates have been found)
• Chile – from 5 Jan 1969

BBC Archive Holdings

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

K	The Dalek Invasion of Earth	6
N	The Web Planet	1-6
Q	The Space Museum	4

These may have been returned by Chile, the last Spanish-language country to screen the series.

By late 1978, only The Web Planet part 6 was still held.

A Spanish print of An Unearthly Child part one surfaced at the BBC in 1978, while Inside the Spaceship part one, and Planet of Giants part three are known to exist in private hands.

Extracts on DVD / Video

• The Spanish soundtrack for The Web Planet part six appears as an alternative language option on the DVD release of that story.

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TOM BAKER

Within a year of Doctor Who taking off in the United States in 1978, the existing edited Time-Life Television videos of the first 23 Tom Baker stories (98 episodes, complete with Howard da Silva narrations), were dubbed into Spanish for the Latin American market, covering Central and South America – see more on the dubbing below.

The first two countries to air these stories – only a few days apart - were Mexico and Chile; interestingly, the broadcasters of these countries sometimes assigned (at least in print) different titles to the stories:

Title	Mexico	Chile
Robot	El Robot / Robot	Muerte de un Robot (Death of a Robot)
The Ark in Space	El Arca del Espacio (The Ark of Space)	El Arca Espacial (The Spacial Ark)
The Sontaran Experiment	El Experimento del Sontaran
Genesis of the Daleks	El Genesis de los Dalekios
Revenge of the Cybermen	La Venganza del Hombre Cibernetico (Vengeance of the Cybernetic Man) / Los Hombres de Metal (The Men of Metal)	La Venganza de los Hombres Metalicos (Vengeance of the Metal Men)
Terror of the Zygons	El Terror de los Sigons
Planet of Evil	El Planeta del Mal
Pyramids of Mars	Las Piramides de Marte
The Android Invasion	La Invasion de los Androides (Invasion of the Androids)
The Brain of Morbius	El Cerebro de Morbius / El Cerebro del Doctor Morbius
The Seeds of Doom	Las Semillas del Mal (The Seeds of Evil)	Las Semillas de la Ruina (The Seeds of Ruin/Decline) / Semillas de Maldad (Seeds of Evil)
The Masque of Mandragora	La Mascara de Mandragora
The Hand of Fear	La Mano del Miedo
The Deadly Assassin	El Gran Reto del Amo (The Great Challenge of the Master)
The Face of Evil	La Cara del Demonio (The Face of the Demon/Devil)	La Cara del Mal (The Face of Evil)
The Robots of Death	El Robot de la Muerte
The Talons of Weng-Chiang	Las Garras de Weng-Chiang
Horror of Fang Rock	Horror en Fang Rock
The Invisible Enemy	El Enemigo Invisible
Image of the Fendahl	La Imagen de los Fendalines
The Sun Makers	Los Forjadores del Sol (The Forgers of the Sun) / Los Hacedores del Sol (The Makers of the Sun)	Los Summakers
Underworld	El Mundo Subterraneo	Bajo Mundo
The Invasion of Time	La Invasion del Tiempo

- One of the two Mexican titles for Revenge of the Cybermen is in the singular, whereas the other and the Chilean is in the plural!

- The Chilean title "Los Summakers" could be a printing error, with the English title getting scrambled in the translation (one Chilean paper, El Sur, sometimes did print the English title). However, this 'error' appears in two different newspapers, so it's likely that both papers were supplied with the 'wrong' spelling of the title direct from the broadcaster itself.

- Some of the titles published in Colombian newspapers also have slight variances, such as "Las Creación de los Daleks", and "La Venganza de los Cyberman" (singular) being used. These are probably the result of incorrect translations of the English titles given to or done by the newspaper editors rather than being titles under which the episodes were broadcast.

WHO DUBBED WHO?

From the early 1970s, distribution of BBC programmes throughout Latin America was handed by Time-Life Films / Television. Time-Life would have been responsible for selling and distributing these Tom Baker serials. As with the Hartnell stories, the dubbing sessions commissioned by Time-Life would most likely have been performed in Mexico, as that was the centre for film and television dubbing for the Latin American market. (By late 1979, however, long after Doctor Misterio had been dubbed, Spanish-dubbing facilities were established in Los Angeles.)

When Lionheart took over the distribution rights for the US in May 1981 (see United States--1981), the rights to Latin American were assumed by Western-World Television Inc (a co-owner of Lionheart). Based on the known airdates, the only Latin American country known to have screened Doctor Misterio after 1981 is Colombia. They would most likely have utilised the old Time-Life tapes.

DUBBING DIFFERENCES

• The dubbed Tom Baker episodes were adapted from the ones that had been edited for the United States, but of course without the Howard da Silva narrations.

• As had been the case with the Hartnells, the dubbing was rather haphazard in places, with footsteps sounding the same no matter what the terrain, and with background sound effects suddenly starting and stopping. As an example, in the dub for The Sontaran Experiment the sonic screwdriver and Styre's robot are completely silent in some scenes, and one of the Galsec astronauts is clearly heard to shout "please!" in English at one point. Tacky 1940's-style film noir music was also dubbed on to replace the original music.

• It would also appear as though each episode had further edits made to them to bring them to a 23 minute running time.

SCREENED IN

Airdates for the following countries are recorded in BroaDWcast:

• Mexico – from 4 May 1979
• Chile – from 9 May 1979
• Costa Rica – from 4 Feb 1980
• Colombia - from 13 Feb 1980
• Nicaragua – from 6 Aug 1980

The following countries are recorded in BBC Records or elsewhere as having bought these Baker serials, however we have yet to pinpoint the airdates:

• Dominican Republic
• Ecuador
• Guatemala
• Honduras
• Peru
• Puerto Rico
• Venezuela
  • See also THE MYSTERY OF THE MISSING MISTERIOS

Colombia also repeated some episodes in 1987 (presumably distributed by Western World), but using the old Time-Life tapes.

SPAIN

When 50 Tom Baker episodes screened on a regional basis across Spain from 1988 onwards, brand new dubs into Spanish were created. The episodes were also dubbed into the regional languages Galician and Catalan.

Dr Insolito

Dr Insolito

As noted at the top of the page, the Radio Times 20th Anniversary Special reports that Doctor Who was known as "Dr Insolito" in some Latin American countries. While that title was not used for Doctor Who, it was the title given to the Spanish-dubbed release of Stanley Kubrick's 1964 film, Dr Strangelove (or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb).

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