Egypt

Tom in Egypt; TV Times, 1 March 1980

Tom and friend!

Although Doctor Who was not shown on television in EGYPT, it's possible the second of the two Peter Cushing Dalek movies was seen there in the 1960s or 70s.

The only evidence this might be the case is the existence of an "Affiche de Film" movie poster. Although it was found in Syria, this type of cloth poster art was also common in Egypt, and therefore may have originated from there.

See the profile on Syria for more details.

Tom Baker in Egypt

Baker went to Egypt in January 1980 to film the TV movie The Curse of King Tut's Tomb. While there, he visited Cairo; dressed as the Doctor he posed in front of the Great Pyramid of Cheops and the Sphinx for a special photo-shoot for the ITV listings magazine TV Times. (The film debuted on US TV on 8 May 1980, and aired in the UK on HTV, on 31 August 1980.)

After completing his work on the movie, Baker flew on to Australia for a lengthy publicity tour at the end of February. He returned to the UK in mid-March (tired and unwell) just in time to travel up to Brighton to commence work on the first story of his final season...

VHS

The 1996 TV Movie was released by CIC / EVC (Egyptian Video Centre) as a subtitled rental VHS tape in early 1997.

The box cover has not been found, but an image of the cassette has: the spine displays the title as Dr Who الرجل الغامض, which directly translates as The Mysterious Man, but which could also be interpreted as The Man of Mystery or The Mystery Man.

It's likely that the cover depicts the usual 'Doctor holding a candle by the TARDIS' imagery, with the English title at the top and the Arabic text underneath, which is the usual format for other CIC tapes that were released in Egypt.

Egypt in Doctor Who

• Barbara admires Arbitan's pyramid, likening it to those built by the Egyptians (The Keys of Marinus).
• In The Crusade, Saladin - who is the Sultan of Egypt and Syria - fears that King Richard plans to invade Egypt.
• Actor Nicholas Courtney (Brett Vyon in The Daleks' Master Plan, and later Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart) was born and raised in Cairo.
• The TARDIS lands in Egypt, pursued by the Monk and the Daleks, who are attacked by Egyptian slaves (The Daleks' Master Plan).
• Steven refers to his recent visit to Egypt in The Massacre.
• The Doctor shows a photo-slide of the Egyptian god Khnum - with horns! (The Daemons).
• The Doctor mentions the battle of El Alamein in The Sea Devils.
• Jo says she and the Doctor boarded the SS Bernice at Port Said (Carnival of Monsters).
• Pyramids of Mars is partially set in and features quite a number of references to Egypt - including pyramids, mummies, Cairo, Saqqara, Pharaohs, Tuthmoses the Third, various Egyptian Gods such as Horus and Sutekh, and many other characters.