Spain
SPAIN is in western Europe; it shares a border with France and Portugal.
Profile
| Country Number (62?) | 1988 | THIRD WAVE |
| Region | Europe | |
| Television commenced | 1956 | |
| Colour System | 1972 | PAL |
| Language/s | Galician, Catalan, Spanish | Dubbed |
Television Stations / Channels
Television commenced in 1956. Spain is served by a number of national and regional television broadcasters.
PAL colour broadcasts commenced in 1972.
By the late 1990s and early 2000s, a number of cable and satellite stations had been established.
Language/s
The principal language of Spain is Spanish, although there are many regional dialects; Doctor Who aired in three different (known) languages: Galician, Catalan and Spanish, for which the episodes were dubbed.
DOCTOR WHO IN SPAIN
Back in the 1960s, the 22 November 1966 issue of the Madrid newspaper ABC had an article about "Invasions from the future", which mentions and features a photograph of the Drahvins (from 1965's Galaxy 4).
DALEK MOVIES
PETER CUSHING and the Daleks
CINEMAS
The first of the two Dalek movies screened in Spain, under the title "Dr Who y los Daleks". It was distributed by Rosa Films, and as far as we can tell, the film was dubbed.
The film premiered at the El Apolo theatre in Madrid on 7 January 1967. A review appeared in the 8 January 1967 edition of the ABC:
The Madrid newspaper ABC ran two advertisements - the first on 6 January 1967 announcing the film starting at the Apolo cinema "tomorrow", the next on 7 January announcing the premiere "Today". (These two print ads featured a weird stacked spherical 'structure' that has no bearing on the film whatsoever - or at least as far as we can tell.)
The text reads:
- HOY (TODAY)
- EMOCIONANTE ESTRENO (EXCITING PREMIERE)
- El Universo tiembla ante el nombre de unos seres implacables y perversos (The Universe trembles at the name of the implacable and wicked beings)
- LOS DALEKS
- ¿Quineos so estos seres? (¿Who are these beings?)
- ¿Pueden llegar a dominarlo todo? (¿Will they dominate everything?)
- UN FILM IMPRESIONANTE, QUE NOS DESCUBRE UN MUNDO TOTALMENTE NUEVO (AN IMPRESSIVE FILM THAT BRINGS US A TOTALLY NEW WORLD)
- Autorizada para todos los publicos (Authorized for all audiences)
The film then appeared in other city cinemas, and continued to play from time to time over the next few years in small regional theatres.
There is no clear indication that the second film was ever shown at cinemas in Spain during the 1960s and 1970s. (We accessed several late 1960s / early 70s Spanish newspapers and found no sign of the movie.)
English prints of both films were however shown at the Pequeño Cine Estudio during the annual Festival Internacional de Cine Imaginario y de Ciencia Ficción de Madrid on 15 March 1981.
VHS TAPE
The first film was released on VHS by Video Britannia Producción SA in 1984. This was a different dub to that used on the original cinema release. The actor providing the voice for "Dr Who" was Joaquin Escola.
(We have not been able to track down an image of the VHS cover, but it more than likely used the Tom Chantrell art that adorned all the other Thorn/EMI editions of the film released at that time.)
Note: Actor Salvador Aldeguer provided a "Dalek" voice – he had previously dubbed for Tom Baker for the 1980s screenings of the television series (See below).
ON TELEVISION
Apparently it wasn't until the early 2000s that "Dr Who y los Daleks" made its way onto television in Spain.
We have so far traced the following screenings - there may have been more on the other regional channels. (As far as we can tell, all of the following were the same VHS dub starring Joaquin Escola.)
The film was shown for the first time by Canal Hollywood - a pay cable and satellite station launched in 1993 that was available in Spain and Portugal - on 15 April 2000 (at midday), then again on 24 June 2000 at 6pm [see clipping]. (And possibly several other times as well.)
When this channel was launched, there was one feed to both countries but given that TV in Spain was always dubbed but in Portugal it was subtitled, some of the schedules may have been different - viewers in Portugal either had the film in Spanish with Portuguese subtitles, or it was English with Portuguese subtitles. (Today, the two countries have their own Canal Hollywood channel, each with separate scheduling.)
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Generic Canal Hollywood promos from 2000 - Dr Who not included |
The first film was next shown on 13 November 2000, now on pay television station Calle 13 (launched in 1999). It screened again on 22 November (and possibly a few more times after this).
"Dr Who y los Daleks" was shown twice - 1 March (at 10.50pm) and 2 March 2002 (time unknown) - on Cineclassics, a Spanish pay satellite channel specialising in classic films, which commenced in 1994 but after only nine year ceased operating on 30 June 2003.
In June 2006, most of Calle 13's science fiction content was moved to the new Sci-Fi Channel Spain, launched from on 1 June 2006; "Dr Who y los Daleks" was shown for the first time on the SF station on Saturday, 20 October 2007 at 11.55am, with a repeat at 11.20pm.
Two weeks later, the second movie made what is likely to be its debut in Spain when it appeared on the Sci-Fi Channel on Sunday, 4 November 2007 at 9.14am. It was repeated less than 14 hours later, from midnight into Monday, 5 November [see clipping showing both screenings].
The newly-dubbed film was given the title "Los Marcianos Invaden la Tierra" (The Martians Invade Earth); this is spoken by a narrator as the English credits play.
The actor providing the voice for "Dr Who" was Claudi Garcia:
Both films then made semi-regular appearances on the Sci-Fi station (at least twice a month, usually in the very early hours of the morning) through until late 2008.
"Los Marcianos…" had its 14th and final showing on Monday, 18 August 2008 (at 3.15am), while "Dr Who y los Daleks" made its 18th and final appearance on Monday, 1 September 2008 (at 4.35am).
The first film can currently be viewed online (in English with Spanish subtitles) at FILMIN
DVD RELEASES
A year after its final TV showing, StudioCanal / Universal released a widescreen DVD of the second film on 18 March 2009. It had two soundtracks - English and Spanish (presumably the same as the Garcia TV dub), plus Spanish and Portuguese subtitles.
Although the film itself was still entitled "Los Marcianos Invaden la Tierra" per the voice-over at the start, the outer box cover and packaging gave the alternative title of "Los Daleks Invaden la Tierra 2150 AD"; this was no doubt a deliberate move to cash in on the popularity of the New Series - indeed, the front and back of the DVD box had direct references to the cult BBC TV series - "Basada en la serie de culto británica Doctor Who".
(Like many of the early DVD releases, this has the pre-credit sequence repositioned and appearing after the opening titles.)
In July 2015, La Casa del Cine Para Todos released the first film on DVD, with English and Spanish soundtracks (presumably the one with Joaquin Escola as featured on the VHS and Sci-Fi Channel) plus Spanish subtitles.
BBC Records
In DWM issue #33 (May 1980), it was reported that the Doctor Who theme was used on a radio science magazine programme that aired in Spain.
In DWB issue 43 (May 1987), there is a report that a sale was made to Spain "at the recent European TV Fair, months after France did a U-turn"... (This was the MIPCOM festival held in Cannes, France every year in October.)
The sale to Spain, who screened the series on a regional basis, occurred towards the tail-end of the Third Wave, making this one of the first successful sales to Europe in over a decade (see Selling Doctor Who).
In his DWM #204 (September 1993) interview, composer Dudley Simpson makes the mistaken comment that "when they started to screen Doctor Who in France and Spain they didn't have separate music and effects tracks. The only thing they can do is put subtitles on top of the existing programme".
The programme was certainly always dubbed into the other languages in Spain, not subtitled, for which a separate music score would have been required.
According to ITV's Teletext service, it was announced in mid-1996 that Spain was one of several countries to show an interest in purchasing the Paul McGann TV Movie, but as far as we have been able to tell, no local TV stations in Spain did broadcast the film. The film did, however, arrive on subtitled VHS video-tape - see below.
BBC RECORD LP/CD
Another kind of BBC Record was released in Spain: this was Efectos de Sonido Vol 19: Ciencia Ficcion from Dialdiscos in 1983, a Spanish pressing of the 1978 BBC Sound Effects LP (the one with the TARDIS on the cover). It was re-issued as a CD in 1990 (without "Vol 19" on the front; see picture at right).
The back of the sleeve gave Spanish translations of the monster names and story titles, some of which were quite different to the ones that had been used for the 1970s' Latin American Spanish dubs, and on the episodes that were shown in Spain a few years later -- for instance "Zygon" was translated into "Cigotea", while The Robots of Death is called "Los Robots Asesinos".
Stories bought and broadcast
TOM BAKER
Twelve stories, 50 episodes:
Three of the four regions adopted a different translation of the story titles. Only some of the Galician titles are known:
| Code | English Title | eps | Galician | Catalan | Spanish |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4A | Robot | 4 | Robot | Robot | Robot |
| 4B | The Sontaran Experiment | 2 | L'experiment Sontaran | El Experimento Sontaran | |
| 4C | The Ark in Space | 4 | El Arca del Espacio | Una Arca a l’Espai | El Arca del Espacio |
| 4D | Revenge of the Cybermen | 4 | La Venjança dels Homes Cibernétics | La Venganza de los Hombres Ciberneticos | |
| 4E | Genesis of the Daleks | 6 | La Gènesi dels Daleks | El Origen de los Daleks | |
| 4F | Terror of the Zygons | 4 | El Terror dels Zygons | El Terror de los Zigones | |
| 4G | Pyramids of Mars | 4 | Les Piràmides de Mart | Las Piramides de Marte | |
| 4H | Planet of Evil | 4 | El Planeta Diabòlic | El Planeta del Mal | |
| 4J | The Android Invasion | 4 | A Invasión Androide (?) | La Invasió dels Androides | La Invasion de los Androides |
| 4K | The Brain of Morbius | 4 | El Cervell de Morbius | El Cerebro de Morbius | |
| 4L | The Seeds of Doom | 6 | Les Ilavors de la Destrucció | Las Semillas del Mal | |
| 4M | The Masque of Mandragora | 4 | La Máscara de Mandrágora | La Máscara de Mándragora |
NOTE: Some of the Spanish titles are slightly different to those used when the same Tom Baker episodes aired in Mexico and Chile in 1979 – see the chapter on Spanish for a list of the alternative titles.
Spain therefore bought all of GROUP A and B and part of GROUP C of the Tom Baker stories. The sale to Spain must have come following the October 1986 European TV fair that was reported in May 1987.
Presumably only those 50 episodes were purchased as that allowed for a full year's worth of screenings if played weekly, or 13 weeks if stripped at least four days a week, which is a standard practice in television syndication.
Canal Sur and TeleMadrid may even have shared the same tapes.
The episodes that aired in Spanish were not the same as those that had circulated around Central America and South America in the late 1970s/early 1980s, as they all had new voice dubs...
Transmission
There were (as far as we can determine) four separate regional screenings of the series across Spain, between 1988 and 1991:
- Galicia / TVG – 1988, with repeats 1989 and 1991
- Cataluna / TV3 – 1988 to 1989
- Canal Sur – 1989
- TeleMadrid – 1989 to 1991
Each of these four stations covered a different region of Spain – north west; north east; south; central respectively, meaning that Doctor Who was broadcast to the whole country within a four year period. These screenings were dubbed into different regional languages.
(NOTE: The series was also available in Spain via Cable and Satellite stations, such as Super Channel (from 24 March 1987), which was received by much of Europe at the time, and BBC World Service Television Europe in the 1990s.)
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GALICIA (TVG) (1988)
Doctor Who made its Spanish debut in the autonomous community and region called GALICIA, on the northwest border with Portugal.
The Galician station, TV de Galicia (TVG) commenced broadcasts on 24 July 1985. The official language of Galicia is Galician, a derivative of Portuguese. Like all TVG programming, Doctor Who was dubbed into that language.
The series was called "Doutor Who", being the Galician translation of the series' title. A voice-over speaks out the series' name over the opening titles.
The voice artist who dubbed for Tom Baker was GONZALO URIARTE, who bears an uncanny resemblance to William Hartnell!
Uriarte worked primarily as a voice actor, dubbing many actors (such as Roy Scheider and Tom Baker), but is chiefly known as the Galician voice of actor Peter O'Toole.
TRANSMISSIONS ON TVG
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Doutor Who commenced on Monday, 22 February 1988, at 7.30pm. It screened in that timeslot the first four days of the week (not on Fridays) for the entire run. The 50th and final episode aired on Wednesday, 25 May 1988. (There were five days on which the series was pre-empted.)
Some of the newspaper billings described the programme as being "serie juvenil".
A year later, a run of repeats commenced, with broadcasts split into two separate runs: the first commenced (we assume) on Tuesday, 16 May 1989, screening weekdays at 6.00pm. (Papers for the first eight episodes were not available, so we only assume that this is when the repeats started. The fact that the ninth episode fell on Friday 26 May, and that two later Friday billings erroneously have a "(9)" in brackets, does support that our conclusions are correct.)
The first run of 24 episodes (presumably to Terror of the Zygons) ended on 16 June 1989.
Exactly two years later, the remaining episodes were repeated: the 26 episode run commenced Tuesday, 18 June 1991, with episodes airing twice weekly, on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, at the much earlier time of 11.30am. The final episode aired 11 September 1991.
Interestingly, these repeats were billed as "Doctor Who" for the first run and "Dr Who" for the second, rather than "Doutor Who".
- CLICK HERE TO SEE A CLIP FROM "ROBOT" IN GALICIAN
- We can see from this clip that the character names were retained (Sullivan, Benton), as was Dudley Simpson's incidental score.
- CLICK HERE TO SEE THE TITLES AND A BRIEF CLIP DUBBED INTO GALICIAN
TVG WEBLINKS
- A profile for Doctor Who - in the Galician language - can be found on wikipedia:
- This forum entry – "MAIS ANIVERSARIOS "O" DOUTOR" - wishes Tom Baker a 'Happy Birthday', and goes to say: "Foi mundialmente famoso por ter sido o cuarto Doutor Who, cuxas dúas primeiras temporadas (1974-75 e 1975-76) foron emitidas pola TVG nos anos oitenta", which translates as "He was world famous for being the fourth Doctor Who, whose first two seasons (1974-75 and 1975-76) were issued by TVG in the eighties".
- This BLOG, and this FORUM, confirm that the run included at least the Cybermen and Dalek adventures. The "Mais Aniversarios "O" Doutor" blogger identifies The Android Invasion for the picture caption.
- Other weblinks about the TVG screenings:
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CATALUNA (TV3) (1988 to 1989)
Televisio de Catalunya (TVC) was launched on 11 September 1983 as Catalonia's public broadcasting service. The region of Catalonia / Cataluna is in the north east Spain at the border with France. Barcelona is its largest city. It's first and main channel was TV3; it was on that station that Doctor Who screened in 1988 to 1989.
The local dialect is Catalan, and the series would have been dubbed.
Seven months before Doctor Who aired, a preview of the newly-acquired series appeared in the pages of a TV listings publication dated 7-13 September 1987: the cover (the heading translates as "Waiting for Doctor Who") and a three-page article feature.
TRANSMISSIONS ON TV3
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Doctor Who commenced on Tuesday, 26 April 1988, at 7.15pm. (TVG was screening The Android Invasion at this time.) Episodes aired three times a week, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Stories aired in production order.
From 20 July 1988, a fourth episode was added to the schedules, screening on Wednesdays, and from 25 July, the series also aired on Mondays. The slot also moved to the later time of 8.00pm.
There were at least two pre-emptions during the run; it's not clear whether one of these was on 2 or 3 June, as listings were not available for either date. There was no listing for part one of Pyramids of Mars in June. Did it screen during the weekend or on the Monday?
The 50th and final episode – The Masque of Mandragora part four - aired Wednesday, 10 August 1988.
Sixth months later, a "REPOSICION" (repeat) run commenced on Wednesday, 15 February 1989. Two episodes aired back to back, from 6.00 to 6.50pm or 6.45pm. These double episodes aired Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
The repeat run ended 25 weeks later, on Wednesday, 12 April 1989.
TV3 LISTINGS
While the series was on the air, there were also a number of newspaper "preview" articles published in April 1988 and later in 1989. Oddly, three of these were illustrated with a photograph of the Daleks and the first Doctor from The Daleks!
TV3 WEBLINKS
Online information about the TV3 screenings can be read here:
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CANAL SUR (1989)
Canal Sur (Channel South) is a public broadcasting company based in the southern province of Andalucia, of which Seville is the largest city. The station was launched on 28 February 1989.
Television was broadcast in Spanish.
The actor providing the new voice dubs for Tom Baker was Salvador Aldeguer, who had also provided Dalek voices for the first Peter Cushing Dalek movie.
Elena de Maeztu provided the voice for Sarah Jane Smith.
TRANSMISSIONS ON CANAL SUR
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Some eight months after the station was launched, Doctor Who commenced - on Monday, 25 September 1989; this was some five months after the conclusion of the repeat run on TV3.
Initially, episodes aired Mondays, Tuesday and Wednesday, at 6.45pm. A month later, two extra days were added, and the series was on all five week days. The serials screened in production order.
There were two pre-emptions during the run; it's not clear what days from 11 to 17 October the series was pre-empted.
The 50th and final episode aired on Wednesday, 13 December 1989. (By this time, the series was also screening on TeleMadrid...)
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TELEMADRID (1989 to 1991)
TeleMadrid was launched in 2 May 1989, becoming the fifth national TV station in Spain.
TRANSMISSION ON TELEMADRID
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← AIRDATES ...... (CLICK ICON TO GO TO TABLE SHOWING EPISODE BREAKDOWN AND AIRDATES - N/S = story title is Not Stated) |
On 8 October 1989, only two weeks after the series had begun on Canal Sur, the series started on TeleMadrid, screening weekly on Sundays at 2.30pm. Unlike the previous stations, TeleMadrid aired the serials in their correct story order. (It's possible that TeleMadrid used the same tapes that Canal Sur used.)
For reasons not clear, they only aired the first 28 episodes – despite the TV listing for Robot part one stating it was a 50-episode series. The final episode aired 15 April 1990.
Just over 12 months later, two episodes were repeated, at 7.00pm on 9 and 10 May 1991. The first listing indicated it was directed by Christopher Barry, but the second stated it was The Sontaran Experiment part two; presumably both episodes were for the same serial.
Four months later, on Tuesday, 10 September 1991, TeleMadrid screened a repeat run, on week days at 7.00pm. (The repeat run on TVG ended the following day.) The slot changed to 6.45pm in its final two weeks. Again, the episodes aired in the correct story order. The repeat run ended on 22 October 1991 again with the 28th episode, despite the listings also saying there were 50 episodes.
There is no evidence or indication that the other 22 episodes screened on TeleMadrid...
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TV listings
Online newspaper archives have been used:
In most cases, the listings use "Doctor Who" rather than the other Spanish title - "Dr Misterio" - that was common in Central and South American countries. For the TVG screenings, the Galician variation, "Doutor Who", was used for the first runs, but "Doctor Who" for the repeats. TeleMadrid used "El Doctor Who" a couple of times.
In the vast majority of cases, the listings gave episode titles and episode number.
PAUL McGANN
The 1996 Paul McGann TV Movie was released on VHS tape in Spain in 1997; the dubbed tape was distributed by MCA/Universal/CIC Video, and may have been for Rental Only.
The cover tagline was "LA SUPERVIVENCIA DEL PLANETA DEPENDE DE EL" (THE SURVIVAL OF THE PLANET DEPENDS ON HIM.
Spanish actor Luis Bajo provided the voice for both the seventh and the eighth Doctors!
(NOTE: This "Dubbing" site states that the dub was recorded for "Television" not for "Video", but searches of various Spanish newspapers online did not produce anything to indicate that the Movie had aired on TV anywhere in Spain. It's possible the dub had been intended for broadcast, but was only ever used for the subsequent tape. Interestingly, a full Spanish dub appears to have been used when the Movie was shown on the US cable station Starz in the early 2000s…)
The 1999 DVD release of the special extended The Five Doctors edit had Spanish subtitles as an alternative language option (although it's not known whether the DVD was actually sold there).
Spain in Doctor Who
- The Spanish conqueror, Cortez, destroyed the Aztec civilisation, as discussed by Barbara and Susan (The Aztecs).
- In 1572, Spain was at war with France (The Massacre).
- One of Pike's crew was called Spaniard (The Smugglers).
- A brochure for "Summer Holidays in Spain & Portugal" can be seen in the travel agency window, and a poster marked "SPAIN" can be seen on a wall of the ruined city in Daleks Invasion Earth 2150 AD.
- Chameleon Tours flew regularly to Spain, including Madrid (The Faceless Ones).
- Soldiers from the Peninsular War fought in The War Games.
- During their search for the Master, UNIT arrested the Spanish Ambassador (Colony in Space).
- The Doctor took on the stance of a matador during his fight with the bull-like Minotaur (The Time Monster).
- The Doctor had five piastres in his pocket (Death to the Daleks).
- Planet of Fire was filmed and partially set on Lanzarote. (The Canary Islands are an autonomous territory of Spain.)
- The Two Doctors was filmed as well as being set in Seville, in southern Spain.
