Algeria
Algeria is located in North Africa, and is the second largest country in the African Continent. It had been a French colony, before gaining its independence in 1962. It is non British Commonwealth.
Contents
Population
When Doctor Who screened in Algeria in 1974, the population was 14,70,000, and licences TV sets numbered 155,000 (per WRTH, 1974)Template:WRTH 1974.
TV & system
Algeria began its television service in 1956. Colour transmissions began in 1979 with the SECAM colour system. There is just one television station: Television Algerie.
Language/s
The main languages of Algeria are Arabic and French; the series would most certainly have been broadcast with the Arabic soundtrack that was provided by the BBC. Given that the French newspapers had TV listings in French, it is likely that the broadcasts also had French subtitles.
AL DOCTOR HOU IN ALGERIA
Algeria was the 35th country to screen Doctor Who. It was the last to screen William Hartnell stories(see Selling Doctor Who)
BBC Records
The Seventies records a sale of only four stories: C, E, K and L.
In DWM, Algeria is identified in eleven story Archives.
The programme was supplied as 16mm black and white film prints with English soundtracks.
Libya was the Arabic nation that had screened Doctor Who prior to Algeria – the same 37 episodes were purchased by Libya in late 1969. Therefore it is likely that Algeria’s prints came from Libya.
Algeria is recorded as being the final country to purchase any William Hartnell stories during the initial sales period. 12 years later the United States purchased a package of the available 17 complete Hartnell stories in 1986.
Stories bought and broadcast
WILLIAM HARTNELL
Eleven stories, 53 episodes:
| A | An Unearthly Child | 4 |
| B | The Daleks | 7 |
| C | Inside the Spaceship | 2 |
| D | Marco Polo | 7 |
| E | The Keys of Marinus | 6 |
| F | The Aztecs | 4 |
| G | The Sensorites | 6 |
| H | The Reign of Terror | 6 |
| J | Planet of Giants | 3 |
| K | The Dalek Invasion of Earth | 6 |
| L | The Rescue | 2 |
The programme was supplied as 16mm black and white film prints with English soundtracks.
Transmission
WILLIAM HARTNELL
The series started on Monday, 31 December 1973, at 7.30pm. The series screened daily in the same timeslot until Tuesday, 7 February 1974, an almost uninterrupted run of 37 episodes over a 39 day period. The 12 and 13 January scheduled episodes must have been pre-empted, as the same two episodes are also listed as screening on 14 and 15 January.
TV listings
TV listings have been obtained from the newspaper El Moujahid, a French language paper published in the capital, Addis Abbas.
In the paper the series was called LE DOCTEUR WHO, which is the French equivalent of the Arabic title AL DOCTOR HOU.
The paper called the first episode "un feuilleton d’aventure des science-fiction", which translates as "a science fiction adventure series".
A majority of the listings give the episode number with the title: e.g. 1ere partie, 12eme, 23eme, 34 partie.
In the listing for the first episode, the names of some of the main cast are named as "Carrol Ann, William Russel, William Martnell et Jacqueline Hill" (note the mis-spellings!)
A number of the listings also give the name of the director, although in some cases this is wrong, with Frank Cox or Mervyn Pinfield sometimes being credited for episodes they didn’t direct.
The newspaper identified the episode titles by their French translation of the adopted Arabic titles, which in some cases differed from the original English titles (see Arabic for a summary of these Arabic titles).
Translations are given only where the French title differs significantly from the original.
Fate of the Prints
It is believed that Algeria returned the prints (which had the Arabic dubs intact) to the BBC soon after they had been aired. It is thought that these prints were the ones recorded as still being held by BBC Enterprises when the Lively Arts documentary Whose Doctor Who' was in pre-production in November 1976.
When Ian Levine visited BBC Enterprises offices at Villiers House in early 1978, he found Arabic language copies of The Daleks) taped up awaiting destruction; it is thought that these prints were the ones returned from Algeria.
Algeria in Doctor Who
There are no known instances in which Algeria is mentioned in the series.
References
