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EL DOCTOR MISTERIO

Doctor Misterio logo

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".

Given that Venezuela was the first country to screen these stories in Spanish, it is highly likely that Radio Caracas Televisión was responsible for commissioning of and arranging for the first batch of Spanish dubs to be made.

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 decided not to go ahead with dubbing those two historicals. This action precluded subsequent Spanish-speaking countries from purchasing those two serials. One possible reason for why those stories were not dubbed was that the purchasers considered that "past" stories set in 13th century China and revolutionary France, and later Nero's Rome, Palestine during the Third Crusade, and 1066 Northumbria, would hold little interest or historical significance to Latin American 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.


WHO DUBBED WHO?

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


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..." 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.

The incidental music was also changed. 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 dubbed into Spanish and included in the package of episodes...


These twelve stories screened in the following countries:


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

Doctor Misterio

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.


The first two countries to air these stories 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.

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.

Again, the dubbing was rather haphazard in places, with footstep 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. Awful 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.


Airdates for the following countries are recorded in BroaDWcast:

The following countries are recorded in BBC Records or elsewhere as having bought these Baker serials, however we have not been able to pinpoint the airdates:


When 50 Tom Baker episodes screened on a regional basis across Spain in the late 1980s, 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.


Links

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