Index: Lib/doctest.py
===================================================================
--- Lib/doctest.py	(revision 78484)
+++ Lib/doctest.py	(working copy)
@@ -235,6 +235,19 @@
     traceback.print_exception(exc_type, exc_val, exc_tb, file=excout)
     return excout.getvalue()
 
+def _bulletproof_write(stdout):
+    """
+    Implement `backsplashreplace` error handling on write when encoding
+    is not `utf-8`.
+    """
+    encoding = stdout.encoding
+    if encoding is None or encoding.lower() == 'utf-8':
+        return stdout.write
+    def write(s):
+        s = str(s.encode(encoding, 'backslashreplace'), encoding)
+        stdout.write(s)
+    return write
+
 # Override some StringIO methods.
 class _SpoofOut(StringIO):
     def getvalue(self):
@@ -1354,7 +1367,7 @@
 
         save_stdout = sys.stdout
         if out is None:
-            out = save_stdout.write
+            out = _bulletproof_write(save_stdout)
         sys.stdout = self._fakeout
 
         # Patch pdb.set_trace to restore sys.stdout during interactive
Index: Lib/test/test_doctest.py
===================================================================
--- Lib/test/test_doctest.py	(revision 78484)
+++ Lib/test/test_doctest.py	(working copy)
@@ -2288,6 +2288,25 @@
     >>> doctest.testfile('test_doctest4.txt', encoding='utf-8')
     TestResults(failed=0, attempted=2)
     >>> doctest.master = None  # Reset master.
+
+    >>> doctest.testfile('test_doctest4.txt', encoding='utf-8', verbose=True)
+    Trying:
+        'föö'
+    Expecting:
+        'f\xf6\xf6'
+    ok
+    Trying:
+        'bąr'
+    Expecting:
+        'b\u0105r'
+    ok
+    1 items passed all tests:
+       2 tests in test_doctest4.txt
+    2 tests in 1 items.
+    2 passed and 0 failed.
+    Test passed.
+    TestResults(failed=0, attempted=2)
+    >>> doctest.master = None  # Reset master.
 """
 
 def test_testmod(): r"""
@@ -2308,9 +2327,19 @@
 def test_main():
     # Check the doctest cases in doctest itself:
     support.run_doctest(doctest, verbosity=True)
-    # Check the doctest cases defined here:
+
     from test import test_doctest
-    support.run_doctest(test_doctest, verbosity=True)
+    # Save the real sys.argv list.
+    save_argv = sys.argv
+    if '-v' in sys.argv:
+        # Remove '-v' before running tests
+        sys.argv = [arg for arg in save_argv if arg != '-v']
+    try:
+        # Check the doctest cases defined here:
+        support.run_doctest(test_doctest, verbosity=True)
+    finally:
+        # Restore sys.argv
+        sys.argv = save_argv
 
 import trace, sys, re, io
 def test_coverage(coverdir):