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According to Bleeding Cool, who have checked this story with multiple sources at the BBC, a 'large' number of the missing episodes of DOCTOR WHO from the 1960s have been returned to the BBC. The BBC will formally announce this shortly once they have a plan to release the missing material to the fans.
As people may or may not be aware, in the 1970s the BBC, showing less foresight than a chronically depressed lemming, decided it would be a splendid idea to wipe their stocks of DOCTOR WHO episodes to re-use the film. Almost the entirety of the First and Second Doctor's runs were literally burned in the BBC's incinerators as a result. Fortunately, many, many copies of the material had been made when the series had been sold to other broadcasters around the world. As part of a serious restoration effort beginning in the 1980s, over half of the lost episodes were returned to the BBC archives from these other sources. Right now, 106 episodes remain missing, including nine complete serials.
According to the rumour, a 'large' stash of the missing episodes has been recovered. Several of the totally-missing serials are allegedly included, and several almost-incomplete serials have also been completed. The one constant in the rumour is that the 1967 seven-part serial EVIL OF THE DALEKS has been completely restored (only one episode survives). Several also report that the episode haul may complete William Hartnell's run as the Doctor (currently 44 Hartnell episodes are missing). If so, that suggests that at least 50 episodes have been recovered. However, the reports also say that the haul is not the complete run, and a few episodes remain missing. The source for the episodes is allegedly an African TV engineer who kept the episodes after transmission rather than junking them as instructed.
According to Bleeding Cool, the BBC will only announce the news once they have a release plan in place, and also possibly to tie in with the 50th anniversary in November.
However, several fans have pointed out that only a few WHO episodes from the 1960s were ever broadcast in Africa, and we know that EVIL OF THE DALEKS and THE TENTH PLANET (the fourth missing episode of which, featuring the first-ever regeneration scene, is also reportedly in the haul) were never broadcast over there. 'The Feast of Steven', an episode of THE DALEKS' MASTERPLAN (the 12-part megaepic in DOCTOR WHO's second season), was also never sold or transmitted outside of the UK and shows every sign of having been lost forever, so it seems unlikely that would be in the haul (it'd need to be to complete Hartnell's run).
How much of this story is accurate remains to be seen, but Bleeding Cool seem certain of their sources.
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It would be nice to see. A lot of BBC programs were destroyed in the same way and are gone forever like honestly quite a lot of humanities past creative works.
Monty Python's Flying Circus was rescued from the process by Terry Gilliam I believe. Would be nice to see more of the old Doctor Who. It'd be nice if they took some time cleaning up a lot of the older episodes as well if we're going to get charged an arm and a leg for them. :/
I never believe unnamed sources. It's a holdover from my (few) days as a journalist, when my editors wouldn't let me quote anyone I didn't get the name of, because they wanted us to be able to trace back our facts to a definitive source. "An unnamed source tells the readers that you made it up." Based on what I read of the internet "journalists" who often cite "an unnamed source" or "rumor" usually that turns out to be true.
But I hope my cynicism is wrong. It would be nice if they would find more--especially Troughton episodes, since so very many are missing.
Based on what I read of the internet "journalists" who often cite "an unnamed source" or "rumor" usually that turns out to be true.
Agreed! Usually it's one numpty infers it off another numpty, and then the second numpty reads the first numpties 'article' and thinks that this corroborates their initial suspicions!
Its like the conspiracy guys continual circle jerk where they go around referencing each other all the time.
Yeah, I mean, the american government's agencies trawling through every bit of data americans have through backdoors into various companies! Couldn't those stupid conspiracy idiots have come up with something that could even remotely have been true?
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More importantly, couldn't those agencies have just located the missing episodes for us?
fingers crossed
Bleeding Cool has retreated somewhat from its previous statement. It now says that someone has definitely claimed to have these missing episodes, along with a large number of other BBC shows long thought lost, but that the initially fruitful and positive negotiations have given way to the belief that the whole thing might have been either a massive exaggeration of what the person does have, or an outright hoax. Apparently the matter remains under investigation by the BBC.
Bleeding Cool does give more detail on what was supposed to be present though: no less than 90 of the 106 missing episodes (missing only nine episodes of THE DALEKS MASTER PLAN, MISSING TO THE UNKNOWN, two episodes of THE INVASION, two of THE ICE WARRIORS and two of THE WHEEL IN SPACE). There were also many more episodes that have actually already been returned to the BBC, but some of them may have been in better condition than the existing ones.
The matter remains under investigation, but Bleeding Cool and other sources are now pouring a lot of cold water over the whole affair. Interestingly, the BBC has refused to comment at all, suggesting that some sort of negotiations or investigations are indeed continuing.
Sounds like money could be the holdup
Read the Bleeding Cool article, and the author's regret. This, friends, is why you do not cite a source that won't be named.
You can get an anonymous tip, sure, but that tip has to lead you to something substantial, traceable, and immediately provable.
Some of the details seem sketchy... exactly two episodes of the Invasion are missing. This "source" conveniently has two (when they'd likely be of a different print/copy than the currently found episodes). Doesn't ring true. If this "source" exists at all as more than a figment of Rich Johnston's imagination, they're probably as noted either trying to get money for something they don't have or just getting off on starting a rumor desperate fans want so badly to believe they let wishful thinking get in the way of responsible reporting.
The BBC is likely tacit while they check any and all real sources and don't want to connect themselves in any way to a possible con artist. Even if there is absolutely no truth to the rumor, they are smart for staying quiet until the excitement cools down.
Again, if they do find new episodes, great. But I will be truly surprised--pleased, but surprised.
As it is, I'm a big proponent of taking the many audio recordings made by fans and animating the lost episodes, as they've done for several stories already. I know it's expensive to animate, but a lot of people would buy them as indeed, they've never been sold before!
The other thing in addition to what LazarX said, they really viewed broadcast TV as a transient thing -- you caught it on broadcast, or you missed it and that was it. Reruns were still rare, IIRC, and the idea of being able to affordably record, license, and sell home video was a ways off. While you wish they'd had some better foresight about it, it's understandable why the children's department of a public television company thought the quirky kid's show about the grumpy old man in a box wasn't going to last or be of historical interest, especially when they needed the tape for other things.
I desperately wish they hadn't done it, and if _I_ had a time machine, I would definitely go back to the BBC archives and go "nooooooo! don't do it!" (or at least surreptitiously rescue the condemned tapes). But one can see how it happened. I'm sure it's not the only TV show lost because of that.
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The reason BBC was wiping was they were running out of room in their storage vaults (which was an above ground warehouse, not an underground cave like the US) and since TV was now in Color, they thought no one would want to watch old Black and White shows any more. This was also before the VCR revolution took off, so no one thought there was a long term market for these old B&W shows.
Also, BBC Worldwide was an independant extension of the BBC. It was their job to distribute TV shows to other countries. They also had storage problem and decided to burn their films to make space (and I do mean burn).
The problem was neither the BBC nor BBC Worldwide consulted each other and both thought the other was keeping the origionals or copies.
Thus from a lack of communication many old BBC TV shows are gone.
What I do find surprising is that the BBC didn't give copies of shows to the primary actors like they did in the US.
Chief Technical Officer
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The episodes of the first 2 Doctors were shot on video, and the cassettes were simply wiped and reused as needed for other productions. When they did the big revamp with the start of the Jon Pertwee era, they switched from Video to film production which is why the "lost" episodes are confined to this period. What has been recovered is largely from viewers who recorded the episodes when they were broadcast, which is why the quality of the material is so degraded.
Lots of incorrect information here.
Almost every Doctor Who episode *ever* was shot primarily on video. Film was used for most location shooting, many model and special effects shots, and very occasionally in the studio as well, but with the lone exception of Spearhead from Space (the only all-film story*), the format for the final edits (and broadcast masters) was always videotape.
However, Doctor Who was sold into foreign markets, many of whom couldn't easily deal with at least some of the PAL videotape formats used by the BBC, so episodes were sold internationally on film instead of video.
You're correct that neither the folks who ran the videotape library nor the division holding the films for overseas sale had a mandate for archiving, and when it was learned that the videotape folks had been recycling videotapes and the film copies that were no longer needed for sale were being destroyed, they did an inventory, and it was far more than just Hartnells and Troughtons that were missing—many Pertwees were as well.
Most of the recoveries have *not* been from viewer recordings; nearly all of them have been from returns of films that had been made for foreign sale. (Most came from foriegn broadcasters themselves, and a few of them came from private hands, but even those were still prints that had been made for foreign sale.)
This is why most of the recoveries have featured Hartnell and not Troughton—the first couple Hartnell seasons sold overseas very well, but only a few countries screened Troughton's run.
About the only useful visual material that has been recovered from home recordings are a few color videotapes of Pertwee episodes that the BBC held only on film in black-and-white, plus a handful of 8mm home movies taken from the TV screen. Fans *have* been instrumental in providing homemade audio recordings from the original broadcasts, including the soundtracks to every single missing episode... but video, not so much.
*Because Spearhead from Space was shot all on film, it's the only story that can benefit throughout from a high-definition remaster, which is why it's being released on Blu-Ray later this year.
Ian Levine, the DOCTOR WHO superfan who has done a lot to recover lost episodes and is highly-regarded in fan circles (he also co-wrote the abominable 'Doctor in Distress' charity single from 1985, but we'll forgiv him that) and who until a couple of days ago was poo-pooing the rumours, has now said he has unequivocal proof of the discovery. No less than THREE TONS of film cans have been recovered. The state of them is unclear and the inventory is also unconfirmed, though he states that he believes it's pretty much what's been reported: 90 episodes.
Official confirmation from the BBC has still not appeared, but the episodes appear to be back in the UK right now (they're not still stuck in Africa) and negotiations have been going on for two years to get them back to the BBC and sorted out.
Maybe Levine's Twitter account has been hacked, but if not it's worth remembering that Levine is an extremely prominent figure in DOCTOR WHO fandom and has been for 30 years. It'd be total suicide to his credibility to make such claims without hard evidence.
The silver anniversary (25 years) was in 1988 ;) This is the golden anniversary.
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No less than THREE TONS of film cans have been recovered. The state of them is unclear and the inventory is also unconfirmed, though he states that he believes it's pretty much what's been reported: 90 episodes.
Let's hope that what's in the cans is still capable of surviving a trip through a laser film scanner.
One wonders if the shipment of film (whatever it may actually in reality may contain) was shipped to the UK two years ago, what's it's been doing all that time.
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Chief Technical Officer
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All I will say about the potential for recoveries is that there are very few people that I trust on this matter (mainly because only a very few people are normally in a position to know), and one person I do trust, who would know, and who is usually clear and communicative about smacking down these rumors, has been cagey and quiet this week. I think there's something to it. I don't know if it's 90 episodes or half an episode, but at this point, I believe that there's something in the pipeline.
I'm also sure that the BBC will not say anything until they have hands-on verified everything. I seem to recall a case some years back that involved announcements and even release plans made based on a "recovered" tape that ultimately turned out to be blank, and I don't think anybody wants that to happen again.
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Chief Technical Officer
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A couple of corrections to my corrections:
...with the lone exception of Spearhead from Space (the only all-film story*), the format for the final edits (and broadcast masters) was always videotape.
In addition to Spearhead from Space, ten other individual episodes—I'm not sure which—were transmitted from film; these were episodes that had special editing requirements that couldn't be carried out on videotape at the time.
Most of the recoveries have *not* been from viewer recordings; nearly all of them have been from returns of films that had been made for foreign sale. (Most came from foriegn broadcasters themselves, and a few of them came from private hands, but even those were still prints that had been made for foreign sale.)
Some of the missing Pertwees were returned on videotape, not film, though my actual point stands—these were tapes duplicated by the BBC for foreign broadcast, not viewer recordings.
All I will say about the potential for recoveries is that there are very few people that I trust on this matter (mainly because only a very few people are normally in a position to know), and one person I do trust, who would know, and who is usually clear and communicative about smacking down these rumors, has been cagey and quiet this week. I think there's something to it. I don't know if it's 90 episodes or half an episode, but at this point, I believe that there's something in the pipeline.
I'm also sure that the BBC will not say anything until they have hands-on verified everything. I seem to recall a case some years back that involved announcements and even release plans made based on a "recovered" tape that ultimately turned out to be blank, and I don't think anybody wants that to happen again.
I just wish people would not perpetuate anything, "even if they know a guy who knows a guy," until there is something that can be 100% verifiable and solid that can be shared publicly.
Otherwise it stirs up a lot of emotion over nothing. And Doctor Who fans seem to get themselves worked up over rumors worse than some others.
"I heard from someone definitely in the know that maybe something is happening... or not" just stirs the pot in the wrong direction.
One wonders if the shipment of film (whatever it may actually in reality may contain) was shipped to the UK two years ago, what's it's been doing all that time.
Apparently there's 8,000 cans of film. Given a lot of the film cans would be 50 or more years old, they're probably quite fragile and the BBC would have to be quite exacting in going through and checking everything. Given they presumably don't have hundreds of people doing this (as things would leak, plus the BBC's budget cuts make it highly unlikely they do), this would explain why it's taken two years to check things. I'm hoping they'd be logical and go through all the DOCTOR WHO material first because that's the stuff they could immediately monetise, so they could announce that ahead of anything else. If their plan is to only announce it once they've gone through absolutely everything, they could still be years away. Which would be dumb.
If it's true, of course.
Given that this is from the guy that supposedly found the cache, it seems it's really over this time.
I really what to know what he means when he says "ODD FRAGMENTS HAVE SURFACED TWO EPISODES ON 16MM FILM BUT THATS IT."
I think he might be referring to the two episodes found a couple of years ago. It's hard to tell.
If this is someone trolling someone, it's becoming quite amusing. The latest twist is that the people holding the missing episodes have been demanding that Steven Moffat step down from producing WHO before they consider returning the episodes. Producer Caroline Skinner was allegedly negotiating around this problem, but since her departure negotiations are on hold. However, the BBC did receive several episodes as a token of good faith and are planning to release these and there'll be news of this sooooonnnnorrrre. Sorry, fell asleep for a second there.
Mad conspiracy theory of the day that I saw on the Bleeding Cool forum: this whole thing is a foiler orchestrated by the BBC to distract people from possible leaks about the 12th Doctor casting. Hmm.
What a clever marketing strategy to get people to pre-order Terror of the Zygons.
I have no actual evidence for anything detailed below at all
The only useful and valuable insight from the article.
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Chief Technical Officer
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The rumour stands that whoever hold the films wants the films to be properly treated, with full restoration, the use of vidFIRE and the like, while BBC Worldwide wanted to release them quickly in the format they arrived in. And that has caused the delay, in negotiation and release.
I don't buy that for a second. BBC Worldwide has been in no hurry to release Underwater Menace 2, which they've had since late 2011; in fact, it *still* doesn't have a release date set.
(And before anyone suggests that the *reason* they haven't announced a release is because they want to release it along with episodes 1 and 4 that are reported to be in this stash... then why did they already release Galaxy 4 episode 3, discovered at the same time, when episodes 1, 2, and 4 of that serial are *also* reported to be in this stash?)
To be fair, UNDERWATER MENACE does have a reputation of being utterly terrible ("Nothing in ze vorld can stop me now!"). There wouldn't be much appeal in getting it out quickly. Why they did choose to get GALAXY 4 out I don't though, though it is critically better-regarded (not exactly difficult).
On the other hand, the likes of POWER and EVIL OF THE DALEKS, THE HIGHLANDERS (if only for Jaime's first appearance) and THE TENTH PLANET and THE MOONBASE would all be hugely appealing releases, even to less-hardcore fans. I could see why the BBC might want to release them. In addition, the restoration team is not very large and apparently not very well-funded. Restoring 90 episodes and bringing them up to the quality needed for a DVD or even a Blu-Ray release with such a small team would likely take years.
I suspect this is why the rumour isn't dying out, and might yet even keep going for another couple of years: the time factor means nothing need to be confirmed for a long time, and of course that also 'explains' (to conspiracy nutters) why some of the parties involved are denying everything, as they don't want to get people's hopes up when it might be a long process before they see anything.
The whole thing is almost certainly rubbish, but it's interesting to see the story develop to take account of the denials and details that emerge.
Interesting, Charles, I was just thinking they really should have reissued the Target novelizations for the 50th anniversary. Making them available for e-reader would make beautiful sense.
Thanks to an old friend, I have a massive load of the novels, luckily, and they're really nice to read -- often they're written by the script writer or someone else close to Doctor Who and often include things either cut due to editing or lack of budget, so they can include insights into characters and such that you never get to see in the televised version.
And there WERE novelizations for most of the missing episodes, so it's a way for everyone to enjoy those stories.
Geez, why haven't they republished those? Maybe there's licensing/copyright issues, but I can't see how.
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Just saw this article.
It is an easy way to convert old films to digital. Once converted, it would be easy to correct and restore the images, as the computers are able to correct all frames in a series based on just one frame that was corrected manually.
If the BBC's restoration department is so small, this would enable them to do a whole serial in a matter of few weeks to a couple of months.
They actually have reissued the Target novelizations, but only a few. They've put them out in new covers with new introductions. The ones re-released are:
DOCTOR WHO AND THE DALEKS by David Whitaker, introduced by Neil Gaiman.
DOCTOR WHO AND THE CYBERMEN (THE MOONBASE) by Gerry Davis, introduced by Gareth Roberts.
DOCTOR WHO AND THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMEN by Terrance Dicks, introduced by Stephen Baxter.
DOCTOR WHO AND THE CAVE MONSTERS (THE SILURIANS) by Malcolm Hulke, introduced by Terrance Dicks.
DOCTOR WHO AND THE AUTON INVASION (SPEARHEAD FROM SPACE) by Terrance Dicks, introduced by Russell T. Davies.
DOCTOR WHO AND THE CRUSADERS (THE CRUSADES) by David Whitaker, introduced by Charlie Higson.
That was two years ago and we haven't seen any more, so I assume they didn't sell well enough to warrant a full re-release in print. Re-releasing them as e-editions should be easy enough, though.
Also, thanks to Gareth Roberts' take on SHADA last year, we're down to just four stories left unnovelised: CITY OF DEATH, THE PIRATE PLANET, RESURRECTION OF THE DALEKS and REVELATION OF THE DALEKS.
DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE fuels the flames of speculation by having on the cover quote:
"Oh, you shouldn't be worried. Time Lords have ninety lives."
This is is from the episode CREATURE FROM THE PIT and is likely being used in conjunction with their "67 Faces of DOCTOR WHO" article (which tracks down every extra, comedy appearance and non-canonical person to play the role).
But of course a few people are going nuts over the number NINETY being mentioned.
This is the nothing-story that somehow keeps on giving, despite a complete lack of evidence.
It's because everyone wants what they can't have...
They actually have reissued the Target novelizations, but only a few. They've put them out in new covers with new introductions. (snip)
That was two years ago and we haven't seen any more, so I assume they didn't sell well enough to warrant a full re-release in print. Re-releasing them as e-editions should be easy enough, though.
It's also UK only, and it looks like stocks are low at this point.
Although I did notice at Amazon.co.uk that some of them did have Kindle editions, so I don't know if you can buy at the UK site internationally and still get them sent to your Kindle. I'd try except that I already own all of those hard copy from my old collection, so there's no point for me in spending the money.
Let's try this again: a well-marketed, international release of the Target books in e-reader form would be awesome. :)
Also, thanks to Gareth Roberts' take on SHADA last year,
"Shada" was novelized by the man who wrote the script decades ago, it was just named Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency at the time.
we're down to just four stories left unnovelised: CITY OF DEATH, THE PIRATE PLANET, RESURRECTION OF THE DALEKS and REVELATION OF THE DALEKS.
Could've sworn I read a novelized "Resurrection..." but my memory must be misleading me.
Could've sworn I read a novelized "Resurrection..." but my memory must be misleading me.
All four have been novelised by fans and released on the Internet AFAIK, but they've never been officially released.
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It's not "easy". It's a lot of intense and backbreaking grunt work. And it's not cheap either. The digital restoration of "Destination Mars" ran up a 4 million dollar price tag, and this is after prying the only existing print in relatively good condition from hands of the Federal government that had seized it shortly after the film's completion and held onto it for decades.Just saw this article.
It is an easy way to convert old films to digital. Once converted, it would be easy to correct and restore the images, as the computers are able to correct all frames in a series based on just one frame that was corrected manually.
There's also the fact that the device digitizes FILM, and almost the entirety of the show was originally recorded on videotape.
I never believe unnamed sources. It's a holdover from my (few) days as a journalist, when my editors wouldn't let me quote anyone I didn't get the name of, because they wanted us to be able to trace back our facts to a definitive source. "An unnamed source tells the readers that you made it up." Based on what I read of the internet "journalists" who often cite "an unnamed source" or "rumor" usually that turns out to be true.
But I hope my cynicism is wrong. It would be nice if they would find more--especially Troughton episodes, since so very many are missing.
Cynicism can be wrong. Two missing episodes, believed to be from Troughton's era, will be made available digitally on iTunes on Wednesday according to the Daily Times. Its not been announced which series they are from except that they are from different stories. Whether BBC has more missing episodes they have chosen not to release yet is still unknown.