Missing episodes announcement?

[misterharry]

Here we go again!

Radio Times news

Press conference at 8pm on Tuesday evening apparently. The Sunday Mirror ran the story yesterday apparently, but now that the Radio Times has repeated it, it may have a bit more credibility.

Of course, it could all be a false alarm again and refer to the recovered episodes of The Underwater Menace and Galaxy 4 being made available to download (and the suggestion that it's two Troughton episodes is an error). But one hopes, one hopes...

[misterharry]

The Guardian is now reporting that the announcement won't be until Thursday:

The Guardian

Hmmm...

[Escher]

Oct 7, 2013 19:15:36 GMT misterharry said:

The Guardian is now reporting that the announcement won't be until Thursday:

The Guardian

Hmmm...

The fact that the BBC have a press conferance for Thursday holds more than a little hope! The possibility of seeing the missing Hartnell and Troughton episodes has me a little emotional and if this goes well I'm probably going to dislocate my shoulder from the biggest air punch I've ever thrown.

[misterharry]

Oct 8, 2013 12:33:19 GMT Escher said:

The fact that the BBC have a press conferance for Thursday holds more than a little hope! The possibility of seeing the missing Hartnell and Troughton episodes has me a little emotional and if this goes well I'm probably going to dislocate my shoulder from the biggest air punch I've ever thrown.

You and me both!

There certainly seems to be something afoot. The main Who forums have all banned discussion of missing episodes until after Thursday's announcement, so there's little in the way of speculation to be had now, let alone information. I just hope it turns out to be the recovery of missing episodes after all, and not something else which would probably be mightily disappointing in comparison.

[misterharry]

OMG! BBC News has confirmed that an unspecified number of missing episodes have been found:

BBC News

The number isn't stated and more details will be revealed later this week. Time to put the bubbly on ice, methinks!

[Escher]

Oct 8, 2013 14:44:08 GMT misterharry said:

OMG! BBC News has confirmed that an unspecified number of missing episodes have been found:

BBC News

The number isn't stated and more details will be revealed later this week. Time to put the bubbly on ice, methinks!

Was literally going to post this seconds ago...

I have butterflies in my stomach...

I hope they have found at least the following:

The Daleks' Master Plan
The Tenth Planet (Episode 4)
The Power of the Daleks
The Evil of the Daleks
The Abominable Snowmen
The Web of Fear

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Who_missing_episodes

[Escher]

Troughton's been indicated:

Deborahwatling.net

'Deborah, along with Frazer Hines, will be helping the BBC to launch the newly found Dr.Who episodes this Thurs (10/10/13), between 3.30pm and 7.00pm approx.'

[misterharry]

So, 2nd Doctor/Jamie/Victoria episodes? You can't go far wrong with that!

[ninjaconor]

I'm so glad I only heard about this today so I only have to wait a few hours to hear the announcement! The tension is killing me.

[Craig Oxbrow]

And we have nine episodes. All of Enemy Of The World and all but one of The Web Of Fear.

A lot less than absolutely everything as certain tabloids claimed, but still a complete story and one nearly so, and pushing the number of episodes still missing down to double figures!

Doctor Who Magazine

SFX

[Ordovician]

I'd been hearing rumors that there were more episodes, this was just the "first round" of BBC announcements; has anyone in the UK who's actually seen the conference gotten that from what was said?

[misterharry]

Oct 11, 2013 5:58:54 GMT Ordovician said:

I'd been hearing rumors that there were more episodes, this was just the "first round" of BBC announcements; has anyone in the UK who's actually seen the conference gotten that from what was said?

According to a poster on Gallifrey Base, the BBC were asked whether any more episodes have been recovered and they wouldn't answer. Read into that what you will - it won't stop the continued speculation though!

But anyway, nine episodes - superb result!

[Corone]

In case you don't already have it,
Cubicle 7 released 'The Web of Fear' section from the 2nd Doctor book to celebrate the discovery

www.cubicle7.co.uk/rediscovered-second-doctor-episodes/

[Catsmate]

Bump.

It seems that more 'missing' episodes are in private collections, but the holders are reluctant to return them for fear of prosecution.
A general amnesty is being suggested.

www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/nov/11/lost-doctor-who-episodes-found-owner-reluctant-to-hand-them-to-bbc

[misterharry]

Nov 12, 2023 17:11:08 GMT Catsmate said:

Bump.

It seems that more 'missing' episodes are in private collections, but the holders are reluctant to return them for fear of prosecution.
A general amnesty is being suggested.

www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/nov/11/lost-doctor-who-episodes-found-owner-reluctant-to-hand-them-to-bbc

Unfortunately, that article is wildly inaccurate and the interviewee, John Franklin, has asked The Guardian to take it down (which they have not as yet done). It's entirely possible that there are missing episodes in private hands, but the Guardian article is raising false hopes.

[tampahawke]

Very xciting news either way. I look forward to hearing what they found.

[Nyder]

To be very clear about this article, it contains no new information that hasn't been known for years and much that is inaccurate. Even the main claim of two known episodes should be treated with caution. The only one where there's a reasonable expectation of still being in private hands is episode 3 of The Web of Fear.

John Franklin is not an expert on Doctor Who and believed he was going to be interviewed about a different matter entirely. There is NO expectation of any imminent announcement of any recovered or existing episodes. The article is a good example of poor journalism.

[Catsmate]

Oh dear.

[thewarchief]

Nov 12, 2023 17:11:08 GMT Catsmate said:

Bump.

It seems that more 'missing' episodes are in private collections, but the holders are reluctant to return them for fear of prosecution.
A general amnesty is being suggested.

That rumor has been going around since the 80s, if not longer. I suspect there is some truth about some episodes or parts of episodes being in the hands of collectors, but no truth in the claim that they are being held back due to fear of reprisals from the BBC. In fact, I think the BBC's offer of a Dalek as a reward for a missing episode still stands.

I think that if there are any episodes in private hands, the real reason why the collectors haven't return them to the BCC isn't become of legal action, but because if they turned the episodes in then they wouldn't be rare and collectible anymore.

[lupercal]

So we're not getting them because of greedy, egotistical a**holes. Which is typical.

Friendly greetings,
Lupercal.

[thewarchief]

Nov 30, 2023 1:31:49 GMT lupercal said:

So we're not getting them because of greedy, egotistical a**holes. Which is typical.

Friendly greetings,
Lupercal.

Probably, assuming that such episodes exist, which isn't a known thing.

But to be fair to the " greedy, egotistical a**holes", it's not their fault. They weren't the ones who wiped the master tapes or edited out various bits of content from existing film reels, making the stuff missing in the first place.

They are just collectors, and not necessarily even Doctor Who fans, who someone or other got hold of episodes that legally should have been destroyed, and persevered them all these years. I don't really see them as being all that bad for not turning their films over to the very company that would have ensured their destruction, and only now wants them back to make money of of it themselves. I mean there are " greedy, egotistical a**holes" on both sides of the story here.Had the collectors did what the BBC wanted years ago the episodes wouldn't exist at all. The only reason any of the lost episodes came back was because someone either didn't destroy something they should have, or something got lost in a vault room somewhere.

Yes, we'd all like to see more episodes come back, because we are fans, but it's not like we have any more right to those episodes than the people who have them now, or the company that threw them out.


Plus, as I mentioned, this rumor has been going around since at least the 1980s, and since that time a few episodes have been returned to the BBC from collectors, so it's quite possible that whatever missing episodes that were in private hands ave already been returned. So you might be blaming someone for something that they didn't do 20-30 years ago.


Personally, I think the best hope of recovering lost episodes isn't the "greedy collectors" angle but the unreturned/not-destroyed film copies angle. There probably are still a few episodes tucked away in the film storage of some TV station that showed the series in the 70s that didn't return or destroy their copies. Some of those stations are in some unstable parts of the world, making even more likely that some Doctor Who episodes could have been lost in the shuffle of a civil war or two.


P.S.: I'll definitely apply the " greedy, egotistical a**holes" title to those who swiped a couple of episodes of the Web of Fear from the completed series en route to the BBC.