Missing Episodes FOUND!... but are there more?

[SiHart]

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/06/...s-in-november/

We were promised lots for the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who. But half a season made last year, a one off special and the Christmas special have left some fans annoyed, disappointed and wanting more.

Well, there’s a big rumour that they are getting it.

And no, not just the Adventure In Time And Space making-of-the-first-episode drama. Nor the 50th Anniversary Convention. Nor the 50th Anniversary party hats.

At least I think there will be hats. There should be hats.

I’ve been hearing chatter about this particular rumour for some time. But it’s started to coalesce a little recently so I now feel more comfortable at least reporting on the rumour. I’m still missing anything remotely resembling proper details, such as a conformation from an official source, but still.

And the rumour is that we may be getting a whole host of Doctor Who episodes.

Not new ones, but episodes not seen anywhere since they were first broadcast.

We all know that through a series of cock ups, incompetence and lack of forethought, swathes of episodes of Doctor Who from the sixties were wiped by the BBC. Some episodes were found again, some were sold to other countries, some kept in people’s loft space, but over a hundred episodes of the show were missing, along with episodes, entire series even, of many other BBC shows.

What I’ve been hearing, and some of it is attributed to an eccentric engineer who worked for broadcasters across Africa with a taste for science fiction and a habit of taking things for “safe keeping”, is that the BBC have secured a large number of presumed-wiped episodes of early Doctor Who.

And there are lots. Lots and lots. Completed serials that we’ve only had incomplete before, full series that nothing existed of. Not everything. But heaps and heaps. Possibly even The Full Hartnell.

And come November, or before, we’ll get to see them.

Now promises of this kind have been made many times before. Sometimes they’ve come true, sometimes they have now. But I’m told to expect, among others, a full Evil Of The Daleks from 1967. Up till now, the BBC only had the second of seven episodes, after that film was found in a car boot sale.

There’s even the rumour that the much touted DVD set Regenerations out this month, with its previewed animation clip of the regeneration between the first and second Doctors is a bluff, and they now have the full The Tenth Planet in which the Doctor regenerated for the first time which will be released in this set. But that strikes me as wish-fulfillment too far. Would be very clever though.

I’m going to cross my fingers for the next five months. You just never know.

UPDATE: Shortly after posting, I received further confirmation of the details listed above from another, better connected source. I don’t think I need to cross my fingers quite so hard any more.

Right, OK, this may be another rumour, it may not. I've heard the same thing from a couple of other sources this week, so who knows. What do we think folks? is a bit haul coming or are we just clutching at straws here and this is just another big hoax?

[Ian Lethbridge-Stewart]

I really hope it is true, but I'm afraid that for me it's a case of "I'll believe it when I see it and not before".
I'm not going to get excited unless something is confirmed by an official source.

[Jason Thompson]

Un-named (and therefore unverifiable) sources are worthless. This sort of rumour has surfaced too many times before to be credible. If it turns out to be true I'll be ecstatic of course, but it definitely sounds too good to be true to have a whole host of recovered episodes just in time for the anniversary.

[Jon Masters]

Beware of low flying porcines, me thinks

[Philipnet]

Well, so far only Bleeding Cool seem to be running this story.
I'm not going to hold my breath - however any 50th anniversary presents will be appreciated!

[Rob McCow]

I'd be pants-wettingly excited just to get another episode of Galaxy 4 back, so anything is good by my book.

Who knows? I very much doubt that they would be releasing The Ice Warriors and The Tenth Planet with animated episodes if there was a strong chance of them showing up in their full glory.

[Si Hunt]

Oh Steve you are so sweet!

Si.

[Simon R]

The Africa rumours have been building since last year when it was rumoured 40 episodes had been found by that Phil Morris from the Reign of Terror commentary. The official line from the Restoration Team is that the results of his work (positive or negative) won't be revealed until he's finished his search. Presumably this rumour is related to him.

[Perry Vale]

I'll believe it when I read it on Eye Of Horus....

However I hear elsewhere that this year's 'Missing Believed Wiped' is slightly earlier in November this year...

[Jon Masters]

It's the idea that they've got loads of titles hidden away, that they're somehow going to release them all for the anniversary, that I find difficult to believe. What is this report suggesting - we're going to get a 20 story box set called the Hartnell years that'll cost a mere £400 a pop ?

Given how DW DVDs are flogged, we'd be getting one rarety per month, hugely hyped beforehand, and well away from the anniversary when we might be tempted to spend our fan pounds somewhere else.

[Andrew Curnow]

It would be very nice though, just to have them back. You're absolutely right, Jon, even if we discover in November that some clever soul has turned up the entire season 4, it'll be some time (years rather than months) before they're sitting on our shelves...

...and yet, actually, I don't really mind that. Heresy maybe, but I've not yet felt the urge to buy The Aztecs with Air Lock on it, and nor am I forever raging against the non-availability of TUM Part 2. But I do, rather stupidly perhaps, like just knowing they are out there. Maybe it goes back to the 80s when DWM seemed to be reporting on recovered episodes all the time, and yet we never then ever expected to see them anyway.

And yes, obviously, if it turns out they've dug up any or all of The Massacre I will be ignoring my previous paragraph and picketing Dan Hall's doorstep until Steve Roberts & co have thoroughly touched up both Hartnell & the Abbot and I'm watching them!!!

[Nyder]

I find it hard to believe that the whole of Evil of the Daleks is waiting to be announced in November. It would be lovely lovely lovely, but my realist genes kick in and tell my fan boy genes not to be so bloody stupid!

[brandynigma]

I've been hearing this for about 18 months now, as well as the cause for the hold up: negotiations with the episode holders. In the past 20 years, the BBC have only really had to deal with negotiating the return of individual eps from private hands- not huge bulks from corporations.

I think there is certainly a true element in this- otherwise, it would have been laughed out of the room ages ago rather than being the monochrome, telecined elephant in the corner.

[Stuart Wallis]

So I think we're more or less all agreed on the official PS line - anything, any time, particularly this year, but wake me up and remind me when it's official.

[Philipnet]

Ah,
We're sooo cynical

[Rob McCow]

Jonathan Morris has described the rumours as cruel, irresponsible BS.

So he's in the 'negative' camp then?

[brandynigma]

My crazy theory:

I think the BBC have known about this haul for a while, as well as a list of what's available. As such, I'd say the missing episodes of Galaxy 4, The Tenth Planet, The Ice Warriors, The Moonbase and The Underwater Menace (rumoured to be in the process of animation) can, sadly, be ruled out. I'd also rule out The Reign of Terror because that would be just cruel, and it's my crazy theory so I can add a little bit of hunch into my logic.

Now, the rumours are saying Africa, which I believe didn't buy Mission to the Unknown, The Daleks' Master Plan or Season 6 (No eps of The Invasion or The Space Pirates).

So, what does that leave us with?

Hartnell: 30 episodes to be recovered (Marco Polo, The Crusade, The Myth Makers, The Massacre, The Celestial Toymaker, The Savages, The Smugglers)

Troughton: 49 episodes to be recovered (Power of the Daleks, The Highlanders, The Macra Terror, The Faceless Ones, The Evil of the Daleks, The Abominable Snowmen, The Enemy of the World, The Web of Fear, Fury from the Deep and The Wheel in Space)

Interestingly, the rumour fluctuates between 30-80 episodes tracked down.

Of course, I'm basing a LOT here on assumptions, but not unreasonable ones, I think. Even if it's just one episode, that's brilliant. Any more and I think I shall weep.

[Simon R]

There's a rumour about Turkey and Tunisia having something and one of them only showed Hartnells that exist and the other didn't show anything!

I wouldn't rule out the animated episodes turning up. Life can be that cruel!

[Dino]

One half of me is dismissing it.
Another substantial fraction is getting excited.
And the final part of me is hoping this haul comes... straight after 2entertain's contract runs out!

[Dave Tudor]

I would love this to be true, but I can't help feel that this a massive case of wishful thinking, especially with such a big haul, and one which will complete the Hartnell era. It's odd, too, that suddenly there's a complete 'Evil of the Daleks' about to turn up when for the last two years it's been a complete 'Power of the Daleks' they've been sitting on.

It would be nice for at least one more missing episode to turn up this year but for so many to be returned in the 50th anniversary year would, I'm afraid, be just too good to be true.

[MacNimon]

It all just sounds too good to be true, doesn't it? Which inevitably means that, of course, it will be too good to be true. Having said that, it doesn't rule out the fact that they may possibly have uncovered a haul of missing episodes in recent years and have managed to keep it a secret, aiming for maximum publicity around say, September/October-ish, does it? A major unexpected release - a BIG complete story such as a Whittaker Dalek one - plus a few individual episodes - wouldn't surprise me in the slightest. There have been too many rumours in recent years which have apparently come to nothing for nothing to be behind the stories.

Still a big wish though, isn't it?

[Perry Vale]

And the final part of me is hoping this haul comes... straight after 2entertain's contract runs out!

2entertain have no contract to release Doctor Who, and haven't for a very long time. They're owned by BBC Worldwide, who are in charge of all BBC releases, AIUI.

[Perry Vale]

This post on Roobarbs from Edward Drexel did make me chuckle....

I wonder if the delay in the announcement of this huge find is because the person who has the episodes is asking for Ian Levine to stump up the promised reward of a full-size Dalek for each film can? :-)

Edited to add: What has Ida Lupino had to say about all this, anything?

[Rob McCow]

The problem is that it could turn out to be true in an instant; or it could continue to be untrue for many, many years to come.

[Si Hunt]

I will post more on all this one day, but for now I'd just like to say that one thing I DON'T believe is that episodes being animated means they won't have turned up.

If those episodes have turned up, going by the timing of the rumours, they'll have been discovered and made their way back just as the episodes were being commissioned and made as animations. The question you have to ask yourself is if the BBC would put a halt to a commercial contract to produce a product just because those episodes MAY be about to come back, or even if they have been discovered and MIGHT come into their possession. No, they wouldn't. Firstly because things don't work like that, you don't put an animation studio full of people on the back burner and tell them "Hang tight for a while..." for six months just because something MIGHT come back; if it doesn't, and let's face it that's more likely than not, your revenue producing project is sunk, and everyone has got different jobs. Secondly, because - ooh, what's the risk? That you've sold something that you then have to sell to the same people again when the proper episodes come back. Oh no! Twice as much product sold! Especially as you can then just say "Oh the irony, Tenth Planet has been returned just after we sold you an animation of it!". And after all, is anyone really going to complain?

Si.