Previous Missing Episode Rumours

[Simon R]

With the current wave of rumours, there's been a lot of talk of how we've heard it all before and it's a load of Betty Swallocks just like last time.

But what have we heard before?

The two major ones that I can think of are The Web of Fear a few years ago that Doctor Who Online reported and the legendary Tenth Planet 4 hoax that was detailed in the 1993 mini documentary before Planet of the Daleks Episode Three on BBC 1.

There must be more but I genuinely can't think of any.

What other seemingly substantial rumours have there been in the past?

[Si Hunt]

Nicholas Courtney once inadvertantly started a rumour that he'd watched a mute copy of The Invasion Part 1 round Ian Marters house while the latter was researching the Target Book. Of course Marters copy started at Episode 2...

Si.

[Simon R]

There's the old Power of The Daleks shown in a hotel in the 80s and Macra Terror shown in a school in New Zealand. The latter of which is seemingly being researched at the moment.

[Anthony Williams]

A lot of the old rumours etc. are listed on Ash Stewart's rather marvelous article at unlimitedricepudding.com

My favourite was always that William Hartnell had been given a copy of The Feast of Steven as a present from the BBC. False, sadly!

[Matthew T]

There was a rumour started on GB earlier this year that a guy was selling a copy of The Moonbase:1 at a car boot sale somewhere down south. It ran for a couple of weeks, and despite being started by someone who rivals Baysan Tulu for insanity, a couple of people actually went to this car boot sale, where they found nothing, of course. It's known as the 'burger van' hoax, as the guy in question was claimed to be parked up next to said snack wagon at the car boot.

[Si Hunt]

There's a guy who claims to have had a rare example of an early video recorder in his possession in the sixties, borrowed from his place of work, and who recorded certain Troughton episodes for his son before wiping over them. This is actually quite credible, as we know they have recovered one very, very poor quality example of an off-air sixties recording before (it was The Space Pirates Episode 2, ironically).

Si.

[Zbigniev Hamson]

Wasn't the original VHS cover of The Invasion shown in DWM at the time and it said "complete at last" on the cover, and then of course wasn't when it was released. Leading to rumours of some deal falling through at the last minute.

[Dave Tudor]

the legendary Tenth Planet 4 hoax that was detailed in the 1993 mini documentary before Planet of the Daleks Episode Three on BBC 1.

Was that the one where Ian Levine was threatening what he'd do if he ever got hold of the hoaxer, 'Roger Keith Barrett'? If only he'd known his Pink Floyd history, he might have seen through this hoax from the start...

[Perry Vale]

Was there ever any follow-up to this rumour from 2008 about Marco Polo...?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/cele...-Thailand.html