What a rude response. As it happens, I know a number of people within the industry of video restoration. They're not connected with Morris by any means. I suspect that Morris knows more than he's letting on, but as I've said, I'll try to just wait and see. Mr Awe
how do they work out the Doctor who episodes in say Spanish, that may come from Brazil? or Argentina? do they overwrite the sound tracks that are in Spanish??
The restoration process for classic Doctor Who involves creating a digital version where audio and video can be treated separately, so yes, a soundtrack could be replaced if necessary. However, only a few stories were ever dubbed into other languages, and none of them have missing episodes, so barring the unlikely prospect of a dubbed print offering higher visual quality than existing versions, there wouldn't be any need. Though the prints would still be of great interest, of course.
Honestly, the waiting game is kinda silly after all this time. Surely the only reason for Morris NOT to say anything is because he's still on the search? Otherwise, what would the point be? A second surprise reveal like last November isn't necessary.
As I've said time and again, Morris is backed into a corner. With vocal fans like Levine bleating that Morris is hoarding episodes, if Morris came out and said "no I have none" and then six weeks later he finds something then he'll be branded a liar and nothing he says in the future would be believed. So he's doing the right thing and staying quiet, even if he has nothing.
Back in the early 1990s, the BBC weren't interested in recovering soundtracks of missing episodes, until some of the people who were becoming the Restoration Team pointed out that they might be useful if a foreign language copy of a missing story turned up. However, there's been some research into this, and it seems that the only stories which were actually sold in foreign language versions by the BBC (or released in 'sound effect and music but not dialogue' versions so the buyers could add their own voices) have all been recovered (basically, they were the season one/two SF-only highlights package which was returned to Enterprises and found by Levine in 1978 - every intact story from The Daleks to The Chase): in some cases the foreign language copy was also returned, but has since been destroyed (hence the non-english clip from An Unearthly Child 4, with different music, that's on an old Blue Peter clips montage).
^^The image in my head... *shudders* Meanwhile it is Easter Weekend, and that is supposedly a rumoured announcement of Marco Polo or Evil of the Daleks or Fury from the Deep or whatever. Obviously I don't actually expect any kind of announcement, so I imagine someone is going to start another rumour of an announcement coming soon.
It's already Easter, as in Thursday was the last working day before it. If there we didn't get an announcement on the 18th, it's not coming till Tuesday. So probably not at all... Make that definitely. Just so fate can prove me wrong!
Hey, wasn't it Easter Saturday last year it was announced that Tennant and Piper were returning for the 50th? And that John Hurt would be in it too, though his role hadn't yet been revealed. One can hope right? And yes, I am aware that announcement had more to do with a BBC screw-up. I'm being sarcastic for the fun of it. So when's the next "announcement" of missing episodes going to be? Summer to serve as a way of gearing us for the new season? November to mark the anniversary?
Eddie McGuigan of Outpost Skaro, a firm believer in the Omnirumour, wrote a recent blog post where he lays out what he believes is happening behind the scenes. If you proceed from his assumptions -- Philip Morris found a fuckton of film cans which contain Doctor Who, there are business issues between his company and the BBC that are preventing restoration, let alone a handover to the Beeb -- his narrative flows logically. If you disagree with some of his assumptions, then it's all just a lot of smoke and mirrors. It's the human habit of trying to draw a picture from incomplete data and coming up with something that looks real but has no basis in reality. I would like to be pleasantly surprised by the revelation that Morris found more than just the nine film cannisters and someday I'll be able to buy "The Massacre" and "Evil of the Daleks" on DVD. But, right now, in absence of any evidence to the contrary, it really does look like Morris only found those nine.
Thank you for the link, Allyn! If this is true, then I honestly think this is a very, very petty business thats being done by the BBC's side. Morally speaking, it is responsible the status of those episodes being missing, so any claim on their part to come on top on any such endeavour smacks of historical ignorance. Furthermore, the Beeb have always been skeptical about any such recovery, and reportedly they weren't sure they should've bothered at all, at least the unearthing of Tomb of the Cybermen some twenty-odd years ago. In any case, I seriously hope the BBC get their facts straight and do a proper and fair negotiation between them and Morris' company, to finally have all of DW out there. Wouldn't it be great to actually SEE Power of the Daleks, finally?
Strangely enough it was in fact this part of the blog that caught my interest: Now that's what I want to hear the story behind!
Clearly Levine, who transfered his consciousness into a computer so he could continue berating DW for all eternity.
All the more reason to resist assuming it is true. In the absence of proof, one should give people -- and businesses -- the benefit of the doubt and presume their innocence. If the rumor is false, then the BBC isn't doing anything wrong at all. And most rumors are false.
Thanks for the link Allyn, as that's very interesting; it connects with something I'd wondered about back in August, when the latest version of the rumour was that Web, Enemy and Marco Polo had been found, but the BBC might have to pay to get them back. The thing is, if TIEI/Philip Morris is doing this episode hunting, then they're paying money for all these foreign trips (and sometimes endangering themselves). So they have to get some sort of financial payback if they find something. But what? But... which is the point Emperor-Tiberius isn't maybe spotting in wondering why the BBC just doesn't get its act together, is that the BBC isn't a normal profit-making company: since 1926 it's been a Royal Chartered Corporation, funded by a licence fee which you have to pay if want to watch TV in the UK, whether you watch the BBC or not. Guaranteed funding, but it comes with major limits on what the BBC is allowed to do. Plus a lot of enemies - short summary: freemarket economic purists who reckon that nothing non-profit-led should exist, libertarians who [not entirely unfairly] see the Licence Fee as an unfair poll tax, rival media companies (starting with Rupert Murdoch's empire), and the Daily Mail. Not to mention political fanatics who hate the way that the BBC fails to run their world view as fact. Next point: the charter has to be renewed every 10 years. We're now into the renewal renegotiation period: like a US Presidential election, it lasts two years, and stops anything sensible getting done in the meantime. So basically, the BBC has a lot of enemies willing to use any excuse to attack it. It's also had a lot of trouble recently - apart from the Jimmy Savile scandal, which led to the third resignation of a Director General in 30 years (this one lasted 57 days in the job), there's also massive jobs-for-the-boys/girls payments for departing staff, and the whole Digital Media Initiative debacle (a good idea which didn't work and flushed £200 million down the pan before it was cancelled). So, if the BBC was to pay money to get back its own property which it had carelessly lost, the Daily Mail would rip it apart in print. And then the various Parliamentary committees would do the same (think Congressional committees, but more forensically biting). And after that... all in the middle of the Charter renewal negotiations, which are already complex enough given that they involve the BBC and the government, and there's two major uncertainties about the government looming before the new charter would come in (The Scottish Independence Referendum in September, and the General Election in May 2015). Sometimes Doctor Who is the side issue that gets affected by the big governmental ones in unexpected ways.