I had a pint with an RT member back in February and he mentioned in passing that ep3 was in the vault when Phil first entered. I'm so glad this is now public knowledge as keeping secrets like this is damn hard!!
I have been following this thread with interest for sometime. I would like to know that how come the private collector knew that Philip Morris had discovered these stories (I presume that only a select few people knew) and how to get in touch with those concerned to purchase episode 3 of Web of Fear?
As to how word got out, somebody must've flapped their lips, that's why Morris was tight lipped, upset and evasive. This Private Collector, is almost certainly quite wealthy and has connections.Plus, it's becoming a very small, it would be very difficult to keep it totally hushed up from prying eyes. As to being able to contact this Private Collector to buy a copy from him, that's the point, this is a rich, greedy, selfish bastard, who wants something no one else can have, that's why he scooped it up, instead of letting Morris return it to BBC so everyone can have access to it. If the Collector only wanted access to the episode, he would've let it go back to the BBC so, it could be released on DVD and he'd have access to the episode for pennies on the dollar (or less) compared to what he must've paid for it
^ Another possibility is that it was snapped up by a person who wanted the glory of returning it to the BBC themselves. Such a person would have to be a wealthy individual who is more interested in the fandom glory than the money. If that invididual also disliked Morris, said invidividual would be even more motivated.
While I suppose it makes sense (and certainly adds a lot of intrigue) that "The Web of Fear, Part 3" was stolen, I'm kinda blase about it since we do at least have the rest of the story and the telesnap reconstruction of Part 3 on the DVD is quite good. Still, reminds me of how some of the last known copies of "The Traitors" & "The Tenth Planet, Part 4" went missing from the Blue Peter offices shortly after clips of them were edited into a Blue Peter episode celebrating Doctor Who's 10th anniversary. I think the problems started before that. Before the BBC officially announced that they had located "The Enemy of the World" & "The Web of Fear," Morris made an angry post on Facebook saying, "They are not missing. They are destroyed. The end," suggesting that no other episodes could possibly exist and that any further speculation on the subject would be a massive invasion of his privacy. It was basically the Whovian equivalent of William Shatner's infamous "Get a life" speech back in the 1980s. Morris subsequently deleted the post around the same time that the BBC announced the discoveries of "The Enemy of the World" & "The Web of Fear," which proved that Morris was outright lying to the fans. Ever since then, no one ever believes it any more when he says he doesn't have any more. I think part of it was that he so categorically denied that anything could exist even if he personally hadn't found it, and that he phrased it so harshly. Granted, the BBC had also kept denying the rumors up until the day before the episodes were released online, but there were always such standard corporate boilerplate denials that no one took them seriously anyway. Paul Vanezis also kept having to falsely deny rumors. But, in his defense, most of his denials were targeted towards specific rumors that did turn out to be untrue (mostly rumors that "Marco Polo" or other stories had also been returned at the same time), so he never technically "lied." And, he had some sympathy from the fans because most of his denials tended to carry the subtext, "Ian Levine, leave me alone!" (Which, when you say it out loud, sounds like it should be a palindrome. ) Anyone else remember the hoax a few years back about "The Pandora Society"? It was supposedly a cabal of wealthy fans that owned film prints of old, lost BBC shows. They would occasionally have members-only screenings of these rare episodes but you could only be a member if you paid the annual membership fee of, like, $1000 or $10,000 or something like that.
If Morris is holding on to the eps. because of some feud with Moffat, then he's no different than the private collector. but really all of non news is more than tiring, every few months it's the same thing, a tidbit of news that always amounts to nothing.
Except that "speech" was a Saturday Night Live sketch. It wasn't Shatner's own words, it was a comedy routine written for him. People must've forgotten that if they think it's "infamous."
So can we now say that there is 96 missing episodes since (at least as far as Phil Morris and presumably the BBC are concerned) they've located Web of Fear part 3?
So, if Philip Morris does have someone in his team who is leaking information of what he has found to another wealthly private collector, I hope that he can root out this person and show them the door!
It was a massive invasion of his privacy though. Put it this way, that day he could have been knee deep in a dangerous country, delicately negotiating to relive a station of some 'worthless' prints. The last thing you want to do is tip off the owners they have something that isn't worthless. I was at the event, and for Mr (and Mrs) Morris to see the nicer side of fandom (they were there most of the weekend) certainly did no harm. Anneke had a chat with him and trusts he is doing the right thing.
No, it's still missing, and according to Phil thinks it's either in Australia or the UK (based on who he thinks he told and subsequently went after the films themselves). Or if you believe Paul Vanezis it was destroyed when the Jos station burnt down.
If someone grabbed it then it's missing, rather than 'missing, not known to exist'. Even if it's unavailable, it exists... so long as it's looked after properly (which would be the problem... how would you safeguard it without risk of a leak?)
"There are 97 episodes currently officially missing... the numbers should be fairly less than 97. " - Philip Morris, sometime last weekend
I remember that. The site is still up. http://pandorabox.proboards.com/board/1/pandora-society-members It seems to have had a face lift since the last time I was there.
it was recently revealed that a least one private collector in the UK has a number of missing non-DW shows but doesn't want to lose his bragging rights about his collection by handing them over.
It's well-known that not every collector is willing to return what they have so I'm mystified by your skepticism. Not everyone is altruistic.