And once again, in a blast of orange light, the thread regenerates... The UK Daily Mirror has apparently reported that The Macra Terror and The Wheel in Space are the next missing episodes to be animated and released on DVD. (The surviving parts of Wheel will remain live action.) I say 'apparently' because a screenshot of the print version of the article is making the Twitter rounds, but it has yet to appear on the online version.
If it's true, that's pretty cool, all things considered and that includes that such DVD releases would confirm that those stories' episodes are still not found or recovered, or may have been recovered but irreparable due to vinegar effect or other problems. If people still believe the "omnirumour". But why "Macra" when none of its episodes exist and isn't the most popular story and other stories that have intact episodes would benefit more? (Because all the people who watched "Gridlock" will want to see the eponymous creatures in their 10' plastic prime?!) There is also the precedent, "The Power of the Daleks", but it was a one time event due to its legacy for the show and being a bona fide fan favorite. And also proves that, for now anyway, there are no viable prints or negatives of the episodes anywhere.
Macra and Wheel have long been the most obvious pair to do: Wheel because it's the only non-animated Cyber-story (and with Zoe's introduction and the episode one dialogue about Victoria's departure, it fills the last major narrative gap after Tomb), Macra because "Monsters in the title!!!" (and also, they can put on a sticker flagging them up as a Tennant monster). We might want historicals, but from a PR/sales point of view, they will always be low on the list.
I want to see Galaxy 4 get an animated addition. Incidentally, if they find the originals at some point, I want them to do an animated of the surviving live action episode so the DVD can have both Full animated and original restored and found copies.
I'd love to see more animations. And I guess those two make sense from the standpoint of continuing the Troughton stories. Can't do Highlanders because its an historical, and they skipped The Faceless Ones for probably another time - maybe to pair with The Smugglers? Anyway, can't wait! Plus, Evil of the Daleks could easily follow suit, because Wheel sets it up with the whole thing the Doctor does at the end that indicates a repeat of that programme. Would've loved if they tackled Troughton chronologically from now on, though.
Has anyone ever thought to check Iceland? I bet there were some episodes broadcast there weren't they? Is there a general list that shows where the original film print copies were sent for broadcast back in the day??? I would love to see what countries are on the list.
BBC Worldwide is a completely separate commercial body which commissioned Shada. I can't imagine why it would be broadcast on BBC television, but you never know.
There's also a continuity error in the animated version of "The Invasion, Part 1." Zoe spends the episode wearing the miniskirt outfit that she wore for most of the story. But I think she's actually supposed to have changed into that outfit after borrowing it from Isobel sometime between Parts 1 & 2. During the events of Part 1, she should have actually been wearing the spangly catsuit that she was wearing in "The Mind Robber." Also, the TARDIS circuits that the Doctor gave to Tobias Vaughn to examine look completely different from when another scientist is examining those same circuits in a later surviving episode. Has there been any kind of rundown of everything, or at least everything that we know of, that Morris recovered from Nigeria, including the non-Doctor Who stuff? True. You'd have to go back to the 1980s to find any other find nearly so large. And everything else since "Tomb of the Cybermen" in 1992 has just been 1 or 2 scattered episodes at a time found in someone's attic or something. I remember when I first heard about the recoveries of "Airlock" & "The Underwater Menace, Part 2" in 2011 and I literally didn't believe the person who told me. I figured he must be mistaken. The euphoria of realizing that there was new old Who available was incredible. The 2013 find was remarkable, not just because of how many episodes were found but also the fact that they're both really good stories. (Just think, there's an alternate universe out there where the stories they found instead were "Galaxy 4" & "The Space Pirates." Oh joy! ) Eh, subject him to enough harassment from Ian Levine and he'll clam up again completely. What's frustrating is, even though it's Col. Lethbridge-Stewart's debut, we'll still never see the first meeting between him & the Doctor since it happened off-screen during the events of Part 2. Still, it's nice if whoever absconded with Part 3 is willing to give it back, even if for a price. I figured whoever took it must have known what they had since they just happened to come away with the single most valuable episode in the set.
An Amazon listing has gone up for The Wheel in Space DVD, though Paul Vanezis insists it's not being animated. Others in the know say it's the Britbox telesnap recon that's being shipped exclusively to US audiences.
Considering I liked the telesnap recon of "The Web of Fear, Part 3" better than I've liked most of the animated episodes, I'd be OK with that. Still, I'm bummed that there isn't more of a push for animating "The Highlanders." I love Jamie and would love to see his introduction.
That's an awfully extreme response. They're better than nothing and I found them useful for the fan reconstructions along with the surviving audio tracks.