Wow, we've got both ends of the spectrum represented here in terms of excitement over potential finds!
After the other "news" sites had reported this, all I could think of was Captain Smith at 2am, the Titanic on a harsh lean and all the lifeboats gone, saying “Ok, well I can confirm we have actually hit something…” Makes me wonder now how The Underwater Menace 2 was leaked so the BBC could track it's downloads and see how much they would get from iPlayer vs DVD. Of course, once it hits a torrent site...
Yes he's occasionally on the convention circuit. And Twitter for that matter. https://twitter.com/TheRalphWatson
The prints are most likely "bicycled" prints ex-ABC or NZBC which means they will have been cut to ribbons by the ultra-conservative censors of 1960s Australasia. Remember that as late as The Sun Makers, the Australian censors cut the line "stuff the Company!" as they wanted to remind children to respect any authority.
Yup, I was trying to maintain my skepticism (and just joking above), but, apparently there really are episodes afterall.
Strangely enough, many of those censored clips were actually preserved, even though the prints were junked. Many of them are on Lost in Time.
^ I always found that extremely ironic. The very content they wanted to snip out was often the only content that survived!
Australia and New Zealand are two of the countries the fate of whose prints are mostly known. It's only really the NZ prints from season five which have no fate known (although likely junked in 1974 when Harriett St closed down).
Lets see all Daleks Master Plan, part 4 Tenth Planet, all of Power of the Daleks, missing Invasion episodes and the all the Web of Fear.
Can someone tell him/her that episode 7 of Masterplan is definately gone as no telerecording was made and the videotape was wiped?
Actually, it seems it might have been telerecorded, but not for Enterprise, just so BBC bosses could have a watch and see if a comedy Christmas episode of Doctor Who had worked. But if it was, that copy probably hasn't survived - if it had, it would have been at the Film Library all along. Anyway, the stuff I'm getting tonight suggests that it will be Enemy of the World and most of Web of Fear on i-tunes at the end of the week. Marco Polo is also back but not ready for release, so when it is made available it'll come out with the first two stories of the next batch. Altogether that would add up to 24 missing episodes.. which is far more than I'd ever have hoped even if there isn't more to come, as apparently there is. As always, with rumours from someone on a BBS, do not swallow without an antidote!
Season five (or The Evil of the Daleks) episodes likely: http://www.deborahwatling.net/News/index.htm Wow... looks real after all.....
Something is definitely real (and I'd now be astonished if it wasn't part of Enemy and Web). Might be worth checking The One Show for an appearance by Fraser and Debbie on Thursday...
So, then, if there's a "First" two stories of the next batch, that means they really, did get a huge pile (personally, I'd call anything over 3 episodes, a huge pile. Only 3 would still be awesome, though) and not just a couple of episodes at worst, or couple of whole stories at best Most of Web of Fear? Does that mean they're holding back a bit of it from iTunes (Maybe for unfinished restoration purposes), or that at least 1 episode of Web of Fear wasn't found? (Or because the previously surviving episode already was released) So, if this cache returns everything (Not already animated) except for those "impossible" to ever see surface, will they then be able to animate, for example the missing Masterplan episodes (If none are possible to see returned?) Or Power of the Daleks (Evil of the Daleks also is extremely unlikely right?)
The rumors state that there's some issue with episode 3, which is also the first appearance of Lethbridge-Stewart. Some rumors say it needs work, some say it wasn't found, some say it won't be available on iTunes except as a recon but will be available in full on the DVD.