Wiped Episode Discoveries

[Emperor-Tiberius]

They still may be able to restore the cuts - they have full audios I think. Some inventive cutting and pasting and a little digital trickery with the video...

More than likely, if they want to actually restore the episodes to how they were originally edited. Besides, clips from the cut footage has survived, and arguably in better condition than the about-to-be-announced episodes that have been found, so it can be done.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

The other question is what state will these prints actually be in after nearly 50 years of being abandoned in Africa. The Restoration Team can work things that look like miracles but not actual miracles.

You're assuming the Restoration Team will be working on them.

There are specialist professionals in the UK and the US that could work miracles that the RT could not. The question, naturally, is whether or not the BBC would pay for that level or miracle working. One advantage with the RT is that they're a bunch of fans, so they're likely to work for less than another outfit would because they want the cachet in fan circles of having "restored" Doctor Who. A professional film restorer would look at it as a job. A cool job. Quite possibly a very challenging job. But just a job, and the cachet doesn't count as money.

 

[Relayer1]

The other question is what state will these prints actually be in after nearly 50 years of being abandoned in Africa. The Restoration Team can work things that look like miracles but not actual miracles.

As long as they can scan the copy frame by frame they can work miracles - remove dirt and marks, fix tears, digitally recreate missing frames etc.

It has been done with movies - if they are that bad, the big question is will the market for them justify the huge cost of frame by frame restoration.

 

[StCoop]

As long as they can scan the copy frame by frame they can work miracles - remove dirt and marks, fix tears, digitally recreate missing frames etc.

It has been done with movies - if they are that bad, the big question is will the market for them justify the huge cost of frame by frame restoration.

Original Series DVDs sell at most 30,000 copies and there doesn't seem to be much broadcast interest in them these days.

As Allyn said above the Restoration Team went far beyond what would have been required of them for what they were paid and if it is true that they don't exist any more after finishing "The Moonbase" & "The Underwater Menace" other people will just treat it as a job.

 

[Mr Awe]

So, it's Thursday, Midnight in the UK when the announcement will be made? Seriously?!

 

[VDCNI]

If its in tomorrows papers then it will be out before then and someone will leak early, they usually do.

 

[Atticus]

People are tweeting from the screening but they're all being annoyingly good about not saying what they're watching....

 

[Relayer1]

As long as they can scan the copy frame by frame they can work miracles - remove dirt and marks, fix tears, digitally recreate missing frames etc.

It has been done with movies - if they are that bad, the big question is will the market for them justify the huge cost of frame by frame restoration.

Original Series DVDs sell at most 30,000 copies and there doesn't seem to be much broadcast interest in them these days.

As Allyn said above the Restoration Team went far beyond what would have been required of them for what they were paid and if it is true that they don't exist any more after finishing "The Moonbase" & "The Underwater Menace" other people will just treat it as a job.

If any are really bad they would probably best leaving them until last and using some BBC archive budget to get them done as a side project or hobby project for some of the staff..

 

[The Four Doctor]

As i said earlier, the censor cuts from before The Savages have *not* survived so Marco Polo is out of luck.

 

[Turbo]

Well, there's no guarantee that it's censored. And the Restoration Team is quite good at cutting/reusing other footage to cover short gaps, such as censor cuts.

The War Machines is a great example - it was returned from Nigeria, with severe censor cuts to Episodes 3 and 4. A few were available from Australia, but others have been lost. At one point, a 1-minute cut of an attack on the factory was restored from clips elsewhere in the episode (and from Blue Peter, apparently!).

http://www.purpleville.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/rtwebsite/warmach.htm
http://www.purpleville.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/rtwebsite/WarMachinesDVD.htm

 

[StCoop]

Wow, watching people on other sites starting to foam at the mouth at the thought of having to wait a few more hours for the details rather than being given them RIGHT! THIS! SECOND! reminds me once again that Doctor Who fans don't need anyone else to make them look bad as they'll manage quite well on their own.

 

[Mr Awe]

^ Well, there's no need for people to foam a the mouth but I can also understand them feeling jerked around by the BBC who appear to have been not completely straightforward with fans. Now, they may have had good reasons for being slow with releasing information, but that also seems to be their MO.

At any rate, it is pretty exciting just knowing that soon we'll hear which new episodes have been found! That's the main thing!

Mr Awe

 

[Anachronus]

At any rate, it is pretty exciting just knowing that soon we'll hear which new episodes have been found! That's the main thing!

Mr. Awe, exactly so!

 

[StCoop]

Well, there's no need for people to foam a the mouth but I can also understand them feeling jerked around by the BBC who appear to have been not completely straightforward with fans.

And if the information was being held back for a week as opposed to a couple of hours maybe then there might be a reason to get annoyed.

The number of people I've seen this week who seem to think the BBC should have carried out all its actions in full public view has astonished me. (I find it hard to believe that I'm the only DW fan out there with a job that brings them into contact with confidential negotiations and the like.)

 

[Sindatur]

^ Well, there's no need for people to foam a the mouth but I can also understand them feeling jerked around by the BBC who appear to have been not completely straightforward with fans. Now, they may have had good reasons for being slow with releasing information, but that also seems to be their MO.

What I don't understand is why people feel they are owed the information on their time scale, rather than when BBC wants to give the info (presumably not until everything is sewn up, and they can schedule release). Truth be told, The BBC has no requirement to recover lost episodes, or to even care about them. Why are the BBC seen as being scum for wanting to do it on their own timing?

At any rate, it is pretty exciting just knowing that soon we'll hear which new episodes have been found! That's the main thing!

Mr Awe

Oh yea, I can't wait until it's officially announced and we have actual facts

 

[StCoop]

Just the nine episodes from Web and Enemy previously mentioned apparently.

(See, Embargos never work anyway.)

 

[Mr Awe]

And if the information was being held back for a week as opposed to a couple of hours maybe then there might be a reason to get annoyed.

Well, there's no telling right now how long the BBC has sat on this information. And, as I said, they may have had good reasons. Unfortunately, it fits in with a common view that fans have of the BBC, that they don't care about the fans. So, justified or not, it's going to sting. Especially with the excitement surrounding this announcement.

And, they've already had screenings of them, so certainly they could've just announced them rather than excessively teasing the fans.

What I don't understand is why people feel they are owed the information on their time scale, rather than when BBC wants to give the info (presumably not until everything is sewn up, and they can schedule release). Truth be told, The BBC has no requirement to recover lost episodes, or to even care about them. Why are the BBC seen as being scum for wanting to do it on their own timing?

Agree that fans aren't owed anything. However, it just seems like it would be nice to factor the fans into the BBC's plans when possible. After all, fans are people who really love the BBC's products, try to be considerate!

But, I do agree that the BBC might have had good reasons but unfortunately plays into a stereotype that many fans have of the BBC.

Mr Awe

 

[The Nth Doctor]

What level of censoring was done on the Hartnell serials? Is it level of violence, romantic suggestion or certain dialogue, and to what extent?

 

[StCoop]

And, they've already had screenings of them, so certainly they could've just announced them rather than excessively teasing the fans.

But that's a bizarre way of filtering the actions. Stories like this are held back until after midnight so they can get a full day of press coverage, print and TV, out of them, not just the couple of hours of TV coverage it would get if it was released now. It's not just some random decision designed to annoy people.

 

[StCoop]

Well that didn't take long.

People are all ready complaining that having one more fully complete story and one with only missing one episode isn't good enough or worthy of all the hype. (And ignoring that the BBC didn't hype anything.)