THE MISSING DOCTOR WHO EPISODES
In 2005 Philip Morris started a thread on the Missing Episodes forum, titled "Ian Levine" in which he suggested searching for Doctor Who in Africa.
He was derided and mocked but I alone stood up for him and arranged to meet him.
I asked Paul Vanezis to get an offical BBC letter asking to whom it may concern to allow Philip Morris access to archives in Africa and anywhere else.
At this point Phil had never met Paul Vanezis.
Phil subsequently discovered all these missing episodes had been distributed by Television Internation Enterprises, so formed a new company with the same name. The same name on all the original paperwork.
As brilliant a move as this indeed seems to have been, it can also be claimed that using the same name as the old original company was specifically created to cause confusion about who should own these prints, and suggest ownership rights that might not necessarily have been quite as obvious.
Yes indeed, it has obviously yielded huge massive results, but what earthly use are these results if he hoards them, locked away for no-one to see or enjoy or benefit from.
I applaud what he did, and the initiative to go out and do it, but I revile what he has done since. They should have all been given back the minute he found them, and by now they would all have been out on DVD.
As I said earlier, speaking as someone who has done much in the past to save missing episodes, whatever good he may have initially done, he is now taking the piss.
If he doesn't like what I am saying here, and if he ever wants to make the rather regrettable move of involving lawyers, then I certainly have a ton of evidence about him and I have never backed down from a good fight. I am reporting here as a journalist, in a journalistic capacity, using my sources to gather facts, and every word I have typed can be legally considered "fair comment".
These business practices need discussing out in the open air, not buried under a cloak of NDAs, secrecy, covert whispers, and clandestine murmurs in dark corners.
He needs to do the right thing and return them all right now, and maybe have some tiny vestige of hope of saving his name from public hatred.
To be brutally honest, I'd rather he had never found any episodes in the first place, than put us all through such misery. I used to be a much happier person and I slept far better at night. I wish I could mentally erase all knowledge of the man's existence. But I can't and it goes on.
And on.
And on.
And on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on
