Today's feature article in Wikipedia: Missing Episodes

[Candlelight]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Who_missing_episodes

Someone at Wikipedia must know why November 23rd is an important date.

Still, it means that the article itself is of high enough caliber to make it to their featured article stage (despite a really obvious spelling mistake in the last paragraph of the opening blurb).

And despite the fact it concerns the saddest part of Who's history.

 

[Turbo]

It's about damn time that that article was featured; it's a fantastic one.

 

[Miss Chicken]

I am one of the lucky Who fans who remembers seeing all the missing episodes as a child and as a teenager. I suppose I saw each story at least twice if not three times.

I have stronger memories of some stories than others. For example, I thought that "Fury from the Deep" was one of Dr Who's most frightening stories and I loved "The Highlanders" because it was the story that introduced Jamie, my favourite all-time companion and the first actor I ever had a crush for.

 

[Candlelight]

^ Lucky #$%@^&...

 

[The]

I am one of the lucky Who fans who remembers seeing all the missing episodes as a child and as a teenager. I suppose I saw each story at least twice if not three times.

I have stronger memories of some stories than others. For example, I thought that "Fury from the Deep" was one of Dr Who's most frightening stories and I loved "The Highlanders" because it was the story that introduced Jamie, my favourite all-time companion and the first actor I ever had a crush for.

Curious...how did you see Troughton-era missing episodes "twice if not three times"? Did they rerun the episodes back then?

 

[Miss Chicken]

I am one of the lucky Who fans who remembers seeing all the missing episodes as a child and as a teenager. I suppose I saw each story at least twice if not three times.

I have stronger memories of some stories than others. For example, I thought that "Fury from the Deep" was one of Dr Who's most frightening stories and I loved "The Highlanders" because it was the story that introduced Jamie, my favourite all-time companion and the first actor I ever had a crush for.

Curious...how did you see Troughton-era missing episodes "twice if not three times"? Did they rerun the episodes back then?

If I remember correctly Doctor Who used to be shown four times a week Monday to Thursday (25 minute episodes). this meant that the new series would be quickly shown and than reruns from previous seasons would be shown.

My mother wouldn't let us look at Doctor Who when it first began because she thought it was too frightening for little children. I didn't really start watching it until Troughton was the Doctor (he is my favourite Doctor). I saw Hartnell episodes in reruns.

I believe this means that I saw most of Troughton's missing episodes three times. and Hartnell's missing episodes twice though I think I only saw "The Highlanders" (Second Doctor) twice.

 

[The]

I envy the hell out of you, then...

 

[Miss Chicken]

Than you are envying me for being 'old' (50 years to be precise). I doubt that anyone under about 47 or 48 could have possibly remember seeing all episodes of Doctor Who.

 

[ITL]

I don't remember seeing any lost episodes when they were broadcast (I wasn't alive in the Hartnell era, and was too young in the Troughton one), but I may have seen some of the Pertwee ones that only exist as B/W copies these days. Not that I can remember, but it's a possibility.

 

[The Squire of Gothos]

I am one of the lucky Who fans who remembers seeing all the missing episodes as a child and as a teenager. I suppose I saw each story at least twice if not three times

I wonder about the people who had prescence of mind to record them, did people do that for many shows?

 

[Miss Chicken]

There was no method of recording it when the first two Doctors were around as video recorders didn't come on the market until the late 1970s. I believe they were first released in Japan in 1976, the USA in 1977 and in Australia in 1978 (when we rented our first one). The missing Doctor Who episodes were destroyed before that.

Some fans did make audio recordings using mainly reel-to-reel tape recorders as audio casette tapes only became available in the early 1970s.

EDITED TO ADD: When we rented or first video recorder there was little available to watch on it. The store which we rented from had a small collection of movies and we were allowed to get one movie out a week as part of our rental agreement. The first couple of years the only tapes you could actually buy were blank tapes. Then slowly movies came on the market (at the cost ofabout $50 a movie) and eventually video rental shops started up which is when things really began to improve.

 

[The Squire of Gothos]

Some fans did make audio recordings using mainly reel-to-reel tape recorders as audio casette tapes only became available in the early 1970s.

I think the wiki article mentions that there is an audio recording for every lost episode, the mind boggles that they don't make a CGI episode out of an early Dalek story. I know Invasion apparently didn't go down as well as hoped, but a Dalek story would surely go down a storm.

The first couple of years the only tapes you could actually buy were blank tapes. Then slowly movies came on the market (at the cost ofabout $50 a movie) and eventually video rental shops started up which is when things really began to improve.

It's quaint when you hear things like that, we got our first VCR in the early 80s, after Beta came and went (we still have it too).

 

[Brendan Moody]

the mind boggles that they don't make a CGI episode out of an early Dalek story. I know Invasion apparently didn't go down as well as hoped, but a Dalek story would surely go down a storm.

Well, "The Invasion" has the other big Who villains, the Cybermen, and it sold remarkably well for a black-and-white story. It's just that the ordinary cost of animation exceeded even those unusual profits. Completing a missing or partially missing Dalek story would require at least six episodes of animation, three times as much as was done for "The Invasion." I doubt there are enough classic series fans in the world now to make that profitable. But animation is getting cheaper all the time, so a few years down the line things may be different.

 

[Candlelight]

There was no method of recording it when the first two Doctors were around as video recorders didn't come on the market until the late 1970s. I believe they were first released in Japan in 1976, the USA in 1977 and in Australia in 1978 (when we rented our first one). The missing Doctor Who episodes were destroyed before that.

The episodes were junked between 1972 and 1978.

Very large and chunky VCRs existed in the late sixties but they were rare and very few places had them. I guess they were the forerunner to the old Shibaden and early Betamax recorders.

 

[The]

the mind boggles that they don't make a CGI episode out of an early Dalek story. I know Invasion apparently didn't go down as well as hoped, but a Dalek story would surely go down a storm.

Well, "The Invasion" has the other big Who villains, the Cybermen, and it sold remarkably well for a black-and-white story. It's just that the ordinary cost of animation exceeded even those unusual profits. Completing a missing or partially missing Dalek story would require at least six episodes of animation, three times as much as was done for "The Invasion." I doubt there are enough classic series fans in the world now to make that profitable. But animation is getting cheaper all the time, so a few years down the line things may be different.

Well, if I ever win the lottery, I'll personally fund the creation of a CGI-ed Missing Adventure. A few million is the least any Who fan can do...