Wiped Episode Discoveries

[mythme]

the cool thing about the Crusade was the "third-route" they did for the missing episodes. Instead of telesnaps or animations back in the VHS days they had William Russell reprise his Ian Chesterson role and give summaries of the missing parts.

I think its a nifty idea; probably cheaper than animations. I say bring back Carole Anne Ford, Peter Purves, Anneke Wills, Frazer Hines, etc. Have them be in character and give synopses of missing episodes (maybe as an alternative option to the telesnaps on DVDs). I would be great to see them again plus (if its considered "canon") might give a little bonus information for us to chew on (like "The Crusade" did when we see that Ian was apparently still a teacher/professor).

 

[inflatabledalek]

They did "recaps" for The Invasion and Reign of Terror as well, though Nick Courtney and Carol Anne Ford weren't in character for those.

 

[NightJim]

I've often wondered what about the opposite approach for animating missing episodes. Take something like Power of the Daleks, a serial that is totally missing, edit it down into a 70-90 minute movie to speed it up, eject some extraneous scenes that aren't needed for 1 long movie, and basically make it more palatable to modern audiences, and animate that.

With no surviving footage to fit around it also allows the animation team to go a bit more to town on the presentation. I know it might annoy long standing purist fans, especially alongside the editing, but it also has the chance to be far more marketable.

 

[Rarewolf]

Well, I just watched the "Reign of Terror" reconstructions (I've already seen the animated versions on DVD, and so I wanted to see the telesnap version), and it was striking and kind of eerie when a second or two of live action suddenly appeared in the midst of the still photos. Especially that shot where a still frame of Ian suddenly started moving and talking.

There are no telesnaps in existence for Reign of Terror. They would just be photos taken on set.

There's very few on set photos for those episodes either. It's mainly screen captures and footage the other 4 episodes, the brief cinefilm clips, and composites sourced from elsewhere when required.

 

[Christopher]

There are no telesnaps in existence for Reign of Terror. They would just be photos taken on set.

There's very few on set photos for those episodes either. It's mainly screen captures and footage the other 4 episodes, the brief cinefilm clips, and composites sourced from elsewhere when required.

Yeah, I noticed that the images for the reconstructed episodes looked like composites or borrowings from surviving episodes. It's a good thing they mostly reused the same sets and characters as the existing ones.

Aren't there a couple of lost episodes that there's hardly any photo documentation for at all, like "Mission to the Unknown?" How are those handled?

 

[mythme]

The Myth Makers is one of those. They used a film which was relevant to the era and superimposed the heads of the actors onto the bodies in Greek and Trojan costumes. I think this recon turned out rather well, all things considered.

 

[Christopher]

The Myth Makers is one of those. They used a film which was relevant to the era and superimposed the heads of the actors onto the bodies in Greek and Trojan costumes. I think this recon turned out rather well, all things considered.

Holy cow.

Well, I'm really a bit sad about that. I would've liked to see what the show's designers would've done with the Trojan period. They did a good job with other historical stories, and the "Marco Polo" reconstruction benefits from the gorgeous color photos of the sets, which provided a guide for the colorized reconstruction they did.

 

[DWF]

The Myth Makers is one of those. They used a film which was relevant to the era and superimposed the heads of the actors onto the bodies in Greek and Trojan costumes. I think this recon turned out rather well, all things considered.

The Myth Makers preceded the massive Dalek Master Plan, so any cost cutting measures are understandable.

 

[mythme]

The Myth Makers is one of those. They used a film which was relevant to the era and superimposed the heads of the actors onto the bodies in Greek and Trojan costumes. I think this recon turned out rather well, all things considered.

Holy cow.

Well, I'm really a bit sad about that. I would've liked to see what the show's designers would've done with the Trojan period. They did a good job with other historical stories, and the "Marco Polo" reconstruction benefits from the gorgeous color photos of the sets, which provided a guide for the colorized reconstruction they did.

The actual costuming (there are a few actual photos which do exist) was very accurate on the whole. The woman who played Cassandra said that her costume was well researched; the clasps at the shoulders even had little pins in them because priestesses would keep poison pins hidden in their garments to keep people from touching them. The fellow who played Agamemnon used the same costume he wore in another production - Julius Caesar if i'm not mistaken. This was Peter Purves favorite story. He quite liked his costuming too.

 

[diankra]

After starting out with an attempt to make sense of the contradictions about the Mission/Masterplan delegates, Jac Rayner's set out on a mission to list every character who appears only in a missing episode, and find an image for them if it exists. This is her work in progress for the Hartnell years... https://delegatedetective.wordpress.com/2015/08/26/whos-who-part-one-the-hartnell-years/

 

[Sindatur]

I've often wondered what about the opposite approach for animating missing episodes. Take something like Power of the Daleks, a serial that is totally missing, edit it down into a 70-90 minute movie to speed it up, eject some extraneous scenes that aren't needed for 1 long movie, and basically make it more palatable to modern audiences, and animate that.

With no surviving footage to fit around it also allows the animation team to go a bit more to town on the presentation. I know it might annoy long standing purist fans, especially alongside the editing, but it also has the chance to be far more marketable.

The idea has an appeal, but, considering the episodes are about 25 minutes long, and the Serial is 10 Episodes, that's over 4 hours of story. While certainly there is some padding in Older Who (Lots and lots in some Serials) and you've got the end of episode cliffhangers repeating at the start of the next episode, that still sounds like a bit too much to cut to do the Serial justice. IIRC, there are quite a few story threads throughout the Serial.

 

[DWF]

I've often wondered what about the opposite approach for animating missing episodes. Take something like Power of the Daleks, a serial that is totally missing, edit it down into a 70-90 minute movie to speed it up, eject some extraneous scenes that aren't needed for 1 long movie, and basically make it more palatable to modern audiences, and animate that.

With no surviving footage to fit around it also allows the animation team to go a bit more to town on the presentation. I know it might annoy long standing purist fans, especially alongside the editing, but it also has the chance to be far more marketable.

The idea has an appeal, but, considering the episodes are about 25 minutes long, and the Serial is 10 Episodes, that's over 4 hours of story. While certainly there is some padding in Older Who (Lots and lots in some Serials) and you've got the end of episode cliffhangers repeating at the start of the next episode, that still sounds like a bit too much to cut to do the Serial justice. IIRC, there are quite a few story threads throughout the Serial.

Power Of The Daleks is a six parter and there is a small amount of footage left from it. the only ten parter is The War Games and it's complete.

 

[mythme]

If you count "Mission to the Unknown" as part of "The Dalek's Master Plan" then you're taling a 13-parter, with only 3 surviving.

 

[DWF]

If you count "Mission to the Unknown" as part of "The Dalek's Master Plan" then you're taling a 13-parter, with only 3 surviving.

NightJim mentioned Power Of The Daleks, not the Dalek Masterplan.

 

[mythme]

I know, just throwing that out there

 

[Sindatur]

If you count "Mission to the Unknown" as part of "The Dalek's Master Plan" then you're taling a 13-parter, with only 3 surviving.

NightJim mentioned Power Of The Daleks, not the Dalek Masterplan.

Oops Don't know why I thought he was talking about Dalek's Master Plan, but, yea, 12 episodes, not 10

<Hands over Doctor Who Geek Card, with head hung in shame>

 

[NightJim]

haha. No worries. Besides, using Feast of Steven as a cut off, and from what I understand it's not even needed. Masterplan could be two movies, one from the first 6, and the second out of the last five.

But that's only if the method is proven, and Power is much more likely/possible/sellable.

 

[Christopher]

Is there surviving audio and a reconstruction for "The Feast of Steven?"

 

[Mytran]

Yes, Loose Cannon did that one too!

 

[zarkon]

Is there surviving audio and a reconstruction for "The Feast of Steven?"

We have surviving audio for every single missing ep, although I think there were a few seconds missing in one of the episodes of abominable snowman (as this was missing in the actual bbc broadcast). It's pretty incredible.