Wiped Episode Discoveries

[Allyn Gibson]

To some extent, internet chatter could be ignored, but now there's something in print from one of the papers.

In this day and age, I wouldn't be surprised if the papers just picked up the Internet rumors and printed them as fact without bothering with fact-checking or anything else resembling actual journalism.

I've been following these rumors, and Ethiopia has never been cited as a potential source of recoveries for the purported 90-ish. Heck, the country didn't even get the Troughton episodes. In that regard, the Sunday People report isn't accurate and is probably errant nonsense, because there wouldn't be 100-plus episodes to recover from there. (The Ark of the Covenant, on the other hand... )

So, no, Ethiopia is a new angle and the Sunday People didn't simply regurgitate internet chatter to get their article of errant nonsense.

 

[Christopher]

^Unless they're inept at geography too and can't tell Ethiopia and Sierra Leone apart...

 

[Candlelight]

I've been following these rumors, and Ethiopia has never been cited as a potential source of recoveries for the purported 90-ish. Heck, the country didn't even get the Troughton episodes.

Neither did Sierra Leone.

By known broadcast details, Ethiopia only have 11 missing episodes. Some people really don't know their history!

For those that want to know who got what, a quick list can be found here.

 

[Candlelight]

Just when we thought it couldn't get any more insane, there's this, from one of Britain's Sunday newspapers.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/106-doctor-who-episodes-uncovered-2343474
Yep, all 106. Including Masterplan 7 (or maybe the original version of The Dead Planet, or the original versions of Crisis and The rge to Live. Which would bring it up to 109 episodes).
Or maybe not.

"A friend told me that..."

"sold by mistake"

The article has so many holes it's worse than swiss cheese!

 

[Christopher]

I like Swiss cheese...

 

[diankra]

Well, Ethiopia has done its share in missing episode recoveries before now: it's a good bet that some of the copies of various season two stories recovered from Enterprises in 1978 had just been returned from Ethiopia (Algeria is the only other sensible source, and probably the source for the other season one/two stories found at the same time).

But yep, they shouldn't have had any season three, four or five stories (though Cyprus never bought Reign of Terror, but still got sent it). And if they ever did, wouldn't they have sent them back with season two in the late '70s? (assuming that is what happened).

It's a nonsense story: the mere mention of 106 episodes suggests that someone's been asked to write up a filler piece about the internet rumours, and done some very casual googling to pad it out.

 

[diankra]

For those that want to know who got what, a quick list can be found here.

Actually, that's very impressive and interesting: good work!
A thought come to mind...

Iran only got some of Marco Polo, sent on from NZ. Which leads to the thought...
I didn't know Germany ever got anything. But is it possible that they only got sent some of The Ice Warriors? Hence explaining how an incomplete set of prints was found at Enterprises? (Every other recovery from Enterprises being a complete story). Total speculation, so probably wrong....

 

[Sindatur]

I'd love to believe there's something to the rumor, and there really is some [reasonable] number of episodes being negotiated for, but, would they really keep releasing animated episodes if they had the whole lot within an inch of their possession?

If they'd already paid for making them, they wouldn't want to waste that investment. Animation takes a long time to make; the process could've been started before any new discoveries were made.

Not that I believe there are any new discoveries; I just think it's theoretically possible that they might still release the animated versions even if there were.

But this rumor started in response to chatter about the Galaxy 4 and Underwater Menace episodes, that they were holding back the rest, and only admitting to those two. They were announced late 2011, is that still a reasonable amount of time to continue on with the animated episodes if they were looking at recovering all of them? I can totally understand a year, but, going on two years? Isn't there still another story beyond The Tenth Planet episode 4 that has been announced as being animated, and has a release date set?

 

[Nightowl1701]

If the deal wasn't yet locked down in late 2011, with every possibility of this supposed find going up in smoke like the Sierra Leone stash, yeah the BBC would pursue animation as a Plan B.

That said, I'm only gonna repeat what I just said on Facebook: I'm not gonna believe it until the BBC announces it AND they post clips online as proof. I'm not listening to anyone else crying (Bad) wolf.

 

[Sindatur]

If the deal wasn't yet locked down in late 2011, with every possibility of this supposed find going up in smoke like the Sierra Leone stash, yeah the BBC would pursue animation as a Plan B.

That said, I'm only gonna repeat what I just said on Facebook: I'm not gonna believe it until the BBC announces it AND they post clips online as proof. I'm not listening to anyone else crying (Bad) wolf.

Don't mind me, I'm skeptical and just looking for something concrete to keep my hopes down

 

[diankra]

Isn't there still another story beyond The Tenth Planet episode 4 that has been announced as being animated, and has a release date set?

The Moonbase was scheduled for release in October, but has now been replaced by Tenth Planet and been rescheduled to January 14th 2014 (late delivery of the animation, officially). Everything I've heard says that Underwater Menace is also being done, but nothing's been officially said to confirm that.

 

[Christopher]

I've seen the animated reconstructions of "The Invasion" and "The Reign of Terror" now, and they're interesting, though the animation is of moderate quality at best. I wish that they would interpolate surviving live-action clips where available, like the first and last moments of an episode that overlap with adjacent ones. Or at least include surviving clips and telesnaps as bonus features. It doesn't seem right not to have the available original material included.

 

[Lonemagpie]

Now the redtops are at it on the word of a random "Dr Who expert" (read "gullible fan or troll") - http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/106-doctor-who-episodes-uncovered-2343474

 

[Candlelight]

though Cyprus never bought Reign of Terror, but still got sent it

Did it clear the censors? The Crusade was never bought by New Zealand but the films remained here, most getting junked in 1974 and ep1 found 25 years later.

I didn't know Germany ever got anything. But is it possible that they only got sent some of The Ice Warriors? Hence explaining how an incomplete set of prints was found at Enterprises?

The prints found at Ents were "cutting copies", and not overseas broadcast versions.

Germany was actually sent several episodes/serials but The Ice Warriors is the only serial I've heard of by name. It's likely the other serials (stories A, B and C for example) were from existing stories and thus hardly get a mention.

 

[Candlelight]

Someone called Alan posted the Daily Mirror link on the missing episodes forum. Paul Vanezis replied immediately:

Sadly untrue Alan.

 

[Brendan Moody]

The only possible good that can come of that tabloid article-- and I doubt it'll happen-- is that it might inspire the BBC to issue the kind of overarching denial that people have been clamoring for ever since their first, poorly-worded statement in June. (Or, if they've actually found something, an announcement of that.) Otherwise, despite its blatant factual errors, the article is going to be held up as evidence of something, just as every claim that's a mix of the unverifiable and the blatantly wrong has had its false elements ignored and its unsourceable elements defended. And someone will be shouting, "Paul Vanezis denied this, why won't he deny my own pet version of the rumours?"

 

[Brendan Moody]

A good rundown of bogus claims in the Sunday People article: http://www.sfsa.org.au/forum.php?forum=1&msg=6134&msgref=6134&topic=600#anch6134. Really, we should be grateful that the first tabloid to run with the story picked a version so outlandish that even people who believe 90+ episodes have been found are forced to admit there's something wrong with it.

Meanwhile, Bleeding Cool is back at it, hilariously feeling superior to the Sunday People.

 

[VDCNI]

Doctor Who Online tweeting that some episodes are definitely back and BBC will announce next month!

 

[StCoop]

Doctor Who Online tweeting that some episodes are definitely back and BBC will announce next month!

Given that they're the people who started this whole nonsense off in the first place I'm not holding my breath.

However, if even one singular episode has been recovered I've no doubt the people claiming that nearly all of them have will use it to claim that they were "right" all along.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Doctor Who Online tweeting that some episodes are definitely back and BBC will announce next month!

Reading this tweet and this tweet, I have the impression there's a news embargo in place. Now that it's out in the open -- "various outlets are reporting this now" -- they can speak about the topic more freely without breaching the embargo. DWO can't tell us the story -- it's still the BBC's story to tell -- but they're telling us there's a story there behind the embargo.

I'm now very curious what happens over the next forty-eight hours.