Christopher's point is valid. We don't know the condition of the film stock nor do we know the conditions under which it has been stored. Film will breakdown even under ideal storage conditions.
Wiped Episode Discoveries
- Thread starter Allyn Gibson
- Start date
If there's any truth to this 10,000 can story, there is something that I hope is among them even more than Doctor Who.
I want to see Peter Cushing's "The Caves of Steel." Terry Nation wrote the adaptation, and there are a few clips that exist. I'd like to see the whole thing, I'd like to see how Cushing played Lije Baley.
I believe that Cushing's "1984" does exist (I think it was found, in all places, at the Library of Congress), but Orwell's estate isn't interested in allowing its release.
There's more lost television than Doctor Who.
I want to see Peter Cushing's "The Caves of Steel." Terry Nation wrote the adaptation, and there are a few clips that exist. I'd like to see the whole thing, I'd like to see how Cushing played Lije Baley.
I believe that Cushing's "1984" does exist (I think it was found, in all places, at the Library of Congress), but Orwell's estate isn't interested in allowing its release.
There's more lost television than Doctor Who.
I agree with that part completely, but it was odd that the rumors of the discoveries came back in April and the DVDs were ready before the end of the year. I suspect that they're taking their time in bringing them out to remaster the films for the DVDs.
Oh, gods, yes. That would be amazing. It's the only screen adaptation that novel's ever had.
Apparently, the production led to the creation of an anthology series called Out of the Unknown which did six more Asimov adaptations, including the sequel The Naked Sun (with a different cast), the robot stories "Satisfaction Guaranteed," "Reason," and "Liar!", and the standalones "The Dead Past" and "Sucker Bait." The two standalones still exist, but the others have been lost. They adapted stories by a number of other SF authors too, including Ray Bradbury, Kate Wilhelm, Clifford Simak, and Fredrik Pohl.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Out_of_the_Unknown_episodes
Actually, I do know enough to understand the difficulties they could face. I don't do it for a living myself but I have friends who do. And, what you're talking about are more concerns about how'd they restore the film. By this point, they do know what they have and a good idea of how bad each is.
The restoration itself could conceivably take very long, so I'm not surprised at all that it's not done. But, that's a separate issue from knowing what they have.
And, if you read between the lines in the message that was linked to, that's what Paul is saying. Phil knows what he has and he'll release the details when he wants because it's his company. He probably has business reasons for taking his time.
Mr Awe
There may have been a copy at the Library of Congress, but that was always held by the BBC, probably because it was so controversial at the time. It was repeated in 1976 as part of the 50 anniversary season for the BBC (to be precise, the anniversary of the private British Broadcasting Company becoming the Royal Charter-ed British Broadcasting Corporation) and again when director Rudolph Cartier died in the late 1990s. Also, it's been screened a few times - at the NFT in 1984, on the date that Winston makes his first diary entry, with some of the cast of the new film (John Hurt among them) taking a break from the set to see it, along with the 1956 Edmond O'Brien film version, but a scheduled screening at the ICA in 1986 was cancelled on the day because the Orwell estate withdrew permission.
It was cleaned up for a planned DVD release to mark the 50th anniversary in 2004, but as you say, the Orwell estate blocked it. Preview discs had been sent out before it was cancelled, but unfortunately I didn't get one, as a sister mag was doing the feature... :-(
That's a fair interpretation. But it's a far cry from saying it's his "fault," as if he were doing something wrong. Knowing what he has isn't the same as being ready to declare it to the world. Lots of people in lots of fields have reasons to hold off on making announcements -- scientists need to check their results, writers and filmmakers need to wait for contracts to be signed, etc. Imagine if he announced he had a recovered episode and then found it was too deteriorated to release. Better not to get people's hopes up too much.
Indeed, maybe if he's still waiting for some materials to be returned, it could be that there's a chance of finding a better copy of something than he currently has, which would be another good reason to wait.
In more positive news, it looks like Enemy and Web will get an airing on BBC Four...
http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2013...-patrick-troughton-episodes-could-air-on-bbc4
http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2013...-patrick-troughton-episodes-could-air-on-bbc4
^'Twould be nice if BBC America followed suit.
Besides, the one time I've used iTunes, it didn't work very well on my computer. It took a long time to download and the playback was sluggish.
Yea, I bought both Web and Enemy on iTunes and the Playback was horrible, really it was no better than my Recons
So, I asked a friend to convert them to burnable files, so, I could put them on DVD and be able to watch them.
That's strange, from what I understand, the files are actually on your computer and should play just fine. No slow streaming or anything like that.
I first used iTunes for these 2 episodes and it worked fine. Do you have an older computer?
Mr Awe
We're talking about the BBCA here in the States, not the BBC.
Mr Awe
That would probably hurt DVD sales, no?
Would it? Plenty of old TV shows are still shown on TV and their DVDs sell well.
Classic Who is still available to PBS stations, which can buy it or not on a station-by-station basis. (It was withdrawn briefly while BBC Worldwide was selling the new series, but that was years ago now.) That few stations air it anymore is entirely their decision, possibly because the fan enthusiasm that was once devoted to keeping it on the air is now aimed at collecting the DVDs and watching the new series. So if anything it's DVD sales hurting TV broadcasts rather than the other way around.
You might be right, but I don't know where to look for more information. I do know people who say things like "why should I buy Seinfeld DVDs" when they're on every night.
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