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Two Lost "Doctor Who" Episodes Recovered

By Steven Lloyd Wilson | Posted Under Trade News | Comments (7)

The-First-Doctor-William-Hartnell-classic-doctor-who.jpg

I think that three of my last four trade news posts have been related to “Doctor Who,” but that’s because I prioritize correctly. This latest is new old news as opposed to new news, in that copies of two different “Doctor Who” episodes from the sixties have been discovered. This is news because at the time television hadn’t yet realized that they were producing a cultural artifact of any kind and because film wasn’t cheap, they just recorded over old episodes once they were broadcast. So only about half of the 235 episodes of “Doctor Who” actually exist in their original master tape form.

And because this era predated VCRs, DVRs, YouTube and every other bit of technology that we use now to casually create personal archives larger than the sum of human creative output before the twentieth century, many of these episodes simply do not exist at all other than in the memories of fans. They were broadcast out onto the air and then destroyed.

Many of these have been recovered in some form or another from copies of copies of copies found in attics over the decades, but the number has tapered off as simple time as worked its attrition. Ironic given the subject. One smiles to think though that given the long memories and nostalgia of science fiction fans, that much as cellular phones developed to look like Star Trek communicators, the first test run of a time machine will probably be to save the original copies of “Doctor Who.” Killing Hitler will wait until it’s out of beta.

But in any case, the news at hand is that two more episodes were found, a Hartnell and a Troughton to be precise, both in the hands of an audio engineer who had bought them off someone else in the eighties. They’re both prints made by the Australian Broadcast Corporation for rebroadcast down under. They’re both damaged, with missing bits and pieces, but every bit that made it is one we didn’t have before.

No word yet on whether charges of copyright piracy will be brought. I’m kidding. Mostly.

(source: Blastr)









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Comments

Wow, I had no idea Edward Norton has been around for that long.

Posted by: Ghisent at December 12, 2011 10:13 AM

"I think that three of my last four trade news posts have been related to “Doctor Who,” but that’s because I prioritize correctly."

Agreed, good sir.

Posted by: BarbadoSlim at December 12, 2011 10:19 AM

It makes one wonder if theoretically there might enough out there in private collections, basements of libraries or even mispalced among the shelves of any number of television networks to piecemeal the entire lost catalog together if enough people poured through their collections.

There has been a rumor for a while that a good portion of the William Hartnell missing stories could be locked in the archives in Zimbabwe. I'm not kidding. They apparently showed the first few years of Doctor Who and never returned their tapes for destruction. We might never know for sure since the that country's government banned BBC personnel from coming in and looking. Maybe a private person with money could gander a look. One can hope, I suppose.

http://www.sliceofscifi.com/2009/02/23/could-zimbabwe-have-missing-doctor-who/

Posted by: bleujayone at December 12, 2011 12:11 PM

Or they're in a government warehouse somewhere, packed away in a wooden crate that's stacked on top of the Ark of the Covenant.

Though now I'm concerned that viewing these lost episodes might cause my face to melt.

Posted by: Jast at December 12, 2011 1:16 PM

And now they've found more lost episodes...IN SPACE!

http://www.toplessrobot.com/2011/12/the_doctor_is_in_space.php

Posted by: JustBill at December 12, 2011 1:26 PM

"I think that three of my last four trade news posts have been related to “Doctor Who,” but that’s because I prioritize correctly."

I heartily agree!


Hartnell always scared me, but I loved Troughton. I don't even mind if they add annimation to fill out the missing bits of the episodes, like they've done before on Troughton's. The funny bit is, I can see the original bits in my head when they do the annimated bits. It's like old neurons finally fire again.

Posted by: BWeaves at December 12, 2011 4:53 PM

Those are some fine quips, SLW. And of course good news on the WHO recovery. Back in my younger days of WHO fandom I remember looking at that episode list in my DOCTOR WHO compendium book and marveling that anyone could have dared to not realize the value of what they weren't preserving.

Posted by: DarthCorleone at December 12, 2011 11:44 PM