Cool News
Lost "Dr. Who" episode found!
Glen here...
...with a rather self-explanatory message about the recent discovery of a "lost" Dr. Who episode. To put this in better context, I will quote the exact words of AICN reader Thomas Jennings:
"As you may or may not
know, back in the early 1970's, many Doctor Who episodes were destroyed
because they simply took up too much archival space and no future use
was anticipated.
When the show gained its incredible popularity in the
1980s, a demand for reruns and video sales made the BBC search
frantically for remaining copies across the globe in order to recover as
much of the serial as possible. Sadly, 109 episodes remain missing, but
that number is one less thanks to the following announcement!"
Below, I have quoted (verbatim) a Press Release about the subject Thomas refers to above. As far as I can tell, said Press Release seems to have originated from the OUTPOST GALLIFREY web site. If this attribution is incorrect, please forgive my improper crediting of the source, and be sure to drop me a line to correct the error.
Other than that, I assume it’s from Outpost Gallifrey , and here’s what the document said:
PRESS RELEASE:
THE CRUSADE EPISODE 1 FOUND - IN NEW ZEALAND!
by Paul Scoones
After a thirty-year absence from the BBC, a William Hartnell Doctor Who
episode has been found in New Zealand. The Lion - the first episode of The
Crusade - was wiped by the BBC in January 1969. In January this year a
16mm film print was discovered in Auckland, New Zealand, and returned to the
BBC.
The complete film print was bought at a film collectors' fair in Napier, New
Zealand in June 1998. It was purchased by Auckland film collector Bruce
Grenville from another collector who was unaware of its rarity and sold it
to Bruce cheaply as an "an incomplete Doctor Who story".
Bruce was equally unaware that the episode had any special significance, and
regularly screened it for his friends. One such friend, Cornelius Stone,
mentioned to Neil Lambess, a member of the New Zealand Doctor Who Fan
Club, that he'd seen the film of "a Hartnell historical episode set in the time of
the crusades".
Neil learned that the episode was apparently The Lion, and following up on
this lead, he and Paul Scoones, the NZDWFC's coordinator, visited Bruce
on 3
January and viewed the film to verify that it was in fact the long lost
first episode of The Crusade.
Bruce was surprised to learn of the rarity of his film print, and readily
agreed to loan it to the BBC's unofficial Doctor Who 'Restoration Team' so
that the film can now be cleaned up and a duplicate made. Paul Scoones
contacted Steve Roberts of the 'Restoration Team' and handled the safe
dispatch of the film to the UK.
The Lion joins The Wheel of Fortune (episode 3) as the only other episode
of
this highly-regarded 1965 four-part historical adventure known to exist.
Although many film clips have been unearthed in recent years, the last
discovery of complete lost Doctor Who episodes was seven years ago when
The
Tomb of the Cybermen was recovered from Hong Kong in 1992.
Although neither the film or its can provide any clues to the route by which
it came to be on sale at a film collectors' event in Napier, it is likely
that the print was received by the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation
from
the BBC around late 1967. Although NZBC records show that the New
Zealand
censor rated the story suitable for broadcast, it remains one of several
sixties stories that were received by the NZBC but never screened.
The Lion is the only lost Doctor Who episode found in New Zealand.
Although
Bruce Grenville (who is a regular visitor to film collectors' fairs in NZ),
says he has not yet come across any other Doctor Who film prints, this find
raises renewed hope that further lost episodes may still exist, just waiting
to be rediscovered.
Glen here, again.
You can also CLICK HERE to jump to the BBC web site for more information about this fascinating subject...
Glen
Or call:
(512)347-1992
-
+ Expand All
-
Okay, but I hope you haven't signed any legal documents entitling anyone to said nut in case you're wrong. I suspect most of these "friends" of yours were blowing smoke. I've been following the missing episode scene for many years, and am fairly convinced that while a very few episodes may exist in the hands of knowledgeable collectors, the bulk of whatever may be out there is in the hands of people who know nothing about it. If it's out there at all... I think you're giving these weirdos entirely too much credit, and them constructing a fantasy scenario in which they claim to hold complete DW episodes doesn't seem unlikely at all.
-
Ok. Here's the deal. Most people that tote about lost episodes of DW are just blowing smoke. The only guy I know for a fact that KNOWS where one is (but he does not own it, however it was shown at WhovianCon, a small UK DW con I used to attend). I have a feeling if there is to be any hope in finding a decent number of the lost eps, it is in Asia and Africa.
Indy
Who does have DW 16mm prints, but nothing that is "lost". -
Since the BBC has stopped producing TV episodes of Doctor Who for several years now, there is a slowly growing series of fan-created episodes, some of which are quite entertaining, particularly to die-hard Whovians.
If you'd like to see what I'm talking about, check out the website at
http://www.lse.fullfeed.com/~doctor9/drwho.htm
to get a glimpse behind the scenes as the latest fan video, "Time And Again" approaches completion.
Dennis
P.S. Harry, hope you don't mind this posting too much... I love your site, and I just know you must have many Doctor Who fans here who would be interested in this project... :)
D -
Doc, no offense is intended by this, but Harry won't mind your posting. **Glen** writes Coaxial, and Harry writes Cool News.
-
A lot of people seem to think they own missing episodes because they have episodes that are never screened on TV. The BBC actually has lots of episodes which are never screened nowadays, because they're all that's left of incomplete serials, and no TV station is going to show half a story. Some of these "orphaned" episodes can be seen on the videos "The Hartnell Years", "The Troughton Years", "Daleks: The Early Years" and "Cybermen: The Early Years".
A list of missing episodes can be found at Steve Roberts' web site: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/steveroberts/restorat.htm
Steve is in charge of the BBC's unofficial "Doctor Who Restoration Team", and he's the man to contact if you think you have a missing episode. -
Hey, Glen,
Sorry! Didn't mean to snub ya. Got so excited with my pointing and clicking that I forgot where I was. Maybe you oughtta set the coaxial section apart a bit more with a slightly different background color or something?
Anyway, I guess I should just be happy that my message wasn't deleted for being "off topic."
D
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