A community for discussing all things Doctor Who.
Rules
1 Be constructive
All posts/comments must be thoughtful and balanced.
2 Be welcoming
It is important that everyone from newbies to longtime fans feel welcome, no matter their gender, sexual orientation, religion or race.
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Utilize the spoiler system for any and all spoilers relating to the most recently-aired episode. Spoiler protection will not be granted to information that is out in the mainstream media.
6 Keep on-topic
All submissions must be directly about the DW franchise (the shows, movies, books, etc.). Off-topic discussions are welcome at c/Quarks.
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Upcoming Episodes
| Date | Episode | Title |
|---|---|---|
| 05-03 | 2x04 | "Lucky Day" |
| 05-10 | 2x05 | "The Story & the Engine" |
| 05-17 | 2x06 | "The Interstellar Song Contest" |
| 05-24 | 2x07 | "Wish World" |
| 05-31 | 2x08 | "The Reality War" |
Such a bummer. If I found out something I owned was this rare or special I’d share with the world.
There are certainly some Patrick Troughton serials I'd love to be able to watch in their original form. Also "Marco Polo", but mostly Troughton. I hope they'll materialise before my eyes give out.
Well, yeah...
The BBC didn't give a shit about archiving, especially pulp sci-fi like Dr Who.
So private collectors goobled up all the tapes as they were found in the closets of random BBC regional offices.
By now the BBC has almost certainly located multiple copies of "missing" episodes and know exactly who has what.
It's how they have a slow trickle of "found" episodes whenever they want.
It's how they have a slow trickle of "found" episodes whenever they want.
Except... they don't. There is no "slow trickle" of episodes found in private collections, most recoveries we've seen were forgotten in archives around the world.
Quite the contrary, "Web of fear" was reported found in its entirety, but the episode featuring Lethbridge-Stewart's first appearance disappeared (again) before the serial could be returned. This episode has been rumoured to have been scooped up by a collector.
Sorry to burst your conspiracy theory, but there is absolutely no evidence or even motivation for the BBC to secretly sit on missing episodes. That would just be a whoppingly bad look after the archive purges in the '60s and early '70s.
If that were remotely true, the BBC wouldn’t be so stuck releasing the early years on Blu-Ray.
If that's the case, why hasn't there been a missing episode released in over ten years? Not much of a trickle if you ask me.
https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/a64001894/doctor-who-update-missing-episodes/
Because they were filling in gaps of episodes with animation and that's done cheaper in bulk than one episode at a time.
Sorry I don't understand your argument. Are you saying animating the episodes is cheaper for the BBC than acquiring the originals from the private collectors?
Wasn't really an argument.
What's been found was found sitting in like a supply closet of African BBC stations forgotten about for decades.
Certain parts of the film are just fucked. So what they're gonna realize is original where it can be, and animated in the missing parts
What you said in your first comment sounded like the BBC knows which episodes still exist in private collections (or elsewhere) and are holding them back from release to spread the releases out over time. I don't think that's the case at all since they haven't released anything in over ten years.
Then you started going on about animations and I honestly just don't get what you are trying to say.
and I honestly just don’t get what you are trying to say.
No problem
Animation is hideously expensive, far more so than restoring an extant episode.