Rumour: approx. 90 lost episodes found?

pixelburp

This definitely needs 'rumour' in the title until proven otherwise, but there are tweets going around that a huge haul of old BBC material, potentially including 90 of the 106 missing episodes of Dr. Who, have been found and are being archived at the moment.

I would dismiss it all as rumour-mongering but infamous Who episode-hunter Ian Levine, who himself initially & vigorously denied the rumours himself, then backtracked and announced that he had seen the evidence with his own eyes - 3 tonnes of evidence at that.

Update from Levine:
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/06/18/the-doctor-who-missing-episodes-rumour-gains-a-little-more-weight-three-tons-worth/

A story from one day previous, initially debunking the rumours:
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/06/17/more-on-those-missing-doctor-who-episodes-or-less/

Of course if this is true, then it makes the recent attempts to animate missing episodes a little redundant from the BBC

Das Kitty

pixelburp wrote: »

This definitely needs 'rumour' in the title until proven otherwise, but there are tweets going around that a huge haul of old BBC material, potentially including 90 of the 106 missing episodes of Dr. Who, have been found and are being archived at the moment.

I would dismiss it all as rumour-mongering but infamous Who episode-hunter Ian Levine, who himself initially & vigorously denied the rumours himself, then backtracked and announced that he had seen the evidence with his own eyes - 3 tonnes of evidence at that.

Update from Levine:
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/06/18/the-doctor-who-missing-episodes-rumour-gains-a-little-more-weight-three-tons-worth/

A story from one day previous, initially debunking the rumours:
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/06/17/more-on-those-missing-doctor-who-episodes-or-less/

Of course if this is true, then it makes the recent attempts to animate missing episodes a little redundant from the BBC

Ooh, I hope it's true!

Ian Levine comes across as a bit of an ass in his tweets and interviews there though.

Doctor DooM

I listen to a couple of podcasts and Ian Levine is both not popular and barely trusted by them. Hopefully though, this is true. Imagine the fangasm!

pixelburp

Doctor DooM wrote: »

I listen to a couple of podcasts and Ian Levine is both not popular and barely trusted by them. Hopefully though, this is true. Imagine the fangasm!

Aye, ordinarily I wouldn't have much time for him myself, but the sheer size of the apparent find makes it more intriguing (along with the fact that it wasn't just Doctor Who stuff, but lots of other old BBC material). Oddly, if it were only 1 or 2 episodes 'discovered', I'd probably be more skeptical. Wait and see I guess, even if we've been here before

McLoughlin

So that means Marco Polo, The Reign of Terror, The Crusade, Galaxy 4, The Myth Makers, The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve, The Celestial Toymaker, The Savages, The Smugglers, The Tenth Planet, The Power of the Daleks, The Highlanders, The Underwater Menace, The Moonbase, The Macra Terror, The Faceless Ones, The Evil of the Daleks, The Abominable Snowmen, The Enemy of the World, The Web of Fear, Fury from the Deep and The Space Pirates might exist ?

Until there is some kinda of hard evidence I'm hoping for the best but prepared for the worst.

pixelburp

Actually, something that occurs & maybe someone here would know: how long would this form of old-school film stock last?

I presume like most things in life it degrades over time & considering how damaged media like VHS can become over a short period, I presume film is as bad? And if they are finding old material scattered across the globe, one presumes they're not always being kept in optimal environments either. Presumably there'll come a time when it's physically impossible that any film stock could still exist & the hunt will be called off...

Das Kitty

It depends on the storage conditions and the material, but generally, yes it does degrade.

McLoughlin

Yup sadly film degards there was this feature on TV once about a private collector of Hollywood film from the early days of Hollywood but in the end most of his collection fell apart and couldn't be viewed due to poor storage conditions.

Das Kitty

McLoughlin wrote: »

Yup sadly film degards there was this feature on TV once about a private collector of Hollywood film from the early days of Hollywood but in the end most of his collection fell apart and couldn't be viewed due to poor storage conditions.

Well that was silver nitrate stock, so I wouldn't be that negative as they only used it for a short period of time.

Daemos

As hopeful as I am that it's true, I'll believe it when if it's confirmed

blastman

Was just reading about this, I really hope there's something to it!

Regarding the question of degrading stock, the reason the episodes are missing in the first place is because they were stored on early videotapes subsequently wiped by the BBC to be reused, so degrading film stock shouldn't be an issue, although tape obviously degrades too if it's stored in hostile conditions.

pixelburp

Awww, looks as if there's not likely to be a happy ending here folks, am sorry for starting this thread and getting people (including myself) excited

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/06/20/doctor-who-episodes-they-are-not-missing-but-destroyed-the-end/

Whilst the article holds a small candle of rumours suggesting the BBC are sitting on a big find, perhaps it's now time to consider that these stories are indeed lost forever

McLoughlin

pixelburp wrote: »

Awww, looks as if there's not likely to be a happy ending here folks, am sorry for starting this thread and getting people (including myself) excited

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/06/20/doctor-who-episodes-they-are-not-missing-but-destroyed-the-end/

Whilst the article holds a small candle of rumours suggesting the BBC are sitting on a big find, perhaps it's now time to consider that these stories are indeed lost forever

The audio is still there so at least we can still hear them.