Report: Lost "Doctor Who" Episodes to be Released Online This Week
10/7/2013
by Graeme McMillan


Just in time for the show's 50th anniversary, it's appearing increasingly likely that some of the mythical "lost" episodes of the BBC's "Doctor Who" have not only been recovered, but may even be released online this month.

More than a hundred episodes of the long-running science fiction series from the 1960s and '70s had been thought to be permanently lost due to a then-contemporary policy of destroying or wiping videotape and film of existing programming in order to create storage space for newer content.

Who was far from unique in this; many other BBC series from the same period suffered similar fates, although "Who" has the distinction of having audio recordings of all of the missing episodes, thanks to the diligence of fans at the time of the original broadcasts.





Following expansive research and restoration efforts -- not to mention the occasional lucky discovery -- only 106 episodes of the show were believed still to be lost, barring any number of rumors claiming their discovery.

This weekend, however, such rumors took on new clarity with the Radio Times reporting that some of the missing episodes had been found in Africa and would be released, digitally remastered, on iTunes this week.





According to Bleeding Cool, which has been tracking this particular rumor for months now, the episodes to be released will form the Patrick Troughton-era storylines "Enemy of The World" and "Web of Fear."

Asked to confirm the rumor, a BBC spokesperson said "There are always rumors and speculation about Doctor Who missing episodes being discovered -- however we cannot confirm any new finds."





The British Daily Mirror newspaper reports that a press conference is expected at the end of this week to officially announce the news.

Whether or not such an event actually happens -- or any lost episodes have been found -- remains a mystery to all but the time travelers amongst us, for now, it seems.

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BBC Celebrates Discovery of Lost "Doctor Who" Episodes
10/11/2013
by Stuart Kemp


The BBC, "Doctor Who" fans and the British media were delighted on Friday to learn that nine early episodes of the British cult classic sci-fi show thought lost forever have been discovered in Nigeria.

The BBC offered fans the chance to buy nine early black and white episodes of the show that features Patrick Troughton, the second actor playing the Time Lord.





Nine of the 11 episodes in total, found at a small TV facility in Jos, Nigeria, were among the 106 "lost" 1960s episodes of "Doctor Who" that feature Troughton and the very first Time Lord, William Hartnell -- the other two were copies of episodes already in the BBC archive.

The recovered material includes four episodes of six-parter 'The Web of Fear', a "quintessential" "Doctor Who" story in which the Time Lord battles robot Yetis spreading a poisonous fungus on the London Underground.





Speaking to the BBC news website, Mark Gatiss, an actor and writer for the 21st century incarnation of "Doctor Who", described the find as "thrilling."

Said Gatiss: "Every single avenue seemed to have been exhausted. Every now and then something turns up -- but to have two virtually complete stories out of the blue is absolutely incredible."

The BBC destroyed many of the sci-fi drama's original transmission tapes in the 1960s and 1970s.





The discovery was made by Philip Morris, executive director at Television International Enterprise Archive, a banner that specializes in tracking down missing TV and cinema archive material.

Morris is sometimes referred to in the industry as the "Indiana Jones of the film world."



Morris said he found the tapes, which also included five episodes that complete the six-part 1967 "Doctor Who" story 'The Enemy of the World', at a TV relay station "sitting on a shelf with a piece of masking tape that said "Doctor Who."

"People thought they were gone forever," he said. "They're not. They're back."





The BBC's commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, made the episodes available on Apple's iTunes store at midnight on Thursday with the two series also available for pre-order on DVD.

The recovered episodes feature Frazer Hines and Deborah Watling as Troughton's time traveling companions.

"When I heard I couldn't quite believe it," Watling told The Guardian newspaper about the discoveries. "There had been hoaxes before [about lost episodes being discovered]."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/bbc-celebrates-discovery-lost-doctor-647761