Rate of Retrieving Episodes... Including Duplicates

[thomgray]

Hi all, I'm new here so be nice

Looking at a lot of posts prior to Phil Morris' discoveries, there seems to have been a general consensus that the number of returned episodes had dwindled significantly since the Tomb of the Cybermen in 1991, and this was a worrying sign that things had dried up. Obviously eleven returned episodes later, we may feel a bit more positive about the future, but I was wondering how many episodes have been found through various sources that already existed in the archive? Surely if the twenty years between TOTC and Airlock/UM had been padded out with duplicates its only a matter of time before lost episodes turn up? Or was it totally quiet the whole time and we've just been really lucky this decade?

[Anthony Tobin]

Hi.

There is a website run I believe by Brad Phipps, the Destruction of Time blog. It has a comprehensive timeline of recoveries.

[thomgray]

Thanks for the link, it's very in-depth.

It certainly seems that the 90s were pretty poor in terms of finding complete episodes. You'd think the success rate would slow down, but if anything the decade between 2004 and 2014 had far more discoveries, even if many were redundant duplicates. It's a promising sign.

I guess the frustrating thing about this ongoing search is that while the odd film can may turn up, the more episodes we find the rate of duplicates increases! What if 100 episodes DID show up somewhere and they turned out to be 100 copies already in the archives? Now that would suck...

[Deleted]

Aug 13, 2015 11:41:24 GMT thomgray said:

Thanks for the link, it's very in-depth.

It certainly seems that the 90s were pretty poor in terms of finding complete episodes. You'd think the success rate would slow down, but if anything the decade between 2004 and 2014 had far more discoveries, even if many were redundant duplicates. It's a promising sign.

I guess the frustrating thing about this ongoing search is that while the odd film can may turn up, the more episodes we find the rate of duplicates increases! What if 100 episodes DID show up somewhere and they turned out to be 100 copies already in the archives? Now that would suck...

I suggest you have a look at the BroaDWcast website as well Thom, lots of duplicates destroyed in the 1970's.

[Andrew Parker]

1992 - 4 episodes of Tomb of the Cybermen

1999 - 1 episode of the Crusades (The Lion)

2004 - 1 episode of the Dalek's Masterplan (Day of Armageddon) and 1 duplicate of the Daleks (the expedition I think).

2011 - 1 episode of Galaxy 4 (Airlock) and 1 episode of The Underwater Menace

2013 - 6 episodes of Enemy of the World (1 duplicate) and 5 episodes of The Web of Fear (1 duplicate)

The 2001 to 2010 period was the slowest with only 1 episode, but the 90's are not far behind with only 5. I know an episode of the Romans was found in 2003 (I think) but if I remember reading it correctly it was actually a copy of a print made in the 80's sold to Ian Levine that had been sold on, and not an original print.

[Jaspal Cheema]

What about the poor quality Taiwan dupes found by Ian Levene a couple of years back?Has that been resolved,returned or found to be a hoax after all?

[shellyharman67]

Hoax i think Jaspal. Funny how it was on top of Mr Morris and his finds

[Jaspal Cheema]

Aug 15, 2015 11:12:39 GMT shellyharman67 said:

Hoax i think Jaspal. Funny how it was on top of Mr Morris and his finds

Absolute scandal if you ask me - and endorsed by DWM of all publications. Still,this hasn't been the first time. They were gushing over the returned 10th Planet episode 4,recolourized with linking narration from Michael Craze from the early 80s if I remember rightly.

[John Wall]

They're like Krynoid pods - they travel in pairs

[Mark Vanderlinde-Abernathy]

The Taiwan Prints is an unfortunate situation where I don't think we'll ever get any real answers. The story was plausible, but there is no substance to anything.

It probably should have never been published. There was no benefit from it having been.

[Mark Vanderlinde-Abernathy]

I think the Retrieval Rate of episodes is steady. If anything, there may be a small bump due to the increasing popularity of Doctor Who thanks to the new series. The 2010s have proven to be quite fruitful.

[Steven Sigel]

Aug 14, 2015 13:00:50 GMT Andrew Parker said:

I know an episode of the Romans was found in 2003 (I think) but if I remember reading it correctly it was actually a copy of a print made in the 80's sold to Ian Levine that had been sold on, and not an original print.

While it was a dupe (actually a reversal) - it was not one that Ian bought -- his prints were mostly originals , and the prints of the Romans that he bought now reside in my closet.

BTW - you missed several prints that have turned up on ebay over the years - which probably should be counted if you are counting duplicate copies of stuff that already exists. For example - Ep 1 of "Reign of Terror", ep 2 of "Terror of the Autons", an episode of "The Daleks" (ep 1 IIRC), and a few others (not counting all of the dupes made in the 80s, or the extra prints I sold)

[Simon Collis]

Has anybody put a database of these prints together, and tried to work out the sources of each one? That might turn up some interesting ideas for leads. (And if I've said that before, then I'm asking whether anyone's started the job since last time I asked...)

[George D]

I think there was a also a duplicate Romans episode found , a reign of terror showed up on ebay and probably others.

Up until Phil discovered in nigeria, the rate recently was 1-2per decade. That could continue, dry up, or if Phil has some leads For some more in Nigeria, we may have another half dozen.

One thing is certIain, that more show up when we all keep our ears pealed as we come acRoss various Film prints in our life.

[johnbarbour]

Aug 12, 2015 22:36:09 GMT thomgray said:

Hi all, I'm new here so be nice

Looking at a lot of posts prior to Phil Morris' discoveries, there seems to have been a general consensus that the number of returned episodes had dwindled significantly since the Tomb of the Cybermen in 1991, and this was a worrying sign that things had dried up. Obviously eleven returned episodes later, we may feel a bit more positive about the future, but I was wondering how many episodes have been found through various sources that already existed in the archive? Surely if the twenty years between TOTC and Airlock/UM had been padded out with duplicates its only a matter of time before lost episodes turn up? Or was it totally quiet the whole time and we've just been really lucky this decade?

Interesting question and i can see that others have already done their research re timeframes but I can't help feeling a little depressed that we are reduced to analysing past finds though i appreciate that we can learn from history. Perhaps like the cybermen in Tomb, we should go into cold storage until an enterprising archaeologist passes our tests (why we like the old stuff) and awakens us with news of fresh developments... Pass me the clingfilm to seal up my honeycomb!!!