Source of Power Of The Daleks clip used in 1971 "Ask Aspel"?

[Andrew Browne]

In 1971, an edition of "Ask Aspel" broadcast during, or shortly after, the run of Terror Of The Autons, and which I watched at the time, featured a clip from Power Of The Daleks. According to BroadWCast it was the 29 January 1971 edition of "Ask Aspel", however BroadWCast says the Power clip was from episode 2, which I'm certain is incorrect, and it was in fact from episode 4. I am certain of this because I very clearly remember the "Dalek <n> complete. Check" dialogue to the clip. In other words it was from the same part of episode 4, and was quite possibly the exact same clip, as one of the clips that were discovered in 2005 on a film insert reel for a 1966 edition of Tomorrow's World.

What I'm wondering is: is this same film insert reel (or indeed the Tomorrow's World episode itself) the likely source that was also used for the "Ask Aspel" clip, or is there anywhere else it could have been sourced from at that time? Referring to "Wiped", it seems that, although there is no record of when the transmission tapes for Power were wiped, "it seems certain" that they were junked by July 1969, and additionally it seems the overseas prints would have been in Australia and New Zealand in 1971. Does this mean that, as far as is known, the only places the clip could have been obtained from for Ask Aspel would be the Tomorrow's World episode or the film insert reel used for it, and is it likely that this is what happened, or could there have been another source at the time?

Edited to add: Oh, I guess the film negatives for overseas sales still existed then, so it could have come from there?

[Richard Tipple]

Am I right in thinking that BBC Enterprise held copies on 16mm for foreign sales and these weren't destroyed until 1974? If so could the clips not have come from there?

[Andrew Browne]

Jan 2, 2017 22:31:09 GMT Richard Tipple said:

Am I right in thinking that BBC Enterprise held copies on 16mm for foreign sales and these weren't destroyed until 1974? If so could the clips not have come from there?

Yes, I edited my post to that effect a few minutes before your reply :-)

[Richard Tipple]

Jan 2, 2017 22:36:05 GMT Andrew Browne said:

Jan 2, 2017 22:31:09 GMT Richard Tipple said:

Am I right in thinking that BBC Enterprise held copies on 16mm for foreign sales and these weren't destroyed until 1974? If so could the clips not have come from there?

Yes, I edited my post to that effect a few minutes before your reply :-)

Apologies! It takes me a while to read and reply

[Paul Vanezis]

Power of the Daleks is an interesting story because of all the film clips that have turned up. Pretty much everything that survives is because the original film inserts were kept for a time prior to being destroyed. Even the Blue Peter extract which is a film recording was played into the live programme from film.

According to the scans of the junk cards I have for episode 6 that David Stead loaned me, there was 350ft of inserts for that specific episode, but over 2600ft of 35mm negative on two reels, which I suspect are the negs for some of the specially shot material for this and other episodes. Such a shame that we don't have that one reel, but it must have been available for quite some time and 16mm reductions made of some sections certainly for Tomorrow's World.

Paul