Why is Brink of Disaster partially in suppressed field?

[ianphillips]

According to The Destruction of Time missing episode blog site (http://missingepisodes.blogspot.com/p/what-is-missing.html), The Brink of Disaster exists entirely in stored field (377 lines of resolution) except for the last five minutes which are in suppressed field (188 lines of resolution), but then it goes on to say that the print that we only have one print of the episode still in existence, but if that is the case, then why is Brink of Disaster partially a suppressed field recording. For that to have been the case, two different prints of the episode would have had to have been combined into one, but why would that have been done for a print held for distribution at Ents?

[John Green]

I've got a feeling this will come down to someone flicking the wrong switch!

[Jon Preddle]

From the Restoration Team's website (HERE):

"all went smoothly until we reached the last five minutes of the second episode of 'The Edge of Destruction'. At this point there was a dramatic change in picture quality and the sound dropped away to almost nothing. Checking the film revealed that the last five minutes of the original negative had been removed and a section of dupe neg (i.e. a negative made from another print) had been spliced in instead. We can only assume that the original section had been damaged sometime in the past and this section had been replaced. This must have happened at least nine years ago, as another print made from this negative at that time showed the same problem."

So it's a matter of a replacement section of the original 1967 negative being created by reverse-printing that section from an old suppressed field print that still existed.   

If this happened "nine years ago" (so, circa 1990), the "damage" to the master negative may have occurred around the time that copies were made for screening by BSB (in 1990) and UK Gold (in 1992).

If the damage was sustained earlier, then maybe it was when the episodes were ordered up to make VT copies for the US syndication market in the mid-1980s.  

It's even possible that the 'damage' was deliberate: IIRC the jump between Suppressed and Stored occurs at the fade-out just before the Doctor and Barbara's heart to heart in the annex, where Susan, now dressed in her cold-weather gear, can be seen darting about in the background. Since Marco Polo was not available for sale in the mid-1970s, but 'Edge' still was, the BBC may have taken a knife to the original master neg to remove any and all visual links to the 'missing' next serial. ..

[Ed Brown]

Mar 26, 2017 23:30:24 GMT Jon Preddle said:

From the Restoration Team's website (HERE):

"all went smoothly until we reached the last five minutes of the second episode of 'The Edge of Destruction'. At this point there was a dramatic change in picture quality and the sound dropped away to almost nothing. Checking the film revealed that the last five minutes of the original negative had been removed and a section of dupe neg (i.e. a negative made from another print) had been spliced in instead. We can only assume that the original section had been damaged sometime in the past and this section had been replaced. This must have happened at least nine years ago, as another print made from this negative at that time showed the same problem."

... If this happened "nine years ago" (so, circa 1990), the "damage" to the master negative may have occurred around the time that copies were made for screening by BSB (in 1990) and UK Gold (in 1992).

Is there any evidence that a skip-field recording of this episode still existed in 1990? Surely all surviving prints were catalogued in 1978, on the founding of the BBC film & vt archive. I don't recall ever hearing of a suppressed field print being archived. Did BBC Archives even have such a policy, i.e. of routinely retaining inferior quality prints?

Can we consult the print purchased in 1982 by DWAS for screening at conventions? I recall seeing it at a convention around 1983, and I don't remember it as being damaged, nor as being missing its end.

[Jon Preddle]

Mar 29, 2017 16:37:56 GMT Ed Brown said:

Is there any evidence that a skip-field recording of this episode still existed in 1990? Surely all surviving prints were catalogued in 1978, on the founding of the BBC film & vt archive.

Yes, it's doubtful that an old Suppressed Field copy was still held by the BBC in the 1990s, so you really need to look and go further back to when it's more likely for the BBC to still have Suppressed copies to hand, which it would have in the late 70s / early 80s.

This is why I think the 'damage' was deliberate, being an edit made to the print in the mid-1970s, with the splicing on of the replacement section being done in the 80s, probably after fans who had acquired copies had noticed there was a bit missing!  

[Robert Lia]

They might have added in the last few minutes to fill out the episode when it was sold to the United States. I cant remember if they had chopped the last 5 minutes off of the US version's like they did with some other story's.

Time Meddler was chopped a bit on the Lionheart Version for sure but part of that might have been due to episode 1

[Paul Vanezis]

Mar 30, 2017 19:16:11 GMT Jon Preddle said:

Mar 29, 2017 16:37:56 GMT Ed Brown said:

Is there any evidence that a skip-field recording of this episode still existed in 1990? Surely all surviving prints were catalogued in 1978, on the founding of the BBC film & vt archive.

Yes, it's doubtful that an old Suppressed Field copy was still held by the BBC in the 1990s, so you really need to look and go further back to when it's more likely for the BBC to still have Suppressed copies to hand, which it would have in the late 70s / early 80s.

This is why I think the 'damage' was deliberate, being an edit made to the print in the mid-1970s, with the splicing on of the replacement section being done in the 80s, probably after fans who had acquired copies had noticed there was a bit missing!  

Jon, I think it's much more likely that there was VT damage, discovered when the tape was film recorded in 1967, and the repair made then. There would have been little requirement for a repair to have been done at a later stage other than for archival purposes and I don't think there were any original prints in existence even in the late 70's.

Paul

[Jon Preddle]

Mar 31, 2017 15:06:12 GMT Paul Vanezis said:

Mar 30, 2017 19:16:11 GMT Jon Preddle said:

Yes, it's doubtful that an old Suppressed Field copy was still held by the BBC in the 1990s, so you really need to look and go further back to when it's more likely for the BBC to still have Suppressed copies to hand, which it would have in the late 70s / early 80s.

This is why I think the 'damage' was deliberate, being an edit made to the print in the mid-1970s, with the splicing on of the replacement section being done in the 80s, probably after fans who had acquired copies had noticed there was a bit missing!  

Jon, I think it's much more likely that there was VT damage, discovered when the tape was film recorded in 1967, and the repair made then. There would have been little requirement for a repair to have been done at a later stage other than for archival purposes and I don't think there were any original prints in existence even in the late 70's.

Paul

Oh, absolutely. As I said earlier, the further back we go, the reasons for the 'edit' become far simpler!

[Chris Berry]

Mar 30, 2017 23:13:37 GMT Robert Lia said:

They might have added in the last few minutes to fill out the episode when it was sold to the United States. I cant remember if they had chopped the last 5 minutes off of the US version's like they did with some other story's.

Time Meddler was chopped a bit on the Lionheart Version for sure but part of that might have been due to episode 1

The omnibus version I had on VHS, which I believe was taped in New Jersey when the stories were first shown there around 1985, had the Marco Polo cliffhanger intact, without the Next Episode caption, and the original rolling credits.

[tom rogers]

Apr 1, 2017 0:53:46 GMT Chris Berry said:

Mar 30, 2017 23:13:37 GMT Robert Lia said:

They might have added in the last few minutes to fill out the episode when it was sold to the United States. I cant remember if they had chopped the last 5 minutes off of the US version's like they did with some other story's.

Time Meddler was chopped a bit on the Lionheart Version for sure but part of that might have been due to episode 1

The omnibus version I had on VHS, which I believe was taped in New Jersey when the stories were first shown there around 1985, had the Marco Polo cliffhanger intact, without the Next Episode caption, and the original rolling credits.

Believe it or not, I still have all of my omnibus OTA VHS recordings of Doctors 1-3 from the 80s, all from Maryland Public Television. IIRC, every one still has the cliffhangers intact, and almost all have the "Next Episode" titles at the end of the final episode (the only ones that do not are some of the ones that lead into then-lost-at-the-time episodes, but not all). I don't remember any having any cliffhangers edited out. Haven't looked at them in years but they have been stored properly and the tapes exercised regularly to prevent adhesion. I doubt there is anything on them that might be useful, but then again...