Tenth Planet Question

[themetalguru2007]

Please forgive any unitentional stupidity, I am new here.

I remember a rumour a while back, possibly in DWB, Tenth Planet 4 was borrowed by Blue Peter and never returned to be destroyed.
There was also a rumour that it resides in the hands of a secretive collecter, know to many.

Probably just rubbish, but I hope to not have imagined it!
Cheers
Marc

[Bobby Clark (synthpopalooza)]

These rumours are older than the hills, but have as of yet been unsubstantiated. There was even a fellow who took on the name of Roger Barret who pulled a nasty hoax on Ian Levine once, if I remember the story correctly. He wanted to trade a VHS containing TP4 for Ian's colour footage of the Pertwee story "Mind of Evil" ... turns out the tape he got in exchange was a blank.

TP4 is quite literally the one most hoaxed episode in the history of the missing episodes saga, and probably the one with the most unsubstantiated rumours about it.

[Greg H]

Its not even the best missing hartnell imo, a so so story, except for the regeneration scene, which of course is in the missing part...... :eyes roll to infinity:
Wasnt 'roger barrett' really darren gregory iirc?

[Bobby Clark (synthpopalooza)]

Well, I still regard Tenth Planet as a classic for a number of reasons, not the least of which it introduced the Cybermen, perhaps the most memorable villains of Doctor Who behind the Daleks.

Unlike later Cybermen stories, I found these Cybermen to be inherently creepier because you could see that these beings looked so close to being human that it was sickening. You could see the whites of their eyes beneath the stockings, their voices (I know some found them annoying) really sounding human, yet robotic at the same time.

The way these beings talk, with lots of pauses, always made me think of a computer ... how, when you download and stream audio, there is always a delay in playing while the hardware is buffering ... which is sort of how the brains of these Cybermen seem to work, being interconnected.

Another thing I thought worked with this story was the way they explained Hartnwll's absence from episode 3. Hartnell was himself actually too ill to do episode three (his own health being one of the reasons he left the series), and the way they explained it, you could actually see it leading up to his regeneration at the end of part 4.

[Daniel O'Brien]

As I recall, the BBC film library held 'Tenth Planet' 1-3, but never had episode 4. The story didn't sell well overseas, so I'd guess that BBC Enterprises junked all its prints sometime between 1972 and 1974. I live in hope of a few more Hartnell episodes turning up, but 'TP4' seems the longest of long shots. And, yes, I know that 'The Daleks' Masterplan' 2, 5 & 10 were incredibly unlikely candidates for survival. Maybe we'll get that lucky again but I doubt it.

[B Thomas]

That and the fact that Blue Peter never borrorwed TP4 - only that short regen clip.

[Greg H]

Is that official then Bev? I did wonder about that. How did people find out in the end?

[Andy Howells]

I reckon theres as many rumours about this episode as there are about conspiracies of Kennedy's assassination.

I remember hearing one at a convention years ago that the Blue Peter Video editor had physically cut the regeneration scene from the episode (here's one i prepared earlier!).

I think theres always a possibility it could still turn up however unlikely.

I'd like to see a DVD release with an animated part 4 (like last years The Invasion release). The surviving clips and the reconstruction for the video would also serve as an extra and I'm sure a featurette on Where is TP4? would also make interesting viewing.

[Ron Bowes]

Don't hold your breath for the animated recon. 2 Entertain announced some time ago that they weren't going to make anymore!

[Andy Howells]

Yes I did hear something along those lines - shame!

[StevePhillips]

andyhowells said:

I reckon theres as many rumours about this episode as there are about conspiracies of Kennedy's assassination.

Well, this bloke called Paul Lee was hot on the tail of a copy he knew to exist. This was a few years ago. See his excellent article here: www.paullee.com/drwho/missingwithouttrace.html

Steve P

[drpl]

Thanks for your kind words Steve. The article is now over 10 years old and has been updated fairly infrequently. I've written a follow-up here:
www.paullee.com/drwho/missingwithouttracerevisited.html

Paul