Before they're all gone...

[Matthew Kurth]

The sad news of Christopher Barry's passing got me looking at the list directors of missing episodes who are still with us:

• Waris Hussein
• Derek Martinus
• Michael Leeston-Smith
• Paddy Russell
• Bill Sellars
• Tristan DeVere Cole

I remember reading when the RT knew Barry Letts was fading fast they did a lot of work with him well in advance of the DVD schedule knowing that time was running out. With that in mind, does anyone know whether there has been any effort to try and similarly "bank" material regarding their currently missing episodes in the hopes that they will be found or else animated someday? Interviews, commentary tracks, that sort of thing.

Leeston-Smith is quickly approaching 100 and the Wikipedia page says Derek is in poor health. I imagine the RT could have asked Paddy about "The Massacre" while they had her in for Dinosaurs and Pyramids, but they may not have been thinking that way at the time.

The same goes for people like Victor Pemberton, Jean Marsh, Peter Purves, etc. I know William Russell has been interviewed multiple times already, but did they touch on "Marco Polo" or "The Crusade" while they were at it? The interviews that Loose Cannon have done are nice and have steadily improved in professionalism, but I think it would be a shame if that turned out to be the only unique material acquired for some of these stories.

[Jaspal Cheema]

Feb 13, 2014 13:52:51 GMT Matthew Kurth said:

The sad news of Christopher Barry's passing got me looking at the list directors of missing episodes who are still with us:

• Derek Martinus
• Michael Leeston-Smith
• Paddy Russell
• Bill Sellars
• Tristan DeVere Cole

I remember reading when the RT knew Barry Letts was fading fast they did a lot of work with him well in advance of the DVD schedule knowing that time was running out. With that in mind, does anyone know whether there has been any effort to try and similarly "bank" material regarding their currently missing episodes in the hopes that they will be found or else animated someday? Interviews, commentary tracks, that sort of thing.

Leeston-Smith is quickly approaching 100 and the Wikipedia page says Derek is in poor health. I imagine the RT could have asked Paddy about "The Massacre" while they had her in for Dinosaurs and Pyramids, but they may not have been thinking that way at the time.

The same goes for people like Victor Pemberton, Jean Marsh, Peter Purves, etc. I know William Russell has been interviewed multiple times already, but did they touch on "Marco Polo" or "The Crusade" while they were at it? The interviews that Loose Cannon have done are nice and have steadily improved in professionalism, but I think it would be a shame if that turned out to be the only unique material acquired for some of these stories.

Alas,I don't think interviews and commentaries will be on the cards for future DVDs of recovered stories,if WOF and EOTW are anything to go by.Besides,the last few releases have experimented with 'archive' interviews on the commentary tracks and in the case of the Moonbase,Kit Pedler's daughters were interviewed!So there are many alternatives to the 'as live' commentaries-archive recordings will probably be the way to go in the future.Also,as cold as it may sound,many people involved in Dr.Who's production have passed away since the original junkings to now.Any plans for future releases as SEs will have to use archive footage and sound to bulk up the special features.However,I like the current mix of using 'live' and archival commentary tracks,it's very entertaining and it's a good way of hearing from a much wider variety of production people and actors who worked on Dr.Who over 1 particular release.

[Elliott Prince]

Let's not forget Waris Hussein, either.

[John Green]

How cheated I felt with the 'commentaries' on the Twilight Zone DVDs.Snippets from interviews at Comic-cons...

There's nothing to beat those involved watching the episode live,where possible.Hopefully with a bit of preparation,though I do love that note of surprise when they say "Oh,of course!I'd forgotten that!".

[Alex Dering]

I sincerely hope that the actual actors and directors themselves are going the Adam West route: record the things yourself now. Even if it means sitting your child or grandchild or some neighbor you dragged in from the street down in the chair across from you and simply telling it to them while the camera rolls. Ideally, in the cases of surviving episodes, the actor would have the whole moving episode to narrate to, but even a reconstruction would probably trigger some wonderful anecdotes. At the very least, the actor could answer some softball questions: What did Dr. Who mean for you as an actor at the time? "Oh, it was just a job. I had NO idea it would become this popular. I was on probably about 40 different shows in minor roles ..."

[shellyharman67]

I guess some would find it morbid to do it ! But hindsight is a wonderful thing. I guess by the next decade there will be none left

[Matthew Kurth]

Feb 13, 2014 16:16:29 GMT Elliott Prince said:

Let's not forget Waris Hussein, either.

Thanks, I added him to the list.

[Matthew Kurth]

Feb 13, 2014 15:21:07 GMT Jaspal Cheema said:

Alas, I don't think interviews and commentaries will be on the cards for future DVDs of recovered stories, if WOF and EOTW are anything to go by. Besides, the last few releases have experimented with 'archive' interviews on the commentary tracks and in the case of the Moonbase, Kit Pedler's daughters were interviewed! So there are many alternatives to the 'as live' commentaries-archive recordings will probably be the way to go in the future.

Occasionally threads will pop up talking about a kickstarter for this or that... Perhaps that's where fan money could actually be useful, to pay for a proper VT crew to go and interview some of these people.

Feb 13, 2014 16:25:40 GMT John Green said:

There's nothing to beat those involved watching the episode live, where possible. Hopefully with a bit of preparation, though I do love that note of surprise when they say "Oh, of course! I'd forgotten that!".

This is a situation where it might be worth experimenting with doing a commentary while watching a recon. Obviously the people involved won't be able to comment on shot selection or things like that, but it might help jog their memory when it comes to remembering anecdotes and such.

[John Bowman]

Has former story editor Donald Tosh done any extensive interviews? It strikes me that, as the sole remaining script editor from the Hartnell era (and having worked with the first two producers of the show), he's another person of a certain vintage whose memories, reflections, observations, etc, could really do with being committed to paper/film/tape/digital equivalent sooner rather than later. Apparently, of all the writers who contributed to the Hartnell era only he and Glyn Jones remain. Come to think of it, Glyn Jones could probably tell a few good stories, too, having written for Hartnell's Doctor and acted with Tom Baker's!

[Jaspal Cheema]

Feb 16, 2014 4:54:31 GMT John Bowman said:

Has former story editor Donald Tosh done any extensive interviews? It strikes me that, as the sole remaining script editor from the Hartnell era (and having worked with the first two producers of the show), he's another person of a certain vintage whose memories, reflections, observations, etc, could really do with being committed to paper/film/tape/digital equivalent sooner rather than later. Apparently, of all the writers who contributed to the Hartnell era only he and Glyn Jones remain. Come to think of it, Glyn Jones could probably tell a few good stories, too, having written for Hartnell's Doctor and acted with Tom Baker's!

DWM published an extensive 2 part interview with Donald Tosh a few years ago,and with contemporary photographs as well.It would be great if he could at least record some commentaries for possible future releases of recons/animations such as DMP,MYTH MAKERS etc which I think he worked on.But you're right,it would be a shame if his memories of working on the programme,especially the fabled Hartnell era were not utilized.Not sure if he did an interview with Reeltime for the Myth Makers series of releases-if he did then I'll definitely be buying it.

[Paul G]

Donald Tosh does appear on the 'The Time Meddler' commentary and he's on the 'End of the Line' documentary on 'The Gunfighters', which is about season 3. I'm sure I read that when people were being interviewed for specific DVDs the interviewers would usually take the opportunity to talk to them about other Who stories in which they were involved.

[John Bowman]

Thanks for the above details, guys - much appreciated.

[Jaspal Cheema]

I see that there will be a tribute to Christopher Barry in the next issue of DWM which will be great, as well as a long overdue interview with Terran Cedix.Unfortunately, this month's issue felt different as it had no new original series DVD to review.Even if there are no new recoveries, where is UM reconstructed? It is conspicuous by its absence and its delay.All the reviews were of audios and spin-offs,a situation which harks back to before 2005 or before the TV Movie.It felt sad and DWM seems a lot poorer without original series stories to light-heartedly review.Gary Gillatt's review of Death to the Daleks was hilarious and certainly better than Matthew Sweet's boring, high-brow reference-dropping critiques of Moonbase and Tenth Planet.

[R. Williams]

Michael Leeston-Smith is dead (according to Toby Hadoke on another forum). He didn't say when he had died.

[Richard Tipple]

Very sad to hear about Mr Lesson-Smith.

Looking at 'Hartnell era' directors who are still with us, Mark Pending provided me with this list,

- Waris Hussein,
- Richard Martin,
- Frank Cox,
- John Gorrie,
- Paddy Russell,
- Michael Imison,
- Bill Sellars,
- Michael Ferguson.

There doesn't appear to be any information on Henric Hirsch?

Also with Glyn Jones' passing, there is only one Hartnell era writer left, Donald Tosh.