Republic of the Philippine Search News Update

[Robert Lia]

Finally I have returned to the United States last Thursday and I have waited till after April fools day to post my news. . .

I compleated a pretty exhaustive search of the former Naval Station Subic Bay where the TV studio and film ant TV archive was located and found nothing. The building that was used to house the recordings has been redeveloped and replaced by new construction. The surrounding area have either been completly redeveloped or are in a ruined state. In this case I refer to the Naval Station Theater. I also made a thourough check or different parts of the former Naval Air Station Cubi Point that I had not been in the past few years. Nothing to report sadly.

The former U.S. facility has been redeloped to the point that there is nothing there to find any more but in some of the outer areas of the base empty rotting building still painted with US Navy or US Marine colours.

Off base I went threw the few places that a film print might end up sitting on a shelf in Olongapo City and the surrouning Brangays of Barrio Barretto and Subic City. Again nothing was found. The Olongapo City Museum that has a history of the the city and the American presence also yielded no paper work of any kind to support that black and white episodes of Dr. Who aired localy at any time.

Did more searching in the City's of Makati, Caviete, Tagayta and Puerto Princesea but still found nothing.

On a postive note I can say that I climbed the Lake Taal volcano and explored an underground river on the island of Palwaan but no film prints of any kind for any show were sighted.

Still I have lots of great vacation photos .

Perhaps next year will have better luck


Best Wishes

Bob

[Steven Christopherson]

Thanks mate. Much appreciated

[Simon Collis]

Thanks Robert. It's good to know, even if there is no positive news, that there are still leads being followed by keen searchers such as yourself

[Charles Daniels]

Thank you so much for doing feet on the ground searching Bob.

[Simon Jailler]

Great effort Bob. Let's see some photos please.

[Marty Schultz]

I tip my hat to you Sir! Well done.

[lousingh]

Thanks for your hard work. Those of us who don't have the wherewithal for whatever reason appreciate the work of those like you who do.

[Robert Lia]

Thanks for al the kind words. I will post some pictures of some of the odd ball places I looked on this trip to give you all am idea of the cope involved in searching threw a foreign country. I still have to finish editing the pictures on my PC but they will come.

[Paul McDermott]

Apr 6, 2014 0:54:10 GMT Robert Lia said:

Thanks for al the kind words. I will post some pictures of some of the odd ball places I looked on this trip to give you all am idea of the cope involved in searching threw a foreign country. I still have to finish editing the pictures on my PC but they will come.

Telesnaps of the search for old film prints in the wild! A nice counterpoint to the sort of big and official but quiet caper Phil's doing - maybe see if DWM are interested in an article, Robert!

The Junior Making Of The Search For Doctor Who, Fan Edition!

[Robert Lia]

That would be interesting but no doubt Doctor Who Monthly would be not interested in interviewing a failed episode hunter. Still a nice idea though. Still it proves the points that not every one who is trying to find missing episodes is in it for the glory. I prefer (and have always preferred) a low profile

[Paul McDermott]

I dunno Robert - but I think the idea of what looking for lost film entails, the sort of folk who do it off their own bat, and why, would make for a good read.

We're spoiled here of course, no cover charge! But still, I think an article on this would give people a little more perspective on the process and phenomenon of ep hunting.

And it's not really about only not finding any. (I know you know this.) It's what makes one want to still go look, out of one's own pocket, just in case. No finds are still new plots on the graph!

Like amateur naturalists and astronomers, the whole body of knowledge is advanced by the efforts of such as yourself. Sometimes, that produces incredible returns not derived by other means.

[Robert Lia]

Well if they want to contact me Ill be happy to talk to them of course about the places I have looked in over the last 20 years or so. Not a bad idea now that I have slept on it though.

[adamjordan]

Good stuff! Thanks for all you hard work and also the support and info you have given to others recently. With the interest in the recent Ian Levine finds, I'm finding this area of investigation currently as fascinating as the Phil Morris situation.

[Robert Lia]

Here some photos from so of the area I searched while traveling. This is the Lake Taal Volcano. I crossed the lake in a small boat and hiked to the top of the Volcano. There were no Doctor Who episodes or episodes of any other TV series on Volcano Island!

[Robert Lia]

Here is the Underground River. No Doctor Who episodes were discovered in the underground rive. Now this is a fascinating set of pictures if you could see them all the way from beginning to end