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Post by Douglas Wulf on Jun 19, 2013 4:37:41 GMT
I have shown my five-year-old son Doctor Who, but only up through the middle of 'The Daleks.' He likes the show very much. I have been showing them to him very, very, very slowly and I have planned to stall as long as possible before reaching the second episode of 'The Edge of Destruction' on the off chance that 'Marco Polo' might be located or done in animated reconstruction. The next problem down the way would have been 'The Crusade' since the missing episodes of 'Reign of Terror' have been animated. Yes, it has been a matter of hoping for a miracle, but I wanted my son to be the first official 'hiding behind the sofa' Hartnell-era kid since the 1960s. The other problem is, of course, that he needs to be young enough still to be scared. I've been showing him slow-paced, black-and-white shows from the 1960s, but he is catching on. The other day, he said, “Can we watch something on TV?” I said, “Sure. What do you want to watch?” He said, “Something in color!” Well i recommend your child watch both black and white and color shows cause you don't want your kid to go color blind or something. Oh, he's seen both the black-and-white and color episodes of 'The Adventures of Sir Lancelot' with William Russell. Yes, the color is a bit faded, but it's in color nonetheless.
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Post by Douglas Wulf on Jun 19, 2013 4:34:17 GMT
Perhaps three tons of assistance could neaten things up a good deal.
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Post by Douglas Wulf on Jun 19, 2013 4:31:00 GMT
So it's just a he says, she says situation at this point. But wasn't there a show giving away a free Dalek for a missing episode? 18 minutes should be worth a Dalek without an eyestalk and plunger perhaps. It would be worth offering it to him at least. She tried offering money for it. She tried to negotiate with him. But he doesn't want to give it to anyone even for money! Might she be willing to offer him something else? Plenty of fans out there probably would. ;-)
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Post by Douglas Wulf on Jun 19, 2013 4:27:36 GMT
I have shown my five-year-old son Doctor Who, but only up through the middle of 'The Daleks.' He likes the show very much.
I have been showing them to him very, very, very slowly and I have planned to stall as long as possible before reaching the second episode of 'The Edge of Destruction' on the off chance that 'Marco Polo' might be located or done in animated reconstruction. The next problem down the way would have been 'The Crusade' since the missing episodes of 'Reign of Terror' have been animated.
Yes, it has been a matter of hoping for a miracle, but I wanted my son to be the first official 'hiding behind the sofa' Hartnell-era kid since the 1960s.
The other problem is, of course, that he needs to be young enough still to be scared. I've been showing him slow-paced, black-and-white shows from the 1960s, but he is catching on. The other day, he said, “Can we watch something on TV?” I said, “Sure. What do you want to watch?” He said, “Something in color!”
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Post by Douglas Wulf on Jun 19, 2013 4:07:46 GMT
It is a good idea but I don't really think so. She can't even get to look at the film cause she wants the film back to the BBC and the person who has it says now that he doesn't have it. So it's just a he says, she says situation at this point. But wasn't there a show giving away a free Dalek for a missing episode? 18 minutes should be worth a Dalek without an eyestalk and plunger perhaps. It would be worth offering it to him at least.
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Post by Douglas Wulf on Jun 19, 2013 3:45:46 GMT
Have you personally viewed the 18 minutes of that episode? (Hmmm .... ninety and three-fourths more episodes perhaps???) Well actually I haven't but I've been talking to this woman in Blackpool who seen the episode but I don't want to talk about it cause it will possibly get me ban or something on here. You guys already heard about it. Nothing to talk about. Perhaps the woman you've been talking to could ask the individual with the film to let you take a look too. Might that be possible? Just an idea.
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Post by Douglas Wulf on Jun 19, 2013 3:42:21 GMT
Here's the article that Brian Wilson wrote and I edited. I don't think the link were it was originally posted in Africa is still active. It appeared back in May, 2007.
Irreplaceable audiovisual materials from Zambia, Africa, Britain, and elsewhere will be lost forever unless an immediate effort is made to save them. There is good reason to believe that some of the most sought-after television programmes in the world may be among the endangered audiovisual archives of Lusaka, Zambia.
In 2003, a workshop sponsored by the International Federation of Television Archives (FIAT) discovered that audiovisual materials in the National Archives of Zambia as well as the Radio and Television Archives of ZNBC were in grave danger of destruction due to improper storage. The FIAT report by Dr. Branko Bubenik noted between 5 to 10 thousand boxes of 16mm films that were unlabelled and uncatalogued in the ZNBC archive. Many of these films had become infected by vinegar syndrome, a process by which film decays due to the effects of heat and humidity.
Four years have passed, but a source of funding has still been located to finance an effort to catalogue, preserve, and transfer these materials. A large amount of Zambia’s audiovisual history will be lost if nothing is done.
However, there is hope for international interest to save these films. This is because in the 1960s and 1970s, Zambia purchased many television programmes on 16mm print from the British Broadcasting Corporation. The BBC subsequently purged many of its older programmes from its own archives, a decision that the BBC has subsequently regretted. It is thus possible that the only prints in the world of many lost BBC programmes may be among the endangered Zambian film archives.
An excellent example is the Doctor Who, which portrays the adventures of a traveler in time and space from an alien planet. It is the longest running science-fiction television programme in the world. The BBC destroyed large number of the early episodes of this popular show and only a fraction of these episodes been recovered from foreign television archives over the years. There are currently 108 episodes of this show still missing from the BBC archives.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Zambia purchased and broadcast Doctor Who and at least 73 of the episodes broadcast in Zambia were episodes that are today missing. This means that Zambia received more missing episodes of Doctor Who than any other nation in Africa. Only Australia, Singapore, and New Zealand received more of the missing episodes worldwide. However, a detailed search of the Zambian archives has never been made to discover if any of the 73 missing prints are among the large collection of threatened 16mm prints now housed at ZNBC.
Please write to ZNBC and FIAT at the addresses below to encourage a fund to be established for a complete audit and restoration of the ZNBC and National audiovisual archives. Many fans of lost British television would be eager to contribute to such a fund and, in the process, the television past of Zambia, Africa, Britain, and elsewhere might be saved.
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Post by Douglas Wulf on Jun 19, 2013 3:27:22 GMT
But at least I know Episode 1 of The Invasion exist well 18 minutes of it exist in Blackpool. But the person who has it will never give it back to the BBC. Have you personally viewed the 18 minutes of that episode? (Hmmm .... ninety and three-fourths more episodes perhaps???)
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Post by Douglas Wulf on Jun 19, 2013 3:23:31 GMT
Well, it's just that I've been wondering since 2007 about the status of Zambia and the search for Doctor Who. Back then, I was very involved. Such as doing this interview ... lostdrwho.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=interviews&action=display&thread=18But as time wore on, I ran out of ideas for Zambian leads to follow. Still, I've been checking on this website every day for the last six and a half years and hoping for some further news. Therefore, if there are any developments, I'll honestly be very curious to know!
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Post by Douglas Wulf on Jun 19, 2013 2:17:45 GMT
Back around New Years of 2007, I posted here about a bunch of old film prints in the Zambian TV archives that I had found described online.
Apparently, those prints were eventually checked and there was nothing of interest to be found. I was quite disheartened.
In 2007 and 2008, I tried as best I could to keep the idea of checking in Zambia and elsewhere in Africa alive by doing a number of things with fellow fan Brian Wilson, to include doing a phone interview with BBC archivist Sue Malden, the transcript of which we posted online. Brian Wilson wrote a newspaper article for a newspaper read online in Africa.
Well, nothing seemed to come of it. Yet, I have wondered ever since if just maybe this Zambian/African idea was possibly being checked out. At least, I have continued to hope, checking this website perhaps twice a day or so.
One day, I would be very curious to know if my posting on this website back at that time might have helped to inspire or promote further searching in Africa in some small way.
Thanks,
Douglas Wulf
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Post by Douglas Wulf on Mar 1, 2013 1:34:08 GMT
Animation is good but I don't think much of the directing. In what way? It's done to the original camera script, so all the shots are pretty much you would have seen them in the transmitted episodes. I wasn't sure that this animation was following the original camera script until you informed me of this, but that was what I suspected. I don't know what other fans may want from the animated reconstructions, but as for me, I just want a clear sense of what watching the original live action episode was like. This animation does that, whereas 'Reign' (as nice as it looks as far as character design and so forth goes) gives me the impression that the animation could not possibly be accurately recreating what the original episodes were like. Rather, the animators are taking the opportunity to liven things up a bit. I can appreciate the temptation to do that, but there is a danger that it will come off seeming inauthentic. But I don't want to complain too loudly. I'm delighted that the episodes of 'Reign' were animated and released.
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Post by Douglas Wulf on Feb 28, 2013 21:02:28 GMT
I'm really pleased with what I see so far in this 'Ice Warriors' clip. The animation that works best, as far as I'm concerned, is animation that attempts to blend well in its style with the live action episodes.
While I'm delighted that 'Reign of Terror' was animated, even though it looked great as far as the quality of animation, the style of direction was more dynamic than it should have been, in my opinion. The animated episodes of 'The Invasion' and what I can see of 'The Ice Warriors' here seem more in keeping with the pacing and camera work of the existing episodes.
In any event, I hope many more missing episodes are brought back to life via animation in one way or another. These are wonderful to watch.
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Post by Douglas Wulf on Feb 24, 2013 4:33:46 GMT
There is one bit of news I believe that came out of the event. Though we may not have a full answer yet for Ice Warriors, Underwater Menace, or Moonbase. It seems we can cross Crusades off the list at this time. No animation for the serial this year, but from what I've read in forums Dan Hall wouldn't rule it out in the future. I'm wondering if that's because it's a Hartnell (plenty of those compared to Troughton), it's a historical (not as popular), and because episode 1 isn't in as great of condition as it could be. I am not sure anything else can be done with The Lion. It was in pretty bad shape. I heard that vidfiring it only make the picture worse because it showed the actual damage to the viewer. The only real hope would be finding a duplicate that is in better condition. Frame-by-frame restoration would, in theory, be possible, but it would certainly be a monumental effort. Yet, Mind Of Evil Episode 1 is going through the painstaking process of adding color, so that sort of laborious restoration of 'The Lion' may not be entirely out of the question.
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Post by Douglas Wulf on Feb 13, 2013 21:59:32 GMT
I have not yet watched the Reign of Terror animated episodes, but I'm looking forward to seeing them. I have, of course, seen the animated episodes of 'The Invasion' and now I have seen Ian Levine's animated version of 'Mission To The Unknown.'
The wonderful thing about animation, in contrast to still picture reconstructions, at least for me, is that I now have a sense of having watched the episode in some form.
Listening to the audio only or watching a series of static pictures with audio can give a person information about what an episode was like, so I feel better informed afterwards. However, it seems to me that there is just no better option than animation for giving a person a workable substitute for viewing the (now unavailable) original and then the sense of having watched the episode (rather than just knowing about it).
It is always possible to nitpick the animation that was done, but I am very grateful to Ian Levine for giving me the sense that I have now "watched" this missing episode. It's the same sense I had after viewing the two missing episodes of "The Invasion."
I do indeed hope that one day soon it will be possible to watch the entire monochrome era through a combination of preserved episodes and animated reconstructions. Of course, it is a matter of personal taste and some do not like animated reconstructions or complain about the style of animation, but I think for quite a large number of people, audio only or a slideshow-like presentation doesn't give a person the impression of having watched the episode. We are very fortunate indeed that the audio tracks of all the missing episodes exist to open up the possibility of such animated reconstructions.
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Post by Douglas Wulf on Jul 21, 2012 19:07:06 GMT
Remove the credits! How much work for how many frames? Only two seconds or so of film require the credits to be removed. Just where the words 'Editor BIDDY BAXTER' appear. Most of these words appear over a static shot of the doorway that is identical to previous parts of the clip. It would not be difficult to Photoshop where BAXTER appears over the moving dalek either. The clip could be extended by 2 seconds or so, for what it's worth.
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