Out of the Unknown: Welcome Home

[LanceM]

I have also been fortunate enough to view several episodes of Out Of The Unknown. A fantastic series, reminds me of the Twilight Zone or Outer Limits of US TV.

The episode Welcome Home appeared to be in exceptional quality. However the BBC time-code at the top of the screen was there throughout the episode, as was a similar story with the other episodes. Unfortunately the episode The Machine Stops was poor in quality and in sound, very blurry and muffled. There was also surviving footage of Little Black Bag which was unearthed in the BBC in 1999, on its original quad tape I believe, may be wrong on the format. The only two episodes of Out Of The Unknown which I have yet to see that have been found are Tunnel Under The World and Level Seven. I really hope the BBC decide to release this series soon, I think the public would like this material. I mean look at Welcome Home. At the end of the episode the guy shoots ( implied ) his head off with a double barrel shotgun. With all the violence people love to see in the media, I would think they would want to get this released a lot sooner.

We also have to realize a very large problem. That each episode of OOTU was based on outside works or stories. The issue of rights and royalties comes into play. The stories by Issac Asimov are surely a issue, as the royalties there would probably be quite high. At any rate they are there and waiting in the archives, safe and sound for that eventful day that they see release. We should be grateful that they are there being preserved. Also out of curiosity, has anyone heard any good Out Of The Unknown leads of late ? If anyone else has anything they would like to add it would be appreciated.

Lance.

[Robert Manners]

'The issue of rights and royalties comes into play', this seems to be the biggest issue as well as the author of 'Deathday' not been to pleased with the way his story was Dramatised by Brian Hayles for the last series in 1971.

[ron]

See the mausoleum club www.the-mausoleum-club.org.uk/ forum (literature) about a special offer for the OOTU book until Sunday 4th Feb 2007 !

[Robert Manners]

the splendid book on "Out of the Unknown" is available at £12.99 until Sunday!! You probably already have this but if not, what a bargain:

www.kaleidoscopepublishing.co.uk/orderonl.htm

[bobsmith001]

As someone who is new to the missing epsiodes scene, can anyone tell me how accurate the INFAX site is, as it lists 7 Out Of The Unknown episodes that are listed as missing on the missing episodes list?

[hartley967]

The Infax site is just a record of the paperwork the BBC have on their programmes. It does not necessarily mean that the programme exists.

However if you also look at the record of say a 1960s programme , it sometimes includes a repeat date. If this date is past the 1970s then its almost a certainty that it still exists.
The other clue is- if the record is comprehensive. For example if a music show contains names of songs and their in and out timings
then their is a good possibility this programme has been viewed recently and therefore must still exist?

But wait for a reply from BBC guru Andrew, he will know for certain how it all works

[Robert Manners]

bobsmith001
wrote:
<As someone who is new to the missing epsiodes scene, can anyone tell me how accurate the INFAX site is, as it lists 7 Out Of The Unknown episodes that are listed as missing on the missing episodes list? >
See post below from 'Comedy Playhouse thread'

<I have used this site before, however for example if you check on what episodes from the 'Out of the Unknown' series have survived it tells you that episodes like

IMMORTALITY INC
LIAR!
THE LAST LONELY MAN
BEACH HEAD
RANDOM QUEST
THE NAKED SUN
THE LITTLE BLACK BAG
THE YELLOW PILL

exist when only THE LAST LONELY MAN survives complete and 28.5 minutes of ' THE LITTLE BLACK BAG' for example. This means I am some what untrusting checking on programs that I am less knowledgeable on! This is made worse when you know its a BBC site not a fan one on programs in the BBC archive!>

[bobsmith001]

Thanks for the replys that helps to clear it up a bit, but it does seem a bit daft that the BBC can't get these things right before putting them up on the site.

[LanceM]

Although you have to remember that the BBC is a large organization, with how many millions of hours of footage to catalog. It is only to be expected that there will be some discrepancies. If you do not want to see any more of these, then contact the BBC and tell them that they got a few facts wrong. The listings probably included any material existing for said shows. Liar ! has some clips that exist, Yellow Pill exists as an off-air audio recording, there exists a audio clip from Beachhead. As you can see they listed the material as existing in their archives, they were right in that some material exists, but not the entire editions. This bothers me too, as we have all pointed out that someone could search the film they got at the jumble sale and see it is already in the archives. This worries me, which is why the BBC or whoever needs to be contacted to get their facts straight. So try to remember these things, and have a little patience, all will be OK in the end.

Lance.

[Andrew Martin]

Unfortunately, the version of Infax that is available to the public is just a version of the system that was set up by the archives for two reasons, firstly to log holdings, and secondly as a list of BBC transmissions. From July 1976 onwards it lists all network transmissions with precise time, duration and channel, with the exception of News and some sport (which have a single programme number entry per day). Prior to July 1976 most of the programme entries are for things which are held, but there are exceptions to this - if people had access to the record of holdings this would be clear, but for various reasons it's not possible to make that publicly available on line. Some of the entries which have no holdings are there because holdings have since been junked (the information was mostly put onto computer between c.1978 and the early 80s) or gone missing, and some because the paperwork that was used to input the information had not been updated to say that material had already been junked. Personally I think it would be a good idea for Infax to have records of all BBC programmes whether they exist or not (something, if only scripts or other paperwork, probably does exist for everything anyway), with the proviso that it was obvious to anyone searching the system, whether internal BBC or member of the public, whether there were any actual holdings! The Out of the Unknown entries for episodes that don't exist are a mixture of tapes that were only belatedly recognised as having gone missing, off-air soundtracks from private collectors, and brief clips. Since the latter two refer to material that is in the archive, that material has to be logged by the archive, and that means inevitably could imply to external Infax users that the episodes exists complete.

[Robert Manners]

I see, the system need to be made a little more clears as you can be easily fooled if not a fan of the series I woulds say