|
Post by ianphillips on Apr 18, 2018 21:18:07 GMT
I believe that every missing episode fan has, at some point, imagined themselves thrown back in time for whatever reason and getting the opportunity to save the missing episodes, but that raises a question. Not that it's remotely likely to happen, but if, for the sake of argument, someone were to be magically transported back to 1960, how would they actually go about saving the episodes, given that they'd have no money, no identity, and probably no friends. It wouldn't be as easy as going up and saying that the tapes will be valuable in twenty years and you wouldn't be able to buy them or copy them for legal reasons. You could try to steal them, but that would require breaking into the BBC, stealing every single episode, and then escaping without being caught. Alternatively, you could try to buy an early video recorder and try to record the episodes as they aired, but that would be extremely expensive. My ultimate point is, what would be the best strategy for saving the missing episodes in a freak time travel incident?
|
|
|
Post by Alan Jeffries on Apr 18, 2018 22:00:40 GMT
OK I'll bite. If there was a time travel possibility from today, you would have loads of money to set yourself up with recording equipment, BUT, how would you convert it into the pre decimalisation 'old money'? Solve that problem and you could set yourself up with a flat and everything you ever needed. You wouldn't have to work. Houses of course relatively expensive as regards wages maybe £3000. Take your cash from now and you could live like a king. You could record everything that missing. Is there an option for coming back?
Alan
|
|
|
Post by George D on Apr 18, 2018 22:57:42 GMT
What I would do is buy a stop motion super 8mm camera set to photograph one frame per second. 3 minute 8mm cartridge would record apx 3 episodes.
Marrying that with the audios would create a very affordable reconstruction. While movement wouldn't be as strong as a,real film print,it would still be better than the reconstruction we have today
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Apr 18, 2018 23:01:39 GMT
In a drunken moment I would probably organise 2 awareness campaigns:
Contact the Daily Star and get them to issue free 'Save Doctor Who' badges with Hartnell's face on them.
Organise Patrick Troughton, Frazier Hines and Nicholas Courtney, along with other late-60s celebrities and Pop Icons to create some sort of charity single with a title something like 'Doctor in Distress', and lyrics something like:
Doctor in distress, Let's all answer his SOS, Save those episodes now, We won't take less (than 97), Don't let there be a gap, Or one day all that Omnirumour crap.
|
|
|
Post by Luke Sherlaw on Apr 19, 2018 1:37:47 GMT
I'd probably try to convince them that the series will become hugely popular in years to come with the added twist of telling the BBC a fact/a few facts about the near future at the time, and then pulling a "Now do you believe me?" on them when what I said came true.
If I had my money with me after this teleportation, I'd probably bribe an employee/some employees into rescuing them from destruction, again using my tactic stated above: telling them the future of the show with an added hint of clairvoyancy if necessary.
I'd maybe pull that tactic again on some celebrities of the period to form a fundraiser for the actors themselves to purchase them.
|
|
|
Post by Chris Wilkinson on Apr 19, 2018 10:33:55 GMT
The thing with this is that it'd have to be something more innocuous and surreptitious. The BBC wouldn't let anyone walk out with discarded film reels - if they did, we'd probably have all of them in existence today!
I always thought that the best chance would be to send two missing episode hunters back in time for them both to become rubbish collectors in the vicinity of BBC Ealing. Each morning you'd potentially be greeted with, aside from people's domestic waste, a stack of discarded film reels at the doors of BBC Ealing. Simply put them in the cab of the collection lorry and roll on. Then, at the end of the work day, you can transport them back to the future and progressively tease the BBC with omni-rumours, misleading comments and outlandish lies while all the time sitting on 96 missing episodes of your favourite science fiction series - and every other show you picked up!
It's interesting to consider the repercussions of one's presence in the past (the Butterfly effect etc.). You won't be able to guarantee the safety of the episodes currently in existence if you solely take the other reels, since some people might have snatched them there-and-then based on the size of the piles stacked up. That means you'd have to take everything that was there, which should theoretically include nothing that presently exists as I'm hoping that they were snatched the night before when everyone else had gone home. So there is a slight possibility that, for the period of time between then and now, less episodes would exist - but the wait would certainly be worth it.
|
|
|
Post by Arthur Chim on Apr 19, 2018 11:03:08 GMT
I won't go back as far as the 1960s. Alternatively, I'd chose 1974, get a job at ABC TV (Australia) and get myself established in a role where I'd have access to and befriend staff who maintained the film library. So, in 1975 when the ABC gathered up all their Hartnell & Troughton stories to return to the BBC I'd try to convince management to hold onto them longer, I'd even volunteer to store them myself!
|
|
RWels
Member
Posts: 2,854
|
Post by RWels on Apr 19, 2018 11:17:00 GMT
I went back in time and saved all episodes of Monty Python's Flying Circus. A side effect was that this inadvertedly caused the loss of Dalek Masterplan. Sorry about that!
I made up for it by saving Space Museum. But of course, you've all forgotten now that it used to be missing in the previous reality-dimension.
|
|
|
Post by Jaspal Cheema on Apr 19, 2018 12:55:00 GMT
I'd make damn sure I took Ian Levine with me...
|
|
|
Post by scotttelfer on Apr 19, 2018 13:08:32 GMT
Invent the home video recorder a decade early at a cheap price and flood the market with them.
|
|
Richard Develyn
Member
Living in hope that more missing episodes will come back to us.
Posts: 574
|
Post by Richard Develyn on Apr 19, 2018 15:18:57 GMT
I would go back to 1975 and tell myself to do what I thought about doing but never actually did, which was to write to Jimmy Saville asking if he would fix it for me to watch the old Patrick Troughton stories which I'd read the novelisation to but had never actually seen.
(I might give myself a little warning about Jimmy Saville at the same time, mind you)
Richard
|
|
|
Post by zaqwilson on Apr 19, 2018 15:28:27 GMT
If they were simply binned in the Mid 1970s, take me to that era. With no money, contacts, etc, I would be homeless and set up shanty town near the likely dumpster they would be disposed in.
|
|
|
Post by Jaspal Cheema on Apr 19, 2018 20:52:07 GMT
If they were simply binned in the Mid 1970s, take me to that era. With no money, contacts, etc, I would be homeless and set up shanty town near the likely dumpster they would be disposed in. This is going to turn into the equivalent of Monty Pytho's four Yorkshire-men sketch...I would bury myself in the landfill site in readiness for when the missing Dr Who episodes are dumped and catch them all in a big net and then escape in tunnels that I had already dug like those portrayed in The Great Escape...
|
|
RWels
Member
Posts: 2,854
|
Post by RWels on Apr 19, 2018 22:30:49 GMT
If they were simply binned in the Mid 1970s, take me to that era. With no money, contacts, etc, I would be homeless and set up shanty town near the likely dumpster they would be disposed in. This is going to turn into the equivalent of Monty Pytho's four Yorkshire-men sketch...I would bury myself in the landfill site in readiness for when the missing Dr Who episodes are dumped and catch them all in a big net and then escape in tunnels that I had already dug like those portrayed in The Great Escape... Funny you should say that, I had more of a "cheese shop" feeling about the whole affair. "What would you like?" "How are you on Faceless Ones?" "I'm afraid we're fresh out of Faceless ones sir "How about the Myth Makers on streaming video?" "I'm afraid the service is down at the moment for server maintenance, sir." "No matter, 25 minutes of Feast of Steven then." "It was scheduled for today, unfortunately, the DVD release has been delayed." "Never mind, I'll have four telerecordings of Massacre then." "Normally yes, today, the can broke down." "It's not my day, is it. Evil of the daleks?" "The recovery's been expected for three weeks, sir." "Snowmen, Highlanders, savages, smugglers, macra terror?" "No... No... No... Ah, we do have some macra terror." "Excellent, I'll have some of that then." "The film is a bit vinegary -- "No matter! Hand it over with all speed!" "I think it has a bit more vinegar syndrome than you like, sir." "I don't care how much vinegar syndrome it has, hand the film over with all speed!" "Oh! A private collector's stolen it!" "Has he?" "She, sir." "You do have some episodes, do you?" "Of course, sir, it's the omnirumour, we've got...--" "No, no, I'm keen to guess. Moonbase?" "Yes?" "Splendid!" "Oh, I'm sorry, I thought you were talking to me. Arthur Moonbase, that's my name." "How about Marco Polo?" "Well, I'm afraid there's not much interest for that round these parts sir." "You haven't asked me about the celestial toymaker, sir." "Could it be worth it?" "Could be." "Do you have any Celestial Toymaker episodes?" "Hmm... no." "It's not much of an omnirumour, is it?" "Finest on the internet, sir." "And what leads you to that conclusion?" "Why, it's so fantastic." "It's certainly uncontaminated by any realism."
|
|
Simon Collis
Member
I have started to dream of lost things
Posts: 536
|
Post by Simon Collis on Apr 21, 2018 16:52:31 GMT
Unfortunately I can't come up with a scenario for a random magical transference, but if you knew it was happening in advance, I think I have a plan.
Assuming that I'd have enough backing, then I'd get hold of one of my friends who I know lived in London at the time. I'd ask him about the idea, and then ask for his address in 1963. I'd explain that I'd have enough cash to make this worth his while at the time. I use some of the techniques from "Day of the Jackal" to build a fake identity for myself (using Photoshop probably) so when I go meet him I have enough cash and ID to make the whole thing work.
My other prep is simple: get hold of some 405-line fans who've built converters and see if they can build me a converter (and a couple of spares) from 405 line to 625. Doesn't matter if it doesn't scale up and letter boxes it, if anything that's probably better so long as it's 1:1 on the original broadcast source.
Then I grab a load of USB sticks. 64GB or higher. Some tough PCs (Panasonic Toughbooks, maybe),
Then I go back, contact my friend, get him to help me find a flat, and then I sit there doing off-air recordings and sending them back to the present day on USB sticks. This has the advantage that I could also hoover up Z Cars, Dixon of Dock Green, local news reports, anything that I think might be of interest...
|
|