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Post by Qasim Yusuf on Mar 15, 2021 21:17:18 GMT
I've just recently discovered the show and am making my way through the DVD boxset. The first Season seems to be pretty well preserved bar 2 episodes but since the same can't be said for the other 3 Seasons, what are the chances of some of the missing episodes ever turning up? Does anyone know which countries bought the show and why is the First season much more complete than the rest?
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RWels
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Post by RWels on Mar 15, 2021 21:37:22 GMT
I've just recently discovered the show and am making my way through the DVD boxset. The first Season seems to be pretty well preserved bar 2 episodes but since the same can't be said for the other 3 Seasons, what are the chances of some of the missing episodes ever turning up? Does anyone know which countries bought the show and why is the First season much more complete than the rest? SF is much more of a niche than regular drama/comedy. When browsing through old continental TV schedules, I find no traces of it. There might be the odd miscatalogued film can or private collector, if we're very lucky, but otherwise we're screwed. All those truly interesting stories (based on the rest), all GONE!
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Post by Richard Marple on Mar 15, 2021 21:56:19 GMT
From what I remember in my TV Science Fiction book many earlier episodes were repeated on BBC1 as much of the country couldn't receive BBC2 at the time.
Maybe this allowed these episodes to avoid being wiped, though at the time many BBC programmes normally had a one repeat agreement.
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Post by Daniel E on Mar 16, 2021 18:33:41 GMT
I would be interested to know to what extent it was shown in America ?
Thanks...
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Post by richardwoods on Mar 16, 2021 19:09:41 GMT
From what I remember in my TV Science Fiction book many earlier episodes were repeated on BBC1 as much of the country couldn't receive BBC2 at the time. Maybe this allowed these episodes to avoid being wiped, though at the time many BBC programmes normally had a one repeat agreement. I would be surprised if all the seasons of OOTU weren’t repeated on BBC1. We didn’t get 625 line black & white, let alone colour until Sept 71 in Cumbria & the same was true of much of the UK. Some places were even later. The first series of The Goodies & early Python were repeated on BBC1 & they were contemporary with the later seasons of OOTU.
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Post by stevedavis68 on Mar 16, 2021 20:33:13 GMT
I think when Ian Levine got into Villiers House with Sue Malden, the OOTU episodes were in there along with the DW episodes, this might be the reason S1 is so well represented.
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Post by Qasim Yusuf on Mar 16, 2021 23:22:24 GMT
I think when Ian Levine got into Villiers House with Sue Malden, the OOTU episodes were in there along with the DW episodes, this might be the reason S1 is so well represented. I didn't know about that but it doesn't really explain what could have happened to the rest of the series. With Doctor Who for example, we know that most of the 60s episodes still existed in some form until about 1975 but since information on OOTU is a lot harder to find, I was hoping to find out more about when a lot of the episodes were wiped. It seems especially strange that Season 3 which was made in colour was so badly affected whereas the older black and white ones are far better represented in the archives.
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Post by stevedavis68 on Mar 16, 2021 23:34:57 GMT
Certainly OOTU episodes went to at least one country in Africa/
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Post by Peter Stirling on Mar 17, 2021 1:14:07 GMT
'The Little Black Bag' exists in colour but is not complete, there are small damage spots and erased gaps.
'Beachhead' was transferred to b/w 35 mm film to allow it to be shown from a cinema projector in Italy but that may have never been returned as presumably people thought the master was still safe.
As for finding any in the US - I think the US only brought costume dramas from the BBC at the time.
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Post by ColinC on Mar 17, 2021 12:38:41 GMT
All seasons were at least sold to Australia - transmission began with Time in Advance in September 1967. Unfortunately contractual limitations entailed that the Season 2 and 3 Asimov stories weren’t part of the package. Last showing in Australia was To Lay a Ghost circa 1973/74.
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RWels
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Post by RWels on Mar 17, 2021 13:27:31 GMT
'The Little Black Bag' exists in colour but is not complete, there are small damage spots and erased gaps. 'Beachhead' was transferred to b/w 35 mm film to allow it to be shown from a cinema projector in Italy but that may have never been returned as presumably people thought the master was still safe. As for finding any in the US - I think the US only brought costume dramas from the BBC at the time. The end of Black Bag is missing completely, isn't it. And the start. But that story had been filmed for television before. I had never heared of the Italian 35mm film...! All seasons were at least sold to Australia - transmission began with Time in Advance in September 1967. Unfortunately contractual limitations entailed that the Season 2 and 3 Asimov stories weren’t part of the package. Last showing in Australia was To Lay a Ghost circa 1973/74. But it's such an obvious place, hard to imagine that it hasn't been checked. (THAT episode... the one that's disturbing for the wrong reasons...)
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Post by richardwoods on Mar 17, 2021 14:34:20 GMT
Hmm a Succubus perhaps?
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Post by Peter Stirling on Mar 17, 2021 15:48:30 GMT
The end of Black Bag is missing completely, isn't it. And the start. But that story had been filmed for television before. I had never heared of the Italian 35mm film...! [/quote] Yes Black Bag was one of those - by one of a small group of quirky,oddball American writers who were short lived either professionally or in life but nonetheless produced some interesting tales that were often adapted more than once on both sides of the pond. From the bits I have seen the OOTU ver is a good effort with writer Julian Bond adapting it well to go in the BBC machine and with good old Geraldine Moffat helping shore up the proceedings. Another one of those oddball writers wrote "Miss Belle" which the American networks presumably would not touch, but they found it on their screen in "Journey to the Unknown" which probably helped kill it off as IIRC it even raised a few eyebrows in the UK. Beachhead had been nominated for an award, so possibly the most convenient method of showing it to a large audience (at that time) was in the in house cinema...Usually once the material is shown at those events nobody gives a hoot to what happens to it next..so not surprised that is also missing. Er ..probably not the week to mention "To lay a ghost"
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RWels
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Post by RWels on Mar 17, 2021 18:16:34 GMT
The end of Black Bag is missing completely, isn't it. And the start. But that story had been filmed for television before. I had never heared of the Italian 35mm film...! Yes Black Bag was one of those - by one of a small group of quirky,oddball American writers who were short lived either professionally or in life but nonetheless produced some interesting tales that were often adapted more than once on both sides of the pond. From the bits I have seen the OOTU ver is a good effort with writer Julian Bond adapting it well to go in the BBC machine and with good old Geraldine Moffat helping shore up the proceedings. Another one of those oddball writers wrote "Miss Belle" which the American networks presumably would not touch, but they found it on their screen in "Journey to the Unknown" which probably helped kill it off as IIRC it even raised a few eyebrows in the UK. Beachhead had been nominated for an award, so possibly the most convenient method of showing it to a large audience (at that time) was in the in house cinema...Usually once the material is shown at those events nobody gives a hoot to what happens to it next..so not surprised that is also missing. Er ..probably not the week to mention "To lay a ghost" [/quote]Presumably the festival copy has been looked into and nothing was found? When speaking of adaptations, I suppose another interesting case is Roald Dahl's Tales of the unexpected - the TV episodes are always one step ahead of the stories, trying to outdo their strangeness.
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RWels
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Post by RWels on Mar 17, 2021 19:11:44 GMT
The festival was once said in another thread here to be the Trieste Film Festival, but that started in 1989. Also, the episode only aired in 1969, so I'd be quite interested to hear more about the 35mm copy?
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