Missing Doctor Who negative located
Nov 29, 2021 22:55:41 GMT
Nicholas Fitzpatrick, RWels, and 21 more like this
Post by Paul Vanezis on Nov 29, 2021 22:55:41 GMT
Hi all,
Back in the early 2000's, the negatives held at the BBC of the first three Doctor Who serials were transferred for The Beginning boxset. During the various transfer sessions, the can containing the negative for episode 7 of 'The Daleks', the episode entitled 'The Rescue' turned out to contain not a picture negative, but just a sound negative.
Because the picture negative was missing, we had to use the one surviving print, which turned out to be scratched combined with a one-inch transfer of the same print which was made prior to it being damaged. Consequently, that episode is not the best it could be.
Fast forward to 2021 and Richard Bignell contacted me to ask if the negatives of the early William Hartnell episodes held at the BFI might prove to be useful in a future restoration. This material was mostly donated to the BFI in 1986 by the BBC archive. The first episode I checked was episode 7 of The Daleks for which we only had a sound neg. When I checked the BFI's online catalogue, it turned out that they only had a sound neg as well. Except that we thought we had a picture neg 20 years ago, but it was a sound neg in the wrong can. Could the BFI sound neg actually be the picture neg and has never been checked?
So I asked them to check it. And yes, what they thought was a sound negative turned out to be the missing picture negative. I suspect that the two negatives were put back in the wrong cans the last time the two cans were at a laboratory to have a print made and that must have been some time before 1986. In fact, it may have occurred in the 1970's.
Now I know what you're thinking. Could a missing episode be hidden in plain sight at the BFI? Not Doctor Who, no. However, the other negatives do look as if they may assist us. Most appear to be the original FR negs made on first transmission and subsequently superceded by the new stored field recordings made in 1967. The irony here is that with 'The Daleks', episodes 5 & 7 are suppressed field recordings. There are no stored field recordings that we know of and we think this is due to the original tapes either being wiped or damaged by 1967. The other five episodes had two negatives, the original but poorer quality suppressed field recordings, plus the 1967 stored field recordings. The BBC donated the poorer quality suppressed field recordings to the BFI plus the spare sound negatives. All the BBC's original film recording negatives also have an optical soundtrack.
Some episodes were found to be damaged when they were film recorded in 1967. The BBC then made Frankenstein versions of the damaged episodes, duping sections of the surviving suppressed field film recordings and editing those into the higher quality, but incomplete stored field recordings. Fortunately, the negatives for the two episodes affected by this editing are at the BFI, The Aztecs episode 1 and The Edge of Destruction episode 2. We should be able to make some improvements to all of these episodes in a future restoration.
Regards,
Paul
Back in the early 2000's, the negatives held at the BBC of the first three Doctor Who serials were transferred for The Beginning boxset. During the various transfer sessions, the can containing the negative for episode 7 of 'The Daleks', the episode entitled 'The Rescue' turned out to contain not a picture negative, but just a sound negative.
Because the picture negative was missing, we had to use the one surviving print, which turned out to be scratched combined with a one-inch transfer of the same print which was made prior to it being damaged. Consequently, that episode is not the best it could be.
Fast forward to 2021 and Richard Bignell contacted me to ask if the negatives of the early William Hartnell episodes held at the BFI might prove to be useful in a future restoration. This material was mostly donated to the BFI in 1986 by the BBC archive. The first episode I checked was episode 7 of The Daleks for which we only had a sound neg. When I checked the BFI's online catalogue, it turned out that they only had a sound neg as well. Except that we thought we had a picture neg 20 years ago, but it was a sound neg in the wrong can. Could the BFI sound neg actually be the picture neg and has never been checked?
So I asked them to check it. And yes, what they thought was a sound negative turned out to be the missing picture negative. I suspect that the two negatives were put back in the wrong cans the last time the two cans were at a laboratory to have a print made and that must have been some time before 1986. In fact, it may have occurred in the 1970's.
Now I know what you're thinking. Could a missing episode be hidden in plain sight at the BFI? Not Doctor Who, no. However, the other negatives do look as if they may assist us. Most appear to be the original FR negs made on first transmission and subsequently superceded by the new stored field recordings made in 1967. The irony here is that with 'The Daleks', episodes 5 & 7 are suppressed field recordings. There are no stored field recordings that we know of and we think this is due to the original tapes either being wiped or damaged by 1967. The other five episodes had two negatives, the original but poorer quality suppressed field recordings, plus the 1967 stored field recordings. The BBC donated the poorer quality suppressed field recordings to the BFI plus the spare sound negatives. All the BBC's original film recording negatives also have an optical soundtrack.
Some episodes were found to be damaged when they were film recorded in 1967. The BBC then made Frankenstein versions of the damaged episodes, duping sections of the surviving suppressed field film recordings and editing those into the higher quality, but incomplete stored field recordings. Fortunately, the negatives for the two episodes affected by this editing are at the BFI, The Aztecs episode 1 and The Edge of Destruction episode 2. We should be able to make some improvements to all of these episodes in a future restoration.
Regards,
Paul
