Moobase 3

[Jay]

Am I correct in the understanding that all the episodes of Moonbase 3 exist (and in colour)? If so, could someone please tell me which episodes were originally missing and how they were recovered (I've heard some interesting stories, including that they were discovered when broadcast by a station that had no idea they were missing).

Thanks.

[Steve Roberts]

That's basically it. The BBC junked its copies, but sometime in the nineties it was screened on a US cable station (might have been the Sci-Fi channel).

Turned out that nobody had realised that the series had been co-funded by Fox in the US and they had kept their NTSC masters!

Hence all six episodes were returned in NTSC form and the series has been available to buy on VHS and DVD in the UK.

Steve

[Steven Sigel]

I saw these when they were broadcast on Sci-Fi in the early '90s and called up a friend of mine in the UK to ask about the show. I asked " Do you know anything about a show called 'Moonbase 3'"? His response: "They don't exist". My response - "Well then, I must have imagined seeing them"...

He called up someone at the BBC to tell them (might have been Steve R) ... Not sure if anyone else had told them before he did....

[npjw1]

There's a (possibly apocryphal) story that someone rang Terrance Dicks to tell him that Moonbase 3 had been recovered, and he responded "Oh f**k!"

I also heard that the prime mover in returning the show to the BBC archives often hangs his head in shame and apologises when this is brought up.

There are some good threads about Moonbase 3 on The Mausoleum Club that show the fairly wide range of views on it. Barry Letts obviously still feels its failure hard, as at last year's Panopticon he was still moved to comment on its terrible ratings "Worst ratings ever on a Sunday night...tried our best...nothing has ever done as bad on Sunday night to this day". Ouch!

[Andrew Ainsworth]

This moonbase 3, are you you referring to the pat troughton adventure or is another show. If it is then it would be great to b/w dr who in colour.

[Paul Hayes]

Completely different show. Early 1970s BBC six-part sci-fi serial set, susprisingly enough, on a moonbase. Kind of 'what we did in our Holidays' for Letts and Dicks, as it was made between seasons of "Doctor Who".

[Andy McKinney]

StevenS said:

I saw these when they were broadcast on Sci-Fi in the early '90s and called up a friend of mine in the UK to ask about the show. I asked " Do you know anything about a show called 'Moonbase 3'"? His response: "They don't exist". My response - "Well then, I must have imagined seeing them"...

He called up someone at the BBC to tell them (might have been Steve R) ... Not sure if anyone else had told them before he did....

I don't know, but when I saw the first one on Sci-Fi, I recalled reading a brief article in DWB about the episodes being missing (it might've been in one of the stars' obits, I'd have to dig out my back issues to be sure), so I promptly wrote a letter to the editor that they were not lost but were airing in the US on the Sci-Fi Channel, and one or two issues later, DWB printed a story about Moonbase 3 being "found".

[William Martin]

npjw1 said:

There's a (possibly apocryphal) story that someone rang Terrance Dicks to tell him that Moonbase 3 had been recovered, and he responded "Oh f**k!"

Barry Letts obviously still feels its failure hard, as at last year's Panopticon he was still moved to comment on its terrible ratings "Worst ratings ever on a Sunday night...tried our best...nothing has ever done as bad on Sunday night to this day". Ouch!

that sounds like the sort of thing Terrance Dicks would say.

[Jay]

Thanks for all the replies. I think the story of the Moonbase 3 recovery is my favourite missing episode recovery!