ABC Australia junking

[Bent]

Just found this, which I thought someone might be interested in:

Sep 1 2003, 05:31 PM
"Fess up time!"

And just who do you think put the axe through the Australian copies of the first 300 aprox B&W 16mm telerecordings of the early Dr Who episodes - only to find out years later that the BBC had junked most of their originals?

It was a long, long time ago, in another life, in a galaxy far, far away, but I will carry this shame with me to my grave, along with the destruction of another early BBC classic "Sci Fi" series called "Out Of The Unknown", my excuse, much like the Nazis at the Nuremburg trials is/was "Just following orders" - God what a waste!

The only bright side was that some years later whilst doing a bin search of the main program vault, looking for another missing program, I found one Dr Who episode that had been miss-binned and not junked with all the others, and it turned out to be after consulting with BBC Archives, the only print of this particular episode left in the world... "The Celestial Toymaker", alas it was only 1 episode out of a 4 or 5 part story IIRC, still it was returned to the Beeb with much thanks from them and I believe went through a print restoration process by BBC Archives.

Shame, Shame, Shame...
Jet

I'd love to ask him if he remembered junking any episodes in particular (i.e. trying to find out if "Master Plan" WAS junked by ABC).

Imagine having the guilt of destroying so many episodes...

[Ben]

Hmm, what an unfortunate typo (re: username).

[Steven]

Whilst on the subject of ABC Australia, does anyone know whether or not they also junked any Not Only But Also?

[Eric]

They probably did...but what else do you expect from a bunch of pommy haters?

[LanceM]

Did anyone check to see if the ABC still had any material that has not been searched yet? Someone in authority should contact them, or send them a polite letter asking for an inventory list (if they have one) of all material in the archives. But, what about the african television stations archives, or any african film collectors, has anyone followed up to see if there could be some more missing material still in some television archive in Africa?
If anyone could help me here with some info, that would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,Lance.

[Stuart Douglas]

LanceM said:

Did anyone check to see if the ABC still had any material that has not been searched yet? Someone in authority should contact them, or send them a polite letter asking for an inventory list (if they have one) of all material in the archives. But, what about the african television stations archives, or any african film collectors, has anyone followed up to see if there could be some more missing material still in some television archive in Africa?
If anyone could help me here with some info, that would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,Lance.

Hi Lance

I think the problem is that pretty much every TV station in the world has been contacted several times by inquisitive Doctor Who fans and, I suspect, most stations don't keep an inventory of things they should have destroyed thirty years ago in any case.

Stuart

[Ben]

I'm sure the "Have the ABC Australia archives been checked?" question has appeared several times within the past few weeks.

I'd e-mail "jet" to ask him if he had any specific recollections of episodes he junked, but it wouldn't be fair for me to pry and it was also thirty-odd years ago. Besides, as pointed out elsewhere, the ABC didn't have prints of "Master Plan" (it was the Film Censorship Board, if I recall correctly).

In time, as archive stock is catalogued, we can hope that missing episodes surface and are returned. In the meantime, we'll just have to accept that they're gone. Frustratingly. Whilst missing material (not necessarily Doctor Who) probably does exist in overseas archives (not necessarily ABC Australia), it's very unrealistic to expect the organisations to check their stock or to allow others to do so. In fact, it's quite insane. (Reasons mentioned elsewhere - mainly, time, money, privacy.)

[Adam James Smith]

why not e-mail Jet with any constructive questions about his position as a junker: after all this must be the first time that soemoen who junked the episodes has 'fessed up and it oculd make for an enlightening interview.

[LanceM]

An excellent idea !

[Brad Phipps]

LanceM said:

Did anyone check to see if the ABC still had any material that has not been searched yet?

Damian Shanahan already did this. He found no missing episodes.

[Ben]

Guest-Adam said:

why not e-mail Jet with any constructive questions about his position as a junker: after all this must be the first time that soemoen who junked the episodes has 'fessed up and it oculd make for an enlightening interview.

[Ben]

^ Sorry about that.

Guest-Adam said:

why not e-mail Jet with any constructive questions about his position as a junker: after all this must be the first time that soemoen who junked the episodes has 'fessed up and it oculd make for an enlightening interview.

What exactly would I ask him?

"Do you recall hearing about other employees "borrowing" film prints that were supposed to be junked?"

"Do you recall any specific titles of Doctor Who and Out of the Unknown episodes that you junked?"

"WHY DID YOU DO IT, MAN?!"

"WHY?!"

"Thanks for saving The Final Test, by the way."



I really wouldn't know what to say and I doubt he'd be able to tell us anything we don't already know or give us any leads.

[Adam James Smith]

well, I suppose it could be embarrasing and the chances are you wouldn't learn anything new.
But then again you MIGHT and I was more looking at it from a "you've got mothing to lose, you might as well" perspective.
It might be interesting to know specifics of the junking like how the material was graded, how it was disposed of, what the attitude to the material was at the time: fromt eh perspective of a first hand accoutn rather than the 2nd hand accounts we've read for so long. Well, I'd read it anyway!