(Doctor Who) If you had 1 wish..

[Mark Brown]

Guest-Alan said:

Serious suggestions only? In a thread about "magicing into existence" a missing episode? Surely it's a pretty frivolous suggestion in the first place...

Best,

Alan

Indeed it isn't the most serious thread i`ve ever done, i was just wondering what made (in the fans eyes) 1 episode more worthy of being recovered than any other.

[Andy Henderson]

"try tellin 'em that on the RT site then. while we're at it then lets junk some more tv. a few cartier plays, z-cars, a few pythons. it's only tv, right Andy? "

Thank-you for attempting to take the moral high-ground!

The problem with much of the junking was the random factor. In all cases, a representative sample of the best would be better than the current state. 1980s DW isn't really the peak of the series and I think that most people today (when they think of the programme), don't recall the 80s very well. Apart from those who grew up in the 80s.

Might be as well as junking the Z-Cars and the Cartier plays as no-one except for a tiny minority is interested. There are scores of old Z-Cars which are doing nothing except sit in darkness. There are enough Wednesday Plays to show one every week for a whole year!

[Mark Brown]

One night when i couldnt sleep i thought "i wonder if i sold my soul to the devil for 40 missing episodes what would i choose?" i came up with all sorts of stuff in the original draft which i later dropped for more Dr Who under the `stuff people would actually get to see clause` it wasn't all Dr Who though, i think 10 were other things and Satan never replied anyway so it doesn't matter.

[William Martin]

probably something from an otherwise non-existant story, I'd have to go with mr Piper's suggestion of power-1
the complete stroy would be evil of the daleks

[His Dark Satanic Magesty]

Mark said:

One night when i couldnt sleep i thought "i wonder if i sold my soul to the devil for 40 missing episodes what would i choose?" i came up with all sorts of stuff in the original draft which i later dropped for more Dr Who under the `stuff people would actually get to see clause` it wasn't all Dr Who though, i think 10 were other things and Satan never replied anyway so it doesn't matter.

well mortal, what's your 40

[Laurence Piper]

A lot of the missing Troughton stories seem a far more enticing than those still missing from the Hartnell era, it has to be said (there are a couple of exceptions). Apart from Web, Power and Evil, there's Fury, Invasion and Abominable Snowmen as well...

Mention of Z-Cars above got me thinking that i'd really like to see a run of the colour episodes of UK Gold. They've been forgotten for so long (and if they can do it with The Bill...) I for one would like the chance to see them all again.

[Allen Dace]

I'm torn between '10th Planet' 4 and 'Power of The Daleks' 1 but if pushed I think the latter - its the only missing Doctor debut so has a stand-alone interest.

[William Martin]

which troughton season would you say was the best? and would like to see complete

[Ian Chambers]

If one wish is one episode then gawd knows. I'd rather complete a few nearly-complete stories - be nice to round of The Tenth Planet, The Invasion, The Moonbase or The Ice Warriors.

If one random episode I think I'd pick Masterplan 12. The audio alone had me on the edge of my seat, though doubtless the illusion would be totally ruined by the actuality of the production values.

For the same reason, from a non-existant story I'd rather see Power 2. More Daleks and a FANTASTIC cliffhanger.

[Alan Hayes]

Another good choice would be an episode of "Galaxy Four", so we could see more of a Rill than the single (?) photo that currently exists.

[Matthew K Sharp]

Guest-Andy said:

"and it had to be magicing in to existence a single episode of dr who, which would you choose?"

Any chance we can have a thread about magic'ing' out of existence some episodes. All those involving curly rainbow top and that scottish 'vision on' lisper would be a good start!

Hey Andy, if we start wishing together, do you think there'd be enough mental power to get "The Sensorites" magically replaced by all six episodes of On The Margin?

[William NZ]

Masterplan 12 and Evil of the Daleks... er... either four or five. The one with the Daleks playing trains. Though impossible to say for sure on available evidence, Evil is the stronger serial than Power, and though episode one of that story is, of course, historically important, the artistry of the latter makes its loss one of the great crimes of junking. Episode two, IMHO, stands up as great period television, as opposed to great Who, sci fi, or children's television. Unlike a lot of episodes for which visuals survive, the settings and camerawork are superb, as is the story and performances. Even Debbie Watling's unfortunate zit.

And Matthew K Sharp, the mention of On the Margin bought me close to tears. Another great b/w, largely missing series - like 1948 show was, and NOBA to an extent still is - that is undeservedly forgotten (as well as extremely funny).

[Jay]

It's a tough question, but I think I'd also say, as has been mentioned already, The Feast of Steven. My main reason would be that this particular episode is very different from all the other episodes, but also because it's fun and, geekishly, it's also the one episode we're almost certainly never going to return*, so I'd chose it for that reason alone.

* It was only ever broadcast once in the UK and prior to home recordings (the earliest I've heard of is The Space Pirates, Episode 2) and was never sold overseas and is believed to have been destroyed (although rumours, which have been denied, suggest that it was given to the Hartnell family).

[Laurence Piper]

Put me down for copies of On The Margin too! Wasn't about 15 mins of domestic footage supposed to have been turned up (mentioned somewhere on the Kal site)? Whatever happened on that one?

[Valentine Dial]

It's been specially kept from you for making too many optomistic postings!