Post by Stephen Neve on Apr 30, 2005 13:10:02 GMT
The following appeared on the Restoration site before for no apparent reason it was deleted. Not even Ian can post without those do gooder mods deleting his thread.
Ian Levine
The Future of Missing Episodes
Sat Apr 30 2005 12:40:41
081.133.246.095
My mind has been focused of late as to the fact that there are still 108 episodes totally missing.
Back in the late 1970s and early 1980s, I worked with Peter Lydiard-White and Roger Brunskill at BBC Enterprises (now Worldwide), to telex every country who might have bought Doctor Who, to see if we could find any. This quickly led to the recovery of the four episodes of Reign Of Terror from Cyprus. Phone calls to Nigeria found The Time Meddler and The War Machines.
Australia found us the Celestial Toymaker episode and Frontier In Space in colour. Someone in Hong Kong remembered the request and years later sent back the Tomb Of The Cyberman.
We have not actively asked these stations for a full 20 years now.
There are countries who bought Troughtons in 1972 who we never asked - such as Namibia, Aden, Iran (Vague memories of asking but getting an "In The Name Of Allah" reply), Iraq, Jamaica, and LOADS of African countries that I clearly remember us never approaching back in the day.
Despite having been a pessimist in the past, it is entirely possible that Fury From The Deep is sitting gathering dust in some tiny African or Arabic country somewhere.
I proposed that we form a team of sensible and articulate fans, find forty of them, and carve up the pot. In other words each person concentrates on one country only, and sensibly and politely does the research and finds the correct station, the right contact person at that station, sends a heartfelt letter explaining that although these stations were asked to return or destroy the prints at the time, that we would be so so grateful and appreciative if they could take the trouble to look for anything they might still have to help preserve the archival heritage - in other words convince them that they would be doing something historically worthwhile.
The list is staggering. So many obscure countries. Imagine if one of them had fifty or sixty prints. it HAS to be worth the effort. Remember that far more Troughtons are missing than exist.
My interest has been enormously rekindled after so many years.
This year, 2005, we have the best and most consistent new series for nearly thirty years.
Imagine the exuberant joy if we found a missing story too.
I believe that it's not that far fetched a possibility. But it has to be done right - it has to be done in such a way that we find a sympathetic person in each TV station who will go out of their way to look - someone like that marvellous woman Victoria Ezeokoli who I found in Nigeria so many many years ago.
If we have a few people with Andrew Pixley or Richard Molesworth type mentalities who are willing to put in the hours, I think we might reduce the number from 108.
But it needs work.
And teamwork.
Please give me your thoughts. I'm fired up again and raring to go.
If we wait on out collective backsides for the odd episode to surface in the way Day Of Armageddon or The Lion did, we'll all be dead before we find many more.
But if we consciously and actively go out there and turn over every stone, I am convinced we will yield results again. Some of these stones have never been turned over to this day. "
Ian Levine
The Future of Missing Episodes
Sat Apr 30 2005 12:40:41
081.133.246.095
My mind has been focused of late as to the fact that there are still 108 episodes totally missing.
Back in the late 1970s and early 1980s, I worked with Peter Lydiard-White and Roger Brunskill at BBC Enterprises (now Worldwide), to telex every country who might have bought Doctor Who, to see if we could find any. This quickly led to the recovery of the four episodes of Reign Of Terror from Cyprus. Phone calls to Nigeria found The Time Meddler and The War Machines.
Australia found us the Celestial Toymaker episode and Frontier In Space in colour. Someone in Hong Kong remembered the request and years later sent back the Tomb Of The Cyberman.
We have not actively asked these stations for a full 20 years now.
There are countries who bought Troughtons in 1972 who we never asked - such as Namibia, Aden, Iran (Vague memories of asking but getting an "In The Name Of Allah" reply), Iraq, Jamaica, and LOADS of African countries that I clearly remember us never approaching back in the day.
Despite having been a pessimist in the past, it is entirely possible that Fury From The Deep is sitting gathering dust in some tiny African or Arabic country somewhere.
I proposed that we form a team of sensible and articulate fans, find forty of them, and carve up the pot. In other words each person concentrates on one country only, and sensibly and politely does the research and finds the correct station, the right contact person at that station, sends a heartfelt letter explaining that although these stations were asked to return or destroy the prints at the time, that we would be so so grateful and appreciative if they could take the trouble to look for anything they might still have to help preserve the archival heritage - in other words convince them that they would be doing something historically worthwhile.
The list is staggering. So many obscure countries. Imagine if one of them had fifty or sixty prints. it HAS to be worth the effort. Remember that far more Troughtons are missing than exist.
My interest has been enormously rekindled after so many years.
This year, 2005, we have the best and most consistent new series for nearly thirty years.
Imagine the exuberant joy if we found a missing story too.
I believe that it's not that far fetched a possibility. But it has to be done right - it has to be done in such a way that we find a sympathetic person in each TV station who will go out of their way to look - someone like that marvellous woman Victoria Ezeokoli who I found in Nigeria so many many years ago.
If we have a few people with Andrew Pixley or Richard Molesworth type mentalities who are willing to put in the hours, I think we might reduce the number from 108.
But it needs work.
And teamwork.
Please give me your thoughts. I'm fired up again and raring to go.
If we wait on out collective backsides for the odd episode to surface in the way Day Of Armageddon or The Lion did, we'll all be dead before we find many more.
But if we consciously and actively go out there and turn over every stone, I am convinced we will yield results again. Some of these stones have never been turned over to this day. "
yes, why not--good for Ian Levine--hes all fired up again--this is a great idea, but hes right--it has to be done correctly.
Start acting like adults & not 5 year old kids please!!!! 