Out Of The Unknown

[Adam Duncan]

I have a couple of questions about this show. Is Kaleidoscope Publishing's book on the show still available? Also, I understand that clips were recovered from the Australian censors. What episodes were these from and how long are they? Why were they not included on the OOTU clips tape. An extract from Liar! was also missing. This featured workers gathering round a production line. Any help would be appreciated.

[cperry]

Hi Adam

The book is still for sale from www.kaleidoscopepublishing.co.uk

All surviving material is listed in there. I'm not aware of any recent clips being found in Australia, I asked the BBC and they have not received anything 'new' at all for ages. The latest censor clips were The Goodies.

I'm also not aware of any OOTU clips tape, nothing official has been released.

Thanks

Chris

[ajsmith]

I'm afraid I remember reading on the old Dr Who Rt forum that Australian censor clips were found and viewed around the same time as the Dr Who ones, but never copied, and were then left to be binned! I'm sure the denizens of that forum had a half-convincing reason why this was allowed to happen as well.

[Deleted]

Apr 1, 2010 8:49:29 GMT @Adam Duncan said:

I have a couple of questions about this show. Is Kaleidoscope Publishing's book on the show still available? Also, I understand that clips were recovered from the Australian censors. What episodes were these from and how long are they? Why were they not included on the OOTU clips tape. An extract from Liar! was also missing. This featured workers gathering round a production line. Any help would be appreciated.

I have a clips tape with this on. I take it you have not seen this....

[johnstewart]

Apr 2, 2010 8:34:26 GMT @doomwatch said:

Apr 1, 2010 8:49:29 GMT @Adam Duncan said:

I have a couple of questions about this show. Is Kaleidoscope Publishing's book on the show still available? Also, I understand that clips were recovered from the Australian censors. What episodes were these from and how long are they? Why were they not included on the OOTU clips tape. An extract from Liar! was also missing. This featured workers gathering round a production line. Any help would be appreciated.

I have a clips tape with this on. I take it you have not seen this....

Not sure whther he meant that or the missing Censor clips quoted on MAUSOLEUM CLUB some time back. These were from

THE NAKED SUN (69) ( a stabbing) and LAST WITNESS (71) a strangulation. At that time it was said they had not been returned but nothing about destruction. As some of the DR WHO censor clips originated from a private holder; I would guess someone might want to save these also themselves.

The BBC might argue snippets were not marketable in themselves but then they would need them to restore a doctored print should one be found.

It would be too presumptive to assume the BBC wouldn't want to make some commercial use of the show in future. For which the clips would provide a function.

[Deleted]

The following information is a copy from Colin Cutler on The Mausoleum Club.... (hope you don't mind Colin!)

Out of the Unknown - Original sources of surviving clips

Further to a recent query in the 'Literature' section regarding one of the Out of the Unknown articles now back up on the site, I thought some members would be interested to know details of the original source of the surviving clips from the episode "Liar!", alongside those from the related 1964 production of "The Caves of Steel". Not sure if these specific details are included in Mark Ward’s book –if so, apologies for regurgitating the material :-)

The material from “Liar!” shown in the 1997 documentary series ‘Future Fantastic’ originated from a 1969 edition of the BBC science documentary ‘Towards Tomorrow’. This was broadcast on 25th March ( just a couple of months after the first and only showing of the OOTU play ) and was entitled “2001: An Earth Prophecy”. Notably, a December 1967 edition of the same series also contains the only known surviving material from another Asimov OOTU tale ‘Satisfaction Guaranteed’ ( this edition - entitled ‘Robot’ – still resides intact in the BBC’s archives ).

The Future Fantastic documentary also contained unspecified clips from ‘The Caves of Steel’, the 90 minute ‘Story Parade’ production which acted as a sort of precursor to the launch of OOTU the following year. An article on the production ( yes, I know, a shameless plug ) can still be found ( I think?! ) on Nick Cooper’s 625-Line website –http://www.625.org.uk/cavesofs/sb21cofs.htm

When I wrote this however, I didn’t have some of the specific archive details to hand, so the following constitutes a little bit of Errata:

Horizon ( tx. 28th July 1965 ) contained a feature on Science Fiction and was the original source of some of the tantalisingly brief clips used in Future Fantastic ( unfortunately, though a couple of these featured Peter Cushing as a Police Detective in a far-future New York , none contained any of his dialogue, so I couldn’t verify whether he had been required to speak in an American accent. Just a point of curiousity really! )

Further clips were apparently also used in an edition of ‘Tomorrow's World’, broadcast on 9th December 1965. I do know that the well-known title sequence/opening scene clip ( absolute cracker of a clip, albeit partially mute ) also hails from a feature on the Radiophonic Workshop which appeared in Tomorrows World during this era, although I’m not sure whether or not it was this particular December edition.

If anyone has any further details, or can verify the archive status of Horizon/ Tomorrows World circa 65/66, I’d been very happy to hear from them!

And while I’m droning on – not really a ‘ discovery’, but another little bit of Errata to the current PDF “Immortality Inc” article. The original cued studio tape for all the music, special effects, taped dialogue, electronic treatments etc for this particular play also exists in a private collection. A shame that the only existing visual is the 4 seconds snipped by the cautious Australian censor!

[Deleted]

I seriously recommend taking a look at The Mausoleum Club as well for more info. Both this site and TMC are my favourites.
www.mausoleumclubforum.org.uk/xmb/misc.php?action=search

Don't forget Colin's excellent site at

www.zetaminor.com/cult/out_unknown/ootu_clips_guide_intro.htm

There is more info also at
www.625.org.uk/

[ColinC]

Basically, two clips of otherwise missing OOTU eps were viewed at Vilawood circa 1997 , but unfortunately they were (a) never professionally transferred to broadcast tape or (b) sent over to the BBC.

I think the jury's out regarding whether they still exist or whether they've been binned. There are sound arguments either way (apart from going actually going there and booking some time in their viewing room, I can't think of any other way of verifying!).

For the record, the two painfully brief clips were:

Immortality Inc (1969) - 5 secs
The Last Witness (1971) - 33 secs

[Paul Vanezis]

To add to the knowledge here, I have the 16mm sepmag M&E of 'The Fox and the Forest'. It's the entire episode although from the sound of it it was rather crudely done.

Paul

[Greg H]

Thats rather interesting Paul. Is the sound quality good? Do you know off of the top of your head who the composer was, or was it library music?
It would make a nice extra for a DVD relese if it ever happens

[Robert Manners]

Apr 10, 2010 13:20:20 GMT Paul Vanezis said:

To add to the knowledge here, I have the 16mm sepmag M&E of 'The Fox and the Forest'. It's the entire episode although from the sound of it it was rather crudely done.

Paul

Never new this existed, has this been in your hands a long time?

I only ask since most OOTU material known to exist is normally we covered on sites like these!

Thanks

[Deleted]

A special treat for you guys!

All of the known existing clips from "Liar!" shown in the CORRECT order! (Thanks to Colin Cutler for making this possible)
It took me 2 hours to edit this video together.

Also, not forgetting the rather wonderful Story Parade "The Caves of Steel " Surviving Edited Clips with a slightly higher quality and longer ending...

www.youtube.com/snhbuk

Enjoy!

[Joe Haynes]

Thanks for the clips scott! Liar looked like it would of been a great episode

[Deleted]

I am actively tracking down lost (hard to find) clips from this series and if anything interesting turns up, I will post my findings here. If there is any work I can do on existing material, I will post it to Youtube, however, I will only be uploading short clips from missing episodes and not anything from full existing episodes. I've just finished working on this cracker of a clip from Satisfaction Guaranteed. Hope you like it! Same web address as the previos post.

Any help with unearthing these gems would be most welcome.