Did the cost go down in 1978?

[James Anderson]

We all know why episodes where junked becouse of high cost of producing Dr who etc. When the junking stopped in 1978 did the cost go down too ? was it cheaper to make Dr who in 1978 then 1963 ?

[Sue Butcher]

I doubt it! Videotape was wiped and reused to save a little money when recording new television programmes, that's all. This wasn't the reason why the "permanent" film copies were junked. They went because they were black and white, there wasn't room to store them, they couldn't be repeated, the sales rights had expired, and because the BBC had no archiving policy.

[grantgoodman]

I also think it might have been due to the popularity of Tom Baker and it was more profitable to sell the show overseas (the show would air on PBS in the US and gaining cult popularity).

[James Anderson]

one more thing if the master tapes where kept whould the picture be any better then the 16mm copies ?

[Richard Bignell]

Jun 3, 2013 14:09:41 GMT James Anderson said:

one more thing if the master tapes where kept whould the picture be any better then the 16mm copies ?

Massively so.

[Steven Sigel]

Jun 3, 2013 16:40:53 GMT Richard Bignell said:

Jun 3, 2013 14:09:41 GMT James Anderson said:

one more thing if the master tapes where kept whould the picture be any better then the 16mm copies ?

Massively so.

It would be better, but hardly "massively"...

[Michael D. Kimpton]

I always heard Tom Baker's episodes were saved because the National Film and Videotape Library was established in late 1974. If this is so, would the Fury From the Deep tapes have been saved if this establishment had been organised sooner?

[Mark Vanderlinde-Abernathy]

Mike: Undoubtedly. It was the last serial to be wiped.

[Richard Bignell]

Jun 3, 2013 22:13:09 GMT Michael D. Kimpton said:

I always heard Tom Baker's episodes were saved because the National Film and Videotape Library was established in late 1974. If this is so, would the Fury From the Deep tapes have been saved if this establishment had been organised sooner?

Not necessarily. The BBC always had a videotape library, run by the Engineering Department in the basement of Television Centre. This was eventually amalgamated with their Film Library to form one main archive. It wasn't the physical location that was important in things being retained, but a change in the way the BBC thought about their own archival material, which started with the Annan Committee and then in a much more focused manner, with the Advisory Committee on Archives in 1975. The committee's assessment took several years to complete (it was published in 1979) and some of their ideas began to be implemented around 1978 with the new position of the Archive Selector.

Without that change in mentality (largely brought on by Equity's relaxation of repeat rules in 1974), even if the Videotape Archive and the Film Library had been brought together sooner, material would still have continued to be wiped.

[simonashby]

I thought the only reason why the Baker material still existed was simply because they were still being sold/offered in 1978.

[Alex Taylor]

Did Enterprises have their own videotape copies, or did they simply order copies from Engineering on an as-needed basis?

[Jon Preddle]

Jun 5, 2013 21:08:57 GMT Alex Taylor said:

Did Enterprises have their own videotape copies, or did they simply order copies from Engineering on an as-needed basis?

I should think Enterprises had their own set, rather than running the risk of damaging the broadcast master tapes each time they ran off copies to sell overseas.

[Alex Taylor]

I wondered, as it always struck me as surprising that no colour episodes were recovered from there in '78.

[Jon Preddle]

Jun 5, 2013 21:47:37 GMT Alex Taylor said:

I wondered, as it always struck me as surprising that no colour episodes were recovered from there in '78.

Do you mean of Pertwee? Well, by 1978, the rights to sell his stories that existed complete were slowly drying up, and with 23 brand new Bakers to sell, with rights with several years to run, why keep what was effectively expired "old stock".

[Alex Taylor]

Yes, I realise the rights for the earlier Pertwee seasons would have expired by then, but I'd have thought they might still have had something of Season 11 still knocking about.