Where Did the Rumors Come From?

[Max B]

Let's assume, for argument's sake, that the rumors of additional missing episode finds, waiting to be announced, are false. Still, the rumors have been very specific. For example, there's the rumor that Marco Polo had been found alongside Enemy of the World and Web of Fear (kind of odd that the rumors got 2 out of the 3 right...), or that DMP episodes 4 and 7 or 11 and 12 stuck together have been found, or that 3 episodes of Wheel in Space have been found, or that The Macra Terror and the Massacre will be the next to be announced.

How do you think these rumors came about, and have gotten so very specific?

[Steven Christopherson]

Alcohol

[Brad Phipps]

[stevehoare61]

I have no idea where these rumours originated.Ive been following them from the beginning and have witnessed some truly viscious things written on some websites which would keep psychologists in work for years.
Its a very simple thing...you either believe it or you dont...it doesnt need the muck slinging and the visciousness we've all seen and read.
Because some of the rumours were so correct, I fall into the 'maybe there is more to come'camp, I might be wrong, it doesnt make me delusional , or stupid, which some people might claim I am, without knowing a single fact about me.And if Im wrong,,Oh well, life goes on.For the rumours to have been so specific, especially with Web and Enemy, then undoubtedly, someone blabbed something, at some point. But its done, they were right and we're all seriously pleased about it.Its a case of waiting and seeing...

[Jaspal Cheema]

I was always intrigued by what Sue Malden once said in the 1998 missing episodes documentary,and which I always found strange.She said 'we know they're out there,but finds have started to dry up'.It seems she was right all along-if the rumour is correct then maybe she knew it would only be a matter of time before they were all found,it just needed someone to actually go to these foreign TV stations to bring them back to the BBC archives.She seemed to know the statistics,the number,the fact that they all potentially still existed-even in 1998.

[stevehoare61]

I agree, I think she knew more than she ever told. Plus I remember going back some time to the early 80s when the state of the Archives first became known, and episodes started to be returned from various sources, before they eventually dried up, in an Interview, couldnt say where, may have been DWB even, where Ian Levene and the BBC were either quoted or was said that they held lost, unannounced prints of episodes that would be used in exchange for potential collectors that only wanted lost eps for lost eps.Whether this was true or not I dont know, though it does make logical sense. I do wonder whether this is still the case and if it ever produced anything.

[JOHN SMITH]

Nov 11, 2013 7:48:29 GMT Jaspal Cheema said:

I was always intrigued by what Sue Malden once said in the 1998 missing episodes documentary,and which I always found strange.She said 'we know they're out there,but finds have started to dry up'.

Imho she was speaking of the 16mm prints that should have been destroyed at, or destroyed upon return to, BBC Enterprises.
The paperwork is long gone of course, either destroyed or in "deep/remote storage". Having worked with "deep/remote storage" stuff however, I can say it usually has one fate. It (usually also) gets destroyed after a time limit expires.

However, Sue probably did have access to that paperwork before it was destroyed/shipped off to be destroyed eventually.

It would be a fair guess however to say that if a certain name/names was signed off on paperwork to say that 16mm prints of (insert)were now destroyed and they then turned up later, and that that name/names KEPT on recurring on "now returned" but signed as destroyed stuff. Then it would be a fair bet to say that OTHER prints that that name/names signed off as destroyed, ALSO indeed survived as well.

If Sue "REALLY DID" say she knows it is out there, then she must have had a VERY strong reason for saying so. And possibly even knew a name/names of just who took it for "safekeeping".

[simonashby]

Nov 11, 2013 7:48:29 GMT Jaspal Cheema said:

I was always intrigued by what Sue Malden once said in the 1998 missing episodes documentary,and which I always found strange.She said 'we know they're out there,but finds have started to dry up'.It seems she was right all along-if the rumour is correct then maybe she knew it would only be a matter of time before they were all found,it just needed someone to actually go to these foreign TV stations to bring them back to the BBC archives.She seemed to know the statistics,the number,the fact that they all potentially still existed-even in 1998.

You're reading too much into it.

Nov 11, 2013 7:48:29 GMT Jaspal Cheema said:

,the fact that they all potentially still existed-even in 1998.

There you go.

[stephengraham67]

Two to three weeks guys and we will know one way or the other What officially happened, and what actually happened maybe be very different !

[JOHN SMITH]

Nov 11, 2013 11:09:25 GMT stephengraham67 said:

Two to three weeks guys and we will know one way or the other What officially happened, and what actually happened maybe be very different !

They don't need to say on the 50th anniversary. They could say so later (if indeed there really is anything else, which I believe there is).

[John Wall]

Nov 11, 2013 7:48:29 GMT Jaspal Cheema said:

I was always intrigued by what Sue Malden once said in the 1998 missing episodes documentary,and which I always found strange.She said 'we know they're out there,but finds have started to dry up'.It seems she was right all along-if the rumour is correct then maybe she knew it would only be a matter of time before they were all found,it just needed someone to actually go to these foreign TV stations to bring them back to the BBC archives.She seemed to know the statistics,the number,the fact that they all potentially still existed-even in 1998.

That documentary is on Disc 3 of Lost In Time and I've just checked it. She doesn't say that "we know they're out there" but that they're always hopeful.

Things would be much better if people checked their sources rather than working backwards from their pet conspiracy theory and rewriting history to fit.

[charles drummel]

Nov 11, 2013 7:48:29 GMT Jaspal Cheema said:

I was always intrigued by what Sue Malden once said in the 1998 missing episodes documentary,and which I always found strange.She said 'we know they're out there,but finds have started to dry up'.It seems she was right all along-if the rumour is correct then maybe she knew it would only be a matter of time before they were all found,it just needed someone to actually go to these foreign TV stations to bring them back to the BBC archives.She seemed to know the statistics,the number,the fact that they all potentially still existed-even in 1998.

I think it's just a matter of being in a 6 to 7 year dry spell for the first time since the hunt began. Up until 1992, there were returns ever few years.

I believe their interpretation of the statistics was less accurate, rather than more, at that time. From what I can gather, the current understanding of the "bicycling" system means that there are perhaps fewer prints than once (when?) thought.