Doctor Who - Overseas Sales & Transmissions - William Hartnell

[DVDreviews15811]

episode 7 of daleks master plan is the only confirmed eepisode to be wiped from our achieves (to my knowledge)

[MrDeathrock9]

mission the the unknown 1/1 episodes? normally stories are 4 or 6 episodes long

[drwhothesimpsons]

@MrDeathrock9 Normally they are, but in 1964, the story "Planet of Giants" was shortened from 4 episodes to 3 because the BBC thought the story didn't have a fast enough ending. This created a gap in the next season's production block, so Mission to the Unknown was made - The Doctor isn't even in it!

[VilaRestil]

This video does not take account of the undoubted fact that the BBC sold the series to foreign language stations, hence the recovery of at least one Hartnell episode that had a soundtrack dubbed into Arabic. It is a mistake to restrict the search to countries that speak English, given that the BBC's documents relating to overseas sales are incomplete.

[VilaRestil]

Since this video was posted, 1 episode of 'Galaxy 4' has been found - in England, not overseas at all. What is often overlooked is that when film prints were 'cycled' - forwarded by one overseas broadcaster to another - the ultimate destination was often London. Overseas stations were usually requested to either destroy or return the print after transmission, in the absence of a directive to cycle it to another overseas destination. So returning it to London was often an option.

[MrDeathrock9]

We should make a Campaign! It could be called "Operation Doctor Who Retrieval" and we could get the BBC to finally get up and check the other countries that they sent the episodes too to see if there are any missing ones. we could also get those film collecters to check if they have any lost episodes and get them to return to the BBC! I bet we could do this!

[cpc24]

The BBC has contacted these countries several times. They just conducted a search for episodes in Africa, and discovered most of them were last sent to Sierra Leone. Unfortunately, the station there was destroyed in their civil war in 1999. DOZENS of lost episodes were probably there. *facepalm*

[VilaRestil]

@cpc24 - All that is actually known is that the administration records of the broadcaster in Sierra Leone no longer exist, and that we therefore cannot establish where the prints were sent on to by them. There is no reason to suppose that Sierra Leone was stockpiling episodes. It may be only a break in the paper trail. The film cans may have been sent to another country, or been returned 'safely' to the BBC in London.

[RuffneckSoldier78]

@VilaRestil It is possible that they sent the first couple of seasons to Algeria and Ethopia, they were the last two countries to screen Hartnell episodes in the early 70's. But Sierra Leone was one of the few countries to show the last two years of William Hartnell. Based on eyewitness accounts Sierra Leone had DW film cans in the 1990s, they kept them and did NOT pass them onto any other country, I believe missing Hartnell episodes were there until 1999 when the archive was bombed.

[2JohnRP]

Stories like Galaxy 4 & Daleks' Masterplan were sold abroad but turned up in the UK I believe, so there must be copies of missing episodes scattered about. IF YOU HAVE OLD FILM REELS OF DR WHO, PLEASE CHECK TO SEE IF THEY'RE MISSING EPISODES!!!! :)

[brian16021955]

Is there Episodes left of Dr Who and The Zarbies

[Emperorofthedaleks]

@brian16021955 Yes there are, it's a story called The Web Planet. :)

[WhoColor]

When is the Troughton video gonna be up?

[MrSontaran3]

Useful bit of work MrClassic!

[marycozzens]

are these available in America?

[MrClassicDoctorWho]

@marycozzens they were not sold to America at the time. (as far as i can remember) but who knows if they ended up there after all this time.

[kaw203]

Makes you wonder if the BBC actually try to get them back, as if this info is true, why havent BBC or other people contacted these tv stations

[MrClassicDoctorWho]

@kaw203 i know. its very frustrating!

[WhoColor]

We need to get on the phone to Barbados!

[MrClassicDoctorWho]

@WhoColor YES WE DO. shame the BBC can't be bothered

[animationdude56]

Are you going to make a video about the countries that don't/might have colour copies of Pertwee episodes that only survive in black-and-white, or could hold better quality colour sources for colour restoration (e.g a high quality colour recording of Doctor Who and the Silurians or The Daemons?

[MrClassicDoctorWho]

@animationdude56 i'd love to but im afraid the information is not in the book. :-/

[animationdude56]

@MrClassicDoctorWho ah well....... 

[MrClassicDoctorWho]

@animationdude56 sorry. Thanks for watching though! :)

[animationdude56]

@MrClassicDoctorWho Nah, I'm not upset, I was just wondering whether it had that information in the book and whether you were going to make a video about it.

[johnnyfanboy]

An excellent featurette! A good selection of high-quality images and a well chosen piece of music (by Tristram Cary, from the episode Destruction of Time).

You should change the video description though.

[MrClassicDoctorWho]

@johnnyfanboy Thank you! Yes it was because i read Wiped i got the inspiration to do this. I love Tristram Careys music. Oops the description is from the power of the daleks recons hahaha.

[animationdude56]

Cool! Apparently Marco Polo had the most sales overseas, so its a wonder how none of the episodes have turned up. Apparently The Feast of Steven is the episode least likely to turn up, as, because it was a Christmas episode they wouldn't sell it overseas, so that will never turn up. Apparently The Tenth Planet ep 4 was never wiped : it was sent to Blue Peter so they could use the regeneration sequence. When the archives asked for it back the episode couldn't be located, so it may still exist.

[MrClassicDoctorWho]

@animationdude56 It really is crazy how marco polo and the reign of terror havn't turned up! I heard about the blue peter thing too. But by the looks of it, that is the only way we will ever get that episode back. Lets hope someone brings it forward that worked for blue peter!

[johnnyfanboy]

@animationdude56 It's a popular myth that The Tenth Planet Episode 4 was lost after it was loaned to Blue Peter. It is not known how that episode came to be lost. The episode that was lost after it was loaned to Blue Peter was The Traitors, the fourth episode of The Daleks' Master Plan - another one I'd very much like to see!

[animationdude56]

@johnnyfanboy Ah, cool. I wonder just what did happen to The Tenth Planet ep 4 then........... maybe somebody stole it? Maybe it's still out there on the black market? Maybe it was destroyed by the BBC and not recorded? Who knows.......