BFI screen new found Doctor Who episodes

A report from today's BFI screening of the newly discovered Dr Who episode "The Underwater Menace". Part of another episode "Galaxy Four" was also screened. Follow me on twitter @edstradling

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Doctor
• Who
• Underwater
• Menace
• Galaxy
• missing

[RDPproject]

Heres a question for you all....

If 'Dr Who - The Underwater Menace' has been missing for so long...

Where are all the videos with clips from the episode coming from? (see over on the right--->)

[edstradling]

@RDPproject episode three of the four-part serial already existed.

[scullyluster]

Can somebody upload this news report in HD please?

[edstradling]

@scullyluster it was uploaded in higher resolution than you can see - I think they downsize it automatically - not sure why/how.

[darhq]

@edstradling ensure the resolution you upload to conforms to 720p or 1080p/i standards, otherwise youtube will downscale your content to the next-highest output. Also be wary of uploading with third-party software to youtube, as to boost upload speeds some software of this variety will downsize quality and resolution.

[edstradling]

@darhq thanks - I uploaded it in SD 7620x576, I do have a HD version but I presume i can't just substitute it and would have to take this video down and re-upload it? I don't want to do that.

[MsEcogeek]

Erased by the BBC . . . or by the Crack in Time ?

[dfarmbrough]

Thanks for this - though it's not necessarily older and younger people who like the older and newer series respectively - my son and I both like both :-)

[TheCharacterActor]

GOOD ON YOU TERRY!!!

[Yetaxa]

@Calavicci9 But if I remember correctly, much of the censored material (including from the Underwater Menace) was found quite a while ago. So even though we don't have the complete episode, we have the other fragments so it can be completed.

The same cannot be said for the Galaxy 4 episode though...

[Calavicci9]

The BBC used to give shows like Blue Peter clips to advertise DW. The actual full episode was destroyed before they realized that there was a great interest in preserving old tv shows. The recovered shows are copies of episodes which were sent to BBC affiliates in other countries. In fact, "The Underwater Menace" was edited for content by the Australian Broadcasting Company. So technically, it isn't a complete episode but, given that there is no other complete episode, we'll take it.

[tvc18]

@Stormageddon92 I'm glad you can still enjoy them. But I have to tell you it isn't just a couple of times, they've made tens if not hundreds of changes and mistakes. If youtube would let me, I'd link you to a list

[Stormageddon92]

@tvc18 I'd hardly call them amateur or even remake, and yes i know you're bing ironic, but the vast majority of the time I reckon they do a steller job. Only a couple of times have they botched for what ever reason, but it's never detered my enjoyment of the episodes.

[tvc18]

@Stormageddon92 If they were just transferring the material to DVD then their mistakes would be forgivable. But many of the errors have occurred as a result of the RT attempting to improve on the original production by adding new sound effects, painting out boom mic shadows and remaking the credits etc.

I'm paying actual money for the DVDs and I expect to get the show as originally made by professionals, not some clumsy amateur remake.

[tvc18]

@Stormageddon92 The door sound effect is missing from the initial tractor beam sequence rather than the courtroom bit.

As to these episodes being BW, what I was doing there was employing irony to suggest that the RT had become so reckless that even BW footage would be turned the wrong colour by their meddling.

[Stormageddon92]

@tvc18 I obviosuly can't judge how much you know about restoration, but as someone how has good knowledge in this area, given the limitations they have as a company and the quality of the material they have to cope with, they do an outstanding job on the vast majority of their releases

Usually all they ever work from is the final print of the episode, and don't have access to the seperate layers of it, so there have to be compromises at times is material doesn't exist, such as sound effects.

[Stormageddon92]

@tvc18 I never noticed anything wrong with Black Orchid, if anything I think it looks great since they were working from the original camera negatives for the film footage. As for Trial, well I didn't notice anything missing from the sound effects. Can you be more specfic there, as you're a bit vague. Also, not to sound patronising, but this is B/W material, so how can it be orange, and any missing sounds effects are probably just faults with the prints that were discovered.

[tvc18]

@Stormageddon92 Just watch the appalling job they did on Black Orchid, where the red is turned up so high that Davo's lapels appear to be vibrating. And as for missing sound effects, how about the courtroom door closing sound effect in Trial which got missed off when they were messing about trying to 'improve' the soundtrack.