2023 - November and December

 November

1 - The BBC announces that the entire back catalogue of extant Doctor Who episodes are available for free on iPlayer. Fans note that some episodes appear to be missing (eg. The Abominable Snowmen, episode 1). (Note: iPlayer is not available outside of the UK.)

2 - The BBC announces it will make available a cut-down and colourised version of The Daleks as part of the 60th anniversary celebrations.

3 - On MEF, member John Green shares an announcement from Film is Fabulous - that among other things they will be announcing finds of "lost children's programmes from the 1960s". Could this include missing Who?

Meanwhile it's announced that the newly-colourised version of The Daleks will be shown on BBC4 on the anniversary date at 7:30pm

13 - On MEF, Paul Vanezis announces that that a second instalment of 1970s Basil Brush has been returned, thanks to the Film is Fabulous initiative.

On GB, Tim Burrows claims it was an "ex-BBC guy" who returned the print.

Meanwhile, in an article published by TV Tonight, Mark Stuckey calls for an "amnesty" for film collectors to be immune from legal action should they attempt to return missing BBC material.

14 - After some discussion on GB as to whether the 60th anniversary in 10 days will hold any surprises,  Scot Ferre posts that he has "heard" something that hints about a possible return but it has been passed down a chain so he won't say anything further.

20 - On GB, Richard Bignell posts a fascinating screengrab of the memo that first tipped off him and the other missing episode hunters as regards the involvement of T.I.E. in the overseas sales of Doctor Who.

21 - After surprisingly few rumblings leading up to the 60th anniversary, on GB member Zippy posts that Ian Levine has revealed that Jeremy Bentham told him there will be a "missing episode announcement" this Thursday. (Ian has apparently deleted all Tweets and posts regarding this, so there is no direct link.)

However on his Facebook group, Ian says he "doesn't believe it for a minute".

22 - Further to this, member Scot Ferre says it could be "multiple episodes of a story".

The heat continues on GB, with member chris1973 saying a Facebook friend of his told him it could be "multiple" episodes of a story to he revealed.

Meanwhile, Phil McGill casually drops into the conversation that tomorrow we will all be watching The Tenth Planet episode 4!

23 - The midnight mark passes with no announcement made - but as posters on GB point out, no-one of note has been in to debunk the rumour, which is normally standard procedure in these cases.

Member chris1973 cheekily suggests that if he were making an announcement, he might time it to the original episode's broadcast time of 5:15pm!

But unfortunately, the 60th passes without any news on missing episodes.

24 - On GB, Douglas Wulf enigmatically posts that "perhaps we won't have so long to wait". Doug posts something similar on PMF.

The Independent publishes an article about missing episodes featuring quotes from Paul Vanezis, stating that finding missing episodes of television is a by-product of helping to catalogue people's film collections.

26 - On GB, Andora mentions that in 'Secrets and Scandals', a Channel 5 documentary where missing episodes were mentioned, actor Mark Strickson (Turlough) apparently conducted his own search in Sierra Leone while recording a wildlife documentary! 

Meanwhile on PMF, Doug Wulf keeps up the enigmatic posting - when replying to another member as to his thinking, Doug responds:

"You have a very, very easy way of finding out, but I'll leave that to you.

You'll understand shortly."

Could this be a reference to one of the end of year specials, entitled "The Giggle", in which the (Celestial) Toymaker is set to return?

28 - 29 - Doug makes a series of optimistic posts on PMF, in particular this post, explaining why he feels optimistic for the future of missing episodes.

December

2 - On PMF, Scot Ferre says if he was a "betting man" he would bet on a return announcement this month, tying into the return of the Toymaker. Doug Wulf agrees with him.

On GB, dr caligari points out that during the Hartnell montage at the end of the colourised showing of The Daleks, at one point there appears to be a shot of William Hartnell dressed as the Abbot of Amboise from the completely missing story The Massacre. Other posters claim it is a doctored (no pun intended) shot of Hartnell from an existing episode of The Crusade.

3 - On PMF, Scot says that it is only a "guess" on his part that the return of the Toymaker is impetus for a recovery.

Missing Believed Wiped is held at BFI Southbank. The only mention of Doctor Who is that David Stead, who formerly returned an episode of The Wheel in Space, returned an episode of comedy series  "Them".

4 - On PMF, Scot Ferre says he read on a website there was "more returned material" which will be shown at special extra MBW event next year. However, Miss Cathcart says that Dick Fiddy alluded to the Film is Fabulous finds being screened at a later date.

8 - On the official Doctor Who Twitter, it's announced that The Celestial Toymaker will be released "soon" with its missing episodes animated.

12 - On PMF, member iamyourservant posts a reply received from Philip Morris on the DWMEFB Group:

"Hi Tony no not at present.Unfortunately there are no guarantees.The task is not an easy one which is why nobody else despite all talk and rumours has moved the dial forward since my last returned dr who recovery."

The member points out the phrasing used by Morris is potentially telling: "since my last returned dr who recovery".

13 - On Twitter, Ian Levine shares a screengrab of a Facebook post by Philip Morris, in which Morris says episode 3 of The Web of Fear is in the hands of "a vocal fan". In a rebuttal post, Levine says Morris is "full of shit".

16 - And rounding out the year with a visit back to Digital Spy Forums (DSF) - member Sambda quotes a reply from Philip Morris on Facebook, when asked for an update on finds of missing Who:

"Hi Tony no not at present.Unfortunately there are no guarantees.The task is not an easy one which is why nobody else despite all talk and rumours has moved the dial forward since my last returned dr who recovery."

Final message for 2023

OK readers, well that was the year that was. The 60th has come and gone, no further returns have happened but hope springs eternal. Many questions - at least in my mind - remain to be answered.

Has Philip Morris' involvement in missing episodes changed the game forever? Will we see any more returns this side of the 70th? Will Film is Fabulous come up trumps and bring us some pleasant surprises in 2024?

Time alone will tell, but in the meantime I want to wish my readers a happy and enjoyable Christmas season and a blessed and prosperous 2024. 

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, Part 1 - Review and Opinion

Branching out a bit here, as I finally watched this yesterday for the first time and felt moved to comment. 

I had deliberately held off as, despite having taken this series to my heart particularly from Ghost Protocol onward, I had immediate reservations about this film. From the off, Hayley Atwell - whom elsewhere I adore - did not seem to be a match for this particular franchise. Even from seeing the posters - where she is the second largest character featured - I just wasn't feeling it. Also, I wasn't enamoured of the central conceit of the main enemy being a disembodied computer intelligence - again, it seemed a total mismatch for this kind of visceral and very human series.

Firstly, make no mistake - I LOVE these films. The Mission series has evolved into one of the very best, and has thoroughly earned its place in my affections. The characters, the stories, the action, the sheer amount of hard graft that goes into them from Tom and all concerned is staggering and greatly appreciated. It's unquestionably one of my all-time favourite film series: the last three films in particular have felt like movie-making perfection. But, having now watched M:I 7, I can  see that my initial concerns were not only justified, but they were magnified. There appear to be major scripting and plotting problems, not to mention very underdeveloped characterisation. 

Firstly, and in a general sense, one comes away from this film without the sense of charm and likeability that go hand in hand with films 4 through 6. Fallout was a bit too self-important and grandiose at first blush, but due to the high stakes and with the excellent action, characters and storytelling, and particularly that lovely ending featuring a lighter moment between Ilsa and Ethan, I was fully prepared to let that be. Dead Reckoning has less of the self-importance factor, but crucially, there's none of the warmth and humour that make the preceding three films so likeable. Tom has barely any scenes with his castmates from the previous films, let alone any of substance. (Is Cruise doing a Vin Diesel?) The scenes he does have with them are dour and humourless, but this brings me to his scenes with Hayley Atwell.

I'm sorry - I just can't buy Atwell as this notorious, international thief and grand larcenist. She's utterly unconvincing as a master criminal. Not only does she have zero chemistry with Cruise, Grace just seems like some whimsical pickpocket who suddenly gets caught up in something out of her league. And she's an out and out coward - at the first sign of trouble, she runs away from every situation. It just doesn't seem to wash from a practical standpoint - how on earth has she remained at large? Also she doesn't trust Ethan - in crisis situations, she acts liked a frightened animal. I concede that she has a few good moments, but they simply aren't enough to justify her inclusion in the film.

Despite this, they seem to be setting up Grace as the next Ethan Hunt, at one point even dressing her similarly in grey suit vest and pants. They've even brought Pom Klementieff's character into the fold, leaving her alive at the film's end so that she can also be recruited by Kitteridge (as stated on the Wikipedia page for the next film). Are they trying to set up an all female IMF team? If so, they're going about it in the same ham-fisted and inept way we've seen other all-female teams go in recent years.

This brings me however to Pom Klementieff's character, and if anyone deserves to be recruited to the IMF, it's her. She is terrifying in this film; she's relentless, ruthless and a fantastic fighter. She's a nightmare, coming at Ethan in the night in that clown-like makeup in the narrow alley. If anything, the writers should have omitted Hayley Atwell's character completely, given her dialogue, motivation and scenes to Ilsa, and made Paris the one who comes over to the IMF. This would have been so much more satisfying and would have made so much sense as a character arc and from a plot perspective; but as Grace's arc, it pales in comparison to what could have been.

And this is only one aspect of the scripting problems - if the two halves of the key are under the ice of the Arctic shelf, how on earth are they retrieved? Surely the Russians knew where their sub went down, unless of course the Entity fed them false readings. But in that case who exactly retrieved them and how? And how did they then get into the hands of an anonymous courier and indeed Grace? It's never explained. 

Anyone who had the resources and knowledge to locate and retrieve the key surely would also have known that this is where the Sevastopol sunk and would simply have then gone on to access the submarine and win the race. Game over. However as this is a two part film, I'm willing to concede that we may get our answers in the next instalment.

Speaking of the Sevastopol, though, this entire sequence should have been told in flashback. We did not need to spend the first 10 minutes or so with characters we're not invested in: we had to wait so many years to see our favourite characters again it should opened with at least one of them, especially considering we will have such little quality interaction between them throughout the film. We could have started with Ilsa acquiring her half of the key and killing the courier (which is shown anyway later in flashback), establishing that the stakes are serious indeed. Ethan's mission scene should have come next, giving an explanation for what we'd just seen. Then, realising something was off with his mission instructions (he is told not to concern himself with the key's purpose but Ethan immediately smells a rat), we then get the US Intelligence briefing scene with the Sevastopol flashback incorporated, and Ethan arrives and gets the real skinny on what's going on.

This movie introduces us to two other new characters - both of whom make their debut in flashback, and in hitherto unwitnessed and unknown events prior to the start of the entire series! We are told basically nothing about Marie, Ethan's apparent love interest from back then, and in the course of the film we're really told not much more about Gabriel. Who is he? What is his background and his motivation in working for the entity? Why does Ilsa refer to him as some "Dark Messiah of Death"? None of this is explained or clarified, and while Esai Morales does a brilliant job with his portrayal of this utterly sadistic and amoral character, and is also a beast of a fighter, his motivations are muddy at best.

I mentioned Ilsa above, and I believe that killing her off will come to be seen as a grave mistake by the writing team. To rewind somewhat - I loved Paula Patton in Ghost Protocol: I thought she brought such a genuine warmth, power and likeability to the series. I was gutted when she wasn't brought back for Rogue Nation. At first, I found Rebecca Ferguson's portrayal in that film to be a bit cold and  bordering on pretentious, but I gradually warmed up to her and have taken her to my heart. I am a big Ilsa fan, not to mention Ferguson herself. When you see her in interviews, she is hilarious, an absolute riot. And as I said above, if only she had been the one seeking the key, and the one Ethan was due to intercept at the airport, that would been so much more satisfying from both a narrative and character point of view, rather than having to accept a slew of new unsatisfyingly developed characters.

Even the stunts in this film are somewhat underwhelming. The car chase sequence in Rome is inferior to the Moroccan version in Rogue Nation: there's barely any thrill factor. Ethan being handcuffed to Grace is presumably supposed to be funny, but it falls embarrassingly flat - the humour is microscopically doled out as if with an eyedropper. The scenes with the yellow Fiat is just not funny and not needed. 

Even the much-publicised, much vaunted centre-piece cliff jump doesn't read all that well on screen, diluting its effectiveness. I mean, you can tell it's an insane thing for Cruise to have done (eight times over, no less!) and it is spectacular, but overall for some reason it comes across as understated. (Which I know is saying a lot, considering the preparation that went into it and the personal risk to Cruise, but I couldn't help feel this way as a moviegoer.) Having said that, though, the sequence on the train as its carriages fall one by one into the ravine is jaw-droppingly intense, very effective indeed. It's the most credible sequence in the whole film, with the alley fight coming in second.

In summary, overall I enjoyed this film but I am glad I waited, as it left me with some serious concerns and a lot of unanswered questions. It's vexing to have to wait until part 2 to get those answers, assuming they are forthcoming (especially as it's not been delayed until May 2025!). I'm afraid that in common with every other formerly great franchise of late (Who, Trek, Bond, etc), with Fallout we may have seen our last truly great M:I film. Time will tell.

Reflecting on my personal Who fandom

You are hereby warned - if the moans of a middle-aged Whovian about Doctor Who are not what you're into, then turn back now!

You're still here? Well alright then, let's get into this.

My personal Who fandom has changed radically in recent years; or rather, I have only recently realised and acknowledged my true preferences and opinions, likes and dislikes.

For the longest time, for instance, I was prepared to hang in there with the new version of Doctor Who that began in 2005 (I say "new", but it's 18 years old this year); but despite my initial enjoyment of the revived series in 2005, I’ve come to realise that everything that comes after season 26 is essentially nothing but fan fiction (and in the case of the Virgin New Adventures, literally fan fiction). When fans started running the show, it was no longer about professional television makers purely doing the best job possible; it became about endless navel-gazing, retconning, and completely flipping the original format into what it was never supposed to become. 

But as I say - despite all the ups and downs, as with periods of the original show, I was prepared to keep going, to take the hits and brickbats and keep giving it a chance. I put up with it after Eccleston left and the quality noticeably declined; I endured through seasons 2 to 4, then my hope was renewed with Matt Smith and just as quickly dashed again. 

At the end of Capaldi’s last regular series, however, I finally realised it was time to let go. At last the penny dropped for me: I’d finally had enough, and I found the conviction to just stop watching. Just STOP. It’s proven an incredible relief from the constant angst and disappointment, and I’ve never looked back since.

Now having spent more time in reflection, my views have only solidified, with additional realisations: in other words, despite it having taken a long, long time. Coming out of years of denial, I finally realised where my personal Doctor Who fandom truly lies and I have gradually firmed up my opinions on the show.

I’ve come to realise that to me, true Doctor Who is comprised of two things: 

One, the program that ran from November 1963 through to the last half of 1977; and 

Two, the original run of Target novelisations (including the two Virgin books, The Power of the Daleks and The Evil of the Daleks). 

Everything outside of this is, for me, only conditionally Doctor Who at best, and a cheap knock-off masquerading as Doctor Who at worst. 

As for the question of canon - for me, it's only the 26 seasons from 1963 to 1989. I no longer accept The TV Movie (The Doctor half human? I don't think so) and the revived series as canon. (And I couldn't be arsed about the audios.)

A quick precis of where my fandom began: I probably first became aware of Doctor Who on television, as the 1970s were turning into the 1980s – so probably either 1979 or 1980. However, in Australia, we weren’t necessarily getting the stories concurrently with their UK first run; we may have been about a year behind (I can't currently verify this - the Australian section of the Broadwcast website is under reconstruction).

The earliest season I can remember seeing on first run is season 18 (which I loved), and I may well have caught some of season 17 as well. I remember The Leisure Hive very clearly, and I have vague impressions of Creature from the Pit. But the ABC ran (almost) year-round, saturation repeats of the whole Tom Baker era, so one of my earliest and clearest memories is of being absolutely petrified of the Daleks as they trundled toward me in what would definitely have been a moment from Genesis of the Daleks.

I remember being very puzzled when I started receiving my first few Target novelisations: only knowing Tom Baker from the show, I kept trying to reconcile who these two very different faces on the covers of both The Daleks and Day of the Daleks were!

But all that said, true Doctor Who on television for me finished with the stories first shown in the UK in 1977. I’ve realised that the principal reason for this is that the arse noticeably falls out of Doctor Who at a very specific point: this being precisely midway through season 15, starting namely with The Sunmakers. This is the point where the Graham Williams era truly begins, and I want to go on record as saying that I believe he is the worst producer Doctor Who ever had. I know there are fans who absolutely swear by his era and love it passionately, but I want to present my evidence and perspective as to why I believe his era (seasons 15 to 17) essentially sounded the death knell of the show in terms of its public acceptance and credibility.

Up until Image of the Fendahl, Doctor Who had always managed to (just about) get away with its meagre budget, turning the simplest elements into mostly believable sets and costumes. And as a general rule, the stories and acting were mostly strong, too, incredibly impactful and memorable. 

However, once we hit the back half of season 15, in late 1977 and early 1978, things really hit the skids. This is where Doctor Who - particularly here in Oz, at least in the popular consciousness - becomes an embarrassment and a joke.

I present five exhibits from season 15 to illustrate just how dire the situation was becoming at this time – and which I would argue had never quite happened to this extent in Doctor Who before and started to hammer the nails into show’s coffin:

1. In The Sunmakers, Mandrel’s under-city hideout is represented almost entirely of nothing but black drapes

2. In the same story, Pluto supposedly has six suns, but when the Doctor goes on the roof of the building all we see is a foggy London sky!

3. The much-derided CSO-created sets of Underworld

4. In The Invasion of Time, the clearly outdoor locations and the brick wall buildings, supposedly representing the TARDS interior

5. And in the same story, the literal tin-foil Vardans (not to mention the distracting home county-accents).

Now of course there had been failures in Doctor Who’s production values before: the model dinosaurs from Invasion of the Dinosaurs and the hand-puppet Skarasen from Terror of the Zygons, to name just two. But I would argue that these were much stronger stories, better executed overall and held in good esteem by general fandom. Sadly, the last three stories of season 15 are not.

I don’t know what the reason is, but it seems that for some reason Williams was not able to deliver Doctor Who at least semi-convincingly within the budget in the same way as say Barry Letts or Phillip Hinchcliffe would have. With the Williams era we hit the era of cheapness and risibility; the season closers which should be the triumphant end of six months of Who, are limp, completely studio-bound affairs – an unforgiveable way in which to present what once was a flagship BBC production. Shada was meant to be the exception to the studio-bound season closer, but Williams was unable to finalise production of the story and the whole thing was just abandoned.

Now of course this raises the question – was Williams incompetent, or just unlucky? Did his era coincide with the worst excesses and impacts of Thatcherism and the resultant inflation? Well here’s the important point – I don’t give a brass razoo about the background reasons, and it ultimately doesn’t matter. It’s not my job as a punter to read all the production notes, study the history of UK society at the time and come up with all sorts of reasons and justifications. I’ll leave all that to Richard Bignell. All that ultimately matters – especially in the public eye – is what we see transmitted onscreen, and season 15 takes a major and noticeable dive in terms of the program’s ongoing quality and credibility.

Season 16 thankfully redresses the balance somewhat – the stories at least have the benefit of returning to a respectable level of production value. But I am no especial fan of season 16, and the increased production value only partially compensates for what on the whole is a rather bland set of stories. The overall story arc doesn't really hold the interest over six months of episodes. Story-wise I would only make an exception for The Stones of Blood, which at least harkens back beautifully to the Gothic horror of the past for the first half of the story, only to revert to the stupidity of the Williams/Adams era by having Baker act opposite two flashing lights with camp speech inflections in the second.

Under Williams, Doctor Who becomes nasty and cheap, which is potentially forgivable dependent on the kinds of stories being offered up. Under Douglas Adams, however, the show (not to mention the leading man) becomes stupid, which is NOT forgivable under any circumstances.

And you guessed it, dear patient reader: just as I am not a fan of Williams, I am also a harsh critic of Douglas Adams’ contribution to Doctor Who. His style of humour, which works so wonderfully in his own independent productions, fails catastrophically in Who. It’s just not appropriate to the tone and the subject matter; it's jarring and completely undercuts any tension, seriousness, credibility or believability. And in an era where the show is already sagging under the weight of decreasing budgets and cheap-looking stories, this additional strike against the program just isn’t on, and only serves to subject the show to ever-greater ridicule.

It’s under Adams that we get the fourth Doctor – to a whole generation of children, once so iconic, imperious, terrifying and indomitable – giving a literal blow-job a giant green tentacle attached to a massive ball sack. We get Romana casually regenerating into half a dozen or so different potential incarnations– in effect window-shopping regenerations. And we get the Doctor taunting the Daleks - so terrifying in their previous appearance -  for not being able to chase him up a ventilation shaft. And there are many more instances of this I could mention.

Not only that, but whose brilliant idea was it to allow Tom Baker to act on screen with that disgusting herpes sore, no doubt contracted from indiscriminate shagging during the off-season? The poor excuse of “dog bite” has never washed with me: I think we’re all adult enough now to admit what in all probability it really was. I feel nauseous just looking at him in Ribos and Pirate, where the sore is in its fullest, most visible and disgusting glory. How can anyone take this show seriously when the makeup department couldn’t even be arsed to apply a bit of foundation to cover up such a hideous disfigurement on the lead actor’s face?? It's a completely baffling lapse of judgement on the part of all concerned, and I’m genuinely shocked this isn’t discussed more among fandom.

Moving on to season 17, it has its ardent fans, but needless to say I am not one of them. A combination of production failures, laughable acting performances and behind the scenes infighting sinks this season into the pits of crap.

Despite having Daleks, the return of Davros and cool-looking and memorable new robot villains (the Movellans), I still have not watched Destiny of the Daleks all the way through. I just find it so deathly boring and impossible to endure. I’ll admit City of Death is the high point of the season, but this isn’t saying a lot. It still has too much stupidity for my liking but in the context of the story it just about works. Baker is still to silly for my liking; at least Julian Glover carries the proceedings with dignity.

The Creature from the Pit is a write-off for the aforementioned blow-job scene alone, and is just a dull overall story. Nightmare of Eden is just that, and The Horns of Nimon – which on paper is a cracking premise – fails dismally in the execution and performances.

Moving into 1980 and mercifully Williams has moved on, and we enter the era of John Nathan-Turner. Seasons 18 and 19 are for me, the only real returns to form the series has post season 15. I swear by both seasons (even though I still wouldn't consider them "true" Who), which for me prove that John Nathan-Turner was a far, far better producer than the hapless Williams ever was.

With seasons 18 and 19, Doctor Who returns to good production values, good story ideas, and excellent execution. The comedy is tightly reined in, and rightly so. The dramatic stakes feel legitimate once more, and the stories seem like they are being taken seriously by those both behind and in front of the camera.

It's become fashionable - and all too easy - to trash JNT and his era for admitted excesses. But in my view, JNT is overdue a major reappraisal (at least in part). I want to point out that JNT delivered NINE seasons of Doctor Who - and it's my opinion that at least four of these were absolute crackers (18, 19,  25 and 26) with plenty more good quality stories sprinkled across the other seasons (Caves, Dragonfire, etc.). Yes - his penchant for "stunt casting" and the general garishness of the mid-80s hurt the program. But if one breaks down his contribution to the program, his strike rate comes out looking very good indeed.

The main caveat I would add to that, though, is by the very end of the show in 1989, it was gradually becoming all about the companion. No less than three out of the four shows of that last season all focused around Ace - and this flipping of focus that I referred to earlier, has been raised to ridiculous proportions in the revived series. Rose becomes some kind of demi-goddess; Martha becomes a worldwide solider, Donna becomes some kind of hybrid Time Lord/human; Clara gets injected into the Doctor's entire timestream and becomes the raison d'etre for his whole series of adventures, etc etc.

And that's without even mentioning River Song.

The show is called DOCTOR WHO for God's sake - not Doctor Who and all his fecking companions. Twenty-first century Who is a bloody soap opera, and it's not what Doctor Who is to me.

To me, true Who will always be best remembered as that creepy, scary but also fascinating and edifying program (and series of novelisations) that peaked in 1976/77, and lit up my childhood and early adulthood throughout the 80s. 

2023 - January to October

2023

January

2 - The Mirror reports that The Smugglers and The Underwater Menace will have their missing episodes animated for BluRay and DVD release.

13 - On Caprona, member iank relates a rumour doing the rounds that the animation for The Smugglers DVD release was cancelled because the episodes had been found.

17 - On the Hive Redux Forum, iank re-states the rumour about The Smugglers. 

February 

9 - On PMF, member Ace Leslie reports that the Radio Times has an article of the recovery of the sole missing episode of The Navy Lark. This classic BBC radio show starred former third Doctor, Jon Pertwee, in a comedic role.

20 - Responding to a query from a fan about whether The Smugglers/The Underwater Menace animations are still on track, David Bickerstaff tweeted that he was told back in 2007 by Derek Ware that The Smugglers was shown at a Bad Wolf convention in Australia to fans in attendance!

28 - On PMF, member EvilDalek93 reports that Chris Perry of Kaleidoscope has announced a special Doctor Who event for their 35th anniversary at the Midlands Arts Centre on 29 July 2023. Intriguingly, Chris says that he can't post any details until the BBC "clears the material"!

Even more intriguingly, on GB member djbawbag posts a shot from the Facebook thread, where when queried Chris replies that they "have to get all the permissions sorted first", and that he cannot comment further because it relates to a "sensitive subject".

To round off the day, on Twitter David Brunt makes this circuitous statement:

"To the people expecting this Kaleidoscope screening is every missing episode. Stop deluding yourself. 

Go into it with the expectation it's NOT going to be a missing episode.

Just expect the least and if it's more then you won't have yourself to blame in being disappointed."

March

1 - On Roobarbs, Greg Bakun posts that he is helping Chris with the Kaleidoscope event and that he regrets that anything was posted about it at all! Greg asserts that the event does not relate to missing episodes of Doctor Who and that Chris Perry is not up to speed with what's missing from the archives.

2 - On GB, Knux reports that Chris Perry has said that the Who material to be shown will not be anything that's already been seen on DVD or on YouTube.

13 - On MEF, Richard Bignell confirms that all the classic seasons will be released in the blu-ray Collection series. It begs the question how will the seasons most under-represented in the archives - seasons 3 and 4 - will be presented in the sets.

18 - On Twitter, DWAS announce a special event celebrating half-missing serial, The Crusade, on 21 May 2023.

April

2 - The Something Who Podcast publishes its omnirumour edition (part 1). Featured guest Tim Burrows says he was told back in the day that "episodes had been found all over the place", and to distract from what was going on with Philip Morris in Africa information was being put about that archive buildings (such as in Sierra Leone) had been destroyed - despite there being no evidence of these destructions being found.

4 - The second part of Something Who the omnirumour edition drops, and Tim clarifies that the alleged The Power of the Daleks screening was in fact, he believes, a screening of Enemy, Web or both. 

Tim drops another bombshell - that after Giles and himself went to the reveal of Peter Capaldi in late 2013, at the pub afterward with certain people "of great reputation", they alluded to the existence of "a letter" promising to hand over Marco Polo. It's not clear who might have written such a letter.

Tim also explains why he came to be labelled a "naysayer" on the forums - in mid-2013 he spoke to someone who had spoken to "a Doctor Who producer" who said that 88 missing episodes had been found. But in February or March 2014, he  had exchanges with someone in the "catch-all" Restoration Team that persuaded him that "nothing more had been handed over".

Tim offers his theory on Web 3 - it wasn't "stolen to order", nor withheld by Phil, but rather the stories returned in 2013 were sent back "piecemeal", a couple of episodes at a time, and thus Tim believes it was simply lost in the post.

Finally, Tim says he was told by an "authority" that The Crusade would be on the season 2 blu-ray set complete, which did not eventuate.

8 - The 42 to Doomsday podcast speaks to university Professor Jason Bainbridge who is curating the deceased estate being sorted by Aron Challinger.

Meanwhile, Philip Morris appears on YouTube channel Gobby Guy to discuss 10 years of the return of Enemy and Web and missing episodes in general. Morris states that he had expected The Abominable Snowmen to be in Jos with the other two serials, but this did not eventuate.

11 - Fantom Films announce that Philip Morris, Paul Vanezis and Sue Malden will attend their Utopia 2023 event on 4 June.

12 - Fantom announce that Peter Purves will also attend Utopia.

May

8 - Midland Arts Centre update their website with the details of the Kaleidoscope 60th Anniversay of Doctor Who event. Unfortunately, no missing episode material will be featured.

31 - On Twitter, Stephen Cranford states that the collector who returned Galaxy 4: Airlock and The Underwater Menace episode 2, Terry Burnett, has passed away. Cranford also states that Terry's collection was never properly catalogued but he is now sorting through it from the safety of an archive.

June

1 - On MEF, Mark Vanderlinde-Abernathy reports on Twitter announcements from Richard Latto and Stephen Cranford - the film collection of deceased collector Terry Burnett is now being curated. Latto and a friend are sorting through it, and while there is a lack of vinegar smell which is a good sign, the sorting process could take many months.

2 - According to Matthew Purchase on Twitter, at the Utopia Event Philip Morris has said that the "missing episode number of 97 will go down very soon". This was apparently said in front of Paul Vanezis, who said nothing to contradict or debunk the statement.

Meanwhile, Morris also reportedly stated he knows of six episodes in private collections, with Paul Vanezis clarifying on Twitter that he knows of up to three.

3 - At the Utopia 2023 Event, Richard Unwin on Twitter confirms the "promise" made by Morris that the number of missing episodes will go down.

5 - On MEF, deleted member jakeymanipod reports that Peter Purves has said at Utopia Convention that The Celestial Toymaker is the next story to be animated, but he can't say anything more about it.

6 - On PMF, members Knux and Scot Ferre report that the GB ME thread has been locked, and posts made by Ian Levine angry at Philip Morris have been deleted.

It is the first time in some years that the GB thread has been locked and purged.

7 - On MEF, member Ray Badrick clarifies that Morris did not say "very soon", but that the number of missing episodes "would come down".

9 - The Mirror weighs in on the comments made by Morris at Utopia. The six episodes with collectors comprise four in the UK and two overseas.

10 - On Digital Spy Forum (DSF), member Marcus Scarman speculates that recent mentions of episodes with collectors and rumours of The Smugglers being animated could be a hint that two episodes of this serial have been found and will be on the release later this year.

19 - On PMF, member NoSoul says they can see currently missing episodes listed on the Apple iTunes website - namely, two episodes of The Myth Makers, 2 from The Smugglers, one from The Highlanders and two from The Space Pirates. 

20 - Again on PMF, member Windbag says they can see three episodes of The Space Pirates on the iTunes site.

July

11 - On MEF, in a discussion thread about Blue Peter's borrowing of episode 4 of The Daleks' Master Plan, Richard Bignell states that the Film Library were expecting the episode back hence it wasn't "snipped and binned", as a poster upthread stated, and further that as far as BP were concerned they sent it back - but the print just didn't make it to where it was supposed to go.

Richard further speculates that it could have ended up back at Villiers House.

17 - The DWMEP drops their episode on The War Machines. Jon Preddle provides fascinating insight into the distribution of Doctor Who episodes around Africa, with particular reference to the records around royalty fees. Jon also gives some intriguing speculation as to which episodes might have ended up where.

18 - On GB, Ian Levine makes an intriguing post (and not in the ME thread) - that "something special" may be coming from "Doctor Who home video" that will be a "surprise". He clarifies that he has not said it will be missing episodes, but it could be a combination of "restored episodes and animated episodes". 

22 - On GB, member Scot Ferre responds to an enquiry about the deceased estate of Terry Burnett, saying that a missing episode of Hugh and I was found. However member JayJohn posts that this episode was already known about but not announced.

August

2 - With the re-opening of the GB thread, Scot Ferre posts a link to an article featuring Chris Perry, CEO of Kaleidoscope. Perry claims that "dozens" of missing episodes of Doctor Who exist in private collections but their owners won't part with them.

4 - In a response to The Space Pirate on GB, Richard Bignell alludes to Doctor Who fans out there who may be holding back "unique items" from the rest of us. This response was in the context of a conversation about private collectors not returning episodes missing from the archives.

9 - On PMF, Scot Ferre posts a link to a fascinating non-Who forum post where it's revealed the the original 35mm film can of Strawberry Fields Forever has been found among a Dutch collection of 300,000 cans.

11 - The BBC release a teaser for the animation of The Underwater Menace on DVD.

September

16 - The DWMEP posts a fascinating interview with two film collectors and Paul Vanezis. The interviews shine a light on the world of private collectors and Paul states that the Burnett prints originated from another collector who has since passed away.

Of interest to those of us interested in missing episodes, the two collectors - John Clancy and John Franklin - are launching an initiative to connect collectors with television archives in an effort to preserve television on film. Further, the Johns are holding a film collecting event called Film is Fabulous in October 2023 in Leicester. Could these initiatives lead to recoveries of missing episodes?

25 - On Roobarbs, member doctorindistress says there is a rumour going round that The Space Pirates has been found. The member gives no further provenance for this assertion.

27 - YouTube channel The Time Scales does a 3.5 hour interview with Ian Levine (see October 3).

October

1  On MEF, member tburchell raises the Space Pirates rumour, but again, with no provenance.

3 - On Roobarbs, discussing the recent online interview with Ian Levine, member Scooty lists the episodes that Ian states he believes currently exist with private collectors:

Galaxy Four, episode 4

The Myth Makers, episodes 2 & 4

The Smugglers, episodes 2 & 4

The Highlanders, episode 2

The Space Pirates, episodes 4, 5 & 6

This is weirdly coincident with the earlier claim on Roobarbs that the latter serial has been "found".

7 - On GB, Richard Bignell concedes that BBC Enterprises may have had its own set of positive prints of The Daleks' Master Plan, in addition to the set of audition prints sent to Australia. The Enterprises set, he surmises, may well be the source of the three extant episodes held by the BBC at present.

10 - This date marks the tenth anniversary of the reveal of the finds of The Enemy of the World and The Web of Fear. The date passes without incident.

On GB, in addressing the possibility of Australia having more than one set of film prints for Doctor Who serials, Paul Vanezis states that rather than there having been multiple sets of films there may have been "taped copies" of the episodes. Which raises the question - do these taped copies still exist, and who might be in possession of them?

20 - On MEF, Paul Vanezis announces three finds from Film is Fabulous, including the very first episode of 1960's series The Troubleshooters. Paul says he hopes to announce more finds soon.

26 - The BBC publishes an article on its website about the Film is Fabulous finds.

They state that one of the recovered episodes was found in the episode of a deceased collector who had "hundreds" of films.

29 and 30 - The YouTube channel for the Cinema and Television History Research Institute (CATHI) hosts three livestreams as part of Film is Fabulous. Steve Roberts features in part 1 and Paul Vanezis in part 2; Sue Malden takes part in both parts 1 and 2.

Link to part 1 - Archiving

Link to part 2 - Television

Link to part 3 - Feature Films.

At 27:00 in the Archiving livestream, Steve Roberts mentions that in addition to the three television episodes found recently (see October 20), a further find will be announced in the following session. 

At around 13:30 in the Television livestream, Dick Fiddy of the BFI mentions that items went missing from the Bob Monkhouse collection after he died, which the BFI knew were there from a previous inspection. And Paul reiterates his view that items were making their way from Villiers House direct into the hands of collectors as the items were being disposed of.

At 26:45, Paul announces the fourth find is an episode of The Basil Brush Show, recovered from the collection of someone who has died.

30 - On MEF, Paul Vanezis announces that Film is Fabulous has unearthed a "near perfect" condition print of an edition of The Basil Brush Show.

And finally, ScreenRant publishes an article that missing episodes of Doctor Who will be released by the BBC on the BBC Sounds app in "podcast format", with surviving audio from the existing episodes and narration from some of the programs' stars.

31 - On MEF, Paul Vanezis states there is another recovered missing episode to be announced by the end of November - it is not Doctor Who, however. 

Paul further says that a total of 17 missing episodes were expected to be announced at the event, but three collectors weren't able to attend and one only brought a single episode.

 

Reflecting on the 60th anniversary

 Well we've made it - it's 2023, and Doctor Who of course turns 60 this year.

On re-reading over this blog, one is reminded of the previous anniversary year of 2013 - and naturally, one can't help but speculate whether this year will be the year of further missing episode returns.

The elation felt throughout the fan community in October 2013 was unparalleled, but to me the point is this: the elation came about precisely because there was such an intense build up prior. It's amazing to look back and see just how much information was circulating, and how many people whose information proved to have substance.

It's clear to me reading back over the timeline that more episodes are with private collectors, and this could include Mr Morris himself. However, being generous, one could say that such a massive and unprecedented project could indeed take many years to be completed. When one considers the time it takes to fulfil contracts, to secure the returns and repatriate material, to negotiate with a potential buyer of the material, to physically restore all the items - it becomes clear that much time could elapse before these things are resolved.

And so it brings me to hope - the hope that maybe, just maybe, ten years since the triumphant return of two beloved stories from the 1960s, could we finally be in a position to welcome back further lost stories?

Time of course will tell. I can only hope that all the factors in play for the relevant parties are finally mutually favourable and things can move forward.

Here's hoping for a spectacular anniversary year.

Edit: 01 Feb 2023 - as luck would have it, I found out that a work colleague's wife actually worked at ABC at Gore Hill during the time it was still operating! (The site of the rumoured reels of Daleks' Master Plan). Naturally, being a tragic Whovian I asked if he would ask her if she knew of any reels of Doctor Who being stored there. Sadly as a humble production assistant she didn't, but hey, it was worth asking. I am a big believer in always keeping my ears open and following up leads. 

Update: 17 Feb 2023 - added to the Big Reveal post, where a member of a Digital Spy forum posted that a post on Facebook broke the news early!