The Reveal of "Enemy" and "Web"! - 2013 - October to December

The Omni-Rumour is (partially) confirmed

October 2013

6 – After several weeks of no real developments, incredibly it’s the Mirror that reports that missing episodes of Doctor Who are going to be unveiled this week! In another article however, the Mirror comes out with the claim that “over 100 episodes” have been found in Ethiopia!

The stories mentioned specifically are The Crusade, The Ice Warriors and The Enemy of the World. 

The person who revealed the information is said to be Stuart Kelly, speaking at the Wigtown Book Festival in Scotland. Kelly said that a friend told him that the BBC are negotiating for the episodes.

Roobarbs member Lichtie says that Stuart Kelly used to be the literary editor of Scotland on Sunday.

Sky News reports on the rumour, and the Radio Times quickly comes out with additional details, stating that certain episodes from previously-lost stories of the Troughton era will be made available for purchase this week.

Meanwhile Roobarbs member JamieWho says that “a whole stack of film cans” were found in Sierra Leone, including a good few missing Hartnells but they had turned to vinegar.

7 – The Guardian reports that the BBC will hold a press conference later this week to announce the details of the recovery of Doctor Who episodes.

On Roobarbs, member Dave says that he has “just heard” that a “minimum of 20 episodes” have been returned, including two complete Troughton stories. Other titles mentioned were The Power of the Daleks, The Moonbase and The Highlanders.

And JamieWho posts more about what he was told: that 60,000 film cans were found in various places all over Africa. The titles that keep being mentioned are:

Marco Polo

The Crusade

The Macra Terror

The Faceless Ones

The Enemy of the World

The Web of Fear

The Wheel in Space

JamieWho also says that some African stations may have been screening shows after the rights officially expired, even in to the late 1980s.

Member Potemkin weighs in with the statement: “Not just Africa”.

JamieWho keeps making waves with another post, saying that he also heard of The Abominable Snowmen at the start, but nothing on that since. He also says that the “well-connected fan” who told Anneke Wills about Power still thinks that story is in the mix as well.

The Mirror posts that the BBC has postponed the announcement “until the end of the week”.

The Radio Times posts an article featuring a sample of the online reaction to the news of “newly discovered Troughton episodes”.

The New York Post also runs an article, with a BBC spokesperson saying they are “not quite ready” to reveal full details of the returns.

8 – On PMF, PhilipG quotes a comment from an article on Kasterborous (no longer accessible due to risk of malware), that one Owen Hayward said he contacted Ethiopian government archives and was told “over two hundred BBC films” had recently been returned, and that a considerable amount of them were Doctor Who episodes!

On Roobarbs, pianist says he has an idea of the size of the return; “it’s not huge, but it’s not tiny either”.

Meanwhile steverobertsbbc makes a post implying that Philip Morris would be “just a tiny bit safer” working in some of the most dangerous places in the world if only fans would stop asking for information.

Julian K posts that negotiations for the return of the missing episodes have been going on “for several years”.

9 - The BBC News website finally confirms the earlier news articles and reports that a number of previously-missing episodes from the 1960’s have been returned to the archives! Details of how fans will be able to watch the recovered episodes are expected to be revealed later in the week.

It’s said that a special press conference will be called by BBC Worldwide to be held Thursday (UK time).

The Radio Times reports that Troughton-era companions Deborah Watling (Victoria) and Frazer Hines (Jamie) will attend the BBC announcement regarding the recovered episodes on Thursday. The news is also reported on Deborah’s website.

Celebrations break out in the Planet Mondas forum, but on Gallifrey Base SWH closes the ME Megathread indefinitely. Fans are permitted only to celebrate in a specially dedicated thread.

The Guardian also picks up the story.

In the wake of these news stories, Julian K posts this on Roobarbs (intriguing given that he alluded several times to having access to information):

Let's hope that Anneke Wills', Maureen O'Brien's, Peter Purves', William Russell's and Carole Ann Ford's invites are in the post!

Later, -JMW- makes a speculative post that perhaps negotiations with Philip Morris depend on how much he makes from iTunes sales of the newly recovered episodes.

However on the Hive, Ms Lusiphur states that she's been told that while Enemy will be returned complete, Web will have episode 3 missing. (Sadly, this is later proved correct.)

10 – On Roobarbs, member filmcritic73 posts that he is hearing Doomwatch is back too.

On Digital Spy forums, a poster called Kitty Litter posts:

Hi first post.

I have a friend who works for one of the national newspapers and they told me that 42 episodes have been found but not all yet recovered. The stories include-

Marco Polo (all 7 episodes)
The Reign of Terror (parts 4 and 5)
Galaxy 4 (all 4 episodes)
The Myth Makers (3 episodes)
The Massacre (all 4 episodes)
The Celestial Toymaker (2 episodes)
The Tenth Planet (episode 4)
The Power of the Daleks (all 6 episodes)
The Underwater Menace (1 episode)
The Enemy of the World (all 6 episodes)
The Web of Fear (all 6 episodes)

They are going to be released on iTunes first with DVD releases starting in 2014.

Not all episodes are back yet and money from the sales of the first releases will be used to pay for those still to be sent back to the BBC. This is only if enough are sold though..

KittyLitter's comment about the episodes seeing an iTunes release first soon proves to be correct.

Then the Northern Echo breaks the BBC press embargo on the Friday midnight AM announcement of the return of The Enemy of the World and The Web of Fear. According to a post on Digital Spy forums, an article with timestamp 11:50pm, 10 October was posted before being taken down.

It later transpires that the article was written by one Peter Barron (see 21 October). An apology is later issued.

Then downthread on Digital Spy - after discussion that the BBC has held a press conference but the attendees have been placed under an embargo until midnight - poster DavidT quotes from Lance Parkin's Facebook post where he says he hasn't "signed anything so let joy be unbounded", and he proceeds to break the news early about  the recovery and imminent release of 5 episodes of The Enemy of the World and 4 episodes of The Web of Fear.

The BBC makes the (official) reveal

10 – Just prior to midnight, UK time, BBC News officially announces the recovery of 9 missing episodes of classic Doctor Who.

The episodes are:

The Enemy of the World - episodes 1, 2, 4, 5, 6 

The Web of Fear - episodes 2, 4, 5, 6 

The total number of Doctor Who episodes missing now officially stands at 97.

As predicted by a forum member, episode 3 of The Web of Fear is missing from the return.

Both recovered serials were first screened in the UK in 1968, making this 45 years since they were last seen in the UK. 

The missing episodes were found at a relay station in Jos, Nigeria, by archive expert and director of TIEA, Philip Morris. Episode 3 of Enemy and episode 1 of Web already existed in the BBC archive, but these were also found by Morris and were better quality versions of those already held. 

Celebrations break out across all Doctor Who forums, and among fans on Twitter.

The official Doctor Who YouTube channel posts a short piece where Philip Morris speaks about his company TIEA and the part it plays in recovering lost British television.

Below is a transcript of Morris’ official press statement, as well as a transcript of the above video:

Phillip Morris’ statement

Welcome everybody to this historic occasion. Firstly I would like to thank everybody at BBC Worldwide and BBC Television for their mammoth support during this project. What you’re about to see has not been seen since its original transmission in 1968, which was 45 years ago. It is my greatest pleasure, in the 50^th anniversary year of Doctor Who, in a joint project between my company TIEA and BBC Worldwide, to unveil two classic adventures.

Sadly due to other archive commitments overseas, I am unable to be with you today. My work, as you appreciate, is endless, and as you know the search must continue.

I would like to dedicate these episodes to everyone who has ever worked on the show and to all Doctor Who fans around the world. I have the Doctor Who fans’ best interest at heart, believe you me. On behalf of myself and everyone at TIEA, thank you for your continued interest and I hope our paths will soon cross again.

Phillip Morris’ video interview

I’m the Director of Television International Enterprises Archive Limited, and we assist overseas stations with the storage and migration of their material, and on the outside of that, we recover lost British television programmes.

I wouldn’t describe myself in the manner that other people say. They normally describe me as “the Indiana Jones of the film world”.

Christmas seems to have come early for Doctor Who fans, in the 50^th anniversary of the show. We’ve managed to recover two Doctor Who stories, The Web of Fear andThe Enemy of the World, starring Patrick Troughton, from the late 1960s. I think they’re pretty much classic adventures. Probably the largest haul of missing episodes recovered in the last 25, maybe 30, years. We’re very pleased to return them.

These episodes were discovered on a project we were working on in Nigeria. And they were found in a TV station in Jos, just sitting on the shelf. I remember, now, seeing a piece of masking tape, it said ‘Doctor Who‘ on it. And I thought, “Oh, that’s interesting”. I pulled the cans down. I read the story code. Instantly, of course, recognised what the stories were – The Web of Fear and The Enemy of the World – and realised they were missing from the BBC’s archive. A lot of Doctor Who fans around the world are going to be very happy. So it was a very pleasing discovery, really.

I can remember when I was probably about six or seven years of age, my mum used to buy me the Target novels of the stories. They were something that one day I hoped I would see. And, guess what? Now I can.

These episodes come from Hong Kong and had been on what’s called a bicycle system, so they traveled from this country to the next country. And they came to be in Nigeria through this bicycle system. Not at the station in Nigeria they were actually sold to – they were at a relay station.

The kind of condition that those programmes were in when we found them, we were quite lucky considering the temperatures which can be the upper 30 degrees. Fortunately in this case they have been kept in the optimum condition.

I think the work the BBC does now with its archive and the restoration and recovery of these programmes is second-to-none. The quality they restore these programmes to for a new audience – as it were – is phenomenal. Absolutely phenomenal.

I think the best thing about it, and the most fantastic thing is, these things that people thought were gone forever – no they’re not. They’re back, and you can enjoy them now. So, get watching…

11 – On PMF, King Womble (now deleted user 3134) posts that he was told about the staggered release of the omni-find in advance, and had previously posted as such on PMF. Also he confirms we will have a “near full run of Troughton very soon”.

Further, the phased return of material “has been stipulated by the man behind the finds - the BBC would have been happy” to announce everything in one go.

King says he was told by this source that ep 3 of The Web of Fear IS BACK – and yet it has been announced as still missing. King’s guess: that it is being held back to protect a DVD release (and also note that it features the first ever appearance of the much loved Nicholas Courtney as Colonel (later Brigadier) Lethbridge-Stewart. Finally, KW says that the 90 does not include the missing episodes from The Dalek's Master Plan, The Space Pirates and The Invasion.

12 – On the MEF, Paul Vanezis states that Phil Morris is still out searching and is following up “three leads abroad” that look promising. Further, he says that there is “a lot going on” and that things are genuinely “far from being all over.”

13 – DWM posts an article with a fuller interview with Philip Morris on its website.

16 - PMF owner Mike Nuttall posts that his source informs him that not all episodes found by Morris (the alleged) omnihaul were located outside the UK. And in what may or may not be a non-sequitur, Mike then says that episode 4 of The Tenth Planet is definitely back.

Pianist confirms this and says he knew about TP4 several months ago. 

King Womble (Deleted User 3134) triples down on this, stating he thought this was a "known find" and that the episode didn't make it onto the DVD release because those producing it didn't know it was back. However KW also goes on to say he expects a release with the recovered episode "but probably not for a while".

Further, KW opines that the state of play is more to do with what's NOT coming back - and KW says that these are:

The Myth Makers - 1 episode

The Daleks' Master Plan - 8 or 9 episodes

The Ice Warriors - 1 or 2 episodes

The Wheel in Space - 1 or 2 episodes
The Invasion - 2 episodes

The Space Pirates - 5 episodes

This revised total is as much as 21 episodes still missing, but as this now makes a total of 85 found in the omni-haul (including Web and Enemy) this seems to cast light on the "90".

KW goes on to state that the "finder" of the episodes has stipulated "phased announcements", and that expectations are currently being "managed". He also says that one episode of Master Plan "might" have been found in the UK but none from Australia.

17 - On PMF, pianist posts a link to a tweet from 23 February this year, in which the Doctor Who Club of Australia alludes to Dan Hall of Pup Ltd saying that he wants to restore The Enemy of the World!

Then on Twitter, Ian Levine makes another extraordinary outburst, claiming that he knew of the missing episode rumours back in 2011. Ian also alludes to chatting to both Paul Vanezis and Philip Morris at the BFI in December of that year, saying that "they knew I knew".

He concludes by saying that he doesn't want to upset Morris, so he will not discuss this matter further.

21 – Peter Barron of the Northern Echo posts an article in which he mentions he apologised to the BBC for breaking the press embargo about the Enemy/Web announcement.

23 – After a couple of weeks of no news, King Womble posts to say that we should expect “at least 3 big reveals” to cover all the recovered episodes. This has apparently been agreed between the BBC and Philip Morris who (not only wants to get paid but) wants his time in the limelight.

Also, King further asserts that the following remain missing:

Mission to the Unknown

The Myth Makers - 1 episode

The Daleks’ Master Plan - 9 episodes (give or take 1)

The Wheel in Space - 1 episode

The Invasion - 2 episodes

The Space Pirates - 5 episodes

The Ice Warriors is supposedly all back but this could be wrong also.

26 – King Womble posts once more about the list of remaining missing episodes (same as above, except with a question mark over the two episodes of The Ice Warriors). Further, KW says:

“Many months ago I was told by an old friend and close associate of the RT that a large bunch of episodes had been found at a TIE distribution centre in Africa by PM. This was later confirmed by an equally old friend who works at the BFI.

The material not found in the search – which may well have covered UK sources – is one episode of Myth Makers, one or two parts of Wheel, five episodes of Space Pirates and two parts of Invasion. A question marks hangs over the lost eps of Ice Warriors. DMP is still missing nine episodes and there’s no MTTU.

Barring the odd one or two everything else is back/found – mainly at the TIE facility… home to a whole bunch of other stuff, too. The state of the prints is variable.

PM agreed to hand back the material he found… but only if a] the news was released in stages and b] an agreeable financial package was signed. Both boxes have been ticked.

There – you now have everything I was told.”

25 – The Mirror posts an article stating that BBC bosses are “hopeful that more missing episodes will be made available in 2014.”

27 – Kasterborous.com reports that a missing Doctor Who episode is to be shown at the BFI’s Missing Believed Wiped (MBW) in Edinburgh on 1 December. Unlike some reports that state this will be the recovered episode 3 of Galaxy 4 (Airlock), Kasterborous do not name the episode but instead speculate it could be Marco Polo, albeit with the caveat that this is only a rumour.

November 2013

1 – On GB, member benzin quotes Outpost Skaro as saying that they are firm on Marco, Massacre and Macra being Phase 2; they are also certain of Power of the Daleks and incredibly, two episodes of The Daleks’ Master Plan.

1 – David Gregory reiterates on GB what Outpost Skaro are saying about two episodes of The Daleks’ Master Plan being recovered, and names them as 11 and 12. He also names 4 and 7 as possibly being recovered.

19 – "Preddle-Gate": On DS, member daveycrocket222 posts the full list of episodes said to have been listed on the Broadwcast website by Jon Preddle prior to the information being deleted, which apparently confirmed the omnirumour:

D: Marco Polo found in both Hong Kong and Ethiopia
H: The Reign of Terror‘s two missing episodes found in both Hong Kong and Ethiopia
P: The Crusade’s two missing episodes found in Ethiopia
T: Galaxy 4‘s three missing episodes found in Ghana
U: The Myth Makers found in it’s entirety in Ghana
W: The Massacre found in its entirety in Ghana
Y: The Celestial Toymaker‘s missing episodes found in Ghana
AA: The Savages found in its entirety in Ghana
CC: The Smugglers found in its entirety in Ghana
DD: The Tenth Planet episode 4 found in Ghana
EE: The Power of the Daleks found in its entirety in Ghana
FF: The Highlanders found in its entirety in Hong Kong
GG: The Underwater Menace‘s two missing episodes found in Hong Kong
HH: The Moonbase‘s two missing episodes found in Hong Kong
JJ: The Macra Terror found in its entirety in Hong Kong
KK: The Faceless Ones‘ four missing episodes found in Hong Kong
LL: The Evil of the Daleks found in its entirety in Hong Kong
NN: The Abominable Snowmen - uncertain, all episodes possibly found in Nigeria or Hong Kong
PP: The Enemy of the World found in Nigeria in its entirety
QQ: The Web of Fear found in Nigeria in its entirety
RR: Fury from the Deep found in its entirety Hong Kong
SS: The Wheel in Space, found episodes 1, 4 and 5 in Nigeria and maybe episode 2 in Hong Kong
VV: The Invasion‘s two missing episodes found in Hong Kong
YY: The Space Pirates missing episodes found in Hong Kong

88 Episodes Found of 106 Missing or
+5 Episodes Found of 106 Missing (including The Abominable Snowmen 1,3-6?) or
+1 Episodes Found of 106 Missing (also including The Wheel in Space 2?)

List of Still Missing Episodes

T/A: Mission to the Unknown (1)
V: The Daleks’ Master Plan (1,3,4,6,7,8,9,11,12)
NN: The Abominable Snowmen (1,3-6)?
OO: The Ice Warriors (2,3)
SS: The Wheel in Space (2)?

18 Episodes Still Missing of 106 Missing or
-5 Episodes Still Missing of 106 Missing (excluding The Abominable Snowmen 1,3-6?) or
-1 Episodes Still Missing of 106 Missing (also excluding The Wheel in Space 2?)

22 - The rumours about Marco Polo refuse to die: The Telegraph posts an article about them. (Article behind paywall)

23 – An article on the Radio Times website discusses in brief the restoration process for The Web of Fear. Steve Roberts says “we’re not expecting anything else but we hope so”, and Peter Crocker says they have now done all episodes that exist.

Meanwhile, an article from the Daily Mail claims that all seven episodes of Marco Polo have been found sans audio, and the BBC will screen the painstakingly restored episodes next month! (This does not transpire.)

The article says that a diehard fan recorded the episodes directly from a television with a cine camera.

December 2013

1 – Unfortunately, Kasterborous’ report from 27 November does not come to fruition and no new reveals take place in 2013.

4 – The Telegraph (UK) posts an article about the recovery of Enemy and Web. It also features snippets of a interview with Philip Morris, in which he says that “acting like Tom Baker” may have saved his life during his kidnapping ordeal. Also, the article mentions the recovery of a 1960s Basil Brush episode featuring an early appearance by the Kinks.

21 – At the BFI’s 20 Years of Missing Believed Wiped event, a documentary is shown entitled "The Native Hue of Resolution". The documentary was produced by Kaleidoscope Publishing. In it, television consultant to the BFI, Dick Fiddy states that maybe “tens of thousands of titles” have been found in recent times – seemingly alluding to the search being conducted by Philip Morris. Fiddy later tries to back-pedal on this.