“…. once you THINK something exists and
then you find out it doesn't, it's WORSE than
not knowing it existed in the first place —”
Ted:
You're acting like we lost The Game already,
yeah? Why don't you have a little Hope?
Mae:
Aw, Ted — Haven't you lived here long enough
to realise…? It's The Hope that kills you.
Doctor Who- Missing in Action 1993
Since it began in 1963 there have been over 700 docu episodes in which the doctor pitted his time lord wits against the evil forces of the universe and Beyond but in the 70s Financial pressures forced a clear out of the BBC bols and many do 2 Classics were lost -- or were they...?
Today, 110 episodes officially,
DO NOT EXIST
"....it represents a very, very sorry
state of British Television, the words
DOES NOT EXIST -- It's just….material
that was deemed NON-marketable
was worthless and just thrown away
into a skip, and then incinerated, or,
the videotape was wiped and re-used"
"It's..... I think it's disgusting, personally --"
Record producer Ian Lavine has devoted his life
to recovering missing episodes, and dreams of a day
when every last one is BACK at The BBC --
".....back in 1978, when we were looking
for old Doctor Who episodes,
there was a rumor going around
that there were LOADS of them, held
by BBC Enterprises -- Finally, I arranged
for someone at The BBC to TAKE
me down, to see what was there --
I walked in and I saw this first Dalek story,
about to be junked and I felt a mixture
of both Horror and Elation --
I think The Horror took over, though --
I threw an absolute
fit, and we found out,
the woman at
BBC Enterprises,
who was in charge of
destroying these prints;
We went running into
her office and she says,
"Yeah, I don’t see what all The Fuss is about,
no one WANTS them, they're just
old black and white prints."
And I got really agitated, and I said
"I want them! I've just got
CLEARANCE from The BBC
to come down and BUY these
episodes, and suddenly,
here I am, and they're
being DESTROYED! "
"-- that is The Way that things were
Done in those days, I'm afraid --
Doctor Who fans are obsessive,
and there is A Refusal to ACCEPT
the fact that some of these episodes
DON'T exist and will not turn up:
You always hear the phrase
"Somewhere, it's GOT
to be out there --"
It's as if by wishing so hard, you can
WILL it into existence...."
...but there IS a chance that copies sold
around the world DO still exist --
"I, single-handedly turned up
35 missing episodes over the years,
that wouldn't EXIST if I hadn't
found them; I've spent hours and hours
and hours on the phone, ringing all
over the world to all corners of the globe,
trying to chase down Doctor Who episodes --
Nigeria, Cyprus, The Ascension Islands, New Zealand;
one phone bill alone came in at £4,000."
The world of Doctors Who is very, very rife with rumors,
all these kind of Intrigue and Counter-plots going on --
You get people who just phone anonymously,
and people who just say they've got this, got that,
and then don't keep appointments -- full of hoaxers.
There are a vast amount of hoaxes --
Driving halfway up the country to meet people
and they never even turned up, that sort of thing;
the best analogy would be like a - a spy series,
Doctor Who is BIG Money, believe me
it is Big, BIG Money....
There are people like me who would,
well, kill to see this stuff again --"
….but there is one episode every Doctor Who fan
wants to recover; the final part of The Tenth Planet,
first shown in 1966 — a few seconds do exist ; a classic scene
where the doctor regenerates for the first time
but the rest dematerialized in 1973;
however, if the rumors are right, that
somewhere that episode Does Exist —
“…some friends of mine started getting letters from a character
calling himself Roger K Barrett and and was willing to sell
the episode to them for, £500 was the initial asking price --
He... became more and more greedy --
asking for £800; he just wanted The Money --
eventually they contacted me and
asked me to help, so I tried to get
hold of this character too, and I'm afraid
I was strung along like everyone else --
He sent me what he claimed
was a recording of the program;
it turned out to be completely blank -- um,
he said he'd destroyed the original film --
‘Roger Barrett’ NEVER HAD The Tenth Planet Part 4 --
this was all one big hoax and they fell for it hook, line
and sinker : Roger K. Barrett DOES Not Exist --
“…. once you THINK something exists
and then you find out it doesn't, it's
WORSE than not knowing it existed
in the first place; and the absolute,
utter depths of Despair when we
found out it was just a blank tape,
and it was all a hoax -- you've NO
idea what it felt like...
— If I could get hold
of this ‘Roger K. Barrett',
I think I'd just grab hold of him
by the scruff of his neck and
choke him until I found out
WHY he'd misled everybody --
What kind of IDIOTS does
he take us all for..?!
...I wish I could get hold of him --"
