Beyond the Roundels

... either a miracle happened, or we're in an alternate universe, for, as of yesterday, there are now 97 missing Doctor Who episodes instead of 106!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-24467337

I know, I'm a bit belated, but that's because the BBC are mean about midnight embargoes and therefore making everything happen on a day when I can't make sensible posts because I had to go out for a bit (and so was too exhausted).

And it is a miracle: I don't know when I first found out so many episodes were missing - I'd imagine sometime after I started getting DWM in 1991, or possibly only when Tomb of the Cybermen was recovered in 1992. And that was the last time they found a whole story. In the twenty years that have followed, they've made odd discoveries of an episode at a time (four in all) and nobody thought another whole serial would ever be uncovered anywhere, ever, though there were always hoaxes now and then. So they've found more in one swoop here than has been found in the past 22 years. That is amazing.

Anyway, nearly two whole six-parters with Patrick Troughton! Isn't that fantastic? And The Enemy of the World and The Web of Fear, which were both such promising-looking ones. Patrick Troughton with an evil Bond villain twin! The Brigadier's first story, before he was even the Brigadier! People on my flist have watched them. It's real. I can put Enemy of the World on my Christmas list! Excuse me if I carry on belatedly flailing, because this is just unreal - the sort of find we could never let ourselves dare to believe in!

And I have very strong feelings - not unrelated to being a librarian - about people destroying created works, like published books and national television anyway. I would be happy to hear about anything getting returned to the archives, but... NINE EPISODES of Patrick Troughton? How can this be? Isn't it marvellous? I could go to iTunes and download it right now. *gives up and pinches self again*

Also it must have been especially moving for Deborah Watling - not only has so much of her own work (as Victoria) suddenly been returned, but it included one of the two stories (both lost barring one episode) that also featured her father, Jack Watling, as Professor Travers.

And if look at this (linked from various places). Imagine how uninteresting this was on audio, and look at it now we have the pictures back. (Or, Patrick Troughton = ♥ forever.)
( Brief Enemy clip from the BBC )

With an end note that I am so amused by my local newspaper accidentally breaking the embargo six hours before midnight and suddenly getting the DW world's attention (and also their cute apology). That not only meant I could go to bed and sleep when I needed to (thanks, Northern Echo!!) but it was hilarious.

So I don't know why I'm even posting this, except I want to make everybody else suffer along with me, but the worst DW rumour is going around - that they have found or are hot on the trail of lots - yes, lots - of the missing episodes.

It's here: http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/06/13/wqill-doctor-who-have-a-very-special-surprise-for-us-in-november/ (caught via the excellent who_at_50)

I should be laughing cynically, of course, and I don't really believe it. The cruelty of it this time is that when they found two episodes in 2011, the articles surrounding it sounded quite definitely hopeful about finding more (and this has not been the case since Tomb's appearance in 1996 - ever after, when something's turned up it's been followed by gloomy warnings that there is NO MORE, no, we have checked the back of the cupboard and on top of the wardrobe and under the bed, and no. No.). Which made me wonder if they were on the trail of something specific and I've been vaguely hoping for something ever since - and since the anniversary is close to the BFI's Missing Believed Wiped event that if they did find something it'd be announced then. So... I am looking at this so wistfully! But... lots! That's just too much to swallow. It couldn't be true, and if it was, it'd have to be a general haul, so that would mean other lost TV as well and... well, yes. It would be very very amazing. But obviously either not true or massively exaggerated from "we've found another episode down the back of the sofa!" (Obviously, I want badly to be proved wrong on that. That's why it's so cruel.)

Also I hate burninated TV generally, have I mentioned that? Oh, yes, I have. Quite a bit. It's understandable from various reasons, but actually it's not okay to throw your only copies of nationally broadcast, professionally produced drama into tips and/or generally wipe/burn/lose them. In the 1970s when everyone was making such a concerted effort to preserve almost everything else, too, and VHS was just around the corner. And, in fact, ITV companies were still doing it in the 1980s and even 90s, when there were mergers and things. /o\

Anyway, let's make there be a point to this post. Let's have the evergreen chestnut - if there has been a serial recovered, what would you most want it to be? What other old and lost TV (if you have any interest in such things) would you want to have been uncovered sitting beside it?