Doctor Who - The Wheel in Space Review

Continuing Our Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Cybermen

Doctor Who:
The Wheel in Space
By David Whitaker 
and Kit Pedler

“You know our ways. You must be destroyed.”

After saying their farewells to Victoria The Doctor makes an emergency landing, due to the mercury fluid link exploding, on what appears to be an abandon spaceship. The pair end up exploring the ship in hopes of finding some Mercury when The Doctor suspects they are not alone after all.  The ship is being controlled by the Servo Robot and he is doing what his masters have programmed to do.  Pilot the ship to the Wheel and release debris towards the Wheel.  The Servo Robot notice there are others on the ship and proceeds to handle the situation as it pilots the ship hard off course causing The Doctor to lose his balance and hit his head taking him out of commission.

Jamie is on his own to deal with the Servo Robot but not before it accomplishes its orders and starts the activation of two strange spherical objects in the ship.  Jamie and The Doctor are soon saved by the crew of the Wheel and Jamie gets himself in trouble by sabatoging the lazer as he was trying to save the TARDIS from being destroyed inside the spaceship.  Unfortunately that act by Jamie was poorly timed as the two figures in the sphere are Cybermen and they plan on taking over the Wheel as a launching point to invade Earth.  As usual it’s up to The Doctor to save the day and stop the Cybermen from taking over the Wheel.

Doctor Who Missing Episode News - Web of Fear Part 3 WAS found but lost again...

By Ken Parker

Some reports out of the Doctor Who convention Pandorica have stated that Missing Episode finder Phil Morris disclosed some interesting information about " Web of Fear."  Back in 2013 Morris returned to previously missing stories - "The Enemy of the World" and "The Web of Fear" but episode 3 of 'Web of Fear" was not included.  It now appears that Morris had found it but in the process of recovering the material, it went missing.  Morris thinks that leaked information that the films were valuable provoked a Nigerian rely station manager to take the film can.  Morris believes that the can was then sold to a private collector.

These films would have been found in 2011 and negotiations took six months before the films were handed over, but once they were, episode 3 was not part of it. Morris wanted to keep all other finds a secret in order not to endanger any new recoveries.  Morris even has a photo of the film cans before episode 3 was stolen.

The eventual announcement was held back a while in hopes of recovering that particular film can but they gave up and went ahead with the announcement in 2013.

When asked if more were found Morris stated that he would not answer that question as it could endanger any future finds.  Morris also stated that now that the word is out that perhaps the person in question would return the film can.

Lots of speculation off of this revelation.  The original announcement of "Web of Fear", nothing was said about this for the missing episode.  Could "Marco Polo" be involved in this somehow.  That story was also attached to the rumor of the finds and that too came off the rumor list before the announcement.

This might have been the reason there was a delay for "The Web of Fear" being released on DVD, hoping that the release on ITunes might prompt the collector in giving up the film can. Anyway, it gives hope that the episode (which features the first appearance by Lethbridge Stewart) might still be out there and will find its way back someday.

Happy Anniversary - The Return of Doctor Who - The Enemy of the World and The Web of Fear

 by Ken Parker

Happy Anniversary to the announcement of the finding of the Doctor Who episodes “The Enemy of the World” and “The Web of Fear.”  One year ago this week we all learned that the long lost Second Doctor stories from the 60’s were found and available for download.  This was an incredible time for Doctor Who fans.  As many of you were aware, rumors of some found Doctor Who episodes were circulating around for about a year or two before that time but not until June of 2013 were these rumors to take on a new energetic life.  Unlike previous rumors of an episode or two found, this rumor had close to 90 found.  Apart from some denials from the Restoration Team, BBC, TIEA and Doctor Who magazine, the rumor held its ground with details that spelled out a “Marco Polo”, “The Enemy of the World” and “The Web of Fear” release later in the year.  This rumor was modified slightly with “Marco Polo” and one episode of “Web of Fear” being removed from the release for an unknown reason.

Doctor Who - The Omnirumour - I Want to Believe

Cool video

 

The Underwater Menace is NOT the Final Doctor Who DVD - It Has Been Cancelled

Well, this is a bit of a shock.  Apparently the DVD range is dead according to Steve Roberts -

Again, does this mean that preparations are being made to handle all the missing episodes that were found OR has the BBC just given up?  I am wondering if the Restoration Team is getting upset with the lack of information one way or another because I don't think everyone of the team is out to deliberately give out mis-information.

The Final Classic Doctor Who DVD release

By Ken Parker

Well, we all knew it was going to happen eventually. Since there are a limited number of classic Doctor Who episodes we all knew that someday the classic DVD range would come to an end. But look what we got!  Not only did we get everything we thought we would but we got hundreds of hours of extras including commentaries, documentaries, interviews and so on. In addition we had several incomplete stories released with animation for the missing episodes. 

Doctor Who - The Macra Terror Reviewed By @Paul_Bowler

Doctor Who:

The Macra Terror

Reviewed by Paul Bowler

Having seen the image of a giant claw on the TARDIS time scanner, the Doctor, Polly, Ben, and Jamie arrive on an unknown planet in the future where they visit a human colony. They encounter Medok a crazed colonist, who is quickly arrested by Ola, the Chief of Police. The colony seems to be a happy place and is run just like a giant holiday camp. However, the Doctor is uneasy, despite the assurances of the Colony Pilot and the message of greeting from the mysterious Colony Controller who appears on a screen to welcome them.

The colony has in fact been secretly taken over by grotesque crab-like creatures known as the Macra, who have brainwashed the citizens and forced them to mine a gas for them, one toxic to humans, but essential for the Macra’s survival. Ben also succumbs to Macra’s influence and turns against the Doctor and his friends. Fortunately he manages to recover in time and helps the Doctor destroy the gas pumping equipment to kill the Macra. The colonists want the Doctor to be their new Pilot. Appalled by such a prospect, the Doctor quickly guides his companions away, dancing past the celebrating colonists as they depart.

Restoring Doctor Who - Enemy of the World

Top 10 things NOT to do while waiting for the missing Doctor Who episodes to return

By Ken Parker

philip morris @archives1963

10 - Don’t lose faith – I know that over the past year I have ridden the roller coaster ride of this rumor with some dark times where I almost gave up on the idea.  Most people on the forums seem to have gotten sick of waiting and talking about it as I have but there has to be something to Morris’s tweets, Robert’s comments about "Marco Polo" and the ever evolving rumor reports.  Just because one part of the rumor (an Easter announcement for example) didn’t happen doesn’t mean the whole thing is bogus. Until Morris comes out and says that his search yielded no more finds other than what was released in October of 2013, there is hope for more.

Philip Morris and the Last Omnirumor - We Hope

by Ken Parker

Philip Morris, Missing Episode Hunter examines more film cans while his nemesis, Ian Levine, waits patiently

The Omnirumor saga is getting weirder, uglier, more frustrating and exciting all at once.  A statement by the TIEA Executive Director seems promising - 

T.I.E.A understands the passion felt by Doctor Who fans and that looking for missing episodes of Doctor who plus many other shows is an important but tiny part of the work that T.I.E.A does.The main aim of this organisation is to assist those archives whose own cultural heritage is under threat.If any programmes do still exist T.I.E.A will endeavor to recover them safely as with web of fear and enemy of the world.T.I.E.A are not sponsored by any organisation we are a completely independent body we work alongside many organisations such as the B.F.I .

However as much as people want specific programmes found wishing them into existence or starting rumors will not magically return them .Individuals trying to extract information which does not exist or is commercially confidential will be deleted unread any legitimate inquires for T.I.E.A LTD services are welcome.

Stay Tuned..
Executive Director Philip Morris.

Top 10 things to do while waiting for the missing Doctor Who episodes to be returned

By Ken Parker

A hopeful article for sure. In this week of accusations and growing frustrations along with silence from the Restoration Team (could be a good thing), here are a few things to do to pass the time for the announcement of found episodes.

What Other Missing Shows Could Be Found? Part Two

By Ken Parker

Welcome to part 2 of this article series. When I took this article on I figured I could easily come up with a fairly detailed list of sci-fi fantasy tv shows from Britain that are incomplete or missing that we might see recovered.  If these rumors of a huge find of film cans is even partially true, we could be looking at a massive about of recovered TV.

While I found many very informative websites, it was very difficult to compile this list as there are so many shows out there missing. I was hoping to find a definitive site and one that could perhaps come up with an estimate of what percentage is missing.  Of course what is missing and what can be recovered are two different animals.  So much live TV is gone forever.  These early teleplays and the like were only meant to be shown once and the value of these productions was not seen back before the late 50's.  beyond historical value, nothing was ever shown again and so what was the point.  The invention of the video tape changed all that and recordings were made for documentation.  

Unfortunately the value was still not realized and orders to junk many of the video tapes were made. Thankfully telecine was done, copying videos onto film for sales abroad.  This process would end up saving the vast majority of British TV that had been previously junked.  Most if not all of Doctor Who's original video tapes from the 60's are gone and everything that exists is from film.

It might seem odd to read an article about these lost treasures from someone who never seen them, coming from America.  I became fascinated with British sci-fi in my younger years and actively sought to see as much of it as I could.  There is so much still out there to see and if these rumors are true, much much more to come.

So here are some more series, most of which I have never personally seen, that sound interesting.

Doctor Who – The Missing Companion – Ping-Cho

Every missing episode of Doctor Who is part of the show's mythology. Most are these holy grails that many fans have never seen. They are often thought of as the best of the best and are heavily regarded. What fans know of them are based on memories, novelizations, scripts, Cura tele-snaps, audio recordings and fan reconstructions. Only when these stories are found would the truth be known and still, only from a perspective of watching them in this day and age. We do not have the luxury of enjoying these over the years. As fans we have been able to see stories over and over again thanks to home video. We have picked apart “The Ark” and “Wargames” over and over again. Do these live up to our memories seeing them when they first aired? What about when we saw them at the convention, or bootleg or when they finally came out on DVD?

The Web of Fear Breaks Doctor Who DVD Record

The Web of Fear has broken the 1st week sales record for classic Doctor Who releases.  BBC Worldwide has confirmed today the The Web of Fear has broken the record held by The Enemy of the World by selling 15,000 DVD's.  The Web of Fear was found along with The Enemy of the World by Philip Morris and was revealed back in October when the were released on iTunes.  Fiona Eastwood of BBC Worldwide had this to say about the record amount of sales.

“We knew that The Web of Fear would be a popular release; Yetis on the London Underground – need I say more? There’s a real appetite for exploring the extensive back-catalogue of classic stories, particularly following the 50th anniversary last year, and we’re committed to continuing that exploration for Doctor Who fans in the future.”

This is good news for fans of Classic Doctor Who and more to the point of Black and White era of Doctor Who. It is also proof that there is a market for the Missing Episodes of Doctor Who  and if Philip Morris has found more it would be a good idea to hurry up and get them released while the market is hot for them.

Source: Life, Doctor Who & Combom

“We knew that The Web of Fear would be a popular release; Yetis on the London Underground – need I say more? There’s a real appetite for exploring the extensive back-catalogue of classic stories, particularly following the 50th anniversary last year, and we’re committed to continuing that exploration for Doctor Who fans in the future.” - See more at: http://news.drwho-online.co.uk/The-Web-Of-Fear-DVD-Release-Breaks-1st-Week-Sales-Record.aspx#sthash.VfYDOVuZ.bacrg0aX.dpuf

“We knew that The Web of Fear would be a popular release; Yetis on the London Underground – need I say more? There’s a real appetite for exploring the extensive back-catalogue of classic stories, particularly following the 50th anniversary last year, and we’re committed to continuing that exploration for Doctor Who fans in the future.” - See more at: http://news.drwho-online.co.uk/The-Web-Of-Fear-DVD-Release-Breaks-1st-Week-Sales-Record.aspx#sthash.VfYDOVuZ.bacrg0aX.dpuf

“We knew that The Web of Fear would be a popular release; Yetis on the London Underground – need I say more? There’s a real appetite for exploring the extensive back-catalogue of classic stories, particularly following the 50th anniversary last year, and we’re committed to continuing that exploration for Doctor Who fans in the future.” - See more at: http://news.drwho-online.co.uk/The-Web-Of-Fear-DVD-Release-Breaks-1st-Week-Sales-Record.aspx#sthash.VfYDOVuZ.bacrg0aX.dpuf

Doctor Who - Marco Polo Target Book Review

Doctor Who: 

Marco Polo

By John Lucarotti

“I told you about the Buddhist monks. They will discover its secret. A caravan that flies. Do you imagine what this will mean to the Khan? It will make him the most powerful ruler the world has ever known. Stronger than Hannibal. Mightier than Alexander the Great.”

One of the more unfortunate things in the history of Doctor Who is that there are missing episodes and in the instance of Marco Polo and for a few others complete missing stories.  Marco Polo is one that is missing for now but there is always the hope that it will be found as Philip Morris is still out there looking.  If you believe the rumors then like me you are under the belief that it has already been found and we might be watching it sometime this year or about as we all know how slow the BBC operates.  But anyway unfortunately Marco Polo only exists in telesnaps that have been reconstructed which you could find on Daily Motion, the audio exists on a CD set released by the BBC a few years ago and then of course there is the Target Novelization which is what will be reviewed here.
 

The TARDIS has landed in a snowy and cold environment which ends up being a mountain in the Himalayas of Cathay in 1289.  There Susan, Barbara, Ian and The Doctor come across the famed Venetian Marco Polo who is on the way to see Kublai Khan at his Summer home in Cathay.  The Doctor is thankful to Marco Polo for helping them in the mountain as the TARDIS has broken down and needs a power circuit repaired.  While that is happening the TARDIS has no heat so staying in there would be no choice at all for survival. 

Doctor Who - Missing Episode Hunter Philip Morris "Expect The Unexpected"

The Radio Times has an interesting interview with Doctor Who Missing Episode Hunter Philip Morris.  It goes into detail about his search for The Enemy of the World and The Web of Fear. The Web of Fear is out on DVD this week and the article is heavy discussing that story but what I find interesting is his finally quote " Expect the unexpected".  Now does this lead us to believe that there is more missing Doctor Who episodes to come from Philip Morris and that he has indeed found more. I for one hope so and hope something is announced soon.  You can make your own mind up for yourselves after reading the quote below and following the link to the Radio Times story but something is telling me there is something more to come.

“To the fans, never give up hope. Be patient. People are working very hard in lots of very volatile and dangerous corners of the globe, sometimes paying with their nervous systems, which is a hard thing to give. As always, TIEA are out there. Expect the unexpected.”

 http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2014-02-26/doctor-who-episode-hunter-philip-morris-on-the-search-for-lost-tapes-expect-the-unexpected

What Are the Chances That All 97 of the Missing Doctor Who Episodes Will Be Found?

You hear rumors and all of the sudden your heart races.  Could it be that they found an episode of Doctor Who?  Could the number of missing episodes go down to 105 total?  Then you find out that they did find not one but 11.  WOW!! That was such a great feeling back in October of last year.  But that is not all.  Rumors continue and the same sources that claimed "Enemy of the World" and "Web of Fear" were back are saying more are back.

How many more?  7?  "Marco Polo"?  40? 96? 97?  97.....ummm, that is all that is missing right now.  You are telling me that every single Doctor Who episode now exists?  Ridiculous?  Right?  Well, no, not really.

A Timelord in Taiwan: The Story of Missing Doctor Who Episodes, The US Army and Taiwan By @Blackadder345

Missing Doctor Who episodes have been in the news lately with the recovery of The Enemy of the World and The Web of Fear.  There have also been finds of episodes that all ready exist but what is strange is that they were found in a place no one had any idea they were. With the United States Army Armed Forces network.  Will Barber - Taylor interviewed Andy Lehrer the man directed Ian Levine to Keith Perron the man who found the tapes of Doctor Who episodes.  With this discovery it gives us hope that there is more Doctor Who film cans out there to be found.  

Thanks to Will Barber - Taylor for allowing us to post this interview.  For those with a keen eye this is the interview that was on The Consulting Detective, The Cult Den and Doctor Who World Wide websites. 

A Timelord in Taiwan:

The Story of Missing Doctor Who Episodes, The US Army and Taiwan 

By Will Barber – Taylor

Doctor Who Missing Episodes. They are a hot topic in the world of Doctor Who fandom at the moment mainly due to the recent discovery of The Web of Fear and The Enemy of The World. The tale I’m about to relate to you concerns some of these missing gems. The story, from my point of view at least goes back to October 2013, just after Enemy and Web had been released on DVD. I came across a tweet to Ian Levine which went as follows:

@IanLevine I have a possible lead on missing DW and Goon tapes. How can I contact you?

It was tweeted by Andy Lehrer a Canadian Doctor Who fan. I saw this tweet and became interested in what Andy was saying about the episodes. After a bit of a mix up I finally managed to get in contact with Andy about the episodes. Here is an interview I did with him on the subject:

Hi Andy, thank you for agreeing to talk to me. First off, how did you find out about this collection of episodes?

More Doctor Who Episodes Found.... but Not Missing Ones!

Ian Levine, one of the original missing episode hunters responsible for saving many of the early lost Doctor Who recovery efforts of the 70's, has reported that more stray Doctor Who film cans located around the world.  A collector named Keith Perron and Levine have found 5 more episodes in Taiwan including "The Enemy of the World" part 6.  Less than a year ago, this episode was still not in the BBC archive but a recent return of the complete story of "The Enemy of the World" makes this recent Levine find obsolete.  Also found episodes 1 and 3 of "The Ambassadors of Death", "Keys of Marinus" pt. 6 and "The Krotons" pt 3.

Doctor Who - Newly Recovered Missing Episodes Could Air On BBC4

The Radio Times has an article stating that the two missing Doctor Who stories that were recovered and released on iTunes in October might be getting an airing on BBC 4 in 2014.  The Enemy of the World and The Web of Fear which was found in Africa by Philip Morris has been the jewel find of 2013 and the BBC have the right and desire to air these two stories on television.  It is not yet known if they intend to air the recon for episode three of The Web of Fear but I would imagine they would instead of showing the story incomplete.  If the BBC are successful in getting the stories aired it would be the first time they were aired on tv in 47 and 46 years. 

Source: Radio Times
http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2013-12-23/doctor-who-missing-patrick-troughton-episodes-could-air-on-bbc4