Out of the Unknown to be released on DVD

A 6 disc set is being released by the BFI in September of the late 60's anthology series, Out of the Unknown.  The series last 4 seasons with 49 episodes written by authors such as Nigel Kneale, Philip K. Dick and Issac Asimov.  As with most series from that era, a good number of the episodes were destroyed. Only 20 still exist although the planned DVD set will have surviving clips from incomplete stories.

This release is of interest to the ongoing rumors that a large amount of previously missing TV product has been recovered.  Among the rumored found stories includes some Out of the Unknown series.   This release can be seen as more evidence that nothing else has been found or that perhaps some of the previously missing episodes will be included in the release.

BFI is also releasing a couple other sci-fi related series including the 1975 The Changes, which is a 10 part serial about a society which rejects technology. That 2 DVD set will be out in August.

Red Shift is an episode from the Play of the Day (1978) series which deals with three people from three different time periods and linked somehow to a single place. That is coming out in September.

All of these releases are for the UK

http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/announcements/bfi-dvd-releases-announced-augustseptember-2014

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.