"Tim Roll-Pickering" wrote in message
...
Ronnie Clark wrote:

This was due to the only way of editing being to
physically cut the 2 inch tape and splice it together. "An Unearthly
Child"
contains one edit approximately half-way through.

There was actually another method of editing available as well. An episode
would be recorded not on videotape but as a 35mm film recording, which
could
then be edited by splicing. In the later story "Planet of Giants" two
videotaped episodes were cut down to one for transmission by transferring
them to film and cutting (and the final episode has a lot of scene changes
where the cast have moved - something else that shows up front that the
episode was prerecorded).

Ah, the old cheat My post was quite lengthy, and whilst I thought about
mentioning the re-jiggin of "Planet Of Giants", I couldn't be bothered


It was quite some time before more advanced editing techniques made it
possible to record a whole serial in one go, however I vaguely recall
that
it started in the middle of the third series.

They seem to have still been recording one episode at a time right up
until
the end of the sixth series, and even in the next few years the doubling
up
was mainly to save on the cost of storing sets. From about the seventh
series they seem to have been recorded on a stop start method.

I think it became hit and miss. I recall a few early Pertwee stories were
one-at-a-time, notably "Spearhead From Space" (it probably proving cheaper
to just reshoot the overlap between episodes than splice in the same clip
from the previous episode.

It is sad, but understandable, that the BBC did felt it was a better
used
of
resources to tape over old programs in the 1970s. This was when most of
the
original video tapes of Doctor Who from 1963-1972 were junked (though in
at
least two instances, this was in error).

What errors were these?

1966's "The Tenth Planet" episode 4, featuring the first regeneration, was
kept in the archive along with the other three episodes of the story. It
only went missing after Blue Peter borrowed the tape to use the regeneration
clip.

And 1974's "Invasion of the Dinosaurs" episode 1 only went missing because
it was mistaken for 1968/9's "Invasion" episode 1. This was a moderately
easy mistake to make because, to keep the dinosaurs a secret, "Invasion of
the Dinosaurs" episode 1 was simply captioned as "Invasion" on screen. Ah
well. It was the very last (chronologically) episode to be junked, therefore
making series 12 (Tom Baker's first series) the earliest series not to
suffer from junkings.

At
least
one episode, 1965's "The Feast Of Steven", the only episode except for
2005's "Christmas Invasion" to premiere on Christmas Day, was never
transferred to film for overseas sale, and is therefore the most likely
candidate for "episode that will never be recovered".

Mind you from recollection the second series of Dad's Army was not
transferred either and yet two of the missing episodes turned up a few
years
ago.

Well, it's quite surprising just what can show up at times... "The Feast Of
Steven" was an episode of the 12 part epic "The Daleks' Masterplan". Because
it was so lengthy, only one copy (IIRC) of the 11 part version (sans "The
Feast Of Steven") was made... Yet amazingly enough, three episodes from the
serial have now been returned!


--
Ronnie
--
Have a great day...
....Have a Great Central day.
www.greatcentralrailway.com