#there's a very good documentary on youtube about it which im going to rewatch later tonight

[coldflasher]

currently experiencing a resurgence of one of my intermittently dormant special interests: doctor who, specifically with regard to classic doctor who, specifically the missing episodes, the mere thought of which makes my eye twitch

for those who are unaware, due to cost-saving purposes, back in the 1960s, when reruns were almost (perhaps completely) unheard of as a concept, and television programmes were just a thing that aired live and if you didn't happen to see it, or wanted to watch it again, you were shit out of luck, the BBC had a policy of reusing the tapes that they filmed their shows on. well, why wouldn't you? tapes were expensive, storing them took up space, and as mentioned, it was never really considered that anyone might want to watch an episode of something for a second time. i have read (and don't take this as gospel bc i haven't fact-checked it yet) that on the rare occasion they wanted to air something again, they would hire all the actors back and just RE-FILM THE EXACT SAME PROGRAMME AND AIR A NEW VERSION OF IT INSTEAD OF JUST SAVING A COPY OF THE THING FOR LATER, which is INSANE because this was largely a cost-saving exercise and in what UNIVERSE is re-filming an ENTIRE THING cheaper than just NOT WIPING THE TAPE. (again. i haven't fact-checked this so maybe it's a lie. insane if true. will look into it).

but as a result, once they had broadcast an episode of doctor who, and many other shows made in this era, the bbc would literally just move onto the next thing and record something else over the top of it. and so a large number of episodes of one of the most successful and enduring sci-fi shows of all time was taped over with like, a random episode of call the midwife or whatever (im being tongue in cheek, i don't think call the midwife existed in 1963)

but all was not lost! literally! because the bbc did MAKE copies of a number of episodes and sent them to other countries to be aired! where they were safe from bbc nonsense! huzzah!

except again, reruns weren't a thing, and there was no need to keep the tapes after they'd shown them, so some of these countries, after airing the episodes, were very polite and went "hey, do you want these back, or?" and the bbc, in their infinite wisdom, were like "nah, bin 'em, i reckon".

SO THE TELEVISION STATIONS IN OTHER COUNTRIES ALSO TAPED OVER THEM. OR THREW THEM AWAY OR DESTROYED THEM IN SOME OTHER CAPACITY. SCREEEEEEAM

now THANKFULLY this didn't happen to every single episode. some countries kept them and did return them at a later date when the bbc had stopped fucking taping over everything and gone "oh shit, maybe we should have kept those actually." some episodes ended up with private collectors. some ended up at car boot sales. some ended up in the back of a storage cupboard for the bbc to find 20 years later THEN THEY THREW THOSE IN THE FUCKING BIN AS WELL (though this did happen again on another occasion further in the future when people had finally realized what a travesty the whole thing was and actually kept them, thank god).

over the years many of the serials in question have been found, at least in part, or pieced together as animations or painstaking reconstructions using the audio from the episodes (thanks to some enterprising fans back in the day, we do at the very least have audio of varying quality for most if not all of the missing episodes, so there's that). but there are still i think around 97 episodes that are either lost forever or potentially unaccounted for, being hoarded by private collectors who don't wish to share them, or just shoved in storage somewhere where somebody doesn't know what they are. and every now and then i remember the whole fiasco and just start slowly losing my mind over the combination of carelessness, lack of foresight, ignorance, and sheer terrible luck that has resulted in SO MUCH LOST MEDIA