“There are so many rumours flying around at the moment, chinese whispers of the BBC hoarding away films and pick your favourite story being found intact and secretly being prepared for the 50th anniversary. Ask yourselves why we have these rumours now? The first is that two episodes have recently been returned. Fantastic news which inspires us all to believe the almost impossible… and we got the same rumours after the last episode was returned… and at a screening of ‘The Faceless Ones’ #3 in 1987 I was accused of hoarding away all sorts of missing episodes. Secondly, we have the 50th anniversary around the corner and it’s easy to believe that the BBC would be able to keep something like that quiet. In reality, they wouldn’t be able to keep anything like that quiet, and although we were able to keep the news of the two recoveries last year secret for five months, news did start to leak out as soon as the BBC got involved. The future of missing episode recoveries is as healthy as it was before the recoveries of last year and that’s the best we can hope for.” - Paul Vanezis, September 2012
“Obviously we’ve looked into the situation in Nigeria. One thing I think we can all agree on with Ian is that he is thorough. I asked him way back whether it was possible for anything else to have survived there and he was confident he’d exhausted all possibilities. I had no reason to disbelieve him.” - Paul Venezis, September 2012
“The only reason why we haven’t provided exact details of what information we found is because there are still one or two loose ends. I don’t think we’ll ever be able to say with certainty that there is nothing overseas, but we have ruled out most overseas broadcasters as still retaining DW.” - Paul Vanezis, September 2012
And then there’s this, where Web of Fear 3 is mentioned.. Why not the more logical 2 if it was still missing?
“You’re assuming that only one episode will turn up for a start. What happens if something turns up a month after you’ve paid out for Tenth Planet 4? It would be great if there was a bit left over for Web of Fear 3… but not in this scenario.” - Paul Vanezis, October 2012
It was around this time in the autumn of 2012 that the early rumblings of finds began to develop after Anneke Wils allegedly said that Power of the Daleks was back. These rumours amounted to very little it seems but it wasn’t long after that the omnirumour began to rear it’s head. Regarding Power, Paul Vanezis stated the following which may suggestive of the fact Enemy and Web were still not with the BBC at that point in time.
“As for the recent rumours; that is typical after a major find like this and not unexpected in the run up to the anniversary. But I would say that there would be no reason I can think of that the BBC/BBC Worldwide would sit on the information if they actually had anything new in their hands. I know they do not.” - October 2012
You can almost sense the irritation as Paul goes along
“I’m good at what I do and have been in constant work since leaving the BBC. It’s their loss… and I’m back working for them at the beginning of November. I’m not sure it would be unwise to release info, unless it was a complete story which needed work done to it under the radar, and without endless scrutiny from the fans. Obviously if that situation arises, you won’t know about it (and no, that is not happening now). I think the main point here is rumours are just that. Each retelling of a rumour gets more embellished. A single episode becomes an entire story. An entire story becomes a list of titles. The reality is we’ve had less than thirty episodes returned since 1978. Another thirty are not going to turn up overnight. People can choose to believe there is something to rumours, or not. But belief in a rumour won’t magic it out of thin air.” - October 2012
“I suppose I could publish everything that gets sent to me and expose all my research… The point is that you don’t need to know. I do. I share the information I get with a few other researchers whose opinions, expertise and analysis I trust and that is all you need to know. I of course could say nothing at all and then people wouldn’t ask me questions I can’t answer… So, I’m sorry if people don’t like it, but I don’t have to qualify anything on these boards and I am accountable to no-one. Future discoveries are much more likely through research which isn’t splashed over the internet.” - November 2012
“Well, the coyness you talk about could well just be ignorance of a non existent recovery. I believe I pointed out when the two episodes were recovered in 2011 that there would be a shed load of hoaxes, rumours and speculation to follow. Everything I predicted has come to pass. People are reading all sorts of things into innocent comments etc… and making 5 out of rumour and speculation. The simple fact is, if the BBC had been given any missing episodes of Doctor Who, I would know about it. I haven’t heard anything that leads me to believe that. Therefore, the BBC haven’t got any episodes tucked away anywhere. If any film collectors have missing episodes, I don’t know about it. Here’s a bit about me. I never lie; you always get caught out. If I had knowledge of any missing episodes out there, I wouldn’t confirm anything until the material was secure. Speculating about what I may or may not know is pointless, but here’s the thing. Doctor Who fans speculate about everything, but that could cause problems for future recoveries. If for arguments sake there was material out there and people started speculating about it, that fact may in itself be detrimental to the material being recovered. It would make much more sense for people to wait to find out if all of these rumours were true by awaiting some sort of official announcement. If that announcement never comes, you have your answer. If it does happen, then we’ll all be very happy.” - Paul Vanezis, February 2013
This is now the point at which the episodes were with 100% certainty in the hands of the BBC, work on them beginning in April as stated in the latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine. On June 13, Bleeding Cool posted their now infamous article by Rich Johnson that started the “omnirumour” ball rolling
“What I’ve been hearing, and some of it is attributed to an eccentric engineer who worked for broadcasters across Africa with a taste for science fiction and a habit of taking things for “safe keeping”, is that the BBC have secured a large number of presumed-wiped episodes of early Doctor Who. And there are lots. Lots and lots. Completed serials that we’ve only had incomplete before, full series that nothing existed of. Not everything. But heaps and heaps. Possibly even The Full Hartnell. And come November, or before, we’ll get to see them.” - Rich Johnson, Bleeding Cool
And the internet of course exploded in a shower of rumour, gossip and accusations. The rumour spread and developed, seemingly with little basis in truth
“I outlined on Gallifrey Base some time ago how I think this mutated from a list of titles I created for the DW production office of what could potentially be still out there(around the time Air Lock and Underwater Menace were returned) to a mixed bag of 44 episodes or thereabouts, to the bizarre figure of 90, which is a new one on me. That initial ‘chinese whispers’ rumour just got repeated and embellished and when you want to believe and every Tom, Dick and Harry has a theory, then this is what you get. People have been wondering why I didn’t step in sooner and “nip it in the bud”. Well, I have better things to do with my time than repeat myself on a DW forum. People wouldn’t believe me anyway. People know that I believe it when I see it. Here’s a new one; if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is.” - Paul Vanezis, June 2013
Two days later Ian’s view was changed when he was shown the shipping details for what TIEA was bringing back into the country from Africa - three tons of film material.
Bleeding Cool again lept on the information, linking it to an early 2011 post at Planet Mondas which stated
“I work at a regional branch of a large international logistics company. On Tuesday morning a customer called in to collect a box sent from Zambia via Nigeria containing BBC tapes and 16″ films, supposedly for returning to the archives. The guy apparently said (I didn’t serve him myself) that the box contained recovered 60s material including episodes of Doctor Who (the only programme he mentioned by name, it seems) and that we’d be hearing all about it before the end of the year. Naturally I was keenly excited, particularly given that this seemed to suggest a major find, but, having encountered neither box nor customer myself, I couldn’t pursue the matter directly. I’ve checked the paperwork but I can’t fathom why BBC archive stuff would be addressed to a Merseyside address, especially one where the company name given doesn’t match the stated premises or postcode (hence why we couldn’t deliver the box and the customer had to fetch it himself). Then again, the shipper may have just cocked up the address slightly, it’s all perfectly kosher and I’m just fretting inappropriately. After all, the customer did say all would be revealed in time.”
This information, if true, of course brings into question whether Web and Enemy were found even sooner than our speculated 2012. It was followed by this post at Outpost Gallifrey on the 18th, the same claims being reported by Outpost Skaro a few days later
“I will throw in some rumour I had heard last year. (Just to fuel the fires, you see.) Web of Fear was returned earlier last year, then later on Marco Polo + Enemy of the World, from the ‘batch’ of film records recovered. Paid for by BBC Cardiff. Caroline Skinner was responsible for negoicating the returns. The gentleman in question wants the BBC to purchase all 8’000 cans of films, the BBC are keen on cherry picking a handful. I would assume the DW ones and other historical films of note. I heard this in connection to the GI returning to DW last year, and was very surprise when it did. Another friend at a convention told me around September, that after S7B had aired the BBC were planning on launching into a missing season broadcast on BBC2 or 3 of recovered material, starting with Web of Fear. I didn’t think much of it, until I heard the 90 episode rumour around Octoberish. So, yes more rumours. But I (at least in my mind) strongly believe the WoF, Enemy of the World, Marco Polo rumour to be the same as the 90 episode one. You may now continue with scheduled hundreds of posts of ‘it’s not true/ it could be true/ the BBC should make an announcement/ Ian Levine’” - Colonel Barker
Denials came fast and strong with Phil Morris making his first public statement on the matter, TIEA stating on their website on the 20th
“A BRIEF STATEMENT .
T.I.E.A DOES NOT HOLD ANY MISSING EPISODES OF THE LONG RUNNING DR WHO SERIES. THE ORIGINAL VIDEO TAPES WERE WIPED SUBSEQUENT FILM COPIES WERE EITHER RETURNED TO THE BBC AND SENT TO LANDFILL ODD FRAGMENTS HAVE SURFACED TWO EPISODES ON 16MM FILM BUT THATS IT. THE PROGRAMMES IN QUESTION LIKE MANY OTHERS WERE DESTROYED AS THEY HAD NO FURTHER COMMERCIAL VALUE .THEY ARE NOT MISSING BUT DESTROYED THE END.I am sorry if this upsets some people but these are the facts.I have also become aware of the tracking of some of our clients shipments these are local cultural materials sent to us for migration to a modern format as the playback equipment in the country of origin no longer exists and as such is the best road to preserve international cultural heritage .I will be making no more statements on this subject.Philip MORRIS Executive director T.i.e.a”
“Once again, people are basically demanding a statement from me and whinging towards the end of it and I do not respond well to people demanding things from me, especially when I have made it clear I have said everything I will ever say about the rumour. A few people have pointed out posts which may have some merit, so the locked thread will serve as an archive for them. Perhaps in a year or so you can revisit it, most likely in embarrassment. I was amused by one post. In just his 5th ever forum contribution, Jason Mahoney said: “Close the thread. It won’t stop the tide coming in King Canute. The tide can go wherever it likes, but it won’t be washing up here. Any threads which continue this discussion about the ‘big haul’ rumour, Africa 90 etc… will be pruned extremely hard, or deleted. It serves no purpose to discuss something for which no information or evidence exists ad infinitum and if this thread had gone on for a week, that would have been ok. But I think we all need to get on with our lives, and everything that people want to say or discuss has been said several times over here. If there is an announcement about some big haul sometime in the future, then we’ll all be very happy. Until then, we will carry on as we were, before people got caught up in a tide of nonsense.” - Paul Vanezis, July 2013
Any hope that the rumour would fade away was killed stone dead on October 6 when The Mirror claimed all 106 missing episodes had been recovered. However at midnight on Wednesday October 10 the BBC announced the recovery of four episodes of the Web of Fear and five of The Enemy of the World, nine in all. While not the huge haul many hoped for, it in still an amazing find and achievement. The rumours continue however, notably from Ian Levine and there are huge gaps in our knowledge of events.
It is only when you piece it all together like this you can truly appriciate what a mammoth undertaking this was. A rollercoaster grail quest, involving hostage taking, terrorists, dozens of tips in many countries, disappointments and finally the thing they’d all been searching for for so long. This piece tries to put together events as best as is possible, a reconstruction if you will. We hope that one day we’ll have an official account. Phil Morris, Paul Vanezis and all involved.. We salute you!
This article quotes extensively from Paul Vanezis through reposting of comments from the missing episodes forum and Ian Levine through his Twitter account. We know that Paul took particular offence to Rich Johnson using quotes from the forum in his Bleeding Cool article so, on the off chance Paul or Ian might see this, we’d like to say the following: the missing episodes recovery is one of the biggest stories this year in Doctor Who, for many fans bigger than anything in the ongoing series, every scrap of information is eaten up and many fans will never have seen these words or followed the story from it’s very inception, they have no idea the hard work and dedication behind it. These quotes form part of the history of the show, they are a public historic record and are repeated here for historic value, for information and we believe also serve to both debunk certain rumours and verify truths.
Note: This article contains some amount of speculation and should not be treated as gospel, we have made presumptions that may be wrong and we ask all readers to make their own minds up. Phillip Morris’ 2009 quote was edited for appearance. No quote’s text has been altered. If anyone is able to offer corrections or additions do not hesitate to get in touch.
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Any articles based on rumours will come from a variety of sources and may be true, true in part or completely false, they should not be repeated as fact nor taken as anything other than the rumours they are until there is confirmation from official sources.
