Opinion: Do NDA’s Mean Things Are Starting To Happen?

Last year there was an official wall of silence around Doctor Who and the missing episodes. I say official because obviously there were lots of people willing to let things slip here and there. Those tongues wagging really poured gasoline on the omnirumour fire. The BBC tried to douse it with NDA’s, Non-Disclosure Agreements. In a nutshell they are a way of shutting people up. Basically you sign the NDA, they tell you something secret then sue you if you blab it to the world. It works in favour of both parties. The person signing it gets knowledge that they otherwise wouldn’t have and the BBC get a guarantee that said knowledge doesn’t get leaked to us, Joe Public. It was very common for people ‘in the know’ to get these agreements during the wild and crazy speculative period last fall leading up to the announcement of the recovery of Web Of Fear and Enemy Of The World.

Have they started issuing them again?

Eddie McGuigan of Outpost Skaro fame issued a tweet a few days ago.

https://twitter.com/Eddie_At_Skaro/statuses/431454851739164672

If we take this at face value and assume that it’s not a joke, then what does it mean? Eddie and his website have always been one of the more vocal sources for missing episode news and speculation. In fact Eddie was the one who took to twitter a while ago to state that everything but one single episode from The Daleks’ Masterplan had been returned, a proclamation that sent spasms of joy through fandom. If he has indeed signed an NDA, does he know something so secretive that the BBC wants to shut him up? Perhaps they just wish to silence one of the major proponents of speculation. Because that’s all it is right now, speculation. But if the BBC tell him everything that he knows is the truth, by signing the NDA that would limit anything he can say about the current rumours.

I haven’t heard widespread rumours of mass NDA signings, but that doesn’t mean more haven’t been issued. The recipients might just be keeping it quiet. So maybe, just maybe there is something super-secretive in the works. Here we are less than two weeks away from Marco Polo’s 50^th Anniversary. Everything that we’ve heard suggests it will be Easter before there is any further official announcement. Perhaps that’s smoke and mirrors and something sooner is in the works and the BBC wants to keep it quiet for maximum impact. Only time will tell.

[Editors addition: Eddie has since clarified that the NDA in question is not related to missing episodes. General consensus remains however an announcement will be made at Easter]