Doctor Who Magazine editor Tom Spilsbury has commented publicly at some length on the omnirumour saga, the collection of rumours of the existence of further missing episodes, clarifying his own position and giving some insight into how the now infamous rumour spread amongst fandom throughout 2013 and 2014, with rumours still persisting in some quarters.
Tom’s words come following the leak of a private message between the DWM Editor and an unknown party last week where his private thoughts on the matter became clear. The PM, which shall not be published here, revealed how Spilsbury suspected that “very unpredictable, rather unbalanced” missing episode hunter Philip Morris “deliberately gave the impression that he had a lot more missing episodes in order to use this as a negotiating position” pertaining to his 2013 return of Enemy of the World and The Web of Fear, going on to speculate that the claims that Marco Polo would be amongst the October 2013 releases came from this source.
Tom’s public words at the Planet Mondas forum add some clarity to the issue, refraining from public mention of Morris, while being illuminating at showing how such wild claims of 90+ episodes found spread so rapidly and with such assurance through the forums and fandom in general:
“For a long time before the eventual reveal in October 2013, I’d heard all the rumours (the same as Ed [Stradling], the same as Ian [Levine], and the same as many others). I will admit to you now that I’d first heard these rumours in the spring of 2012. I know I wasn’t the only one! To be completely candid with you, yes, I DID believe the rumours at first. Just as many others, I discussed these rumours with my friends (“Could it be true? Does he really have them? Surely it can’t be that many? Is there any actual proof? Will they be given back to the BBC? How exciting!”). I was one of many people having these sorts of conversations, and I was as excited and as guilty as anyone for gossiping about them. I hope you can understand why, and forgive me, in light of what’s happened since. As the rumours gathered steam, and spread further and further, I was one of the cogs that made it happen. Hands up, guilty. I wasn’t the origin of the rumours, but I was one of the people who helped them spread – which given my job must have given them a sense of legitimacy. That was very foolish of me. But I was excited. Everyone was. At the time, we still didn’t know if these rumours were actually true, but the idea was bewitching, and I wasn’t the only one who lost his head and sense of reasoning. After all, if it was true, then surely the episodes would be announced imminently, right? We won’t need to keep this a secret for long. No-one could have imagined back then how it would drag on and on…
More and more time went by. Months and months… and then it had been more than a year. The gossiping with friends started to change. “If these episodes exist, where the hell are they? Why haven’t they been given back? Maybe they’re still in Africa? Or has it all been a hoax? What’s actually going on?” So as time went by, I became more and more sceptical that any of these episodes actually existed. There didn’t seem to be any proof at all. Just the same echo chamber of rumours, which had gained legitimacy by the names of the people spreading them – myself included. I asked many well-positioned people about the rumours, and they all told me that although they thought that episodes MAY have been found, there was no actual proof. They were as frustrated and as baffled as I was. I’m sure you can work out the sort of people I was speaking to.
So, after the initial excitement had worn off, I started to believe that the whole thing was a hoax (or at least a misunderstanding), and it bothered me that people were getting excited about the idea of 90+ episodes being found, when no-one I talked to had seen any genuine evidence that these episodes existed. More than that, it angered me. As the rumours spread to forums, I made a stupid mistake, I now admit. But I had honourable intentions. I tried to dampen people’s excitement, as I didn’t like the idea of people being given false hope, as I felt I had been given 18 months earlier. However, I now admit that I got it badly wrong, as by the time I made my comments on Gallifrey Base, nine episodes had already been returned to the BBC (in the summer of 2013), and were being worked on in secret by the Restoration Team. Believe me, if I’d known that, I would never have said anything, because it would make me look like a bloody idiot. (And it did.)
I was finally informed by BBC Worldwide in mid-September that they had secured the Enemy and Web episodes, and they advised me that I should prepare some coverage for DWM. If you look back at my posts, you will see that all my comments were made before that time. Anything I said on Gallifrey Base prior to mid-September was my honest opinion at the time, and to be fair, I always stated it was. I said that I didn’t think any of the rumoured episodes had been found, or returned to the BBC. I was wrong. After mid-September, the only time I commented directly on the rumours was a couple of days before the reveal in mid-October, when someone asked me on Twitter about a Sunday People story that 106 episodes had been found in Ethiopia. I replied that it was ‘nonsense’ (which it was), knowing that the actual reveal was imminent. That too has been used as a stick to beat me with, but given that the announcement was mere days away, I knew that people would be happy soon enough, as long as they didn’t set their hearts on every single episode coming back. In my own stupid thick-headed way, I was trying to be kind.
Frankly, in hindsight, I wish I’d never heard any of these rumours in the first place. If you still choose to disbelieve me, then there’s not much I can do about that, but I hope you may give me some credit for admitting my mistakes. Sorry.”
Tom Spilsbury’s words would seem to draw a line under what has been a divisive and seemingly never ending saga that began almost three years ago. His welcome candour finally bringing some explanation as to how the entire affair began. While it may be disheartening to know that rumours of more finds look unlikely at present, hope still exists that more may indeed be found in the future and we have already had two quite startling returns in both Enemy and Web. No matter the bad blood that has transpired in forums and on social media since then, we can thank Phil Morris and those behind him for their efforts in that.
It is our true hope that this marks a final chapter in the omnirumour and the matter is truly put to bed once and for all.
