Missing, Believed Swiped!
Missing episodes rumours in 1990s fanzines - part 1
A few weeks back I presented a survey of missing episodes rumours in fanzines of the 1980s. Some of these rumours related to genuine leads, but most were nonsense. Rumours didn’t die out after the 1980s and, in fact, it seems that with the series off-air, interest in Doctor Who’s missing episodes soared, and consequently so too did rumours about them in the pages of fanzines.
In another two-parter, I now survey the missing episodes rumours of the 1990s as circulated in the fan press. If you’re not familiar with fanzines please refer back to my original article here for a brief overview. As last time, to avoid potentially causing embarrassment I avoid naming individuals concerned in the rumours reported, except where context dictates otherwise.
Before we proceed, I should make clear that except where explicitly stated otherwise, none of the rumours referenced below were genuine leads as to the whereabouts of missing episodes and there’s no reason to think they’re credible now.
We start in August 1990 with issue 6 of Celestial Farmyard. Intriguingly, the issue splashed on its cover a report almost akin to the ‘omnirumour’ that circulated on the internet twenty years later. Despite the comical name of the fanzine (a parody of Celestial Toyroom, the long-established newsletter of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society [DWAS]) the report and most of the fanzine’s contents appeared to be in earnest. It suggested that a huge trove of missing episodes, including all the lost instalments of seasons four and five, had been located in Africa:
No more was heard of this supposed “mega-find”. Of course, we now know that The Enemy of the World and The Web of Fear were indeed in Africa, in Jos in Nigeria, but that’s entirely unconnected with this report.
Although it’s not a fanzine, we should still note that even the official Doctor Who Magazine occasionally printed rumours at this time. Issue 170 from the start of 1991 reported:
This persistent rumour about The Tenth Planet which we covered last time is set to run and run. The same report also included the following:
This was prophetic given the return of The Tomb of the Cybermen from Hong Kong just one year later, even if the 1978 transmission reported seems very unlikely.
DWB issue 91 (July 1991) responded to a letter about earlier missing episodes reports by stating it now applied a more sceptical approach to such claims. Nevertheless, this reply included mention of the latest rumour that had reached them, suggesting that the first part of The Celestial Toymaker and The Abominable Snowmen episode four had turned up in a London nightclub.
Enter fanzine Metamorph, which would have plenty to say about missing episodes across the 1990s. An article in volume 2, issue 8 (Autumn 1991) gave a top seven of most likely recoveries, based on rumours and mistaken ‘facts’. That said, their number one was The Tomb of the Cybermen which did indeed resurface within months of publication – entirely coincidentally. The rumour was that a copy must exist on video as the soundtrack circulating amongst fans allegedly had hallmarks of originating from a video playback. This was nonsense but film prints were returned by Asia Television in Hong Kong early the next year.
Some of the other entries in the list reflected rumours already covered in earlier instalments of this article but there were a couple of new ones too which even the writer acknowledged appeared to be dubious:
The same issue raised again the Bob Monkhouse question, which we addressed previously, after he told a newspaper he was a “science fiction fanatic.” He is not known to have had any interest in Doctor Who although he was an avid film collector and recorder of television.
Issue 95 (November 1991) of DWB included a letter from a Canadian fan reporting conversations he had had with the CBC archive. These led him to suspect that prints of Marco Polo and possibly other stories (he mentioned having seen The Celestial Toymaker, The Evil of the Daleks and The Wheel in Space on broadcast in Canada some years prior) could still exist with the broadcaster’s head office in Toronto. However, bar Marco Polo, no stories with now-missing episodes were sold to the CBC according to BBC records.
Ice Hot Doctor was the fanzine of Mensa’s Doctor Who Special Interest Group. Despite the huge IQs involved, this fanzine sadly didn’t fare any better than most in its missing episodes coverage, but it did include a few interesting rumours. Issue 19 (undated but late 1991) included this suggestion:
As noted previously, the use of ‘film’ and ‘tape’ as interchangeable terms is always a good indicator that the rumour-monger doesn’t know what they taking about regards missing episodes.
Inevitably, the discovery of The Tomb of the Cybermen at the start of 1992 provoked much comment in fanzines, accompanied by speculation about other potential recoveries. A correspondent to Ice Hot Doctor issue 21 (early 1992) stated optimistically:
Issue 22 (also early 1992) included a letter from a fan in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne hinting at conspiracy theories in the realm of missing episodes:
The DWAS’s Celestial Toyroom (CT) reported the Tomb return in its February 1992 issue and noted that the BBC’s alleged subterfuge to keep the discovery secret until it was confirmed had been:
Elsewhere in the same issue, an article about the history of missing episode recoveries concluded with the following:
DWB reported the return of Tomb in issue 99 (March 1992). An article by their missing episodes expert speculated on the future of missing episode returns, hinting at hope for Marco Polo:
For the record, this is slightly off the mark in its historical detail. The destruction of a film vault in Cyprus occurred not in the Turkish invasion but in the coup which preceded the invasion, as clarified by comments from Paul Vanezis reproduced in Richard Molesworth’s book Wiped! (the missing episodes bible for this series of articles), and Marco Polo left Cyprus for Hong Kong in 1966, not 1974.
Speculation and conspiracy theories prompted by the Tomb recovery continued for months, buoyed by the story’s rushed released on VHS in May 1992. DWB issue 101 (also May 1992) included the following missive from a fan in Cardiff:
Letters printed in Metamorph volume 2, number 9 (Spring 1992) modified or debunked some of the rumours reported in the previous issue (as noted above) but also added to them, for example with this:
Another fan made the unfounded suggestion that the four episodes of The Ice Warriors recovered from within the BBC in 1987 were a “secret cache” of an employee who had sought to protect them from destruction in the 1970s, and that they may have removed the two still-missing episodes from the premises. Correspondents also reheated the tired allegations of well-placed fans hoarding missing episodes (see the first article in this series for more on that).
The following issue (Summer 1992) continued the rumour-mongering with some ill-informed speculation and sheer nonsense, including a report that: “negotiations have been going on for well over a year to recover a 16mm print of [The Power of the Daleks episode two] without success at the time of writing.” It suggested the rumour around Destruction of Time existing was linked with the 1989 report that the BFI had recovered a season three episode (as covered here last time). It also reported two sources claiming that a VHS copy of The Tomb of the Cybermen existed in Blackpool prior to its recovery from Hong Kong.
DWB issue 105 (September 1992) included this unlikely snippet:
They then refuted it in issue 107 (November 1992):
Although the detail about the fire was true, Ghana had never had prints of The Power of the Daleks or any Troughton stories, let alone screened them. According to BroaDWcast, this rumour “was later revealed to have been a silly hoax -- the perpetrators of this little bit of mischief had chosen Ghana as it was the most obscure place they could think of!”
Late 1992 saw the notorious ‘Roger Barrett’ hoax regards The Tenth Planet episode four, which seemed to take in everyone, including the BBC. The DWAS hastily added the following insert to their mailing of the October 1992 issue of CT:
It followed this up in the next issue (November 1992), boldly proclaiming:
The article added little to the previous stop press report. But the DWAS weren’t the only ones getting over-excited. Issue 44 (November 1992) of superior ‘90s fanzine Matrix elaborated on the alleged recovery and alluded to a rumour about the missing episodes of The Reign of Terror, stating they were “100% certain that”:
DWB 108 (December 1992) also reported the return of the episode:
However, due to fortuitous timing in the DWB production schedule, the news that the videotape handed over was blank reached the editor just in time for the inclusion of a last-minute correction:
It was an elaborate hoax. The next issue of CT (issue 190, December 1992) gave the same sad correction.
Yet, the very same article maintained an unfounded belief that the episode did indeed exist:
Let’s return briefly to the clever people of Mensa and Ice Hot Doctor issue 26 (late 1992), which contained some un-clever things about missing episodes, including a reference to the return of this episode. In the letters page a fan in Hereford reported that he had once met someone who made the ludicrous claim to have seen for sale at a comics convention a copy of The Ice Warriors – in colour! He also repeated the well-known myth that Nicholas Courtney had the missing episodes of The Invasion, which we covered previously.
The saga of episode four of The Tenth Planet rumbled on in the fanzine scene for several months. DWB issue 109 (January 1993) came to the same conclusion as CT that the episode did exist in private hands and revealed how they had been in contact with ‘Roger Barrett’ five years earlier and arranged to buy it from him/them (this, presumably, being the origin of their claim in issue 45 that they were 99% certain of the episode’s existence, which we covered last time), but he did not keep the rendezvous. They printed the following letters that arranged the abortive encounter:
Matrix had the chance to put right their earlier over-confidence but only repeated the mistake in issue 45 (Spring 1993), insisting that even if it had not been returned, they knew “for a fact” that the episode existed in the hands of a collector. Despite their dubious grounds, they went on to make some strong allegations:
The author’s confidence in this nonsense story, despite their acknowledgment of the paucity of evidence, underlines how unproved accounts were often passed off as definite fact because one fan liked or trusted the story they had heard from another. The Tenth Planet episode four had not been seen at private screenings run for profit and it remains unlikely that the episode exists in a collector’s hands.
Metamorph’s volume 2, issue 13 (Summer 1993) issue was a smorgasbord of rumours. A small article reported:
They even reported the location of the archive in which the prints could allegedly be found. Rhodesia had legitimately bought and screened the first 53 episodes of Doctor Who in the 1960s and none others until they picked up some Tom Baker episodes in the late 1970s. The black market in prints reported by the article is probably invention and it is highly unlikely there were ever any Troughton episodes in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe.
The same issue included a more substantial article about missing episodes which offered an update on the Tenth Planet hoax. It reported that ‘Roger Barrett’ (unnamed here) had informed the BBC Archive Selector that he had sold on his master film print of the episode. Hopes of its recovery were “dead as a duck” according to the writer’s source. The article went on to note scepticism that the BBC would pay a reward for future recoveries and that:
The article concluded with this parting shot:
We’ll call it a day there and polish off the 1990s next time. Meanwhile, please subscribe to receive that article and other updates direct to your email.
Images © the original writers or editors of the fanzines and are reproduced under the fair dealing provisions of copyright law. The photo of the second Doctor and Jamie is © BBC.
Thanks to Chris Arnsby, Tim Burrows and all the kind souls who shared their fanzines and scans with me.
Sources
The fanzines cited, of course. But the main sources regards missing episodes are:
Richard Molesworth, Wiped! Doctor Who’s Missing Episodes, 2nd edition (2013), available here.
BroaDWcast website, edited by Jon Preddle and John Lavalie.
The Missing Episodes Podcast by Tim Burrows, available from podcast platforms such as podbean.