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[paulryan]

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/celebritynews/3478966/Doctor-Who-tapes-missing-in-Thailand.html

Doctor Who tapes 'missing in Thailand'
Nine missing episodes of Doctor Who have been tracked down to Thailand.

Last Updated: 6:53PM GMT 18 Nov 2008

The BBC wiped dozens of episodes of the sci-fi serial during the 1960s and 1970s to make space in its archives.

However, some tapes thought lost forever have turned up in different corners of the world, having been shipped there by the BBC for broadcast on foreign television networks.

Researcher Damian Finucane claims to have traced nine early episodes to Thailand, including the seven-part Journey To Cathay serial in which the time-travelling Doctor joined Marco Polo on the Silk Route. They were sent for broadcast on the country's now-defunct Channel 4 in 1967.

Mr Finucane is offering a cash reward to anyone who knows the whereabouts of the missing tapes.

"Records show that nine episodes from Doctor Who were shipped to Bangkok, and now we're looking for anybody who has any information about it," he told the Bangkok Post.

"There are at least a few thousand episodes of Doctor Who, but we are still missing 108 of them and nine may still survive in Thailand. We're looking all over the place to recover what we can.

"We don't mind if you have them on VHS or on film, and we don't care if it has been dubbed into Thai. We just need to find them. Doctor Who has great historical and cultural value - the missing episodes are a lost heritage."

Mr Finucane has contacted several Thai television stations and scoured the National Film Archive of Thailand, but to no avail.

Interesting. I'd assume the other two might be the two missing parts of The Reign of Terror, given their closest in production proximity to Marco Polo. Given the rampant piracy in Thailand (and that's not a racist dig, I've travelled there and it is literally everywhere), it wouldn't surprise me if an episode did turn up on VHS really.

Here's hoping Damien recovers something, anything really!

[douglaswulf]

It is quite useful that this story has made the news in the Thai press...


www.bangkokpost.com/181108_News/18Nov2008_news10.php


TELEVISION

Dr Who hunted in Thailand
KONG RITHDEE

Tuesday November 18, 2008


The hasty deletion of audio-visual material by the BBC has resulted in a global hunt for lost cultural treasures that involve Thailand. Researcher Damian Finucane arrived in Bangkok earlier this month to track down nine episodes of the legendary British TV series Dr Who that were sent to be broadcast on Thailand's now-defunct Channel 4 in 1967.

''Records show that nine episodes from the Dr Who and The Journey to Cathay series were shipped to Bangkok, and now we're looking for anybody who has any information about it,'' said Mr Finucane.

Dr Who, a programme which features a time traveller and his adventures, is the world's longest-running TV science fiction series, having started in 1963.

In the late 1960s, the BBC destroyed the original 16mm film of many episodes to clear space in its archives.

''There are at least a few thousand episodes of Dr Who, but we are still missing 108 of them and nine may still survive in Thailand,'' said Mr Finucane.

''We're looking all over the place to recover what we can.

''We don't mind if you have them on VHS or on film, and we don't care if it has been dubbed into Thai,

''We just need to find them. We are even offering a cash reward,'' he added.

Mr Finucane has contacted several Thai TV stations, without luck.

Ironically, Mr Finucane also went to the National Film Archive of Thailand, an agency suffering a severe lack of funding and space to keep Thai audio-visual material. He found nothing there either.

''Dr Who has a great historical cultural value _ the missing episodes are a lost heritage,'' said Mr Finucane.

''If we ignore the archiving and conserving of important films and TV programmes, it will be difficult to keep them as historical references,'' said Dome Sukhavong, an historian at the Thai Film Archive.

''We're in a much worse situation than the BBC.''

[Brian Wilson]

Excellent piece of publicity from one of our team. It was the piece I wrote for Yesterday Singapore that brought our forum to the attention of Damian earlier this year, at which point he told me he would be visiting Thailand and Singapore this month.

Damian met with the archivists of the National Film Archive in Thailand who put him in touch with a journalist from the Bangkok Post. The story was initially printed in the Bangkok Post and then picked up by the Daily Telegraph. Since then the story has generated a lot of further publicity:

The Australian MX (19 Nov 2008) - I think this might be a free Australian newspaper - it is distributed at all the major train stations according to a poster on another forum.

DR WHO SERIES THAI-ED UP

A search for nine missing episodes of BBC's legendary Dr Who series, the world's longest running science-fiction show that started in 1963, has led researchers to Thailand.
Nine episodes from Dr Who series that were shipped to Bangkok in 1967 are among 108 episodes lost when the BBC destroyed the original film in the late 1960s.
The BBC public appeal in the Bangkok post said the episodes could be on VHS, film or dubbed.

The story has also been featured in The Courier Mail in Brisbane, Australia.

TheWest Australian. Link:

www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=5&ContentID=108761

The story has also been picked up by various online sites;

varietyasiaonline.com/index.php?option=com_myblog&show=DR.-WHO-THAILAND-BOLLYWOOD.html&Itemid=99999999

At around 7:15 (19 Nov 2008) on BBC Radio 2 Sarah Kennedy covered the story from The Daily Telegraph - seeming to suggest that 9 missing episodes had been found in Thailand.

This is just the sort of publicity we need. It really is the best card we can play to get some missing episodes back to the archives and our tv screens. Fingers crossed.

Brian.

[paulryan]

Nov 22, 2008 15:45:45 GMT Brian Wilson said:

The Australian MX (19 Nov 2008) - I think this might be a free Australian newspaper - it is distributed at all the major train stations according to a poster on another forum.

Brian.

Yep, MX is a free afternoon paper distributed in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. My eyes near popped out of my head when I saw the story run there. Pretty much everyone who takes the trains home in the afternoon reads it. Great publicity!

[Brian Wilson]

This was printed on p.52 of The Guardian on Saturday 22nd November 2008.

[Brian Wilson]

Many thanks to paulryan for scanning the article that appeared in The Australian MX (19 Nov 2008);