Doctor Who in Australia - Lost Episodes

Lost Episodes

Since some states differed in their school holiday dates, the ABC had no alternative but to have multiple copies of some of the early 16mm format episodes for different states. Hence it was hoped by fans in the 1990s that copies of episodes deemed lost by the BBC, might yet be found in Australia, having been mis-shelved in the various state based offices of the ABC. The agreement with the BBC required that all such episodes should be destroyed or returned, although it is known that some were souvenired by staff, since at least five ended up in the hand of a private collector, and three were seen by some Sydney fans in the 1970s. But despite these, and a few episodes turning up in the ABC in the 1990s, nothing new has since come to light (as of Mar. 2009). The ABC archive went through a major review following the closure of the ABC's old Sydney studio headquarters at Gore Hill, and many "lost" film and video resources were rediscovered and the ABC has also begun the process of archiving old film and video materials in digital format (such as segments from the 1970s pop music series GTK, which are now available for viewing on the ABC's YouTube channel. However, no new Doctor Who finds have been reported to date, and if anything more is likely to be found it will be during this enormous sorting and conversion process, which may take years, depending on the resources available.