1974 Recall - Revision history

Jon Preddle at 04:48, 10 May 2019

2019-05-10T04:48:30Z

Jon Preddle at 21:34, 5 December 2015

2015-12-05T21:34:10Z

Jon Preddle at 21:54, 24 November 2014

2014-11-24T21:54:41Z

Jon Preddle at 23:10, 23 November 2014

2014-11-23T23:10:48Z

Jon Preddle: Created page with "THE 1974 RECALL? {{TOC right}} The tables on the Bicycling Chains page indicate '''possible''' routes that the film prints t..."

2014-11-23T23:08:04Z

Created page with "<span style="font-size:200%;">THE 1974 RECALL?</span> {{TOC right}} The tables on the Bicycling Chains page indicate '''possible''' routes that the film prints t..."

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 [[File:Straits25-11-87.jpg|right|thumb|250px|Fire at ATV, as reported in a Singapore newspaper dated 25 November 1987]]
 *'''[[Cyprus]]''' had been in the middle of a civil war and was then invaded by Turkey in July 1974, so sending back film prints was hardly a priority. The political instability continued for a number of years; the '''Doctor Who''' prints were found and returned in 1984…
-*The episodes that later surfaced in '''[[Nigeria]]''' in 1984 were not sent back to London in 1974 probably because at that time the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigerian_Television_Authority NTA] was in the early stages of being set up, and while stations were instructed to send their film holdings to a centralised storage facility after screening, some did not do so immediately. BPTV in Jos had not yet screened the 24 episodes they had, so those would not have been included in the recall. But the prints should have been sent to the NTA after screening in 1975, but some of them – [[The Enemy of the World]] and five episodes from [[The Web of Fear]] at least - weren't. (The still-missing third episode of [[The Web of Fear]] may have been sent to the NTA in 1975 along with the other prints that BPTV had.) The NTA was in a bit of a shambles for the first few years of existence, so it is only expected that the inventory of what was held was in a poor state, which was how [[The Web Planet]], [[The Time Meddler]] and [[The War Machines]] (from the 1973 MidWest station broadcasts) came to be found together at the NTA in 1984…
+*The episodes that later surfaced in '''[[Nigeria]]''' in 1984 were not sent back to London in 1974 probably because at that time the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigerian_Television_Authority NTA] was in the early stages of being set up, and while stations were instructed to send their film holdings to a centralised storage facility after screening, some did not do so immediately. BPTV in Jos had not yet screened the 24 episodes they had, so those would not have been included in the recall. But the prints should have been sent to the NTA after screening in 1975, but some of them – [[The Enemy of the World]] and [[The Web of Fear]] at least - weren't. The NTA was in a bit of a shambles for the first few years of existence, so it is only expected that the inventory of what was held was in a poor state, which was how [[The Web Planet]], [[The Time Meddler]] and [[The War Machines]] (from the 1973 MidWest station broadcasts) came to be found together at the NTA in 1984…
 *In the mid-1990s, a station in '''Africa''' contacted the BBC asking what to do with episodes of '''Doctor Who'''. After establishing that what was held included episodes from seasons one and two (and possibly others as well), the unhelpful receptionist told the caller that the episodes were not wanted and to destroy them. It's highly likely that it was the NTA that called, in which case the circumstances behind the retention of the ex-RKTV prints would be the same for MidWest and BPTV noted above.
 *The '''[[Australia|Australian]]''' print of [[The Celestial Toymaker]] part 4 was retained due to being misfiled at the bond store where all the ABC's print were held, as we've noted [[Australia#Fate_of_the_Prints.3F|here]]. It was found again in 1984…

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 *By the '''end of 1975''' only four Hartnell ({{N}}, {{Q}}, {{S}} and {{T}}) and eight Troughton stories ({{QQ}} to {{ZZ}}, but not {{UU}} and {{WW}}) still had broadcast rights to play out and/or Minor quota left to sell, although it appears that no further sales of those twelve serials eventuated beyond the 1976 sale of {{XX}}, {{YY}} and {{ZZ}} to [[Zambia]].
-*By the '''end of 1976''', those twelve had also expired. At the time of pre-production on the '''Lively Arts / Whose Doctor Who''' documentary in November 1976, the few positive prints still held at the BBC's film library and at Enterprises was all that was left of the incomplete serials that had slowly trickled back from overseas (and which couldn't be junked until each set was complete?).
+*By the '''end of 1976''', those twelve had also expired. At the time of pre-production on the '''Lively Arts / [[Whose Doctor Who]]''' documentary in November 1976, the few positive prints still held at the BBC's film library and at Enterprises was all that was left of the incomplete serials that had slowly trickled back from overseas (and which couldn't be junked until each set was complete?).
 *By '''early 1978''' the BBC was taping up the first of the remaining batch of season one negatives ready for destruction, a state in which Ian Levine had found [[The Daleks]] when he visited BBC Enterprises. (No wayward negatives have ever surfaced; is this because they were all "spaghettified" and not disposed of intact on easy to steal reels?)

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 *The NZBC had already destroyed its copies of [[The Reign of Terror]] back in '''June 1971'''; that's seven years after its UK broadcast. That NZ destroyed the prints in that year strongly suggests that all the other "end of the chain" countries that still had that serial in their possession were also requested to destroy or return the prints. [[Ethiopia]] was the last country to screen the story (in July 1971; a late sale probably to use up the sales "quota" that remained before the serial expired that same year). In terms of the new tables, only the prints that were used last in [[Thailand]], [[Kenya]] and [[Ethiopia]] have not been accounted for. If those three countries returned, destroyed or retained their prints of [[The Reign of Terror]], then they'd likely have done the same with all the other film prints they ended up with.
 *'''''HYPOTHESIS''''': ''To ensure that its obligations to the rights holders were upheld, the BBC had to remove all copies from worldwide circulation and thus requested the recall of ALL prints held overseas that had not yet been destroyed. The films did after all belong to the BBC; broadcasters merely leased them. This was implemented to not only account for all copies but also to ensure that no "out of contract" screenings could occur. (It is known that some African countries, such as [[Rhodesia]], operated a sort of "Black Market" trade for British television programmes, but this usually applied to programmes recorded on tape during broadcast in the UK with the video tapes then smuggled into Africa. But the complete removal of film prints from circulation was at least one way of ensuring this market was deprived of its supply.)''
-*[[The Macra Terror]] had expired by '''June 1974''', hence NZBC destroying its prints later that month. The screening rights to season five expired during 1973 or 1974 (for instance, the rights to air [[The Web of Fear]] expired on 21 March 1974). Later that same year, and at the BBC's behest, the NZBC began destroying or junking its expired film holdings (including [[The Crusade]], an episode of which was saved from its fate, and returned to the BBC in 1999).
+*[[The Macra Terror]] had expired by '''June 1974''', hence NZBC destroying its prints later that month. The screening rights to season five expired during 1973 or 1974 (for instance, the rights to air [[The Web of Fear]] expired on 31 March 1974). Later that same year, and at the BBC's behest, the NZBC began destroying or junking its expired film holdings (including [[The Crusade]], an episode of which was saved from its fate, and returned to the BBC in 1999).
 *Also '''during 1974''', the BBC made a last-ditch effort to use up the remaining Minor Commonwealth quota (see explanation above) that was still in hand on some Troughton stories: this is why [[The Abominable Snowmen]], [[The Enemy of the World]], [[The Web of Fear]], [[The Wheel in Space]], [[The Dominators]], [[The Krotons]], [[The Seeds of Death]], [[The Space Pirates]] and [[The War Games]] were flogged off (cheaply?!) to [[Nigeria]] and [[Zambia]] between 1974 and 1976. (The BBC probably approached them with the offer rather than the broadcasters approaching the BBC.) (One of the two stories missing from that grouping – [[The Mind Robber]] – had already been withdrawn; a similar situation presumably applied also to [[The Invasion]], hence neither being offered to Africa.)
 *And being aware that these ''were'' the final sales of those stories, the BBC was able to issue "destroy / return after screening" instructions to [[Nigeria]] and [[Zambia]] in advance. (The final "back catalogue" sale of the season three and four stories to [[Singapore]] in 1972 would have come with the same post-transmission condition.)

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 ==Links==
-*[[Bicycle Chains]] Introduction
+*[[Chains Intro|Bicycling Chains]] Introduction
 *[[Old Chains]] (previous version of the chains)
 *[[New Chains]] (revised version of the chains)