Because he bloody well is an authority, an author of numerous Who novels and works of non-fiction, with excellent connections with other professional Who authors and people on the production team.
He also tweeted that he got his info from the twitter. But the story had already leaked by that time.
He posted that to back off from his initial Facebook post, because people were sharing it like crazy on Facebook.
Thank you. Wonderful to see. It seemed we were about at the end of the line for recoveries when the last two turned up in 2011. As for the write up on iTunes... Shouldn't the write up have started with a (hopefully) captivating summary/blurb about the actual content, then maybe go on about the rest? Even so, what they might have said could be along the lines of, for example: "Recovered after over 40 years absence from the BBC..." Or if they wanted more detail: "Painstakingly remastered from the black and white film masters for overseas broadcast recently recovered in Africa after over 40 years absence from the BBC..." Accurate and easier for all parties. Instead they say more than they can understand or disclose accurately. "Ten episodes were discovered through the tracking records of shipments made by the BBC to Africa that contained tapes for transmission." They had already told the press there were eleven discovered, nine of which were missing - not in either case ten. We also know they weren't tapes, they were films. Which they then go on to contradict themselves by saying, in "remastered ... from the original black and white 1960s film," which is also erroneous because the films are telerecordings, not the original elements, which were tapes. The BBC didn't send them, a distribution company did. Further, it's doubtful they were discovered following the paper trail, which had already been persued over 30 years ago, but rather through physical searches of the contents of a number of stores of foreign stations / distributors. Pendantics perhaps, but all too typical. No wonder customers get confused!
downloading The Web Of Fear right now!!!!!!!!! I haven't been this excited since I was a teenager during Christmas missing Who from the 60's - my holy grail!!!! what a wonderful day to be alive
Apparently Web of Fear is uncensored, making it all that much more of a fantastic find as many of the previously 'lost' episodes have various censor cuts: http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2013...and-the-web-of-fear--what-makes-them-so-great The official UK Enemy DVD is to be released in late November and Web sometime in the new year. Hopefully USA releases won't be far behind. I'm downloading both Web and Enemy from iTunes as I type. What a great day to be a Doctor Who fan!
A trailer is up and everything!!! Why can't music re-releases come out this fast!!!!! https://itunes.apple.com/au/tv-season/doctor-who-enemy-world/id704921951 https://itunes.apple.com/au/tv-season/doctor-who-the-web-of-fear/id704945256
isn't it great!!!! I downloaded the 2 serials.... now they're just sitting on my hard drive..... taunting me! (it's 3pm.... I have to hold out til tonight )
I'm not a fan of the series (meaning I've never really watched it apart from a few stray 4th Doctor episodes on PBS back in the 70's), but I do know the thrill of being able to finally see previously-lost films. I'm really happy for those Doctor Who fans who do love the show, and the trailer posted above might make me cave in and buy the episodes myself. For something recovered from 16mm films, the picture quality looks quite good.
you should! but if special effects, fast editing, fancy production values and "relationship issues" are your thing, you won't enjoy it. but if fantasy, imagination, suspending disbelief and actual CHARACTERS (with all their faults and quirks) appeals to you - you'll see a fantastic TV program.
Well, I splurged for the massive Dark Shadows coffin set last year - having never seen an episode before, so I'm not averse to 60's videotape productions. Some of the Dark Shadows episodes only exist now as kinescopes, and they look dismal compared to the video masters. I was therefore pleasantly surprised to see how good the recovered Doctor Who episodes appear.
I just looked at the iTunes trailer, and went a bit light-headed. Announced and released on the same day? Oh, my giddy Aunt!
I'm impressed by your willpower! I couldn't wait and downloaded all 12 eps, even though I already have 2 of them on DVD
16mm telerecordings (kinescopes), at that. Even if one isn't sure about getting into the old series, I do make a general suggestion for seeing the very first episode*. It's a piece of TV history which has that certain indefineable spark of being truly original. * - An Unearthly Child. First episode, not the whole first 4-episode story; the following 3 are not so good nor essential. Also, the first episode was shot twice as they wanted to polish it a bit; either will do but if given convenient choice, I'd actually suggest the first so-called "pilot" version. I'm with you in spirit there. However I'm a bit curious at the suggestion by Ian Levine that BBC may be judging the degree of further investment in the recoveries by the sales of these downloads; the implications are a bit troubling and I'm not sure he'd be one to be shilling for their sales figures so to speak. If there is anything to it, one hopes they'll also factor in DVD preorders. The new version of those 2 might look better, especially if you're watching on a computer based display, LCD and such rather than a CRT.
In the US iTunes store, you can buy the six-part serials for $9.99 - or each segment for $1.99. So, they are less than $10 each.
Hopefully we'll soon find out if there's any validity behind rumors that rare Beatles materials was recovered in this cache as well.
