Image description: a screenshot from the Wikipedia page for the Doctor Who TV series, with a user-added caption that reads “Preserve the media you can before it’s gone forever.” The Wikipedia article reads, “No 1960s episodes exist on their original videotapes (all surviving prints being film transfers), though some were transferred to film for editing before transmission and exist in their broadcast form. [88] Some episodes have been returned to the BBC from the archives of other countries that bought prints for broadcast or by private individuals who acquired them by various means. Early colour videotape recordings made off-air by fans have also been retrieved, as well as excerpts filmed from the television screen onto 8 mm cine film and clips that were shown on other programmes. Audio versions of all lost episodes exist from home viewers who made tape recordings of the show. Short clips from every story with the exception of Marco Polo (1964), “Mission to the Unknown” (1965) and The Massacre (1966) also exist.”

  • helenslunch@feddit.nl
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    arrow-down
    10
    ·
    1 year ago

    Sorry to be that guy but if the tapes were never preserved it’s probably because nobody cared…

    • Tangentism@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      24
      ·
      1 year ago

      The BBC stupidly recycled the tapes because they didn’t give much credence at the time to how important their archive would become.

      • UKFilmNerd@feddit.uk
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        9
        ·
        1 year ago

        This was a common practice, especially during a certain decade but I forget which. Old tapes were erased to be used again. No thought was given to preserving what was being wiped.

    • 520@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      People absolutely do care. These lost media include the origins of shows that are still relevant today. But backups weren’t exactly treated with much care until relatively recently.