Reflections on 50 or “How I Learned to Relax and Love the Omni-Rumour”
It was June of this year that I got my first sniff of the
so-called Doctor Who “Missing Episodes Omni-Rumour,” when a twitterer calling
himself “Rogue Cyberman” offered a pile of cash for information leading to the
recovery of any of the missing believed wiped episodes of 1960’s Doctor Who. Indeed, he claimed to be in contact with
someone who had most of the missing stories in his possession and was planning
viewing parties. Ultimately, Rogue
turned out to be a hoaxer, but through him I discovered the missing episodes
forum on Gallifrey Base, a place I would lurk almost every day, and occasionally even write a post!
But wait, lets go back a bit, to a better time. A time before the internet, before DVD,
before rumours could spread around the world in a matter of minutes, a time
when I first learned about a quaint little British science fiction programme
called Doctor Who, lets go back to the early 1980’s…
The long, winding path weaved through the dark, gloomy,
shadow mottled park, that I walked everyday on my way to and from school. On one of these protracted hikes I was
joined by a school chum who told me about a TV show he had just discovered, a
“cool science fiction show from England on PBS.” He waxed eloquently , or as eloquently as was possible for a seventh
grader, about this curly haired alien with his crazy-long, multi-coloured scarf
who travelled through space and time in his blue police box. I was intrigued. I always enjoyed science fiction, and back in the 1980’s this was
not something one usually mentioned out-loud, as the “geek-chic” revolution was
still a good twenty years away. To say
you were a sci-fi fan in the ‘80’s was like giving the assholes and bullies an
open invitation to ridicule and attack, and I already had my hand’s full at
that school from the bullies, (and even one particular teacher) as I was the
“new kid from the States,” and didn’t need to give them another excuse to hate
and assault me.
The rest of the walk home I found myself thinking about
it, determined to catch an episode that very night if I could. That evening I raced through my homework,
and when the time came I pushed in the chrome power button on the 1970’s era
Zenith colour television. I twisted the
knob to channel 2 and sat back. From
the creepy opening theme, to the final musical sting of the cliff-hanger, I was
hooked. I wanted more, and more I would
get.

Back in July I found myself lurking on the Gallifrey Base
forums and I found the “Missing Episodes Megathread” which at the time was 11
parts long (it’s now well into its 36th part). The buzz on this tread was the rumour that
90 previously missing episodes of 1960’s Doctor Who had been found. The rumour stated at the time that all
missing William Hartnell stories and most missing Patrick Troughton stories
were now complete. To a fan like
myself, who had long since accepted the fact there were some Doctor Who stories
I was just never going to see, this news was absolutely mind blowing. It was too good to be true. Which was why, after the initial shock, and
excitement had worn off, I didn’t believe it.
I mean how could I? Nearly every
episode of ‘60’s Doctor Who back in the archives? At worst someone was playing a massive, cruel hoax, at best maybe
someone got the wrong end of the stick.
But slowly, and surely the more I read, the more cautiously optimistic I
became, especially about the part of the rumour that seemed the most
consistent; that Marco Polo, The Enemy of the World, and The Web of
Fear, the missing believed wiped 4th, 40th, and 41st
serials respectively, had been not only recovered, but were being prepared for
a DVD release before the end of the year!
I checked the thread every day, obsessively for any scrap of information
about when these stories might be in my hot little hands, but the more I read,
the less I believed. The amount of real
information was few and far between, and the amount of anger, back biting and
geek on geek violence seemed to be at an all time high when I finally gave up
and abandoned the Missing Episodes thread lurking, for the sake of my own
sanity. If real information was coming,
I would sit back and let it come to me.
At last I could relax. This was
the beginning of October. Less than
two weeks later the BBC announced that the previously missing stories, The
Enemy of the World and The Web of Fear (sadly still missing it’s 3rd
episode), had been returned to the BBC archives and would be released exclusively
on iTunes that very week. Suddenly it
was real, rumour was fact, and that very weekend I found myself watching
something I never thought I’d ever get a chance to see.
![]() |
The Region 1 Limited Edition DVD Release |
So what does this mean for the rest of the Omni-Rumour? Is it true? False?
A hoax? A massive
misunderstanding? Who knows! However right this minute Doctor Who fans
have nine more episodes to enjoy that they did at the beginning of the 50th
anniversary year, and that in itself has made this a very good year for fandom
indeed.
I still would love to see me some Marco Polo
though…But i suppose time will tell, it always does.
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