I have just picked up a DVD that presents fragments and partial episodes of "lost" episodes of the old Patrick Troughton DOCTOR WHO episodes. Honestly, lost is not an accurate word as the films were not lost. They were destroyed and burned as a result of a lame attempt to save space in the BBC vaults. Apparently, some idiot decided that more space was needed and the MASTER TAPES of HUNDRED AND HUNDREDS of hours of classic and rare footage of wonderful BBC programming and history were destroyed. Forever.

Well, every once in a while a copy of one of the missing episodes turns up in the form of an export 16mm print that was shipped to Australia, Hong Kong, etc for local airings. (BTW - for those who read my previous entry on THE AVENGERS let it be known the first season which was shot on video tape was destroyed except for a couple episodes)

This is such a lamentable situation because there was truly no reason for these episodes to be destroyed, but they were...(Thankfully, this rarely occurred in American TV history, but famous examples include the massive erasure of a decade's worth of TONIGHT SHOW footage and the "lost" episodes of the HONEYMOONER'S that were ventually found.

It was clear the the time that those in charge of the BBC saw no future were international syndication or cable TV existed. It was a foolish move that was mercifully put a stop to circa 1978. However, much damage has been done and so much classic British TV is no longer with us.

One question I ask myself is why did they burn the footage? Why didn't they just offer the old 16mm films to people who would like to collect it? Or to libraries? Or universities?

More the pity when you stop to think about it