The Invasion is Coming - More Cool Doctor Who News

My lord, am I out of touch on things! I completely missed this news the first time around.

Where to begin? At the beginning? Why not?

Back in the day, the BBC was having space issues in their video tape archives. They opted to erase (or junk) a substantial amount of their shows. After all, who would ever want to watch any of those old things, anyways?

Unfortunately, among the shows junked were quite a few Doctor Who serials. These episodes (listed here) are believed to be lost forever. Every now and then someone somewhere will stumble across a clip or, in rare cases, a whole episode. However, for the longest time Doctor Who fans (Whovians) had to accept the fact that they would never experience these stories outside of the novelizations done by Target. (The publishing company, not the store chain. Though that would be cool...)

Here is where the story gets interesting. As VCRs and DVD players did not exist in the 50's and 60's, Whovians had to use different means to record there shows. Namely through audio tape. Thus many of the missing episodes soundtracks were preserved while the whole originals were being junked.

The BBC in 1999 began releasing the stories on CD. These releases contained the original sound track, plus linking narration performed by actors from the series. I have one of these CDs: The Web of Fear. While not quite the same as an old-time radio program, I enjoyed the show immensely and wish I had picked up more.

Now we reach the cool part.

Now we reach the cool part.

The BBC plans to release the Doctor Who serial “The Invasion” on DVD, first in Great Britain then, presumable the US and the rest of the world. This particular story was only slightly junked while the others were being destroyed. Of its seven episodes, two are missing.

I didn't have much interest in this news at first. I own “The Tenth Planet” on tape, which also suffered a partial junking. Its missing episode was replicated by soundtrack and various photos and clips. I was not impressed. I was glad I got the show and all, but the whole thing was a bit disruptive of the whole viewing experience.

Today, however, I learned that the BBC had a much different idea for “The Invasion.” They have had an animation studio called Cosgrove Hall recreate the missing episodes using animation and the aforementioned soundtracks. A trailer of sorts can be found here for the interested.

Now I've seen some of Cosgrove Halls work before, and I can't say that I was impressed then or by the trailer now. Also, going from animation episode to video taped episode will no doubt be jarring. That can't be helped.

All of this is irrelevant, as we are getting new old school Doctor Who. “The Invasion” is, by all accounts, classic Who and I'm dying to see it. More, there might be a chance of further efforts along these lines, especially for stories that have been completely junked. I would love to see stuff like “Galaxy Four”, “The Macra Terror”, and “The Daleks' Masterplan” receive this sort of treatment. It would be...

Well, it would be WAY cool.

More information on the junking of Doctor Who can be found here. A list of the missing episodes and stories can be found here. And, once more, the trailer for “The Invasion” can be found here.