Lots of good points joeysneddon, well put.
Once upon a time an attention seeker such as this may have spouted this sort of dopey nonsense in a pub, or perhaps put out his own fanzine, but it was so much easier to ignore such people.
Now we have the internet (and specifically Twitter, where you actually have people actively following what you say, regardless of the level of dopiness) and so it's so much easier to spread their stories and lies and rumours they made up. Once these have been retweeted or forwarded on a number of times the stories take on a life of their own and it becomes almost impossible to spot the truth amongst the nonsense.
He's a nice guy, but he doesn't have half as much information as he claims to. He's been stirring the omnirumour pot for about a year now and nothing he has "predicted" or "known" or "heard" come to pass.
His approach seems to be 'spray in all directions and hope something sticks so I can take credit'. He knows the BFI thing is on this week, so tweets an ambiguously worded reference to a missing episode. If it's announced, he can say that's what he meant - see, he has sources! If it's not he can say that's what he meant — cos he has sources, you know!
Either way, he will then get to claim credit for having "told" everyone beforehand what was happening (despite not) ergo they should believe him when he says something next time.
;-)
His new series info and hints are generally top notch, but yea it seems he knows as much as anyone else does about what is going on with the Missing Episodes
There is a fairly strong rumour going around on Twitter that three complete serials have been found in Australia. They are Marco Polo, The Power of the Daleks and The Evil of the Daleks.
Q: "have you found more missing episodes of Doctor Who?!! A simple yes or no would be fine."
A: "a tricky one to answer
And fans will just want a yes or no haven't you or have you. But its complex all I can say is the wind is blowing the right way be patient."
Also of interest, "the restoration team do the most stunning work im sure you all agree and they are good friends of mine . However due to the scale of the business T.i.e.a do restoration work inhouse with restored materials to exacting standards ."
Q: "have you found more missing episodes of Doctor Who?!! A simple yes or no would be fine."
A: "a tricky one to answer
And fans will just want a yes or no haven't you or have you. But its complex all I can say is the wind is blowing the right way be patient."
Also of interest, "the restoration team do the most stunning work im sure you all agree and they are good friends of mine . However due to the scale of the business T.i.e.a do restoration work inhouse with restored materials to exacting standards ."
This answer will go down well and be warmly received by everyone, I'm sure.
Q: "have you found more missing episodes of Doctor Who?!! A simple yes or no would be fine."
A: "a tricky one to answer
And fans will just want a yes or no haven't you or have you. But its complex all I can say is the wind is blowing the right way be patient."
Also of interest, "the restoration team do the most stunning work im sure you all agree and they are good friends of mine . However due to the scale of the business T.i.e.a do restoration work inhouse with restored materials to exacting standards ."
I wonder why he can't give a straight answer......Are they in a state of quantum uncertainty? Is he keeping them in a box with his cat?
One dismal interpretation would be that he has the cans but it's doubtful as to what can be usefully restored. I wonder, would people prefer to be told that, for instance, Power of the Daleks was retrieved but was found to be not restoreable, or be kept ignorant of how close it came to being returned.
This answer will go down well and be warmly received by everyone, I'm sure.
To be honest when I first heard about this Q&A I imagined a much more vague answer than even the one he gave.
With the answer he gave you would be left wondering what has gone wrong if no more episodes turn up. I am more confident than ever more are on the way at some point.
Q: "Is it still true that you have never found an unsalvageable episode of Doctor Who? Does part of your work include dealing and negotiating with private collectors?"
A: "Thats not true I did locate some b/w jon pertwee episodes that were mush . ambassador of death part two I think .Thankfully nothing that was missing."
An interesting but confusing Q&A session. On the one hand Phil suggests that keeping a low profile is important and that his face appearing across the media is not good for him when he's at the overseas stations. Which is understandable. But then he did a Q&A at the exact moment when the Missing Episodes rumours were at their lowest, as if to keep things bubbling along and to keep fans interest. I find that confusing, though I suppose it's a world of difference to keep fans interest to being on the news.
Q: "have you found more missing episodes of Doctor Who?!! A simple yes or no would be fine."
A: "a tricky one to answer
And fans will just want a yes or no haven't you or have you. But its complex all I can say is the wind is blowing the right way be patient."
Also of interest, "the restoration team do the most stunning work im sure you all agree and they are good friends of mine . However due to the scale of the business T.i.e.a do restoration work inhouse with restored materials to exacting standards ."
I wonder if the in-house restoration could be a way of charging the BBC for a legitimate service, seeing as the episodes themselves have always been BBC property?
I hate to say this, but I think I might be feeling a little sympathy for Mr Levine.
He shouldn't be doing Q&A sessions if he is also asking the fans to be patient and wait. If this is all some big complicated deal, just keep quiet yourself and have a low profile until you have something to say.
I wish I could sympathise with Levine but his childish tantrums are just too much already.
Yep, you're right. Let's just say I feel a little sympathy for his complaint, rather than the man.
I did laugh when I saw the story headline over at doctorwhoworldwide - "Phil Morris States No Announcements Forthcoming, New Information, Attacks Ian Levine"
I wonder why he can't give a straight answer......Are they in a state of quantum uncertainty? Is he keeping them in a box with his cat?
One dismal interpretation would be that he has the cans but it's doubtful as to what can be usefully restored. I wonder, would people prefer to be told that, for instance, Power of the Daleks was retrieved but was found to be not restoreable, or be kept ignorant of how close it came to being returned.
Another interpretation might be that he knows missing episodes to exist abroad but hasn't successfully negotiated for their return as yet.
Or else he may simple not want to confirm he has stuff back in his possession just in case this whole thing ends up in a nasty legal mess with him and the BBC ("You are to return all materials in your possession" type of thing).
But, yes, continually implying that *any* publicity is going to (somehow) damage recoveries and then holding a public Q&A session is rather a strange thing to do. Furthermore, since people are really only interested in one question (namely, "What have you found?") being vague and non-committal in answering that one question does rather render the whole exercise a waste of time.
However, presumably no announcement/s expected in the near future though, or it would have been easy to say, "Fans will only have to hold on for another couple of weeks [or months]."
I'm starting to wonder whether he's only got some episodes for certain stories and is in negotiation to complete these stories.
It's tempting to think that he might just turn up to an archive and find a missing story with all episodes intact. But, given that odd stray episodes have turned up previously, and that The Web Of Fear had a missing episode I'm wondering whether he's got a few incomplete stories that he's "working on".
If for example he'd secured episodes 2, 4, 6 and 7 of Marco Polo and was in negotiation to secure the rest then the hold up would make more sense as the BBC would no doubt prefer to release complete stories rather than ones with episodes missing.
That might also explain the hold up with The Underwater Menace.
Is anyone still buying the 'the animation is on hold because another job came in' excuse
I wonder whether he's either got a lead on one or both of the other missing episodes or is currently engaged in negotiations to secure them
Oh for goodness sake. It's a simple enough question. Either he has the episodes or he doesn't. It either falls into the yes or no category.
If the situation is that delicate or complex then don't hold a Q&A in the first place!
He could have contracts with Worldwide or Apple etc that demand secrecy; anyway saying Yes if there's nothing ready to go would have caused an online meltdown.
The point of the Q&A was clearly to say to people not to believe rumours that an announcement will happen in the near future.
Is anyone still buying the 'the animation is on hold because another job came in' excuse
I wonder whether he's either got a lead on one or both of the other missing episodes or is currently engaged in negotiations to secure them
Something like that has to be the case. Seriously. Otherwise, why would they not have released it as of yet with the animation. Right now, on the 2014 Classic DVD release thread, the Underwater Menace has been the very last item on the docket for months and we still don't have a date for it as of yet.
I'm starting to wonder whether he's only got some episodes for certain stories and is in negotiation to complete these stories.
It's tempting to think that he might just turn up to an archive and find a missing story with all episodes intact. But, given that odd stray episodes have turned up previously, and that The Web Of Fear had a missing episode I'm wondering whether he's got a few incomplete stories that he's "working on".
If for example he'd secured episodes 2, 4, 6 and 7 of Marco Polo and was in negotiation to secure the rest then the hold up would make more sense as the BBC would no doubt prefer to release complete stories rather than ones with episodes missing.
That might also explain the hold up with The Underwater Menace.
Is anyone still buying the 'the animation is on hold because another job came in' excuse
I wonder whether he's either got a lead on one or both of the other missing episodes or is currently engaged in negotiations to secure them
I'm thinking something similar. Here's my take:
There are several stories where 1 or 2 episodes have been found.
Enemy of the World & Web of Fear were the two finds resulting in either complete or almost complete stories -hence the decision:
-let's progress those ones forward for a 50th anniversary release, hold off on the others, try and find more episodes to complete (or almost complete these stories), once all avenues have well & truly been exhausted, then (in more likelihood than animate mostly incomplete stories), re-release "Lost in Time", (or do a "Lost in Time Too"). With this release, assuming episode 1 or 4 aren't found, then include The Underwater Menace episode 2 (rather than animate the two missing ones due to cost/ modest sales of The Moonbase).
..Hopefully I actually will live to see the day if this is on the money or not, & I'm thinking there's probably less certainty of that.
Comments
Once upon a time an attention seeker such as this may have spouted this sort of dopey nonsense in a pub, or perhaps put out his own fanzine, but it was so much easier to ignore such people.
Now we have the internet (and specifically Twitter, where you actually have people actively following what you say, regardless of the level of dopiness) and so it's so much easier to spread their stories and lies and rumours they made up. Once these have been retweeted or forwarded on a number of times the stories take on a life of their own and it becomes almost impossible to spot the truth amongst the nonsense.
His new series info and hints are generally top notch, but yea it seems he knows as much as anyone else does about what is going on with the Missing Episodes
Oh bloody hell, here we go again.
Thanks. That clears things up! I was getting worried that they would start charging extra to use iplayer!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/646394605395870/
A: "a tricky one to answer
And fans will just want a yes or no haven't you or have you. But its complex all I can say is the wind is blowing the right way be patient."
Also of interest, "the restoration team do the most stunning work im sure you all agree and they are good friends of mine . However due to the scale of the business T.i.e.a do restoration work inhouse with restored materials to exacting standards ."
This answer will go down well and be warmly received by everyone, I'm sure.
I wonder why he can't give a straight answer......Are they in a state of quantum uncertainty? Is he keeping them in a box with his cat?
One dismal interpretation would be that he has the cans but it's doubtful as to what can be usefully restored. I wonder, would people prefer to be told that, for instance, Power of the Daleks was retrieved but was found to be not restoreable, or be kept ignorant of how close it came to being returned.
To be honest when I first heard about this Q&A I imagined a much more vague answer than even the one he gave.
With the answer he gave you would be left wondering what has gone wrong if no more episodes turn up. I am more confident than ever more are on the way at some point.
By no means a confirmation that we'll ever get to see more episodes, but sounds like he's at least located something, whether he has it or not.
A: "Thats not true I did locate some b/w jon pertwee episodes that were mush . ambassador of death part two I think .Thankfully nothing that was missing."
Maybe there are more episodes out there, but we're clearly not going to be getting any solid information for the time being though.
He shouldn't be doing Q&A sessions if he is also asking the fans to be patient and wait. If this is all some big complicated deal, just keep quiet yourself and have a low profile until you have something to say.
I wish I could sympathise with Levine but his childish tantrums are just too much already.
Yep, you're right. Let's just say I feel a little sympathy for his complaint, rather than the man.
I did laugh when I saw the story headline over at doctorwhoworldwide - "Phil Morris States No Announcements Forthcoming, New Information, Attacks Ian Levine"
Another interpretation might be that he knows missing episodes to exist abroad but hasn't successfully negotiated for their return as yet.
Or else he may simple not want to confirm he has stuff back in his possession just in case this whole thing ends up in a nasty legal mess with him and the BBC ("You are to return all materials in your possession" type of thing).
But, yes, continually implying that *any* publicity is going to (somehow) damage recoveries and then holding a public Q&A session is rather a strange thing to do. Furthermore, since people are really only interested in one question (namely, "What have you found?") being vague and non-committal in answering that one question does rather render the whole exercise a waste of time.
However, presumably no announcement/s expected in the near future though, or it would have been easy to say, "Fans will only have to hold on for another couple of weeks [or months]."
It's tempting to think that he might just turn up to an archive and find a missing story with all episodes intact. But, given that odd stray episodes have turned up previously, and that The Web Of Fear had a missing episode I'm wondering whether he's got a few incomplete stories that he's "working on".
If for example he'd secured episodes 2, 4, 6 and 7 of Marco Polo and was in negotiation to secure the rest then the hold up would make more sense as the BBC would no doubt prefer to release complete stories rather than ones with episodes missing.
That might also explain the hold up with The Underwater Menace.
Is anyone still buying the 'the animation is on hold because another job came in' excuse
I wonder whether he's either got a lead on one or both of the other missing episodes or is currently engaged in negotiations to secure them
If the situation is that delicate or complex then don't hold a Q&A in the first place!
He could have contracts with Worldwide or Apple etc that demand secrecy; anyway saying Yes if there's nothing ready to go would have caused an online meltdown.
The point of the Q&A was clearly to say to people not to believe rumours that an announcement will happen in the near future.
Something like that has to be the case. Seriously. Otherwise, why would they not have released it as of yet with the animation. Right now, on the 2014 Classic DVD release thread, the Underwater Menace has been the very last item on the docket for months and we still don't have a date for it as of yet.
I'm thinking something similar. Here's my take:
There are several stories where 1 or 2 episodes have been found.
Enemy of the World & Web of Fear were the two finds resulting in either complete or almost complete stories -hence the decision:
-let's progress those ones forward for a 50th anniversary release, hold off on the others, try and find more episodes to complete (or almost complete these stories), once all avenues have well & truly been exhausted, then (in more likelihood than animate mostly incomplete stories), re-release "Lost in Time", (or do a "Lost in Time Too"). With this release, assuming episode 1 or 4 aren't found, then include The Underwater Menace episode 2 (rather than animate the two missing ones due to cost/ modest sales of The Moonbase).
..Hopefully I actually will live to see the day if this is on the money or not, & I'm thinking there's probably less certainty of that.
https://twitter.com/archives1963/status/491558875636961280
Thanks for a split second I was excited. Then I realised its probably just another dig at Ian Levine.