097 TO GO

Can we write about something else now, please...? How about something which, under normal circumstances, would have made me very happy indeed (There would very probably have been a dance. It would have been a very little dance, and no doubt resembled the embarrassing dancing of a kind usually done by all the dads in the world, but a dance nevertheless...) and which still managed to bring a smile to my face in the midst of all of the anxiety and woe which I've been explaining to you over the past few days.

You may not remember this post which I once wrote from December 2011...

http://m-a-w-h.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/106-to-go.html

Anyway, after an emotional roller-coaster of a week, it was finally announced (after months of rumour and speculation, claim and counter-claim, and sometimes flat denial) that a number of those rather precious pieces of archive television had indeed been discovered, and that the tally of episodes of "Doctor Who" that could still be referred to as "missing" had dropped to... ninety-seven.

Under three digits for the first time in, oh whenever...

You can't, I imagine, understand what this might mean to a long-standing fan like I am. Wanting to be able to see those episodes has been a dream long since I first discovered the programme itself, way back in the early 1970s, and hoping that they might turn up again one day has become something of a small obsession to a dedicated few, even though I'm sure the vast majority of people will still be wondering quite what all of the fuss is about.

For much of the week, however, since a version of the story broke in the Sunday newspapers, there was still the worrying possibility that it might all be a cruel hoax, and, whilst that notion that one of the papers first suggested that ALL 106 had been found had to be dismissed as the mere fantasies of an over-enthusiastic journalist, there was still the possibility that SOMETHING had been found, with speculation still suggesting that it might be as many as ninety of them.

That still seemed rather fanciful, to be honest, and, because this rumour had been doing the rounds for quite a few months now, there was a certain amount of cynicism amongst the bitter few who had had their hopes raised time and again, only to have them dashed.

Perhaps AN episode had shown up...? Or maybe it was just a rehash of the story of the discovery of those two orphan episodes two years ago...? Or maybe it was a couple to complete a half-lost story...? Or maybe, just maybe...

But I don't think that I ever expected an ENTIRE story from the much-ravaged Patrick Troughton era to show up, and alongside it, enough episodes from a story long considered to be a stone-cold classic to make it actually possible to watch most of it, and yet "The Enemy of the World" and four previously "lost" episodes from "The Web of Fear" are now safely "home" again...

In the end, of course, nine isn't ninety but, dammit, it IS nine and the fact that, at the time of the 50th anniversary of the programme, the work of David Whitaker, Barry Letts, Douglas Camfield and Nicholas Courtney has resurfaced does have some kind of poetry about it, as if the universe, just this once, decided that it was time to give those of us who really love this show a little gift.

Those four names may not be household ones generally, but to those of us who have grown up learning to appreciate the subtleties and nuances of this strange little television show that we seem to adore, those four names are amongst the Giants. David Whitaker, the writer of "The Enemy of the World" was the original script-editor of the series in 1963 and did much to shape the show into what it became during its early years. Barry Letts, who directed it, went on to be the series' producer throughout most of the Jon Pertwee era and was responsible for casting Tom Baker in the role.

Douglas Camfield directed "The Web of Fear" and was one of both the industry in general and Doctor Who in particular's very best directors whose name is still revered even though he died in 1984. Nicholas Courtney was the actor who played the Brigadier for so many years - see also http://m-a-w-h-writers.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/chap-with-wings-for-mr-courtney.html for a small tribute I wrote at the time of his death - and is one of the actors whose lack of a presence at the party might have been most keenly felt.

So, there they are. Another nine episodes found, representing a discovery of a full eight percent of what was once thought perhaps lost forever, because, to be honest, I had pretty much convinced myself in recent years that the last find really was most probably the proverbial "it" and no more of those "lost treasures" were ever likely to resurface after all this time...

So, when will I get around to watching them? Well, some time, I suppose, whenever it is that they turn up on DVD. I can wait. After all, I've already been waiting a very long time and these really are going to be moments to savour when the opportunity finally arises. I know that I could download them today if I wanted to, but I think I'll wait. Believe me, I know that I can wait for the DVDs to actually see them. After all, I've still not yet seen one of the ones which turned up two years ago, but, for an old soppy-boots like me, it's just good to know they're there...

97 to go...!