Things are not always plain-sailing in the world of Doctor Who. Let’s take a look at some of the Whoniverse’s biggest problems, and see if we can’t resolve them…
The rights to An Unearthly Child
If you’ve been on iPlayer recently, you may have noticed that the very first Doctor Who adventure is missing from the library. At the time of writing, the BBC isn’t allowed to include this story on the platform owing to a rights dispute with the estate of the story’s writer, Anthony Coburn. Until this disagreement is resolved, it is unlikely that we’ll get to see ‘An Unearthly Child’ released on home media in the foreseeable future – if ever.
Basically, if you already own this adventure on DVD, guard it with your life – it’s in danger of becoming lost media. At the same time, don’t lose hope. Strangely, ‘An Unearthly Child’ is still available in certain formats, such as in download form on Amazon Prime. And there is always a possibility that the two parties can come to a settlement.
Of course, we don’t know the ins and outs of the dispute so it’s not easy to cook up a solution. We assume money will be involved somewhere in the negotiations, in which case we just need a whip round, or a very wealthy Doctor Who fan. If this fails, we can use the funds to remake the entire story from scratch, although we might have to change a few key details to stay within copyright law.
The Web of Fear Episode Three
We’ve written about this particular Doctor Who problem many times, but it remains unresolved. Basically, the missing episode hunter Philip Morris found the entirety of ‘The Web of Fear‘ at a TV station in Jos around 2012. He took a photo of the stack of film cans as proof, but when he went to collect the episodes the next day, he discovered that one of them had gone missing – part three. This was unnerving, and frustrating; it was the first episode in Doctor Who history to feature the Brigadier (or Colonel in this story) played by Nicholas Courtney.
In later years, Morris admitted that he knew who possessed the missing film, and rallied fans to try and persuade the thief to hand the episode over. As yet, the cries have fallen on deaf ears.
Again, a decent crowdfunding effort could resolve this Doctor Who problem, although it’s hard to put an exact figure on ‘The Web of Fear’ episode three, as it is most probably the only copy in existence in the world, and therefore theoretically priceless. Our hope, then, could rest with Film is Fabulous! – an organisation who is working with private collectors to secure and preserve their archives for future generations. They have already returned two episodes of ‘The Daleks’ Master Plan‘ to Doctor Who fans. Perhaps diplomacy is the way forward in this case?
The Billie Piper regeneration
Doctor Who‘s latest season ended on a cliffhanger. The Fifteenth Doctor Ncuti Gatwa regenerated into the face of his former companion, and no explanation was forthcoming from the production team, other than fans would just have to “wait and see” what it all meant – since which time, the BBC has put Doctor Who up for tender, meaning that it is now looking for a new crew to take the series forward.
The fear among some Doctor Who fans is that this cliffhanger will be left unresolved. There is an even greater fear that the new producers will scrap everything that came before and do a full reboot of the show, which could decimate the very fabric of reality.
At the same time, it’s a head-scratcher; how do you relaunch Doctor Who when you have such a glaring, unresolved plot thread looming over you? Surely it would be neater, tidier and more impactful to start with a brand new Doctor, rather then scramble to explain the appearance of Billie Piper?
The obvious solution, of course, is just to announce Billie Piper as the Sixteenth Doctor, even if it’s just for one episode. Alternatively, we could let Big Finish bridge the gap between the Piper Doctor and whoever the new production team casts.
The God Complex
‘An Unearthly Child’ is not the only story missing from iPlayer. ‘The God Complex’ from Series Six has also been quietly removed following allegations levelled at one of its actors. It’s possible that some other episodes from the library could also be shelved, such as ‘Aliens of London’ and ‘World War Three’ following other unsavoury headlines pertaining to one of its artists. Moreover, the original version of ‘Fear Her’ is currently lost in the time vortex.
There is no easy answer to this problem. Indeed, some people would argue that the issue has already been resolved, and that the BBC has done the right thing by removing these titles from the Whoniverse.
But does this mean that they are gone forever? Are we to pretend that they don’t exist, and that we now have some effectively ‘lost’ episodes from the modern era of Doctor Who? If it’s unacceptable to show these episodes now, will it ever be acceptable to show them? If so, how do we determine such a timescale?
A workaround could be to replace the problematic sections with AI, and create new performances with new (or even fake) actors. This would certainly be cheaper than staging a complete remount of the story. A messier but cheaper solution would be to simply blur out the actors’ faces and dub their voices, but it wouldn’t make for the most immersive viewing experience.
So come on, internet: Can we use our collective brainpower to resolve these Doctor Who problems? Leave your suggestions in the comments below…
Leave a Reply