Audio Recoveries

In the sixties, the concept of VCR's were virtually unknown to the general public. Some did exist, but they were cumbersome, expensive and rare. Various fans however, decided to concentrate on recording not what they could see, but what they could hear.

 

The process of recovering complete audio soundtracks of missing episodes hasn't nearly been as large as the recovery of visual materials (it wasn't considered important enough to warrant a search), but with the formation of the Restoration Team in 1991, the search for missing audios came to the fore.

 

Several stories were released in 1992-93 on cassette, and these were of varying quality. Later, higher quality soundtracks were recovered, and these have been released on CD and MP3-CD. As you will see below, the search was a short one, but the discoveries would highlight the lengths that some fans would go to save the soundtracks of their favourite show… 

 

It should be noted that I have chosen to list only those episodes from the sixties.

The Richard Landen Collection

Time Period Within Doctor Who of Recording Off Air:

 

The Mythmakers 3 – Underworld 4

 

Missing from Collection:

 

The Myth Makers 3: Recorded but erased

Profile:

 

Richard Landen has one of the largest collections of Doctor Who soundtracks, starting early in Season Three and finishing with the second to last story of Season Fifteen – 12 years of audios! Even more impressive it all bar one of the episodes in the Landen Collection still exist.

 

Highest Quality Missing Episode Recording From: The Landen Collection

 

The Invasion 1 4

The Space Pirates 1 3 4 5 6

 

Audio Has Been Used In:

 

The Evil of the Daleks (1992) – Double Audio Cassette

The Macra Terror (1992) – Double Audio Cassette

The Celestial Toymaker – Loose Cannon Reconstruction (December 1999)

The Massacre – Loose Cannon Reconstruction (November 2001)

The Invasion – Loose Cannon Reconstruction (February 2003)

The Daleks' Master Plan – Loose Cannon Reconstruction (December 2003)

The James Russell Collection

Time Period Within Doctor Who of Recording Off Air:

 

(At Least) Marco Polo 1 – Fury from the Deep 6

 

Profile:

 

I don't have the complete list of episodes recorded by James Russell, and have only listed those I have been able to find out about.

 

Highest Quality Missing Episode Recording From: The Russell Collection

 

None – Both the Holman and Strong Collections are superior to these recordings. 

 

Audio Has Been Used In:

 

The Reign of Terror – Loose Cannon Reconstruction (September 2000)

The Crusade – Loose Cannon Reconstruction (December 2000)

Marco Polo – Loose Cannon Reconstruction (February 2002)

 

Audio Soundtracks Still Missing At This Point:

 

None - After the discovery of the Russell Collection, all soundtracks were now recovered and complete. It should be noted however that James Russell secretly retained both The Crusade & Galaxy 4 as bargaining material should any other high quality recordings be found in the future and could be used for bartering. As such, they weren't available to the general public and are technically still missing at this stage. This amounted to nothing, however, as in 1995 David Holman returned higher quality recordings of both stories to the BBC.  

The David Stead Collection

Time Period Within Doctor Who of Recording Off Air:

Unknown

Profile:

Officially David Stead provided the copy of The Tomb of the Cybermen to the BBC for their release in 1993, however the recordings had several owners before reaching David. Fan Mike Smallman acquired the recordings from a gentleman in Manchester, and later gave the recordings to David Stead. David restored the recordings as best he could, as apparently they were running slightly faster than normal. 

 

Highest Quality Missing Episode Recording From: The Stead Collection

 

None - The Strong Collection is superior to these recordings. It is assumed at the time the Stead recording of Tomb were superior to the Landen recording, as it was used in the 1993 audio release.

 

Audio Has Been Used In:

 

The Tomb of the Cybermen – Double Cassette Release (1993)       

The Graham Strong Collection

Time Period Within Doctor Who of Recording Off Air:

100,000BC 1 – The Dominators 5

 

Profile:

 

Graham Strong began recording Doctor Who episodes when he was only 14. To capture the episodes off air, Graham used a poor-quality microphone (albeit one that didn't pick up the hum of the TV) on a second-hand recorder. He used this up until The Daleks' Master Plan 7, after which he decided to alter his way of recording off-airGraham was interested in electronics, and he used this to find a way to record the audio signal directly from the TV itself. He just had to make sure that connecting the recorder to the TV wouldn't blow a fuse (which apparently it did on early attempts). From The Daleks' Master Plan 8, Graham's recordings were a huge improvement over previous attempts, and are considered 'crystal clear' in terms of quality (it should be pointed out that of all the Audio Recoveries, Graham Strong appears to be the only individual to record audio in this manner). In 1995 Strong gave some tapes to fan Paul Lee, who in turn passed a tape onto fan Lee Bagnall. Bagnall was so impressed by the quality he contacted Peter Finklestone, who knew members of the BBC's Restoration Team. Bagnall passed on Lee's details and the rest is history. In fact, the quality was so impressive that at times they were better than the soundtracks held by the BBC film prints; Graham Strong's recording of The Tenth Planet 2 was used to improve the quality of the existing episode for the video release.

 

Episodes Missing from This Collection:

 

The Daleks' Master Plan 11: Never Recorded

The Gunfighters 1 2 3 4: Recorded but Erased

The Celestial Toymaker 1 2 3 4: Recorded but Erased

 

Because funds were limited, many episodes recorded prior to the capturing of audio straight from the TV set were wiped so that their reels could be reused. The only episodes that survived from this time were:

 

The Keys of Marinus 1

The Sensorites 1

The Dalek Invasion of Earth 1 (a small fragment only)

The Space Museum 1

 

After developing his crystal clear formula for recording, Graham archived all of his episodes until he lost interest in the series during Season Six.

 

Highest Quality Missing Episode Recording From: The Strong Collection

 

The Daleks' Master Plan 8 9 12

The Massacre 1 2 3 4

The Celestial Toymaker 1 2 3

The Savages 1 2 3 4

The Smugglers 1 2 3 4

The Tenth Planet 4

The Power of the Daleks 1 2 3 4 5 6

The Highlanders 1 2 3 4

The Underwater Menace 1 2 4

The Moonbase 1 3

The Macra Terror 1 2 3 4

The Faceless Ones 2 4 5 6

The Evil of the Daleks 1 3 4 5 6 7

The Abominable Snowmen 1 3 4 5 6

The Ice Warriors 2 3

The Enemy of the World 1 2 4 5 6

The Web of Fear 2 3 4 5 6

Fury from the Deep 1 2 3 4 5 6

The Wheel in Space 1 2 4 5

 

Audio Has Been Used In:

 

The Daleks' Master Plan / Mission to the Unknown – MP3-CD Release (2003)

The Daleks' Master Plan / Mission to the Unknown – Five CD Box Set Release (2001)

The Tenth Planet – VHS Release (2000)

The War Machines – VHS Release (1997)

The Macra Terror – Loose Cannon Reconstruction (April 1998)

The Faceless Ones – Loose Cannon Reconstruction (June 1998)

The Savages – Loose Cannon Reconstruction (April 1999)

The Smugglers – Loose Cannon Reconstruction (April 1999)

The Highlanders – Loose Cannon Reconstruction (July 1999)

The Power of the Daleks – Loose Cannon Reconstruction (July 1999)

The Enemy of the World – Loose Cannon Reconstruction (March 2001)

The Massacre – Loose Cannon Reconstruction (November 2001)

The Moonbase – Loose Cannon Reconstruction (September 2002)

The Daleks' Master Plan – Loose Cannon Reconstruction (December 2003)

The Ice Warriors – Loose Cannon Reconstruction (November 2004)

Fury from the Deep – Loose Cannon Reconstruction (February 2005)

The Underwater Menace – Loose Cannon Reconstruction (August 2005)

The David Holman Collection

Time Period Within Doctor Who of Recording Off Air:

 

Marco Polo 1 – The Three Doctors 4

 

Missing from Collection:

 

None

 

Profile:

 

David Holman edited his episodes after broadcast and removed the opening and closing titles (plus cliff-hangers/reprisals) to make the stories flow better. As such, some stories have the first and/or the last few seconds from each episode missing (it is rumoured he did this to save reel space, but after examining his footage it was found there was still several minutes worth of tape left at the end of recordings).

 

David Holman's recordings were of very high quality, though not as high as Graham Strong's. His collection did contain the highest quality recording of Marco Polo known to date, and, between himself and Graham Strong, did have the complete collection of missing Doctor Who episodes from the 1960's.

 

David Holman is the only individual known to have recorded all 108 missing episodes.

 

Highest Quality Missing Episode Recording From: The Holman Collection

 

Marco Polo 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

The Reign of Terror 4 5

The Crusade 2 4

Galaxy 4 1 2 3 4

The Myth Makers 1 2 3 4

The Dalek Master Plan 1 3 4 6 7 11

The Celestial Toymaker 1 2 3

 

Audio Has Been Used In:

 

Marco Polo – MP3-CD Release (2003)

The Myth Makers – Loose Cannon Reconstruction (August 1998)

The Celestial Toymaker – Loose Cannon Reconstruction (December 1999)

Galaxy 4 – Loose Cannon Reconstruction (December 1999)

The Reign of Terror – Loose Cannon Reconstruction (September 2000)

The Crusade – Loose Cannon Reconstruction (December 2000)

The Enemy of the World – Loose Cannon Reconstruction (March 2001)

Marco Polo – Loose Cannon Reconstruction (February 2002)

The Daleks' Master Plan – Loose Cannon Reconstruction (December 2003)

The David Butler Collection

Time Period Within Doctor Who of Recording Off Air:

 

The Web Planet 4 – Logopolis 4

 

Missing from Collection:

 

None

 

Profile:

Like Graham Strong, David Butler began recording Doctor Who at the age of 14. David's collection is very "pot-holed"; due to financial constraints David couldn't record every single episode from a story and was forced to be was very selective. Usually, the Butler Collection consisted of the first and last episode of a story, although there are some exceptions, such as The Web of Fear, where he was able to acquire enough tapes to record the whole serial. Much of the Butler Collection stems from the Troughton Era, as by that time he had a job and was able to afford more tapes for recording. 

 

Highest Quality Missing Episode Recording From: The Butler Collection

 

Mission to the Unknown 1

 

Audio Has Been Used In:

 

Mission to the Unknown – Loose Cannon Reconstruction (September 2000)

The Tenth Planet – Loose Cannon Reconstruction (September 1998 – Later Withdrawn)

The Invasion – Loose Cannon Reconstruction (February 2003)

The Allen Wilson Collection

Time Period Within Doctor Who of Recording Off Air:

 

Galaxy 4 1 – The Dalek Master Plan 12

 

Missing from Collection:

 

None

 

Profile:

 

Allen Wilson only recorded a handful of episodes, all of which already existed from David Holman's collection. However Allen's copy of Mission to the Unknown proved to be superior to Holman's, and even included the audio of the continuity announcer prior to the episode trailing a brand new series called 'The Munsters'.

 

Highest Quality Missing Episode Recording From: The Wilson Collection

 

Mission to the Unknown 1

 

Highest Quality Missing Episode Recording From: The Wilson Collection

 

None – The Butler Collection is superior to this recording.   

The Marc Platt Collection

Time Period Within Doctor Who of Recording Off Air:

 

Unknown

 

Missing from Collection:

 

Unknown

 

Profile:

 

Marc Platt is better known as a Doctor Who writer. Marc didn't start recording properly until The War Games, although did record segments of earlier episodes.

 

Highest Quality Missing Episode Recording From: The Platt Collection

 

None – The Strong Collection is superior to these recordings.   

The Australian Collection

Time Period Within Doctor Who of Recording Off Air:

 

Unknown

Missing from Collection:

 

N/A

 

Profile:

 

There have been various orphan recordings spring up over the years, and little is known of who actually recorded them. Episodes include Fury from the Deep 1 2 3 4 5 6, The Wheel in Space 1 2 3 4 5 and the first few minutes of episode 6, The Invasion 1 & 4 and The Space Pirates 1 2 3 4 5 6.

 

Audio Has Been Used In:

 

The Wheel in Space – MP3-CD Release (2003)

The Invasion – MP3-CD Release (2003)

The Space Pirates – MP3-CD Release (2003)

The Space Pirates – Loose Cannon Reconstruction (November 1998)

 

Highest Quality Missing Episode Recording From: The Australian Collection

 

None – The Landen Collection is superior to these recordings.