(no subject)
I'm shoulder-deep in my Doctor Who obsession,and having watched the entire new series, I decided to go browse through the glorious black and white days of the late 1960s. The sets shake, the yetis are carpets with googly eyes, and the deadly fungus taking over the world is - wait for it - SOAP. It's all deliciously retro and camp.
In some ways it's the perfect obsession. I have over 30 years of material to comb through - months of sci-fi goodness, if not years. If you don't know, Doctor Who (whose name is actually just "Doctor") is a time travelling alien who whips around the universe in a 1960s police box with people he randomly picks up, having whacky adventures all the while.
And being an alien, the Doctor can regenerate - or in other words, become another actor, though his DNA's always a bit scrambled. It's 2011, and we're on Doctor #11.
ANYWAY
I was browsing around on youtube, watching clips here and there of all the different doctors, when I fell in love with Doctor #2. Him and his kilt wearing, Scottish-accented, slightly soft-headed but certainly kind-hearted companion Jamie McCrimmon. I was happily watching episode after episode when I thought I'd go back and watch the one where the two actually met. But oddly enough, I couldn't find it. So I checked Wikipedia to discover the most god awful news my obsessed little head has ever heard.
THE EPISODE DOES NOT EXIST.
Why?
BECAUSE THE BBC ERASED IT.
And that was not the end of the horror. As I scrolled down the page I discovered that the BBC has erased HALF of all the episodes with my favourite Doctor because that was how they rolled in the 70s, reusing master tapes and thinking they wouldn't broadcast the original material again. Worse yet, the missing episodes are scattered through 15 serials, so while episode 4 and 6 of a story might exist, episode 1,2,3 and 5 and missing. How many complete stories exist? SIX.
It breaks my heart. Because the Doctor and Jamie and so wonderful. Because the BBC are such fucking morons. Because it's not fair. Because if I had my own time machine, I could save all those things. Because in my obsessed addled mind I'm part of their story, part of the team, hanging out eating haggis in Scotland, but the memory is gone.
Anyways, this is why I love Doctor #2 *and the Beatles*:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9RxEPnffnY
And this is why I love Jamie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Riu03w8ju64
In some ways it's the perfect obsession. I have over 30 years of material to comb through - months of sci-fi goodness, if not years. If you don't know, Doctor Who (whose name is actually just "Doctor") is a time travelling alien who whips around the universe in a 1960s police box with people he randomly picks up, having whacky adventures all the while.
And being an alien, the Doctor can regenerate - or in other words, become another actor, though his DNA's always a bit scrambled. It's 2011, and we're on Doctor #11.
ANYWAY
I was browsing around on youtube, watching clips here and there of all the different doctors, when I fell in love with Doctor #2. Him and his kilt wearing, Scottish-accented, slightly soft-headed but certainly kind-hearted companion Jamie McCrimmon. I was happily watching episode after episode when I thought I'd go back and watch the one where the two actually met. But oddly enough, I couldn't find it. So I checked Wikipedia to discover the most god awful news my obsessed little head has ever heard.
THE EPISODE DOES NOT EXIST.
Why?
BECAUSE THE BBC ERASED IT.
And that was not the end of the horror. As I scrolled down the page I discovered that the BBC has erased HALF of all the episodes with my favourite Doctor because that was how they rolled in the 70s, reusing master tapes and thinking they wouldn't broadcast the original material again. Worse yet, the missing episodes are scattered through 15 serials, so while episode 4 and 6 of a story might exist, episode 1,2,3 and 5 and missing. How many complete stories exist? SIX.
It breaks my heart. Because the Doctor and Jamie and so wonderful. Because the BBC are such fucking morons. Because it's not fair. Because if I had my own time machine, I could save all those things. Because in my obsessed addled mind I'm part of their story, part of the team, hanging out eating haggis in Scotland, but the memory is gone.
Anyways, this is why I love Doctor #2 *and the Beatles*:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9RxEPnffnY
And this is why I love Jamie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Riu03w8ju64