Once Bitten, Twice—OH MY GIDDY AUNT!

October 11, 2013

Over the last several months, a Who fan would have had to have been hiding under a rock not to have heard the rumors that missing episodes of First and Second Doctor serials had been found. There was the hype, the counter-hype, the supposed confirmations, the supposed denials, back and forth for months. The lost episodes are like the Holy Grail of Doctor Who, so fans have understandably been by turns excited beyond words and bitterly disappointed.

This last week, the rumor surfaced again. Several outlets of various degrees of reliability broke the “news”—first the Mirror claimed on Sunday that all 106 had been found. On Monday the Radio Times reported that an unnamed number of “episodes” would be made available for purchase on Wednesday, then reversed and said the press conference wouldn’t be till Thursday. On Tuesday, the BBC itself posted a story. Although fandom considered it all old news by then, having word come down from Auntie Beeb herself certainly seemed like the “official word” many of us had been waiting for before going off the deep end in ecstasy.

By Tuesday evening, there was a post on Deborah Watling’s (who played Companion Victoria Waterfield to Patrick Troughton’s Two) official website saying that she and Frazer Hines (Jamie McCrimmon) would “be helping the BBC to launch the newly found Dr.Who episodes” sometime on Thursday.

Even then, I was only barely ready to believe. I skeptically predicted at most two recovered episodes.

There have been so many times that this rumor has surfaced. It’s bubbled up and been smacked back down, and each time I’ve either allowed or been unable to prevent myself from believing, at least a little bit. And I tell you, I’m as rabid as any fan—I would give a helluva lot to see even one missing episode returned, no matter how poorly thought of the serial. The ache in my heart at the very thought is intense.

But I’ve been burned so many times. After the first rumor was “debunked” months ago, I was crushed. “Once bitten, twice shy!” I told myself the next time. Even so, a glimmer of hope remained. Then it was denied again, and I chastised myself: “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me!” Oh, how I wanted to believe it every single time! How sad and exasperated I was—”I told you it was a hoax…”—each time it was proven false!

Then came Thursday.

The BBC hosted a secretive press conference in the afternoon, UK time. Details were under an embargo until midnight. (The fan community immediately began taking bets on how long it would be until the details leaked.) Soon author Lance Parkin seemed to spill the beans, and actress Watling tweeted similar details. Then, about six hours before the embargo was supposed to end, The Northern Echo ran a full story (subsequently pulling it and posting an apology).

Suffice to say, by the time it all became official, we already knew. But knowing and seeing are two different things. Try it yourself, if you haven’t yet. Here are the trailers for the two recovered stories, The Enemy of the World (which makes the me of two years ago extremely happy) and The Web of Fear. See if you can watch without tears, giggles of glee, or both: