Customer Reviews

Wiped! Doctor Whos Missing Episodes

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"Wiped", in my humble opinion, was thoroughly informative to the point where at times it was also boringly redundant.

Please don't let this opening line dissuade you from purchasing this book. While the author did a phenomenal job of researching this information, a better editor should have `wiped' some of the facts that would only be of interest to those working in the television industry. Case in point, most of the technical aspects of chapter two would be lost to many readers. While I have had some first hand experience with how video was recorded and edited in the latter days, I thought that the telling of the process was excessive even for someone who could relate to this matter. Additionally, the year by year break downs, while once again thoroughly informative, could have easily been collectively summarized.

But overall, as I continue to read this, as well as skim over some of the other chapters, it has proven itself to be quite educational and is shelf worthy for any library. As such, it is too bad that this is not available as a hardback book. I was constantly reading this in a semi-open position so as to not crack the spine. But I would rather pay the higher cost for a more durable edition since this book proves itself to be a great source of reference material.

Ideally, I would suggest for any future republications, that this book were to be broken down into two books, again, preferably hardbacks. Book One would contain the actual story of the lost episodes, while Book Two would cover all the technical material, such as wipe dates, recovery dates, episode summaries, et al. Also, I recommend a companion CD to be a part of this set. This would be the BBC broadcast on Archive 4, in which there were interviews with cast members, as well as those who made audio recordings back in the 60's, an engineer who restored said recordings, and the on going hunt for more lost episodes.

Bottom line is, I offer a sincere thank you to the author, whose exhaustive attention to detail gives a great deal of appreciation not only to what was lost, but what was recovered. Yet at the same time... even the Cybermen knew when to upgrade, and when to delete.