Audios and Telesnaps of the Lost Episodes of Doctor Who

The Crystal Clear Audio project is devoted to getting audible audio tapes of missing episodes out to the fans of the show, so they can enjoy these otherwise unobtainable gems.

The Telesnaps project takes the Crystal Clear audios, and puts them together with existing footage and the telesnaps of the show to create a watchable episode that would otherwise be lost.

Information about both projects can be found on Andrew Cloninger's web page:
http://www.enteract.com/~andrew/who.htm

And at:
http://members.aol.com/dwundergrd/telesnaps/TR3.htm

The mini-FAQ about the Crystal Clear Audios is included below, but for current information, check the page.

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Doctor Who - Missing Episodes on Audio

Mini-FAQ

What are they?

Between 1972 and 1978, the forward-thinking BBC chose (for reasons known only to them) to destroy many episodes from the Hartnell, Troughton and Pertwee eras of the show. All of the Pertwee episodes were recovered in one form or another, but many of the 1st and 2nd Doctor episodes have not yet been returned to the BBC. Fortunate for us now, several different fans audiorecorded these episodes when they were originally broadcast.

Of course some were recorded. I've seen and heard the BBC Audio releases. They're a rather mixed lot though. Why is this?

A large portion of the commercially available reel-to-reel recorders were limited as to the quality of the recordings that could be produced, both by the tape and the mechanics of the recorders themselves, but also by very poor microphones that were avail able. Add to this the fact that these audio-recordings have been passed from fan to fan for many, many years and have accumulated all of the worst aspects of every machine used to dub them, along with the natural loss of recording quality inherant in the process of dubbing down from one generation to the next.

In addition to the generational loss, most of these recordings lost material due to: editing episodes together, removing cliffhangers/credits, tape breaks and simply the whims of those who were recording (rumour has it that the person who recorded THE FEA ST OF STEVEN was so annoyed by William Hartnell's final Christmas greeting that he removed it from his recording).

So, if this is true, what changed to make these new recordings any different?

Of all these fans, there were (at least) two that were different from the rest:

Mr. Anonymous and Graham Strong.

Mr. A appears to have used a rather high- quality microphone to record ALL of the episodes from An Unearthly Child through the Pertwee era. His recordings might have been lost amongst the many others traded over the years, if not for the fact that, for o ne reason or another, he lost touch with other Doctor Who fans during this time. Only in the past year or so was another fan made aware of these recordings. This other fan, knowing the immensity of the discovery, convinced Mr. A to make his recordings a vailable to other fans. These recordings are the result of his generosity and foresight.

Graham Strong is another case entirely. He, like Mr. A, had a very high-quality microphone which he used to record the episodes, but he ALSO had professional-quality recording equipment, which produced far-better recordings than those done by the average fan. In addition to this, with the first episode of THE MACRA TERROR, he found a way to connect his tape deck DIRECTLY to the audio out-put of his television, creating what is know known as CRYSTAL CLEAR recordings. In the process of making these recordi ngs available for other fans (around the beginning of '94), he was assisted by another fan who further improved the clarity and impact of Graham's recordings. The CC's are the result of this dilligence.

Great! So, how can I GET these amazing recordings?

In an effort to make these recordings available as quickly as possible to EVERYONE who wants them, there are 2 ways to go about getting them:

1) Send money - each dubber should be able to accept money sufficient to buy
   the amount of tapes necessary to record the amount of episodes requested.

2) Send tapes - each dubber can be sent a sufficient number of tapes in order
   to record the number of episodes requested.

It has been agreed by those of us distributing these recordings that, in order to maintain the best possible recordings for subsequent generations, dubbers and those requesting dubs use at LEAST Chrome/Type II audio tapes (or, in the case of videorecordin gs, SP HiFi speed).

Eventually, there will be regional "dub sites" available, so that anyone, any-where in the world can request recordings from someone who lives near to them.

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