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Doctor Who News:

After a thirty-year absence from the BBC, a William Hartnell Doctor Who episode has been found in New Zealand. The Lion - the first episode of The Crusade - was wiped by the BBC in January 1969. In January this year a 16mm film print was discovered in Auckland, New Zealand, and returned to the BBC.

The complete film print was bought at a film collectors' fair in Napier, New Zealand in June 1998. It was purchased by Auckland film collector Bruce Grenville from another collector who was unaware of its rarity and sold it to Bruce cheaply as an "an incomplete Doctor Who story".

Bruce was equally unaware that the episode had any special significance, and regularly screened it for his friends. One such friend, Cornelius Stone, mentioned to Neil Lambess, a member of the New Zealand Doctor Who Fan Club, that he'd seen the film of "a Hartnell historical episode set in the time of the crusades".

Neil learned that the episode was apparently The Lion, and following up on this lead, he and Paul Scoones, the NZDWFC's coordinator, visited Bruce on 3 January and viewed the film to verify that it was in fact the long lost first episode of The Crusade.

Bruce was surprised to learn of the rarity of his film print, and readily agreed to loan it to the BBC's unofficial Doctor Who 'Restoration Team' so that the film can now be cleaned up and a duplicate made. Paul Scoones contacted Steve Roberts of the 'Restoration Team' and handled the safe dispatch of the film to the UK.

The Lion joins The Wheel of Fortune (episode 3) as the only other episode of this highly-regarded 1965 four-part historical adventure known to exist. Although many film clips have been unearthed in recent years, the last discovery of complete lost Doctor Who episodes was seven years ago when The Tomb of the Cybermen was recovered from Hong Kong in 1992.

Although neither the film or its can provide any clues to the route by which it came to be on sale at a film collectors' event in Napier, it is likely that the print was received by the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation from the BBC around late 1967. Although NZBC records show that the New Zealand censor rated the story suitable for broadcast, it remains one of several sixties stories that were received by the NZBC but never screened.

The Lion is the only lost Doctor Who episode found in New Zealand. Although Bruce Grenville (who is a regular visitor to film collectors' fairs in NZ), says he has not yet come across any other Doctor Who film prints, this find raises renewed hope that further lost episodes may still exist, just waiting to be rediscovered.

On February 5th, Phil Segal, executive producer and prime mover behind the 1996 FOX TV movie, confirmed to the Outpost Gallifrey news site that he would soon be meeting with the BBC, and that the film rights to Doctor Who were amongst the topics he intended to bring up. In an interview with Doctor Who Magazine published in April, Segal confirmed that discussions with the BBC were "ongoing", but pointed to both the ongoing Daltenreys lawsuit against the BBC (see related article below) and political and business conflicts which could hold matters up. He described the current situation as "a great big wait and see".

At the Frontier in Mann Who convention in late May, actor Michael Sheard (Laurence Scarman in Pyramids Of Mars, amongst others) announced that he has been asked to play Doctor Who in a proposed Who film -- one having its roots thirty years in the past. In 1965 and 1966, two films about a human Doctor Who (played by Peter Cushing) battling the Daleks were made by producer Milton Subotsky, adapting the first two Dalek TV stories. A third film (based on The Chase) was planned but never made, though in the Eighties Subotsky did try unsuccessfully to have it produced using an entirely new script, Doctor Who's Greatest Adventure, in which two Doctors battle giant monsters. Now interest has arisen in obtaining the rights to this third film, with Sheard taking on the mantle of the Doctor (or perhaps Cushing's Doctor Who). This was confirmed by a notice in the New Producers Alliance newsletter placed by Mitchell Henderson of Chaos Films Plc. This notice sought an established producer or business partner to aid in presenting a proposal for the rights to the BBC, for use either as a feature film or as a pilot for a "spin-off series" with an eye to the US market. Things had apparently not progressed much further when, in late August, Chaos advertised for investors in their venture (described as "a chilling yet darkly humorous supernatural thriller"). 5000 shares were being made available at a cost of 100 pounds apiece; each investor would, in the event of a film actually being made, "receive a limited edition wide screen video of the film shortly after its completion and will share in any worldwide profits the film may make."

Perhaps most significantly, at the Cannes Film Festival on May 18th, David Thompson, Head of Film and Single Drama, announced that the BBC are in early negotiations for a "lavish" new Doctor Who feature film. A BBC spokesperson later added that, due to the control Terry Nation's estate still holds on the Daleks, it was unlikely they would appear in the film. Ceefax also picked up the story and various press services, the latter also reporting that Thompson once again brought up the idea of casting a female actor as the next Doctor. Subsequently, trade paper Variety reported that the film negotiations to which Thompson was referring were with HAL Films, a neophyte London-based production company backed by the powerful American company Miramax. Variety quoted Thompson as saying that the idea of doing a Doctor Who film arose only a week previously, reflecting a desire to mine the BBC archives in conjunction with BBC Films' renewed interest in making its presence known in theatres.

In this aftermath of these revelations, a number of sources came forward to greatly downplay them. DWM editor Gary Gillatt -- citing unspecified "high-level" BBC sources -- stated the same day as Thompson's announcement that there were in fact no plans to produce a Doctor Who film, and that "Thompson was making off-the-cuff comments about how such a film might be budgeted -- prompted by an audience member". Steve Cole, then in charge of all BBC Doctor Who merchandise, confirmed Gillatt's assessment of the situation to the Outpost Gallifrey web site. Said Cole, "I can confirm there are absolutely no plans for a Doctor Who movie at present, it remains only an intriguing possibility that may be pursued some time in the (far?) future. However, I personally take it as a positive sign that a key BBC exec is prepared to mention Doctor Who at all..." Perhaps the most pointed dismissal of the May excitement came from BBC Drama spokesperson Alan Ayres, who was quoted in the July issue of SFX as saying, "It's a piece of wild speculation as ever. It was never a statement -- it was just an aside in a conversation blown into something it isn't. Anything you may read about casting or budget is total bollocks... It's simply a gleam in the eye. I wouldn't put it any stronger than that. We have had preliminary discussions with a distributor, but I can't reveal who that is at the moment." This was finally confirmed by Thompson himself in a letter to British Member of Parliament Tim Collins. Thompson agreed that "together with co-production partners, we are examining the possibility of a feature film: but there are, as yet, no definite plans to go into production." Referring to the media coverage of his announcement, he noted that "the coverage received was out of proportion to what was said." In late August, Ayres cast even more doubt over the possibility of a Doctor Who film, saying "No actor has been considered for, or approached to play, the role of Doctor Who. No script exists for a Doctor Who film. No deal has been done between the BBC and any potential co-production partners, nor are discussions currently taking place."

The BBC has now established two official Doctor Who home pages (see links below), but these currently contain no reference whatsoever to the programme's current status. A statement elsewhere on the BBC website (http://www.bbc.co.uk/info/info/policy/d_policy.shtml) merely suggests that Doctor Who cannot "continue with the programme as a low- budget enterprise as this would serve neither Doctor Who itself or the BBC's reputation for quality programming. Also, audience expectations for the effects produced in science fiction programmes are much higher than they once were -- and as you know the new technology which is available is expensive... Nothing is cut and dried as far as this series is concerned. We appreciate that the 1996 movie was a long time coming but it may well be that there will be more of the Doctor in the future. What we cannot do is make any promises about the programme at this particular moment in time."

More recently, on the BBC News site, a spokesperson (whom DWM speculates is Alan Ayres) was quoted as saying, "We're in talks about a possible feature film for the cinema... Scripts have been prepared, but the film will be at least two of three years away if we decide to go ahead with it." The spokesperson also confirmed that the potential film would have to be co-produced in order to be able to achieve the kind of budget expected by audiences. DWM also reports that the BBC is using animated versions of the TARDIS and the Daleks in its Future Generations promotional "trail", which details how the Corporation uses the license fees it receives.

Finally, Paul McGann has given mixed signals in recent months as to whether he might be interested in returning to the role of the Eighth Doctor. In an interview for UK newspaper The Independent, published March 7th 1998, McGann said, "I gave it my best shot. Now I'm going to move over, and someone else will take it on. Lucky them." On the other hand, the Ain't It Cool Coaxial News Page reports that Scottish newspaper The Daily Record quoted Paul McGann as saying that "There is still an enthusiasm for [Doctor Who] at the BBC. So I could be back; stranger things have been known to happen."

After the loss of a financial backer put a potential new programme starring K-9 on hiatus, things may now be heading back on track. The planned four-episode series, produced by Paul Tams and K-9 co-creator Bob Baker, would feature a new version of the metallic mutt redesigned and updated from his original appearance by Steve Mansbridge, who worked on several late Eighties Who episodes. It is intended for a family audience -- featuring a variety of child sidekicks for K-9 -- and would demonstrate no obvious links to Doctor Whom. According to Baker and Tams, while the show has not yet been picked up by a network, the BBC has shown interest.

The new K-9 episodes were due to begin filming in late 1997, allegedly with a seven-figure budget, but this was aborted when a key investor pulled out. Baker and Tams are now recruiting new backers, whose involvement is subject to the final design of the new K-9 prop and a rewrite of the script to appeal to a younger, pre-teen audience. The duo also composed a five-minute video integrating CGI and live images to attract potential investors, and released pictures of the redesigned K-9.

The promotional video was premiered at the Panopticon '98 convention in October, and turned out to be a series of images featuring a computer-generated K-9 in various alien and outer-space environments. The new K-9 apparently sports a number of exoskeleton "collars" which allow him to perform various tasks denied to the original version; amongst the exoskeletons demonstrated in the video were a "Deep Space K-9", a "Sub-Aqua K-9" and a "Heavy Artillery K-9". As previously reported, Tom Baker narrated the video, and in fact has been signed to voice K-9 should the series go ahead. At Panopticon, Tams stated that two toy companies were interested in the proposed programme, with merchandise sales alone possibly providing funding. Tams also reportedly suggested that the (low-cost) CGI K-9 may have been for promotional purposes only and that a real prop might be constructed for a full series, given the luxuries of a proper budget.

In an unrelated K-9 development, the robot dog will be making an appearance on the forthcoming Channel Four drama Queer As Folk, written by Russell T Davies (Damaged Goods) and script-edited by Matt Jones (Bad Therapy, Beyond The Sun), which includes a Doctor Who fan as a main character. Clips from Doctor Who itself will likely be included in the episode