Historical irony

[brewsternorth]

Archived 1960s 1-inch videotapes wiped and over-recorded during cost-cutting epoch. Fortunately, duplicates may exist in miscellaneous British Commonwealth countries.

(yes, I know the moon landings are more important in the grand scheme of things than Doctor Who, but the likeness is extraordinary.)

Comments

[parrot_knight]

As good as exactly the same mindset as that which prevailed at the BBC at the time. Television was very much seen as a live medium, and the most ephemeral of all - I mentioned somewhere the other week that George Melly, writing in The Observer on television in the late 1960s, was sure that children with whom he discussed Doctor Who and The Magic Roundabout would not be able to remember them in forty years' time, because television wasn't capable of penetrating the memory in the same way as theatre and cinema.

[brewsternorth]

So you did. D'you have a link for it, perchance?

[parrot_knight]

Here's the link to the LJ post:

http://parrot-knight.livejournal.com/524540.html

[rob_t_firefly]

Apollo 11 for Tenth Planet 4 sounds like a fair trade.

[brewsternorth]

LOL

[dbskyler]

Oh, that's so funny, I just posted the exact same thing! My first thought was "well, the BBC doesn't look so bad anymore" too!

[brewsternorth]

Well, as parrot_knight points out upthread, the reasoning behind their decisions was pretty much the same.

Makes you wonder how things are going to be preserved for posterity from an Internet considered largely "ephemeral"...