Talk:The Web Planet

untitled
I think mention of the Animus in the annual is more likely a plug for the forthcoming DVD of this serial :P Tim! (talk) 12:55, 11 September 2005 (UTC)
 * I'm inclined to agree with you, although you'd think the giant butterflies and giant ants would be enough. Who doesn't love giant ants? :) -Sean 20:27, 11 September 2005 (UTC)

Broadcast and reception
''Believed lost in the BBC's early 1970s purge, negative film prints of all six episodes were recovered from BBC Enterprises in the late 1970s. These prints appear to have stemmed from a 1973 sale to Algeria and as a result the final episode was amended so that the "Next Episode" caption referred to "The Space Museum" instead of "The Lion", as the next story The Crusade was not sold to Arab countries. There were also some edits to the first episode. Unedited prints of all six episodes were also discovered in Nigeria in 1985.''

These points are simply not true, and come from long-standing unsupported fan-rumours from the 1980s. Sales documents found at BBC by Paul Vanezis in 2008 have revealed the truth, some of which hve een published in Richard Molesworth's book, Wiped (published by Telos): 1) The negatives held at the BBC were in English, not Arabic. 2) Algeria never screened the story, so prints cannot have been returned from there.(per documentation found at BBC in 2008, and reported on the BroaDWcast website with Paul's assistance.) 3) No story after The Rescue was sold to Arab-speaking countries, so the subject matter of The Crusade really had nothing to do with the serial not screening in that region; it's a coincidence (ibid) 4) The caption was changed after The Crusade was withdrawn from sale; The Space Museum was still available for sale, so the caption was changed to reflect this (ibid)

There are many fan-rumours dating back to the early days of fandom that are still be perpetuated despite being debunked.

Jpreddle (talk) 22:44, 16 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Feel free to cite the book. DonQuixote (talk) 03:12, 17 October 2011 (UTC)