Lizardsquid, maker of noises @lizardsquid@computerfairi.es

@daylight oh...

@daylight I thought you had an AD, that you just never used?

@BatElite *purrs softly, relaxing against you*

@BatElite *smoooooooch snug*

@BatElite yes!!!

@BatElite you're a lovely cute bat!!!!

hello!!!!!

@peachsnout@snouts.online D::

@Doggo so we ended up with 2 departments: the tape department, which didn't want to keep anything (for money reasons), and the film department, which didn't want to keep anything (for storage reasons)

And no obligation for archival existed at the BBC (until 1978)

@Doggo Doctor Who tapes were only used twice:
1) for the BBC broadcast
2) to be transferred onto film for selling internationally.

After that, they were marked as "safe to erase", so they could use them for other shows.

So we still had film copies of the episodes… But the film storage areas had very very little space, and since archiving of programs was not yet a thing, a lot of film was destroyed to make space for newer (and more profitable) shows.

@Doggo so the cameras at the time recorded onto tape, rather than film.

And tape is super expensive.... but you CAN erase a tape, and then record something else instead.

When Doctor Who started, pre-recorded TV was a really new idea – almost every single broadcast before then was done completely live, so the idea of re-runs didn't exist.

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