An Unearthly Child will likely be lacking from the BBC’s Doctor Who assortment on its iPlayer service – and we’ve been digging into why.
There are a lot of causes to be completely satisfied on the earth of Doctor Who in the mean time. The sixtieth anniversary specials are simply across the nook, with Russell T Davies and David Tennant each returning to the present. There’s a complete new sequence in post-production that’s going to run in 2024. Plus, the pleasant information that the BBC is placing over 800 episodes of the present on its iPlayer service from the beginning of November.
It’s actually going for this too: not solely will just about each episode of Doctor Who be obtainable on the service, however efforts have additionally gone in to make them subtitled, and the plan is to construct a central useful resource of Who episodes, with a lot of behind the scenes stuff. Excellent.
Amid all this, there’s one minor fly within the ointment, and it’s been dominating lots of Doctor Who chat this week. That is that the gathering occurring iPlayer received’t be fully full, as the primary story – 1963’s An Unearthly Child – will likely be lacking from the line-up. Starring William Hartnell, the story has been launched on DVD beforehand, however in the interim at the very least, it isn’t precisely going low-cost.
The story is, on the time of writing, obtainable to stream as a part of the BritBox service (we simply checked), which was arrange by ITV and the BBC. There aren’t any recognized plans in the mean time to take away it from BritBox, however it means there’s clearly precedent when it come to streaming the story. However, it’s particular that it’s not a part of the iPlayer assortment launch.
This was confirmed to the Radio Times by the BBC, stating: “This large iPlayer again catalogue will likely be dwelling to over 800 hours of Doctor Who content material, making it the largest ever assortment of Doctor Who programming in a single place however is not going to embrace the primary 4 episodes as we would not have all of the rights to these.”
Here’s William Hartnell, questioning the place all his episodes have gone. (Credit: BBC)
An Unearthly Child: what occurred?
There’s a really useful Twitter thread on this from Eddie Robson, however to paraphrase, there’s lots of authorized wrangling that goes on behind the scenes of a deal like this.
As you’ll be able to think about for a present operating for 60 years, not solely has the way in which we’re watching TV modified irrevocably, however the way in which contracts are constructed has additionally considerably altered as effectively.
The BBC, in contrast to many fashionable channels, streamers and movie studios, doesn’t really personal unique rights to all the fabric writers produce for it. It owns Doctor Who, positive – but when, say, Brenda Bloggs is introduced on to put in writing an episode a few time-travelling immortal zipping about within the court docket of the Earl of Denmark, the rights to that script are nonetheless theirs.
In apply, these days, this doesn’t imply all that a lot. As the BBC owns the rights to the character and the present, there’s not a complete lot a author can do with their scripted materials. Still, it means they get some precise possession over the completed episode(s), which isn’t any unhealthy factor. Residuals are fairly good as effectively.
Read extra: Doctor Who within the Sixties | The William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton years
Most contracts today additionally embrace all kinds of ins and outs accounting for streaming, podcast content material, and so forth. In 1963, when the primary episodes of Doctor Who aired, although, streaming was extra more likely to seek advice from a small river than something blaring out of a kind of new-fangled telly-boxes.
As a outcome (and we’re not attorneys), it seems like at the very least among the rights – or at the very least a doubtlessly legitimate declare to them – for the primary few episodes of Doctor Who belongs to the property of the unique author, Anthony Coburn. The BBC hasn’t admitted a lot particularly, issuing the easy acknowledgement to the Radio Times. Just think about the conferences that occurred to get to that stage. There’s sufficient of a fear, clearly, to exclude An Unearthly Child from the line-up.
The contract Coburn signed within the Sixties received’t have given any provisions for reusing the present in a special context, actually not this one, and their descendants – particularly on this case, Coburn’s son – are underneath no obligation to let the BBC do something with the present aside from broadcast on terrestrial TV.
Stef Coburn, the son in query, has been very lively on his Twitter/X/whatever-it’s-called-this-week account. Among his views on vaccinations and the BBC and different such issues, there’s this thread from earlier in October…
It’s a disgrace, for positive, however in a manner it’s shocking these appear to be within the minority right here – with a really well-publicised “over 800 episodes” making their solution to BBC iPlayer, many for the primary time, it’s a little bit of a miracle these few are the one ones caught up in a little bit of authorized crimson tape.
Obviously, we’re positive the BBC would slightly they weren’t the very first (and, traditionally most likely crucial) episodes that obtained caught up there, however all issues thought of, that they’re the one well-publicised casualties is fairly astonishing. Yet casualities, in the interim, they clearly are.
What occurs subsequent?
Ah, that’s a great query.
Much of this seems – we’re not attorneys, don’t sue us – mired in gray areas that haven’t been examined in court docket. Whether any celebration will take it that far stays to be seen, however clearly the BBC has taken recommendation someplace that it will be unwise to submit the episodes on iPlayer. Against that, once more, BritBox continues to be providing the story in query, so it’s not as if it’s not obtainable to stream someplace.
Also, it’s price noting that this saga has been rumbling for a lot of the yr.
Back in May 2023, Stef Coburn dared the BBC to take him to court docket. He additionally threatened, once more on no matter Twitter’s referred to as now, “ought to something untoward occur to me, within the meantime, I’ve taken steps to bequeath all of my father’s Doctor Who associated IPs to the Russian Federation, who can WELL afford to prosecute you until the cows come dwelling. Hurt anybody I like, & I’ll merely ‘reward’ it to them, outright.”
It appears, then, that the safer possibility has been taken, though clearly we’re not aware about what’s gone on behind closed doorways. Yet it’s the rivalry over the rights to An Unearthly Child that’s stopping it making an iPlayer look.
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