ComicMix Politics: Zimbabwe’s Mugabe holding missing Dr. Who episodes?
This is a weird one. As you may know, Doctor Who has been running since 1963. A number of the earlier episodes are missing, because some bozo at the BBC decided to save money by destroying some old episodes to make room in their library, including a number of episodes starring the first two Doctors, William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton. Once they realized what had happened, massive searches got under way to find what was lost. But despite years of searching, the broadcaster is missing 108 of 752 episodes.
Well, according to the London Sun, it turns out there’s a place where a bunch of them could be– Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe bought the first season of the show when it was still the British colony known as Rhodesia. The BBC suspects the historic series, together with later episodes not held anywhere else in the world, may still be locked away in a vault.
So what’s the problem? The current leader of Zimbabwe, President Robert Mugabe, hates hates hates the British. Mugabe still blames their former colonial ruler Britain for its economic chaos, and last year called the British Government “thieving neo-colonialists”. President Mugabe has banned the BBC from setting foot in the country. On the other hand, Mugabe and Zimbabwe needs money, and there would be a lot of money in DVD sales if copies do exist.
So we’ll have to wait and see. One day, he may really come back after all…