You sure there wasn't a fire? Because that's what my brother told me and he's pretty good with his info. (and the 4th will always be one of my favorites).
I've never heard of a fire. But a fire sounds better than the BBC just taping over them.
We should compare data sources, and include my brother in this conversation, feel free to pester him independently, he's on my watchers list, Twoscrewsloose, he isn't on DA often, but you might be able to catch him. (dads Christmas present from him this year was a put together first doctor episode, the video itself was bad quality, but you really couldn't tell he had pulled it together from a bunch of different bits).
This is what I found by Google-ing it:
[link]
[link]
Well, to be fair, wikipedia isn't a reliable source, teachers are always telling me that if I cite something from wiki then I have to find another source for that information, to back it up.
Wikipedia may not be 100% reliable, but it's not likely to tell you the sky is red or that fire's wet. 
It's hardly the only place you'll find the history of the BBC's willful attempt to destroy most of the 60s and early 70s DW episodes. It's pretty common knowledge, and there're even some documentaries about it on the BBC "classic" Doctor Who dvds (or like this on- hear it straight from the Brigadier's mouth: [link] ). Back in the days before home video, people didn't see much use for old episodes, so keeping them on then-pricey video tapes in an ever-shrinking archive space didn't seem to make sense (to them, anyway). It is true that some of the film print copies were burned (which might be where the "BBC fire" story comes from), but again it was a deliberate destruction by the BBC in order to clear archive space.
It's hardly the only place you'll find the history of the BBC's willful attempt to destroy most of the 60s and early 70s DW episodes. It's pretty common knowledge, and there're even some documentaries about it on the BBC "classic" Doctor Who dvds (or like this on- hear it straight from the Brigadier's mouth: [link] ). Back in the days before home video, people didn't see much use for old episodes, so keeping them on then-pricey video tapes in an ever-shrinking archive space didn't seem to make sense (to them, anyway). It is true that some of the film print copies were burned (which might be where the "BBC fire" story comes from), but again it was a deliberate destruction by the BBC in order to clear archive space.Well, if the Brig says it's true -I'm inclined to believe him.
Well, that's the story I've always heard about the BBC in the 1960s and 70s. I can't find anything about a fire. It wasn't just Doctor Who they don't have any episodes of a lot of 1960's BBC shows.
Read the history bit here. It explains why the BBC purged the tapes.
[link]
Read the history bit here. It explains why the BBC purged the tapes.
[link]