14 DAY TRIAL // About a week ago, news broke that the scripts for the first five episodes of the upcoming series 8 of the Doctor Who show had been leaked online.
It appears that besides the documents, the fans also grabbed at least the season opening episode of the highly popular British show, as an unedited version popped up on various torrent trackers.
This is not the case of skilled hackers breaking into the systems of BBC, but the producer’s carelessness in protecting his assets.
The leak came from the BBC Worldwide Miami office, where the scripts were sent for translation in order to be ready to transmit the show in multiple countries on the same day.
However, the documents were stored on a web server that had no protection in place and anyone with a web browser could have accessed it.
Doctor Who is a science fiction drama produced by the BBC, and it has gained immense popularity not just in the U.K. but also in various other areas of the world, too. Series 8 is the latest of the show and is scheduled for airing on August 23.
The trailer for the new series has been released recently, but it appears that a few hours later the leaked first episode of the show, called “Deep Breath,” was also accessible via torrent sites.
It is a rough version that comes in black and white letterbox format and has several watermarks stamped on it, as a screen capture with Peter Capaldi as the Doctor shows.
A diehard fan may not care too much about these things as the plot may be more interesting for them, but the experience won’t be anywhere near the final cut to be presented in August. One of the reasons is the fact that the CGI effects are not complete.
The BBC has told Radio Times that they are currently investigating the cause of the leak of the unfinished materials.
“This content is currently being removed and originates from the same Miami server we disabled last week, it is not a new issue. We'd like to thank the amazing Doctor Who fans who are continuing to keep fansites and social media spoiler-free but would remind anyone downloading and sharing this material that it is illegal to do so,” said a BBC representative.
Moreover, they are urging those who have the leaked copies of the episodes not to share them online so that everybody could see them as they were intended by the producers, with all the effects ready.