Not long afterwards I added an 11th to the list:

I think it's time for number 11 in my top 10 of omnirumour themes. You might disagree.

11. The answers, my friend are blowing in the wind

When Philip Morris was asked whether he had more Doctor Who to return, he said that "the wind is blowing in the right direction"; an answer as enigmatic as it was hopeful. But the question no one seems to have asked is which direction does the wind have to be blowing from, and indeed to, for further recoveries to be announced. Until now. Here are my thoughts on the subject

1. The missing episodes are on a sailing ship which will not arrive in (where else) Liverpool unless the wind is blowing in the right direction. Since conjecture is that they were found in Africa that would generally require a southerly wind to blow them Northwards, though, as with many things, it's a bit more complicated than that.

2. The mythical second restoration team are using wind power to get the episodes back into shape, but their turbine is fixed and so will only generate electricity when the wind is blowing in the right direction (probably a prevailing westerly). If the wind blows too long in the wrong direction, they lose power and everything stored in volatile memory, such as all their work to date.

3. To save on shipping costs, the episodes have been encoded at source and are being transmitted by an air pressure related modulation. But in order to receive them the wind has to blow these data packets in the general direction of Wigan. If they get blown in the wrong direction maybe somebody else gets to become the returner of the greatest number of missing episodes.

4. With the BBC currently obsessed with Charter renewal and just what the new UK government has planned for it, not to mention a new season of Doctor Who in production, it's hard to get the attention of senior executives who might pay for returned archive material. With a loud hailer and the wind blowing in the right direction, maybe the message might reach the right ears. As BBC executives tend to sit near the top of their buildings, an upward draught might be best.

I hope that's clarified the situation for us all.