I don't think the BBC ever intended to stop making science fiction institutionally in the 1960s, but it's true that the reorganisation of television drama in 1963 meant that the producer/directors who had been making the serials you liked largely left; and though Sydney Newman, who instigated the reorganisation, liked SF, he saw it as more suited to single plays than to the serials which had dominated the medium before, hence Out of the Unknown, though of course this is no good to those who don't have BBC 2.
I don't think the BBC hated Counterstrike as such; bureaucratically it was down to the series producer to authorise the retention of the transmission tapes in the short term, but if there was no repeat scheduled within the contractual window, or Enterprises didn't want the tapes so they could make film recordings for overseas sales, they would be wiped.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-06 10:30 pm (UTC)I don't think the BBC hated Counterstrike as such; bureaucratically it was down to the series producer to authorise the retention of the transmission tapes in the short term, but if there was no repeat scheduled within the contractual window, or Enterprises didn't want the tapes so they could make film recordings for overseas sales, they would be wiped.