Doctor Who material from series 8 leaked onto the web earlier this week. Now it looks like things are far worse than previously thought.

News of the leak was first widely reported on July 7. Scripts and footage from five episodes were available online via various torrent sites. In the first leak, the only solace that the BBC had was the fact that the video footage was in some way corrupted so that is was incapable of being viewed. The files were then quickly taken down presumably as the result of a cease and desist order.

As of today, it looks like the footage is able to be viewed. According to the Radio Times, the footage is being widely distributed on pirate sites.

The Radio Times verified the authenticity of the footage stating, “RadioTimes.com has seen the black and white footage branded with BBC Worldwide watermarks. Numerous visual effects shots are missing and it uses a placeholder title sequence from Matt Smith’s last series. Nevertheless, it appears to be Peter Capaldi’s first episode in its entirety, available online long before it is due to be broadcast on 23rd August on BBC1.”

The BBC issued the following statement that confirms that this is not a new leak. It’s part of their ongoing investigation into the Miami office whose servers were breached. “This is part of BBC Worldwide’s ongoing security investigation into leaked unfinished Doctor Who materials. This content is currently being removed and originates from the same Miami server 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.”

The PR machine behind the Doctor Who franchise is expected to kick into high gear later this summer when a whirlwind, global tour kicks off on August 7. This will be the first such tour for the franchise that is notably skipping an appearance at San Diego Comic-Con for the first time since the series was rebooted in 2005.

Doctor Who will be back on screens in its polished format on August 23. It is expected that the episode will be simulcast globally, as was the 50th Anniversary Special.