Doctor Who missing episodes
Encyclopedia
The Doctor Who missing episodes are the instalments of the long-running British science-fiction television
programme Doctor Who
that have no known film or videotape
copies. They were wiped
(or "junked") by the BBC
during the 1960s and 1970s for economic and space-saving reasons. There are 27 incomplete Doctor Who serials, with 108 of 253 episodes from the first six years of the programme missing. Many more were thought to be lost until copies were recovered from various sources, mostly overseas broadcasters.
Doctor Who is not unique in this respect, as thousands of hours of programming from across all genres were destroyed by the BBC until 1978, when the corporation's archiving policies were changed. Other high-profile series affected included Dad's Army
, Z-Cars
, The Wednesday Play
, Steptoe and Son
, and Not Only... But Also
. The BBC was not the only British broadcaster to carry out this practice; ITV
companies also destroyed programmes, including early videotape episodes of The Avengers
.
Doctor Who is unique in that all of its missing episodes survive in audio form, recorded off-air by fans at home. Stills or short video clips have been found for several missing episodes. All 1970s episodes also exist visually in some form, which is not the case for several other series.
Efforts to locate missing episodes continue, both by the BBC and by fans of the series. Extensive restoration has been carried out on many recovered 1960s and 1970s episodes for release on VHS and DVD. The surviving soundtracks of missing episodes have been released on cassette and CD. Fan groups and the BBC have released reconstructions of missing episodes, matching photographs from the episodes with the soundtracks. Two episodes of The Invasion
were reconstructed using animation and released with the surviving episodes of that serial on DVD.
The actors' union Equity had actively fought against the introduction of TV recording since it originally became a practical proposition in the 1950s. Prior to the development of workable television recording, if a broadcaster wished to repeat a programme (usually a one-off play), the actors would be re-hired for an additional fee to perform it again live. Equity's concern was that if broadcasters were able to record the original performances, they would be able to repeat them indefinitely, which would cut down on the levels of new production and threaten the livelihoods of its members. Although Equity could not prevent recording altogether, it was able to stipulate that recordings could only be repeated a set number of times within a specific timeframe, and the fees payable for further use beyond that were deliberately so high that broadcasters would consider it unjustifiable to spend so much money repeating an old programme rather than making a new one. Consequently, recordings whose repeat rights had expired were considered to be of no further economic use to the broadcasters.
Most Doctor Who episodes were made on two-inch videotape for initial broadcast and then telerecorded onto 16mm film
by BBC Enterprises for further commercial exploitation. Enterprises used 16mm for overseas sales as it was considerably cheaper to buy and easier to transport than videotape. It also circumvented the problem of different countries' incompatible video standards, as film was a universal medium whereas videotape was not. The BBC had no central archive at the time – the Film Library kept programmes that had been made on film, while the Engineering Department was responsible for storing videotapes. BBC Enterprises kept only copies of programmes they deemed commercially exploitable. They also had little dedicated storage space and tended to keep piles of film canisters wherever they could find space for them at their Villiers House property.
The Engineering Department had no mandate to archive the programme videotapes they held, although they would not normally be wiped or junked until the relevant production department or BBC Enterprises had indicated that they had no further use for the tapes. The first Doctor Who master videotapes to be junked were those for the serial The Highlanders
, which were erased on 9 March 1967, a mere two months after Episode 4's original transmission. Further erasing and junking of Doctor Who master videotapes by the Engineering Department continued into the 1970s. Eventually every single master videotape of the programme's first 253 episodes (1963–1969) was destroyed or wiped, with the final 1960s mastertapes to be erased being those for the 1968 serial Fury from the Deep
, which were authorised for wiping in late 1974.
Despite the destruction of these masters, BBC Enterprises held a near-complete archive of the series in the form of their 16mm film telerecording copies until approximately 1972. From around 1972–1978, BBC Enterprises also disposed of much of their older material, including many episodes of Doctor Who.
, a record producer and fan of the programme. Enterprises' episodes were usually junked because their rights agreements with the actors and writers to sell the programmes abroad had expired. With many broadcasters around the world now switching to colour transmission, it was not deemed worthwhile extending agreements to sell the older black-and-white material.
The BBC Film Library had no responsibility for storing programmes that had not been made on film, and there were conflicting views between the Film Library and BBC Enterprises over who had the responsibility of archiving programmes. These combined factors resulted in the erasure of large quantities of older black-and-white programming from the Corporation's various libraries. While thousands of other programmes have been destroyed in this way around the world, the missing Doctor Who episodes are probably the best-known example of how the lack of a consistent programme archiving policy can have long-term effects.
The degree of incompleteness varies, and is concentrated on the First
and Second Doctor
stories. Although one story has only one episode missing (The Tenth Planet
), others are lost altogether, with Patrick Troughton
's Second Doctor
being particularly badly affected – of the fourteen stories comprising his first two seasons, only The Tomb of the Cybermen
is complete, and this only exists due to a copy being returned from Hong Kong. All stories starring Jon Pertwee
as the Third Doctor
are complete, but some only survive as black and white telerecordings or US-standard NTSC
copies. In order of original transmissions, the very last Doctor Who master videotapes to be wiped were the first episodes of the 1974 serials Invasion of the Dinosaurs
and Death to the Daleks
. The latter was recovered from overseas, initially from a tape in the NTSC
format, and later in the original PAL
format on a tape returned from Dubai
.
For a few years Episode 1 of Invasion of the Dinosaurs
was the only Pertwee episode to be entirely missing from the archives, until a black-and-white 16mm copy was returned to the Corporation in the early 1980s. Archival holdings from Death to the Daleks Episode 2 onwards are complete on the original broadcast videotapes, with the exception of the final shot of The Deadly Assassin
Episode 3 (1976); this shot was removed from the master copy after its initial UK transmission following complaints from Mary Whitehouse
of the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association. Subsequent repeats and commercial releases have restored the shot from off-air video copies.
The wiping policy officially came to an end in 1978, when the means to further exploit programmes by taking advantage of the new market in home video cassette recordings
was beginning to become apparent. In addition, the attitude became that vintage programmes should, in any case, be preserved for posterity and historical and cultural reasons. The BBC Film Library was turned into a combined Film & Videotape Library for the preservation of both media. The Film Library at the time held only 47 episodes of 1960s Doctor Who; they had once held 53, but six episodes had either been junked or went missing. Following the transfer of episodes still held by Enterprises, there were 152 episodes of Doctor Who no longer held by the BBC, although subsequent efforts have reduced that number to 108 as of today.
The most sought-after lost episode is Episode 4 of the last William Hartnell serial The Tenth Planet
, which ends with the First Doctor regenerating into the Second. The only portion of the sequence still in existence, bar a few poor-quality silent 8mm clips, is the regeneration itself and a few seconds before it, which had been shown in a 1973 episode of Blue Peter
.
) between them.
Of all the series shown by the Corporation throughout the 1960s which had runs of significant length, only Steptoe and Son
can be said to have a better survival record, with all episodes existing, albeit many only in the form of early domestic videotape copies created by the writers of the programme. Other programmes have few or no episodes in existence; United!
, a football-based soap opera which broadcast 147 episodes between 1965 and 1967, has no episodes surviving at all. Doctor Who's popularity and high profile has also helped to ensure the return of episodes which, for other less well-remembered programmes, might never have occurred.
Doctor Who is also comparatively rare amongst contemporaries in that all of the 1970s episodes exist in one format or another, whilst other series such as Z-Cars
and Dixon of Dock Green
have episodes from as late as 1975 missing.
, Mission to the Unknown
, and The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve
) have no surviving footage whatsoever; Marco Polos status, however, is disputed since the first moments of the serial used an edited version of the very end of The Edge of Destruction
(hence, it can be argued that footage exists as The Edge Of Destruction is intact).
. At some point after the recording, it was discovered that a technical problem had caused backstage voices to be heard on the resulting videotape; in early December 1963, the episode was remounted with a different costume for Susan. The only surviving portion is the reprise at the beginning of Episode 2.
Planet of Giants
is another odd example, having originally recorded four episodes. Directed by Douglas Camfield
and entitled "The Urge to Live", Episode 4 was spliced together with the original Episode 3 ("Crisis") to create a faster-paced climax with only Camfield being credited on the resulting episode. This decision, made by then-Head of Drama Sydney Newman
, resulted in a gap at the end of the second production block (and the creation of Mission to the Unknown); the unused portions of Episodes 3 and 4 are believed to have been destroyed.
) produced "lost" episodes from the archives of their television companies. The Tomb of the Cybermen
, for example, was recovered in this manner from Rediffusion Television
in Hong Kong in 1992.
In October 1996, Australian Doctor Who fans Damian Shanahan and Ellen Parry discovered a collection of the censored clips – several from missing episodes which do not exist in their entirety – in the records of the National Archives of Australia
. The clips had been sent by the Commonwealth Film Censorship Board (now the Office of Film and Literature Classification) to the Archives as evidence of the required edits having been made.
In 2002, New Zealand fan Graham Howard uncovered censored clips from The Wheel in Space
and The Web of Fear
.
These episodes (the only one from Evil and one of only two from Faceless to exist) had been purchased by Hendry for £8 each at a car boot sale
in December 1983. At the time of purchase, Hendry was completely unaware of their rarity, and bought them out of mild curiosity and childhood memories of the programme.
archives or returned to the Corporation – have been found.
Nevertheless, 16mm copies of three episodes have been recovered. Episodes 5 and 10 came from an ex-BBC property which had been purchased by a LDS Church group in the early 1980s, who had come across the films when tidying the basement and subsequently offered them back to the Corporation. Episode 2 was returned in 2004 by former BBC engineer Francis Watson, who had taken the film home in the early 1970s after being instructed to dispose of junk material from a projector testing room at the BBC's Ealing Studios
; instead of throwing the film away, Watson kept it and eventually returned it to the Corporation when he realised the value of the material.
, as to whether they held any copies of BBC programmes which the BBC did not. These inquiries resulted in the return of three complete Second Doctor serials – The Dominators
, The Krotons
, and The War Games
. These were all standard 16mm film telerecordings with the exception of The Dominators Episode 3, which was a 35mm print.
Episodes 4 and 5 of The Dominators originated from a foreign broadcaster and had been slightly edited; the missing material was subsequently restored, either from copies held by private collectors or through the discovery of censor clips.
were discovered in a cupboard at Villiers House when the Corporation was in the process of moving out of the building.
However, despite the Film Library's remit, not all of these originally film-recorded episodes exist. On the other hand, there were also some unexplained items in the Library, such as 16mm copies of The Tenth Planet Episodes 1–3, presumably viewing prints which were mistakenly returned to them at some point instead of BBC Enterprises. Most surprisingly of all, they also still held a 16mm telerecording copy of the original untransmitted pilot, presumably a viewing print made in 1963 and subsequently lodged at the Library.
The Film Library also held high-quality original film sequences made for insertion into videotaped episodes. Some of these, such as those from Episodes 1–2 of The Daleks' Master Plan, survive to this day. For many years it was rumoured among Doctor Who fans that some film inserts were considered to be of lesser value than complete programmes and were junked as late as the early 1980s. However, this was inaccurate speculation based on data relating to already-destroyed material which had been mistakenly entered into a film library computer system.
taken by a fan in Australia, who filmed certain scenes directly from a television screen during repeat showings of various episodes (including some that are intact); the clips from missing episodes range from The Reign of Terror Episode 4 to The Faceless Ones Episode 2.
A brief clip from Episode 4 of The Crusade
was discovered to exist when fans who had an audio recording of that episode noted an off-camera cough that was also heard at the very beginning of The Space Museum
. Episode 1 of the latter serial began with the characters in period costume, briefly frozen in place, proving that it was a filmed insert from the previous (and currently missing) episode.
Clips from Fury From the Deep (the TARDIS landing on the sea in Episode 1) and The Wheel in Space (a model shot from Episode 1) were discovered to have been used in Episode 10 of The War Games.
.
A lengthy excerpt from the 1965 serial Galaxy 4
was returned by Doctor Who fan Jan Vincent-Rudzki in the 1990s. The sequence had originally been taken from a viewing print of Episode 1 by the production team working on a 1977 Doctor Who documentary, Whose Doctor Who. After they had selected the short clip they wished to use from the extract, they discarded the rest; Vincent-Rudzki, who was working as an adviser to the production team, was allowed to keep the film.
Behind-the-scenes footage was discovered for The Smugglers, The Evil of the Daleks, The Abominable Snowmen, and Fury From the Deep. Also from the latter serial was some raw footage from the filming of Episode 6, featuring some alternate camera angles from what was eventually broadcast; despite the alternate angles, the "Lost in Time" DVD boxset edited the trims and added the extant audio to present as footage from the episode. (The original film trims were also included on the same disc.)
In 2005, two further short clips from The Power of the Daleks – along with a higher-quality version of one of the extant scenes – were discovered in a 1966 episode of the BBC science series Tomorrow's World
. The clips, lasting less than 10 seconds each and on film (as opposed to film recordings), only came to light when the Tomorrow's World segment was broadcast as part of the 11 September 2005 edition of the clip-based nostalgia show Sunday Past Times on BBC Two
. Several sharp-eyed fans noticed that these clips were not among those already known to be extant in the archives and informed the Corporation.
to compile "remastered" soundtracks for CD releases of the missing episodes. BBC Audio has also released a number of these recordings since the early 1990s, with added narration to describe visual sequences.
would be given to anyone who could find and return one of the missing episodes.
As a result of the above The Time Meddler, The War Machines, The Tomb of the Cybermen, The Dominators, The Krotons, The War Games, Invasion of the Dinosaurs, and Death to the Daleks are once again complete. The other serials listed remain incomplete as of today.
, Canada, including all seven episodes of Inferno
(1970) just after it was aired in colour by KVOS12
in Vancouver
; other colour material had been aired in the late 1970s by Toronto-based TV Ontario. As well as this, some off-air colour videotape copies recorded by an American for a British fan in the late 1970s were recovered in the early 1990s, and their colour signals were used (along with colourisation techniques where necessary) to colourise the higher-quality 16 mm monochrome film copies.
The serials that were restored in this way, and thus no longer incomplete, were Doctor Who and the Silurians
, Terror of the Autons
, and The Dæmons
. Off-air NTSC colour tapes are held for all seven episodes of The Ambassadors of Death
, but are too badly damaged to permit anything more than a partial restoration, with the cost of repair being prohibitive.
A new Reverse Standards Conversion
process was used for the first time on the 2005 DVD release of The Claws of Axos
. This process can be used on NTSC version master tapes to restore them to something closer to their original PAL colour state. Another digital image processing technique used for the DVD releases is VidFIRE
, which restores the fluid video look to telerecorded episodes only held on film.
The colour of Planet of the Daleks Episode 3 was reconstructed using a combination of classic colourisation and a new method using the chroma dots
in the black-and-white copy.
" were generally used to promote BBC programmes and for actors, directors, and other production crew members to keep a visual record of their own work in the days before home video recorders. In many cases, they form the only visual record remaining of several Doctor Who serials and other missing episodes of many programmes.
Since the late 1990s, reconstructions of the missing serials have been made by fan groups such as Loose Cannon Productions, who distribute them free. These "recons" are based on the directors' original camera scripts, and use a combination of the surviving soundtracks, surviving footage, photographs, still images (especially Cura's tele-snaps) and specially-recreated material. Although technically infringing copyright
, these recons have been tolerated by the BBC, provided they are not sold for profit and are only distributed in degradable, non-digital
formats such as VHS.
"Official" high-quality reconstructions using the same methods were made for the BBC Video releases of The Ice Warriors
(a 12-minute "highlights" reconstruction bridging the missing Episodes 2 and 3) and The Tenth Planet (a full reconstruction of the missing Episode 4). The DVD box set Doctor Who: The Beginning consisted of the first three serials and a 30-minute reconstruction of Marco Polo
, of which absolutely no footage exists (although this is debated; see above). The Doctor Who Restoration Team
has hinted that similar reconstructions might be done in future.
In June 2005, BBC Audio began to release reconstructions as part of their "MP3 CD
" line. Under the Doctor Who: Reconstructed banner, the CDs include the same audio portions as the previous audio CD releases, but are on a single disc with Macromedia Flash-animated and synchronised slideshow of tele-snaps and other (publicity) photographs. The surviving clips could not be included. The tele-snaps play in sequence when viewed on a computer, or a listener has the option to play the audio-only portion on an MP3-compatible CD or DVD player. The Power of the Daleks
was the first and last such reconstruction to be released: a mooted release in this form of the following story, The Highlanders
, did not go ahead, due to poor sales of the initial release.
On 6 November 2006, The Invasion
, an eight-episode Second Doctor serial of which six episodes survive in the archives, was released on DVD with the missing Episodes 1 and 4 animated by Cosgrove Hall, matched up with a newly-remastered soundtrack created from the extant fan recordings. With the advent of ever-more powerful home computers and more specialisation programmes for them, many fans are also working on unofficial animations of the missing episodes, and this is widespread with many clips being shown online.
Although it is not strictly a missing serial, production of the 1979 Tom Baker
story Shada
was curtailed by a technician's strike after several scenes had been completed. The half-finished material would usually have been junked as useless, but incoming Doctor Who producer John Nathan-Turner
placed a preservation order on it, as he still hoped to salvage Shada as a finished production at a later date. The serial, which was written by Douglas Adams
, was eventually released on video in 1992 with linking narration by Tom Baker
. A clip from Episode 1 was used to allow the Fourth Doctor to appear in the 1983 story The Five Doctors
after Tom Baker declined to reprise his role. Shada would later be released as an audio play with animation featuring the Eighth Doctor and produced by Big Finish Productions, broadcast from 2 May to 6 June 2003 on BBCi and later webcast on the BBC website, then (in a slightly different version) on the BBC7 Digital Radio Station in 2005 and 2006.
In 2009, the Jon Pertwee serials Frontier in Space
and Planet of the Daleks
were released together as the Dalek War boxset. Until recently, Episode 3 of Planet Of The Daleks was only available in black and white. However, using a process last used on a recovered episode of Dad's Army
, it has been restored to full colour.
On 2 June 2011, 2/Entertain announced on its @classicdw twitter page that the missing episodes 4 and 5 of The Reign of Terror would be animated for its late 2012 DVD release. A test still based on an available promotional shot was also revealed and the company announced the animators to be Big Finish and Thetamation.
Starting in the early 1990s, the BBC began to release existing audio recordings of serials with all or a majority of episodes missing on audio cassette and compact disc, with linking narration provided by former series actors such as Jon Pertwee
, Tom Baker
, Colin Baker
, Peter Purves
, and Frazer Hines
. Serials with only one or two episodes missing have also been released in complete soundtrack format. Some serials (such as The Evil of the Daleks
) were re-released during this time with improved audio restoration, changed linking narration, and in some instances with scenes unavailable in the first release. Music clearance problems did, however, result in the Evil of the Daleks release not having some background compositions which played on its original soundtrack. These were replaced with more generic tracks.
As of February 2006, the soundtracks for all of the missing episodes were released, albeit with copyright-uncleared music replacements where necessary, slightly rejigged sequences for reasons of clarity, and with overdubbed narration.
Science fiction on television
Science fiction first appeared on a television program during the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Special effects and other production techniques allow creators to present a living visual image of an imaginary world not limited by the constraints of reality; this makes television an excellent medium...
programme Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
that have no known film or videotape
Videotape
A videotape is a recording of images and sounds on to magnetic tape as opposed to film stock or random access digital media. Videotapes are also used for storing scientific or medical data, such as the data produced by an electrocardiogram...
copies. They were wiped
Wiping
Wiping or junking is a colloquial term for action taken by radio and television production and broadcasting companies, in which old audiotapes, videotapes, and telerecordings , are erased, reused, or destroyed after several uses...
(or "junked") by the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
during the 1960s and 1970s for economic and space-saving reasons. There are 27 incomplete Doctor Who serials, with 108 of 253 episodes from the first six years of the programme missing. Many more were thought to be lost until copies were recovered from various sources, mostly overseas broadcasters.
Doctor Who is not unique in this respect, as thousands of hours of programming from across all genres were destroyed by the BBC until 1978, when the corporation's archiving policies were changed. Other high-profile series affected included Dad's Army
Dad's Army missing episodes
Dad's Army missing episodes usually refers to the three lost episodes of the black-and-white second series of the British sitcom television programme Dad's Army. The whole second series of the sitcom was affected by wiping, although two episodes were recovered in 2001...
, Z-Cars
Z-Cars
Z-Cars is a British television drama series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby in the outskirts of Liverpool in Merseyside. Produced by the BBC, it debuted in January 1962 and ran until September 1978.-Origins:The series was developed by...
, The Wednesday Play
The Wednesday Play
The Wednesday Play was an anthology series of British television plays which ran on BBC1 from October 1964 to May 1970. Every week's play was usually written for television, although adaptations from other sources also featured...
, Steptoe and Son
Steptoe and Son
Steptoe and Son is a British sitcom written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson about two rag and bone men living in Oil Drum Lane, a fictional street in Shepherd's Bush, London. Four series were broadcast by the BBC from 1962 to 1965, followed by a second run from 1970 to 1974. Its theme tune, "Old...
, and Not Only... But Also
Not Only... But Also
Not Only... But Also was a popular 1960s BBC British television series starring Peter Cook and Dudley Moore.-History:The show was originally intended as a solo project for Moore, called Not Only Dudley Moore, But Also His Guests...
. The BBC was not the only British broadcaster to carry out this practice; ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
companies also destroyed programmes, including early videotape episodes of The Avengers
The Avengers (TV series)
The Avengers is a spy-fi British television series set in the 1960s Britain. The Avengers initially focused on Dr. David Keel and his assistant John Steed . Hendry left after the first series and Steed became the main character, partnered with a succession of assistants...
.
Doctor Who is unique in that all of its missing episodes survive in audio form, recorded off-air by fans at home. Stills or short video clips have been found for several missing episodes. All 1970s episodes also exist visually in some form, which is not the case for several other series.
Efforts to locate missing episodes continue, both by the BBC and by fans of the series. Extensive restoration has been carried out on many recovered 1960s and 1970s episodes for release on VHS and DVD. The surviving soundtracks of missing episodes have been released on cassette and CD. Fan groups and the BBC have released reconstructions of missing episodes, matching photographs from the episodes with the soundtracks. Two episodes of The Invasion
The Invasion (Doctor Who)
The Invasion is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in eight weekly parts from 2 November to 21 December 1968...
were reconstructed using animation and released with the surviving episodes of that serial on DVD.
Background
Between approximately 1967 and 1978, large quantities of material stored in the BBC's Engineering department (videotape) and film libraries were destroyed or wiped to make way for newer programmes. This happened for a number of reasons, the primary one being the belief that there was no reason for the material to be kept.The actors' union Equity had actively fought against the introduction of TV recording since it originally became a practical proposition in the 1950s. Prior to the development of workable television recording, if a broadcaster wished to repeat a programme (usually a one-off play), the actors would be re-hired for an additional fee to perform it again live. Equity's concern was that if broadcasters were able to record the original performances, they would be able to repeat them indefinitely, which would cut down on the levels of new production and threaten the livelihoods of its members. Although Equity could not prevent recording altogether, it was able to stipulate that recordings could only be repeated a set number of times within a specific timeframe, and the fees payable for further use beyond that were deliberately so high that broadcasters would consider it unjustifiable to spend so much money repeating an old programme rather than making a new one. Consequently, recordings whose repeat rights had expired were considered to be of no further economic use to the broadcasters.
Most Doctor Who episodes were made on two-inch videotape for initial broadcast and then telerecorded onto 16mm film
16 mm film
16 mm film refers to a popular, economical gauge of film used for motion pictures and non-theatrical film making. 16 mm refers to the width of the film...
by BBC Enterprises for further commercial exploitation. Enterprises used 16mm for overseas sales as it was considerably cheaper to buy and easier to transport than videotape. It also circumvented the problem of different countries' incompatible video standards, as film was a universal medium whereas videotape was not. The BBC had no central archive at the time – the Film Library kept programmes that had been made on film, while the Engineering Department was responsible for storing videotapes. BBC Enterprises kept only copies of programmes they deemed commercially exploitable. They also had little dedicated storage space and tended to keep piles of film canisters wherever they could find space for them at their Villiers House property.
The Engineering Department had no mandate to archive the programme videotapes they held, although they would not normally be wiped or junked until the relevant production department or BBC Enterprises had indicated that they had no further use for the tapes. The first Doctor Who master videotapes to be junked were those for the serial The Highlanders
The Highlanders (Doctor Who)
The Highlanders is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 17 December 1966 to 7 January 1967....
, which were erased on 9 March 1967, a mere two months after Episode 4's original transmission. Further erasing and junking of Doctor Who master videotapes by the Engineering Department continued into the 1970s. Eventually every single master videotape of the programme's first 253 episodes (1963–1969) was destroyed or wiped, with the final 1960s mastertapes to be erased being those for the 1968 serial Fury from the Deep
Fury from the Deep
Fury from the Deep is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in six weekly parts from 16 March to 20 April 1968...
, which were authorised for wiping in late 1974.
Despite the destruction of these masters, BBC Enterprises held a near-complete archive of the series in the form of their 16mm film telerecording copies until approximately 1972. From around 1972–1978, BBC Enterprises also disposed of much of their older material, including many episodes of Doctor Who.
Levine intervention
Doctor Who junkings ceased following the intervention of Ian LevineIan Levine
Ian Levine is an English songwriter, producer, and DJ. He is also a well-known fan of the long-running television show Doctor Who.Levine attended Arnold School in Blackpool from 1963 to 1970...
, a record producer and fan of the programme. Enterprises' episodes were usually junked because their rights agreements with the actors and writers to sell the programmes abroad had expired. With many broadcasters around the world now switching to colour transmission, it was not deemed worthwhile extending agreements to sell the older black-and-white material.
The BBC Film Library had no responsibility for storing programmes that had not been made on film, and there were conflicting views between the Film Library and BBC Enterprises over who had the responsibility of archiving programmes. These combined factors resulted in the erasure of large quantities of older black-and-white programming from the Corporation's various libraries. While thousands of other programmes have been destroyed in this way around the world, the missing Doctor Who episodes are probably the best-known example of how the lack of a consistent programme archiving policy can have long-term effects.
The degree of incompleteness varies, and is concentrated on the First
First Doctor
The First Doctor is the initial incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by the actor William Hartnell from 1963 to 1966. Hartnell reprised the role in the tenth anniversary story The Three Doctors in 1973 - albeit in a...
and Second Doctor
Second Doctor
The Second Doctor is the second incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by character actor Patrick Troughton....
stories. Although one story has only one episode missing (The Tenth Planet
The Tenth Planet
The Tenth Planet is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 8 October to 29 October 1966. It was William Hartnell's last regular appearance as the First Doctor, and the first story to feature the Cybermen...
), others are lost altogether, with Patrick Troughton
Patrick Troughton
Patrick George Troughton was an English actor most widely known for his roles in fantasy, science fiction and horror films, particularly in his role as the second incarnation of the Doctor in the long-running British science-fiction television series Doctor Who, which he played from 1966 to 1969,...
's Second Doctor
Second Doctor
The Second Doctor is the second incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by character actor Patrick Troughton....
being particularly badly affected – of the fourteen stories comprising his first two seasons, only The Tomb of the Cybermen
The Tomb of the Cybermen
The Tomb of the Cybermen is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who that originally aired in four weekly parts from September 2 to September 23, 1967 and is the earliest serial starring Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor to exist in its entirety...
is complete, and this only exists due to a copy being returned from Hong Kong. All stories starring Jon Pertwee
Jon Pertwee
John Devon Roland Pertwee , was an English actor. Pertwee is best known for his role in the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who, in which he played the third incarnation of the Doctor from 1970 to 1974, and as the title character in the series Worzel Gummidge...
as the Third Doctor
Third Doctor
The Third Doctor is the third incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by actor Jon Pertwee....
are complete, but some only survive as black and white telerecordings or US-standard NTSC
NTSC
NTSC, named for the National Television System Committee, is the analog television system that is used in most of North America, most of South America , Burma, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, and some Pacific island nations and territories .Most countries using the NTSC standard, as...
copies. In order of original transmissions, the very last Doctor Who master videotapes to be wiped were the first episodes of the 1974 serials Invasion of the Dinosaurs
Invasion of the Dinosaurs
Invasion of the Dinosaurs is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 12 January to 16 February 1974.-Synopsis:...
and Death to the Daleks
Death to the Daleks
Death to the Daleks is a four-part serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. First broadcast from February 23 to March 16, 1974, it comprises four 25-minute episodes. The narrative begins as the TARDIS suffers an energy drain and crash-lands on the planet Exxilon...
. The latter was recovered from overseas, initially from a tape in the NTSC
NTSC
NTSC, named for the National Television System Committee, is the analog television system that is used in most of North America, most of South America , Burma, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, and some Pacific island nations and territories .Most countries using the NTSC standard, as...
format, and later in the original PAL
PAL
PAL, short for Phase Alternating Line, is an analogue television colour encoding system used in broadcast television systems in many countries. Other common analogue television systems are NTSC and SECAM. This page primarily discusses the PAL colour encoding system...
format on a tape returned from Dubai
Dubai
Dubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates . The emirate is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi...
.
For a few years Episode 1 of Invasion of the Dinosaurs
Invasion of the Dinosaurs
Invasion of the Dinosaurs is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 12 January to 16 February 1974.-Synopsis:...
was the only Pertwee episode to be entirely missing from the archives, until a black-and-white 16mm copy was returned to the Corporation in the early 1980s. Archival holdings from Death to the Daleks Episode 2 onwards are complete on the original broadcast videotapes, with the exception of the final shot of The Deadly Assassin
The Deadly Assassin
The Deadly Assassin is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 30 October to 20 November 1976...
Episode 3 (1976); this shot was removed from the master copy after its initial UK transmission following complaints from Mary Whitehouse
Mary Whitehouse
Mary Whitehouse, CBE was a British campaigner against the permissive society particularly as the media portrayed and reflected it...
of the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association. Subsequent repeats and commercial releases have restored the shot from off-air video copies.
The wiping policy officially came to an end in 1978, when the means to further exploit programmes by taking advantage of the new market in home video cassette recordings
Videocassette recorder
The videocassette recorder , is a type of electro-mechanical device that uses removable videocassettes that contain magnetic tape for recording analog audio and analog video from broadcast television so that the images and sound can be played back at a more convenient time...
was beginning to become apparent. In addition, the attitude became that vintage programmes should, in any case, be preserved for posterity and historical and cultural reasons. The BBC Film Library was turned into a combined Film & Videotape Library for the preservation of both media. The Film Library at the time held only 47 episodes of 1960s Doctor Who; they had once held 53, but six episodes had either been junked or went missing. Following the transfer of episodes still held by Enterprises, there were 152 episodes of Doctor Who no longer held by the BBC, although subsequent efforts have reduced that number to 108 as of today.
The most sought-after lost episode is Episode 4 of the last William Hartnell serial The Tenth Planet
The Tenth Planet
The Tenth Planet is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 8 October to 29 October 1966. It was William Hartnell's last regular appearance as the First Doctor, and the first story to feature the Cybermen...
, which ends with the First Doctor regenerating into the Second. The only portion of the sequence still in existence, bar a few poor-quality silent 8mm clips, is the regeneration itself and a few seconds before it, which had been shown in a 1973 episode of Blue Peter
Blue Peter
Blue Peter is the world's longest-running children's television show, having first aired in 1958. It is shown on CBBC, both in its BBC One programming block and on the CBBC channel. During its history there have been many presenters, often consisting of two women and two men at a time...
.
Compared with other series
Compared with many BBC series broadcast in the 1960s, Doctor Who is comparatively well-represented in terms of existing episodes. 145 of the 253 episodes broadcast during the 1960s are still in existence, mainly due to wide overseas sales which have aided in recovery of episodes (see below). This is reflected in the nature of the surviving episodes – Seasons 1 and 2, the most widely-sold abroad of the 1960s era, are missing only nine and two episodes respectively. By contrast Seasons 4 and 5, which sold to fewer countries, have only one complete serial in existence (The Tomb of the CybermenThe Tomb of the Cybermen
The Tomb of the Cybermen is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who that originally aired in four weekly parts from September 2 to September 23, 1967 and is the earliest serial starring Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor to exist in its entirety...
) between them.
Of all the series shown by the Corporation throughout the 1960s which had runs of significant length, only Steptoe and Son
Steptoe and Son
Steptoe and Son is a British sitcom written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson about two rag and bone men living in Oil Drum Lane, a fictional street in Shepherd's Bush, London. Four series were broadcast by the BBC from 1962 to 1965, followed by a second run from 1970 to 1974. Its theme tune, "Old...
can be said to have a better survival record, with all episodes existing, albeit many only in the form of early domestic videotape copies created by the writers of the programme. Other programmes have few or no episodes in existence; United!
United!
United! was a British television series which was produced by the BBC between 1965 and 1967, and was broadcast twice-weekly on BBC1.The series followed the fortunes of a fictional second division football team, Brentwich United...
, a football-based soap opera which broadcast 147 episodes between 1965 and 1967, has no episodes surviving at all. Doctor Who
Doctor Who is also comparatively rare amongst contemporaries in that all of the 1970s episodes exist in one format or another, whilst other series such as Z-Cars
Z-Cars
Z-Cars is a British television drama series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby in the outskirts of Liverpool in Merseyside. Produced by the BBC, it debuted in January 1962 and ran until September 1978.-Origins:The series was developed by...
and Dixon of Dock Green
Dixon of Dock Green
Dixon of Dock Green was a popular BBC television series that ran from 1955 to 1976, and later a radio series. Despite being a drama series, it was initially produced by the BBC's light entertainment department.-Overview:...
have episodes from as late as 1975 missing.
List of lost episodes
Currently, there are 108 episodes unaccounted for from 27 serials, including 11 full serials. Almost all of the missing stories have clips of various lengths surviving from different sources, while three (Marco PoloMarco Polo (Doctor Who)
-CD and DVD releases:*In 2003, a three-CD set of the audio soundtrack was released, as part of Doctor Who's 40th anniversary. This CD set is unique in containing a map of Cathay as represented during the period of the Doctor's visit to China, and also explaining historical inaccuracies...
, Mission to the Unknown
Mission to the Unknown
"Mission to the Unknown", sometimes known as "Dalek Cutaway", is an episode in the television series Doctor Who. It is a standalone episode, serving as an introduction to the 12 part story The Daleks' Master Plan...
, and The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve
The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve
The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 5 February to 26 February 1966...
) have no surviving footage whatsoever; Marco Polos status, however, is disputed since the first moments of the serial used an edited version of the very end of The Edge of Destruction
The Edge of Destruction
The Edge of Destruction is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in two weekly parts on February 8 and February 15, 1964. The serial is distinguished as a rare "bottle episode", in that the entire story is shot on a single set, with just...
(hence, it can be argued that footage exists as The Edge Of Destruction is intact).
| Doctor | Season | Story # | Serial | Lost Episodes | Tally |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First Doctor First Doctor The First Doctor is the initial incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by the actor William Hartnell from 1963 to 1966. Hartnell reprised the role in the tenth anniversary story The Three Doctors in 1973 - albeit in a... |
1 | 004 | Marco Polo Marco Polo (Doctor Who) -CD and DVD releases:*In 2003, a three-CD set of the audio soundtrack was released, as part of Doctor Who's 40th anniversary. This CD set is unique in containing a map of Cathay as represented during the period of the Doctor's visit to China, and also explaining historical inaccuracies... |
All 7 episodes | 7 |
| 008 | The Reign of Terror The Reign of Terror (Doctor Who) The Reign of Terror is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from August 8 to September 12, 1964. The story was set in France during the period of the French Revolution known as the Reign of Terror.-Plot:The Doctor, Ian,... |
Episodes 4–5 (of 6 total) | 2 | ||
| 2 | 014 | The Crusade The Crusade (Doctor Who) The Crusade is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from March 27 to April 17, 1965. The story is set in Palestine, near Jerusalem, during the Third Crusade.-Plot:... |
Episodes 2, 4 (of 4 total) | 2 | |
| 3 | 018 | Galaxy 4 Galaxy 4 Galaxy 4 is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 11 September to 2 October 1965.-Plot:... |
All 4 episodes | 4 | |
| 019 | Mission to the Unknown Mission to the Unknown "Mission to the Unknown", sometimes known as "Dalek Cutaway", is an episode in the television series Doctor Who. It is a standalone episode, serving as an introduction to the 12 part story The Daleks' Master Plan... |
Entire episode | 1 | ||
| 020 | The Myth Makers The Myth Makers The Myth Makers is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 16 October to 6 November 1965. The story is set in Homeric Troy, based on Iliad by Homer... |
All 4 episodes | 4 | ||
| 021 | The Daleks' Master Plan The Daleks' Master Plan The Daleks' Master Plan is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The twelve episodes were aired from 13 November 1965 to 29 January 1966... |
Episodes 1, 3–4, 6–9, 11–12 (of 12 total) | 9 | ||
| 022 | The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 5 February to 26 February 1966... |
All 4 episodes | 4 | ||
| 024 | The Celestial Toymaker The Celestial Toymaker The Celestial Toymaker is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 2 April to 23 April 1966.-Plot:... |
Episodes 1–3 (of 4 total) | 3 | ||
| 026 | The Savages | All 4 episodes | 4 | ||
| 4 | 028 | The Smugglers The Smugglers The Smugglers is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 10 September to 1 October 1966.-Plot:... |
All 4 episodes | 4 | |
| 029 | The Tenth Planet The Tenth Planet The Tenth Planet is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 8 October to 29 October 1966. It was William Hartnell's last regular appearance as the First Doctor, and the first story to feature the Cybermen... |
Episode 4 (of 4 total) | 1 | ||
| Totals | 12 serials | 45 episodes | |||
| Second Doctor Second Doctor The Second Doctor is the second incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by character actor Patrick Troughton.... |
4 | 030 | The Power of the Daleks The Power of the Daleks The Power of the Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 5 November to 10 December 1966. It is Patrick Troughton's first full story as the Doctor.-Plot:... |
All 6 episodes | 6 |
| 031 | The Highlanders The Highlanders (Doctor Who) The Highlanders is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 17 December 1966 to 7 January 1967.... |
All 4 episodes | 4 | ||
| 032 | The Underwater Menace | Episodes 1–2, 4 (of 4 total) | 3 | ||
| 033 | The Moonbase The Moonbase The Moonbase is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 11 February to 4 March 1967... |
Episodes 1, 3 (of 4 total) | 2 | ||
| 034 | The Macra Terror The Macra Terror The Macra Terror is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 11 March to 1 April 1967... |
All 4 episodes | 4 | ||
| 035 | The Faceless Ones The Faceless Ones The Faceless Ones is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from April 8 to May 13, 1967. The story concerns a race of identity-stealing aliens known as the Chameleons... |
Episodes 2, 4–6 (of 6 total) | 4 | ||
| 036 | The Evil of the Daleks The Evil of the Daleks The Evil of the Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in seven weekly parts from 20 May to 1 July 1967. This serial marked the debut of Deborah Watling as the Doctor's new companion, Victoria Waterfield.Evil was initially intended to... |
Episodes 1, 3–7 (of 7 total) | 6 | ||
| 5 | 038 | The Abominable Snowmen The Abominable Snowmen The Abominable Snowmen is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in six weekly parts from September 30 to November 4, 1967. The story is notable for the introduction of recurring foes, the Yeti.... |
Episodes 1, 3–6 (of 6 total) | 5 | |
| 039 | The Ice Warriors The Ice Warriors The Ice Warriors is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from November 11 to December 16, 1967... |
Episodes 2–3 (of 6 total) | 2 | ||
| 040 | The Enemy of the World The Enemy of the World The Enemy of the World is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in six weekly parts from 23 December 1967 to 27 January 1968... |
Episodes 1–2, 4–6 (of 6 total) | 5 | ||
| 041 | The Web of Fear The Web of Fear The Web of Fear is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 3 February to 9 March 1968. This serial — which marks the return of the Yeti, the Great Intelligence, and Professor Travers — is the sequel to The Abominable... |
Episodes 2–6 (of 6 total) | 5 | ||
| 042 | Fury from the Deep Fury from the Deep Fury from the Deep is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in six weekly parts from 16 March to 20 April 1968... |
All 6 episodes | 6 | ||
| 043 | The Wheel in Space The Wheel in Space The Wheel in Space is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in six weekly parts from 27 April to 1 June 1968... |
Episodes 1–2, 4–5 (of 6 total) | 4 | ||
| 6 | 046 | The Invasion The Invasion (Doctor Who) The Invasion is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in eight weekly parts from 2 November to 21 December 1968... |
Episodes 1, 4 (of 8 total) | 2 | |
| 049 | The Space Pirates The Space Pirates The Space Pirates is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in six weekly parts from 8 March to 12 April 1969.-Plot:... |
Episodes 1, 3–6 (of 6 total) | 5 | ||
| Totals | 15 serials | 63 episodes | |||
Unaired lost episodes
In addition to the official list of missing episodes, also missing is the original Episode 1 of The DaleksThe Daleks
The Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in seven weekly parts from 21 December 1963 to 1 February 1964...
. At some point after the recording, it was discovered that a technical problem had caused backstage voices to be heard on the resulting videotape; in early December 1963, the episode was remounted with a different costume for Susan. The only surviving portion is the reprise at the beginning of Episode 2.
Planet of Giants
Planet of Giants
*An early draft of this story – by C.E. Webber and entitled The Giants – was originally meant to be the first story of the first season.-Episode 4:*This story was originally four episodes in length...
is another odd example, having originally recorded four episodes. Directed by Douglas Camfield
Douglas Camfield
Douglas Gaston Sydney Camfield was an accomplished director for television from the 1960s to the 1980s. His programme credits include Z-Cars, Paul Temple, Van der Valk, The Sweeney, Shoestring, The Professionals, Out of the Unknown, The Nightmare Man, the BBC dramatisation of Beau Geste and...
and entitled "The Urge to Live", Episode 4 was spliced together with the original Episode 3 ("Crisis") to create a faster-paced climax with only Camfield being credited on the resulting episode. This decision, made by then-Head of Drama Sydney Newman
Sydney Newman
Sydney Cecil Newman, OC was a Canadian film and television producer, who played a pioneering role in British television drama from the late 1950s to the late 1960s...
, resulted in a gap at the end of the second production block (and the creation of Mission to the Unknown); the unused portions of Episodes 3 and 4 are believed to have been destroyed.
| Doctor | Season | Story # | Serial | Lost Episodes | Tally |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First Doctor First Doctor The First Doctor is the initial incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by the actor William Hartnell from 1963 to 1966. Hartnell reprised the role in the tenth anniversary story The Three Doctors in 1973 - albeit in a... |
1 | 002 | The Daleks (original version) The Daleks The Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in seven weekly parts from 21 December 1963 to 1 February 1964... |
Episode 1 (remounted; original is missing, minus the reprise at the beginning of Episode 2) | 1 |
| 2 | 009 | Planet of Giants (original version) Planet of Giants *An early draft of this story – by C.E. Webber and entitled The Giants – was originally meant to be the first story of the first season.-Episode 4:*This story was originally four episodes in length... |
Episodes 3–4 (these two episodes were edited together into a single episode for broadcast, only the original, unaired versions are missing) | 2 |
Recovery
In the years since the BBC archive was first audited in 1978, a number of episodes then absent have been returned from various sources. An appeal to broadcasters in other countries who had shown the programme (notably Australia and African nations such as NigeriaNigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
) produced "lost" episodes from the archives of their television companies. The Tomb of the Cybermen
The Tomb of the Cybermen
The Tomb of the Cybermen is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who that originally aired in four weekly parts from September 2 to September 23, 1967 and is the earliest serial starring Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor to exist in its entirety...
, for example, was recovered in this manner from Rediffusion Television
Rediffusion Television
Rediffusion Television was the first television station in Hong Kong, established on May 29, 1957, making it both the first British colony and the first predominantly Chinese city to have television...
in Hong Kong in 1992.
Censor clips
Some portions of the overseas copies were physically excised prior to transmission in the 1960s by the Australian and New Zealand censors for being too violent or frightening for the programme's early time slot and younger audience. Hence, episodes recovered from these sources are missing these segments.In October 1996, Australian Doctor Who fans Damian Shanahan and Ellen Parry discovered a collection of the censored clips – several from missing episodes which do not exist in their entirety – in the records of the National Archives of Australia
National Archives of Australia
The National Archives of Australia is a body established by the Government of Australia for the purpose of preserving Commonwealth Government records. It is an Executive Agency of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and reports to the Cabinet Secretary, Senator Joe Ludwig.The national...
. The clips had been sent by the Commonwealth Film Censorship Board (now the Office of Film and Literature Classification) to the Archives as evidence of the required edits having been made.
In 2002, New Zealand fan Graham Howard uncovered censored clips from The Wheel in Space
The Wheel in Space
The Wheel in Space is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in six weekly parts from 27 April to 1 June 1968...
and The Web of Fear
The Web of Fear
The Web of Fear is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 3 February to 9 March 1968. This serial — which marks the return of the Yeti, the Great Intelligence, and Professor Travers — is the sequel to The Abominable...
.
The Evil of the Daleks/The Faceless Ones
Episodes have also been returned by private film collectors who had acquired 16 mm copies from various sources. For example, 16mm film telerecording prints of Episode 2 of The Evil of the Daleks and Episode 3 of The Faceless Ones were returned to the Corporation by film collector Gordon Hendry.These episodes (the only one from Evil and one of only two from Faceless to exist) had been purchased by Hendry for £8 each at a car boot sale
Car boot sale
Car boot/trunk sales or boot/trunk fairs are a mainly British form of market in which private individuals come together to sell household and garden goods.The term refers to the selling of items from a car's boot or trunk...
in December 1983. At the time of purchase, Hendry was completely unaware of their rarity, and bought them out of mild curiosity and childhood memories of the programme.
The Daleks' Master Plan
The most unlikely story from which episodes have been recovered is The Daleks' Master Plan, a serial which was never sold abroad. Only Australia ever requested viewing copies (except for Episode 7, "The Feast of Steven"), eventually electing not to purchase the serial. What happened to these viewing copies is a mystery, as no records of their eventual disposition – whether they were retained in the ABCAustralian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
archives or returned to the Corporation – have been found.
Nevertheless, 16mm copies of three episodes have been recovered. Episodes 5 and 10 came from an ex-BBC property which had been purchased by a LDS Church group in the early 1980s, who had come across the films when tidying the basement and subsequently offered them back to the Corporation. Episode 2 was returned in 2004 by former BBC engineer Francis Watson, who had taken the film home in the early 1970s after being instructed to dispose of junk material from a projector testing room at the BBC's Ealing Studios
Ealing Studios
Ealing Studios is a television and film production company and facilities provider at Ealing Green in West London. Will Barker bought the White Lodge on Ealing Green in 1902 as a base for film making, and films have been made on the site ever since...
; instead of throwing the film away, Watson kept it and eventually returned it to the Corporation when he realised the value of the material.
National Film and Television Archive
Shortly after the junking process came to an end and the Corporation was first taking stock of how much material was missing from its archives, inquiries were made to the National Film and Television Archive, held by the British Film InstituteBritish Film Institute
The British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...
, as to whether they held any copies of BBC programmes which the BBC did not. These inquiries resulted in the return of three complete Second Doctor serials – The Dominators
The Dominators
The Dominators is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in five weekly parts from 10 August to 7 September 1968.-Plot:...
, The Krotons
The Krotons
The Krotons is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from December 28, 1968 to January 18, 1969...
, and The War Games
The War Games
The War Games is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in ten weekly parts from 19 April to 21 June 1969. It was the last regular appearance of Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor, and of Wendy Padbury and Frazer Hines as companions Zoe...
. These were all standard 16mm film telerecordings with the exception of The Dominators Episode 3, which was a 35mm print.
Episodes 4 and 5 of The Dominators originated from a foreign broadcaster and had been slightly edited; the missing material was subsequently restored, either from copies held by private collectors or through the discovery of censor clips.
Villiers House
Some of the surviving episodes were always held at the BBC, although the Corporation was not necessarily aware of this. In August 1988, Episodes 1 and 4–6 of the six-part story The Ice WarriorsThe Ice Warriors
The Ice Warriors is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from November 11 to December 16, 1967...
were discovered in a cupboard at Villiers House when the Corporation was in the process of moving out of the building.
Film Library oddities
When the archive was first checked in 1978, 47 episodes were held by the BBC Film Library in addition to those still held by BBC Enterprises. These Film Library copies were a combination of random viewing prints created for various episodes down the years which had subsequently found their way into the Library's holdings, and some of the few episodes that had originally been telerecorded onto film for transmission rather than recorded onto videotape. These film-recorded masters had been stored in the Film Library, rather than in the Engineering Department with the videotapes.However, despite the Film Library's remit, not all of these originally film-recorded episodes exist. On the other hand, there were also some unexplained items in the Library, such as 16mm copies of The Tenth Planet Episodes 1–3, presumably viewing prints which were mistakenly returned to them at some point instead of BBC Enterprises. Most surprisingly of all, they also still held a 16mm telerecording copy of the original untransmitted pilot, presumably a viewing print made in 1963 and subsequently lodged at the Library.
The Film Library also held high-quality original film sequences made for insertion into videotaped episodes. Some of these, such as those from Episodes 1–2 of The Daleks' Master Plan, survive to this day. For many years it was rumoured among Doctor Who fans that some film inserts were considered to be of lesser value than complete programmes and were junked as late as the early 1980s. However, this was inaccurate speculation based on data relating to already-destroyed material which had been mistakenly entered into a film library computer system.
8mm clips
Small excerpts have also been recovered on 8mm cine filmCine film
Ciné is usually used to refer to one or more of the home movie formats including 8 mm, 9.5 mm, 16 mm film, and Super 8. It is not generally used to refer to video formats or professional formats ....
taken by a fan in Australia, who filmed certain scenes directly from a television screen during repeat showings of various episodes (including some that are intact); the clips from missing episodes range from The Reign of Terror Episode 4 to The Faceless Ones Episode 2.
From other Doctor Who episodes
Clips from missing episodes have appeared in other Doctor Who serials. Episode 2 of The Daleks used a prefilmed reprise from the original recording of Episode 1, which had to later be remounted; the original version of Episode 1 is presumed to have been destroyed.A brief clip from Episode 4 of The Crusade
The Crusade (Doctor Who)
The Crusade is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from March 27 to April 17, 1965. The story is set in Palestine, near Jerusalem, during the Third Crusade.-Plot:...
was discovered to exist when fans who had an audio recording of that episode noted an off-camera cough that was also heard at the very beginning of The Space Museum
The Space Museum
-VHS, CD and DVD releases:*This story was released alongside the surviving episodes of The Crusade on VHS in 1999.*The audio soundtrack was released with narration from Maureen O'Brien on CD in 2009....
. Episode 1 of the latter serial began with the characters in period costume, briefly frozen in place, proving that it was a filmed insert from the previous (and currently missing) episode.
Clips from Fury From the Deep (the TARDIS landing on the sea in Episode 1) and The Wheel in Space (a model shot from Episode 1) were discovered to have been used in Episode 10 of The War Games.
Other sources
Clips from some missing episodes also survive where they were used in other programmes, with these other shows surviving. For example, scenes from the missing Episode 4 of The Daleks' Master Plan exist through a 1973 edition of Blue Peter, while an Australian programme called Perspectives: C for Computer yielded extracts from The Power of the DaleksThe Power of the Daleks
The Power of the Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 5 November to 10 December 1966. It is Patrick Troughton's first full story as the Doctor.-Plot:...
.
A lengthy excerpt from the 1965 serial Galaxy 4
Galaxy 4
Galaxy 4 is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 11 September to 2 October 1965.-Plot:...
was returned by Doctor Who fan Jan Vincent-Rudzki in the 1990s. The sequence had originally been taken from a viewing print of Episode 1 by the production team working on a 1977 Doctor Who documentary, Whose Doctor Who. After they had selected the short clip they wished to use from the extract, they discarded the rest; Vincent-Rudzki, who was working as an adviser to the production team, was allowed to keep the film.
Behind-the-scenes footage was discovered for The Smugglers, The Evil of the Daleks, The Abominable Snowmen, and Fury From the Deep. Also from the latter serial was some raw footage from the filming of Episode 6, featuring some alternate camera angles from what was eventually broadcast; despite the alternate angles, the "Lost in Time" DVD boxset edited the trims and added the extant audio to present as footage from the episode. (The original film trims were also included on the same disc.)
In 2005, two further short clips from The Power of the Daleks – along with a higher-quality version of one of the extant scenes – were discovered in a 1966 episode of the BBC science series Tomorrow's World
Tomorrow's World
Tomorrow's World was a long-running BBC television series, showcasing new developments in the world of science and technology. First aired on 7 July 1965 on BBC1, it ran for 38 years until it was cancelled at the beginning of 2003.- Content :...
. The clips, lasting less than 10 seconds each and on film (as opposed to film recordings), only came to light when the Tomorrow's World segment was broadcast as part of the 11 September 2005 edition of the clip-based nostalgia show Sunday Past Times on BBC Two
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
. Several sharp-eyed fans noticed that these clips were not among those already known to be extant in the archives and informed the Corporation.
Audio soundtracks
Though numerous episodes are still missing, full-length audio soundtracks for all missing episodes are held by the BBC. These come from off-air recordings made by fans, often made by use of a microphone placed close to the television set. While the quality of these off-air recordings varies greatly, multiple fan recordings exist for every episode; this has allowed groups such as the Doctor Who Restoration TeamDoctor Who Restoration Team
The Doctor Who Restoration Team is a loose collection of Doctor Who fans, many within the television industry, who restore Doctor Who episodes for release on DVD....
to compile "remastered" soundtracks for CD releases of the missing episodes. BBC Audio has also released a number of these recordings since the early 1990s, with added narration to describe visual sequences.
Continuing search
On 20 April 2006 it was announced on Blue Peter that a life-sized DalekDalek
The Daleks are a fictional extraterrestrial race of mutants from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Within the series, Daleks are cyborgs from the planet Skaro, created by the scientist Davros during the final years of a thousand-year war against the Thals...
would be given to anyone who could find and return one of the missing episodes.
Recovered episodes
When the BBC Film & Videotape Library and BBC Enterprises were first audited in 1978, the following 33 episodes were absent from their collective archives, but have subsequently been returned to the Corporation via the various methods described above.| Doctor | Season | Story # | Serial | Returned Episodes | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First Doctor First Doctor The First Doctor is the initial incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by the actor William Hartnell from 1963 to 1966. Hartnell reprised the role in the tenth anniversary story The Three Doctors in 1973 - albeit in a... |
1 | 008 | The Reign of Terror The Reign of Terror (Doctor Who) The Reign of Terror is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from August 8 to September 12, 1964. The story was set in France during the period of the French Revolution known as the Reign of Terror.-Plot:The Doctor, Ian,... |
Episodes 1-3, 6 | 4 |
| 2 | 014 | The Crusade The Crusade (Doctor Who) The Crusade is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from March 27 to April 17, 1965. The story is set in Palestine, near Jerusalem, during the Third Crusade.-Plot:... |
Episode 1 | 1 | |
| 017 | The Time Meddler The Time Meddler The Time Meddler is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 3 July to 24 July 1965... |
Episodes 1, 3-4 | 3 | ||
| 3 | 021 | The Daleks' Master Plan The Daleks' Master Plan The Daleks' Master Plan is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The twelve episodes were aired from 13 November 1965 to 29 January 1966... |
Episodes 2, 5, 10 | 3 | |
| 024 | The Celestial Toymaker The Celestial Toymaker The Celestial Toymaker is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 2 April to 23 April 1966.-Plot:... |
Episode 4 | 1 | ||
| 027 | The War Machines The War Machines The War Machines is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in 4 weekly parts from 25 June to 16 July 1966... |
All four episodes | 4 | ||
| Second Doctor Second Doctor The Second Doctor is the second incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by character actor Patrick Troughton.... |
4 | 035 | The Faceless Ones The Faceless Ones The Faceless Ones is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from April 8 to May 13, 1967. The story concerns a race of identity-stealing aliens known as the Chameleons... |
Episode 3 | 1 |
| 036 | The Evil of the Daleks The Evil of the Daleks The Evil of the Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in seven weekly parts from 20 May to 1 July 1967. This serial marked the debut of Deborah Watling as the Doctor's new companion, Victoria Waterfield.Evil was initially intended to... |
Episode 2 | 1 | ||
| 5 | 037 | The Tomb of the Cybermen The Tomb of the Cybermen The Tomb of the Cybermen is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who that originally aired in four weekly parts from September 2 to September 23, 1967 and is the earliest serial starring Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor to exist in its entirety... |
All four episodes | 4 | |
| 038 | The Abominable Snowmen The Abominable Snowmen The Abominable Snowmen is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in six weekly parts from September 30 to November 4, 1967. The story is notable for the introduction of recurring foes, the Yeti.... |
Episode 2 | 1 | ||
| 039 | The Ice Warriors The Ice Warriors The Ice Warriors is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from November 11 to December 16, 1967... |
Episodes 1, 4-6 | 4 | ||
| 041 | The Web of Fear The Web of Fear The Web of Fear is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 3 February to 9 March 1968. This serial — which marks the return of the Yeti, the Great Intelligence, and Professor Travers — is the sequel to The Abominable... |
Episode 1 | 1 | ||
| 043 | The Wheel in Space The Wheel in Space The Wheel in Space is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in six weekly parts from 27 April to 1 June 1968... |
Episode 3 | 1 | ||
| 6 | 044 | The Dominators The Dominators The Dominators is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in five weekly parts from 10 August to 7 September 1968.-Plot:... |
Episode 3 | 1 | |
| 047 | The Krotons The Krotons The Krotons is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from December 28, 1968 to January 18, 1969... |
Episode 4 | 1 | ||
| Third Doctor Third Doctor The Third Doctor is the third incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by actor Jon Pertwee.... |
11 | 071 | Invasion of the Dinosaurs Invasion of the Dinosaurs Invasion of the Dinosaurs is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 12 January to 16 February 1974.-Synopsis:... |
Episode 1 (b/w only) | 1 |
| 072 | Death to the Daleks Death to the Daleks Death to the Daleks is a four-part serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. First broadcast from February 23 to March 16, 1974, it comprises four 25-minute episodes. The narrative begins as the TARDIS suffers an energy drain and crash-lands on the planet Exxilon... |
Episode 1 | 1 |
As a result of the above The Time Meddler, The War Machines, The Tomb of the Cybermen, The Dominators, The Krotons, The War Games, Invasion of the Dinosaurs, and Death to the Daleks are once again complete. The other serials listed remain incomplete as of today.
Restoration
While the original 625-line PAL videotapes of some serials starring Jon Pertwee were wiped for reuse and a few episodes are only held as 16mm black and white telerecordings, some colour versions survived in the form of 525-line NTSC colour videotapes that were sent for broadcasting overseas. In the early 1980s, some of these tapes were returned to the UK from the BBC's office in TorontoToronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, Canada, including all seven episodes of Inferno
Inferno (Doctor Who)
Don Houghton came to Terrence Dicks with an idea for the story based on the real life Project Mohole. A smaller budget for the serial drove the idea of a parallel world, where the studio could use the same actors in multiple roles...
(1970) just after it was aired in colour by KVOS12
KVOS-TV
KVOS-TV is television station licensed in Bellingham, Washington and is an affiliate of Me-TV. The station's over-the-air transmissions are on digital channel 35, though through PSIP the station remaps to its former analog channel 12...
in Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
; other colour material had been aired in the late 1970s by Toronto-based TV Ontario. As well as this, some off-air colour videotape copies recorded by an American for a British fan in the late 1970s were recovered in the early 1990s, and their colour signals were used (along with colourisation techniques where necessary) to colourise the higher-quality 16 mm monochrome film copies.
The serials that were restored in this way, and thus no longer incomplete, were Doctor Who and the Silurians
Doctor Who and the Silurians
Doctor Who and the Silurians is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in seven weekly parts from January 31 to March 14, 1970. The story is the first appearance of a recurring family of Earth-dwelling reptiles...
, Terror of the Autons
Terror of the Autons
Terror of the Autons is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, broadcast in four weekly parts from 2 to 23 January 1971...
, and The Dæmons
The Dæmons
The Dæmons is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in five weekly parts from May 22 to June 19, 1971.-Plot:...
. Off-air NTSC colour tapes are held for all seven episodes of The Ambassadors of Death
The Ambassadors of Death
The Ambassadors of Death is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in seven weekly parts from March 21 to May 2, 1970.-Plot:...
, but are too badly damaged to permit anything more than a partial restoration, with the cost of repair being prohibitive.
A new Reverse Standards Conversion
Reverse Standards Conversion
Reverse Standards Conversion or RSC is a process developed by a team led by James Insell at the BBC for the restoration of video recordings which have already been converted between different video standards using early conversion techniques....
process was used for the first time on the 2005 DVD release of The Claws of Axos
The Claws of Axos
-Writing:In late 1969, script editor Terrance Dicks contacted new writing duo Bob Baker and Dave Martin after reading a draft script they had sent around the BBC for another production, A Man's Life. After offering the duo a seven-part story in November 1969 for Doctor Whos eighth season, Baker and...
. This process can be used on NTSC version master tapes to restore them to something closer to their original PAL colour state. Another digital image processing technique used for the DVD releases is VidFIRE
VidFIRE
VidFIRE is a restoration technique intended to restore the video-like motion of footage originally shot with television cameras now existing only in formats with telerecording as their basis...
, which restores the fluid video look to telerecorded episodes only held on film.
The colour of Planet of the Daleks Episode 3 was reconstructed using a combination of classic colourisation and a new method using the chroma dots
Chroma dots
Chroma dots are visual artefacts caused by displaying an unfiltered analogue colour video signal on a black and white television or monitor. They are commonly found on black and white recordings of television programmes originally made in colour...
in the black-and-white copy.
Reconstruction
In addition to recovered short video clips and audio soundtracks, there also exist still photographs taken off-screen by photographer John Cura. Cura was hired by the BBC, and independently by many actors and production staff, to document the transmission of many of their most popular programmes from the 1940s to the 1960s, including Doctor Who. These "tele-snapsTele-snaps
Tele-snaps were off-screen photographs of British television broadcasts, taken and sold commercially by John Cura . From 1947 until 1968, Cura ran a business selling the 250,000-plus tele-snaps he took...
" were generally used to promote BBC programmes and for actors, directors, and other production crew members to keep a visual record of their own work in the days before home video recorders. In many cases, they form the only visual record remaining of several Doctor Who serials and other missing episodes of many programmes.
Since the late 1990s, reconstructions of the missing serials have been made by fan groups such as Loose Cannon Productions, who distribute them free. These "recons" are based on the directors' original camera scripts, and use a combination of the surviving soundtracks, surviving footage, photographs, still images (especially Cura's tele-snaps) and specially-recreated material. Although technically infringing copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
, these recons have been tolerated by the BBC, provided they are not sold for profit and are only distributed in degradable, non-digital
Digital
A digital system is a data technology that uses discrete values. By contrast, non-digital systems use a continuous range of values to represent information...
formats such as VHS.
"Official" high-quality reconstructions using the same methods were made for the BBC Video releases of The Ice Warriors
The Ice Warriors
The Ice Warriors is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from November 11 to December 16, 1967...
(a 12-minute "highlights" reconstruction bridging the missing Episodes 2 and 3) and The Tenth Planet (a full reconstruction of the missing Episode 4). The DVD box set Doctor Who: The Beginning consisted of the first three serials and a 30-minute reconstruction of Marco Polo
Marco Polo (Doctor Who)
-CD and DVD releases:*In 2003, a three-CD set of the audio soundtrack was released, as part of Doctor Who's 40th anniversary. This CD set is unique in containing a map of Cathay as represented during the period of the Doctor's visit to China, and also explaining historical inaccuracies...
, of which absolutely no footage exists (although this is debated; see above). The Doctor Who Restoration Team
Doctor Who Restoration Team
The Doctor Who Restoration Team is a loose collection of Doctor Who fans, many within the television industry, who restore Doctor Who episodes for release on DVD....
has hinted that similar reconstructions might be done in future.
In June 2005, BBC Audio began to release reconstructions as part of their "MP3 CD
MP3 CD
An MP3 CD is a Compact Disc that contains digital audio in the MP3 file format. Discs are written in the Yellow Book standard data format , as opposed to the Red Book standard audio format ....
" line. Under the Doctor Who: Reconstructed banner, the CDs include the same audio portions as the previous audio CD releases, but are on a single disc with Macromedia Flash-animated and synchronised slideshow of tele-snaps and other (publicity) photographs. The surviving clips could not be included. The tele-snaps play in sequence when viewed on a computer, or a listener has the option to play the audio-only portion on an MP3-compatible CD or DVD player. The Power of the Daleks
The Power of the Daleks
The Power of the Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 5 November to 10 December 1966. It is Patrick Troughton's first full story as the Doctor.-Plot:...
was the first and last such reconstruction to be released: a mooted release in this form of the following story, The Highlanders
The Highlanders (Doctor Who)
The Highlanders is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 17 December 1966 to 7 January 1967....
, did not go ahead, due to poor sales of the initial release.
On 6 November 2006, The Invasion
The Invasion (Doctor Who)
The Invasion is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in eight weekly parts from 2 November to 21 December 1968...
, an eight-episode Second Doctor serial of which six episodes survive in the archives, was released on DVD with the missing Episodes 1 and 4 animated by Cosgrove Hall, matched up with a newly-remastered soundtrack created from the extant fan recordings. With the advent of ever-more powerful home computers and more specialisation programmes for them, many fans are also working on unofficial animations of the missing episodes, and this is widespread with many clips being shown online.
Although it is not strictly a missing serial, production of the 1979 Tom Baker
Tom Baker
Thomas Stewart "Tom" Baker is a British actor. He is best known for playing the fourth incarnation of the Doctor in the science fiction television series Doctor Who, a role he played from 1974 to 1981.-Early life:...
story Shada
Shada
Shada is an unaired serial of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was intended to be the final serial of the 1979-80 season , but was never completed due to a strike at the BBC during filming...
was curtailed by a technician's strike after several scenes had been completed. The half-finished material would usually have been junked as useless, but incoming Doctor Who producer John Nathan-Turner
John Nathan-Turner
John Nathan-Turner was the ninth producer of the long-running BBC science fiction series Doctor Who, from 1980 until it was effectively cancelled in 1989...
placed a preservation order on it, as he still hoped to salvage Shada as a finished production at a later date. The serial, which was written by Douglas Adams
Douglas Adams
Douglas Noel Adams was an English writer and dramatist. He is best known as the author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which started life in 1978 as a BBC radio comedy before developing into a "trilogy" of five books that sold over 15 million copies in his lifetime, a television...
, was eventually released on video in 1992 with linking narration by Tom Baker
Tom Baker
Thomas Stewart "Tom" Baker is a British actor. He is best known for playing the fourth incarnation of the Doctor in the science fiction television series Doctor Who, a role he played from 1974 to 1981.-Early life:...
. A clip from Episode 1 was used to allow the Fourth Doctor to appear in the 1983 story The Five Doctors
The Five Doctors
The Five Doctors is a special feature-length episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, produced in celebration of the programme's twentieth anniversary. It had its world premiere in the United States, on the Chicago PBS station WTTW and various other PBS member stations...
after Tom Baker declined to reprise his role. Shada would later be released as an audio play with animation featuring the Eighth Doctor and produced by Big Finish Productions, broadcast from 2 May to 6 June 2003 on BBCi and later webcast on the BBC website, then (in a slightly different version) on the BBC7 Digital Radio Station in 2005 and 2006.
In 2009, the Jon Pertwee serials Frontier in Space
Frontier in Space
Frontier in Space is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from February 24 to March 31, 1973...
and Planet of the Daleks
Planet of the Daleks
Planet of the Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from April 7 to May 12, 1973.-Synopsis:...
were released together as the Dalek War boxset. Until recently, Episode 3 of Planet Of The Daleks was only available in black and white. However, using a process last used on a recovered episode of Dad's Army
Dad's Army
Dad's Army is a British sitcom about the Home Guard during the Second World War. It was written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft and broadcast on BBC television between 1968 and 1977. The series ran for 9 series and 80 episodes in total, plus a radio series, a feature film and a stage show...
, it has been restored to full colour.
On 2 June 2011, 2/Entertain announced on its @classicdw twitter page that the missing episodes 4 and 5 of The Reign of Terror would be animated for its late 2012 DVD release. A test still based on an available promotional shot was also revealed and the company announced the animators to be Big Finish and Thetamation.
Orphan episodes
Surviving episodes which do not form complete stories—referred to as "orphan" episodes—have been released by the BBC in the following ways:- The Hartnell Years, The Troughton Years, Daleks – The Early Years, and Cybermen – The Early Years on VHS tapes, released in the early 1990s.
- As extras on other releases, such as The Faceless OnesThe Faceless OnesThe Faceless Ones is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from April 8 to May 13, 1967. The story concerns a race of identity-stealing aliens known as the Chameleons...
episodes 1 and 3 and The Web of FearThe Web of FearThe Web of Fear is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 3 February to 9 March 1968. This serial — which marks the return of the Yeti, the Great Intelligence, and Professor Travers — is the sequel to The Abominable...
episode 1 on The Reign of Terror boxset. - Abridged VHS releases, with the surviving episodes and one or more of the following:
- Linking material recorded by actors (The Reign of TerrorThe Reign of Terror (Doctor Who)The Reign of Terror is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from August 8 to September 12, 1964. The story was set in France during the period of the French Revolution known as the Reign of Terror.-Plot:The Doctor, Ian,...
, The CrusadeThe Crusade (Doctor Who)The Crusade is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from March 27 to April 17, 1965. The story is set in Palestine, near Jerusalem, during the Third Crusade.-Plot:...
, and The InvasionThe Invasion (Doctor Who)The Invasion is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in eight weekly parts from 2 November to 21 December 1968...
) - Audio CDs with recordings of the missing episodes (The Crusade and The Ice Warriors)
- Reconstructions with photographs, surviving clips, and soundtrack (The Tenth Planet and The Ice Warriors)
- Linking material recorded by actors (The Reign of Terror
- The Lost in Time DVD boxset in 2004.
Starting in the early 1990s, the BBC began to release existing audio recordings of serials with all or a majority of episodes missing on audio cassette and compact disc, with linking narration provided by former series actors such as Jon Pertwee
Jon Pertwee
John Devon Roland Pertwee , was an English actor. Pertwee is best known for his role in the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who, in which he played the third incarnation of the Doctor from 1970 to 1974, and as the title character in the series Worzel Gummidge...
, Tom Baker
Tom Baker
Thomas Stewart "Tom" Baker is a British actor. He is best known for playing the fourth incarnation of the Doctor in the science fiction television series Doctor Who, a role he played from 1974 to 1981.-Early life:...
, Colin Baker
Colin Baker
Colin Baker is a British actor who is known for playing Paul Merroney in The Brothers from 1974 to 1976 and as the sixth incarnation of the Doctor in the long-running science fiction television series Doctor Who, from 1984 to 1986.- Background:Colin Baker was born in London, but moved north to...
, Peter Purves
Peter Purves
Peter Purves is an English television presenter and actor.Purves was born in New Longton, near Preston, Lancashire, and was educated at the independent Arnold School in Blackpool, he had originally planned to go into teaching, training at Alsager College of Education, but began to act with the...
, and Frazer Hines
Frazer Hines
Frazer Hines is an English actor best known for his roles as Jamie McCrimmon in Doctor Who and Joe Sugden in Emmerdale. Hines was born in Horsforth, a civil parish of Leeds.-Acting career:...
. Serials with only one or two episodes missing have also been released in complete soundtrack format. Some serials (such as The Evil of the Daleks
The Evil of the Daleks
The Evil of the Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in seven weekly parts from 20 May to 1 July 1967. This serial marked the debut of Deborah Watling as the Doctor's new companion, Victoria Waterfield.Evil was initially intended to...
) were re-released during this time with improved audio restoration, changed linking narration, and in some instances with scenes unavailable in the first release. Music clearance problems did, however, result in the Evil of the Daleks release not having some background compositions which played on its original soundtrack. These were replaced with more generic tracks.
As of February 2006, the soundtracks for all of the missing episodes were released, albeit with copyright-uncleared music replacements where necessary, slightly rejigged sequences for reasons of clarity, and with overdubbed narration.
See also
- Doctor Who DVD releases
- Doctor Who Restoration TeamDoctor Who Restoration TeamThe Doctor Who Restoration Team is a loose collection of Doctor Who fans, many within the television industry, who restore Doctor Who episodes for release on DVD....
- List of Doctor Who audio releases
- List of Doctor Who serials
- List of unmade Doctor Who serials and films
External links
- BBC Doctor Who Photonovels, which includes most extant telesnaps.
- The Doctor Who Gateway – information and articles on the missing episodes
- The Doctor Who Audio & Video FAQ by Dominic Jackson
- Mythmakers; the search for lost Doctor Who by Ash Stewart (debunks many of the rumours that have cropped up over the years)
- The Missing Episode Nexus by Brad Phipps
- Lost Doctor Who – a team dedicated to locating missing episodes of Doctor Who. Stories printed in Zambia, Australia, Thailand and the UK. Featuring in-depth interviews with Sue Malden (the Corporation's first archive selector) and Bruce Grenville (the New Zealand film collector who returned The Lion in 1999), newspaper clippings with foreign broadcasts, details of currently missing episodes, and more.
- The Doctor Who Clips List by Steve Phillips
- The Doctor Who Restoration Team Website
- Loose Cannon Productions
- Guardian Article about Fan Attempts to Animate Missing Episodes
- BroaDWcast - foreign broadcasts of Doctor Who