‘Lost’ Doctor Who episodes found and can air on BBC
A film charity has found two previously lost 1960s episodes of Doctor Who wrapped in plastic bags among the possessions of a deceased collector. They have been restored by BBC archivists and will be available next month on the broadcaster’s streaming service
Original Time Lord William Hartnell(Image: BBC PICTURES )
Two ‘lost’ Doctor Who episodes from six decades ago will be aired on the BBC this Easter.
Original Time Lord William Hartnell stars in the missing shows, Nightmare Begins and Devil’s Planet which were discovered in storage as part of a private collection by the Film is Fabulous! charity, and restored by the BBC from their original 16mm telerecordings.
Written by sci-fi icon Terry Nation the episodes were originally aired between 1965-66 and featured the third series of the Doctor Who entitled The Daleks’ Master Plan.
Noreen Adams, Director of BBC Archives, said: “We’re thrilled to have worked with the team at Film is Fabulous! to bring these lost Doctor Who episodes to viewers on BBC iPlayer this Easter.
“BBC Archives has been working to restore the original recordings and update these to broadcast quality, ensuring fans can enjoy a little extra treat with their Easter Eggs this April.”
The discovery leaves 95 episodes still missing from the adventures of a galaxy-hopping alien known as the Doctor that debuted way back in 1963.
The “who” in Doctor is an existential question, rather than the character’s name and became a television institution with millions of fans around the world. But the BBC’s attitude to the show in its early years was careless and loads of episodes were lost because the broadcaster threw out film recordings or wiped video tapes for re-use.
“The main broadcasters in the U.K. in the 1960s, 70s, up to the 80s really, junked quite a lot of content,” said Justin Smith, a cinema professor at England’s De Montfort University and chair of trustees of Film is Fabulous!, which works to preserve cinema and television history.
“In some ways finding missing `Doctor Whos’ is the holy grail” of classic TV discoveries, Smith told The Associated Press.
Smith said the charity found film cans containing the two rediscovered black-and-white episodes, The Nightmare Begins and Devil’s Planet, among the collection of a film aficionado who had died.
Smith said that for “Who” fans, “it’s got it all, it really has. It is intergalactic, it’s got some great performances. It stands up really, really well.”
The episodes aired during the show’s third series in 1965 and feature William Hartnell, the first of more than a dozen actors to play the Doctor, in a story involving the Daleks alongside Peter Purves, who played the Doctor’s sidekick Steven Taylor in 46 episodes.
“Twenty-seven of mine still are missing, but I’m delighted that two have been found,” 87-year-old Purves told the BBC. “It’s rather sad, but it’s great when some turn up.”
The discovery is the first since 2013, when nine missing Doctor Who episodes were found in the storeroom of a television relay station in Nigeria.
The newly recovered episodes form part of a 12-part storyline, much of which is still missing. Smith said he is hopeful more instalments might turn up.
“We know that other episodes are in existence,” he said. “We don’t know where they are or who’s got them – otherwise we’d be knocking on doors. But, yeah, I think there are more. The only question is when and where they will come to light.”
The next new Doctor Who episode will be the Christmas special penned by Russell T. Davies, while its long-term future remains uncertain after Disney pulled out of a co-production deal.
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