DOCTOR WHO – Missing Episodes Found!
As many long time Doctor Who fans know, it’s something of a miracle that we even have the first few years of the series, as the BBC had a tendency to destroy or tape over the episodes in the 60’s , not realizing that there might be a future for what was considered “just” a children’s show. Over the years, many episodes considered lost have resurfaced, but there are still holes, some quite large, in the catalogue of Doctor Who episodes.Yesterday, we saw that hole shrink, just a bit.
New York – October 10, 2013 – BBC Worldwide North America announces that a stash of BBC master tapes from the 1960s featuring missing episodes of Doctor Who has been recovered in Nigeria, Africa. The BBC has re-mastered the tapes, and is making two stories, The Enemy of the World and The Web of Fear, now available exclusively on iTunes (www.itunes.com/DoctorWho). Eleven Doctor Who episodes were discovered (nine of which have not been seen for 46 years) by Philip Morris, director of Television International Enterprises Archive, by tracking records of tape shipments made by the BBC to Africa for transmission. Morris says, “The tapes had been left gathering dust in a store room at a television relay station in Nigeria. I remember wiping the dust off the masking tape on the canisters and my heart missed a beat as I saw the words ‘Doctor Who’. When I read the story code I realized I’d found something pretty special.” BBC Worldwide has re-mastered these episodes to restore them to the fantastic quality that audiences expect from Doctor Who. The titles are available exclusively on iTunes – www.itunes.com/DoctorWho. The first recovered story, The Enemy of the World, is a six-episode tale which first aired on the BBC in December 1967. The story features Patrick Troughton as both the Second Doctor and his antagonist (Ramon Salamander), alongside companions Jamie (Frazer Hines) and Victoria (Deborah Watling). Episodes 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6 had previously been missing from the BBC Archives, and were returned by Morris. Also recovered is the 1968 six-episode story, The Web of Fear. Also starring Patrick Troughton alongside Frazer Hines and Deborah Watling the story introduces Nicholas Courtney for the first time as Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart (who later returns as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart). Episodes 2-6 were feared lost, but now episodes 2, 4, 5, and 6 have been recovered. With episode 3 still missing, the restoration team has reconstructed this part of the story using a selection of the 37 images that were still available from the episode along with the original audio, which has been restored. Beth Clearfield, SVP, Digital Distribution & Business Development says, “For many, this will be their first chance to watch these long-lost Doctor Who stories. We’re thrilled to partner with iTunes in bringing these missing gems back to new and long-time fans after all these years.”
A couple of things to note here. First, the largest block of missing episodes come from the Patrick Troughton years, primarily since his run as the Doctor was, curiously, not as popular and as widely distributed around the world as the William Hartnell years. So the discovery of “The Enemy of the World” and most of “The Web of Fear” are real causes for celebration for fans of the Classic Doctor Who stories .
The other is the fact that these two stories (In the Original Series, stories were several episodes long. Kinda miss that.) are widely regarded as some of the best of the 2nd Doctor stories, giving us not only a great dual performance from Patrick Troughton as both the Doctor and the villain in The Enemy of the World, but also the introduction of Nicholas Courtney’s Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart in The Web of Fear, one of the most beloved characters in the show’s entire run. It also saw the return of The Great Intelligence, featured recently in Matt Smith’s series, and the introduction of U.N.I.T., the United Nations Intelligence Task Force, which would feature so prominently in the 3rd Doctor’s run, so really, it’s some of the best news Doctor Who fans could get, and certainly a wonderful bit of news as we build up to the 50th Anniversary in November.
