It is hard to believe that during the years 1972 to 1977 there was a mass destruction of many Doctor Who Episodes of the William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee eras at the BBC. To-date 109 episodes are still missing. Unfortunately so did many shows of that period were also destroyed such as Dad’s Army and Z-Cars.
The original films were dumped by the BBC because there was no chance of a repeat screening due to actors contracts or video release at that time, so once they were sent off to other countries like Australia and Singapore for their selling potential, and due to lack of storage at the Beeb, priceless film print were massacred by the bucket load.
During the years 1972 to 1977 there was a mass destruction of many Doctor Who Episodes of the William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee eras had been destroyed by the BBC. To-date 109 episodes are still missing.
The original films were dumped by the BBC because there was no chance of repeat or video release at that time, so once they were sold off to other countries, and due to lack of storage room at the Beeb, they would destroy film prints by the bucket load.
By 1977 there were 61 episodes lost and since then just 15 episodes have been recovered and the likelihood of anymore turning up is minimal.
SEASON ONE AND TWO
Most of the stories from season one and Two stories where thought lost in the mid-1970 but where found in a vault at BBC Enterprises (Now Worldwide), including the original version of ‘An Unearthly Child’.
MARCO POLO
The first Doctor Who adventure to be missing is the seven part historical adventure Marco Polo. They were likely to have been destroyed prior to or during 1974, by which time BBC Enterprises were no longer offering the serial for sale abroad. Telesnaps were taken of all the episodes by John Cura. The last known whereabouts of copies of the serial was when a Cyprus television station passed on it’s Doctor Who material Asia TV, just before their TV station came under rocket attack during the invasion by Turkey in 1974.That material included Marco Polo; however, is no longer held by Asia TV (in Hong Kong), because all the BBC material that they possessed were returned along with Tomb of the Cybermen in December 1991. Also, New Zealand reportedly shipped it's copy of Marco Polo to Iran, but when contacted in 1984 during the first big overseas hunt, the only reply the BBC received was to the effect of 'Who in the name of Allah are you talking about?' There were rumors that the big who fan - Ian Levine had a copy of the serial and that he offered a private viewing to Carol Ann Ford, she denies this and Levine confirms this stating he is not ‘hoarding’ any lost episodes. Though there is a small glimmer of hope - BBC employees remember the serial being retrieved from skips at Villiers House, yet still nothing has materialised. In 2000, a Doctor Who fan started a rumor by offering it for sale on ebay, he thought that people no longer cared about the missing episodes.
THE REIGN OF TERROR
Episodes four and five of ‘The Reign of Terror’ are still in the missing category. Parts One to Three were discovered by the BBC from a television company in Crete and part six was later returned by a film collector in the spring of 1982.
THE CRUSADE
The original videotapes and the overseas film prints held by BBC of The Crusade were destroyed by 1972, with only a film print of The Wheel Of Fortune being preserved by the BBC Film and Videotape Library. In July 1998, the 3rd part to the serial - The Lion was found in New Zealand at a collector’s fair. (A 16mm print of The Lion had also been kept by the Library, but was later junked.) The finder - collector Bruce Grenville, who was unaware of its significance, told friends who found that it was indeed a ‘missing episode’. Fans Neil Lambess and Paul Scoones contacted Grenville, and arrangements were made for its delivery to the BBC on January 12th for dubbing. Episodes two and four are still lost, but the John Cura Telesnaps along with the audio still exist.
GALAXY FOUR
All four episodes of Galaxy 4 were destroyed in 1978, a fact discovered by the Doctor Who Appreciation Society which had been bargaining for more than a year to purchase the episodes to show at a convention. No complete episodes are currently known to exist except for a five minute extract from episode one, that is currently is held in the BBC Archives. It was salvaged from when the clip was used for the Lively Arts documentary Whose Doctor Who. The soundtrack to all four episodes does exist also. Galaxy Four was the only story for which no episodes existed on audio; within weeks, this was partially remedied and episode 2 suddenly materialised! This audio track is suspicious in itself, having certain hallmarks of having come from a film print (such as crackle etc.) rather than videotape broadcast.
THE TIME MEDDLER
The surviving episodes of ‘The Time Meddler’ were returned from a Television Company in Nigeria in 1984, along with ‘The War Machines’.
MISSION TO THE UNKNOWN
The next Story to be ‘lost’ from the archives is ‘Mission to the Unknown’. This non-doctor story with acts as a prologue to the epic 12 part ‘The Daleks’ Masterplan’ and was last seen in 1974, when it was wiped at BBC enterprises, Yet the soundtrack does exist.
THE MYTH MAKERS
All four episodes are still missing of ‘The Myth Makers’. Short clips from episodes one (totaling about 21 seconds) and episode two (about 20 seconds) do survive, having been recorded from the TV screen on 8mm film by a fan. The soundtrack to all four episodes does also exist.
THE DALEKS’ MASTERPLAN
The 12 part ‘Daleks’ Masterplan’ was wiped by the BBC between August 1967 and July 1974. Film prints of episode four were still around, when in November 1973, it was borrowed by Blue Peter, to use on the show. The film prints were not returned to the BBC film library. In 1983 episodes five and ten were found in the basement of a church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Clapham. There are also clips of episode one (100 seconds), episode two (135 seconds), episode three (98 seconds), episode 4 (58 seconds) along with the soundtrack. Episode 7 of ‘Masterplan’ was reportedly given to William Hartnell for a Christmas present, but his wife could not find this episode after his death. Steve Roberts reported that it was actually a part of ‘The Dalek Invasion of Earth’. Like Marco Polo, it is rumored that ‘The Feast of Steve’, was saved from junking at Villiers House (where BBC Enterprises was located) but BBC Enterprises never had a copy of episode seven because it wasn’t offered for sale due to the unrealistic and Christmas themes.
THE MASSACRE
All four episodes of the ‘The Massacre’, which introduced the character Dodo Chaplet, was probably destroyed around 1974, by which time was no longer being sold abroad. The soundtrack exists.
THE CELESTRIAL TOYMAKER
‘The Celestial Toymaker’ destroyed between 1973 and 1976. A 35mm film print of episode two was held for a time by the BBC Film Library, but this was also junked. In April 1984, however, a 16mm film print of The Final Test (part 4) was found in the vaults of ABC in Australia. The soundtrack to all four episodes does exist.
THE SAVAGES
All four episodes are missing of ‘The Savages’ . Some material, recorded from the television screen on 8mm film, does exist, including about three seconds from part three and forty-one seconds from part four. Telesnaps were taken by John Cura, and the soundtrack does exist to all four episodes. Rumours concerning the whereabouts of the four parter was believed to be in Australia (May 13, 1992), but was later denounced by Ryan K. Johnson who said the rumour was false.
THE SMUGGLERS
All four episodes of ‘The Smugglers’ are missing, although some material was recovered in Australia in October 1996 by Damien Shanahan and others, including 23 seconds from episode one, 21 seconds from episode three, and 21 seconds from episode four. These were passages which had been edited out of the ABC broadcast, due to strict censorship rules. Telesnaps were taken of all four episodes by John Cura, and these do exist, as does the soundtrack to all four episodes.
SUCCESS STORY: THE WAR MACHINES
By 1972 the mastertape of ‘The War Machines’ was wiped and the only copies were held by BBC Enterprises. During 1978 a copy of episode 2 was returned from the ABC television library, although this was a complete episode it was badly damaged and was two or three generations from the original print. In 1984 the search for episodes brought to light some very good quality prints from Nigeria, but they had cuts from TVNZ’s censorship so there was about four minutes cut out of the original story.To restore these episodes, the BBC contacted Graham Strong who had audio recordings of this story. Blue Peter, which has aided in the search for clips of Who for many years, used a clip of the War Machines invading London, which had been cut from episode four, so that was reinstated. Episode Three proved a test to restore to the original story. The ABC, in Australia, censorship cuts were used to fill in many gaps. In all only about 90 seconds is missing from the story.
WHO’S MOST WANTED: THE TENTH PLANET
The Tenth Planet has only been shown once at the BBC on October 29th 1966 and only sold to a handful of countries, including Australia and Singapore. The Tenth Planet was apparently intended for preservation, the original videotape of episode four was authorised for destruction on January 1969, and the overseas film print of the installment was also destroyed between 1974 and 1976. 30 seconds of the regeneration scene, used in Blue Peter, for a feature on the history of the programme for it’s tenth birthday, survives, As well as material recorded from the TV on 8mm film; about 78 seconds from the episode currently exists. The BBC were also victimised by a fan calling himself "Roger Barrett" who in 1992 claimed to possess the complete episode four; this was eventually exposed as a hoax. Telesnaps of episode four taken by John Cura do exist, as does the episode's soundtrack that was used in the official release in 2000.
CANADIAN RUMOURS
There has been dramatic proof of Hartnell/Troughton episodes still in existence nearly materialised in 1994, when a film collector and science fiction fan named Lei (last name unknown), agreed to make recordings available to fans in the UK, after he showed Mission to the Unknown, the last two episodes of The Daleks Masterplan and The Celestial Toymaker to a British fan who was attending a convention in the US a few years ago. Lei, acquired the black and white episodes from his father, who broadcast them from his own TV station in Northern Canada: the father liked Who so much, that he decided to keep them and told nobody that he still owned them. Relations with this man and the BBC have soured, so he does not feel obliged to return the tapes to their legal 'owner'. This chap seems to own all the episodes of Doctor Who, but eight of them are damaged/substandard due to the age of the film and general wear-and-tear, etc., and, as a precaution, Lei was busy transferring all the episodes to Laser Disc as safety copies. But will this material be surrendered to the Beeb or is it just another hoax?
