LOST AND FOUND EPISODES OF "DOCTOR WHO"LOST AND FOUND EPISODES OF "DOCTOR WHO"
This posting is presented in seven sections:
Contributors:
Notes: All email addresses with asterisks at the end are no longer valid. But, until more up-to-date email addresses become known, the old ones will continue to be listed; since, contributors are frequently known by their email addresses as much as by their own names.
Throughout this posting, the contributor of a given piece of information will be indicated by a (#) placed beside the given piece of information, where "#" is the number of the contributor.
Sources:
Key: (s#)=Printed Source, (b#)=Broadcasted Source, (n#)=Internet Source
The following information was obtained from a number of sources, not the least of which are the two anniversary books by Peter Haining, entitled Doctor_Who:_A_Celebration and Doctor_Who:_25_Glorious_Years. The following information may be and probably is incomplete. However, it should give the reader a good idea of what has been lost and how much of it has since been recovered. Any episodes not listed below, despite having once been lost, have obviously been recovered; or, they would have otherwise been brought to the attention of the author of this posting in other sources. In other words, if the episode is still lost, it is included in the following listing.
The Tom Baker story, "Shada," may sometimes be listed in publications as missing; and, the 1985-86 season from the Colin Baker era is often referred to as the "missing season." None of these stories were ever lost from the BBC archives. "Shada" was never completed due to a strike at the BBC; but, all of the footage from this story still exists at the BBC. And, this footage was tied together with narrations by Tom Baker in 1992. The 1985- 86 season was never produced; so, no footage ever existed. But, the stories which were intended to be produced that season are available in paperback. Thus, none of these stories are listed below.
Note: The production codes were not used in the following listing. To allow everyone to see which stories were missing and where they belonged in the general listing of all stories, they were numbered according to their original broadcast order.
There was some disagreement on the Net in the early 1990's regarding which episodes of "The Ice Warriors" were missing; but, the missing episodes are actually parts two and three. (3)(7)
No original videotape recordings of the Hartnell and Troughton episodes exist. All of those two inch tapes were telecined to black and white film for foreign TV stations, which used that format instead of videotape. After their transmission by the BBC, the tapes were wiped. (2) But contrary to earlier reports that the tapes were wiped soon after transmission, some of the Hartnell tapes (containing episodes of "The War Machines," "Mission to the Unknown," and "Fury From the Deep") were not wiped until as recently as 1974. (13)
Out of all of the stories for which episodes have been recovered, the following stories are the only ones to have been fully restored (some of these are imperfect in that they contain edits; but, they are otherwise complete... see section II).
And, the following are the only Jon Pertwee stories that have been restored to color (not through the miracle of colorization):
In addition, the following Pertwee episodes have been restored to color since 1992 by superimposing the color signals from betamax recordings (which were made at the request of Ian Levine and his friends) and the luminance signals from the Betacam videotape copies, which were made from black and white film prints already available at the BBC archives. A computer system permitted these two signals to be mated perfectly by digitizing the black and white image and allowing it to be twisted and manipulated until it matched the color signal. (2) This was necessary due to the slight and almost unnoticeable distortion of the images in the black and white film prints, which were made by aiming a movie camera at a television screen. (s2) (2) The black and white episodes were transferred from film to videotape before mating luminance signals with the color signals. (3)
Note: In the early 1990's, the success of the restoration of color of parts 5 and 6 of "The Ambassadors of Death" was considered questionable by a source on the Net. But, Steve Roberts reported that part 5 was fine, but that part 6 contained some color patterning, which might eventually be correctable through signal processing.(12)
It would seem unlikely that the bulk of the "Doctor Who" stories missing from the BBC archives will ever be recovered. And for those that will be recovered, it will probably occur over the next few decades. However, we can always keep our fingers crossed and hope for future "happy accidents."
Note: Contrary to an earlier report, the "wet-gate" was not used in the Pertwee episodes to which color was restored.(12)
Some of the discoveries noted in this list may seem redundant (ex: if part 1 of "Death to the Daleks" was discovered in Canada in 1980/81, then why does it matter that it was discovered in England in 1992). The reason is that PAL master tapes are preferrable to NTSC master tapes; since, all color "Doctor Who" stories were originally taped in the PAL TV system. Picture quality in NTSC, although good, degrades somewhat during the PAL to NTSC conversion process. Conversion back to PAL degrades the quality further.
Otherwise, all truly redundant discoveries have been eliminated whenever possible.
Except where indicated, the following information was retrieved from or pieced together from information in the Peter Haining books: Doctor_Who: A_Celebration and Doctor_Who:_25_Glorious_Years.
Many thanks to Paul Lee, Steve Phillips, and Steve Roberts for supplying updated information for this section of the posting.
The purpose of including this section is to make the posting more complete and to provide source for people with information on recoveries; so, they can compare to determine whether the episodes were actually discovered or whether mere duplicates of existing episodes were recovered.
Normally, any Hartnell or Troughton era story recovered on videotape (instead of a kinescope copy on film) would be a significant find, considering none of the original videotape masters are known to have survived. However, in the case of "The Space Pirates" part 2, this copy is merely redundant; since, the episode was originally shot on film instead of videotape in the first place. (12)
An earlier version of this article stated that the Australian "lied and stole BBC videotapes." This description was arguably vague in that it did not specify whether the tapes had been sent to the Australian by the BBC or whether the videotapes had been recorded from the BBC by fans before being sent to Australia by those fans. For this reason, "BBC" was removed from this description to render it less misleading.
In April 1993, there was a rumor that the BBC had found "something" and was supposedly rushing it onto video in time for the 30th anniversary. In a related rumor from that time, a June 1993 video release was expected to contain an advertisement for another video that would "blow everyone's socks off." (1) However, this information was never confirmed as of the time this article's most recent update. New information about this recovery is welcomed.
One rumor about the above item is that the parts 1 and 4 of "The Invasion" might have been recovered but lost in transit to the BBC. Some admittedly flimsy evidence to support this was a photo of the artwork for the box of the then forthcoming video release of "The Invasion" on page 17 of "Doctor Who Monthly" (issue 202, 4 August 1993) with text in the lower right hand corner reading, "Complete at last with an introduction by Nicholas Courtney." But on the actual release, this text was replaced with "Specially recorded links with an introduction by Nicholas Courtney."(14) While Steve Roberts did not specifically know about this box cover, he did say that box cover mock ups are sometimes released early on for publicity purposes and that they sometimes differ from the final product that is seen on store shelves. (12)
Chris Heer (8) reported that nothing was rushed to video for the 30th anniversary
Notes: The purpose of this section is NOT to spread unfounded rumors; so, readers are encouraged to treat any unverified information as such. In other words, be responsible; and, do not repeatedly harrass anyone suspected of possessing lost episodes. In addition, be fairly certain of the foundation of any rumor that is submitted.
As of 1988, only three percent of rumors, on average, led to actual episode recoveries.(s2) Undoubtably, this percentage has dropped a bit in more recent years; so, the reader should keep this in mind when reading the following rumors.
Note: To anyone possessing copies of lost "Doctor Who" episodes: At least as early as February 1984, the BBC declared an amnesty on any copies of episodes of "Doctor Who" that may be in private hands and would like to merely borrow them to make copies. (s4)
If a missing episode is located, check the Monthly 'Doctor Who' FAQ posting for the name, address, and phone number of the BBC official in charge of the recovery of lost episodes. Or, contact Steve Roberts.
I am hoping that it will be a welcome addition to the other "Doctor Who" postings on the Web. It will be updated whenever new developments occur or more up-to-date information becomes available.
I would like to thank Jason Miller for his assistance and words of encouragement when I started this article.
I would also like to thank both Richard P. Kernin of frontios and Siobahn Morgan for having kept the September 1994 edition of this article available on the internet from October 1994 to April 1999 during my own hiatus from the internet. Siobahn also did an excellent job of rendering this article more web-friendly; since it had originally been written as a text file for an anonymous ftp site in 1993 and 1994.
In future editions of this posting, I plan to tweak it and to tighten it up in any way possible. As with anything, there's always room for improvement.
I have attempted to include any information that I consider to be relevent. I realize that including sources has made this listing more complicated to decipher; but, I believe that it is important to allow the reader to be able to verify any information in the posting.
For the twenty-fifth edition of this article, I have removed three items from section V (RUMORS OF RECOVERED EPISODES) of this article. I am in the process of confirming the sources of the information for those items; and, this may take some time. It has been said that 97% of rumors are based on fanciful thinking by fans who want to believe that certain episodes will be recovered. However, I have also observed that some rumors appear to have a more vindictive motive behind them, claiming that specific episode hunters are hoarding lost episodes.
I would like to dedicate this edition of my article to the memory of my mother, Myrna Hass, who passed away in 1998. She was not a big fan of science-fiction; but, she was always enthusiastic about any projects I happened to be working on.
I would also like to dedicate this edition of my article to the memories of my brother, Kevin (who passed away in 2008), and to my long-time friend, Kenneth Kambour (who passed away in 2023). My brother was a fan of the show and used to watch it with me as a kid. Kenneth was a big fan of the show; and, he used to keep up on developments with the show by reading about them online. Jodie Whittaker's final episode was the last one which Kenneth and I had discussed, as he didn't live long enough to see the show's sixtieth anniversary episodes (starring David Tennant) which were released in late 2023.
I wanted to mention that in the early/mid-1990's, I saw a version of the Tom Baker episode, "Underworld" part 1, on Iowa Public Television. What made it so unusual was the fact that it contained the American narration from the Time-Life edit of the episode from the late 1970's. Unfortunately, this was edited into a movie format with the rest of the episodes from that story; so, I could not see the name of the syndicate at the end. I was surprised that any of those would still be in circulation after all of these years. (since writing this, I learned from Robert D. Franks that a few strays of these American edits did survive, despite the fact that the majority of them were wiped in the 1980's)
Paul Lee reported that Chris Whitehead was no longer available on the Net. If either Chris reads this, I hope he will contact me.
My apologies for information not yet included here. There is a lot to go through; and sometimes, work keeps me from doing as much with the article as I'd like. Thanks for all the contributions.
I realize parts of this article may still be a bit outdated. I am still going through old notes and sifting through the article.
More recently, I have been busy with work; so, I have had little time to do more than update some links and email address(es). I have eyed a couple other items that could use some tweaking; but, time hasn't permitted it yet. I was finally able to add a few items to the March 2000 edition. Since the recovery of "The Crusade" part 1, there have been no significant developments with regard to the recovery of lost "Doctor Who" episodes. A few shorter clips from lost episodes have since been recovered; but, this web site deals with the recovery of whole episodes which are more or less intact. The interest reader is encouraged to visit Steve Phillips' web site for more information on clips.
I'm glad to know that Mike Frisbie of Iowa Public TV found the information I sent to him to be both useful and interesting. Mike Frisbie passed away in 2008. Watching Doctor Who without him serving as host of the weekly sci-fi program block on Iowa Public TV will never be quite the same. Mark Pearson used to co-host with Mike Frisbie during the pledge drives during the 1990s. Mark Pearson died in 2012; and, his enthusiasm will be missed.
Anyone may make printouts or electronic duplicates of this posting as long as the proper credit is given.
Any comments or new lost or recovered episode information can be emailed to: brian_m_hass@hotmail.com The words "Doctor Who" must be included in the subject line. Otherwise, the email will not be acknowledged.
The following email addresses:
have been out of service since late 1994.
Do not send unsolicited spam email to any of the email addresses listed in any part of this article. Spam email is unwelcome! The only reason email addresses are provided here is to help lost "Dr. Who" episode researchers exchange their information more easily and to be more accountable for any information they submit for this article. Any attempt to send spam email to email addresses listed within this article is considered to be an abuse of this article.
If anyone has attempted to submit lost "Dr. Who" information for my article but has had their email automatically bounced back to them by my account, the reason has probably been the glut of spam email I have received, which has overwhelmed the storage capacity of my account on more than one occasion. I apologize for any inconvenience this has caused. Any spam email I find will be deleted unread. I'll try to stay on top of this as much as possible; but sometimes, I get a bit busy, as we all often do.
The guestbook has been removed for the time being. Part of the reason for doing this is lack of interest. Only two people signed it the entire time it was up on the web.
This article is available at the following web sites:
The most up-to-date version:
The second of these two versions is at Siobahn Morgan's web site and lacks the hypertext.
Earlier editions of this article can be found at:
If you do have new information, please include the source for verification. Please try to include any numbers of page(s), issue(s), and/or volume(s) (and any other relevant information required to locate the article). I want to make certain that the info is correct before including it here (not that I don't trust anyone). In this way, anyone who reads this article can determine the trustworthiness of the information based on his/her judgements.
"Doctor Who" is the property of the BBC. Any copyright infringements are unintentional and will be corrected upon proper notification. The BBC is not responsible for the content of this article.
"Monthly FAQ Posting" by Siobahn Morgan
"Into the Vortex" by Daniel O'Malley
"The Doctor Who Restoration Team Web Site" by Steve Roberts
"Missing Doctor Who Reconstructions and Audios"
"Planet of the Daleks: Variant Broadcast Versions"
"Doctor Who: the Search for Missing Episodes"
"Doctor Who is Required: The Missing Episodes"
"The Three Doctors" by Paul Cryer
"Missing Radio and Television"