Doctor Who: Two Lost Episodes Found but There's a Problem

Two of the lost, classic episodes of Doctor Who have been found — but it may not be good news for fans. According to The Guardian, two of the early episodes of the iconic BBC series from the first season of Doctor Who back in the 1960s featuring the first doctor, William Hartnell, have been located by amateur sleuths but the owners of the footage are reluctant to turn it over to the BBC despite the series coming up on its 60th anniversary this month. According to the report, collectors are concerned that private archives and collections will be confiscated and that they could be prosecuted for having stolen BBC property, which leads to the reluctance to turn over the episodes.

"Some of these collectors are terrified," John Franklin, a veteran film collector who knows the location of the two episodes, told the outlet. "We now need to catalogue and save the significant television shows that are out there. If we are not careful, they will eventually be dumped again in house clearances, because a lot of the owners of these important collections are now in their 80s and are very wary."

Why Are There Missing Episodes of Doctor Who?

Over the first six years of Doctor Who's show history, there were 253 episodes produced and released, However, between 1967 and 1978, it was routine practice for the BBC to delete archive programs, generally for issues such as lack of space or rebroadcast rights. Because of this 97 of those 253 episodes went missing and have been considered lost. Over the years, there have been efforts to locate recordings of the missing episodes. 

As for these recently discovered episodes, Franklin said that the involved collectors are ex-BBC employees who are concerned having apparently taken the "lost" episodes when they were thrown out.

"The collectors involved are ex-employees and so are terrified," he said. "The rule was that you didn't take anything, even if it had been thrown out. But if you loved film and knew it would be important one day, what did you do? So, what we need now is amnesty."

Some Lost Episodes Have Been Animated

With the original episodes having been divided into serials rather than the single-episode format modern audiences are familiar with, several of the original serials are incomplete due to missing footage. However, the BBC still owns all the scripts and audio recordings and as such have reconstructed some of the lost episodes as animated offerings, including The Evil of the Daleks, which is the final serial in the original fourth season of Doctor Who. The original serial first aired weekly in seven installments from May 20, 1967, through July 1, 1967.

A New Doctor Who Holiday Special is Coming

The 2023 Doctor Who Holiday Special marks a return to the tradition of airing the specials on Christmas Day for the first time since 2017. Previous Doctor Who showrunner Chris Chibnall felt that the show had run out of good Christmas-themed stories to tell and instead aired the three "Festive Specials" produced under his watch – a loose trilogy of Dalek-focused stories titled "Resolution," Revolution of the Daleks," and "Eve of the Daleks" – on New Year's Day instead.

"For the first time ever, I'm writing a Christmas Special… at Christmas!" Davies told Doctor Who Magazine. "The 2023 script has been long since signed off. The new one is for end-of-year 2024!"

The Doctor Who Holiday Special will follow David Tennant's run as the Fourteenth Doctor in three Doctor Who 60th-anniversary specials. Gatwa and Gibson's debuts in "The Church on Ruby Road" will lead into Doctor Who Season 14 in 2023, which has already wrapped filming, and then Doctor Who Season 15, which is in production now.

Now is the perfect time to jump into past seasons of Doctor Who, which are streaming on a different service. You can get caught up with our Doctor Who streaming binge guide. Doctor Who begins streaming on Disney+ on November 25th.