Doctor Who

Doctor Who is a long-running British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC about a mysterious time-travelling adventurer known only as "The Doctor". It is also the title of a 1996 television movie featuring the same character. It is common to see the show's title abbreviated as Dr. Who, even by the BBC, although purists consider this form incorrect.

Missing episodes

Sometime between about 1967 and 1978 large amounts of older material stored in the BBC's video tape and film libraries were destroyed or wiped to make way for newer material. This included many old episodes of Doctor Who.

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This phenomenon mostly affects the first two Doctors — William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton. Archival holdings are complete from the advent of the programme's move to colour television which coincided with the beginning of Jon Pertwee's time as the Doctor, though a few Pertwee episodes have required substantial restoration work.

Related Topics:
William Hartnell - Patrick Troughton - Jon Pertwee

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There have been some successes in the ongoing attempt to recover the missing episodes. Some episodes have been returned to the BBC from the archives of other countries who bought the right to broadcast the series. Still other episodes are rumoured to have been returned by ex-employees of the BBC who did not wish to see a part of their childhood destroyed and instead of destroying the tapes, hid them at home. Early colour videotape recordings made off-air by fans have also been retrieved. Audio versions of all of the lost Doctor Who episodes exist from home viewers making tape recordings of the show. Small excerpts have also been recovered on 8mm cine film taken by a fan in Australia during repeat showings of various episodes, who filmed certain scenes directly from the television screen.

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In addition to these short video clips and audio soundtracks, there exist still photographs produced by photographer John Cura. Cura was hired by the BBC to document the filming of many of their most popular programmes during the 1950s and 1960s, including Doctor Who. These "tele-snaps" were generally used to promote BBC programmes, and are, in many cases, the only visual evidence remaining of several missing episodes.

Related Topics:
John Cura - Tele-snaps

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The most sought-after lost episode is Part Four of the last William Hartnell serial, The Tenth Planet, which ends with the First Doctor transforming into the Second. The only portion of this still in existence, bar a few poor quality silent 8mm clips, is the few seconds of the regeneration scene which had been rebroadcast as part of a 1973 episode of Blue Peter.

Related Topics:
The Tenth Planet - First Doctor - Second - Blue Peter

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With the approval of the BBC, efforts are now under way to restore as many of the episodes as possible from the extant material. Using modern digital image processing techniques, the Doctor Who Restoration Team is using available professional and amateur film and video recordings to generate digitally re-mastered versions of the early episodes.

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Starting in the early 1990s, the BBC began to release existing audio recordings of missing serials on audio cassette and compact disc, with linking narration provided by former series actors. In the late 1990s, amateur fan groups began to piece together clips and still images (especially John Cura's tele-snaps) and combined them with existing audio to produce approximate recreations of missing episodes. These amateur tele-snap "reconstructions" have been tolerated by the BBC, provided they are not sold for profit and distributed as low quality VHS copies. "Official" reconstructions have also been released by the BBC on VHS as well as MP3 CD-ROM.

Related Topics:
MP3 - CD-ROM

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