December 11th, 2011
67 comments
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Two 1960’s lost Episodes Recovered – Video Clips
Two 1960’s lost episodes Recovered
Two previously missing episodes of 1960s Doctor Who have been returned to BBC. The recovered episodes are Galaxy Four part 3 & The Underwater Menace part 2.
The news has been officially confirmed by the BBC and both episodes were shown this afternoon at the British Film Institutes’s Missing Believed Wiped event.
From the official BBC Doctor Who Site…
Two classic episodes of Doctor Who – thought to be missing forever – have been returned to the BBC archive.
Episode 3 of the William Hartnell adventure “Galaxy 4” and Episode 2 of Patrick Troughton’s “The Underwater Menace” were purchased by film collector Terry Burnett at a village fete near Southampton in the early 80s. He had been unaware that the canisters contained material missing from the BBC.
Thanks to the kind loan by Mr Burnett, the classic footage has been shown today at the British Film Institute’s annual “Missing Believed Wiped” event at the National Film Theatre in London. Host at the event was Doctor Who writer and actor Mark Gatiss who said: “Christmas has come early for Doctor Who fans everywhere. It’s always wonderful when a missing episode turns up but it’s been years since the last one so to have two is just brilliant. Add to that a proper bit of action from the legendary Chumblies (and the horrifying Rills!) plus the utterly mesmeric Patrick Troughton on great form. Well, what more could we all ask for?”
Over 100 episodes of Doctor Who from the 1960s still remain missing. The tapes were routinely wiped once the rights to repeat them had expired. It seems unfathomable to us today, but before the advent of DVDs and iPlayer, grainy black and white material was thought to no longer be of interest to the television audience. However, many film prints sold overseas have since been returned. These latest discoveries are the first complete episodes to have been located since 2004.
None of the four episodes of the 1965 adventure “Galaxy 4” were known to have survived, although a short extract had been retained. “The Underwater Menace” dating from 1967 is now the earliest surviving complete episode featuring Patrick Troughton’s performance as the Second Doctor.
Research has shown that the returned episodes originated from the ABC channel in Australia. In fact, the copy of The Underwater Menace is still missing a few short sections which were removed by the Australian censors upon its original transmission Down Under. Fresh scans of the missing material have been made by the National Archives of Australia and will be incorporated into the restored episodes ahead of a DVD release.
Details of a commercial release will be announced by 2 entertain in 2012.
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the georgia-doctor
December 13th, 2011 - 11:44pmit is a shame….:(
MasterKasterborous
December 13th, 2011 - 7:42pmThose are the only two stories with only one episode missing.
the TARDIS
December 13th, 2011 - 6:22pmBooboo, have you seen the latest trailer for day 13? it’s finally up on the Adventure Calendar.
the TARDIS
December 13th, 2011 - 5:49pmI know it’s not exactly related, but the Doctor Who Adventure Calendar is never really updated on time – sometimes it’s up at ten o’clock but on others it isn’t up until five. Today, it isn’t up yet and it’s now ten to six.
Tim_M
December 13th, 2011 - 5:34pmWhilst it’s great to have an episode (part 3) of the once completey missing ‘Galaxy 4’. I’m more interested to see ‘The Underwater Menace’ part 2! My reasons for this being…..
1)It’s just great to see more Troughton!
2)It’s been 20 years since a Troughton episode (the complete ‘Tomb of the Cybermen’ from Hong Kong) has been recovered….Long overdue in my opinion!
3)Plus I’ve always felt ‘The Underwater Menace’ to be hugely underrated by the majority of fans. Certainly it’s NOT a classic but it’s good fun and the story would be much more duller without the likes of Troughton, the regulars and guest star Joseph Furst as Zaroff who is so wonderfully OTT! They MAKE the story much more colourful and vibrent. It’s exactly the reason WHY Joseph Furst hams it up becuase it isn’t a great script. And thankyou Joseph Furst for making it much more watchable.
Commander Strax
December 13th, 2011 - 5:25pmfuture 😉
Doctor Who DVD Collector
December 13th, 2011 - 3:31pmHang on… Marchwood? I live in Fareham witch is near Southampton which is near Marchwood.. YIKEs!
Nigel Wassell
December 13th, 2011 - 1:36pmAnd, I should have added, very nice to have another Troughton episode – still THE Doctor for me.
Nigel Wassell
December 13th, 2011 - 1:29pmGood news about the Reign of Terror. The existing VHS is very fuzzy! The restored version of The Invasion, with animation by Cosgrove Hall, was very well done IMO, but it is a horribly expensive process for a (relatively) small audience. We should be grateful it is being considered for a couple of other stories.
doctorwhofan27
December 13th, 2011 - 11:56amgalaxy 4 was great in reconstruction. i can’t wait to see the episode. and from the clip the underwater menace looks brilliant.
Nigel Wassell
December 13th, 2011 - 11:04amThis is great news for all fans of the programme. One could be cynical about the timing of the announcement (just before Christmas, etc.), because according to the Radio Times article it is “some months” since the discovery was made, but wonderful news all the same. The recovery of an episode of Galaxy 4 is particularly ironic since this may well have been the last story to be “junked” by BBC Enterprises, back in the 1970s. The DWAS enquired about renting an episode to be screened at a convention in about 1977, presumably because it was still listed in a then-current calalogue, only to be told that the films had recently been disposed of! Ian Levine takes the credit for stopping the destruction of The Daleks (or The Mutants, depending on your fancy), but the reason so much material does survive in the archives (no matter what anybody says) is down to a change of policy on the retention of old programmes at the BBC, together with the birth of home video in the late 1970s.
The Georgia-Doctor
December 13th, 2011 - 1:33ami can not believe that two more episodes have been found, it just makes me so happy.
i have just been reading the doctro who magizine issue 439 and it said that 253 episodes of doctor who were broadcast in the 1960’s but 108 no longer exist so i’m happy that people have found some:)
Daniel The William Hartnell Buff
December 12th, 2011 - 11:49pmGreat to hear two more episodes have been found. The two I would love to have found is Mission to the Unknown and The Tenth Planet Episode 4. Those two are the “Holy Grail” of missing episodes from the Hartnell era
MasterKasterborous
December 12th, 2011 - 11:15pmAre you forgetting, ‘Tenth Planet Part 4’???
Tim_M
December 12th, 2011 - 10:43pmGreat to see a ‘near’ complete print of part 3 of ‘Galaxy 4’ plus another episode of the hugely underrated ‘The Underwater Menace’. There are NOT 106 missing episodes of Doctor Who in my view. Although there are 106 episodes of Doctor Who without the visuals but with the soundtrack. So NONE of them are completely gone, lets remember that!
TNDNR
December 12th, 2011 - 10:12pmThey were deleted so new programs could be recorded on them or they were sent abroad to be shown and eventually burned when they were of no use or space was needed. There was no home video back then so they couldn’t make them commerical. Also copyright reasons back then meant that a show could only be shown once with one single repeat so it was costing them space to keep a Doctor Who tape which they couldn’t show. Plenty of shows were lost and Doctor Who is really lucky in that we have audio recordings for every single missing story and telesnaps (pictures of a TV screen taken from a camera) for most. The fact Doctor Who clips were also often shown on Blue Peter means we have a load of clips as well so the situation could be much much worse.
Jason doctorwhoone
December 12th, 2011 - 7:17pmIf I could travel back in time to the 1960’s, I’d tell the people who wiped many of the classic episodes to not wipe them, but put them all into a large warehouse, built to store EVERY Doctor Who story, so that way, we wouldn’t have any missing episodes right now in the 21st Century. Offcourse, they would need proof, so I’d have to show them a DVD of a 1960’s story on a portable DVD Player to show them how we watch the stories now, plus a list of every missing episode yet to be found. An excellent plan, but sadly can’t be done . . . . SMEG !! 🙁
Sammywho01
December 12th, 2011 - 7:05pmOh And You Know Who I Said Just 2 Episodes,Well I Said Bare Minimum.
Dont Get Me Wrong …. I Really Want The Others Too.
Sammywho01
December 12th, 2011 - 7:03pmI cant Belive It !!!!! This Is The Kind Of News That You Wait For ,For A Lifetime!
All We NEED Now Is The Celestial Toymaker And Daleks Master Plan At Least.
That…… Would Be Sweet
Anonymous
December 12th, 2011 - 6:53pmIT was actually a fan who stepped in (just as The Daleks was being taken away to be wiped) he gave an emotional appeal and saved the rest of the archive that remained.
Anonymous
December 12th, 2011 - 6:09pmHopefully the waves will bounce off a planet and come back to us one day.
Doctor Who DVD Collector
December 12th, 2011 - 6:04pmDEFFINATLY A DREAM COME TRUE!!!!!!!!!!!
Anonymous
December 12th, 2011 - 6:01pmTHIS IS DEFFINATELY A DREAM COME TRUE!!!
MasterKasterborous
December 12th, 2011 - 5:48pmYes you are right, some are completely gone. ‘The Feast Of Steven’ was erased but no copies were made for overseas sales.
MasterKasterborous
December 12th, 2011 - 5:47pmSorry it turned it into a face…
*The Invasion: 1,4 Of 8
MasterKasterborous
December 12th, 2011 - 5:46pmThere are more than 3 episodes lost. There is now 106 episodes missing:
Marco Polo: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 (Of 7)
The Reign Of Terror: 4,5 (Of 6)
The Crusade: 2,4 (Of 4)
Galaxy 4: 1,2,4 (Of 4)
Mission To The Unknown: 1 (Of 1)
The Daleks’ Master Plan: 1,3,4,6,7,8,9,11,12 (Of 12)
The Massacre Of
St. Bartholomew’s Eve: 1,2,3,4 (Of 4)
The Celestial Toymaker: 1,2,3 (Of 4)
The Savages: 1,2,3,4 (Of 4)
The Smugglers: 1,2,3,4 (Of 4)
The Tenth Planet: 4 (Of 4)
The Power Of The Daleks: 1,2,3,4,5,6 (Of 6)
The Highlanders: 1,2,3,4 (Of 4)
The Underwater Menace: 1,4 (Of 4)
The Moonbase: 1,3 (Of 4)
The Macra Terror: 1,2,3,4 (Of 4)
The Faceless Ones: 2,4,5,6 (Of 6)
The Evil Of The Daleks: 1,3,4,5,6,7 (Of 7)
The Abominable Snowmen: 1,3,4,5,6 (Of 6)
The Ice Warriors: 2,3 (Of 6)
The Enemy Of The World: 1,2,4,5,6 (Of 6)
The Web Of Fear: 2,3,4,5,6 (Of 6)
Fury From The Deep: 1,2,3,4,5,6 (Of 6)
The Wheel In Space: 1,2,4,5 (Of 6)
The Invasion: 1,4 (Of 8)
The Space Pirates: 1,2,4,5,6 (Of 6)
matt smithy
December 12th, 2011 - 5:09pmwhat actually happened:
one day the producers of doctor who came into a room to find one of the crew BURNING the tapes. she said “they are old, no one will want to see them again”
they stoped her im emdiatly. so, some are gone forever.
others were lost in the BBC’s masive collection of tapes and some somehow got out and sold to people.then, the same as “the TARDIS”‘s comment. please don’t delete this so people can learn about what really happened.
The 14th Doctor
December 12th, 2011 - 4:53pmHopefully there will be more. I think that there are still some to find but I think some might sadly be completely gone.
blink?!?
December 12th, 2011 - 4:41pmoh, what a shame 🙁 thanks anyway
the TARDIS
December 12th, 2011 - 4:39pmBack in the 1960’s, the BBC did not keep records of all their TV programmes – they filmed it, broadcast it and a year later chucked it in the bin or recorded over it.