The beloved and long-running British show Doctor Who has been on the air for over sixty years. However, if you want to watch it from start to finish, you can’t. That’s not a judgment of your attention span, it’s just literally true. The show is missing entire episodes. But how is that possible?
Deleted Episodes
Ninety-seven of the first 253 episodes of the beloved sci-fi show are just gone. They were stored for years by the BBC, but a combination of miscommunication and lack of storage space led to the original master tapes for these episodes being deleted to make room for things the network deemed more profitable at the time.
That’s Unusual, Right?
As odd as that might sound in the digital age, TV shows used to get deleted from existence all the time back in the day. In fact, Doctor Who is somewhat lucky that it’s only missing 97 episodes from the 60s and 70s. Other BBC programs of that era are missing far more episodes.
Holes in the Archive
Quite a few of the earliest serials are missing in their entirety—ten in total. Sixteen other serials are at least partially incomplete, leading to a bizarre viewing experience. For those out of the loop, a “serial” is a collection of linked episodes that tell one narrative.
The First Regeneration
Distressingly, one of the missing episodes is the final entry in The Tenth Planet, the final adventure of William Hartnell’s First Doctor. The specific scene of his regeneration into the Second Doctor has been partially preserved, but the bulk of the episode is long gone. The sequence in question was significantly recreated in the Twelfth Doctor special Twice Upon a Time.
Stopping the Deletion
Routine deletion of aging, unwanted material was commonplace at the BBC until around 1978, when it became apparent that recordings of older shows could still be profitable. In Doctor Who’s case in particular, fan Ian Levine intervened and stopped the practice of deleting older episodes of the fan-favorite series.
Recovering Lost Tapes
Thankfully, some international stations were able to help the BBC after they realized the error of their ways in deleting episodes of the show. The network had sold copies of the tapes to international partners, many of whom mailed back the copies to help the BBC flesh out the archive. Sadly, many episodes weren’t sold this way. In fact, a lack of popularity is often what led to specific episodes being selected for deletion.
Audio Tracks
Interestingly, fans have recorded audio of every single episode of Doctor Who since its premiere in 1963. This means that, despite the footage itself being lost, there is at least audio for every single episode of the beloved show. This has been a huge help for fans trying to recreate the lost episodes.
Tele-Snaps
Conveniently enough, photographer John Cura was commissioned to take “tele-snaps,” high quality screenshots of TV broadcasts, from the 1940s to the 1960s. When paired with the extensive audio tracks, these screenshots can give a decent approximation of what some of the missing serials must have looked like.
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Stitching Them Together
Using the existing audio tracks and scripts, as well as Cura’s tele-snaps, fans are capable of stitching together to recreate the lost episodes. The BBC has been very lax with these fan-made recreations, as long as they’re not sold for profit by the fans who create them. Given that these remakes represent a sizable labor of love on the part of the fans, it would be somewhat brutal for the BBC to enforce copyright laws.
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Animated Replacements
Some narratively significant lost episodes have also been recreated through animation. The BBC often commissions the creation of such animated remakes to coincide with important events, such as a remake of the Toymaker’s first appearance when the villain reappeared in the 2023 special The Giggle. Unlike the fan-made recreations, these animated remakes can appear in official BBC releases alongside the surviving episodes of their era.
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