10 Lost Doctor Who Episodes We'll Never See
It's not just the Doctor who gets lost in time. But will we ever see some of these episodes again?
In 1967, the BBC began deleting material from their archives, and continued to do so until 1978. Consequently for Doctor Who, there are currently 97 episodes missing, meaning 26 serials are incomplete. These missing episodes all come from the shows first six years, leaving the first two Doctors and their companions lacking in episodes.
However, this isn’t the only way Doctor Who has lost episodes. Through various production issues, stories get scrapped or uncompleted.
While, unusually, all the audio for these serials still exist (and animated versions are being rolled out as we speak), it still doesn’t feel quite right that these serials in their original forms are still missing. It is every Whovian's dream to wake up to the news that more episodes have been discovered. Specially dedicated fans have devoted their lives to finding episodes, as like what happened in October 2013 when 11 episodes of the Enemy of the World and the Web of Fear were found in Nigeria.
But sadly, this was the last find of episodes ever since. But for now, here are 10 Lost Episodes Of Doctor Who We'll Never See…
10. The Tenth Planet (Episode 4)
Starting off proceedings with the original regeneration episodes. Granted, this episode exists as an animation and tele-snap reconstruction, including the clip of the very first episode. But it is nevertheless sad that William Hartnell’s final episode of the show he truly loved, is currently lost to the mists of time.
The Tenth Planet saw the first ever showdown between the Doctor and the Cybermen. The final episode of the four-part serial sees those trapped on the snow-cap base finally defeat the Cybermen and witness the destruction of their home planet: Mondas.
Hartnell doesn’t actually feature a great deal in this last serial, with him falling and not being able to contribute to the third episode, and his dialogue having to be shared amongst the rest of the cast. Thankfully Hartnell does return in the fourth episode, and the regeneration sequence is added onto the ending,
This episode loss is a shame for two reasons. One, it is the first regeneration story, and whilst the clip exists still, it is a shame the rest of the episode isn’t around. But secondly, and more tragically, it does mean that the last surviving Hartnell episode (episode 3), doesn’t actually feature the man himself.