Doctor Who has been running since the 1960s and has amassed hundreds of episodes. The BBC though has lost a large number of these however, making it impossible for them to be released to home media. This has caused a major problem for the corporation considering the legions of new fans who want to go back and watch the classic episodes. The BBC didnt misplace the tapes, instead they were wiped and reused to save money. Many of the earlier episodes were erased during the 1970s due to this practice. In total there are currently 97 missing episodes from a total of 26 different serials. The BBC has been looking at recovering the missing episodes. Mainly by requesting help from fans and foreign television companies, as many episodes were transferred to film so that they could be sold to overseas broadcasters for syndication. In October 2013 nine episodes were found at a TV station in Nigeria giving hope that all the episodes might one day be discovered.
