Long Missing DOCTOR WHO Episodes 'Airlock' & 'The Underwater Menace Part II' Found

Doctor Who anoraks have received an early Christmas present before the actual special that is due to air on Christmas Day. The BBC reports that two long lost missing episodes featuring the timeloard have been found. The episodes 'Airlock' and 'The Underwater Menace Part II') are from 1965 and 1967, featuring William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton respectively, the first two actors to portray The Doctor. There are thought to be as many as 106 further episodes still missing but these found early episodes will be much welcomed by fans. The exciting announcement of the discovery was made yesterday at Missing Believed Wiped, a special event held by the BFI in London. The BFI and the BBC have been beavering away with broadcasters and private film collectors to uncover missing recordings from many television series' that were not retained upon original airing as recording on video tape was so expensive. Most British transmissions from the 60's have been lost and before that it's almost impossible to unearth much as t.v. was broadcast live as technology didn't allow recordings. BBC say of the plots;

Airlock is the third episode of a four-part story called Galaxy Four, transmitted in the autumn of 1965. The plot involves the desperate attempts by the Drahvins, a race of cloned females, to escape a planet which is about to explode. The story also marks the only appearance in the series of tiny robots known as the Chumblies. The other re-discovered episode is the second part of The Underwater Menace, from early 1967. It sees a mad scientist attempting to restore Atlantis by draining the ocean into the Earth's core.

These latest unearthed episodes were found in the private collection of Terry Burnett, a former TV engineer who bought them at a school fete in Hampshire in the 1980s. He was blissfully unaware that the BBC themselves didn't have the recordings. The credit to their recent discovery however can't go to the BFI or the BBC as Burnett realised how important they were when talking casually to Ralph Montagu, the head of heritage of the Radio Times.