78-531: The Celestial Toymaker is the mostly missing seventh serial of the third season in the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who , which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 2 to 23 April 1966. In this serial, the alien time traveller the First Doctor ( William Hartnell ) and his travelling companions Steven Taylor ( Peter Purves ) and Dodo Chaplet ( Jackie Lane ) are pitted against
156-461: A 16 mm telerecording copy of the original untransmitted pilot, presumably a viewing print made in 1963 and subsequently lodged at the Library. The Film Library also held high-quality original film sequences made for insertion into videotaped episodes. Some of these, such as those from Episodes 1–2 of The Daleks' Master Plan , survive to this day. Other junked sequences were mistakenly entered into
234-475: A Knave and a Joker. An adjoining room has a further four chairs, and Steven deduces that six of the seven chairs are deadly to sit on. Seven mannequins are provided to be used for testing on the chairs. The King and Queen play alongside them, and some of the mannequins are destroyed as seats are proven unsafe and eliminated. Dodo is nearly killed by a chair that almost freezes her into ice before Steven helps her stand up. The King and Queen are trapped when they sit in
312-437: A chair which folds in on them. Steven and Dodo next meet the comical Sgt. Rugg and Mrs. Wiggs in a kitchen. They challenge them to hunt the thimble – the key to the exit door. Dodo finds the key inside the large pie which Mrs Wiggs was making. She and Steven depart and enter another room with a dancing floor. There they encounter the three mannequins not destroyed by the chairs, who transform into ballerinas and start to dance. At
390-470: A dangerous game of blind man's bluff . The clowns are made to replay the game when it is clear they are cheating, and the second time round Joey loses his footing on an obstacle course and the challengers are transformed into twisted dolls on the floor. Steven and Dodo then venture down a corridor into another chamber with three chairs and a challenge from living playing cards, the King and Queen of Hearts, along with
468-532: A few seconds leading up to it. The sequence had been shown in a 1973 episode of Blue Peter and was retained in that show's archive. Even after the end of the purge, other archive issues persist. Serials from Seasons 22–26 were shown in Germany, with soundtracks dubbed into the German language; some of these episodes no longer exist in German television archives. On 20 April 2006, it was announced on Blue Peter that
546-634: A film library computer system, leading to an impression that they had existed for some years afterward, and inaccurate speculation that the BBC was still destroying clips well into the early 1980s. Following the establishment of the Film and Videotape Library, an audit of the Engineering Department found 60 of the 128 Third Doctor episodes starring Jon Pertwee , which in addition to the Film Library's copies of
624-410: A foreign broadcaster, and had been slightly edited; the missing footage was restored later, through a mix of censor clips from Australia and more complete prints held by private collectors. An appeal to broadcasters in other countries who had shown the programme (notably Canada and African nations such as Nigeria ) produced "lost" episodes from the archives of their television companies. The Tomb of
702-516: A gap at the end of the second production block, which led to the creation of Mission to the Unknown . While the master videotapes for Episodes 1 to 3 of Planet of Giants were wiped in January 1969, the fate of Episode 4's original studio recording tape is not known, though it is generally believed that all material not used in the combined final episode was junked. The serial's 2012 DVD release features
780-415: A lack of rebroadcast rights. As a result, 97 of 253 episodes from the programme's first six years are currently missing, primarily from seasons 3 , 4 and 5 , leaving 26 serials incomplete. Many more were considered lost until recovered from various sources, mostly overseas broadcasters. Doctor Who is not unique in its losses, as many broadcasters routinely cleared their archives in this manner. Until
858-582: A life-sized Dalek would be given to anyone who found and returned one of the missing episodes. In January 2007, ITV began a campaign called "Raiders of the Lost Archive" and although the campaign was run by ITV, they were also looking to find Doctor Who episodes and other BBC shows. One episode of the Raiders of the Lost Archive show aired in January 2007 and a further two episodes in July 2009. In December 2012,
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#1733085472711936-597: A limited number of times within a specific timeframe, and deliberately set the fees for further use so high that broadcasters would consider it unjustifiable to spend so much money repeating an old programme rather than making a new one. Consequently, recordings whose repeat rights had expired were considered to be of no further domestic use to the broadcasters. Most Doctor Who episodes were made on two-inch videotape for initial broadcast and then telerecorded onto 16 mm film by BBC Enterprises for further commercial use. Enterprises used 16 mm for overseas sales as it
1014-410: A novel based on the soap called Spring at Brookfield (Tandem, 1975) set in the period between the two world wars . His other books included novelisations of his Doctor Who serials The Curse of Peladon (Target, 1974) and The Ice Warriors (Target, 1976), an adaptation of his scripts for the BBC drama The Moon Stallion (Mirror Books, 1978), and two horror plays for children, The Curse of
1092-629: A powerful adversary called The Toymaker ( Michael Gough ). The Toymaker separates the Doctor from his companions to play the Trilogic Game, while Steven and Dodo are forced to win a series of seemingly childish but deadly games before they can be reunited with the Doctor and return to the TARDIS. Only the last episode of this story, "The Final Test", is held in the BBC archives; the other three remain missing . "The Final Test" has been released on VHS and DVD, and
1170-516: A reconstruction of the original episodes, directed by Ian Levine. The production rebuilds the deleted scenes using CGI, footage from elsewhere in the serial, and re-recorded dialogue from Carole Ann Ford , William Russell , and actors impersonating the rest of the cast. When the BBC's complete holdings (both the BBC Film & Videotape Library and the BBC Enterprises ) were first audited in 1978,
1248-566: A variety of methods. In order of original transmissions, the very last Doctor Who master videotapes to be wiped were the first episodes of the 1974 serials Invasion of the Dinosaurs and Death to the Daleks . The latter was recovered from overseas, initially from a tape in the NTSC format, and later in the original PAL format on a tape returned from Dubai . For four years, Episode 1 of Invasion of
1326-476: A version of " Eeny, meeny, miny, moe " that includes a racial slur . A fully animated release utilising the original soundtrack recordings was released on DVD and Blu-ray in 2024. Fifty-seven years after the Toymaker's last appearance in a televised Doctor Who story, the Toymaker returned as the antagonist in " The Giggle ", the third and final of the 60th anniversary specials released in 2023. In this story, he
1404-553: Is best known for his creation of the Celestial Toymaker in the 1966 story of the same name , the Ice Warriors , introduced in the 1967 story of the same name , and the feudal planet Peladon, the setting for The Curse of Peladon and its sequel The Monster of Peladon . His other stories were The Smugglers and The Seeds of Death . In addition to script writing for the radio series The Archers , Hayles penned
1482-461: Is electrocuted. Dodo and Steven thus reach the TARDIS. In the Toymaker's study at the same time, the Doctor is at the final stage of the Trilogic Game. The three friends are reunited, with Steven and Dodo sent into the TARDIS for safety while the Toymaker challenges the Doctor to complete the Game. The Doctor realises that when he makes the move and the Game is won, the Toymaker's domain will disappear – and
1560-544: Is one of the more well-documented of Season 3's broadcast without tele-snaps, so more photographs of these elements survive than the preceding stories, including the sets, costumes and actual colour of everything. In 1985, during the routine examination of its film archive, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation discovered a 16mm film print copy of "The Final Test" in Australia, and promptly returned it to
1638-793: Is unusual in that each of its 97 missing episodes survives in audio form, recorded off-air by fans at home. Most episodes are also represented by production stills, tele-snaps , or short video clips. Furthermore, after careful restoration, all 1970s episodes are available in full colour. Efforts to locate the missing episodes have continued, both by the BBC and by fans of the series. The recovered episodes have been extensively restored for release on VHS and DVD ; surviving soundtracks have been released on cassette and compact disc . Many missing episodes have had their visuals reconstructed, either through specially commissioned animation or use of surviving footage and photographs. Between approximately 1967 and 1978, large quantities of videotape and film stored in
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#17330854727111716-466: The Radio Times listings magazine announced it was launching the hunt for more Doctor Who episodes, to tie-in with the show's 50th anniversary. The Radio Times issued its own list of missing episodes. The magazine has also set up an email address specifically for Doctor Who missing episodes that the public can use to contact it if they have any information. In June 2018, Paul Vanezis (a member of
1794-451: The Observer article by saying it was "a misrepresentation of the conversation between myself and the journalist, and most unhelpful". Compared with other BBC series broadcast in the 1960s, Doctor Who is well-represented in surviving episodes. Of the 253 episodes broadcast during the 1960s, 156 still exist – mainly due to copies produced for overseas sales. For example, Seasons 1 and 2 ,
1872-609: The Patrick Troughton era is missing more episodes (53 as compared to 44 for William Hartnell ), there are more Hartnell stories completely missing (6 as compared to 4). Serials highlighted in red are missing all episodes. Serials highlighted in yellow are missing more than half of their episodes. All others listed are missing at least one, but at most half, of their episodes. Serials that are over 50% complete (e.g., The Reign of Terror , The Tenth Planet ) have been issued as standalone releases, with
1950-766: The Second Doctor is particularly affected; of the 14 stories comprising his first two seasons, only The Tomb of the Cybermen and The Enemy of the World are complete, and these only exist due to telerecordings later returned from Hong Kong and Nigeria, respectively. All stories starring Jon Pertwee as the Third Doctor are complete, though many episodes no longer survive on their original videotapes and were only available from black-and-white overseas prints upon recovery; these episodes have subsequently been restored to colour using
2028-527: The 1960s, only Steptoe and Son and Maigret have a similar survival record, with all episodes from both series existing in some form. Doctor Who is also comparatively rare amongst contemporaries in that all of its 1970s episodes exist as masters or telerecordings, while other series such as Z-Cars and Dixon of Dock Green are missing episodes from as late as 1975. As of October 2023 , there were 97 episodes unaccounted for. The missing episodes span 26 serials, including 10 full serials. Most of
2106-443: The BBC archive – with the exception of An Unearthly Child due to licensing issues – were added to the iPlayer service. Depending on the circumstances, the animated reconstructions were also added to iPlayer. Cells highlighted in green indicate releases where the orphaned episode has been combined with animated episodes to provide a complete serial. Cells highlighted in blue indicate releases where
2184-534: The BBC changed its archiving policy in 1978, thousands of hours of programming in all genres were deleted. Other affected BBC series include Hancock's Half Hour , Dad's Army , Z-Cars , The Likely Lads , The Wednesday Play , Till Death Us Do Part , Steptoe and Son , Dixon of Dock Green and Not Only... But Also . ITV regional franchisees, such as Rediffusion Television and Associated Television , also deleted many programmes, including early videotaped episodes of The Avengers . Doctor Who
2262-420: The BBC that Billy was not as cruel as Cyril. The BBC subsequently issued a disclaimer saying that Cyril was merely "Bunter-like", and that the only thing they had in common was their costume. The BBC's Audience Research Report on the final episode found that it "had little appeal for a large proportion of the sample, over a third of whom actually disliked it." Some found the episode to be lacking in action and it
2340-408: The BBC's Engineering department and film libraries were wiped or destroyed to make way for newer programmes. This happened for several reasons, primarily the belief that there was no practical value to its retention. The actors' union Equity had actively fought against the introduction of TV recording since the 1950s, when it first became a practical proposition. Before workable television recording
2418-519: The BBC, although subsequent efforts have reduced that number to 97. Among the most sought-after single lost episode is Episode 4 of the final William Hartnell serial, The Tenth Planet , which ends with the First Doctor's regeneration into the Second. The only portion of the episode still in existence, bar a few poor-quality silent 8mm clips, is the final 27 seconds, comprising the regeneration itself and
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2496-557: The BBC. Donald Tosh , script editor during Hartnell's tenure as the Doctor, later stated that, although never addressed onscreen, the Toymaker was intended to be a member of the Doctor's own race, the then-unestablished Time Lords . Michael Gough later appeared in the Fifth Doctor story Arc of Infinity (1983). Peter Stephens later appeared in the Second Doctor story The Underwater Menace (1967). Carmen Silvera later appeared in
2574-566: The Cybermen , for example, was recovered in this manner from Asia Television in Hong Kong in 1992. Of the 50 episodes recovered since the original BBC audit of its holdings, 24 have been returned from overseas broadcasters: Brian Hayles Brian Leonard Hayles (7 March 1931 – 30 October 1978) was an English television and film writer, most notably for the BBC science fiction series Doctor Who . Hayles wrote six stories for Doctor Who and
2652-596: The Daleks Episode 2 onwards are complete on the original broadcast videotapes. Unrelated to the regular archive purges, the final shot of The Deadly Assassin Episode 3 (1976) has been excised from the master copy. The shot was removed after its initial UK transmission, following complaints from Mary Whitehouse of the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association . Subsequent repeats and commercial releases have restored
2730-432: The Daleks , all Pertwee episodes already have 16mm telerecordings existing in the BBC archives. In the years since the BBC archive was first audited in 1978, a number of episodes then absent have been returned from various sources. When the BBC audited its Film Library in 1977, only 47 episodes were found to exist. These Film Library copies were a random sampling of viewing prints for various episodes, along with seven of
2808-561: The Dinosaurs was the only Pertwee episode to be entirely missing from the archives, until a black-and-white 16 mm copy was returned to the BBC in June 1983. The story was released on DVD with a partially recolourised version of Episode 1, alongside a higher-quality monochrome transfer of the episode, in The UNIT Files box set. With the exception of the final shot of episode 3 of The Deadly Assassin (1976), archival holdings from Death to
2886-541: The Engineering Department continued into the 1970s. Eventually, every master videotape of the programme's first 253 episodes (1963–69) was destroyed or wiped. The final 1960s master tapes to be erased were those for the 1968 serial Fury from the Deep , in August 1974. Despite the destruction of these masters, BBC Enterprises held an almost complete archive (with the possible exception of one episode of The Daleks' Master Plan ) of
2964-575: The Labyrinth (Dobson, 1976) and Hour of the Werewolf (Dobson, 1976). In 1979, NEL published, posthumously, his original novel Goldhawk , a heist-thriller set around Heathrow Airport . Apart from Doctor Who , Hayles wrote for such television series as The Regiment , Barlow at Large , Doomwatch , Out of the Unknown , United! , Legend of Death , Public Eye , Z-Cars , BBC Playhouse , The Wednesday Thriller and Suspense . He also wrote
3042-579: The Restoration Team who is also a missing episode hunter) said in a podcast interview that "there is absolutely no question" that some missing episodes are held by private collectors, including "one or two" by collectors that he knows. In August 2020, he described how a copy of The Daleks' Master Plan may have survived in Australia. He reiterated in March 2021 that missing Doctor Who episodes do exist out there. In April 2020, Philip Morris repeated that
3120-467: The TARDIS with it. He orders the last piece to move using the Toymaker's voice from inside the TARDIS, allowing them to depart while the Toymaker's world is destroyed. The Doctor explains what he did to Dodo and Steven, and the team commemorate their victory with a bag of sweets given to Dodo by Cyril. The Doctor puts one in his mouth and immediately yells in pain... Working titles for this story included The Toymaker and The Trilogic Game . Brian Hayles
3198-455: The Third Doctor story Invasion of the Dinosaurs (1974). ^† Episode is missing BBC Television , the producers, received complaints from lawyers acting on behalf of the late Frank Richards ' estate. The character Cyril (played by Peter Stephens ), who was fat and wore glasses, was said to bear a remarkable resemblance to fictional schoolboy Billy Bunter . Viewers complained to
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3276-452: The actors and writers to sell the programmes abroad had expired. With many broadcasters around the world now switching to colour transmission, it was not deemed worthwhile extending agreements to sell the older black-and-white material. The BBC Film Library, meanwhile, had no responsibility for storing programmes that had not originated on film, and there were conflicting views between the Film Library and BBC Enterprises over which party held
3354-525: The collection, Malden turned her inquiries to the National Film and Television Archive – which promptly returned three full Second Doctor serials – The Dominators , The Krotons , and The War Games , adding seven more episodes and completing two of those serials. These all were standard 16 mm film telerecordings with the exception of The Dominators Episode 3, which was a 35 mm print. Episodes 4 and 5 of The Dominators originated from
3432-434: The far end of the floor is the TARDIS. Steven and Dodo get trapped as partners with two of the dolls and only free themselves by swapping their partners for each other. They pelt on to the TARDIS, but the police box is a fake. The Toymaker chooses Cyril the schoolboy to take on the Doctor's companions. Dodo and Steven find themselves in a vast game of hopscotch against Cyril, who slips on a triangle he has booby-trapped and
3510-572: The film-originated Spearhead from Space , brought that Doctor's episode count up to 64 out of 128. In 1978, Ian Levine located another 65 episodes from the show's first six seasons (plus 14 previously existing episodes), at the BBC Enterprises film vault at Villiers House in London. The episodes comprise 17 full serials, mostly from seasons 1 and 2. According to Levine, the prints of The Daleks were flagged to be junked that very day. Levine alerted
3588-456: The film-originated episodes of Doctor Who ( The Power of the Daleks Episode 6 and The Wheel in Space Episode 5) were junked by the Film Library, while it held such unexplained material as 16 mm copies of The Tenth Planet Episodes 1–3, presumably viewing prints which were mistakenly returned to them at some point instead of BBC Enterprises. Most surprisingly of all, they also retained
3666-526: The first Doctor, and one including the Daleks (hinting that it could be a missing episode of The Daleks' Master Plan ), but the owners were reluctant to return them to the BBC. He recommended that the BBC implement measures to ensure that those possessing copies of missing episodes would neither have their collections confiscated nor be prosecuted for possessing BBC property, arguing that such protections would encourage more collectors to come forward with salvaged telerecordings. However, Franklin later responded to
3744-455: The following episodes were absent from their collective archives, but have subsequently been returned to the Corporation through various methods. The 16 stories highlighted have all episodes existing as a result. Except where indicated, all episodes were returned as 16 mm telerecording negatives or prints. Note: Except for Invasion of the Dinosaurs and Death to
3822-629: The gaps are from seasons 3, 4, and 5, which currently lack a total of 79 episodes across 21 (out of 26) serials. By contrast, seasons 1, 2, and 6 are missing just 18 episodes, across 5 (out of 26) serials. Of these missing stories, all but three – Marco Polo , " Mission to the Unknown ", and The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve – have surviving clips. All episodes also have full surviving audio tracks. As of September 2022 , many of these missing serials have been officially "completed" by using animation and/or telesnap reconstruction, and then subsequently released commercially by BBC Worldwide . While
3900-455: The idea and extended Hartnell’s contract, leading to Wiles quitting in protest. All episodes of this story except Episode 4, "The Final Test", are missing from the BBC archives. Only audio recordings and production stills survive from the first three episodes, as no tele-snaps were captured. Wiles opted not to use John Cura's services during his tenure, which has led to many visual elements of Wiles' stories being completely lost. This serial
3978-588: The missing Doctor Who episodes are probably the best-known example of how the lack of a consistent programme archiving policy risks permanent loss. Following the purges and subsequent recoveries, gaps in the Doctor Who archive are spread unevenly through its first 11 seasons. Major losses mostly affect First and Second Doctor serials; although two stories are missing just one episode each ( The Tenth Planet , Episode 4 and The Web of Fear Episode 3), other stories are lost altogether. Patrick Troughton 's era as
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#17330854727114056-559: The missing episodes bridged using animation, visual reconstructions, or narration to the camera. Surviving episodes which form 50% or less of a complete story – referred to as "orphaned" episodes – have been released by the BBC in compilations (e.g., Lost in Time ), or as extras on releases of complete serials. A few four-episode serials of which 50% remain (e.g., The Underwater Menace , The Moonbase ) have also been issued as standalone releases. In 2023, all Doctor Who episodes in
4134-471: The most widely sold abroad of the 1960s era, are missing only nine and two episodes, respectively. By contrast, the less well-sold Season 4 has no complete serials, while Season 5 has only two complete serials ( The Tomb of the Cybermen and The Enemy of the World ). Doctor Who ' s high profile has also helped to ensure the return of episodes which, for other less well-remembered programmes, might never have occurred. Of all ongoing BBC series from
4212-403: The new Film and Videotape Library's archive selector, Sue Malden, who paid her own visit to Villiers House and found every remaining Jon Pertwee episode (albeit as a 16 mm black-and-white telerecording), except for two from his final season: Death to the Daleks and Invasion of the Dinosaurs , Episodes 1. In August 1988, 10 years after Levine's and Malden's visits, Episodes 1 and 4–6 of
4290-414: The nine episodes that had originally been telerecorded onto film for editing and/or transmission, rather than recorded to videotape. These film-originated masters were stored in the Film Library, rather than in the Engineering Department with the videotapes. The presence of the viewing prints is less easily explained. The Film Library's remit covers material originated on film, not on videotape – yet two of
4368-399: The orphaned episode was also animated. In addition to the official list of missing episodes, also missing is the original Episode 1 of The Daleks . At some point after the recording, it was discovered that a technical problem had caused backstage voices to be heard on the resulting videotape; in early December 1963, the episode was remounted with a different costume for Susan. This episode
4446-451: The programme videotapes they held, although typically they would not be wiped or junked until the relevant production department or BBC Enterprises indicated that they had no further use for the tapes. The first Doctor Who master videotapes to be wiped were those for the serial The Highlanders , which were erased on 9 March 1967, a mere two months after Episode 4's original transmission. Further erasing of Doctor Who master videotapes by
4524-545: The remaining missing episode of The Web of Fear was stolen, and claimed that "at least six" missing episodes are currently in the hands of private collectors, but they are uncertain how they would be treated if they returned the episodes to the BBC. Morris later tweeted that a blog claiming he was negotiating with these collectors was "completely false and fake". In November 2023, film collector John Franklin repeated Vanezis' claims to The Observer , which reported that two more missing episodes had been found, both featuring
4602-406: The responsibility for archiving programmes. As each body believed it the other's responsibility to archive the material, each thought nothing of destroying its own copies as necessary. This lack of communication contributed to the erasure of much of the Corporation's film archive of older black-and-white programming. While thousands of other programmes have been destroyed in this way around the world,
4680-453: The screenplays for the feature films Nothing But the Night (1972) and Warlords of Atlantis (1978). The novelisation of the latter by Paul Victor (Futura, 1978) included a preface by Hayles entitled 'The Thinking Behind Atlantis' in which he explained the origins of the film's central concepts. Hayles contributed to a BBC series called Slim John which was an English Language course taught via
4758-510: The series in the form of their 16 mm film telerecording copies until approximately 1972. From around 1972 to 1978, BBC Enterprises also disposed of much of their older material, including many episodes of Doctor Who. The final 1960s telerecordings to be junked were those for the 1966 serial The War Machines , in early 1978, shortly before the junking of material was halted by the intervention of fan Ian Levine . Enterprises' episodes were usually junked because their rights agreements with
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#17330854727114836-446: The shot from off-air video copies. Internally, the wiping policy officially came to an end in 1978, when the means to further exploit programmes by taking advantage of the new market for home videocassette recordings started to become apparent. The prevailing view had also begun to shift toward the attitude that archive programmes should, in any case, be preserved for posterity and historical and cultural reasons. The BBC Film Library
4914-436: The six-part story The Ice Warriors were discovered in a cupboard at Villiers House when the Corporation was in the process of moving out of the building. Shortly after the junking process was halted and the BBC established its Film and Videotape Library for the purpose of storage and preservation, archive selector Sue Malden began to audit what material remained in the BBC's stores. When investigations revealed large gaps in
4992-452: The story has been novelised. A fully animated version was released on DVD and Blu-Ray in 2024. An alien intelligence has invaded the TARDIS and rendered the First Doctor invisible, leaving Dodo and Steven incredulous. They step outside into a strange realm where the Doctor reappears. They have come to the realm of the Toymaker, an eternal being of infinite power who sets games and traps for
5070-411: The time in which the central characters are never seen as themselves. William Hartnell was on holiday during the recordings of Episodes 2 & 3, "The Hall of Dolls" and "The Dancing Floor". Pre-recordings of his voice were heard in episode 2 and Albert Ward was a hand double (sporting the Doctor's ring) for scenes where the mostly invisible Doctor played the Trilogic Game throughout the story. The story
5148-582: The unwary so that they become his playthings. The Doctor and the Toymaker have faced each other before, and the Toymaker abducts his old adversary to another place. The Doctor appears in the Toymaker's study, where he is given the Trilogic game, a ten-piece puzzle (similar to the Tower of Hanoi ) whose pieces must all be moved and remounted in a 1023-move sequence. Steven and Dodo face different challenges. The first are two clowns, Joey and Clara, full of childish tricks and
5226-408: Was also criticised for 'ham' acting, although other viewers had enjoyed the cast's performance. The audience sample mostly found the story as a whole to be too different from the usual Doctor Who story format, being more of a whimsical fantasy. The most critical viewers dismissed it as "ridiculous rubbish"; others said that although disliking it themselves, their children had enjoyed it. The serial
5304-426: Was commissioned by producer John Wiles , who left the series before it was recorded after several clashes with William Hartnell. Hartnell’s contract was due to expire at the end of this serial, and Wiles intended to replace Hartnell in the role of the Doctor during the story, having the character reappear in a new guise after the invisibility was removed by the Toymaker. The BBC's head of serials, Gerald Savory , vetoed
5382-700: Was considerably cheaper to buy and easier to transport than videotape. It also circumvented the problem of different countries' incompatible video standards, as film was a universal medium whereas videotape was not. The BBC had no central archive at the time; the Film Library kept programmes that had been made on film , while the Engineering Department was responsible for storing videotapes. BBC Enterprises only kept copies of programmes that they deemed commercially valuable. They had little dedicated storage space, and tended to place piles of film canisters wherever they could find space for them at their Villiers House property. The Engineering Department had no mandate to archive
5460-563: Was developed, if a broadcaster wished to repeat a programme (usually a one-off play), they had to re-hire the actors to perform it again, live, for additional fees. Equity's concern was that if broadcasters kept recordings of the original performances, they would be able to re-broadcast them indefinitely, which would reduce the amount of new production and threaten the livelihoods of its members. Although Equity could not prevent recording altogether, it added standard clauses to its members' contracts that stipulated that recordings could only be repeated
5538-507: Was never retained, but one small portion of it has survived as part of the reprise at the beginning of Episode 2. Planet of Giants is another unusual example. It was originally recorded as four episodes, with Episodes 1–3 directed by Mervyn Pinfield , and Episode 4 by Douglas Camfield . To create a faster-paced climax, Episodes 3 and 4 were combined and reduced to form a single episode, with Camfield credited as director. This decision, made by then-Head of Drama Sydney Newman , resulted in
5616-413: Was played by Neil Patrick Harris . The character has also appeared in other Doctor Who media: Doctor Who missing episodes Several portions of the long-running British science-fiction television programme Doctor Who are no longer held by the BBC . Between 1967 and 1978, the BBC routinely deleted archive programmes for various practical reasons—lack of space, scarcity of materials, and
5694-448: Was positively received by Patrick Mulkern of Radio Times who said the first episode was "undoubtedly a fantasy classic". Mulkern thought that Michael Gough did not get much screen time in his role as the Toymaker, but "exudes menace ... and has that fabulous voice." The review also praised Dudley Simpson's musical score, and the "excellent" costume and design. A novelisation of this serial, written by Gerry Davis and Alison Bingeman,
5772-456: Was published by Target Books in June 1986. It is one of the few Doctor Who novels (original or adapted) to be written by more than one person. The fourth episode, "The Final Test", was released on The Hartnell Years VHS in 1991, albeit with the "Next Episode" caption rather clumsily cut from the cliffhanger scene (this was unavoidable, as the 16mm black & white film telerecording was itself incomplete). In November 2004, "The Final Test"
5850-512: Was released in digitally re-mastered form (with the "Next Episode" caption restored) on DVD in Region 1 and Region 2 in a three-disc Lost in Time box set . An audio-only version of the serial was released on Compact Disc in 2001, featuring linking narrations by Peter Purves . One of these narrations is deliberately inserted to obscure a line in "The Hall of Dolls" where the King of Hearts recites
5928-500: Was turned into a combined Film & Videotape Library for the preservation of both media. The Film Library at the time held only 47 episodes of 1960s Doctor Who ; they had once held 53, but six episodes had either been junked or gone missing. Junkings at BBC Enterprises, however, continued until the intervention of Ian Levine , a record producer and fan of the programme. Following the transfer of episodes still held by Enterprises, there were 152 episodes of Doctor Who no longer held by
6006-404: Was unavailable to do necessary rewrites, so then script editor Donald Tosh performed them. As Tosh would no longer be script editor by the time the story was transmitted, he agreed with Hayles to take the writer's credit, with Hayles being credited for the idea. After Tosh finished work on the scripts, his successor, Gerry Davis , was forced to make further rewrites due to a budget shortfall. Tosh
6084-416: Was unhappy with the rewrites and refused to be credited, while Davis could not take a credit because he was the series' script editor. As a result of this, Hayles was the sole credited author on the final serial, despite the fact that he had not worked on it in three months and the final scripts bore little to no resemblance to what he wrote. Davis adapted themes from " George and Margaret ", a popular play from
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