89-608: The Abominable Snowmen is the mostly missing second serial of the fifth season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who , which originally aired in six weekly parts from 30 September to 4 November 1967. In this serial, the Second Doctor ( Patrick Troughton ), Jamie McCrimmon ( Frazer Hines ) and Victoria Waterfield ( Deborah Watling ) arrive in Tibet in 1935. The once gentle Yeti have turned savage and besieged
178-461: 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
267-518: A Buddhist monastery, under the orders of a higher being known as The Great Intelligence . After becoming ensnared in its plans, the crew join forces with Professor Edward Travers ( Jack Watling ) to stop the being and save the planet from conquest. The story is notable for the introduction of the Yeti and The Great Intelligence. Only one of the six episodes is held in the BBC archives; five remain missing . The story
356-465: A cave, in which they discover a chamber containing a pyramid of metal spheres. Suddenly, a Yeti moves the boulder that blocked the cave. They escape and head toward the monastery. The Doctor has been accused of controlling the Yeti and placed on trial. Jamie and Victoria convince Prof. Travers that the Doctor is no threat. The trio return to the monastery and show the sphere to the Doctor, who turns it over to
445-532: 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
534-588: 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
623-410: 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
712-516: 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
801-555: A guard in The Mark of the Rani (1985). The restored episodes were repeated on BBC2 on Tuesday evenings from 7 December 1999 to 25 January 2000, with a two-week gap between episodes three and four. Episode six was shifted to Thursday 20 January. Mark Braxton of Radio Times wrote that the story had "quality in spades", especially in the location filming, and that the story was "gritty" and "provocative" with "fine character actors". He praised
890-415: 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
979-582: 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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#17328451315931068-597: 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
1157-450: A preexisting precedent with prior reconstructions, stating that "these things are cyclic." 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
1246-516: 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,
1335-566: 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
1424-526: Is released, resulting in an epidemic to spread across Britain. The Doctor is able to find a cure, which is mass produced, ending the epidemic. The Doctor, Liz and the Brigadier are then abducted by the Silurians and taken to the power plant, where the Doctor overloads the reactor and tells the younger Silurian that the area will be irradiated for at least 25 years. The Silurians re-enter the caves to hibernate until
1513-455: Is the first appearance of the Silurians, for whom the Silurian hypothesis in science is named. A nuclear powered cyclotron facility in some caves under a moorland is experiencing mysterious power drains and mental breakdowns amongst staff. The Third Doctor and Liz Shaw meet Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart there to investigate. Major Baker, the security chief, believes there is a saboteur in
1602-415: Is the one commanding the Yeti robots. He wipes her mind of their meeting and summons more Yeti to attack. The Doctor helps Victoria recover from her trance-like state and listens to Travers, who is recovering his senses and explains about the cave and the pyramid. The Doctor pieces together the nature of the threat while Travers recalls that Songsten was in the cave too. It is clear Songsten is the link between
1691-793: 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
1780-466: 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
1869-451: 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 ,
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#17328451315931958-609: 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
2047-711: 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
2136-527: 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
2225-443: 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
2314-534: 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
2403-410: The BBC would no longer pursue animated reconstructions of serials with missing episodes due to BBC America withdrawing funding for the project. Two days after the animated version of The Abominable Snowmen released, animation director Gary Russell confirmed the claims, additionally speculating that the BBC may revitalize the effort to reanimate missing episodes after an indefinite hiatus. Russell noted
2492-408: 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
2581-519: 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
2670-544: The Cybermen (1975). This story is the first to be recorded using colour studio cameras. The previous serial, Spearhead from Space , was the first in colour, but was shot entirely on location (i.e., outside the electronic TV studio), and on film (as opposed to videotape, the standard method for recording Doctor Who ). Due to the move to colour, the production team made use of a technique known as Colour Separation Overlay (CSO, or Chroma key ), which allowed images to be superimposed over each other using colour separation. This
2759-531: 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: Doctor Who and the Silurians Doctor Who and the Silurians is the second serial of the seventh season in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who . It
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2848-596: 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
2937-432: 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
3026-457: The Deep (the black-and-white prints and off-air colour recordings were combined, with the colour prints distorted to reduce fringing and both prints processed with VidFIRE to restore video sections to 50 unique fields per second, rather than 25 frames per second, with no motion information between the two fields corresponding to each frame). The story was then released on DVD again in 2013, included in
3115-935: The Dinosaurs (1974) and Nyder in Genesis of the Daleks (1975). He also played Tragan in the radio drama The Paradise of Death and Gantman in the audio play Whispers of Terror . Norman Jones had previously appeared as Khrisong in The Abominable Snowmen (1967) and would later play Hieronymous in The Masque of Mandragora (1976). Ian Talbot, who played Travis in Episode Four, would later return as Klout in The Leisure Hive (1980). Richard Steele, who plays Sergeant Hart, previously appeared as Commandant Gorton in Episode 2 of The War Games (1969) and would later appear as
3204-561: 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
3293-494: 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
3382-631: 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
3471-440: The Silurians (1970) and Hieronymous in The Masque of Mandragora (1976). Ralpachan is played by David Baron, often said to be the playwright Harold Pinter under a stage name. Pinter has since denied this rumour. David Baron was indeed Pinter's name for the purposes of Equity , the British actors' union, but he had relinquished it by the time this serial was produced. A novelisation of this serial, written by Terrance Dicks ,
3560-505: The TARDIS, they find it guarded by another Yeti, but the Doctor takes out its control sphere. They head back to the monastery, where the Doctor forges an alliance with Khrisong, the head of the monastery guards, based on the need to enable the monks to stay at the monastery. Realising the monks will not leave peacefully, Abbot Songsten, who is controlled by Padmasambhava, opens the gates of the monastery to more Yeti. Victoria realises Padmasambhava
3649-502: The Yeti and the monastery. The Doctor and his friends arrive and overpower Songsten. Songsten is bound and returned to the other monks, and the violence of his manner persuades them that he is the threat to Detsen. The Doctor, Thonmi, and Jamie destroy the equipment being used to control the robotic Yeti. Left in peace as the Great Intelligence which is controlling him and keeping him alive is forced to leave, Padmasambhava dies. With
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3738-452: 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
3827-420: The best in all of Doctor Who . Anders listed the serial as a good example of the early Pertwee years, calling it "pretty fantastic" with enemies who "aren't just one-dimensional baddies" and the length "somewhat justified by a harrowing subplot where a plague starts killing people all across London". A novelisation of this serial, written by Malcolm Hulke , was published by Target Books in January 1974 under
3916-681: The case, production paperwork from this point on stopped the practice of adding the prefix, perhaps as a measure to prevent the "mistake" from happening again. Actor Paul Darrow would return to the series playing Tekker in Timelash (1985); he also appeared in the audio play The Next Life . Geoffrey Palmer, who played Masters, also appears in The Mutants (1972) and in " Voyage of the Damned " (2007). Peter Miles later played Professor Whitaker in Invasion of
4005-513: The centre. The Doctor and Liz discover a Silurian base with the signal device, where they witness a Silurian being revived from hibernation by a machine, explaining the energy drains that the reactor has been experiencing. Masters, the Permanent Under-Secretary in charge of the centre, arrives. The Doctor tells them about the Silurians in the caves, urging peaceful contact. However, this is ignored when Quinn's assistant reveals that he
4094-525: 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
4183-480: The danger has passed. Since the mechanism is faulty, the younger Silurian will stay awake to operate it and sacrifice his life. The Doctor and Liz repair the reactor. The younger Silurian realises he has been duped into sending his race back to sleep. He attacks the Doctor but is shot by the Brigadier. The Doctor insists that the caves are to remain untouched to allow the Silurians to hibernate peacefully, hopeful that talks of peace may occur between them and humankind in
4272-430: The danger over, the travellers depart. Travers accompanies them up the mountain and his belief in the real Yeti is renewed when he spots one. He charges off to investigate as the TARDIS departs. All episodes except for episode 2 are missing . Brief clips from episode 4 exclusively focusing on the Yeti also exist. The North Wales mountain pass at Nant Ffrancon doubled as Tibet for the filming of this serial. Filming
4361-454: The design and the voice-acting of the Silurians but felt their rubber costume on-screen made them come across as "silly". Braxton was also disappointed with other production "shortcomings", such as the "cheap-looking" cave set, the dinosaur, and "Carey Blyton's electro-bagpiped Silurian theme". The A.V. Club reviewer Christopher Bahn wrote that it "keeps a snappy pace throughout thanks to Malcolm Hulke's well-plotted script". He noted that both
4450-572: 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
4539-456: 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
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#17328451315934628-526: 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
4717-455: 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
4806-439: The future. However, the Brigadier orders the caves to be destroyed, killing the Silurians inside and horrifying the Doctor, who opposed the mass murder of the Silurians. After the previous story, producers Derrick Sherwin and Peter Bryant (who was originally to have the producer's credit on this story) were transferred to the television series Paul Temple , and the BBC intended for Barry Letts to become producer. However, Letts
4895-629: 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
4984-588: 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
5073-559: 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
5162-416: The monks. Padmasambhava , the immortal master of the monastery, instructs one of the monks, Thonmi, to release the Doctor. Shortly afterward, the Yeti attack the monastery, during which one of them is overpowered and rendered dormant. The Doctor deduces it is a robot , controlled by a missing spherical unit from its chest cavity. Padmasambhava orders all the monks to evacuate. When the Doctor and Jamie reach
5251-463: The monsters and the humans were more complex than previously seen on Doctor Who . Like Braxton, he also felt the serial was "badly served by the Silurian costumes, which are terrible even by the standards of low-budget, 1970s TV". DVD Talk 's John Sinnott noted that some parts were "a bit slow" due to the length, but it was a "mature" story where Pertwee defined his Doctor. However, Sinnott felt that John
5340-471: 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
5429-462: The name "Doctor Who" was used in the title of a serial on-screen (although Episode 5 of The Chase was titled "The Death of Doctor Who" on-screen and at the end of The Gunfighters , the caption read "Next Week Doctor Who and the Savages"). Although it was common in production paperwork to prefix "Doctor Who and..." to the story title at the time, the prefix was usually dropped when the director ordered
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#17328451315935518-403: 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
5607-414: 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
5696-495: The novelisation). The novelisation avoids referring to the reptiles as Silurians (the word turns up as a UNIT password) but identifies the dinosaur in the caves as a tyrannosaurus rex . The novelisation was also translated into Dutch , Finnish , Japanese and Portuguese . An unabridged reading of the novelisation by actress Caroline John was released on CD in September 2007 by BBC Audiobooks. The original 625-line PAL videotapes of
5785-399: 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
5874-451: 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
5963-545: 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
6052-406: 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,
6141-448: The serial were wiped by the BBC for reuse, although they retained 16 mm b/w film recordings. In 1993, the colour signal from a 525-line NTSC version of all seven episodes (except for part of the beginning of episode 4) was used, along with colourisation techniques , to colourise the film prints for the VHS release, which was in July that year. In October 2006, the story's original soundtrack
6230-510: 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
6319-446: 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
6408-436: 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
6497-498: The title Doctor Who and the Cave Monsters . In this adaptation, the Silurians were given names like Morka, Okdel and K'to. The novelisation gives extensive background to the reptile culture, including a prologue featuring their hibernation beginning. Large parts of the novelisation are told from the reptiles' point of view and there is an extensive back-story given to several characters including Quinn and Major Baker (called Barker in
6586-412: The titles from the captioning department for transmission. However, this was not done for this particular story. The reasons why this happened are not entirely clear. Director Timothy Combe states that he was presented with a story called Doctor Who and the Silurians and that it was always intended that the serial go out with that name. However, as Doctor Who historian Andrew Pixley points out, this
6675-399: Was Combe's first serial as a full director and there was effectively no producer at this time, as noted above. In addition, the rehearsal scripts for the serial simply have The Silurians as the title. Pixley theorises that Combe was unaware of the standard production practice and gave the order to the captioning department for the "proper" title, as he believed it to be at the time. Whatever
6764-401: Was committed to another production, and could not be released until after the location work on Silurians was completed. Script editor Terrance Dicks and his assistant Trevor Ray shared the production responsibilities for the location work. The incidental music for the serial was composed by Carey Blyton , who would also contribute music for Death to the Daleks (1974) and Revenge of
6853-700: 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
6942-563: 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
7031-484: Was done there from 4 to 9 September 1967. According to Jack Watling one of the actors playing the Yeti fell hundreds of feet during filming and was feared dead, but was merely inebriated and fortunately cushioned by the foam rubber inside the costume. The character of Professor Travers is played by Jack Watling, the father of actress Deborah Watling, who plays Victoria. Norman Jones later played Major Baker in Doctor Who and
7120-515: Was first broadcast in seven weekly parts on BBC1 from 31 January to 14 March 1970. The serial is set in an English moorland, the cave system below it, and London. In the serial, the Third Doctor ( Jon Pertwee ) attempts to broker peace between humanity and the Silurians , an intelligent bipedal race of reptilians that ruled Earth before humans. This effort becomes undone by a xenophobic usurper Silurian, along with gung-ho human soldiers. The story
7209-416: Was killed by the Silurian he held captive. The Doctor attempts to warn the Silurians, but they put him in a cage. He is able to reason with the leader of the Silurians, who attempts to convince his brethren to find a way of co-existing with humans. The younger Silurian refuses and kills the leader, usurping the title as leader. Baker is later infected with a deadly strain of bacteria by the Silurians before he
7298-507: 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
7387-576: Was published by Target Books in November 1974. The audio soundtrack, along with additional linking narration by Frazer Hines, has been released on MP3 CD, along with The Web of Fear . A collection box entitled "Yeti Attack" contains both Yeti adventures on normal CD. A vinyl release of the soundtrack, also with the Hines narration, was issued by Demon Records on 27 September 2019. This release has since become rare and difficult to come by. In 1991, Episode 2
7476-660: Was released in animated form on 5 September 2022. The TARDIS lands in Tibet in the Himalayas, where The Second Doctor finds a dead body amid the remains of a campsite. The Doctor arrives at Detsen Monastery, where he meets Professor Edward Travers , who is attempting to find the Yeti . It appears there have been some deaths recently, but the Professor says the Yeti cannot be the culprit because of its shy nature. Meanwhile, Jamie and Victoria find
7565-459: Was released on CD as part of the 'Monsters on Earth' tin set, again alongside The Sea Devils and Warriors of the Deep , with linking narration from Caroline John. The CD was then individually re-issued in January 2008. On 14 January 2008, a fresh restoration of the story was released on DVD as part of the boxed set called "Beneath the Surface", also including The Sea Devils and Warriors of
7654-557: Was released on VHS as part of "The Troughton Years". In 2004, that episode, along with a handful of clips gathered from other sources, were digitally restored and released on the Lost in Time DVD. On 23 November 2021, it was announced that the story would be released on DVD and Blu-ray, with animations of all six episodes alongside the surviving Episode Two. It was released on 5 September 2022. Earlier that January, press reports emerged claiming that
7743-423: Was still trying to find her character's place, and did not have much chemistry with Pertwee. Den of Geek gave a positive review of the serial, writing that "the production is only marred by its excessive number of episodes compared to the story it had to tell ... and an often-appalling 'medieval' score by experimentalist Carey Blyton". In 2010, Charlie Jane Anders of io9 listed Episode Six's cliffhanger as one of
7832-500: 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
7921-460: Was used extensively in the series for many years, beginning with this serial. Location filming took place at Marylebone station in London on 12 November 1969, but after the prints were damaged, the scenes were reshot on 24 November after the rest of the serial had been finished. Other location work was undertaken in Surrey, with the heathland scenes filmed at Hankley Common . This was the only time
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