106-576: The Faceless Ones is the mostly missing eighth serial of the fourth season in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who , which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 8 April to 13 May 1967. In this serial, the Second Doctor ( Patrick Troughton ) and his travelling companions Jamie ( Frazer Hines ), Ben ( Michael Craze ) and Polly ( Anneke Wills ) arrive at Gatwick Airport where identity-stealing aliens known as
212-466: 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
318-707: A character in the story, aside from when intended to be comical. Sandra Bryant appeared in The Macra Terror , as did John Harvey. John Rolfe later played Sam in The Moonbase and Fell in The Green Death . Frank Jarvis later played Ankh in Underworld and Skart in The Power of Kroll . Michael Craze provided the voice of a policeman heard in episode 4. The first three episodes include
424-541: 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
530-657: 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
636-410: 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
742-526: 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
848-415: 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
954-597: 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,
1060-597: 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
1166-495: A promotional item on the BBC's Blue Peter and censored clips from Australia. Some of the restored footage did not have its accompanying soundtrack, and so the missing sound was restored from the off-air recordings. The War Machines is currently the last surviving complete serial from the William Hartnell era; the following serial ( The Smugglers ) is entirely missing, while Hartnell's final serial ( The Tenth Planet )
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#17327831792471272-528: 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,
1378-486: A rejected joint effort in 1966. Instead, script editor Gerry Davis tasked the team with a story with a scientific concept and menace, as well as a singular set such as a department store. Hulke and Ellis created a storyline called The Big Store in which the Chameleons took the form of mannequins. Producer Innes Lloyd suggested the setting change to an airport instead and be a six-part story instead of four. The story
1484-406: A room with two misshapen aliens. The Doctor follows the radar signals to the plane's destination, threatens to remove alien Meadows' life-supporting black armband, and elicits an explanation. An explosion damaged the alien home world, so they want to use 50,000 humans left comatose in orbit as replacements. The Doctor uses the alien Meadows to get at the alien Pinto. She resists and disintegrates, so
1590-579: 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
1696-495: A weapon that can't possibly exist on Earth at that time. They leave to find someone in authority, and Blade captures Polly without the Doctor or Jamie noticing. He hides her along with the corpse before Jamie and the Doctor return with sceptical airport authorities. Alone again, Spencer revives an alien, a faceless green humanoid with prominent veins. Nurse Pinto brings in unconscious air traffic controller Meadows, and connects him to
1802-756: A workforce to construct twelve robotic War Machines around London. One of these machines is built in a warehouse in Covent Garden , close to the Inferno nightclub. The next day, the Doctor telephones Brett at the Post Office Tower, and is nearly possessed by WOTAN. Thinking the Doctor is now controlled, Dodo reveals that the War Machines are being constructed in strategic points in London. The Doctor breaks WOTAN's hypnotic control over her, and she
1908-453: Is missing episode 4. Currently, this is the only complete serial featuring Michael Craze and Anneke Wills as Ben and Polly that exists in the BBC archives. To date, only episodes 3 and 4 do not exist in their entirety as was originally intended. Episode 3 is missing a visual brief bit of dialogue with Krimpton talking. This was replaced in the VHS release with a combination of a shot of WOTAN with
2014-458: Is sent to stay with Sir Charles's wife in the country to recover. The Doctor sends Ben to investigate the area around the nightclub, where he discovers a War Machine, now fully assembled. Ben is detected by the Machine, and caught by the now hypnotised Polly. Ben learns that the War Machines are to attack at noon the next day. He escapes and alerts the Doctor and Sir Charles. Polly is sent back to
2120-399: Is shown in a typeface based on the numeric E-13B font that was then in common use for magnetic ink character recognition. Each of the four episodes' title sequences have slight variations to them. The decision to set more episodes on present-day Earth was taken because the producers felt that the audience was becoming bored with the purely historical episodes that had been a major element of
2226-793: 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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#17327831792472332-472: 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
2438-579: The First Doctor and Dodo meet Professor Brett, the creator of WOTAN (short for Will Operating Thought ANalogue). In four days' time, WOTAN will be linked to other major computers across the world to take them over, including those of the White House , Cape Kennedy and the Royal Navy . Dodo goes with Polly, Brett's secretary, to the Inferno nightclub, where they meet Ben Jackson , while
2544-456: 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 ,
2650-617: 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
2756-726: 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
2862-527: 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
2968-603: The 1970s, but he died in 1979. As with all missing episodes, off-air recordings of the soundtrack exist due to contemporary fan efforts. In February 2002 these were released on CD, accompanied by linking narration from Frazer Hines. The soundtrack was also included in the 2012 CD Lost TV Episodes: Collection Four: 1967 from AudioGo , accompanied by PDFs of scripts and interviews with Hines and Wills. In November 2003, episodes one and three of this serial were released on VHS by BBC Worldwide , along with episode one of The Web of Fear , as part of The Reign of Terror boxset; this
3074-443: 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
3180-534: 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
3286-408: 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
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3392-529: 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
3498-415: The Chameleons have taken refuge after their planet was destroyed, preying on university students by abducting them using the false holiday flight organisation 'Chameleon Tours'. It sees the departure of Craze and Wills as Ben and Polly. Only two of the six episodes are held in the BBC archives; four remain missing . An animated version of the serial from BBC Studios was released on 16 March 2020. It became
3604-459: 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: The War Machines The War Machines is the tenth and final serial of the third season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who , which
3710-616: 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
3816-432: 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
3922-572: 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
4028-518: The Doctor attends a Royal Scientific Club meeting about WOTAN, led by Sir Charles Summer. Before Brett can depart for the meeting, he is hypnotised by WOTAN. He then fetches Krimpton, an electronics colleague, and takes him to WOTAN, where he, too, is possessed by the computer. Major Green, the chief of security in the Tower, is also taken over, and sends WOTAN's control signals to Dodo at the nightclub via telephone. Using its hypnotic control, WOTAN enlists
4134-549: 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
4240-555: The Post Office Tower and drags Polly out of the WOTAN room as the Machine enters and attacks the immobile computer. Krimpton is killed, but WOTAN is destroyed before it can give the order for the other ten War Machines to commence their attack. Brett and all the others who have been hypnotised return to normal. Ben and Polly meet the Doctor at the TARDIS, to explain that Dodo has decided to stay in London. The Doctor thanks them and heads into
4346-756: The Rani (1987). Pickering had previously appeared as Eyesen in The Keys of Marinus (1964) and Ventham would go on to play Thea Ransom in Image of the Fendahl (1977). Christopher Tranchell previously appeared as Roger Colbert in The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve (1966) and would return as Leela 's love interest Andred in The Invasion of Time (1978). ^† Episode is missing The Faceless Ones
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4452-648: 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
4558-518: The TARDIS after thinking the police are playing a practical joke on them. Polly ducks into the Chameleon Tours agency hangar, where she sees Spencer kill another man and report to his superior, Captain Blade. Polly flees, and runs into the Doctor and Jamie. After telling them what she saw, she brings them to the hangar. They examine the body and the Doctor notes that the victim was electrocuted by
4664-436: The Tower to be punished by WOTAN. Under Sir Charles's instruction, an army taskforce investigates the warehouse. They are forced to retreat, but when the Doctor stands before the Machine, it stops—it had not been completely programmed. Soon after, there are reports of another War Machine—Machine 9—taking to the streets. The Doctor traps the Machine in an electromagnetic forcefield and reprogrammes it to destroy WOTAN. Ben goes to
4770-480: The War Machines themselves were "too dull" and "boxy". In 2013, Ben Lawrence of The Daily Telegraph named The War Machines as one of the top ten Doctor Who stories set in the contemporary time. A novelisation of this serial, written by Ian Stuart Black, was published by Target Books in February 1989. The serial was released on VHS in 1997, with an item from Blue Peter and a BBC1 "globe ident" (from
4876-408: The accompanied dialogue from the off-air recordings. Episode 3 is also missing around 59 seconds' worth of the battle in the warehouse. This scene, however, has not been re-instated for the VHS release as it was felt that there wouldn't be enough visual material to drop into the gap. Episode 4 is missing only a small amount of material. The first instance occurs with the man in the telephone box. Part of
4982-452: 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
5088-401: The airport manager; he ties her up for Pinto to duplicate. The Doctor and Commandant learn from other airports that Chameleon passengers never arrive. Blade eliminates a pursuing RAF fighter and diverts Jamie's plane up to dock in a vast alien craft. When an airsick Jamie emerges from the toilet, he finds the passengers miniaturised in drawers. Blade's assistant Ann catches him, and traps him in
5194-455: The airport, Samantha kisses Jamie goodbye. Ben and Polly learn that the day is 20 July 1966, when they first left in the TARDIS . They leave for home. The Doctor reveals to Jamie that the TARDIS has been released from airport storage, and stolen. David Ellis and Malcolm Hulke had both been attempting to write Doctor Who properties (since the programme's beginning in Hulke's case), including
5300-466: The alien and a machine. The alien transforms into a doppelgänger of Meadows, and goes to his airport job. Polly exits from a newly landed plane, but rejects the Doctor and Jamie, claiming to be Michelle Leuppi from Zurich. At the Chameleon kiosk, they meet Samantha Briggs who is searching for her brother. On a Chameleon youth tour, he sent a postcard from Rome, but nobody saw him there. Breaking in,
5406-532: 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
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#17327831792475512-424: The continuing close-up of the man talking on the telephone is missing, but this was compensated on the VHS release by continuing in audio-only over the top of the beginning of the high shot of the phone box. There are also two lines of dialogue missing when Polly reports back to WOTAN. The DVD release has all of the episodes recreated and restored to their original length, as well as a 9-minute documentary showing how
5618-428: The credit "and WOTAN", marking the only time a fictional entity has been credited as itself in the series. Gerald Taylor is credited as the voice of WOTAN in episode 4 only. Jackie Lane's contract expired midway through production of this story. She does not appear again after episode two; Dodo's off-screen departure is relayed to the Doctor by Polly. The BBC newsreader Kenneth Kendall appeared as himself. Similarly
5724-468: The cupboard; and panning shots of the alien figure (seen only from behind) at the end of the episode. The missing scenes were later recovered along with the other copy of episode 1. A copy of episode 3 was returned to the BBC in 1987 from a private collector living in the United Kingdom. However, 20 seconds of material is missing from episode 3, due to damage to the print. A brief, 3-second moment of
5830-495: The deadly War Machines controlled by WOTAN. This serial marks the departure of Jackie Lane as Dodo Chaplet and also the first appearance of Michael Craze and Anneke Wills as new companions Ben and Polly. It is also the only known complete serial to feature Anneke Wills and Michael Craze, and the final complete serial from the William Hartnell era. The TARDIS lands in London, near the Post Office Tower , where
5936-528: The debut of a new title sequence, The Faceless Ones saw the minor revision of the theme music that accompanied this new sequence introduced in Episode 2. Both Michael Craze and Anneke Wills were released from their contracts after episode 2, leading to their departures during this serial. Their contracts originally ran out in episode two of the next serial, and they were compensated for this. The characters appear in episode 6 in scenes shot on location prior to
6042-400: The eighth incomplete Doctor Who serial to receive full-length animated reconstructions of its missing episodes. The TARDIS materializes on the runway of Gatwick Airport . The Second Doctor , Ben, Polly and Jamie emerge only to discover that they are in the path of an oncoming plane. They see a police officer coming for them, so they split up to flee him. Airport security confiscates
6148-417: The episodes were reconstructed from all the disparate sources. In 2009, Patrick Mulkern of Radio Times praised the contemporary edge taken with The War Machines , though he wrote that the plot was "mechanical" with several improbabilities. DVD Talk 's J. Doyle Wallis gave The War Machines three out of five stars, calling it "serviceable" with WOTAN and its henchmen lacking depth. Den of Geek also gave
6254-530: 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
6360-463: 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
6466-526: 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
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#17327831792476572-533: The first body was his missing partner, DI Gascoigne. The Doctor finds only comatose Meadows and returns to demonstrate the freezing gun to the Airport Commandant, who gives them 12 hours to investigate. Blade points the ray gun at Crossland to stop him boarding the next flight, and shows him that all the passengers have vanished. Spencer attacks Jamie and Samantha, but they escape. Jamie steals Samantha's ticket and boards. Samantha finds Spencer instead of
6678-491: The first part of the story) as extras. A Region 2 DVD issue was released on 25 August 2008; the Region 1 DVD was released on 6 January 2009. With the advance in technology since the original VHS release, the sections, which were missing from it, have been reinstated using the audio and appropriate visual material. Also, in 2007, an audio CD of the serial's soundtrack, with linking narration by and bonus interview with Anneke Wills,
6784-461: 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
6890-629: 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
6996-549: The impostor Polly brushing off a remark from the Doctor survives from episode 2. Two brief plane shots used in episode 4 also survive. The 2020 animated reconstruction aired in the United States on BBC America in two installments on 7 and 8 October 2020. A novelisation of this serial, written by Terrance Dicks , was published by Target Books and WH Allen in December 1986. Hulke had been interested in novelising it in
7102-507: The last flight to space. The alien Jamie reveals the threat of the Doctor, so Blade sends undisguised Chameleons to capture them. The Doctor offers to spare Gatwick's original aliens, when one onboard disintegrates, proving that Samantha found the real staff in cars in the car park. Blade and Spencer kill the Director and the fake Jamie, whose originals revive. Crossland stays behind when the Doctor, Jamie and Pinto return with freed humans. In
7208-440: The last of their kind to be destroyed, surviving until early 1978, shortly before the junking of material was halted by the intervention of fan Ian Levine . In late 1978, a collector in Australia provided a copy of episode 2. Later in 1984 copies of all four episodes were returned from Nigeria . Episodes 2, 3 and 4 all had cuts to them, but most have been restored due to a combination of the other copy of episode 2, material used in
7314-402: The left-hand side (reminiscent to an old-style computer punched card ). The title, one syllable at a time, scrolls upwards—"THE", "WAR", "MACH", "INES"—with a final flash displaying the complete title on two lines. Another flash reveals the writer, the next flash reveals the word "EPISODE", and the final flash shows the actual episode number. All of the lettering displayed in this titling sequence
7420-594: 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
7526-563: 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
7632-471: 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
7738-403: 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
7844-414: 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
7950-468: The old. Also included is the surviving footage and a photographic reconstruction of the missing episodes. 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
8056-399: 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
8162-475: The other hand, described the plot as "pretty good if not a classic, with an appealing B-movie sensibility—this feels like a better, if equally cheaply made, version of the kind of movie featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000 ." However, he criticised the abrupt departure of Dodo. Johnathan Wilkins of Dreamwatch gave the serial a score of 9 out of 10, calling it "something of a forgotten masterpiece", mostly due to Hartnell's performance. However, he noted that
8268-435: The police box—followed by Ben and Polly. They are then suddenly whisked off into time and space. Working titles for this story included The Computers . The idea for this story came about when Kit Pedler was being interviewed for a position as science adviser to the series. The producers asked all of the interviewees what would happen if the recently built Post Office Tower somehow took over. Pedler suggested that it would be
8374-440: The previous serial, The Savages . Only one War Machine prop was actually constructed; the production team changed the numbers, to represent the different machines. The titling style of each episode in this serial differs from the standard titles of other serials. Instead of a title overlay, after the "Doctor Who" logo has faded, the screen shifts to a solid background containing four inversely coloured rectangles aligned down
8480-617: The previous serial. On 10 May, the BBC Programme Review Board discussed Doctor Who 's oscillating ratings between six and eight million, with head of drama serials Shaun Sutton commenting that he wanted them to stay closer to eight million. The serial was broadcast in Australia in October 1967, with Episode One receiving three edits to gain a G rating. It was broadcast in Uganda, Singapore, and Hong Kong in 1969; it
8586-451: 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
8692-474: The real Pinto revives and frees Samantha. She tells the Doctor that Jamie left. Jamie meets the Director of the aliens, a Crossland copy, who says the plane will return to the airport for the remaining Chameleons. The Doctor keeps the identities of copied staff secret, so the Commandant can find their hidden originals. The Doctor pretends to be the alien Meadows and Pinto impersonates her double. They board
8798-545: 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
8904-406: 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,
9010-474: The serial three out of five stars, noting that "the story drags a little" and, aside from Pauline Collins, did not have a memorable guest cast. Kayti Burt from Den of Geek noted that the serial had a "slow start," but it had "generally nail-biting moments of suspense," particularly in the fifth episode. In the Doctor Who Magazine poll for the show's 60th anniversary in 2023, The Faceless Ones
9116-510: 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
9222-446: 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
9328-424: The show to date. As a result, this story marks the beginning of the turn away from historical stories. The next two historical stories, The Smugglers (which immediately follows The War Machines ) and Season 4's The Highlanders , were to be the last purely historical stories until Season 19's Black Orchid . This story is also one of the very rare instances where The Doctor is referred to as "Doctor Who" by
9434-436: 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
9540-515: The story probably just about outweigh the negative." They remarked that the "special effects tend to be rather lacklustre" and there was "far too much talk and not enough action to maintain the viewer's interest over the full six episodes." In 2009, Mark Braxton of Radio Times noted that there were plot holes but the story "unveils its mystery with ease and elegance". Reviewing the animated reconstruction in 2020 for The Guardian , Martin Belam gave
9646-432: The story three stars, highlighting Hartnell's performance and opining that the story "holds up well", though there were some plot holes. Arnold T Blumburg of IGN rated the story 7 out of 10, noting that the concept had aged but it was entertaining. However, he criticised Dodo's departure and, while the serial did showcase Hartnell well, he sometimes seemed lost in the setting. The A.V. Club reviewer Christopher Bahn, on
9752-1007: The studio recording. Meanwhile, Frazer Hines was contracted through The Faceless Ones and the following serial, The Evil of the Daleks . Pauline Collins was offered the chance to continue playing the character of Sam Briggs as a new companion, but she declined the offer. The character was originally named Cleopatra Briggs. Collins guest-starred, years later, as Queen Victoria in " Tooth and Claw " (2006). Bernard Kay appears as Inspector Crossland. He had previously appeared as Tyler in The Dalek Invasion of Earth (1964) and Saladin in The Crusade (1965), then later appeared as Caldwell in Colony in Space (1971). Donald Pickering and Wanda Ventham would later star as husband and wife in Time and
9858-457: The trio find fake postcards from missing tourists, and a monitor of the Tours hangar. The Doctor sees Ben find Polly suspended comatose in a metal cabinet, then himself gets caught and frozen by Blade and Spencer. The Doctor escapes and goes alone to the hangar and tells Jamie and Samantha to stay. They meet Detective Inspector Crossland investigating the disappeared Chameleon customers, and realise
9964-564: The voice of radio announcer Dwight Whylie is also heard. Mike Reid , who was later known as a comedian and for his role as Frank Butcher in EastEnders , appeared as an extra. Aside from its soundtrack (recorded off-air by fans), this serial was lost in the junking of episodes in the 1970s . The master videotapes for the story were the last of those starring William Hartnell to be wiped, surviving until March 1974. The 16 mm film telerecording copies held by BBC Enterprises were also
10070-477: The work of a rogue computer that communicated with the outside world by means of the telephone system. The producers liked this suggestion and not only offered Pedler the job but developed the idea into a script (one of the few to feature a 'Story Idea by' credit). Pat Dunlop was then hired to write a full set of teleplays from Pedler's idea, but quit after becoming busy with other work, and the teleplays were subsequently done by Ian Stuart Black , who had also written
10176-597: Was also aired in Zambia by 1973. Paul Cornell , Martin Day , and Keith Topping gave the serial a favourable review in The Discontinuity Guide (1995), writing that "the realistic backdrop works very well, and the script is well constructed, augmented by the terrifying appearance of the aliens". In The Television Companion (1998), David J. Howe and Stephen James Walker wrote that "the positive aspects of
10282-450: Was broadcast in weekly installments on BBC1 beginning on 8 April and ending on 13 May 1967. The serial had ratings standard for the programme at the time with an average of 7.4 million; the first and sixth episodes had the highest rating at 8 million, while there were dips at episodes two and four with 6.4 and 6.9 million respectively. Episode Six achieved the highest chart position at 33. The Appreciation Index scores were an improvement on
10388-409: Was cleared 22 September 1969. In addition to the complete version, the archives also holds an incomplete print of episode 1, returned from ABC in Australia in late 1978. The print itself was given to ABC from a private collector living in Australia. The Australian Film Censorship Board removed the following scenes: Spencer killing Inspector Gascoigne with a Chameleon ray-gun; the alien arm emerging from
10494-700: 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
10600-563: 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
10706-409: Was first broadcast in 4 weekly parts from 25 June to 16 July 1966. The serial is set in London in the 1960s, shortly after construction of the Post Office Tower was completed. In the serial, the time traveller the First Doctor ( William Hartnell ) and sailor Ben Jackson ( Michael Craze ) work together to stop the self-thinking computer WOTAN (voiced by Gerald Taylor) from invading London with
10812-507: 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
10918-484: Was officially commissioned as Dr Who & The Chameleons on 3 January 1967. A storyline for the first four episodes was submitted 7 January. Scripts were delivered from 24 to 31 January. Some of The Faceless Ones was filmed on location at Gatwick Airport in March 1967. Heathrow also accepted the production team's offer, but the team chose Gatwick as the cost was lower. Doctor Who would later film at Heathrow for Time-Flight in 1982. As The Macra Terror saw
11024-525: Was the final VHS release, coinciding with the programme's fortieth anniversary. In November 2004, the surviving episodes were included in the three-disc Lost in Time DVD set. A DVD and Blu-ray release occurred on 16 March 2020; this release included both surviving episodes accompanied by an animated version of all six episodes (using the original audio). It was decided to animate all of the episodes despite two surviving to appeal to both new fans as well as
11130-500: 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
11236-520: Was voted the fourteenth best story of the Second Doctor's tenure, out of a total of 21. Charlie Jane Anders ranked the serial as the 244th best Doctor Who story (out of 254) and a "disappointment" in 2015, writing, "Ben and Polly wander out of the story halfway through, and you wish you could too." Only episodes 1 and 3 of this serial exist in the BBC archives. All episodes besides the fifth were cleared for wiping on 21 July 1969; Episode Five
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