As you may or may not know, in days gone by the BBC had a policy of not keeping copies of their programs, routinely junking or wiping tapes for re-use - hey, we didn't always have digital and gigabytes of storage! Early Dr Who was particularly affected, with 108 episodes (mainly Patrick Troughton but some William Hartnell as well) considered lost. Over the years, this number was higher and many episodes have been found - usually from some far off territory (such as here in Australia) where the BBC sent copies of the episodes and they were never returned. However, it has been some 7 years since any discoveries, and it is getting harder and harder to find any more, leading people to believe the final episodes (now 106) are gone forever.
So, while these episodes may not be any fan's dream, it is good news that anything has been found at all. Let's all hope that further episodes can still be discovered in the future!
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| Current Doctor Matt Smith agrees this is good news! |
So I meant to say this ages ago, and I have to say that this is actually astonishingly amazing news. The fact that there were two episodes still sitting out there for all these years (the broadcast of them at the November screening was the first time they were broadcast since the original sixties broadcasts!), gives a huge sense that maybe, just maybe, those last 106 episodes might be found. Or at the very least, a few more are out there. So cool :)
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