Exciting News: BBC Set to Revive Classic Era Doctor Who with 3 Lost Episodes!

Summary

BBC will revive long-lost Doctor Who episodes from the classic era in podcast form, featuring original audio and narration by undisclosed stars.

The show's first six seasons are missing a total of ninety-seven episodes, including beloved tales such as "The Dalek's Master Plan" and "The Tenth Planet."

However, both viewers and the corporation have made significant efforts to restore and recreate the lost stories, ensuring the preservation of Doctor Who's enduring legacy.

The BBC is set to bring back old episodes of Doctor Who from the classic era in a big way. In the 1960s, William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton took on the roles of the First and Second incarnations of the Doctor, respectively, as they traveled from the early days of humanity to a future filled with space exploration. From 1963 until Troughton left the show in June 1969, the Doctors encountered iconic villains like the Daleks, Cybermen, Ice Warriors, and more.

In preparation for Doctor Who's 60th Anniversary specials, RadioTimes.com has confirmed that the BBC will also release previously lost stories in the form of podcast episodes. These podcast episodes, available globally through the BBC Sounds app, will feature surviving audio from the original broadcasts of the episodes, complemented by narration provided by various stars from the current show. While the specific stories to be released on BBC Sounds have yet to be revealed, it has been confirmed that three complete stories will be available on the platform on November 1, coinciding with the expansion of the iPlayer library.

Which Doctor Who Stories Are Missing?

BBC's protocols for storing tapes of programs from 1967 to 1978 resulted in the elimination of various shows, including Doctor Who. The lack of value placed on preserving programming at the time led to the videotapes being wiped to make room for new shows. However, thanks to the efforts of viewers and the corporation itself, lost episodes have been either fully restored or partially recreated using animation, tele-snap recreations, and audio.

Despite these efforts, there are still 97 missing episodes from the first six classic seasons of Doctor Who. The First Doctor's era accounts for 44 of these missing episodes, including the majority of the twelve-part Dalek epic "The Dalek's Master Plan," three parts of the original debut story of anniversary villain The Toymaker (played by Neil Patrick Harris) called "The Celestial Toymaker," and most of Hartnell's final story and Cyberman debut, "The Tenth Planet." In the Second Doctor's era, 53 episodes are missing, which include the serials of follow-up Cyberman tales such as "The Moonbase," "The Wheel in Space," "The Invasion," "The Ice Warriors," "The Power of the Daleks," and "The Evil of the Daleks."

The video tag is not supported by your browser. However, diligent measures have been taken to preserve and allow a new generation to appreciate stories that were once thought to be lost. Currently, only three stories from the lost episodes are scheduled for release in this format. Viewers may be wondering which tales will be included in the collection, and it is likely that "The Celestial Toymaker" will be among them to coincide with the show's 60th anniversary. Nonetheless, BBC Sounds' new lost episode podcasts offer a more comprehensive glimpse into the classic series, allowing us to celebrate Doctor Who's significant milestone.

Source: RadioTimes.com