Two Lost Doctor Who Episodes Have Been Discovered In True Miracle For Sci-Fi Fans
When you've been around as long as the Doctor, it can be hard to keep track of all your adventures. That's as true in the "Doctor Who" universe as it is in our own. Quite infamously, the BBC has lost well over 100 episodes of "Doctor Who," most of them dating back to the earliest seasons of the seminal British sci-fi TV series (which premiered in 1963). As of today, though, we can declare that at least two of those episodes have been recovered in what's no less than the sort of miracle the Doctor themself would be pleased at pulling off.
According to the BBC, the episodes in question were recovered in a cardboard box from a "ramshackle" collection of vintage media. Titled "The Nightmare Begins" and "Devil's Planet," said episodes were both written by Terry Nation — the legendary "Doctor Who" scribe who created the Doctor's most iconic villains, i.e. the genocidal cyborgs (and rolling trash bins on wheels) that are the Daleks — and aired on November 13 and November 27, 1965, respectively. The episode that aired between them, "Day of Armageddon," was also recovered in 2004 (as noted in the Beeb's report).
Together, these three episodes form the first quarter of "The Daleks' Master Plan," the fourth arc of the third season of "Doctor Who." True to its name, this 12-episode storyline saw William Hartnell's First Doctor and his companions at the time, the futuristic space pilot Steven Taylor (Peter Purves) and Katarina (Adrienne Hill), a handmaid to the Trojan high priestess Cassandra, trying to stop the Daleks from building a super weapon. Hill, sadly, passed away in 1997 (with Hartnell having passed away all the way back in 1975), but Purves is still alive and has now seen the rediscovered episodes for himself.
One of Doctor Who's most famous Dalek storylines has now been partly recovered
"Exterminate!" Am I quoting the Daleks or the BBC itself? Well, both, technically. You see, the reason "The Daleks' Master Plan" was lost in the first place is because the arc "was ordered to be wiped" (as the BBC's article puts it) and was not sold overseas, as censors in Australia and New Zealand deemed it "too violent" (which meant it wasn't profitable for the BBC to sell the arc elsewhere). It's a real shame, too, considering its importance to the franchise's greater lore. Most notably, Katarina was the first of the Doctor's companions to ever die while journeying across space and time with them, and that (obviously) made a huge impact on the wayward Gallifreyan.
Thankfully, this tale has gotten a happier ending in real life. Recalling his experience working on the show being "great fun," Peter Purves remarked, "['The Daleks' Master Plan'] was the fourth appearance of the Daleks and it'll be exciting to fans for a lot of reasons. The fans of 'Doctor Who' are legion, and they seriously love the classic times." Echoing that, "Doctor Who" historian Toby Hadoke — who gave Purves the surprise of a lifetime by inviting him to watch a screening of the recovered episodes without telling him the truth about what he would be seeing ahead of time — called these episodes nothing less than the "holy grail" of previously-lost "Doctor Who" media. And with Whovians still awaiting updates on the property's future now that the short-lived partnership between "Doctor Who" and Disney is officially over, this uplifting news couldn't have come at a better time, either.
Restored versions of "The Nightmare Begins" and "Devil's Planet" will be released on BBC iPlayer this Easter.