Who would have thought it?
Two missing “Doctor Who” episodes feared to be lost forever will be broadcast for the first time in 60 years after they were found stuffed in a cardboard box.
The episodes of the iconic British science fiction television series were discovered wrapped in plastic in the private collection of a deceased film collector by the charity “Film is Fabulous!” according to BBC News and a news release.
The trust, run by movie collectors and lovers of vintage TV, approached the BBC Archives, which worked to restore the original 16mm telerecordings of the two black-and-white episodes.
The episodes — “The Nightmare Begins” and “Devil’s Planet” — were originally broadcast in November 1965 during the show’s third season starring the late William Hartnell as the Doctor. The episodes are part of a 12-part serial called “The Daleks’ Master Plan” which is still largely missing.
Both of the recovered episodes will be made available on the BBC’s streaming platform, BBC iPlayer, this Easter.
“We’re thrilled to have worked with the team at Film is Fabulous! to bring these lost Doctor Who episodes to viewers on BBC iPlayer this Easter,” said Noreen Adams, director of the BBC Archives.
“BBC Archives has been working to restore the original recordings and update these to broadcast quality, ensuring fans can enjoy a little extra treat with their Easter Eggs this April,” she said.
The world’s longest-running sci-fi series, “Doctor Who” features an eccentric alien main character traveling through time and space in the TARDIS — a spaceship resembling an old-fashioned British police box. It initially ran from 1963-1989 and continues to air after a 2005 relaunch.
Over the decades, it has built up a cult appeal in the US, thanks to its campy special effects, glamorous assistants, and iconic villains such as the Daleks and the Cybermen.
Hartnell was the first of 15 actors to play the Doctor, the most recent being Ncuti Gatwa between 2023 and 2025.
Of the 253 episodes aired as part of the 26 seasons in the original “Doctor Who” series, 95 episodes are missing.
Between 1967 and 1978, the BBC regularly deleted archive programs for reasons of a lack of space and a lack of rebroadcast rights.
“Doctor Who” superfans have worked for decades to try and recover or restore the missing episodes. The last find of any missing installments of the series was in 2013, when copies of 11 long-lost episodes were found in a Nigeria TV station.
“In some ways finding missing ‘Doctor Whos’ is the holy grail,” De Monfort University film professor and Film is Fabulous! member Justin Smith told the Associated Press.
With Post wires
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