Sunday 11 December is an important date for Doctor Who fans as it was confirmed that two episodes of Classic Doctor Who that were presumed wiped had been found. Episode Three of Galaxy 4 and Episode Two of The Underwater Menace have been found which reduces the amount of episodes lost to 106. Being on twitter there seemed to be a tension to find out what the news was, I was initially excited by the news but then thought that it wouldn’t b e anything major. I had hoped it would be the missing episodes of ‘The Daleks Master Plan’ but in reality thought it would be that the Christmas Special of Doctor Who Confidential would air.
However just after 5pm, the news seemed to leak out from some of the people I am following that they had found these two episodes. I must admit that my initial reaction was that of perplexment. I knew it would be missing episodes found but wish it had been for a story that was missing one episodes. It was fun being on twitter after the news had broke because some had felt excited about this news, thinking it was the best news for a long time and an early Christmas present and then some thought it was a little bit of an anti-climax. I think after thinking about it, I am in the middle. Possibly because I had mentally prepared myself and being a pessimist.
The first episode found was episode three of Galaxy 4 which was when they named individual episodes and this one was called ‘Airlock’. It originally aired on the BBC on Saturday 25th September 1965 and was watched by 11.5 million people, it was written by William Emms and directed by Derek Martinus. Before today all four episodes were missing and only the audio recording existed. I think there is a very brief clip that exists which sees the Doctor, Steven and Vicki on the Dravhins ship so its good to see a bit more of this story. The next episode was Episode 2 of The Underwater Menace which was aired on Saturday 21st January 1967. It was watched by 7.5 million people, written by Geoffrey Orme and directed by Julia Smith. Now that this episode has been found only the first and last episode are missing. This is a story that would benefit from being seen in its entirety as opposed to just on audio with 25 minutes.
Been a fan of Doctor Who its one of the biggest bug bears and fans who haven’t seen anything pre-Eccleston will be wondering what the fuss is about but for completists like me its quite significant news. Over the last twenty years we have been treated to dribs and drabs of episodes. The first big release of missing episodes was ‘The Tomb of the Cybermen’ which was found in Hong Kong of all places. It’s a story that I was first introduced to via cassette tape (remember those days) and when I finally watched it on VHS some time later I was mesmorised. It’s only in later years that I have put it into context and whilst I think it’s a good story it has lost some of its shine since the early 1990’s. The most recent discover was in 2004 when an episode of the ‘The Daleks Master Plan – Day of Armageddon’ was found. It was great to see another episode from this epic as there were only two episodes to watch and ‘Day of Armageddon’ was from early on in the serial. It was an interesting episode and hopefully one day it will be found in its entirety.
I’m not a massive fan of these two stories but will appreciate that they have been found and hope that it wont be another seven years before we get more episodes. Hopefully we will live in a world where not one episode of Doctor Who is missing.
A guy can dream cant he!
However just after 5pm, the news seemed to leak out from some of the people I am following that they had found these two episodes. I must admit that my initial reaction was that of perplexment. I knew it would be missing episodes found but wish it had been for a story that was missing one episodes. It was fun being on twitter after the news had broke because some had felt excited about this news, thinking it was the best news for a long time and an early Christmas present and then some thought it was a little bit of an anti-climax. I think after thinking about it, I am in the middle. Possibly because I had mentally prepared myself and being a pessimist.
The first episode found was episode three of Galaxy 4 which was when they named individual episodes and this one was called ‘Airlock’. It originally aired on the BBC on Saturday 25th September 1965 and was watched by 11.5 million people, it was written by William Emms and directed by Derek Martinus. Before today all four episodes were missing and only the audio recording existed. I think there is a very brief clip that exists which sees the Doctor, Steven and Vicki on the Dravhins ship so its good to see a bit more of this story. The next episode was Episode 2 of The Underwater Menace which was aired on Saturday 21st January 1967. It was watched by 7.5 million people, written by Geoffrey Orme and directed by Julia Smith. Now that this episode has been found only the first and last episode are missing. This is a story that would benefit from being seen in its entirety as opposed to just on audio with 25 minutes.
Been a fan of Doctor Who its one of the biggest bug bears and fans who haven’t seen anything pre-Eccleston will be wondering what the fuss is about but for completists like me its quite significant news. Over the last twenty years we have been treated to dribs and drabs of episodes. The first big release of missing episodes was ‘The Tomb of the Cybermen’ which was found in Hong Kong of all places. It’s a story that I was first introduced to via cassette tape (remember those days) and when I finally watched it on VHS some time later I was mesmorised. It’s only in later years that I have put it into context and whilst I think it’s a good story it has lost some of its shine since the early 1990’s. The most recent discover was in 2004 when an episode of the ‘The Daleks Master Plan – Day of Armageddon’ was found. It was great to see another episode from this epic as there were only two episodes to watch and ‘Day of Armageddon’ was from early on in the serial. It was an interesting episode and hopefully one day it will be found in its entirety.
I’m not a massive fan of these two stories but will appreciate that they have been found and hope that it wont be another seven years before we get more episodes. Hopefully we will live in a world where not one episode of Doctor Who is missing.
A guy can dream cant he!
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