THE CASE OF THE MISSING EPISODES

Part....wayyyy too many

(This is the part I hate, I have to basically repeat flogged-as-a-dead-horse information readily available anywhere else but I have to include because of first time readers who won't know what I'm talking about otherwise....*life is hard*)

Many of Doctor Who's early episodes are currently missing from the BBC archives, the reasons for this are rather complicated involving notions of history, sociology, technology and sheer stupidity. Suffice it to say that Doctor Who is by no means the only BBC programme affected by this, and compared with others, there's a lot of stuff we have than not. Frankly, I'm surprised we still have fifties and sixties British programmes existing as it is.

As far as Doctor Who is concerned 106 episodes are currently missing for the archives. These are:

1. The seven-episode serial Marco Polo (s.1/1964)
2. Episodes 4/5 of The Reign of Terror (s.1/1964)
3. Episodes 2/4 of The Crusade (s.2/1965)
4. Episodes 1/2/4 of Galaxy 4 (s.3/1965)
5. The Mission to the Unknown episode (s.3/1965)
6. The four-episode serial The Myth Makers (s.3/1965)
7. Episodes 1/3/4/6/7/8/9/11/12 of The Daleks' Master Plan (s.3/1965-1966)
8. The four-episode serial The Massacre (s.3/1966)
9. Episodes 1/2/3 of The Celestial Toymaker (s.3/1966)
10. The four-episode serial The Savages (s.3/1966)
11. The four-episode serial The Smugglers (s.4/1966)
12. Episode 4 of The Tenth Planet (s.4/1966)
13. The six-episode serial The Power of the Daleks (s.4/1966)
14. The four-episode serial The Highlanders (s.4/1966-1967)
15. Episodes 1/4 of The Underwater Menace (s.4/1967)
16. Episodes 1/3 of The Moonbase (s.4/1967)
17. The four-episode serial The Macra Terror (s.4/1967)
18. Episodes 2/4/5/6 of The Faceless Ones (s.4/1967)
19. Episodes 1/3/4/5/6/7 of The Evil of the Daleks (s.4/1967)
20. Episodes 1/3/4/5/6 of The Abominable Snowmen (s.5/1967)
21. Episodes 2/3 of The Ice Warriors (s.5/1967)
22. Episodes 1/2/4/5/6 of The Enemy of the World (s.5/1967-1968)
23. Episodes 2/3/4/5/6 of The Web of Fear (s.5/1968)
24. The six-episode serial Fury from the Deep (s.5/1968)
25. Episodes 1/2/4/5 of The Wheel in Space (s.5/1968)
26. Episodes 1/4 of The Invasion (s.6/1968)
27. Episodes 1/3/4/5/6 of The Space Pirates (s.6/1969)

Most of the damage is localised around seasons 3-5, with season 4 the worse for wear (as it contains no complete serials at all). Billy Hartnell is affected, but Patrick Troughton almost wound up as The Forgotten Doctor. Jon Pertwee was also hit by the Missing Episodes, however his only problem was that some them were found only in Black & White rather than in Color (ooooh, evil). Apart from that, the Third Doctor suffers no incomplete tales at all.

Of course, many episodes were recovered over the years, there was even on missing serial returned complet (all together now, folks...The Tomb of Cybermen!!!) back in the 1990s.

Most recently, episode 3 of Galaxy 4 and episode 2 of The Underwater Menace were returned in December 2011. But now, we've got a whale of tale about those pesky Missing Episodes...

Early this year, someone claimed to have found a substantial amount of those episodes somewhere in Africa. The Bleeding Cool webside ran that story in a most understandably yet over optimistic fashion as possible. Frankly, fans, if you don't have a copy of any ME in your hands, verified and authentified, then please stop doing this...The story was debunked later on, yet, like any good rumour, it refused to go away. And then...

The Sunday People website, in an article published on October 6, 2013 claimed that at least 100 episodes were found at the offices of the Ethiopian Radio and Television Agency. How do you say "too goo to be true" in Amarhic?

However, the Radio Times and BBC4 also ran along with this. In fact, the Radio Times even confirmed that the episodes (mostly Troughton's) were (already) remastered and will be released on iTunes, a highly optimistic account considering that the BBC itself refused to confirm and then denied the whole thing.

So what's up with that?

It appeared the BBC didn't like to be scooped, so, this morning, a press conference was called stating (in a most clear and precise fashion) that....yes indeed missing episodes of Doctor Who have been found and will be released. The Beeb just didn't say what episodes (as yet). Note that the BBC is always doing this when Doctor Who is concerned. For instance, it denied Matt Smith's departure yet confirmed it in a matter of days.

The lists of episodes found will be released later this week. Needless to say, I cannot wait. Are we going to finally watch an "almost" complete set of Classic Who? Is the long, desperate and mindboggling search finally over?

Wait and see.