In 1963, the longest running science fiction series in history was born. Doctor Who ran continuously from 1963 to 1989, producing an unbeaten 26 seasons of television viewing. The series was reborn in 2005, giving fans the opportunity to once again hide behind the sofa. Unfortunately, many of those classic adventures are no longer available for us to enjoy.
In 1972, the BBC began destroying parts of their archive to make way for new recordings, as they felt that the older material wasn't commercially viable and no one would be interested in old Black & White programmes. However, it took the ever-growing fan base and the appearance of domestic video recorders in the late seventies for the BBC to realise the error of their ways and thus the junking process was ended, and the search for missing episodes began.
After nearly six years of destruction, the BBC formed the Film & Videotape Library and began the hunt for the very footage they had deemed so unimportant back in 1972. Since 1978, Doctor Who episodes, clips, soundtracks, '71 edits, tele-snaps and behind the scenes footage have been unearthed all across the planet, from as far afield as a Church basement in London to a film fair in New Zealand. This blog focuses on the history, status and martyrdom of those episodes created primarily in the first eleven seasons of the long running series, and to the 97 episodes that are currently missing from the BBC Archives.
The title of this blog refers to the final instalment of The Daleks' Master Plan, an epic twelve-part story of which only three episodes are known to exist - and The Destruction of Time isn't one of them.
Despite Doctor Who currently having just under a hundred episodes missing from the archives, many other television series are in a far worse condition. Z-Cars, Out of the Unknown, Dixon of Dock Green and many others were hit hard, and some, such as United! or The Airbase for example, have no episodes left in existence at all.
The title of this blog refers to the final instalment of The Daleks' Master Plan, an epic twelve-part story of which only three episodes are known to exist - and The Destruction of Time isn't one of them.
Despite Doctor Who currently having just under a hundred episodes missing from the archives, many other television series are in a far worse condition. Z-Cars, Out of the Unknown, Dixon of Dock Green and many others were hit hard, and some, such as United! or The Airbase for example, have no episodes left in existence at all.
This website is dedicated to the ongoing mission by Doctor Who fans and BBC staff alike who have searched and continue to seek out the missing episodes.
