Fans of the classic Doctor Who series received a giant surprise of an early Christmas present this past weekend, as two previously missing episodes were presented to attendees of the British Film Institute‘s annual “Missing Believed Wiped” event at the National Film Theatre in London. The two recently-discovered episodes were Episode 3 of the William Hartnell adventure “Galaxy 4” entitled “Air Lock”, and Episode 2 of Patrick Troughton‘s “The Underwater Menace”.
It was introduced at the event by Mark Gatiss, Doctor Who writer and actor:
Christmas has come early for Doctor Who fans everywhere. It’s always wonderful when a missing episode turns up but it’s been years since the last one so to have two is just brilliant. Add to that a proper bit of action from the legendary Chumblies (and the horrifying Rills!) plus the utterly mesmeric Patrick Troughton on great form. Well, what more could we all ask for?
Over 100 episodes are still missing from the 1960s seasons of Doctor Who. They were on tape, and the tapes were routinely erased once the rights to re-air them expired. As color and better tv transmissions became available, the general thought was that no one would want to watch grainy black and white programs. Silly, silly people of the 60s. Film prints, however, were sold overseas, and recovery of those is how missing Who episodes are generally found.
How these particular episodes were recovered is seemingly straight out of an episode of Antiques Roadshow. They came to light thanks to Ralph Montagu, Radio Times’s head of heritage and a lifelong Doctor Who fan:
I occasionally meet up with a group of film collectors and retired TV engineers at a café in Hampshire. A few months ago I spoke to Terry Burnett, who used to be an engineer at TVS [the former ITV franchise based in Southampton]. Somehow Doctor Who was mentioned in passing, and Terry said, “Oh, actually I think I’ve got an old episode.”
I thought it was bound to be something we’ve got already. I tried not to get too excited, but he came back the next day and brought this spool with him. It had no label, so I had a look at the film leader and it said “Air Lock”. I thought, “What’s that?” I checked online and saw that Air Lock was an episode of Galaxy 4 – a missing Hartnell serial. So then I got very excited.
As for the second recovered episode, the next time Montagu met up with Burnett, Burnett surprised him with another episode. “Again not labelled on the can, but it turned out to be The Underwater Menace part two.”
Although Burnett bought the films at a “school fete” (I love being able to use that term), it turns out that these particular copies originated in Australia. The most interesting tidbit about that is that the “Underwater Menace” episode had a short bit removed by Australian censors before the original transmission. Turns out it has to do with a surgeon attempting to inject companion Polly with a syringe. The mind reels with what the 1960s Australian censors would think of The Walking Dead.
Fortunately the Australian archives have a version of the missing part, and incorporating it will be part of the restoration process. Both films apparently still need a fair amount of work done, but according to the BBC, a DVD release is planned.
WOO HOO, YES, a DVD release. Information about said DVD is said to be coming from 2 entertain in 2012. For now, however, we have a clip from each episode, just for you:
Happy Holidays, Whovians!
