Total so far:004 episodes out of 784
000 of which were recons
000 of which were audio recordings
Four days in and with the very first Doctor Who serial "An Unearthly Child" watched I now have only 223 more stories to view.
Having meant to do this in the first post I think I should explain the running totals at the top of the page. As with much pre-1970's TV the BBC (not the only culprits for sure), for what in this age of DVDs and VCRs now seem somewhat spurious economical reasons, chose to wipe the original video tape masters of much of there output. In fact the video masters of all 253 black and white episodes (along with a fair percentage of early colour John Pertwee episodes) where wiped between 1967 and 1978 meaning that only episodes held as 16mm or 35mm telecordings by the BBC's export division BBC Enterprises initially survived.
A major problem with this state of affairs was the fact that the BBC did not have any official archiving policy until 1978, in fact the BBC didn't even employ anyone in the position of archivist until the same years. On top of which the BBC tape department failed to liaise with BBC Enterprises (and the other way around) to to see which episodes either division still held meaning that many an episode that could have been archived was junked when either department considered it to no longer be of commercial use.
This meant that come the time the BBC actually chose to catalogue their Doctor Who library it was found that 147 of the 253 black and white episodes were missing. Since then 41 episodes, including 2 serials that were missing in there entirety, have been recovered from overseas broadcasters, private collectors and twice in the cupboards or basements of old BBC buildings. However this obviously means there are still 106 episodes missing, and as only 2 episodes have turned up since 2004 I'm not holding my breath awaiting news of any new finds.
Fortunately for fans all Who stories from Marco Polo onwards (serial 4 of series 1) survive as off air audio recordings of variable quality made by fans of the show. Having been circulated among fans for the best part of 50 years these tapes now provide the base for two distinctly superior methods for fans to enjoy the missing shows.
The first of these are the official BBC audio CDs which feature remastered audio recordings of lost episodes with audio descriptive detail added using narration by a relevant actor/actress from the serial. There are also earlier cassette releases which feature inferior sound and third person narration from actors not linked to the serials in question (Tom Baker on "The Evil of the Daleks" or Colin Baker on "The Macra Terror" for example) and CD releases of stories that though not lost were not available at the time on DVD (the CD of "The Invasion" was released rather sneakily a whole year before the DVD). These "not lost" audio releases always contain exclusive, though IMO far from revelatory, audio interviews with a relevant cast member by way of a bonus incentive to make fans part with their cash.
The other method is perhaps more interesting. With many missing episodes existing as telesnaps (literally photographs taken of the TV screen to provide a visual record of the program) some fans in the 1980's took to editing these in sync with the soundtrack recording to provide an approximation of the original TV airings.
Over the years these have got a lot more complex, with producers adding subtitles to fill in details not apparent from the A/V material, CGI effects, specially shot material, surviving clips and photoshoped montages. Provided free of charge by fan groups such as Loose Cannon these are perhaps my favourite way of experiencing missing Doctor Who episodes.
And now I've typed all that out I really don't feel like talking about the story itself. This in itself isn't a problem because there are hundreds of reviews out there that are a million times more perceptive and entertaining than anything I could manage. Why not go find one?
