60 Years Later, This Iconic Sci-Fi Franchise Has Officially Found Footage That Was Part of a Crushing Loss

60 years ago, the BBC routinely erased and reused its 16mm reels to save money and space. This short-term solution has now created a chasm in early British television history and culture, as hundreds of hours of pioneering programming have been lost to time. One of the most significant casualties was Doctor Who, whose first six years produced 253 episodes spanning William Hartnell‘s tenure as the First Doctor, and Patrick Troughton, as the Second. With the original reels wiped, generations of fans and TV historians only have partial access to the earliest adventures of the Time Lord.

Over the decades, many of the 253 lost Doctor Who episodes have been recovered through campaigns and archival work by fans and organizations. Now, in the largest Doctor Who discovery since 2013, when nine lost episodes were found in Nigeria, BBC Archives and the Leicester-based charity Film Is Fabulous! have announced the recovery of two episodes long considered gone. These episodes are critical to understanding the foundation of Doctor Who and his now iconic antagonists, the Daleks. Their discovery provides an underexplored avenue for future archival efforts, reigniting the hunt for the remaining 95 lost episodes to complete the 26 unfinished stories.

What Happens in Doctor Who’s “The Daleks’ Masterplan”?

Image via BBC

The two newly-found episodes of Doctor Who, which have not been viewed publicly since their original airing in the 1960s, feature the first incarnation of the Doctor, played by William Hartnell, tackling a Dalek plan to take over the Earth. They are from the 12-part 1965 serial “The Daleks’ Masterplan” and are the episodes “The Nightmare Begins” and “Devil’s Planet,” which join the previously recovered “Day of Armageddon” to complete the first three installments of the Daleks’ first major story. Written by Dalek creator, Terry Nation and Dennis Spooner, the serial also starred Peter Purves as Stephen Taylor, who has criticized the BBC, including in Doctor Who Magazine, for their destructive policy: “I’m furious the BBC was so profligate and unthinking. They didn’t even archive the telecine copies. How stupid is that?”

The first newly recovered episode, “The Nightmare Begins,” originally broadcast in November 1965 as part of Season 3, sees the Doctor and Steven land on the jungle planet Kemble while searching for help for an injured companion. They unexpectedly discover a secret Dalek assembly, where they have allied with Mavic Chen, played by Kevin Stoney, the Guardian of the Solar System, to take over Earth. The Doctor and Steven secretly observe the gathering before being detected, ending the episode on a tense cliffhanger. The second episode, “Devil’s Planet,” aired two weeks later, follows the Doctor after he has stolen a critical component needed for the Daleks’ plan. He lands on the planet Desperus and he and his companions must navigate the chaos as the Daleks arrive in pursuit.

“The Daleks’ Masterplan” is a dark and gritty 12-part arc with more than half of its episodes still missing. Other key cast members include Nicholas Courtney in an early appearance as Brett Vyon, Jean Marsh as Sara Kingdom and Adrienne Hill as Katarina. Courtney would later become known for his recurring role as the Brigadier. The serial marks the fourth appearance of the Daleks and is notable for the first brutal deaths of female companions in the series.

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Why Are There So Many Missing Doctor Who Episodes?

Broadcasts of Doctor Who were wiped under a BBC-wide policy in the 1960s and 70s due to the high cost of reels and lack of archiving priority and strategy. Even technical review copies, which were created from the original negatives to check quality and determine whether edits were required for overseas sales, were discarded. Unlike previous Doctor Who episodes which have been recovered from foreign broadcasters, “The Daleks’ Masterplan” had not been sold abroad because Australian and New Zealand censors deemed it too violent. So, combined with the shift to color, the black-and-white serial was considered commercially worthless.

Film is Fabulous! recovered the episodes from a ramshackle private collection. Justin Smith, chair of FIF, said to the BBC that, “A debt of gratitude was owed to the anonymous late collector, whose films largely focused on his love of trains and canals, including hundreds of home videos, which were donated to FIF after he died.”

Missing episodes of Doctor Who have been previously recovered in several waves, beginning in 1983 when 16mm prints of episodes 5 and 10 of “The Daleks’ Masterplan” were discovered at a church in Wandsworth, London. In 2004, the episode “Day of Armageddon” was returned by a former BBC engineer, having survived as another technical copy used for quality checks. A wider public effort followed in 2006 through a Blue Peter appeal encouraging fans to search private collections, contributing to further additions such as the 2011 recovery of episodes from “Galaxy 4” and “The Underwater Menace.” The most significant modern discovery came in 2013 in Jos, Nigeria, where nine missing episodes from Second Doctor stories were uncovered, marking the largest single recovery in decades. BBC Archives have now restored the two latest episodes to broadcast quality, and they will be released on BBC iPlayer at Easter 2026, with a special screening in London on the same day, April 4.

“The Daleks’ Masterplan” is pivotal for understanding the series’ original tone, scale, and characters — many of which have informed how the series has continued in its original run and current iteration from Russell T. Davies. With this new recovery, the first quarter of the largest Dalek story ever attempted is now available to fans, renewing hope that further missing episodes may be unexpectedly found in the UK rather than abroad. The complete history of Doctor Who may finally be preserved, and the BBC will be finally redeemed for their biggest archival mistake.

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Release Date

2005 – 2022-00-00

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Network

BBC

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Directors

Graeme Harper, Euros Lyn, Douglas Mackinnon, Jamie Magnus Stone, Charles Palmer, Rachel Talalay, Joe Ahearne, James Strong, Jamie Childs, Saul Metzstein, Toby Haynes, Wayne Che Yip, Nick Hurran, Richard Clark, James Hawes, Daniel Nettheim, Colin Teague, Keith Boak, Azhur Saleem, Adam Smith, Andrew Gunn, Nida Manzoor, Lawrence Gough, Paul Murphy

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