Two missing DOCTOR WHO episodes recovered

As had been hoped for a while, the BBC has announced the safe return of two previously missing episodes of Doctor Who to their archive. "The Nightmare Begins" and "Devil's Planet" are the first and third episodes of the epic Daleks' Master Plan arc, both written by Dalek creator Terry Nation and originally airing in 1965. The episodes had been missing since the BBC junked a large number of episodes to make space in their archives.

The two episodes were recovered by the Film is Fabulous charity. The episodes had been in the hands of a private collector for some years, who had recently passed away. The Doctor Who episodes are part of a larger haul of vintage film. Film is Fabulous is assessing the rest of the collection to see if there are any more rare gems.

The find is quite significant. It's the first time any missing Doctor Who episodes have been found since nine episodes were located in 2013. The gap without any missing episodes being recovered was the longest since the hunt began in 1978, leading some to fear that no more episodes would be ever be found.

The episodes are quite significant. The Daleks' Master Plan is - arguably - Doctor Who's longest single story (The Trial of a Time Lord from 1985 is two episodes longer but is also sometimes counted as four stories combined into one) and one of its most epic, pitching the First Doctor (William Hartnell) and his companions Steven Taylor (Peter Purves) and Katarina (Adrienne Hill) against the Daleks in the year 4000. Selling the story overseas was problematic due to its length, meaning only a few copies were made and none distributed abroad, making the recovery of further episodes doubtful. However, the new discovery means that five episodes from the serial now exist in the archive, including the first three in a row. The find means that fans can also see more of Katarina, previously the companion with the least-surviving number of episodes in the archive. The find is also historic because it features, in "The Nightmare Begins," the very first appearance in Who of fan-favourite actor Nicholas Courtney. Courtney is better known for playing Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, the franchise's most enduring recurring character, but in this story he plays space agent Brett Vyon.

Peter Purves, now 87, was treated to a special screening of the two episodes out of the blue and was reportedly flabbergasted by their return.

The episodes will be made available on the BBC iPlayer at Easter, and will be included when Season 3 eventually hits Blu-Ray (although that's a way off at the moment).

The Film is Fabulous initiative is pursuing several further leads which hopefully will turn up further missing episodes. This discovery drops the number of missing Doctor Who episodes to 95, all from the first six seasons of the show.