The CEO of the television archive group Kaleidoscope believes missing Doctor Who episodes still exist and can be recovered in the future. Into the 1970s, the BBC had no official policy for archiving programme content, and as such, many stories within Doctor Who’s classic era (the majority of William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton’s back catalog) remain incomplete or lost forever.
Out of 253 episodes of Doctor Who ever produced, dating back to 1963, 97 remain undiscovered. With every year that passes, and the pain-staking hard work of companies such as Kaleidoscope, programmes once thought lost are being returned to their rightful home. However, finding them is half the challenge. Returning them to the archives from the hands of collectors is another.
“We know where there is missing Doctor Who out there but the owners won’t return it at the moment,” Chris Perry, the CEO of Kaleidoscope, revealed to The Radio Times. “Every year we find 50-70 lost programmes, some famous titles and internationally known names and others not, but significant examples of regional television output, for example.”
Kaleidoscope was formed in 1987, working in partnership with the BFI since 1995 on the Missing Believed Wiped scheme to locate, restore and bring British television programmes back to the archives.
Doctor Who is available to stream via the BBC iPlayer, with classic episodes available on Britbox. What episodes from the classic series would you like to see bought back, and what are you most excited to see from the future of the series? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
