Doctor Who: Feeling the Loss of Lost Episodes

There are always those moments that are lost in history, where accounts of what occurred have faded away until no one remembers them. Doctor Who has the same issue, with the lost episodes from the early years.

Anyone who has gone back to watch episodes of classic Doctor Who will realize that there are gaps in the early seasons. These lost episodes were simply a matter of common practice at the time – the BBC would frequently destroy to delete old recordings of their shows to make way for newer recordings. Back then, the sheer volume of film stored would have been quite extensive.

While some of these lost episodes have been found over the years, there are still quite a few that are missing. Of these, there may be partial footage, or simply audio tracks remaining. Some of these episodes have been animated to regain the visuals, but it just does not feel the same.

These lost episodes, oddly enough, were primarily during Patrick Troughton’s tenure as the Doctor. Perhaps the BBC felt that William Hartnell’s performances were more valuable as the First Doctor, and therefore were mostly kept from suffering the fate of being deleted or destroyed.

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With the notice that Netflix and Hulu will no longer be streaming Doctor Who episodes (at least in the United States), including the classic run, it gives scant time for one last binge watching of these episodes. In doing so, those gaps stand out even further, knowing that, at least temporarily, there will not be a place to watch these episodes online.

While all of these episodes will not become lost, it certainly makes one think of what those missing episodes were like. Those fortunate individuals who were able to watch the them are likely few and far between now, and after many years, memories of what those episodes entailed may be fuzzy. Yet, it is certainly something interesting to contemplate what these stories were like.

Next: Steven Moffat's Flip-Flopping on Wholock

As unlikely as it may be, hopefully some of these other missing episodes will be recovered at some point. Doctor Who may never have a complete archive, but one can certainly hope those lost stories will be found someday.