[HN Gopher] Lost Doctor Who Episodes Found
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Lost Doctor Who Episodes Found
Author : edent
Score : 183 points
Date : 2026-03-13 05:18 UTC (17 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.bbc.co.uk)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.bbc.co.uk)
| hoyd wrote:
| Perhaps the doctor meant for these to be lost and not found, or
| that the daleks was afraid of them?
| nephihaha wrote:
| I think Doctor Who was finding its feet in the Hartnell era and
| it was Troughton who really first defined the character to what
| he became later.
|
| In the Hartnell era, the Doctor was a grandfather I think,
| looked old (although Hartnell was much younger than he
| appeared, thanks to the war etc) and seems to have been human.
| beardyw wrote:
| I remember wanting to love Dr Who even before it was broadcast.
| The TARDIS was great, but the first series was disappointing.
| Like so many others, it was the first sight (and sound) of a
| Dalek which vindicated my hopes.
| mrlonglong wrote:
| We have all the voice recordings, feed that into AI along with
| the extant episodes and it should be able to regenerate (geddit?)
| the missing episodes.
| waltbosz wrote:
| Feels a bit like Jurassic Park
| BurningFrog wrote:
| The risk of the episodes going wild and kill lawyers seems
| minimal though.
| panzagl wrote:
| Risk or benefit?
| razingeden wrote:
| Then what is AI even good for? :(
| benj111 wrote:
| From a utilitarian pov yes. But that's completely missing the
| artistic point. Why shoot a film when you could just feed the
| script into an AI?
| mrlonglong wrote:
| It could recreate missing episodes using the extant episodes.
| That's something worthwhile doing until someone finds them.
| It's not creating a complete new series.
| tracker1 wrote:
| Even if it's motion comic level animation, it'd still be
| nice to see combined with the audio recordings.
| Mordisquitos wrote:
| People want to find the missing episodes because of their
| historical value as actual human artistic creations, and
| not because they want to watch a thing that looks like an
| old missing episode.
|
| There would be as much value in an "AI-recreated" missing
| episode as there would be in taking the audio of a modern
| episode and using AI to create a new video track for it.
| zamadatix wrote:
| > People want to find the missing episodes because...
|
| Speak for yourself!
| skerit wrote:
| Do we also have stills of all the episodes? Or only audio?
| TetOn wrote:
| There are production stills that are used like a slide show
| and combined with the recorded audio. Certain episodes have
| been reconstructed using animation such that the basic scene
| blocking and events are played out alongside the recorded
| audio.
| HughParry wrote:
| Somebody spent a small fortune trying this a while ago with
| disliked results
| https://nypost.com/2025/04/13/entertainment/ailing-doctor-wh...
| zamadatix wrote:
| They seem to have been pleased with the results:
|
| > "It has to be worth it for the pleasure it's brought me to
| see them," Levine said. "Doctor Who runs all night in my
| bedroom, complete, nothing missing."
| HughParry wrote:
| Ah I mean others disliked the results.
|
| Make up your own mind I suppose, I doubt you will find them
| rewarding: https://youtu.be/rQabMPpdQnk?si=Fm9Yqj7EwAjYp5np
| zamadatix wrote:
| Well heck - many don't even like the originals at all :p.
| On the contrary I found these much more enjoyable than
| the audio and stills! Of course I'd prefer more of the
| original copies be found... but for now the AI ones fill
| the gaps in my collection instead of the audio
| reconstructions.
| mapontosevenths wrote:
| They animated a lot of the missing pieces of the missing
| episode Shada with excellent results. If AI could do
| something of similar quality that would be wonderful.
| pessimizer wrote:
| I was afraid this would never happen again. Two very good
| episodes, too.
|
| I just pray that we'll get to see a few more Troughton episodes.
| He's the doctor that set the standard that all future doctors
| followed, yet the least known because the moronic BBC wiped
| basically his entire run, and now we only have about half of it.
|
| Tom Baker was "my Doctor" because he's the one who made me love
| the show when I was a kid, but Troughton (and Zoe and Jamie) are
| my favorite era.
|
| edit: Zoe and Jamie are from way back when the companions were
| expected to be _useful,_ before Sarah Jane. Zoe was better at
| math than the Doctor; imagine them doing anything like that now.
| NetMageSCW wrote:
| Companions are still useful, they just bring different skills
| to the Doctor (humanity?).
| pessimizer wrote:
| No, they're cute, neurotic, complain a lot, and fall in love
| with the Doctor (who is a Great Man with the weight of the
| universe on his shoulders.) They're all Sarah Jane.
|
| There was the one companion where both elements happened at
| the same time; the _last_ primarily useful companion, the
| _first_ companion to be in love with the Doctor: Jo Grant,
| the UNIT agent with a certificate from an "Escapeology
| course," but would look up at the Doctor with puppydog eyes.
| She had suddenly replaced Liz Shaw, the super-competent UNIT
| scientist who sometimes seemed like she could barely tolerate
| him. They made Jo Grant a rookie and a _klutz._
|
| Up to Jo Grant, the companions were _primarily_ there to do
| things, so the Doctor didn 't have to be _everything_. _Jo
| Grant_ was the one who would free them when they were tied up
| and locked in a storeroom; like how Zoe would make fun of how
| bad the Doctor was at driving the Tardis. Sarah Jane, by
| contrast, was as helpless as a fetus, constantly complaining,
| and hopelessly in love.
|
| Leela, Romana, and Adric (although Adric was constantly
| humiliated, then killed) were still left to come, and Ace
| allowed the useful companions from the original series to go
| out with a bang( _sorry_ ), but in Nu Doctor Who it was to be
| strictly Sarah Janes forever.
|
| People even thought Donna Noble was a breath of fresh air
| because even though she was useless and constantly
| complaining, at least she wasn't constantly _simpering and
| crying_ over him. The absolute nadir of this trend was when
| Martha Jones, actually a medical doctor(!), was nearly
| suicidal with lust over him and he was _just not into her at
| all._ Doesn 't like career women, I guess.
|
| _It 's not you, Martha, it's me. Now I'm off to haunt a
| little girl's bedroom and cuck the sweet, perfect boyfriend
| who would be willing to wait 2,000 years for her. Maybe you
| should look up Mickey, that other guy whose fiance I stole
| while I let him ride in the backseat. He's single; I ruined
| his girl for anyone else._
| hnlmorg wrote:
| That era of companions was a response to the eras before then
| when companions were expected to just look pretty and scream on
| cue.
| pessimizer wrote:
| No companion was like that until Sarah Jane. All companions
| were like that after the revival. It was decided by the
| person behind the revival that they would be women, never any
| more useful than Teagan, never as obviously hot as Peri but
| always cute. They would never be a threat to super Doctor and
| his magic screwdriver, or hot enough to make women angry.
|
| Just sort of a cynical calculation by somebody who thought of
| women as tasteful accessories.
| MrGinkgo wrote:
| Film cans? I thought the whole reason the series was missing was
| because it was shot on video, and then the tapes were wiped after
| shooting?
| Uvix wrote:
| Film prints were made for overseas sales.
| mikehall314 wrote:
| You're correct but as Uvix has said, BBC Enterprises made film
| copies for overseas sales before the original tapes were
| erased.
|
| The earliest episode to survive on its original videotape is
| Ambassadors of Death episode 1 from 1970. None of the original
| 60s tapes still survive, though I believe there is at least one
| tape that we know used to have Doctor Who on it but which now
| has another programme.
|
| The earliest episode to survive in its original medium is
| possibly The Dalek Invasion of Earth episode 5 (The Waking
| Ally). That's because, while this was shot on electronic studio
| cameras as usual, there were no videotape machines available to
| record.
|
| Instead the output of those cameras was telerecorded straight
| to 35mm film. AIUI the negative of that telerecording still
| exists.
| WalterBright wrote:
| > there is at least one tape that we know used to have Doctor
| Who on it but which now has another programme.
|
| Recording over another recording does not completely erase
| the other. I wonder if it could be recovered.
| mikehall314 wrote:
| It has been suggested numerous times, but the BBC didn't
| just record over the top - the tapes were erased with a
| degausser before reuse.
| WalterBright wrote:
| Oh well.
| gwbas1c wrote:
| The BBC used a kinescope much longer than the US. (A kinescope
| recorded TV to film.)
|
| The US pushed a lot harder than Europe for videotape because
| kinescopes dropped frames off of American 60i frame rates, but
| worked really well for European 50i frame rates. Thus the BBC
| continued to use kinescopes for a long time.
| throwawaymobule wrote:
| It's strange for formerly lost media to get a whole news story
| about it. This should, but still strange.
|
| Hope more are found sooner than another 13 years from now.
| zahlman wrote:
| Why should that be strange?
| nephihaha wrote:
| There are several "holy grails" in British TV history.
|
| Lost Doctor Who episodes are one of them. Dad's Army also has
| lost black and white episodes (the colour ones have been
| repeated ad nauseam all my lifetime).
|
| I can think of a few others. Scotch on the Rocks was a
| political hit piece written by Douglas Hurd showing an armed
| Scottish uprising along the lines of Northern Ireland. It was
| supposed to frighten people away from Scottish nationalism, but
| ended up causing copycat incidents. It vanished shortly after
| being broadcast probably because of its unintended effects.
|
| The ultimate would be some of the pre-WW2 television
| broadcasts. Most of these were broadcast in the London area and
| practically nowhere else. Almost no one had recording equipment
| back then and they were often broadcast live.
| ahartmetz wrote:
| I just wanted to mention at this opportunity that some
| British TV series from the late 70s, early 80s are absolutely
| brilliant and some of the best stuff I have ever watched.
| Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Smiley's People, Danger UXB,
| Sandbaggers and Sherlock Holmes are some of my favorites.
| nephihaha wrote:
| Sherlock Holmes is great. Tinker Tailor was repeated
| through my childhood, so I saw it a few too many times. I
| watched it again recently and found it slow... However the
| cast of it and Smiley's People are great. Karla is a
| notable early appearance of Patrick Stewart.
|
| There were some great period dramas at the time, if a
| little set bound (like I, Claudius)
| buredoranna wrote:
| I grew up with Jeremy Brett's Sherlock Holmes, by far, in
| my opinion, the most accurate representation of the
| stories.
|
| Only in my adult life did I read the stories, finding large
| chunks of the dialog in the TV show being word for word
| taken from the stories. And when not word for word, the
| tone and feel of the scenes so well portrayed on screen.
| UncleSlacky wrote:
| > the pre-WW2 television broadcasts. Most of these were
| broadcast in the London area and practically nowhere else.
| Almost no one had recording equipment back then and they were
| often broadcast live.
|
| The "Phonovision" recordings made by Baird (which were
| unplayable at the time) have been recovered:
|
| http://www.tvdawn.com/earliest-tv/
| m463 wrote:
| I think there's LOTS of media out there, but there doesn't seem
| to be easy ways to convert it.
|
| There was probably a renaissance period when conversion
| equipment was being actively developed and available, but that
| time is probably gone. For example I think a good film scanner
| would be the Nikon Super Coolscan 8000 ED, but current state of
| the art falls far short. For film, vcr tapes and more we should
| be doing so much better.
|
| I have old family super-8 films that are kind of convertible,
| but not the magnetic sound strip.
| schlauerfox wrote:
| If you have something precious on home movie film, this lab
| in Burbank, CA that does a lot of the movies will have
| sometimes deals on film transfers for holidays, or you can
| call them for a quote. No relationship, but I did have some
| done and they were very good. https://www.pro8mm.com/
| AussieWog93 wrote:
| Wait, what's wrong with Cintel? I've not used it myself but
| got a really good impression back when I worked at BMD a few
| years back.
| stronglikedan wrote:
| > still strange
|
| wrong doctor
| haunter wrote:
| There are a lot of known lost episodes out there that collectors
| saved from thrash. The BBC knows it, everyone knows it, but the
| collectors won't come forward because they are afraid they are
| going to be prosecuted. They basically stole property which was
| meant to be destroyed.
|
| https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/nov/11/lost-do...
| zdw wrote:
| The cost to make a digital copy from film stock has gone way
| down, to the point that fan groups [1][2] frequently encode and
| clean up old copies of film:
|
| [1]: https://www.thestarwarstrilogy.com/project-4k77/ [2]:
| https://www.youtube.com/c/kinekovideo
|
| This of course has various IP implications...
| zedlasso wrote:
| I remember when Eccleston's version came out and all the nerd
| blogs were crying cause this means these episodes were never
| gonna be released.
|
| You are so right.They are never gonna be released.
| mapontosevenths wrote:
| The original... takers of these films are dying off. It's
| well known that many episodes exist within private
| collections. The prevailing belief in the fandom is that they
| will be get released as the owners pass away. Indeed, that's
| likely where these two came from.
| hsbauauvhabzb wrote:
| I would have thought there would be parties willing to
| anonymously rip and upload any such materials?
| why_at wrote:
| I don't really understand, it seems like if this was the main
| thing preventing people from returning them there would be ways
| around it. Couldn't they return them anonymously or upload them
| to the internet or something?
| glouwbug wrote:
| I mean, at that point you're distributing piracy, no?
| RealityVoid wrote:
| Arrrr! Aye aye maitey'tis a heavy toll, but the prize be
| worth the parley
| mapontosevenths wrote:
| "My flabber has never been so gasted." - Pete Purves
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