| Missing Episode Found |
 The BBC have announced that the
second missing episode of the 12 part William
Hartnell, and Dalek epic, "The Daleks Masterplan" has been
found and returned to the BBC Archives.
This episode, titled
"Day of Armageddon", that was originally broadcast in 1965,
joins previously recovered episodes 5, "Counterplot", and the
tenth "Escape Switch".
The
return of this episode is especially welcome as it contains
extensive Dalek footage including their famous burning the jungles
of Kembel with their 'pyroflames', the only existing episode
to feature Adrienne Hill as the Greek handmaiden Katarina.
It also contains the earliest existing Doctor Who appearance
of Nicholas
Courtney, here playing Space Security agent Bret Vyon. "Day
of Armageddon" is also the earliest existing episode from season
3, bring the total number of episodes held from this season
to 16 out of the 45 originally made. It also brings the total
number of missing
episodes down to 108.
According to the BBC
this episode was returned to the BBC archives by Francis Watson,
the Head of Engineering for Yorkshire Television, who had worked
for the BBC as an engineer in the early 1970's. During this
time he had been given the task of clearing out a room full
of junk at the BBC's Television Film Archives at Ealing. It
is here that he found two 16mm film cans marked 'Doctor Who'
and rather than throwing them away he took them home instead.
Thankfully for all Doctor Who
fans one of these cans contained a missing episode which is
now in the hands of the Doctor Who Restoration Team who have
described it as being in very good condition.
As to a possible release in the
future we will have to wait and see. As the VHS video releases
have been completed the most likely release would be with a
First
Doctor Dalek story on DVD. |
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