More 'lost' Doctor Who episodes will be found soon, expert predicts

Several more lost episodes of 1960s Doctor Who are probably owned by private collectors and will turn up at some point, an expert has revealed. At present, 97 shows starring the first two Time Lords, William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton, are missing from the BBC archives.

The master tapes were believed to have been destroyed in the 1970s when it was thought no one would want to watch the black and white episodes again. But the BBC's first archive selector, Sue Malden, said she believes some copies still exist and has made a plea for their return.

Speaking at the Recovered festival in Leicester, hosted by archive recovery project Film is Fabulous!, she added: "As far as Doctor Who goes, we do not have a statement or anything to make at the moment. We do know fairly certainly that there are episodes missing in private collections. Some members of the Film is Fabulous! team are in a considerably significant position to help on that.

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"So, when the time is right, we really do hope that it will be Film is Fabulous! that manages to return at least one or two, I don't know, of the missing episodes of Doctor Who to the BBC."

Only eight episodes of the show were ever repeated during the 1960s, with copies being made for sales overseas. A source said: "There's a lot of grounds for optimism that some episodes could be returned before too long. The films will be donated to De Montfort University in Leicester, and carefully restored."

Lost episodes were as earlier returned by collectors Francis Watson, Terry Burnett and Bruce Grenville. Since the early 1980s, a trickle of copies have been sent back to the BBC, with a batch of nine shows starring Troughton being recovered in 2013 after being found in Nigeria. The most likely stories to turn up are:

1 The Tenth Planet, episode 4, October 29, 1966 Final Hartnell show where he defeated the Cybermen for the first time.

2 The Daleks' Master Plan, episode 4, December 4, 1965 The Daleks' Master Plan serial was never shown outside the UK but three episodes of this 12-part epic survive.

3 Marco Polo (broadcast from 22 February - March 4, 1964) Many copies of this were sold around the world.

4 The Web of Fear, episode 3 (broadcast February 17, 1968) Featuring Troughton battling the Yeti on the London Underground, other episodes were returned in 2013.

5 The Macra Terror (broadcast from March 11 - April 1, 1967) Introduced the first set of opening titles to feature Troughton's face. Doctor and friends encounter a race of giant alien crabs.

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