Doctor Who and the Missing Episodes. Lost and Found and Restored

Databank Entry
Doctor Who and the Missing Episodes. Lost and Found and Restored
Transmission ID: PJ-881466

Stam Fine

Stam Fine Reviews nothing, but instead looks at why there are same gaps in the BBC’s archive holdings of Doctor Who. After nearly 50 years of searching, there are still many episodes from the 1960s completely missing. We look at why, how and when, why things turned around and the search to recover those missing bits of history.

There nearly 100 missing episodes, all from the William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton eras from the 1960s, though many of colour Episodes of Jon Pertwee’s era have also been affected. We’ll also look at how these have now been restored.

0:00 Introduction
0:42 Missing Doctor Who
4:05 Ephemeral Entertainment and Recording
6:35 How an episode of Doctor Who made it to a Videotape Master
11:20 How the episodes then went missing
14:13 The Pivot
19:40 The Recovery Begins
25:15 Reconstructing, Animating, and a Blind Alley
27:31 Finding Clips, Inserts, Bits and Bobs, Better Copies, Full Episodes
31:49 Colour
34:12 The Numbers, The Frame Rates, The Resolutions, The Bells, Esmeralda!
38:12 Bringing back the 70s in Full Colour!
43:00 Summary

Stam Fine


Stam Reviews Movie and TV. Classic and No So Classic with an emphasis on Genre fare. Lots of Sci Fi, Adventure, Action, Comedy.

Also, not entirely serious. Seriously. Not Entirely Serious.

Transmission ID: #881466
Entry Number: DB-881466
Date: July 17, 2026
Word Count: 202 words
Reading Time: 2 min