h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

hi ive just heard that an old episode of dr who has been found featuring William Hartnell it features the daleks http://www.bbc.co.uk/entertainment

Star Fleet

It really is one of the best finds they could make. 'Day of Armageddon', or 'Daleks' Masterplan part 2', gives us our earliest sight of Nicholas Courtney in Doctor WHo (as Bret Vyon rather than the Brigadier), provides our only footage of the companion Katarina (previously, the only surviving clip showed just her arm), and most exciting of all shows us what the alien delegates looked lke (some of whom had previously only existed on blurry photos).

With Douglas Camfield's superb direction and the fact that it's where that story really kicks in, when it's finally released to the public I'd doubt it'll disappoint many fans. And of course it also gives us added hope that there's more out there, something I'd really given up on.

its great news i hope they can find some more episodes, how much has been lost ??

108 episodes are completely missing, plus some colour episodes only exist in b&w. The good news is that the soundtracks exist for all of the missing stories, so we can at least hear them, and the BBC Radio Collection has been releasing a lot of these on CD over the last few years.

Which reminds me - update the Missing Episodes of Doctor Who entry...

108 i didnt think it was as many as that do you know if this episode will be seen on tv or will it just be dvd

I'm not so sure about a TV airing unfortunately, but I'd imagine a VHS or DVD release will now be likely, just like they did for 'The Lion' in 1999.

Ho ho - well over ten years ago a friend of mine wrote one of those sarcastic fanzine 'news' stories about how the Beeb was planning to release individual episodes on video at ten quid a pop. What price satire these days, eh?

Having said that, what are they going to do? Release episodes two and ten of Masterplan with special linking reconstructions using the Blue Peter puppet theatre? Hmm.

This is of course good news, even if I'd personally have been more interested in seeing (for example) a bit of Marco Polo or either Troughton Dalek story turn up. (At one point it seemed like everyone knew a friend of a friend who had a missing Masterplan episode, so I suppose it's nice to learn at least some of us might have been right...)

Ooh, cynical

There are actually a few options open to them. They could release episodes two, five and ten along with all the existing clips (such as the one from episode one where Brian Cant encounters a Dalek, and the one from part four where Katarina encounters a criminal). There are also a number of photos from the final episode, which could be used in a montage to explain how the story ends. There are also loads of clips from the Power of the Daleks and episode two of Evil of the Daleks (plus model footage from part 7 of that story). All that footage could be compiled into a reworking of the old Dalek Years tape they did in the early 1990s.

More preferable though would be if they did The Chase on DVD, with all that material on a bonus disc.

If I were to compile a wishlist, Masterplan would actually feature quite highly simply because I think it's a really enjoyable story. But my top stories would all be Troughtons. Having seen some of the fan reconstructions, I would love pretty much any episodes from season four. Macra Terror is a really good romp and the two dalek stories show the monsters at their absolute Machiavellian best. Fury from the Deep and The Web of Fear would figure highly too (part one of Web of Fear is, in my humble opinon, one of the all-time best story-openers ever).

Hmm, I thought they had episode five as well, but I could've sworn the missing episode page still had listed as MIA. Oh well.

I'm listening to the two Troughton Dalek stories on audio at the moment and they really are outstanding, aren't they? I was lucky enough to see Evil 2 back in '88 and I remember it stood up very well.

And I don't know, I have a certain fondness for the Hartnell Doctor, particular the 'original' crew, so obviously I'd like to see Marco Polo - especially since it's a Lucarotti story, whose The Aztecs is my favourite from that period of the series.

Well, put it this way, *I*'ve got episode five

I actually updated the missing episodes page yesterday to take the new find into account, but episode five was listed as found (or rather wasn't listed as missing).

I agree about Troughton, personally he's my favorite Doctor. The Highlanders is the one I wish could show up, Jamie was my second favorite companion. Also the thoughts of the Doctor in drag seems interesting, not to forget Pertwee during The Green Death of course.
But I'd be happy with ANY of his missing episodes to turn up. It's sad when you can't even see a full season of your favorite.

The audio-only release of some of Troughton's stories almost make up for them, and Highlanders was one I only heard recently. Superb story, very tight with a fair old bit of action for all the regulars.

Some fans have put together 'reconstructions' on VHS where they use the telesnaps (as seeen on the BBC Cult site) and have married them to the audio tracks together with any existing footage or publicity stills (in a similar way to the reconstructions on the BBC tapes of The Tenth Planet, Reign of terror and The Ice Warriors). The Macra Terror always gets a very poor write-up, but in recon form it's really exciting. I'd always loved Web of Fear, and the surviving episode is, in my humble etc, the best 'first episode' of any story. But seeing the recon with the pictures (and now with the surviving clips) makes it even mo shame that the episodes don't exist. The biggest surprie for me was Fury from the Deep. It really doens't work on audio, but is superb in recon format. Really, *really* scary.