Doctor Who lost episodes: Is The Evil of the Daleks coming to DVD?

News about some Doctor Who lost episodes is reaching us from a high profile source. And by that we mean The Mirror.

Now before you get excited, we’re talking about animated versions. (Okay, you can get a little bit excited.) According to The Mirror, the next Doctor Who lost episodes to get the animation treatment will be ‘The Evil of the Daleks‘ and ‘The Abominable Snowmen’ – two classic adventures from 1967, starring the Second Doctor Patrick Troughton.

If true, this would continue the trend started in 2016 when the BBC recreated all six episodes of ‘The Power of the Daleks‘ for DVD and Blu-ray, followed by ‘The Macra Terror’ and ‘The Faceless Ones.’ The next official release is ‘Fury From the Deep,’ which is due to hit shelves in September. Of course, these are all Second Doctor adventures, and there’s been no word as yet about any William Hartnell recreations.

‘The Evil of the Daleks’ would certainly be a popular choice for animation. It’s Patrick Troughton’s final encounter with the dreaded mutants from Skaro and it’s also the first to feature the character of Victoria Waterfield (played by Deborah Watling) who joins the TARDIS crew at the end of the story. It is also one of the few adventures to feature the mammoth Dalek Emperor, whose only other TV appearance is in 2005’s ‘The Parting of the Ways,’ albeit in redesigned form.

‘The Abominable Snowmen’ is also one of the more exciting Doctor Who lost episodes. Although its second episode resides in the BBC archives, its remaining five have been consigned to a furnace / scrap yard / cave dweller’s secret film collection. Its eponymous monsters – the vicious Yeti – proved to be so popular that they returned later in the season in ‘The Web of Fear’ – another story that was thought to be missing until its discovery in Africa in 2013.

Obviously, this is all speculation from a tabloid newspaper, but there has been a real effort in recent years to recreate many popular Doctor Who lost episodes, and if obscurities such as ‘The Faceless Ones‘ can come out on DVD, there’s certainly hope for the likes of ‘The Evil of the Daleks,’ which would probably sell out on launch day.

But until anything’s confirmed, we’ll just have to wait and see.

In the meantime, which of the Doctor Who lost episodes would you most like to see on DVD? Are you excited at the prospect of ‘The Evil of the Daleks‘ and ‘The Abominable Snowmen’ getting the animation treatment? Let me know in the comments below.

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Purchase ‘The Power of the Daleks’ on Amazon…

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