The story behind Doctor Who missing episodes is almost as gripping as Doctor Who itself. Could the hunt for lost material be transformed into a TV drama?
At the time of writing, there are 97 Doctor Who missing episodes, but in reality the figure should be much higher than this. Basically, the BBC didn’t keep the original black and white tapes of its programmes; they were considered worthless and simply taking up space. Plus, videotape was expensive, and it made much more sense to wipe and reuse the material. So the only reason we have any vintage Doctor Who at all is because these programmes were film recorded and sent overseas, and some of these films have made their way back to us.
But if the BBC had had its way, none of the Doctor Who missing episodes would ever have found their way home. They sent clear instructions to all the TV stations around the world to burn the material they’d been sent, or return it to the UK so that the BBC could dispose of it themselves. The only reason anything survived is because these instructions were not always followed.
And in the 70s, this triggered a mad rush to locate and save all the Doctor Who missing episodes – a hunt that still goes on today. If someone were to produce a Doctor Who missing episodes drama, this would be the best place to start, in 1978 when lifelong Doctor Who fan and DJ Ian Levine paid a visit to the BBC’s film vault, having been given permission to buy a number of Doctor Who prints for himself.
However, what Levine discovered was that many of the episodes (like ‘The Daleks’ Master Plan‘ episode four) had already been disposed of, and stacks more were scheduled for junking. Worse, the BBC didn’t seem to care that Levine wanted to buy them; they had their orders. The films would burn.
If this were a Netflix series, this is where you’d put your cliffhanger to episode one, with the camera crash-zooming into Levine’s ashen face, his jaw hanging open in horror. But who could play Ian Levine? Well, with this being 2025, it might be appropriate to subvert everyone’s expectations and cast someone completely unexpected, like Aneurin Barnard or Gerard Butler or Phoebe Waller-Bridge. Heck, it could even be funny to cast Jo Martin (in full Fugitive Doctor regalia) just to confuse everyone.
(C) BBC
This is actually a key moment in the Doctor Who missing episodes drama, because – according to legend – this is where Ian Levine met the infamous Pamela Nash, who looked after the film library and was in charge of all the junkings. According to Levine, Nash wasn’t interested in helping him, and he feared that if he upset her, she might burn the Doctor Who films even quicker. The fate of the seven part ‘The Daleks‘ serial hung in the balance at this point, and Levine embarked on a hair-raising dash across London to find someone with enough authority to stop Pamela Nash in her tracks.
Casting-wise, you could go one of two ways with Pamela Nash: full pantomime villain, or misunderstood BBC employee. History suggests that she was most probably the latter, but that does not for a good Netflix drama make. Perhaps Archie Panjabi (the Rani) would make a good Nash in our epic Doctor Who missing episodes series. It would certainly make for a memorable moment as she and Phoebe Waller-Bridge tussle for the last-surviving Arabic copy of ‘The Dead Planet,’ whilst BBC employees encircle them shouting “fight, fight, fight!” (Nobody said it had to be historically accurate…)
(C) BBC
There are, of course, many other moments in the Doctor Who missing episodes saga that would have to feature in a TV adaptation. How about the scene where two episodes of ‘The Daleks’ Master Plan‘ are found in the basement of a Mormon church? Or the car boot sale which just so happened to be peddling ‘The Evil of the Daleks‘ part two? Or the spring clean at BBC Enterprises that unearthed four episodes of ‘The Ice Warriors’?
What’s interesting about the Doctor Who missing episodes saga is that it did become something of a cloak-and-dagger operation. Ian Levine used to deliberately ‘sit on’ Doctor Who missing episodes that he’d uncovered and keep them as bargaining tools, in case somebody wanted to trade for something more valuable.
And in later years, the level of secrecy surrounding Doctor Who missing episodes recoveries reached fever pitch, giving birth to conspiracy theories that sounded so ridiculous they just might be true. The biggest of these was the infamous Omnirumour from 2013, where it was reported that a film hunter called Philip Morris had located all 108 Doctor Who missing episodes in Africa, and was preparing them for release in time for Doctor Who‘s 50th anniversary; ‘Marco Polo,’ ‘The Enemy of the World‘ and ‘The Web of Fear‘ would soon be hitting our DVD shelves, apparently.
These reports sent the Doctor Who missing episodes rumour mill into overdrive, and very quickly it became impossible to separate fact from fiction. But, as anyone who lived through that time period will tell you, it was quite the thrill-ride. People with ‘sources’ were cropping up all over the place, and every time someone popped up to crush the so-called Omnirumour, someone else would appear to breathe life back into it.
This time period would have to take up a good chunk of the Doctor Who missing episodes drama because there are so many dimensions to it. Remarkably, there was actually some truth to rumours, and in October 2013 Philip Morris came forward to reveal that he had indeed found ‘The Enemy of the World’ and ‘The Web of Fear’ in Africa – but the third episode of ‘The Web of Fear’ had been stolen before he could lock it down. You couldn’t make it up.
And surely, the best person to play Philip Morris would be Stephen Graham from Netflix’s Adolescence. That being said, it could be fun to cast Phoebe Waller-Bridge again, just to give the VFX artists something to do. Morris could be introduced recovering a film can from a hidden Peruvian temple, pilfering it from its pedestal before being chased out of the ruin by a trundling boulder. Pamela Nash would be there, laughing maniacally as she pulled the lever that would seal Morris inside the temple for all time. Netflix, call us.
(C) Netflix
There are of course many other aspects to the Doctor Who missing episodes saga that we haven’t covered here. How could we depict the discovery of ‘The Tomb of the Cybermen‘ in Hong Kong? Or the bombing of the TV station in Sierra Leone, said to contain almost The Complete Hartnell? And who would you cast in the leading roles? Let us know in the comments below.
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