The famous British series Doctor Who has been a mainstay of science fiction since the 1960s. The franchise spans 26 seasons in its original incarnation and thirteen in the present series, as well as a host of other media including film, books, audio dramas, and more. However, a significant chunk of the show's early material has been lost, possibly forever.
During the late 60s and early 70s, the BBC regularly deleted content from its archives. This was done for a variety of practical reasons: sometimes, there was a lack of space to store the footage; other times, the BBC no longer had the rights to broadcast given material. As a result of this practice, dozens of episodes of the classic series were deleted, and 97 are still considered lost to this day. Deleting content in this manner wasn't uncommon among broadcasters at the time, and Doctor Who was far from the only affected program. Yet, because of its enduring relevance and popularity today, there is much more interest in recovering lost episodes than exists for other, forgotten programs.
Most of the missing Doctor Who content is from seasons 3 – 5, the eras of the First and Second Doctors (played by William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton, respectively). Several Third Doctor (John Pertwee) stories were once thought lost as well, but have since been recovered. During the 60s and 70s, narratives on Doctor Who were contained within serials, which ran over the course of four to six half-hour episodes. The deletion of content rendered several of these serials incomplete. Some are lost entirely, while others have only been partially deleted, leaving those who watch them today on a permanent cliffhanger.
During the time from which content is missing, the show was quite different from the Doctor Who that most viewers know today. It was low-budget and often campy — but even now, it's easy to see why the show was influential. Even though it was primarily a children's show in its early years, especially during the First Doctor's era, it still posed questions about the universe, technology, and human nature. It created engaging characters both human and alien, and crafted stories that paralleled real-world issues like the Cold War. It was well-written science fiction, brought to the relatively new medium of television. These reasons are why TV historians and fans of the show lament the loss of these episodes — they're relics of sci-fi television's formative years, pieces of pop culture history that have been erased.
However, not all hope is lost for those who wish to experience Classic Who in its entirety. Many episodes that were once thought lost have been recovered, mainly from overseas broadcasters who had kept the episodes in their own archives even after the BBC had deleted the data. One example is "The War Machines," the final serial of Season 3. Though a few lines of dialogue are still missing, the serial has been pieced together by collectors from Australia and Nigeria. Some of the soundtrack was missing, but since this was recorded off-air, it was restored. Thanks to the efforts of these fans and collectors, "The War Machines" has been released for various home media over the past few years, allowing fans to experience a story once thought lost.
Knowing this, it is entirely possible that more lost content will resurface over the years. And even for episodes that have not been recovered in their entirety, there are possibilities for reconstruction. Many episodes have been recreated through animation; for example, the third episode of the Second Doctor story "The Web Of Fear." Most of the episodes from this serial were recovered from collectors and overseas distributors; the third remained missing. Since the audio survived, however, the episode was animated and released alongside the other recovered episodes as a special edition in 2021.
Considering how recently "The Web Of Fear" was reconstructed and released, it's not too much of a stretch to speculate that other lost episodes may meet the same treatment in the near future — especially with a fan base as vast and dedicated as Doctor Who has. "The Web Of Fear" was hardly the only serial to get this treatment, after all. Starting with the Second Doctor serial "The Invasion" in 2006, 44 episodes have since been recreated by animating over their audio. Though these animated episodes are still officially considered "lost" as no video footage has been recovered, the reconstructions have allowed fans to experience thirteen previously incomplete serials in full.
It's impossible to know whether all the lost Doctor Who episodes will ever be fully recovered or reconstructed, but thanks to efforts from fans and the show's creators, there's hope for the lost content. Still, it's possible that a few of the First and Second Doctors' adventures are destined to remain a mystery. For fans of the classic series, it's a shame — but after all, the Doctor has always kept a few secrets to himself.