The story used to be that the last time anyone saw 'The Daleks' Master Plan' part four and 'The Tenth Planet' part four was when they were loaned to the Blue Peter Production office. They were signed for by someone called 'J. Smith' and never seen again... However, the 'Tenth Planet' episode never seems to have been held by the archives in the first place.

Serves Blue Peter editor Justin Smith right for having such a conspiracy theory friendly initial, I suppose.

Stories of their survival and availability on the Black Market have circulated ever since, although I find this rather unlikely - pretty much any Doctor Who fan that got hold of it would want people to know, at least, even if it was only so they could say 'Hey! HEY! LOOK WHAT I'VE GOT!'

What I suspect happened was that they ended up somewhere else other than the BBC Archives where they were supposed to return to - Enterprises or somewhere (where single episodes like this would almost certainly have been thrown away). Or maybe they just fell down the back of a filing cabinet in the Blue Peter offices and are still there gathering dust, or just put into the wrong cans and stuck into a cupboard like the four surviving episodes of 'The Ice Warriors'.

Of course, all seven film cans of 'Marco Polo' itself turned up in New Zealand in the 1990's - they didn't have the actual films in them, though.

The Keys of Marinus is much better than its reputation, isn't it?! I was quite pleasantly surprised when I watched the DVD recently. I normally can't be doing with Terry Nation stories, but the changing location of Marinus kept the story trotting along.

It's clearly pushing the BBC's production abilities right to the edge though! All those scene shifters that can be spotted in the background, all those fluffed lines, the Voord who trips over his flippers ... the whole thing makes Dr Who seem more "live" than it ever has done before or since.

Animating the two missing bits of The Invasion was an experiment, and turned out not to be financially viable.

There are LOADS of clips still extant from otherwise missing episodes. They were either used as clips in other programmes (Blue Peter, documentaries about the Radiophonic Workshop, news progs, etc etc); were trimmed out by foreign TV censors as unsuitable for broadcast, and retained while the episodes they were trimmed from were eventually destroyed; or were recorded live using home movie cameras straight off the TV screen by viewers at the time. Ingenious.

The first regeneration clip still exists because it was used in Blue Peter and that episode of Blue Peter still exists. The Tenth Planet is available on VHS, with the final episode "reconstructed" with clips, photos, soundtrack and narration. I would imagine something similar would happen on DVD sooner or later.

As for the Doctor altering time ... this "fixed point in time" stuff is a new series invention and was never mentioned in the olden days. If the Doctor isn't meant to interfere in other planets, why does he keep fending off alien invasions? Surely that is altering Earth history? Really, this just underlines why time travel is impossible, and thinking about it too closely ties you up in knots.

DW stories that deal with time travel (Fathers Day is the obvious one, but there are all kinds of other examples right back as far as The Aztecs) shouldn't be thought about too closely. For example: if the Reapers pinged into existence in order to deal with time falling apart after Pete Tyler survived his own death ... where were they in Waters of Mars? Or End of Time? (etc etc etc)

Exploring the missing stories really does open up a whole new world. Marco Polo is a great example.

I'm glad there is support here for The Keys of Marinus as I thought I was going to be out on my own with that one.
That is what's so great about it though, the fluffed lines and the little slip ups, I find myself sitting there going, oops there goes another one, but it only makes me smile.
It is confusing and there doesn't seem to be any logic to it all. I decided yesterday just to take it as it comes, as I'm easily confused anyway.
It's a shame Marco Polo is missing as I found it really enjoyable. Imagine if you had the moving pictures to go with the sound instead of the stills, bet it would be a classic.

It was very refreshing to see KoM after all these years. I hadn't seen it since it first came out on video, and I hated it. It's got me reassessing the early stuff. I watched the first story at the weekend: it's a cracker.



That's part of the joy of early DW. Seeing the terror on the actor's face when the line gets fluffed, or spotting a camera being swiftly pulled out of sight in a jungle ... it feels so raw and actual and LIVE. KoM is such a big, spectacular, long, complex story that it shows up these tehnical limitations, but that's in no way a bad thing. Except, perhaps, in the final episode, where Sabetha is being marched along by a Voord, and is discretely holding its hand so that it knows where it's going. As soon as she lets go of the hand, it trips over its flippers.

DW was meant to be watched on little poky B&W 405 line tellies that needed to warm up first .. not watched on whacking great LCD plasma screens. No wonder all these glitches show up so obviously.



That's the way to do it. you could try to knit together the whole of DW continuity into one story that has all the llose ends tied up and the inconsistencies explained away ... that way madness lies ...



Yep. So many of the missing stories are absolute beauties, but nobody knows anything about them cos no-one's seen then since 1965. The Savages: what an excellent piece of work. Marco Polo: I am sure it would look spectacular, but we'll never know.

Just got round to finishing watching The Aztecs. It was really quite an enjoyable story. Think all parties really held their own in this story, (except Susan wasn't in it much, which I don't mind as I really find her hard to tolerate as a companion)

"Iyan" was great as the warrior type and his little squirmishes with Itax were good to see, especially to show that cunning and thought can overcome muscle.

Barbara held great authority when trying to convince she was the Goddess Yetaxa and I quite inspired by her dominant attitude.

But the Doctor was just great, his expression when he learnt that he'd just proposed marriage was priceless.
I like that he is warming up now and not such the dour, grumps he initially seemed to be. Really coming across as more approachable.

The Sensorites next, but I see it's not out on DVD yet. I shall have to see if I can find a video copy or something.

Barbara is my all time favourite companion, and she's at her very best in The Aztecs. Susan and the "Perfect Victim" make a fascinating pairing, too. I don't mind Susan, but she is certainly less dynamic than some other companions!

The Sensorites is a bit old fashioned, slow and rubbishy. That said, i thought the same about Keys of Marinus til i rewatched it recently. The Sensorites has some quite interesting bits where

The Doctor does warm up as the series goes along. It's interesting to see the gradual development in his character, which is most obvious in the first three stories. When Susan leaves, the Doctor's emotion is quite clear, and totally different from his earliest appearances.

Well, the telesnaps still exist-DWM published them all over a period of several years, including Marco Polo IIRC. And then there are the Loose Cannon recons. A lot of this stuff is out there, just not in the form of actual television recordings.

I really do like Barbara and Ian they really do make great companions. Would love to see how they would have been in a current episode of the series. Still that was not to be

Hmm will be interesting to see The Sensorites then, would also love to know if you change your view now as you did with Keys. There are bound to be some in there I don't like but I've not come across them yet.


Yes it was thanks to Loose Cannon that I got to see Marco Polo. We are so lucky to have such dedicated people out there.

I've no idea how to get hold of the Loose Cannon thingummies.

The telesnaps (good old John Cura) and publicity photos are all very nice, but they don't really tell the story on their ownsome.

I know that the cost of the animation for The Invasion resulted in a loss, but these techniques will/are getting cheaper. When the complete stories are finally released, I can see the remaining stories will be animated. After all Doctor Who is a cash cow.

Just started on The Sensorites. Really liking the first episode, lots of tension which was good.

Quick question, The Sensorites on the Sense-Sphere. I'm sure I've heard of this in connection with the Ood-Sphere. Is there a connection or am I making it up? Also with the telepathy effect of the Sensorites I thought it might have a connection to the Ood.

Mind you I haven't seen the Sensorites yet, just a odd looking face in a window!

The Sense Sphere is a neighbouring planet to the Ood Sphere. The Doctor confirms this in Planet of the Ood.

Thank you. So pleased to know I'm not going mad.

I think that's a really cute little continuity link. When the new series reaches right back through the decades to long-forgotten B&W stuff, it makes my fan gland tingle (oo-er missus).

Same as when the Macra appeared. How wonderful that we get to see the Macra again, after all those decades!

You are mistaken, Chuffnobbler. There's no such thing as Macra! NO SUCH THING AS MACRA!

Carry on.

I've not seen the original Macra yet. Looking forward to coming across them at some point.

You can hear them, as the soundtrack has been released on CD. As for seeing them, though, you're out of luck-since thanks to the BBC's mass wiping of episodes in the 70s, it's now literally true that 'there are no such things as Macra'.

nudge - can't see tingramretro's post.

Oh crap! Are there no photos at all?

The Macra Terror is gone. One of three or four Trouyghton's that are totally lost.

There are a couple of clips on the Lost In Time DVD, and a few photos. It's one of the most "forgotten" of the missing stories. The Macra look very cumbersome and unconvincing in the photos and clips.

The soundtrack is great fun, though.

Yeah, why does that keep happening?

Oh well, looks like that ones bitten the dust then.


I don't know, but it's really annoying.

There's a couple of efforts already on You Tube

I quite like this one because it's in B&W.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-WHF...eature=related

In 1992 they actually thought they had recovered Tenth Planet 4 and recorded intro's with Michael Craze (Ben) for the video release. (You can get them from certain download sites).

However it was not to be and the Man who offered the BBC the video is now infamous in the story of the recovery of Dr Who Episodes.

Loose Cannon are at www.recons.com . VHS only but they're free apart from postage and you must supply the blanks.