I've just looked online to find out which Doctor Who story was being broadcast exactly fifty years ago, and it was The Daleks Master Plan.

Cannot believe it's been fifty years since this was first shown.

This is the longest DW story ever, covering 12 episodes over 12 weeks, between 13th November 1965 and 29th January 1966.

Shame then, that episodes 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11 and 12 are missing, with only episodes 2, 5 and 10 held in the archives by the BBC.

It's also the 40th anniversary of The Android Invasion with Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen, too!

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You are forgetting that 52 years ago today it all started with "An Unearthly Child".

Very good happy 52nd Birthday Doctor Who.

It would be a fun idea for modern Who to try and remake one of the missing stories such as this, using the existing episodes, memories of casts/writers as a basis and then filling in the rest, adapting for canon changes since the originals.

The absence of the episodes would justify the remake, and it would be a nice way to pay tribute to stories that are lost.

Well there will be loads of 50th anniversaries now for every episode going forward won't there?

There are 3 wonderful ways of enjoying this classic. The 2 part novelisation by john peel. The cd version narrated by peter purves and best of all the loose cannon version which when watched with the 3 existing episodes really brings the story to life. You wouldn't know that no telesnaps exist for these episodes with moving daleks and the bit in episode 8 where the tardis lands on the pitch during an ashes test match which cleverly combines actual cricket footage, cgi and filming of a cricketer looking puzzled at the tardis.

I think the 2-Part Novel of this story are the best ones every written on the Series. The most engrossing read I've ever had!

The audio was good but the telesnaps represent the best interpretation of the story.

By the way, and I know it depends on your point of view, I always think Trial Of A Time Lord is the longest Who Story.

'The longest undisputed serial in the show's history' is how you normally see Dalek's Masterplan referenced, acknowledging 'Trial of a Timelord' :P

I tend to treat 'Mission to the Unknown' as the unofficial prologue to the serial too.

The Trial of a Timelord isn't really the longest, because it has four separate storylines, The Mysterious Planet, Mindwarp, Terror of The Vervoids and The Ultimate Foe.

This is why it's a contentious issue!

If you're saying the longest continuing unbroken storyline, then yes, it would be The Daleks Masterplan.

However, despite the fact Trial Of A Time Lord had four separate stories, it went out under one single story title so I would say it is the longest. Plus those four stories were connected.

Except Part 7 is a Christmas "romp" which has little to do with the ongoing story.


I could understand your disbelief if you were around to see it. But why is it so shocking to you that a story made in 1965 (and remains mostly missing since the 1970s junkings) is 50 years old?