I honestly think that some of the best Who stories were from the Troughton era and sadly most of them are lost. The B&W episodes seemed to have a freshness (although some were dull and slow) that sets them apart from later seasons.

There are some classics throughout the whole of old Who but I reckon once you hit the eighties most of the episodes are just ok with only a few truly great ones. The earlier days just seemed a bit fresher.

There's something really special about some of the B&W stories. Hartnell and Troughton give outstanding performances, and may be the best actors ever to play the Doctor.

I am listening to some of the mising story soundtracks at the moment: The Daleks' Masterplan is gobsmacking. Doesn't drag at all over twelve episodes. Not a wasted moment (apart from a couple of scenes in the Christmas episode which don't translate to "audio" at all well).

How well do episodes translate onto audio? Are there not a lot of scenes where there isn't much dialogue and you don't know what's happening?

Or have they added some narration to help?

The narration is very good on the few I have listened to, and it's only very, very rare that I get a bit lost about what's happening.

My only reservation with The Dalek Masterplan is that chunks of the Christmas episode are structured as a pastiche of a silent movie: lots of Keystone Kops action with captions on screen. That does not translate well to audio, even with Peter Purves doing a sterling job of narration. Sequences such as Katarina's death are gobsmacking.

Stories like The Faceless Ones are given a totally new lease of life on CD. I would never have bothered to watch the two surviving episodes (eps 1 and 3 if memory serves) more than once, as they are so isolated from the story that almost have no meaning. However, being able to fill in the gaps with the soundtrack/narration combo is a real Godsend.

There are whole chunks of DW we will never get to see ... and it's all accessible on CD.

I've listened to a few so far which have surviving episodes (Masterplan, Faceless Ones, Moonbase, Toymaker), and have been able to piece together the story from DVD and CD. Wonderful stuff. I thought Toymaker was crap, frankly, but most of the rest have been bliss.

Marco Polo, The Highlanders, The Massacre ... we'll never see any of those stories, but they are all worth a listen. (I thought The Highlanders was summat-and-nowt, but The Massacre is really powerful).

Treat yourself!

Thanks but no thanks. I am going to wait, as I’m sure that eventually all the missing episodes will be animated. In this instance I like to think of the glass as half full

They cut the word "n*****" out of the audio of episode 2 of Toymaker. Weird to think that was fine in the '60s.

Repeating what many others have said here, but I agree that The Invasion and Tomb of the Cybermen are both pretty special. Troughton was awesome as the Doctor.

Cosgrove's work on the mising Invasion eps was staggeringly good. So much so I almost wished the others were animated too.

Animation would also be perfect for papering over any cracks when the budget on a story couldn't quite stretch to meet a serial's ambitions.

I for one also wouldn't mind if they had to take a few liberties with the originals in stories where not enough is known about the way a scene played out (a full TV version of a lost story is better than linked narration).

With The Invasion I think they said their only main liberty was showing the Cyber ship shortly after the attack on the TARDIS... when it actually didn't appear until much later in the live-action version.

But when you see the trailer they produced of a wind and rain swept alternative take for the iconic St Paul's shot you realise what can be done (not that I would change that particular moment, but it did give me goose-bumps when I saw what was possible).

I really hope they can raise the funds to do another soon - preferably one of the stories which has been completely erased.

Having recently listened to the audio of te Gunfighters knowing that all the episodes are available I am looking forward to that release.
Keys Of Marinus is out later this year (September) and the other 2 Hartnell stories that can be released in full that I am looking forward to are The Chase and The Ark

As for Troughton now that teh War Games is out in the next few weeks only the Krotons and the Dominators are left. Neither of which generally scores highhly amongst fans.

Personally i would love to see the animation fillers on stories that are are short of 3 or fewer episodes. I'm sure worldwide sales could justify this outlay.

Loose Cannon Productions have been doing an excellent job with their VHS reconstructions of the missing episodes. I am halfway through watching their recon of The Daleks' Masterplan (supplemented with the three existing episodes on Lost in Time) and it's quite absorbing.

And no need to whinge about its being VHS since you can always burn it onto a DVD yourself.

I've reviewed The War Games 3 disc set, you can read it here:

http://www.denofgeek.com/Reviews/277...vd_review.html

brilliant stuff.

Great review! I saw 'The War Games' when I was about 9 years old, and didn't quite take it all in. I then borrowed the VHS box set off a friend about 15 years ago! Never got chance to appreciate it properly.
So, I'll be DEFINITELY getting the DVD of it!!
Pat Troughton is my second favourite (after DT!).

thanks so much.

it's a brilliant set, worth it for the extras alone!