All four episodes of The Macra Terror are missing from the BBC Archives. All that remains of the serial is the audio soundtrack, telesnaps and several short clips excised by the Australian Censorship Board. For the purposes of this marathon I viewed Loose Cannon’s excellent reconstructions, links for which appear below.
Episodes two and four of The Moonbaseare held in the BBC Archives and have been released on the triple DVD set, Lost inTime. Episodes one and three are missing. Loose Cannon’s magnificent reconstructions of them can be viewed at the links below.
Loose Cannon’s The Moonbase, Episode 1 part 1
Loose Cannon’s The Moonbase, Episode 1 part 2
Loose Cannon’s The Moonbase, Episode 3 part 1
Loose Cannon’s The Moonbase, Episode 3 part 2
The Moonbase was originally broadcast in the UK between 11 February and 4 March 1967. Episodes 2 and 4 are available on the triple DVD set Lost in Time
Episodes one and four of The Underwater Menace are missing from the BBC Archives. Episode three has been released on the Lost in Time DVD, whilst episode two remains unreleased. For the purposes of this marathon I watched episodes one, two and four using Loose Cannon’s reconstructions, and episode three on the Lost in Time DVD. Episode two part two of Loose Cannon’s reconstructions is presently unavailable on YouTube. In lieu I watched an animated version uploaded by doctorwhoanimator.
Loose Cannon’s The Underwater Menace, Episode 1 Part 1
Loose Cannon’s The Underwater Menace, Episode 1 Part 2
Loose Cannon’s The Underwater Menace, Episode 2 Part 1
Doctorwhoanimator’s The Underwater Menace, Episode 2 Part 2
Loose Cannon’s The Underwater Menace, Episode 4 Part 1
Loose Cannon’s The Underwater Menace, Episode 4 Part 1
The Underwater Menacewas originally broadcast in the UK between 14 January and 4 February 1967. Episode 3 is available on the triple DVD set Lost in Time
All four episodes of The Highlanders are missing from the BBC Archives. For the purposes of this marathon I viewed Loose Cannon’s reconstructions, links for which appear below.
Viewers who tuned into BBC One between 17th December 1966 and 7th January 1967 to watch Doctor Who must have really been left wondering exactly who or what the good Doctor had become. In the Power of the Daleks they saw a man with a completely different face who did his best to confound and confuse his companions by speaking in the third person. In The Highlandersthe Doctor appeared more interested in acting the clown, playing fancy dress and putting on fake accents. First he was a German physician named Doctor Von Wer, then dressed in drag as a Scottish washer woman, and finally he was a Cockney Redcoat soldier. Patrick Troughton was everything that William Hartnell wasn’t. What he didn’t appear to be playing was the Doctor.
One of the Doctor’s many disguises in The Highlanders was as a Scots washer woman
Whilst Patrick Troughton was being anything but the Doctor, Anneke Wills (Polly) and Michael Craze (Ben) were really allowed to shine. The character of Polly as been really growing on me, and I was not disappointed by her outing in The Highlanders. When the party disembark from the Tardis and discover a hot, old fashioned cannon ball, the Doctor is the first to want to leave. The Doctor who was always guaranteed to want to explore, and lead himself and his companions into trouble, was seemingly gone. Polly was dumbfounded and told him that they couldn’t leave as they looked like they were in England. When Polly added, “Doctor, you don’t want us to think you’re afraid, do you?” the Doctor’s quick retort was, “Why not?”
The companions, Polly and Ben, take prominent roles in The Highlanders
The Doctor and Ben are lucky not to be hanged
After meeting up with an injured Laird and his clansmen, Polly is dispatched with the Laird’s daughter, Kirsty, to fetch clean water to bathe the wound. Whilst the women are out Ben clumsily triggers off a gun and attracts the attention of the English redcoats, who are scouring the highlands for rebels following the Battle of Culloden (1746). Forced on the run after the men are captured, Polly has little time for the tears of her lassie companion. She calls Kirsty a peasant, berates her for always crying and storms off in a huff, only to then find herself trapped in an animal pit. Kirsty finds Polly however she promptly falls into the pit herself. Incredibly, the swinging 60’s girl is more resourceful than her 18th Century highland counterpart and is able to devise an escape plan.
Polly and Kirsty are forced to flee from the Redcoats
Upon almost being seen by the Redcoat patrol that have been sent to pursue the women, Polly pulls the commanding officer, Lt Algernon Thomas Alfred ffinch, into the pit with them. It’s here that Polly’s resourcefulness comes to the fore. Taking the officer’s ID, she playfully taunts the upper class Lieutenant with the affected surname. ffinch is spelt with two f’s and no capital so Polly promptly calls him f-finch. Well that’s when she’s not calling him Algy! Robbing ffinch of the vast sum of 20 guineas, they take a lock of his hair and his identification as bargaining tools should they be apprehended. The women have effectively blackmailed ffinch as they demand his silence for fear that he will be exposed as the victim of an assault and robbery at the hands of two women. Polly and Kirsty leave ffinch tied up in the pit as they continue their journey to Inverness where the Doctor, Ben and the highlanders have been taken as prisoners.
Polly seduces the hapless Lt ffinch
Polly, ffinch and Kirsty
Once in Inverness Polly again exhibits her shrewdness with an ingenuous plan to find the Doctor and Ben. Respectable women in 18th Century Scotland didn’t wander the streets alone, least of all enter taverns. Disguised as orange sellers, however, the women were afforded the opportunity enter the Sea Eagle Inn. Deemed to be orange wenches, or women of ill-repute, their plan quickly came to fruition when they ran into the Doctor, who was dressed in drag. Also in the tavern was the corrupt Solicitor Grey and his comic Clerk, Perkins. Grey was in command of rebel prisoners, although he was making money on the side by selling the robust highlanders into the slave trade.
Polly procures suitable clothing for her masquerade as an “orange wench”
Ben, the Laird and the highlanders had become victims of the trafficking scheme and found themselves in chains upon the ship Annabelle. The Doctor would have been in the same situation had he not ingenuously escaped earlier whilst impersonating the German physician von Wer. Following his escape from the dungeon in which the prisoners were held prior to their transfer to the ship, the Doctor had trussed up Grey and left him in a cupboard and pounded Perkins head into a table. Without fail every commentary I’ve read considers the Doctor’s “trick” with Perkins to be hilariously funny. Perhaps it’s because I’m not a man that I find the gratuitous violence uncalled for and decidedly unfunny. Ben displays his own ingenuity once onboard the Annabelle. Trussed up and dunked from the yardarm, he uses a Houdini trick to be able to free himself from his shackles and swim ashore.
The comic relief, Solicitor Grey’s Clerk named Perkins
All four episodes of The Highlanders are missing from the BBC Archives so not surprisingly a lot is lost in the translation to audio and telesnaps. The battle on board the Annabelle in which the highlanders wrest control of the ship, thanks to the weaponry provided by the Doctor, is hard to visualize. So too are the scenes in Culloden. We miss seeing the last Doctor Who historical adventure until 1982’s Black Orchard, and also Frazer Hines’ debut as Jamie McCrimmon. That being said, Jamie’s role is minor and a proper companion he does not become until the next serial, The Underwater Menace. Join me for my next review as I continue my journey through Doctor Who.
The VHS cover art for Loose Cannon’s The Highlanders reconstructions. The Highlanders was originally broadcast in the UK between 17 December 1966 and 7 January 1967
All six episodes of The Power of the Daleks are missing from the BBC Archives. For the purposes of this marathon I watched Loose Cannon’s reconstructions, links for which appear below.
Loose Cannon’s The Power of the Daleks, Episode 1 Part 1
Loose Cannon’s The Power of the Daleks, Episode 1 Part 2
Loose Cannon’s The Power of the Daleks, Episode 2 Part 1
Loose Cannon’s The Power of the Daleks, Episode 2 Part 2
Loose Cannon’s The Power of the Daleks, Episode 3 Part 1
Loose Cannon’s The Power of the Daleks, Episode 3 Part 2
Loose Cannon’s The Power of the Daleks, Episode 4 Part 1
Loose Cannon’s The Power of the Daleks, Episode 4 Part 2
Loose Cannon’s The Power of the Daleks, Episode 5 Part 1
Loose Cannon’s The Power of the Daleks, Episode 5 Part 2
Loose Cannon’s The Power of the Daleks, Episode 6 Part 1
Loose Cannon’s The Power of the Daleks, Episode 6 Part 2
“The Doctor was a great collector, wasn’t he”, the strange little man with the ill-fitting, improvised clothes said as he rummaged through the large chest. “But you’re the Doctor” exclaimed a confused Polly. “Oh, I don’t look like him” quipped the man.
So began the journey of the Second Doctor, Patrick Troughton, as he recovered from his “renewal” as though he’d been on an LSD trip. In fact, the reference to LSD comes directly from the production notes. This was 1966, of course. When Ben had told the “old Doctor” that the ordeal in the Cyberman ship was “all over” (The Tenth Planet) the Doctor had replied by saying “What did you say, my boy? It’s all over. It’s all over. That’s what you said. No, but it isn’t all over. It’s far from being all over”. The “new” Doctor had strangely chuckled “It’s over. It’s over” as he scrambled to his feet upon regenerating. Whilst the Doctor’s “renewal” may have been over, his journey to be understood by his companions was only beginning.
Upon renewal the Doctor is in a confused state, as if he’d been tripping on LSD
Quietly hostile and prone to referring to himself in the third person, the Doctor evaded answering uncomfortable questions by playing a recorder retrieved from the chest. The sceptic Ben was infuriated by the Doctor’s behaviour and didn’t believe the man before him to be the same person as the “old Doctor”. Polly, however, was more willing to believe and recalled the old Doctor’s comment to the effect that perhaps his old body was wearing a bit thin. No one had exited or entered the Tardis so surely this stranger must be the Doctor. It would take a Dalek to recognize the Doctor by sight, towards the end of episode two, for Ben to finally believe that the “new” Doctor was one of the same as the “old Doctor”.
Ben, Polly and the new Doctor with his 500 Year Diary
The Dalek’s recognition of the Doctor, and the Doctor’s visible fear of his oldest foe, was a superbly climatic scene which undoubtedly influenced Rob Shearman as he wrote Dalek, the pepper pots’ debut in Season 1 of the 2005 series. Watch the short clip from Dalek below and marvel at the Ninth Doctor’s fear when he hears the monotone voice of the Dalek say “Dock Toorrr”. The Doctor’s fear as he runs to the door is just palpable. Were The Power of the Daleks not lost and we could watch the serial in its full glory, then I suspect that the Second Doctor’s fear, as he backs into a chair as the Dalek focuses his eye stalk onto him, would be just as unmistakeable.
That The Power of the Daleks should be an influence on the writers of new series Whoshould come as no surprise. The serial is critically lauded as perhaps the best Dalek story ever and is undoubtedly held in higher regard as a consequence of its missing status. The soundtrack is smashing and the few fragment clips of the Daleks absolutely superb. You can even excuse the production team for the reasonably obvious cardboard cut-out Daleks used to swell the numbers in crowd scenes. We hear much chanting of “exterminate, annihilate, destroy” and “Daleks conquer and destroy”, whilst also seeing the construction of Daleks for the first time. Whilst proceeding down the conveyer belt their mutant insides are plonked inside and seen by viewers for the first time in their live state. The Dalek mutants seen in episode of 12 of the Daleks’ Master Plan were in a regressed form. What makes the Daleks all the more frightening is that they are initially so compliant and obliging.
The Power of the Daleks – Surviving Dalek clips
The similarity between the Series 5 episode Victory of the Daleks and The Power of the Daleks is remarkable. In both stories the Daleks originally portray themselves as servants of humans. In Power the Dalek chants “I am your servant”, whilst in Victory their incantation is “I am your soldier”. In both stories the Doctor is increasingly frustrated at everyone’s refusal to take his concerns about the Daleks seriously. Wildly cognisant of the Dalek’s evil reputation, similar fear and frustration would be instilled into the viewers as well. As Toby Hadokestated in Running Through Corridors, “… with us, the audience, more aware than most of the characters involved in this adventure just how deadly these creatures are. It’s like watching kids playing with a hand grenade, but being stuck behind soundproofed glass and unable to issue a warning”.
Victory of the Daleks Trailer
Victory of the Daleks’antecedents can be seen in The Power of the Daleks
Many of the humans in The Power of the Daleks are not particularly likeable. A rebel group within the community are planning a rebellion, however their grievances are unclear. Unlike the young double eye-browed rebels in The Space Museum whose oppression one could empathise with, even though they were the most useless revolutionaries ever portrayed on TV, these rebels are bullish and ignorant. Prepared to sacrifice anyone to achieve their ends, they make the Daleks in earlier episodes appear positively gentlemanly. Whereas the humans were unable to fathom the Cybermen’s lack of empathy in The Tenth Planet, it is in The Power of the Daleks that the monsters express the very same disbelief about the humans. A Dalek innocently asks, “Why do human beings kill human beings?”
It’s invariably the ignorance of humans, and the Rebels’ preparedness to co-opt the Daleks to their cause, which is the reason for their downfall. After using the humans to acquire the materials necessary to construct new Daleks, they have no further need for humans and destroy them. The Daleks are at their evil best and it’s a great shame that the visuals have been lost because the telesnaps make the massacre at the end look magnificent. Ultimately, however, the Doctor saves the day by destroying the Daleks. Or does he?
The Daleks are at their frightening best in The Power of the Daleks
What puzzled me was why the Daleks needed to be charged in Power of the Daleks whenever they were not on metal, yet the Daleks seen in The Chase and The Daleks’ Master Plan didn’t. Wood and Miles in About Time 2 posit cheekily that these Daleks must have been exhausted from their 200 years spent at the bottom of the mercury swamp or not fully-charged as they were fresh models straight off the production-line. One wonders how viewers can pick up these continuity discrepancies in the early years of Doctor Who, and yet the writers could not. Perhaps it was because the serial was written by David Whitaker and was the first Dalek serial in which Terry Nation had no input.
Loose Cannon’s VHS cover art for The Power of the Daleks. The Power of the Daleks was originally broadcast in the UK between 5 November and 10 December 1966
As the months countdown to Doctor Who’s 50th Anniversary on 23 November 2013, so the rumour mill concerning lost Doctor Who episodes escalates exponentially. To the best of fans’ knowledge 106 episodes remain missing from the BBC Archives, however the blog site Bleeding Cool has today reported two new rumours. One unnamed person associated with the Doctor Who production team is said to believe that there have been at least 40 episodes returned to the BBC, whilst another alleges 93. These rumours can be added to the pile which also includes claims that 90 episodes have been discovered somewhere in Africa. Dubbed the omnirumour (or omnirumor for those in America), the Africa 90 story has been circling for months and has set Who internet forums alight.
The 12 part Daleks’ Master Plan is one of the most sought after missing Doctor Who serials
Unfortunately absolutely no evidence has been forthcoming of any finds, not even one single screen capture. Hearsay is the sole testimony offered, with information only forthcoming from friends of friends. There has been talk of the BBC having compelled the signing of non disclosure agreements, delicate negotiations with film collectors and/or dictators, and all manner of other theories to justify the complete absence of evidence. The BBC has issued at least one statement denying that it has lost episodes in its possession, however the rather ambiguous nature of the statement did little to stem the flow of rumours.
The first Doctor Who regeneration (although it was not so named at the time) is among the 106 missing episodes
Having watched 11 straight missing episode reconstructions in the last several days, and with another two tomorrow before a one episode breather (episode three of The Underwater Menace), there’s not much more that I’d love than for a hoard of missing episodes to turn up. I won’t be holding my breath, however. Here’s hoping, though, that one day the hardened Doctor Who marathon viewers will be watching a lot fewer of the brilliant Loose Cannon Reconstructions.
The triple DVD Lost in Time contains many orphan Doctor Who episodes from the First and Second Doctor’s tenures
All four episodes of The Smugglersare missing from the BBC Archives. For the purposes of this marathon I viewed Loose Cannon’s reconstructions, links for which appear below.
It’s somewhat bizarre to “watch” a serial in which all four episodes have been lost but miraculously, all the violence is intact as tiny snippets of film. Such is the case with the opening story of Season 4, The Smugglers. Always to the rescue in the event of missing episodes, Loose Cannon’s reconstruction is resplendent with John Cura’s famous telesnaps, authentic photos taken during production and snippets from an amateur film of the production. Most startling, however, are five short clips courtesy of Australia’s Commonwealth Film Censorship Board. Discovered in the National Archives of Australia in October 1996 by Doctor Who fans Damian Shanahan and Ellen Parry, the clips had been excised by the Film Censorship Board and retained as evidence of the edits. At some point they had been transferred to the National Archives, presumably in accordance with government agency retention policies.
Elroy Josephs, who played the pirate Jamaica, was the first black person to have a speaking part in Doctor Who
Always broadcast during children’s television times in Australia, Classic Series Doctor Who was subject to government classification prior to airing. Segments deemed too terrifying or violent for children were routinely cut. It was for this reason that The Daleks’ Master Plan was never broadcast in Australia. Who’s most violent story to that date, the cuts required to The Dalek’s Master Plan were so extensive as to make it incomprehensible to the ordinary viewer. Thanks to Shanahan and Perry’s research, together with the Censorship Board’s hardline policy of the 1960s, a number of clips from otherwise totally lost episodes and stories have now been returned to the BBC’s archives. Perhaps the most iconic of these clips is from 1968 Second Doctor serial, Fury from the Deep. A full 54 seconds of a clip survives in which Quill and Oak suffocate Mrs Harris by breathing deadly gas from their mouths. Stayed tuned for my review of that Season 5 Serial 6 story to see the outstanding film clip.
Once of the most iconic images from the Second Doctor’s lost adventure Fury from the Deep. Almost one minute of this clip survives thanks to the Australian Film Censorship Board
A listing of The Smugglers clips recovered from Australia can be accessed from this page of Loose Cannon’s website – http://www.recons.com/clips/clips-lc30.htm Particularly valuable is Steve Phillips’ “The Doctor Who Clips List”. Here you will find photographs and a short description of all recovered snippets – http://dwclips.steve-p.org/ An interview with Damian Shanahan is included amongst the special features of Lost in Time. Linked below for your viewing pleasure are The Smugglers clips, together with extracts from the amateur video.
The Smugglers – Missing clips and amateur film
The Smugglers was William Hartnell’s last historical story, and the first Doctor Whoserial requiring the cast and crew to embark on a journey to the seaside for location shooting. Filmed at Cornwell, the serial is sure to have looked superb. Without the visuals, however, it’s somewhat difficult to state much at all about the serial. Whilst perfectly enjoyable, The Smugglersis by no means extraordinary. The story of the Doctor and his new companions arriving on a late 17th Century Cornwell beach, and finding themselves immersed in the deadly games of piracy and smuggling, is profoundly simple. The story could’ve been taken from any Boys’ Own Adventure book. Save for the Doctor, Polly and Ben arriving and departing in the Tardis, there is no science fiction in the story. Nor is it based on a real, or even mythical, historical event.
Ben and Polly take their first trip in the Tardis
As many clichés as possible were thrown into The Smugglers’ mix, such as an evil pirate captain with a hook for a hand; the drunken former pirate who becomes a drunken church warden; the local Squire who’s actually a small time crook; and the locals being insanely superstitious. For the first time ever a black actor has a speaking part, although Jamaica, the pirate crew member, is quickly dispatched by the evil Captain Pike for allowing prisoners to escape. The pirates are more interested in drinking the smugglers’ loot than retrieving it for their Captain, and most interestingly, the Doctor drinks some wine with Captain Pike. It was only in The Gunfighters that the Doctor repeatedly vowed that he was a teetotaller.
The evil pirate, Captain Pike
Ben and Polly’s first trip in the Tardis provides from some comic interludes in the serial’s first part. Unsurprisingly the new companions have difficulty accepting that the Tardis travels through time, although they are less puzzled by the Ship’s ability to transport them from London to Cornwell in a matter of minutes. Convinced that they are still in 1966, Ben and Polly immediately set off to find a train station. Ben’s principal concern is returning to his boat in time. This is despite him stating in The War Machines that he was on 6 months’ shore leave. Perhaps the Crew had been put in a state of suspended animation for six months because in The Faceless Ones, Ben and Polly’s last story, they are returned to London on the same day that they left. Needless to say, our new companions soon realize that it is not the 20th Century and quickly lose their sense of astonishment. That is, of course, until Polly is repeatedly mistaken for a “lad” because she’s wearing trousers. Even being locked up in a cell after being charged with the murder of the church warden, Ben and Polly are still decidedly calm.
Ben and Polly find appropriate clothing for 17th Century Cornwell. Because she wears trousers Polly is mistaken for a “lad”
The Doctor, who is referred to as “Saw Bones” by the sailors, admits to his new companions that he is unable to control where and when the Tardis materializes. He displays a skill for tarot reading and a strong need to assist the local villagers. When Ben seeks to quickly depart in the Tardis the Doctor advises Ben that he has a moral obligation to save the villagers from the rampaging pirates. The Doctor’s ethics have changed considerably from his first adventures with Barbara, Ian and Susan. In The Daleks he placed his Crew at risk to satisfy his desire to explore the Dalek city, and was just as quickly prepared to decamp from it without Ian and Barbara. No longer entirely egocentric, the Doctor is slowly developing into the universe saving character that we all know and love.
Captain Pike and Jamaica, just prior to the Jamaica’s murder
Our next serial, The Tenth Planet, is Hartnell’s last journey in the Tardis as the Doctor. Join me for my next review in which the Cybermen make their premiere appearance and Doctor Who’s first regeneration unfolds before our confused eyes.
Loose Cannon’s VHS cover art for The Smugglers Reconstructions. The Smugglers was originally aired in the UK between 10 September and 1 October 1966.
All four episodes of The Macra Terror are missing from the BBC Archives. All that remains of the serial is the audio soundtrack, telesnaps and several short clips excised by the Australian Censorship Board. For the purposes of this marathon I viewed Loose Cannon’s excellent reconstructions, links for which appear below.
The Doctor Who Mind Robber 