There are some big gaps in early episodes of Doctor Who. The BBC years ago purged tapes and other recordings from the 1960’s from the Who archives to free up shelf space. For years, a worldwide hunt has been underway to recover these so-called lost episodes.
Crave’s ComingSoon.net Friday reported on a BBC announcement Thursday about 11 episodes, including 9 not seen since the 60s, newly found at a television station in Nigeria, Africa. The nine “lost episodes” are both from the run of the Second Doctor, Patrick Troughton. Five of the tapes are from the six-episode The Enemy of the World story from December 1967. The other four episodes are from the 1968 story The Web of Fear.
The BBC has remastered these episodes and released them to the world on iTunes. There are still 27 Doctor Who stories that are missing altogether or have incomplete episodes. The BBC will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first Doctor Who episode November 23.
