Stam Fine Reviews nothing, but instead looks at why there are same gaps in
the BBC's archive holdings of Doctor Who. After nearly 50 years of searching, there are still many episodes from the 1960s completely missing. We look at why, how and when, why things turned around and the search to recover those missing bits of history.

There nearly 100 missing episodes, all from the William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton eras from the 1960s, though many of colour Episodes of Jon Pertwee's era have also been affected. We'll also look at how these have now been restored.

00:00 Introduction
00:42 Missing Doctor Who
04:05 Ephemeral Entertainment and Recording
06:35 How an episode of Doctor Who made it to a Videotape Master
11:20 How the episodes then went missing
14:13 The Pivot
19:40 The Recovery Begins
25:15 Reconstructing, Animating, and a Blind Alley
27:31 Finding Clips, Inserts, Bits and Bobs, Better Copies, Full Episodes
31:49 Colour
34:12 The Numbers, The Frame Rates, The Resolutions, The Bells, Esmeralda! 38:12 Bringing back the 70s in Full Colour!
43:00 Summary

#doctorwho #doctorwhobbc #missingepisodes
#doctorwho #doctorwhobbc #missingepisodes #daleks

https://youtu.be/BetlKuRHBS4?si=p8LomGTomQxY9aHJ

--
Democrats and the liberal media hate President Trump more than they
love this country.


--- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

In article <113fdl5$3dmnh$8@dont-email.me>, weberm@polaris.net says...

Stam Fine Reviews nothing, but instead looks at why there are same gaps in >the BBC's archive holdings of Doctor Who. After nearly 50 years of searching, >there are still many episodes from the 1960s completely missing. We look at >why, how and when, why things turned around and the search to recover those >missing bits of history.

There nearly 100 missing episodes, all from the William Hartnell and Patrick >Troughton eras from the 1960s, though many of colour Episodes of Jon Pertwee's
era have also been affected. We'll also look at how these have now been >restored.

00:00 Introduction
00:42 Missing Doctor Who
04:05 Ephemeral Entertainment and Recording
06:35 How an episode of Doctor Who made it to a Videotape Master
11:20 How the episodes then went missing
14:13 The Pivot
19:40 The Recovery Begins
25:15 Reconstructing, Animating, and a Blind Alley
27:31 Finding Clips, Inserts, Bits and Bobs, Better Copies, Full Episodes >31:49 Colour
34:12 The Numbers, The Frame Rates, The Resolutions, The Bells, Esmeralda! >38:12 Bringing back the 70s in Full Colour!
43:00 Summary

#doctorwho #doctorwhobbc #missingepisodes
#doctorwho #doctorwhobbc #missingepisodes #daleks

https://youtu.be/BetlKuRHBS4?si=p8LomGTomQxY9aHJ

In my lifetime I've gone from a basic acceptance that most of black & white Doctor Who was gone forever, to having a substantial amount of that missing material either back again or replaced with very reasonable animated facsimiles. It is frankly astonishing.


--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

1932948313@qq.com says...

Ubiquitous wrote:

Stam Fine Reviews nothing, but instead looks at why there are same gaps in >>the BBC's archive holdings of Doctor Who. After nearly 50 years of searching,
there are still many episodes from the 1960s completely missing. We look at >>why, how and when, why things turned around and the search to recover those >>missing bits of history.

There nearly 100 missing episodes, all from the William Hartnell and Patrick >>Troughton eras from the 1960s, though many of colour Episodes of Jon Pertwee's
era have also been affected. We'll also look at how these have now been >>restored.

00:00 Introduction
00:42 Missing Doctor Who
04:05 Ephemeral Entertainment and Recording
06:35 How an episode of Doctor Who made it to a Videotape Master
11:20 How the episodes then went missing
14:13 The Pivot
19:40 The Recovery Begins
25:15 Reconstructing, Animating, and a Blind Alley
27:31 Finding Clips, Inserts, Bits and Bobs, Better Copies, Full Episodes >>31:49 Colour
34:12 The Numbers, The Frame Rates, The Resolutions, The Bells, Esmeralda! >>38:12 Bringing back the 70s in Full Colour!
43:00 Summary

#doctorwho #doctorwhobbc #missingepisodes
#doctorwho #doctorwhobbc #missingepisodes #daleks

https://youtu.be/BetlKuRHBS4?si=p8LomGTomQxY9aHJ

In my lifetime I've gone from a basic acceptance that most of black & white >Doctor Who was gone forever, to having a substantial amount of that missing >material either back again or replaced with very reasonable animated >facsimiles. It is frankly astonishing.

And now we live in a time where almost all missing episodes could potentially be
recovered


--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 2026-07-26 17:41:07 +0000, john said:

1932948313@qq.com says...

Ubiquitous wrote:

Stam Fine Reviews nothing, but instead looks at why there are same gaps in >>> the BBC's archive holdings of Doctor Who. After nearly 50 years of searching,
there are still many episodes from the 1960s completely missing. We look at >>> why, how and when, why things turned around and the search to recover those >>> missing bits of history.

There nearly 100 missing episodes, all from the William Hartnell and Patrick
Troughton eras from the 1960s, though many of colour Episodes of Jon Pertwee's
era have also been affected. We'll also look at how these have now been
restored.

00:00 Introduction
00:42 Missing Doctor Who
04:05 Ephemeral Entertainment and Recording
06:35 How an episode of Doctor Who made it to a Videotape Master
11:20 How the episodes then went missing
14:13 The Pivot
19:40 The Recovery Begins
25:15 Reconstructing, Animating, and a Blind Alley
27:31 Finding Clips, Inserts, Bits and Bobs, Better Copies, Full Episodes >>> 31:49 Colour
34:12 The Numbers, The Frame Rates, The Resolutions, The Bells, Esmeralda! >>> 38:12 Bringing back the 70s in Full Colour!
43:00 Summary

#doctorwho #doctorwhobbc #missingepisodes
#doctorwho #doctorwhobbc #missingepisodes #daleks

https://youtu.be/BetlKuRHBS4?si=p8LomGTomQxY9aHJ

In my lifetime I've gone from a basic acceptance that most of black & white >> Doctor Who was gone forever, to having a substantial amount of that missing >> material either back again or replaced with very reasonable animated
facsimiles. It is frankly astonishing.

And now we live in a time where almost all missing episodes could potentially be
recovered

Techncially all the episodes could supposedly be recreated by useless
AI ... as long as you don't mind the characters changing in various
frames to having things like six fingers, three legs, two heads, merged
heads, no nose, etc. :-p



--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Sat, 18 Jul 2026 00:07:32 -0400, Ubiquitous wrote:

Stam Fine Reviews nothing, but instead looks at why there are same
gaps in the BBC's archive holdings of Doctor Who.

No big secret about the reason. They were recorded on videotape, and
videotape was very expensive at the time, so they had to reuse (and
wipe old programs), rather than buy more.

It wasn?t even good-quality video, since the Brits were still using
their 405-line pre-war TV system at the time. Best described as
?murky?.

Compare programs shot on film, like ?Danger Man? from even earlier,
1959/1960. We have all the episodes preserved today, and even though
they?re black-and-white, they still look very good.


--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)