The missing episodes should not be overlooked
To replicate this experiment, it really is necessary to ‘experience’ every single episode of ‘Doctor Who’ in broadcast order. For the dozens of 1960s episodes that sadly remain missing from the BBC’s archives, it isn’t possible to sit down and watch them. Thanks to a small handful of fans who were zealots right from the get-go, off-air recordings of the soundtracks for every episode exist. Technology has allowed them to be cleaned up and presented as an audio experience. A project to animate the missing stories and bring them to Blu-ray and DVD is ongoing. It provides an opportunity to plug some, but not all of the gaps. For the stories that remain missing, returning to the soundtracks with linking narration remains a must, as stories were often linked together. To avoid the missing stories would miss the deaths of companions Katarina and Sara (or is she?) in ‘The Daleks’ Masterplan’, the departures of Vicki as she becomes a Greek legend in ‘The Myth Makers’, and Steven Taylor (Peter Purves) as he leaves to lead ‘The Savages’. Saddest of all, you’d miss William Hartnell’s final episode as the incumbent Doctor in ‘The Tenth Planet’. They are all part of the unifying story, and should be included in any chronological revisitation.
