Thursday, July 5, 2012

                            Doctor Who-Three Lost Dalek Stories
                          As many classic Whovians and Wholigans are aware,three classic series era Dalek serials are part of a collection of episodes missing due to the old BBC policy of recycling old video tapes. Therefore I have never had the privilege of seeing any of these serials needless to say. Nor has anyone else. But the original audio still exists for them all. And via YouTube many fans of the program have mixed still photographs and some of their own animations to recreated parts of these lost serials. It's a labor of love for sure. And I can only hope these three episodes will resurface somewhere and people cans see them as originally intended.


                         The first of these is the final William Hartnell Dalek story "The Daleks Master Plan". At a whopping 12 parts,this is the longest Doctor Who serial along with 'The War Games'  four years later.  Only three episodes of these serials-parts 2,5 and 10 are currently known to have survived. There's of course the late 1966 second doctor regeneration story 'The Power Of The Daleks'. This also introduces new companion Victoria. Due to the second doctor stories being the hardest hit in terms of missing episodes,this entire serial remains missing. The only other second doctor Dalek story 'The Evil Of The Daleks' fared only slightly better,with only the second part of the serial still being available.


                            I am sure there are better and more thorough fan reconstructions of these episodes. But I felt the ones you see here,constructed from some surviving footage,audio and in most cases still pictures will do the trick for now. Happily every Dalek story from the Jon Pertwee era of Doctor Who onward have survived intact and,as of August 10'th,2012 will all be available on DVD world wide. I am hoping one day,as was the case with the once legendary lost episode 'The Tomb Of The Cybermen' in 1991 that the three missing 60's era Dalek stories will be recovered in full for future generations to see.

No comments: