Doctor Who fans are invited to contribute to this page by answering the question “What missing or incomplete Doctor Who story would you most like to see rediscovered, and why?” Entries should be submitted via email at mark@dwgateway.co.uk and should be no more than 4-6 sentences in length. This page will be updated weekly to accommodate the latest fan submitted entries. This is not intended to be a statistical survey, merely fun reading material. Thanks to all those who have contributed thus far…enjoy!
Steve Roberts
Although I would love to see more of The Web of Fear and the end of The Evil of the Daleks, I guess the one story I would most like to see is The Power of the Daleks. A new, mysterious Doctor, confused and mistrustful companions, and apparently subservient Daleks reactivated and secretly building an army. Definitely the top of my list!
Mark Parmerter
To see the Doctor, Susan, Ian and Barbara traveling in the caravan of Marco Polo would be great; to see the Doctor transported to Skaro in the nick of time as Theodore Maxtible’s Canterbury home erupts in flames would be even greater; but the greatest thrill would be to see Fury from the Deep in all its terrifying, claustrophobic, monochrome glory – the possessed Maggie Harris walking into the North Sea to meet the Weed Creature, Van Lutyens fearfully whispering “Listen! It’s down there…in the pipeline…in the darkness…waiting!” as the throbbing alien heartbeat reverberates throughout the refinery, the Doctor bravely declaring “It’s begun – the battle of the giants!” and Victoria’s tearful farewell – surely a masterpiece of Sixties Doctor Who and surely my choice as a must see!
Dominic Jackson
This is a question I always find very difficult to answer – so instead of giving a definite answer I’m going to have to provide something of a list! Marco Polo – The surviving photos make it look a real visual treat and the soundtrack indicates it’s a really good story (in terms of the epic quality, the way the story unfolds and the characters encountered along the way). The Power of the Daleks – This is probably my favorite Doctor Who story; some of the reconstructions are really good but I still hanker to see this one for real (especially Episode One). Patrick Troughton makes a great start as the Doctor, managing to recreate some of Hartnell’s anger (the scene where he confronts Lesterton over removing the third Dalek from the capsule) but also introducing the characteristic clown nature (the scene in which he discovers their quarters are bugged). Fury from the Deep – The Sixties story with the most “behind the sofa” feel to it, but also a quality tale. Every time I watch the reconstruction and the existing clips I get the “tingle” – as a 24-year-old adult! The full thing would have a real force I think.
Richard Develyn
The five Doctor Who stories I would most like to see recovered include The Web of Fear, The Abominable Snowmen, The Power of the Daleks, Evil of the Daleks and Fury from the Deep. Although, over the last 10 years, the last three in the list have frequently changed places, the first two have always been The Web of Fear and The Abominable Snowmen. Why? Because in them the story, setting and characterisation of the Doctor are most in keeping with what I think is the essential nature of the program, and hence they best capture my imagination in that inimitable (and hard to define) Doctor Who fashion which is at the root of my long obsession with the program…
Michael R. Wall
Although the recovery of any missing episode is a big thrill for the fans, I personally would like for at least one episode of The Savages to see the light of day. Of course, established classics like The Daleks’ Master Plan and Fury from the Deep are also high on my list, but the real reason why I choose The Savages is because it is the greatest Doctor Who story that almost nobody even knows about. This thrilling adventure contains many true science fiction elements and plenty of breathtaking suspense, and it unfortunately received less publicity over the years than I feel it deserved.
Peter Finklestone
Much as I’d love to see some of William Hartnell’s underrated stuff, like The Myth Makers and The Smugglers, my favorite Doctor is Patrick Troughton. The David Whitaker Dalek stories are wonderful but, for me, the story I’d most like to see complete is The Web of Fear – beating The Abominable Snowmen by a whisker, and probably down to the direction of the brilliant Douglas Camfield and the fact that its the earliest story I have reasonable memories of as a child. Like Tomb of the Cybermen it would have its detractors but I am certain it would not be a disappointment.
John Kelly
While there are many stories I’d want back, like Fury from the Deep, The Daleks’ Master Plan and The Evil of the Daleks, I think that The Power of the Daleks overall is the one I’d most like returned. It’s directed by one of my favorites, Chris Barry, the soundtrack is superb, and what clips exist are great. Additionally, the story is very clever and involving, and the acting of such as Robert James is well above the norm. Everything in it just gels.
Ash Stewart
For some reason, I’d like to see the whole of The Underwater Menace. True, it’s hardly a great televisual masterpiece, but its surviving episode is great fun to watch. Patrick Troughton has settled into his role, and Joseph Furst is clearly relishing every over-the-top second as Professor Zaroff!
David French
Since reading their respective Target novelisations throughout the 90’s, the 60’s Doctor Who stories have always had a special place in my heart. While I would love to see The Daleks’ Master Plan, The Savages, and Fury from the Deep amongst others, it is in fact the two missing episodes of The Reign of Terror that I would most like to see. The reason is rather simple, and sad – in 1992 I did a High School English project on Doctor Who. The project required me to interview someone who was connected with the topic. The only person I knew who had some connection with Doctor Who was my paternal grandmother, who had once told me that she had seen the series when it first aired in New Zealand, and she was more than happy to write about the memories she had of the show. My grandmother revealed that she had only watched the series because television was a new medium in NZ and so people were just watching TV for the sake of it. One story she remembered was set in France during the revolution and she could recall people screaming out blue murder as they were being led off to the guillotine. With this interview in mind, I think that is why I would like to see the missing two installments from The Reign of Terror returned…
Shannon Patrick Sullivan
It’s a tough choice to make, but I would have to go with Fury from the Deep, which looks to have demonstrated the Patrick Troughton era isolated-outpost suspense format at its very best. Failing that, I’d go with the remainder of The Crusade (gotta love that David Whitaker dialogue) or the wonderfully whimsical The Celestial Toymaker.
Cliff Shelton
Hmm. I think perhaps for me there are three choices. I would really like to see The Moonbase, Fury from the Deep, and The Crusade. I’ll start with The Moonbase. It’s simply one of my favorite Patrick Troughton adventures, and I’ve always wanted to see it complete. I know it’s simply a remake of The Tenth Planet, but I think it works much better since for a good portion of the story no one knows what’s going on, and the acting and production is a little better. Fury for me has always had a certain mystique – especially since the recovery of the clips by Damian Shanahan, and the novelisation by Victor Pemberton; I’ve always thought that Patrick Troughton’s second season for me ranks as one of the best of all Doctor Who seasons, based upon what I’ve seen and the new re-mastered CD’s by Mark Ayres. As for The Crusade, I think it’s one of William Hartnell’s strongest performances as The Doctor. He and the rest of the cast are given quite a lot to do and it’s a cracking good historical. It was especially cool to see The Lion after all these years and it completely reconfirmed the story as one of my favorites. I suppose though, when it comes down to it, none of us will complain regardless of what else shows up – and I for one am sure that something will!
Doug Neman
I would most like to see William Hartnell’s Season One adventure Marco Polo, because I have heard so much about it. John Lucarotti could write a really great story, and I’ve heard that this one was really nice.
David Buck
Whilst I am a massive Patrick Troughton fan, the missing story that I would most like to see recovered is a William Hartnell historical adventure, The Myth Makers, which has to be the most unfairly underrated of all lost stories; the audio alone shows just how well written it was and it’s clearly on a par with the classic Season One historicals.
Stephen Mills
I would personally love to see Patrick Troughton’s first story The Power of the Daleks. It just shows the Daleks at their very best along with the Doctor and company. I would also love to see The Web of Fear and Fury from the Deep as well…
Mark Storton
Let’s be honest – episode 1 of The Web of Fear is Doctor Who at its very finest, so I would love to see the rest of that story. The Power of the Daleks has gotta be up there at the top as well; but for me the ultimate story would be The Abominable Snowmen. I’m not too bothered about The Macra Terror however, because that looks to be total tripe…
Rob Moore
If an odd episode turns up then I hope it’s from a partially complete story such as The Reign of Terror so that it can be released on video straight away. If beyond all hope a full story turned up, The Power of the Daleks just shades it over Marco Polo: Patrick Troughton’s brilliant debut, convincing the audience that regeneration was acceptable; the Daleks using their superior intelligence for once. I still can’t watch the reconstruction without wanting to shout at the colonists: “But they’re the Daleks, you can’t trust them!”
Chris Cuthbert
I would love, like all Doctor Who fans, for all of the missing episodes to be found, but that doesn’t seem like it will happen anytime soon. But if one lost story was to be discovered, I’d have to say I would love to see The Massacre, a serial I consider to be very under-rated, and to some fans one of the best Doctor Who stories ever. The Faceless Ones would also be great to see because it’s one of the few “contemporary” stories of its time. And The Web of Fear, for obvious reasons. But my dream discovery would be the complete The Underwater Menace, for its camp quality and the fact that it’s sort of become a curio to Doctor Who mythology…
Robert Lia
I would like to see the following recovered from the William Hartnell era: Marco Polo as it seems to have been a really good historical story, as well as the missing episodes of The Reign of Terror and The Smugglers. I would like to see these as they were serious historicals (to a point) unlike The Romans and The Gunfighters, which were done as comedies. As for the Patrick Troughton era, I think the three that I would most like to see turn up would be The Evil of the Daleks, The Web of Fear and Fury from the Deep…
Matt Evans
There are many lost classics which I would dearly love to see back, but my top three would be 1) The Massacre – from the soundtrack alone you can tell just how stunning the acting is and when you throw in the design and costumes I am sure it would be considered an all-time classic upon its return. 2) The Faceless Ones – by the sheer brilliance of the existing episodes this is one to treasure as a top Patrick Troughton tale. 3) The Space Pirates – cos lets face it, nobody else wants to see it! Imagine if it had been a copy of Episode Three that turned up a few years ago and not a redundant copy of Episode Two. One other thing – I would love to see The Feast of Steven but I think I will have to do with the soundtrack and off-screen stills for that…
Anthony Haynes
I would most like to see The Web of Fear rediscovered. Ever since I have read about this classic story and read the novel by Terrance Dicks I have been intrigued. The biggest reason that I want to see this story is because UNIT really began with this tale; I love the classic battle scenes between human soldiers (UNIT/British Regulars) and it makes for classic Doctor Who. Is there any chance that it could still exist…somewhere?
Louis Wheeler
The story I’d most like to see rediscovered would be The Power of the Daleks. Why? Well, for starters, it’s Patrick Troughton’s first. Next, it’s a very good plot (from what I’ve read at the Scripts Project website). Personally, I feel as though the Daleks themselves were always over-rated. However, this doesn’t discourage me from wishing to see Patrick Troughton in that silly hat!
John Nicholas
At the end of the day, I would most like to see The Power of the Daleks. Evil of the Daleks is a wonderful production, but it meanders a bit, wheras The Power of the Daleks plot and political revolution foil both go straight for the jugular. In that sense it’s pretty well a model for how to get a fantastic main story line, and then pad it out! I’m also very fond of The Faceless Ones. It builds wonderfully with various different clues, and then has a real punch at the end. The Crusade is first rate as well. The story I’d be most disappointed to see returned is probably The Highlanders, which is just dull. The Space Pirates has some good dialogue and characters, and I don’t object to Professor Zaroff in The Underwater Menace – I worked with someone like that once in southern Russia!
Guy Clapperton
At the risk of making myself extremely unpopular, I’d like to see The Evil of the Daleks rediscovered. But, in the same way that the DVD release of The Caves of Androzani has ‘repaired’ some of the opening scenes by making the background more convincing, I’d like to see someone ‘fix’ the sequences in The Evil of the Daleks with the obvious toy Daleks at the end. By all means include the original versions as extras on a DVD release for people to see it as it was, but improve on them so generations can enjoy the story rather than crack up at the effects…
Tim Roll-Pickering
There are a lot of stories missing that are regarded as indisputable classics (e.g. Marco Polo and The Evil of the Daleks, both of which I consider to be amongst the all-time top-ten stories) but personally I’d like to see The Enemy of the World recovered. It’s one of the most experimental stories of the Sixties, providing a very different type of adventure from the rest of Season Five and I feel it’s highly underrated due to it being represented only be Episode Three at the moment. Patrick Troughton was a highly versatile actor and nowhere was this demonstrated more clearly than in this adventure…
Chris Buckey
What missing stories would I most like to see returned? Well, all of them actually! But that’s most likely impossible, so I’d have to settle for three or four missing stories. I think my prime choices would be The Web of Fear, Evil of the Daleks, The Crusade (best Doctor Who story of all I reckon), The Smugglers or The Macra Terror. Both Web and The Crusade are well thought out and thoroughly engaging stories with memorable characters. Evil has an epic, morose atmosphere to it which lends as much to the story as the Daleks themselves. The Smugglers is simultaneously as graphic as any Season 22 story and as fun as watching Patrick Troughton and Tom Baker try to out-act each other. After listening to the audio of Macra I think it’s…well, downright amazingly freaky. It’s Doctor Who meets The Prisoner. All that’s missing is a big killer balloon. I’d also love to see The Daleks’ Master Plan because even though it is twelve episodes with a seven episode plot, it’s still got some classic moments. And did I mention The Tenth Planet Episode Four?
Joe S. Stewart
Most everyone who even cares to see missing monochrome Doctor Who episodes from before they were even born would agree on the importance of recovering The Power of the Daleks simply since it heralds in a new era not only of Doctor Who (the concept of regeneration) but also a radical concept not tried in television before (radically changing the lead actor of the title character). And whereas I would like to see this story safely recovered, the story I would most prefer to see returned is The Macra Terror. The Macra Terror was the first off-air audio I heard. I have always had a respect for the Troughton era and to have this story resurrected, even if it was just in audio format, made Season Four even more sacred and special to me. Recently seeing the Australian censor clips of The Macra Terror on the Missing Years video has driven this feeling of loss even deeper, knowing there is a magical part of the past that will probably never be retrieved no matter how much we all wish…
Justin Smith
I must preface my remarks by stating that I am not the Justin Smith frequently associated with the disappearance of The Tenth Planet Episode Four! Although the Patrick Troughton era was my favourite (I feel his departure was way too premature) the story I would most like to see discovered is Galaxy Four, which I had the great fortune to see in the mid-1960’s when it was screened in Australia. The thing I remember most vividly about these four episodes was the feeling of alieness of the planet; most of the 1960’s Doctor Who stories set on other worlds looked as if the designers had obtained their inspiration by imagining how an alien world might represent earth rather than trying to imagine a world with an environment utterly different to anything encompassed by human experience. The fact that the villains were all women was pretty groundbreaking as well. Jean Marsh aside, it is fair to say that until the introduction of Zoe Herriot, females in Doctor Who were there to look pretty, scream and be rescued by the Doctor and his male companions. If Galaxy Four is a lost cause my next favourites (for it is a dead heat) are Power of the Daleks and Evil of the Daleks. Apart from featuring mechanical monsters as the protagonists (unlike Jon Pertwee I hated most of the biological villains!) both stories were suspenseful, well written and well acted. The scene in Episode Six of Power where the Doctor had the brainwave of overloading the Daleks by giving them too much of the power that they were siphoning from the colony still remains vivid in my mind after 34 years. Perhaps one day time travel in the real world will be a possibility. If anyone with such capability should read this in the distant future, please return to 1966-69 England with a TV, VCR and a boxload of tapes, tape every Doctor Who episode and, on your way back home, drop them off to the BBC in 2001…
If you would like to answer the question “What missing or incomplete Doctor Who story would you most like to see rediscovered, and why?” please email me with your answer at mark@dwgateway.co.uk and it will be posted immediately. Thanks for visiting!
