Eight lost ‘Doctor Who’ episodes are being recreated as animations with the original soundtracks.
All four parts of ‘The Macra Terror’ from 1967 and the four missing episodes of ‘The Wheel in Space’, which was originally broadcast in 1968, are being turned into animated installments with fans finally getting the chance to see these adventures of the Second Doctor, who was played by Patrick Troughton.
The two serials are among the many episodes that were erased from the BBC archive before the organisation realised the value of such shows and they are two of the most sought after stories for fans to see.
The two new animations will be available to buy on DVD and they come following the success of last year’s ‘Shada’ release which saw the Fourth Doctor story completed with animated sequences filling in where there were missing scenes with Tom Baker and the surviving cast providing new voice recordings. The serial was never broadcast by the BBC due to strike action taking place during filming which meant writer Douglas Adams’ vision could never be completed.
‘The Power of the Daleks’ is another story with missing episodes to be completed with animation and animator-and-director Charles Norton – who was responsible for heading up the project – admits he has a wish list of other ‘lost’ ‘Doctor Who’ serials he wants to bring to back to life.
He previously told BANG Showbiz: "There are certain stories that are perhaps more doable than others. ‘The Crusade’ is an interesting one, because it’s one we’re missing two episodes from. So you look at it and think, ‘Two episodes? 45 minutes? We’ve just done two and a half hours – 45 minutes would be easy!’ Then you actually look at ‘The Crusade’, as I did a few days ago, and you realise that there are 24 speaking characters and they all have multiple changes of clothes. There’s lots of different costumes and sets. But I’m not saying it’s impossible. Nothing’s impossible."
BBC Worldwide is always actively searching for the other lost episodes of ‘Doctor Who’ with a significant find coming in 2013 when all six episodes of ‘The Enemy of the World’ and five instalments of ‘The Web of Fear’ were found by Phillip Morris, director of Television International Enterprises Archive, in a television relay station in Jos in Nigeria.
The next series of ‘Doctor Who’ is currently being filmed with Jodie Whittaker making history as the first woman to ever play the Doctor.
Lost Doctor Who stories to become animations
