Doctor Who: Missing in Action

By Christian Cawley, December 31, 2012 - Doctor Who - 4 comments

Long-term fans may well remember this short documentary, which aired with repeats of Planet of the Daleks back in 1993, Doctor Who‘s 30th anniversary year.

Narrated by Nicholas Courtney, the video below explains the state of play (as it was then) concerning the missing episodes from the series’ early years, mainly from the Second Doctor’s era (1966-1969) and featuring music producer/fan Ian Levine.

(Warning: microcosm of old-school fandom in evidence!)

Available only on YouTube and highly unlikely to appear on a DVD (due to the way in which fans are portrayed), this short film nevertheless presents a nice historical perspective to the quest for missing episodes and the state of fandom in 1993…

Tagged: 30th anniversary, Doctor Who, Ian Levine, Missing in Action, Nicholas Courtney

About the author

Christian Cawley

A long-term Doctor Who fan, Christian grew up watching the show and has early memories of the Graham Williams era. His favourite stories are Inferno, The Seeds of Doom and Human Nature (although The Empty Child, Blink and Utopia all come close). When he’s not bossing around the news team, Christian is a freelance writer specialising in mobile technology and domestic computing, and enjoys classic rock, cooking and spending time in the countryside with his wife and young children. You can find him on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.

4 thoughts on “Doctor Who: Missing in Action”

stlshawn December 31, 2012 at 11:56 pm

OK, Moff, we now have a new name for the next baddie.

The evil Roger Barrett, destroyer of the tenth planet.

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Simon Pearce January 1, 2013 at 7:30 pm

Hi guys, loved this article. Shared it on my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/DoctorWhoandtheTardisTheClassicYears?ref=hl – hope that’s ok?!

Simon

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Andrew January 2, 2013 at 2:41 pm

I’ve heard that Ian Levene has some missing episodes including Tenth Planet pt 4 but is not letting it go because of the BBC’s mistreatment of the 60s episodes. Any truth to this?

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J. Leatherwood January 2, 2013 at 2:51 pm

With respect, I feel this would make an excellent addition to a Doctor Who retrospective, because it says much about the BBC’s views toward the first generation of Doctor Who fans.

So Ian Levine could be a bit pushy and obsessive in his pursuit of the lost tapes — no one can deny his sincerity or the fact he saved the original Daleks episodes and others besides.

Doctor Who fans should not be so overly sensitive about their unfavorable portrayals by the Beeb, because the truth is, they *were* considered pariah during the early 1990s.

Incidentally, the final part of “The Tenth Planet” was last known to have been borrowed for a TV news piece on the regeneration scene. I feel very certain it went walkabout shortly after!

God rest Nick Courtney — I have always loved his voice, and could recognize it anywhere! He was briefly on an Agatha Christie film playing an auctioneer. I knew him before I saw his face!

Happy 2013!

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