Doctor Who archive expert shares positive update on missing episode

Summary

A Doctor Who archive expert has shared a key update on the search for missing episodes, teasing that fans will be "very happy" with announcements to come.A total of 97 of 253 episodes from the show's first six years are currently missing, leaving 26 stories incomplete, because the BBC erased or reused tapes in the 1960s and 1970s to save storage space and costs, before archiving policies were in place.In recent years some of these episodes have now been recreated via animation, as tapes of audio recordings have survived for every episode. However, it has long been believed that some of the episodes exist in private collections – something that now appears to have been verified.Speaking on behalf of Film is Fabulous!, a charitable trust dedicated to preserving vulnerable film collections across the UK, film collector John Franklin shared a statement to clarify some recent claims made about missing episodes.Franklin explained: "We are aware of several collectors – plural – with several episodes of Doctor Who that are missing from the archive – plural – that are in private collections and with former industry professionals. "We are aware of those and we are actively discussing their whole collections. We’re not going to just take the Doctor Who, or the other rare bits they have, we’re talking about the whole collections, coming in, being catalogued, and being managed in the way that we manage everything. So I hope that is a positive that your listeners take out of this."Speaking specifically about a conversation on the Film is Fabulous! Facebook page, Franklin added on the Doctor Who: The Missing Episodes podcast: "The comment that was made on Facebook related specifically to one item, one unique set of circumstances with a film collector, and I’m going to give you some information about that."He explained: "Since 2023, I and a couple of other key members of the Film is Fabulous! team have been aware of a large collection of films, thousands of films, that have become ...