The purpose of this article is not to preserve or spread rumour; it is to kill them. The number of rumours that have been spread about missing Doctor Who episodes is enormous and, since I became interested in the subject, I have yet to see a single one prove to be true. During this article, I shall take numerous rumours and see how well they stand up to close scrutiny; that is assuming there is anything to scrutinise!

The rumours I mention in this article are for the most part are ones that are prevailent on the internet. I see little point in scouring fanzines to find every single rumour and posting them here (with the one exception at the end, but for every rule…). If a rumour is dead, there is little point in bringing it back to life.

Paradoxically, the most infuriating and yet the most fascinating aspect of being a Doctor Who fan is that of the 700 odd episodes, 108 do not exist at the BBC. Thanks to the corporation's policies in the 1970s, vast stretches of Hartnell, Troughton, and Pertwee episodes were destroyed. Although there are now no Pertwee episodes which do not exist in any format, a number exist only as black and white prints. There are a couple of points to remember; it wasn't just Doctor Who that the BBC were junking, and it wasn't just the BBC doing the junking, ITV companies were as well. In fact, off the top of my head, the only videtaped series from the sixties that ran for any length of time that remain 100% complete are Steptoe and Son and Coronation Street (although in both cases, some colour episodes only exist in black and white, and in the case of Steptoe, of a varying quality).

There were actually three departments of the BBC which destroyed old TV programmes, each for different reasons. I'll take each in turn. And remember, what happened applied not just to Doctor Who, but the whole of the BBC's output.

1 - The Video Tape Library/Engineering Department

Almost every Episode of Doctor Who was recorded on to video tape (a couple of Hartnells and Troughtons were recorded on to B/W film to enable them to be edited easier). The type of tape varied over the years, starting at 405 line B/W tape, then 625 line B/W tape from about halfway through Patrick Troughton's second season, until 625 line colour tape from Jon Pertwee's second story (his first was recorded on to colour 16mm film). At the time, such reels of tape were ludicrously expensive, figures of £600 each have been mentioned, so in order to cut costs, tapes would be re-used wherever possible. It doesn't take a genius to work out that if a tape is re-used, then whatever was on it before was lost… However, before being erased, each Episode was telerecorded, a process which entailed recording the picture onto film off of what was essentially a TV. The resulting telerecordings are therefore not as good a quality as the original tape recordings. These telerecordings were made either to keep episodes for posterity, or for sale to overseas via BBC Enterprises.

Today, no episodes of black and white Doctor Who exist in their original video tape format.

2 - The Film Library

Over the years, numerous rumours have circulated with regard to the missing episodes of Doctor Who. Rumours can often have a basis in fact which through re-telling and embellishment is distorted beyond recognition.

The silent 8mm cine-film clips are undoubtedly where some rumours originate, as it is only recently that these have become well known about outside of certain fan circles. During the Eighties, these clips were not at all common, so it is certainly possible that people could have seen these clips and come to the conclusion that they came from complete episodes.

On very rare occasions rumours can lead to recovery, however the vast majority lead to nothing more than a dead end. Many rumours are reported as if fact. However, many either have no basis in truth or are so vague as to be worthless.

First of all, I shall start with a list of episodes and "where they are";

The Reign of Terror 5 (in the collection of an American fan)
Galaxy Four 2 (in the collection of a fan)
The Savages 1-4 (in Australia)
The Power of the Daleks (in the collection of an Australian fan)
The Highlanders 2 and 4 (a Scottish collector has them)
The Moonbase 3 (the collection of an American fan)
The Faceless Ones (unspecified episodes exist)
The Faceless Ones 5 (it exists)
The Invasion 1 (an overseas collector has it)

The one thing all the episodes in this list have in common is that at some point they have been claimed to exist. In each case, the only information as to their location was that which is noted in brackets. You will undoubtedly notice that this information is so vague as to be worthless. Faceless Ones 5 exists. That's hardly likely to lead to an Episode recovery, now is it? It's a rag bag of half heard whispers. I cannot tear these rumours to pieces, as there is nothing to tear. Simply saying that an Episode exists, with nothing to back it up, does not convince me in the slightest. Anyone can say it exists, but that does not make it true.

When looking for missing episodes, you're gonna get all three. It seems, however, that old hoaxes, false leads and dead ends die hard. Many of the ones that have been proven so over the years are still cropping up time and time again as if they were true. So, here are as many hoaxes, false leads and dead ends as I could find. With any luck, they will remain dead.

The Internet

The trouble with the Internet is that hoaxes are much easier to spread. But then again, they can frequently be disproved in hours. A person posting in January on the missing episodes message board claimed that he had returned an episode of Power of the Daleks. Within eight hours, the tale was proven to be a hoax, as it turned out that it was the work of an impostor pretending to be someone else. Sometimes it takes a little longer.

February 14^th 2002 saw this post appear on missing episodes (original spelling mistakes retained);

“Daniel Holt
Missing Episodes - official attitude
Thu Feb 14 12:06:00 2002
195.93.48.173

I've been reading with interest on threads below of the seeming lack of interest shown by official bodies like the BFI and the BBC.
While I can (to a degree) understand this attitude with regards to seemingly obscure material, it seems pretty odd when it comes to something as viably commercial as "Doctor Who".

A friend of mine (a very ardent film collector) has got three episodes of missing mid sixties "Doctor Who". This is a FACT, I've seen them,( I won't name them as I don't want to start waves of excitement untill something concrete forms) and although I don't have a great interest in that particular programme myself, I convinced him to contact the BBC.

A few weeks later when I next saw him I asked about the episodes. I was told he had encountered an extremley snotty, not-that-bothered sort of attitude. his phone number was taken and was told someone would be in touch - to date no one has.

I do know (via the web) of the restoration team dedicated to (not just Dr Who) preserving and restoring old material. I suggested he call them, but sadly he seems rather put off by the whole experience.

He also has what he beleives is some material of "The Quatermass Experiment - no title sequences, just around 20 minutes of film, but it may just be part of an episode which already exists. At the moment he is trying to catalogue it.

Such a pity. Maybe it's time the dear old Beeb wised up on it's attitude and saw that it's not the terrestrial equivalent of God. Maybe then people would be mor willing to go out of their way, waste their valuable time and help the corporation recover material IT criminally destroyed in the first place !”

This post provoked some intense debate, and saw many people take the post at face value believing what was said in it (including a couple of Tesh, and the author of this article). Within a week, it became apparent that it was nothing more that a hoax. The post was picked apart, and several inconsistencies, and similarities to posts by a known hoaxer were pointed out. It just goes to show that we need to be on our guard at all times, whilst still keeping an open mind.

Over coming months, “Mr Holt” continued to insist that his tale was true, but no-one believed a word he said. Eventually, he named the three episodes his friend had as being The Smugglers Episode 2, War of God (The Massacre Episode 1) and Four Hundred Dawns (Galaxy 4 Episode 1).

Interestingly, as time progressed, everyone that referred to this hoax only mentioned the three Doctor Who episodes. After a day or so, everyone seemed to forget (or at least not mention) the Quatermass extract. It’s a shame that most Doctor Who fans concentrate so hard on the missing Who, and don’t worry about everything else. How much missing material might have been missed in this manner? I’d certainly recommend that if you see a BBC film can at a reasonable price, that you buy it whatever it may be. You never know, you might have the only copy of something.

This particular hoax is just one example of the new breed of internet hoaxers. What usually happens is that someone posts on a forum that they know someone who has missing material (it’s very rarely the poster themselves that has the material; that way when proof is asked for it’s easier for them to weasel out of providing it). Then, after the inevitable flurry of doubtful posts, the hoaxer will claim that after such negative replies his friend has decided not to bother returning what he had.

Marco Polo

Prominent Doctor Who fan, Ian Levine, was once reported to have the whole story and went so far as to offer to show it to Carol Ann Ford. This story was denied by both parties, as it was a load of made up rubbish.

The Reign of Terror

For many years it was suggested that the person who returned Episode 6, and later a better quality copy of Episode 3, in fact had the entire story, and would not return it to the BBC because he didn't think the prints would be safe there. He never had the other episodes. The whole story never made sense anyway; why would he send back two episodes to the BBC if he thought they would be unsafe there? Utter nonsense.

The Time Meddler

It is a known fact that the copies of episodes 1 and 3 that came back from Nigeria were edited. It is also known that when it came to be shown in 1991, at the last minute Ian Levine supplied the BBC with unedited copies of these episodes. Therefore, cry the masses, this is proof that Ian Levine hoards missing episodes and has loads of them in his collection. Rubbish! Yes, he did have the Time Meddler episodes, but they were not his. He was given them to look after by a third party in the early eighties, a couple of years before the Nigeria find. As the prints were not his, he did not feel it was his right to return them to the BBC. Ian Levine has spent a great deal of time and (his own) money trying (and succeeding in many cases) to get episodes back to the BBC.

Further to this, Mr Levine has gone on the record to precisely his position with regard to these episodes; “Everyone that mattered at the BBC knew I had these three episodes. At that time there were severe rumours of episodes around which people would only part with for another missing episode, and therefore it seemed right that I should TEMPORARILY hold back a few episodes just in case.”

The Visions Tale

A fan at the Visions convention (1994?) in Chicago was shown Mission to the Unknown, Daleks' Masterplan 11 & 12 and The Celestial Toymaker 1-4 by a chap called Lei. This Lei obtained the seven episodes and other unspecified episodes from his father, who ran a TV station in Northern Canada. His father, instead of destroying the episodes when he was supposed to instead kept them. Apparently Lei was to return the episodes to the BBC, but somewhere along the line things went wrong and he no longer sees why he should do this. It has been suggested that he owns all the missing episodes, but some are in quite bad condition. On top of this he was also said to be copying the episodes onto laser disc…

Exactly how much of this is true has yet to be proved, but my guess is this; none of it! For a start, the fan who was shown the seven episodes later confessed that she was only shown the one Episode, the only one not missing… Secondly chances are that Canada never got "all" the episodes of Doctor Who at all. According to Richard Molesworth's list of Who sales on the Restoration Team's site, the only missing tale they bought was Marco Polo (but more on Canada later…). In any case, no-one was sold Daleks' Masterplan 7 and only Australia even looked at the other eleven episodes of Daleks' Masterplan and its prequel, Mission to the Unknown… Thirdly, the copying the episodes onto laser disc aspect is very dubious. How many people have access to a laser disc pressing plant? And exactly how much would it cost? A lot, I would say… Nah, as intriguing as the story is, the more you think about it, the more you realise it is just some sad fan's wish fulfilment fantasy.

There are several variations on this tale. In some versions, Lei is female, in some called Leanne. Some of the tape formats the episodes “exist” on either don’t exist, or last just 4 minutes. Also, “Lei” was reported to be no relation to the TV company’s owner, and in fact just a volunteer summer worker!

The Power of the Daleks

For years it had been stated as "fact" in many places that The Power of the Daleks was screened in Ghana in 1986; the episodes could not be recovered however, as the Ghanaian archives burnt down a few years later. The truth of the matter is that it wasn't shown in Ghana in 1986; they didn't even buy the story! This rumour would appear to have started 1991 (ish) at the Tavern in London, and spread out from there via DWB.

I have also been unable to find any trace of a mention of the Ghanian TV archives burning down anywhere outside of articles on missing Doctor Who. I have trawled a number of Ghanaian websites and have found nothing. I am now quite sure that this was a fabrication too.

The Power of the Daleks 4

An Australian fan once claimed to have this Episode and used clips from it to obtain rare archive material. It later transpired that all he had was a small number of clips taken from an Australian documentary called Perspectives; C for Computer, and nothing else.

Tomb of the Cybermen

It was suggested that after the Hong Kong find, a fan supplied the BBC with a poor quality print of the story. Utter nonsense! What would be the point in sending an inferior copy back? None.

The Blackpool Hoaxer

A chap from Blackpool who I shall refer to as "DG", for these are his initials, once claimed to have Fury From the Deep episodes 1 and 2. Ian Levine got in contact with this fellow and used his colour clip from Mind of Evil 6 as bargaining material. However, it soon became apparent that DG did not possess these episodes, and in fact had nothing. DG has responsible for a number of similar pranks over the years.

What he does is claims to have missing episodes for sale, arranges to sell then, and then reneges on the deal. Often people travel all the way to Blackpool to meet him, but he fails to turn up. Those who have gone to his home address to confront him are given excuses by his mother or brother. He claims that what he is trying to do is lure missing episodes out into the open. How his schemes are meant to do this, I do not know. At various points he has claimed to own differing episodes, even going so far at one stage to say that he had all but two. He has NO missing episodes. He has used a number of aliases over the years, as people have become familiar with his real name.

For a while he had stopped his schemes, but in July of 2001, an advert appeared in Loot; "Dr Who film reels, The Web Planet, Singing Sands, Cave of Skulls, The Enemy of the World, Part 3, Web of Fear Part 4, The Temple of Evil, The Moonbase, Part one, offers." and gave his phone number (I shall not, of course, print the number here, but suffice it to say it was a mobile number ending in "247"; just in case you come across a similar ad elsewhere and suspect it may be the work of DG).

His antics were thwarted for a while, though. A Doctor Who fan who was an employee at Loot says; “I used to work for Loot on their editorial desk between 95 and 98 and this character regularly attempted to put adverts in for very strange bits and pieces.  Being a Who fan, I knew he was talking tosh and we managed to stop any ad going in. I'm sad with all the paperwork I did on this bloke that that advert went into the bloody paper!”

Although he is a constant irritant to Who fans, he has never been prosecuted as he has not actually broken any laws. If he were to have obtained any money for non-existent episodes from anyone in the course of his deeds, that would be a very different matter, and one that would incur Police involvement quicker than you could say "obtaining money by deception."

There are so many lies, half truths, misheard whispers and blatant deceptions regarding this Episode, that it deserves a section all of its own. What is known about the tale is this;

Blue Peter, to celebrate Doctor Who's Tenth Anniversary, screened a feature which used a number of clips from various episodes, including The Daleks Masterplan Episode 4 and The Tenth Planet Episode 4. Somewhere along the line, the Dalek Episode went missing. We know this because Justin Smith, one of Blue Peter's production team, was sent memos by the BBC Film Library asking for the Episode's return. It never came back, and when the Film Library's records were checked, this was the only Episode unaccounted for. This leads to two questions, one with a short answer and the other with a very, very long one;

1 - What happened to The Daleks' Masterplan 4?

Quite simply, we do not know. There are three possibilities I can think of;

I The Episode was simply binned by the Blue Peter team.
II The Episode was mistakenly returned to BBC Enterprises rather than the Film Library who took one look at it and burnt it.
III Someone stole the Episode and somewhere, out there, it still exists.

2 - What happened to The Tenth Planet 4?

The tricky one. Again, we do not know. There is no way of knowing for sure what happened to it, or even if the Blue Peter team even had a copy of the Episode in the first place. It has been suggested that the clip was copied at a central telecine point, and that all the BP team had was the clip. If this is the case, then the Episode was destroyed for good when BBC Enterprises destroyed its copies of all four episodes. However, there is no proof that this was the case (just as there is none that it was not), so there is a chance that the Episode was taken to the BP offices and went walkies.

There are a great number of rumours concerning the whereabouts of this Episode. Over the years, the Episode has variously been rumoured to be in the hands of an oil rig worker, a chap in Leeds, and a consortium of ten fans who paid £50 each for it in the mid-eighties. The one common theme running through each is a distinct lack of evidence or proof to back up the claims.

The consortium of fans tale, however, probably does have some basis in truth. It stems from a letter from a fan to DWM in which he said that he was asked if he wanted to contribute £50 as part of a consortium to buy this episode. Most accounts of this tale seem to suggest that they were successful in the acquisition of the episode. Far more likely is that the consortium were trying to raise the money to buy the episode, and probably got all the money together. However, the deal was never completed as the person from who they were to buy the episode was going by the name of Roger K Barrett.

The infamous Roger K Barrett (a pseudonym for a chap with the initials “AG”; although his real name is well known among Who fans, I have no wish to print it here), is a chap who claimed to have eight missing Doctor Who episodes, including The Tenth Planet 4 (before anyone asks, I have never been able to find out the identity of the other seven, but would like to know). This chap was, and remains, an employee of the BBC. At various times, he contacted prominent Doctor Who fans and offered to sell them his copy of the Episode. Each time, he would arrange to meet them to complete the deal, but each time he would fail to turn up. Things came to a head in 1992, when he was eventually pressured into handing over what he claimed to be the complete story on a pair of shibaden video tapes. The tapes turned out to be blank. Mr Barrett claimed that the video copies he had were taken from the original 16mm film recordings, which he had sold a few years previously. Whether he ever really had the episodes or not, we do not know. But as he has a track record as a proven liar, it is reasonably safe to assume that he never had the Tenth Planet 4.

When interviewed in 1993 for the five minute programme on missing episodes preceding the showing of Planet of the Daleks Episode 3, Mr Barrett said "Roger Barrett never had The Tenth Planet Part 4. This was all one big hoax and they fell for it hook line and sinker. Roger Barrett does not exist."

Roger K Barret, as well as being the hoaxer's pseudonym, was also the real name of the original Pink Floyd singer, Syd Barret. The selection of this pseudonym is certainly a direct refernce to the Pink Floyd chap; surely it can be no coincidence that Pink Floyd played sections of the Doctor Who theme tune during concerts?

Far more intriguing in my mind is why the BBC Film Library only ever held The Tenth Planet episodes 1-3, but not 4. They only ever had the three episodes. But why? It has been suggested that they are rough viewing prints ordered by an unknown person at the BBC at some point, which somehow found their way to the Film Library. If so, why would they not get the complete story? And if they did get the complete story… you can fill in the rest yourself, can't you?

Paul Lee’s Article

Paul Lee’s article on the missing episodes of Doctor Who has been slammed in many sections of the Doctor Who fan community, and this is in my opinion somewhat of an injustice. It’s all a case of context, really. What the article is, and what it is not, are things that are easily confused. It is not 100% gospel truth; it is an accurate summing up of the rumours concerning missing episodes that were circulating throughout fandom in the early Nineties.

True, some of them have been disproved, and some are a little shaky, and some have so little information as to be worthless. However, I have no doubt that within the article lay the nuggets of truth; it’s just a case of sorting the gold from the grit. If, in the long run, just one of the rumours proves to be true then that is justification enough for the article.

Marco Polo 4

This Episode (The Wall of Lies) was offered for sale on ebay in 2000. At the time, it was thought that the auction was started by a fan who believed that people no longer cared about the Missing Episodes, who thought he could test this hypothesis by posting an auction on ebay. However, the real reason for the auction was to see what responses would be made by film collectors. About half a dozen of whom reportedly contacted him and offered large sums - up to $10,000 - for a discrete private sale of the Episode... Whilst I don't believe there are any significant number of episodes held by such collectors, this incident does at least confirm that there are people out there who would hoard if given the chance.

The Crusade

I still see the oft-repeated "fact" that the recovery of The Crusade Episode 1 was unlikely due to its poor overseas sales. Rubbish! Of the missing episodes only Marco Polo (19) and The Reign of Terror (16) were sold to more countries. And The Crusade was sold to four times as many countries as The Tenth Planet and Power of the Daleks (3 each).

It is also worth noting that before its discovery, there were NO rumours as to the Episode's existence.

The Daleks' Masterplan

Eleven episodes of this tale (all but #7) and the single Episode prequel, Mission to the Unknown were sent to Australia. However, they were never screened as they were deemed unsuitable for broadcast. What is unknown, however, is what happened to the episodes after they were assessed. Australian researcher Damian Shanahan is currently looking into this, so hopefully a definitive answer will be forthcoming in the near future.

The Daleks’ Masterplan 5 & 10

One rumour suggested that the episodes of Daleks’ Masterplan found in the basement of a church were in fact planted there by Bob Monkhouse. Some years previously, Monkhouse had been involved in a court case, whereby many of his film prints had been seized due to alleged “copyright violations”, in that it was assumed that he had got hold of his prints illegally (he hadn’t), and many were destroyed (including what would have been the only surviving copies of many films). Not wanting the publicity, but wanting to see the episodes returned, he planted the episodes in the church and made arrangements for them to be “found”… An entertaining tale, but nothing more. Why got to such elaborate means when he could just have anonymously posted them to the BBC?

The Feast of Steven

It has been claimed on many occasions that The Feast of Steven was never junked. This is true, but not the whole picture. Its master video tape was definitely wiped as there are records which prove this. It is also fair to say that BBC Enterprises never junked the Episode. There is a good reason for this; they never had it in the first place. The Episode was considered unsuitable for sale overseas due to its whimsical Christmas content and position in the middle of an epic Dalek story. It was totally separate from the Dalek story, and was essentially a piece of Christmas fluff. So, if it was not going to be sold overseas, then BBC Enterprises would not need a copy. Therefore BBC Enterprises could never have junked it. This Episode is gone for good. Get used to it.

It was also suggested that William Hartnell was given a print of this Episode, but this too proved to be untrue. He was in fact given a twelve minute extract from an Episode of The Dalek Invasion of Earth.

The Macra Terror

In his article, Paul Lee tries to build up a sense of paranoia over the three people who went quiet after claiming that Macra existed. The three sources, his "friend of a friend", Simon Lydiard (Skaro) and Gary Leigh (DWB) all claimed the episodes existed, but all suddenly went quiet and refused to talk further on the matter. It appears that the three tales all date from around the same time, so the root of the rumour could be the same in all three cases. Is it possible that all three were victim of a hoax and that none wish to re-live their gullibility? I would say this is the most likely.

This is also probably the source of the oft repeated "Macra episodes in Brighton" tale which pops up every now and then. A tale which never elaborates further, leading you to think of two names, without naming either.

The BBC "Junking Team"

It has been reported in a number of places that the people who were burning the BBC Enterprise 16mm telerecordings saved several episodes, including some which are still missing to this day. They are variously reported to have saved;

Marco Polo (All)
The Feast of Steven
Power of the Daleks (All)
The Moonbase (All?)
The Wheel in Space (All)
The Invasion (All?)

However, there are many contradictions. The person mentioned in the Paul Lee article apparently claimed that The Feast of Steven was saved from the junking skips at Villiers House (where BBC Enterprises was located). This is where the tale begins to fall apart; BBC Enterprises never had The Feast of Steven, so this employee could not have saved it. Maybe this person was mistaken in what was saved, but I find it unlikely.

How many people took episodes in this manner is not known, but there was at least one (and realistically, he's probably the only one; is he the same person as above?). Those hoping that he may still have episodes will be disappointed. On the Restoration Team message board, Steve Roberts stated that "I personally know this guy and I know that every Episode he had eventually made its way back to the BBC…" Pretty conclusive, isn't it?

It is also worth noting that there was no actual "Junking Team" as such; this implies that there were people whose sole job was to destroy the film prints. It's probably more accurate to refer to them as "BBC Enterprises employees", as the actual junking aspect would probably have formed only a small part of their job.

Skips

Films were, at certain times, taken from BBC Enterprises to landfill sites by skip companies. During 2000, an episode hunter came into contact with a chap who worked at one of these companies, who was selling a handful of BBC 16mm prints (none missing, and none Doctor Who). It transpired that for a two week period sometime in the Seventies (between 1972 and 78, presumably), the skip company he worked for took approximately 40 skiploads of films to the landfill site(s). He took the five prints he had from these skips. Intriguingly, he claimed that his colleagues took film cans, and that the boss of the company took so many his loft was filled with them. What happened to these films is for the moment a mystery as the company closed years before and the boss had died.

Still, it opens up possibilities; if this company did this for a single fortnight in the Seventies, then maybe it is possible that at other times other skip companies did so, and that they too kept material. After all, the junking went on for six years, and this company did a single fortnight in one year. Maybe there were such fortnight long purges every year.

Landfills

It has been suggested on a number of occasions that if the missing episodes were simply buried in landfill sites, why doesn’t someone simply go along and dig them up. Well, there are a number of reasons why.

Firstly, no-one knows where the episodes were buried. The skips full of film would have been taken away to whichever landfill site they felt like using at the time.

Secondly, chances are that all the Seventies landfill sites have been built over with houses, roads, shopping malls, factories, whatever.

Thirdly, and most importantly, the film simply would not have survived. When water comes into contact with film, it soaks it up, and the emulsion (ie the bit that has the picture on) comes away and turns to dust. On top of this, the damage done as the skips were emptied, and as the bulldozers compacted the rubbish down would lead to wet, crushed, damaged film that wouldn’t last hours, let alone thirty years.

BBC Records

There are apparently no records surviving of;

In the case of the former, these records certainly existed in 1978, as Ian Levine saw a set of index cards relating to every Episode of Doctor Who at BBC Enterprises, which detailed precisely when the episodes were junked (he says that the only Episode they never had was The Feast of Steven, which is to be expected). What happened to these cards? Probably just binned.

All information as to which countries bought Sixties Doctor Who comes from secondary sources, such as records of royalty payments to actors, writers, directors etc. No actual documentation relating to the sales exits. No lists of countries, not even the original contracts. Nothing.

Records at the BBC Engineering department, who wiped the original video tapes are a lot more comprehensive. Well, they exist for a start! (See the section on tape wiping in the Second Doctor Handbook, by Howe, Stammers & Walker.)

Invasion of the Dinosaurs

The only episode of Season 11 to be junked was Invasion of the Dinosaurs Episode 1. It was suggested that it was junked because its actual title was simply "Invasion", and was mistaken for the Patrick Troughton Cybermen tale The Invasion. It was a decent idea, but then you look at the junking dates and you find that if this were true it would have been junked three years before it was made!

However, a black and white telercording of the episode was returned by a film collector. The plot thickens as none of Season 11 was telerecorded by BBC Enterprises. So where did the telerecording come from? It has been suggested that at some point a BBC employee used this episode as a practice in how to do a telerecording, and that's where the existing print comes from. However, there is no evidence to back this up.

The Invasion

There is a long standing tale that the two missing episodes from The Invasion were sent back to the BBC, but somehow got lost in transit. I am inclined to dismiss the tale as complete nonsense, but there is something about it that just doesn't quite feel right that I can’t quite put my finger on. If they were intercepted, then at what point? (Logically there can only be two possibilities, the Post Office/Courier Company or at the BBC.) And who was the person who sent them?

The early design of the front cover of the video said something along the lines of "Complete at last, with an introduction by Nicholas Courtney", which was swiftly changed to the wording that appeared on the actual release (except in Australia!). The question remains, however; why was this original text on there in the first place? I don't buy either of the suggestions that it was "just a mock up" or that Courtney's intro/recap somehow made the story "complete" and made up for the absence of episodes 1 & 4.

Missing Episode Clubs

There is no evidence at all to substantiate any claims that there are clubs which exist solely for the purpose of hoarding missing episodes. They are the products of an overactive imagination, and the sooner people get it into their heads that there is no such thing, the better.

[Although if such a club exists, I wouldn’t say no to an invite to join… : )]

VHS Copies for Sale

Stories such as Marco Polo, Power of the Daleks and The Invasion have been said to have been for sale over the year at prices in the region of £300 to £400 an episode. Again there is no evidence that this is true. If it were true, don't you think it likely that at least one z-grade copy of even a tiny clip of a missing episode would have turned up by now?

Conventions

Occasionally, rumours mention that missing episodes have been screened at Doctor Who/Sci-Fi conventions. Inevitably, this leads to excitement, which is soon deflated when it is proven that "mystery" episodes are in fact just ordinary episodes, or that the viewing room showing Fury From The Deep is in fact showing a fan made reconstruction. Fact is that if a missing episode was screened at a convention, it'd be all over the internet within minutes of the screening ending. It's not something that can be kept quiet.

Convention Pranks

Over the years, gullible people have fallen for practical jokes played at Doctor Who conventions. Suck pranks include;

* - A screening of The Web of Fear Episode 1 which carried on to show the beginning of Episode 2 before being quickly turned off. (A mock up was made using the footage from Episode 1 as the re-cap.)

* - Someone (a Tesh, no less) wandering around a convention hall with a film can with the words “Tenth Planet 4” written on it in marker pen. (It was an episode of Coronation Street!)

* - An announcement that Marco Polo: The Sining Sands would not be shown due to “copyright difficulties”. (IE it didn’t exist!)

Leeds University

One rumour that I’ve come across, very much in the style of the Popbitch “Big Questions” is this; “But then there’s the Leeds University Doctor Who Society circa 1970 rumour and the episodes they got for their convention…” This is all I know. Anyone know anything about this?

Ian Levine

"Oh, yeah, that Ian Levine, he's got all the episodes stored in his hidden underground bunker he has, must be true, bloke down the pub said so."

This is a point worth mentioning once again; Ian Levine has no missing episodes. Whilst it is undoubtedly true that he has one of the very best collections of rare Doctor Who memorabilia he does not have missing episodes. He has gone on the record many times to state this, yet some people still do not believe it.

There are very few tales that I actually place any credence in at all. In fact there are only three tales that I truly believe could be true;

Adrian Middleton’s (whatever did happen to him?) fanzine, Rumours, printed a rumour in January 1996 which suggested that The Underwater Menace must exist, as the actor who portrayed Professor Zaroff, Joseph Furst, claimed to be receiving royalties for it. And as royalties are only payable when a show is screened, this meant that The Underwater Menace must exist… (Note that this predates the VHS release of episode 3.)

It's only recently that I've found out a little more about this tale.

It is likely that that it story originates with an interview with Joseph Furst in issue #92 of the fanzine Sonic Screwdriver published in October 1995. The direct quote from the fanzine is; "An interesting comment to come from my interview with Joseph is that he had received residuals for screenings of The Underwater Menace in, get it, Outer Mongolia. The key point is that he received said residuals through till the Eighties, when the story was supposedly wiped from the face of the Earth... I've writted to the BBC regarding this, and we'll follow it up to see if, indeed, there's some more undicovered [sic] Doctor Who out there."

Now there are a number of things that immediately spring to mind here:

1 - At this time, it is thought that only six countries bought The Underwater Menace; Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Zambia and Uganda. Not Outer Mongolia... However, this list only represents known sales, so it is possible that there are some sales unaccounted for. Remember; all information on sales comes from secondary sources, the sales records themselves no longer exist.

2 - "...through till the Eighties." is a little vague. When in the 80s? Early 80s? 81-82? Or later up until 1989? There's a whole range of dates. If it is the earlier part of the decade, it could be that these are late residuals from screenings in the late 70s. Also it's possible that Furst may have mixed up his dates; at the time of interview he was 80.

3 - The most important point to remember; even if Outer Mongolia had the episodes as late as (for arguments sake) 1989, there is the possibility that they have junked them in the intervening years.

Still, the thought that there is a possibilty that The Underwater Menace exists does fill my heart with hope...

Canada

There have been a number of eye witness accounts of people who claim to have seen missing episodes in Canada. According to BBC documentation, Canada only bought up to the end of Keys of Marinus, yet there have been sightings of episodes as late as Season 5 Troughtons. Verifying this should be easy. All that is needed is one listing in one newspaper of an Episode not thought to have been screened there, yet despite the best efforts of a couple of people in Canada, nothing has been found.

It is possible that Doctor Who was aired as part of a "children's hour" or a "sci-fi hour", which would be billed under an umbrella title without listing individual programmes. As an example; if you were to look for the TV series Clueless in most UK listings, you would probably not find it, as it was (in 2002) broadcast as a part of the Saturday Morning show SMTV.

Also, bear in mind that should this tale be proven to be true, it does not automatically follow that the episodes still exist, waiting to be returned to the BBC.

The Invasion Episode 1

There have been many rumours of the existence of this episode, and at least one fan has actually seen the Episode (readers will forgive me for not naming the fan, as he has requested anonymity due to abuse from those who doubt his word and accuse him of telling lies):

"It was a very poor copy and the sound was very hissy and poor. I actually saw it on video around this guy's house in the early 80's (about 81/82) but I don't know if it was just a poor copy of the film print or a poor quality video copy."

"I didn't know when I saw it that it was a missing Episode - I'm sure he didn't either - this was before the high profile campaign to get the missing episodes back into the archives. I only knew this guy for a while and the last thing I heard he was in Manchester - although that was about 10 years ago! All I ever knew was his first name and at the time he was about 35, which means he would be about mid-50's now."

"Anyway, it was part one (not part two) - it started with the scene in the TARDIS where they are attacked by the missile from behind the moon."

True, it is just this fan's word that he has seen the Episode, but there is no real reason to doubt his word.

(Note that the infamous Blackpool hoaxer once claimed to have seen a silent copy of The Invasion Episode 1. This fan is NOT that person.)

How many people reading this would not be thrilled at the prospect of locating a missing Episode? Few, I would think. But what can you do to try and find one? Well, here's a couple of suggestions…

1 - Don't bother with overseas TV stations.

While it is highly likely that in a dark forgotten corner of an archive in a far off country lies a pile or two of uncatalogued film cans, the chance of a letter from a fan being taken any notice of and acted upon are somewhere between slim and none. ABC in Australia for example receives a steady trickle of letters from fans asking if they hold missing episodes and every one gets filed in the bin. It is even thought that some official BBC enquiries may have suffered this fate.

2 - Junk Shops, Car Boot Sales, Film Fairs…

It's donkey work, admittedly, but episodes have been found just by going to places like these. It's not very likely that you will find anything (kind of like looking for a needle in a haystack without even knowing there is a needle to find), but the more people that look, the more chance there is of finding stuff. Don't go out of your way or anything. If there's a sale near you, have a look.

3 - The Internet.

The collector who returned The Crusade Episode 1 had it listed for a few months (three or four, probably, certainly no more than six) on his website. No-one noticed. There are hundreds of sites out there with such lists. A quick glance at a few every now and then may eventually lead to something else turning up. Post messages on 16mm film boards, e-mail collectors, send of SAEs for "For Sale" lists. You never know, you might strike lucky!

I believe that there are without a doubt more missing episodes out there waiting to be discovered. I think it is relatively probable that there are episodes in long since forgotten corners of TV archives around the world. We can only hope that when they are found, the BBC will be contacted, and that the cans will not simply be thrown away.

In 1978, Asia TV in Hong Kong said they had no more Doctor Who when they returned The Web of Fear Episode 1. In 1992, they returned Tomb of the Cybermen (despite “not having any more Doctor Who”). Many people believe they may have more episodes in uncatalogued stores. If they do, then at least their previous behaviour suggests that they will return them to the BBC.

I am sure there are probably more film collectors with an Episode or two who are totally oblivious to the rarity of the print they own. The trouble is finding such people, and then persuading them that it really is a good idea to let the BBC copy their print. What would be very bad is if they get wind of the potential value of the print, and sell it on to an undisclosed buyer for a large sum and it’s never seen again. Still, there’s always e-bay!

And I would not be at all surprised if there are a handful of episodes (although certainly not the near complete set some claim) in the hands of Doctor Who fans. In my mind there is certainly enough anecdotal evidence to point to this.

We will never have a complete set of Doctor Who episodes in the archives, but I would like to think that there are more episodes out there, just waiting to be found. The hunt for missing episodes will never end. As older fans get jaded and give up on the search, younger fans will take their place with renewed vigour.