• News

• All

Oct 11, 2013 By Mike Hilleary Doctor Who

While far from the treasure trove rumored to have been recovered, Doctor Who can rejoice in the fact that 11 episodes of the classic British sci-fi series were recently found in Nigeria, Africa. Remastering the tapes, the BBC has made the two story arcs “The Enemy of the World” and “The Web of Fear” available exclusively on iTunes.

The episodes, nine of which had been seen for 46 years, were apparently tracked down by Philip Morris, director of the BBC’s Television Enterprises Archives. “The tapes had been left gathering dust in a store room at a television relay station in Nigeria. I remember wiping the dust off the masking tape on the canisters and my heart missed a beat as I saw the words ‘Doctor Who’. When I read the story code I realized I’d found something pretty special.”

The first recovered story, “The Enemy of the World,” is a six-episode tale that first aired on the BBC in December 1967, featuring Patrick Troughton as both the Second Doctor and his antagonist (Ramon Salamander), alongside companions Jamie (Frazer Hines) and Victoria (Deborah Watling). Episodes 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6 had previously been missing from the BBC Archives before they were found by Morris.

Also recovered is the 1968 six-episode story, “The Web of Fear.” Also starring Patrick Troughton alongside Frazer Hines and Deborah Watling the storyline introduces Nicholas Courtney for the first time as Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart (who later returns as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart). While episodes 2, 4, 5, and 6 were been recovered, with episode 3 still missing, the restoration team reconstructed the part of the story using a selection of the 37 images that were still available from the episode along with the original audio, which has been restored.

Click below to watch the trailers for each story.

The Web of Fear:

The Enemy of the World:

(www.bbc.co.uk)