The audio recordings of three missing 1960s Doctor Who stories will be added to BBC Sounds very soon, to help celebrate the franchise’s 60th anniversary.
BBC Sounds is an online streaming service, launched in 2018, that offers live radio, on demand programmes, podcasts, audiobooks, music mixes, and more. And this library will include a few episodes of Doctor Who starring William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton as the First and Second Doctors respectively!
BBC Sounds notes:
“Sadly, not all of Doctor Who’s earliest years survive in the BBC archive. Many episodes have been lost, seemingly forever. But thanks to the ingenuity of the fans, sound recordings of these missing episodes survived and were returned to the BBC. Combined with narration from the stars of Doctor Who, here’s a chance to listen to three adventures starring the first two Doctors.”
The three stories haven’t been revealed nor when they’ll be on the platform — however, we think it’s fairly likely that they’ll be added on 1st November, the same day over 800 episodes of Doctor Who, Doctor Who Confidential, Class, Torchwood, and The Sarah Jane Adventures will be added to BBC iPlayer.
So which stories are likely? 97 episodes of Doctor Who are missing from the archive, and while some are pretty unlikely (The Space Pirates, for example, seeing as it’s not a particularly popular tale; The Underwater Menace, given that it’s being animated for release on DVD and Blu-ray; and The Web of Fear, as only one episode if currently lost), there are plenty of likely candidates.
The Celestial Toymaker feels a good option, seeing as the titular antagonist is coming back for The Giggle, the concluding part of the 60th anniversary trilogy of episodes, this time played by Neil Patrick Harris. The Power of the Daleks, the first adventure for the Second Doctor, could be a nice addition. Ditto largely missing and unanimated serials like The Daleks’ Master Plan and Marco Polo.
But we’ll just have to wait and see. Not that the wait is likely to be very long…