The BBC has issued an official apology after wiping The Nightmare Begins and Devil’s Planet, the newly-recovered episodes of Doctor Who classic, The Daleks’ Master Plan.
Despite being recovered by Film is Fabulous!, two episodes of the First Doctor serial were returned to the BBC, but in the process of uploading them to streaming service, BBC iPlayer, the corporation accidentally wiped them again.
A spokesperson for the BBC apologised for the mistake, and continued:
“The issue seems to have occurred when uploading the restored serial to iPlayer for viewers to watch over the Easter weekend. During upload, we experienced some downtime and the episodes subsequently disappeared, meaning they’re effectively missing, believed wiped, from our digital library.”
Current rumours on social media suggest that digital duplicates were taken by a BBC employee before the incident and that the downtime was premeditated in order to bump up the value of these illegal acquisitions. At this point, though, these are solely rumours and the BBC has refused to comment further.
Unfortunately, Film is Fabulous! can’t immediately restore the Doctor Who episodes as the original reels have been given back to the family of the collector who had left their collection to be safely restored.
Justin Smith, chair of trustees at Film is Fabulous!, said:
“We’re working once more with the estate to try to ensure these episodes are copied and given back to the BBC; however, after the enthusiasm from fans following the initial announcement, family members are reluctant to hand them over once more, claiming the BBC cannot be trusted with Doctor Who. Frankly, it’s hard to disagree.
“While we appreciate fans’ disappointment at this time, we ask for your patience in this matter as we try to resolve complications between the estate and the BBC.”
Needless to say, this is a horribly sad situation and we hope a resolution can be found sooner rather than later.
Though The Nightmare Begins and Devil’s Planet are again missing from the archives, some remaining episodes of The Daleks’ Master Plan are still available to watch on BBC iPlayer and on the Lost in Time DVD.
