I'm looking at Lost In Time. It's a 2 disc Doctor Who set that collects the existent episodes from several serials. The BBC was really careless and destroyed the remaining copies of 106 of the 253 episodes in the first 6 seasons. The complete episodes and random bits and pieces still available have been shovelled onto these two discs. In the UK this material was released with a third disc of the William Hartnell shows that came before the Patrick Troughton material. I had put both sets on my request list at the library and the PT 2 disc set showed up first. I got it for today. The quality of material, both on the technical side and on the story side, ranges from fair to poor but most of the footage is watchable. Well, except for the audio only episodes. Fans saved audio recordings of certain programs and you can hear them on this disc. Unfortunately they play them with a single title card up on the screen. Here's a list of the serials with whole episodes on the 2 discs.
32 The Underwater Menace aired January 14 – February 4 1967. Only episodes 2 & 3 of 4 exist. The Doctor, Jamie, Polly and Ben are in Atlantis where they help the fish men to revolt against the evil overlord.
33 The Moonbase aired February 11 – March 4 1967. Episodes 2 & 4 are on the disc with copies of the audio track of episodes 1 & 3. The Cybermen return and attack a base on the moon that controls the weather on Earth with a gravity ray gun called the Gravitron. The Doctor and crew help defeat the Cybermen who want to use it to attack the Earth. The operator of the Gravitron gravity beam wears a nice foam hat. I wondered if it was green foam.
35 The Faceless Ones originally showed up on the telly in the UK April 8 – May 13 1967. Only episodes 1 & 3 of the 6 exist. The Tardis dumps the Doctor and gang down in the middle of the runway at Gatwick Airport in modern day England. There's some alien guys stealing young people. The Doctor aids the local Police Inspector to solve the disappearance of a young woman's brother. Ben and Polly leave the series after this episode.
36 The Evil Of The Daleks was defeated May 20 – July 1 1967. Only episode 2 of the 7 exists. The Doctor and Jamie get pulled through time by someone else and they get a new pal when Victoria joins them as the ships new pretty girl. Victoria was played by Deborah Watling and she said on her epsisode commentary that she didn't wear any shape adjusting undergarments. Good to know.
38 The Abominable Snowmen was first broadcast September 30 – November 4 1967. Only episode 2 of the 6 exists. The Tradis gang encounters a Yeti. Nice, huh. Who doesn't like the Yeti.
40 The Enemy Of The World first aired December 23 1967 – January 27 1968. Episode 3 of the 6 exists. Patrick Taughton plays The Doctor and an evil overlord in this serial.
41 The Web Of Fear was first aired February 3 – March 1968. Only the first of the 6 is on the disc. I guess the BBC loved the Yeti so much that they brought him back for a new serial. I don't think the Daleks returned that fast.
43 The Wheel In Space wasn't something I watched on April 27 – June 1 1968. Episode 3 and 6 are still viewable. The Cybermen return in this serial and the Doctor and Jamie are joined by a new gal named Zoe.
49 The Space Pirates aired March 8 – April 12 1969. Another with only episode 2 left to watch. This would have been the one serial of the bunch that I would have wanted to see. It's because I like space pirates.
That's a lot, huh. Took me ages to watch all that and I didn't even listen to the three commentaries on the 2nd disc. The Special Features section has a good number of short clips that are the only surviving footage from other lost episodes. Sadly watching partial bits and pieces of stories is some what annoying. I did read some of the synopsis of the serials over at the Wikipedia. There's plenty of detail on the serials there. Or you can hit the Doctor Who wiki for some heavy duty blather in each episode. After watching these episodes I'm even more reminded of The Starlost and how much that show was like Doctor Who. In that they shared the same concept. A group of people travelling from place to place, talking and yelling in cheap ass surroundings. There were often ambitious ideas in both series but the poor writing, acting and effects make it easy to miss them. There's a 1998 featurette on disc 2 that covers a good deal about the lost episodes. Not much has been found since those days. So, all in all a rather frustrating collection since I rarely like to watch just a part of a movie or a tv show. I've got some whole serials coming for future sundays.
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