More Lost Classic Doctor Who Episodes to be Restored
Jed | Hollywood Scholar | Jan 3, 2023 |
Doctor Who is one of the longest-running television shows ever and the longest-running sci-fi television show of all time. Yet, fans of this franchise cannot accomplish even the most basic tenet of fandom: watching every single episode of the show. For one reason or another, many Classic Doctor Who episodes from the 1960s have been lost, only bits and pieces or distorted fragments surviving, but the majority lost to time. The Second Doctor’s era was the most affected, and he is The Doctor fans have seen the least of.
Many years ago, these lost episodes were getting restored one by one through animation, beautifully recreating what fans had lost. However, the BBC ended these animated recreations last year when BBC America stopped funding the project. According to an exclusive Mirror report, “William Hartnell’s penultimate story The Smugglers, and Patrick Troughton’s third adventure, The Underwater Menace,” will be restored through animation for the upcoming 60th anniversary. The Mirror’s insider went on to clarify:
“Fans have been delighted as the show’s fourth season has been slowly restored through animated episodes. Only 10 of the 43 broadcast episodes still exist, so we’re getting to see the missing classics.”
In the current entertainment landscape – and the recent state of Doctor Who, in particular – it’s rare for fans to get explicitly positive news. If the funding afforded by the Disney+ union with the franchise facilitates the continued restoration of the lost episodes, perhaps this deal with the devil will result in an overall boon for the audience. As long as the tradition and precepts of these previous restorations are adhered to, specifically crafting as close to a one-to-one recreation as possible, this news is completely positive. However, if the influence of Disney and the present inclinations of entertainment media affects these restorations to facilitate a “fixing” of past mistakes, the final insult to Classic Doctor Who will be the result.
