This release contains six episodes of early Doctor Who, but unlike practically every other release, these are assorted episodes from a variety of stories. The dark fact is that not every episode of the series survived to the point to day. Many of the earliest were destroyed, but fortunately, not all of them. As a result, this collection doesn’t really enjoy a complete legend, but what it does offer, is a piquant peer at what exists from these incomplete stories. The other postitive thing is that these episodes have never been aired on US television!
Buy,Download, Or Stream Doctor Who - Lost in Time Collection of Rare Episodes - The William Hartnell Years 1963-1966! Click Here
As for the goodies inside:
THE CRUSADE 1 & 3 - A historical account in which the Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Vicki encounter the era of King Richard the Lionhearted, (played by Julian Glover), and his sister Joanna (played by Jean Marsh) . A four-part legend originally, the second and fourth parts are included on the DVD in audio-only format, so you can experience the complete narrative as grand as is humanly possible. Also, as a bonus, there is a commentary track for the third episode.
Buy,Download, Or Stream Doctor Who - Lost in Time Collection of Rare Episodes - The William Hartnell Years 1963-1966! Click Here
THE DALEKS’ MASTER Belief 2, 5 & 10 - These three episodes are all that remain from this fable 12-part adventure, (and in fact the second episode was only fair discovered at the beginning of 2004, and has never been seen anywhere since its new transmission in 1965!) This account features the Doctor and his companion Steven, with seldom seen companions Katarina and Sara Kingdom. This sage also features the first appearance of Nicholas Courtney, who would derive fame later in the program as the Brigadier. Plus, it has Daleks! Episode 2 also features a commentary track.
THE CELESTIAL TOYMAKER 4 - The final piece of a 4-part adventure, featuring the Doctor, Steven and Dodo playing a deadly game against the Celestial Toymaker, (played by Michael Gough, perhaps better known in this day and age as Alfred the Butler in the Batman movies of the 1990’s) . Titanic fun this one is.
As if that wasn’t enough, the DVD release also features a variety of surviving clips from various other Hartnell stories.
This collection is a genuine cherish! To be fair, it may not be the best pick for someone who is unprejudiced getting into Doctor Who, as these aren’t complete stories, but then again, they do offer an appealling assortment of goodies from three very different early stories. As dusky as it is that there are episodes missing from the early days of Doctor Who, it is gratifying that these gems to exist to give you a taste of the wonders they were creating for this current series.
One final designate - if you judge you might be at all involved in this, deem buying the Troughton status too, which contains a further 12 episodes from that era!
As most Doctor Who fans know, there are tall gaps in the archives for the sad and white era of the point to that featured the first two actors to play the role, William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton. Due to a total disregard for archiving material and, criminally, as a cost cutting exhaust, there was a systematic junking policy for `expired’ TV shows across many broadcast networks through to the 1970’s. In many ways, Doctor Who fared better than most with many complete stories surviving either in private hands or more often by delighted accidents.
Although anything to have survived is miraculous, in many cases, irritatingly, stories were left incomplete on the archive shelves. Comely distinguished useless to any broadcaster and indeed seemingly for home DVD or video release. But the vivid guys at the BBC have spotted a procedure to derive up all this stray material and package it together on a collection of three discs featuring not only eighteen complete episodes but a whole myriad of other snippets and gems from the vaults.
As a mountainous Doctor Who fan, I was thrilled to peruse all these homeless relics gathered together, but from a wider commercial viewpoint, I don’t deem it’s a particularly spellbinding project. But isn’t it incredible for fans to be indulged in this draw? I’d never seen either episodes of The Faceless Ones before, so this was a staunch treat, as it was to recognize the newly discovered gem from The Daleks’ Master Thought.
The predicament for me is that alone, or even where two or more episodes exist, it’s exceptionally frustrating to look what remains of these stories. If you’re watching episode one for example, you’re completely bent by the kill and then hugely disappointed that there is no more! For stories that fair have the irregular episode from the middle of the yarn, it’s enough to drive you barmy. My biggest irritation came from watching episode 4 of The Celestial Toymaker. What on earth is going on? It would have been so, so noteworthy better had the DVD contained a synopsis of what was missing to serve flesh out some of the material and set aside things into context. Definitely an opportunity missed. In a step towards this, there are soundtracks included for two missing episodes from The Crusade and The Moonbase, which does wait on complete those stories, but since photos exist of both missing episodes, why weren’t they included? When all there is to hear is music or sound effects, it leaves you bewildered as to what might be happening. A photo or a subtitle would have been so worthy more effective.
Also gathered from the cutting room floor are many, many short clips (in some cases, don’t blink or you’ll miss them) from other completely deleted episodes. It’s shadowy that in so many cases these split second clips are all that have remained. There’s also a lot of home movie footage, which is really consuming. I enjoy this to be the only color examples of footage from the era and although short, they are unbelievable to explore.
We can but hope that as time goes on, some of the missing material will turn up. No one would have plan the complete Tomb of the Cybermen would suddenly reappear in 1992. So hope springs eternal. Until then, here’s some classic Who, brilliantly restored and remastered to delight in.
Get a Good Night Sleep
Have Your Final Smoke
