A total of 97 of 253 episodes from the show's first six years are currently missing, leaving 26 stories incomplete, because the BBC erased or reused tapes in the 1960s and 1970s to save storage space and costs, before archiving policies were in place.
Speaking on behalf of Film is Fabulous!, a charitable trust dedicated to preserving vulnerable film collections across the UK, film collector John Franklin shared a statement to clarify some recent claims made about missing episodes.
"We are aware of those and we are actively discussing their whole collections. We’re not going to just take the Doctor Who, or the other rare bits they have, we’re talking about the whole collections, coming in, being catalogued, and being managed in the way that we manage everything. So I hope that is a positive that your listeners take out of this."
View oEmbed on the source websiteHe explained: "Since 2023, I and a couple of other key members of the Film is Fabulous! team have been aware of a large collection of films, thousands of films, that have become vulnerable. That collection contains some very important material including a missing episode of Doctor Who. It is a large collection and there is a possibility that there are other episodes of Doctor Who in that collection but at this moment in time, we know of one."
Franklin also pointed out that Film is Fabulous deals with entire collections, and added that removing a single print or a rare item would be "illegal and immoral", emphasising that the trust will only work legally and respectfully.
Sharing a final insight, Franklin urged fans: "Give us the space to conclude the things that we’re doing. You will be very, very happy with the announcements when they come, but we just need the space to be able to do that now."
In May, she said: "As far as Doctor Who goes, we do not have a statement or anything to make at the moment. We do know fairly certainly that there are episodes missing in private collections. Some members of the Film is Fabulous! team are in a considerably significant position to help on that."
"That works on the assumption every one of them had to be recorded somewhere. I've been asked in the past, when I knew less, whether I thought we'd found the last Doctor Who. And I'd sort of look a bit vague and say, 'Oh, I don't know.'
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