Doctor Who legend Peter Purves has reacted to the incredible recovery of two of his long-missing episodes after more than 60 years.
The rediscovered episodes, which were found in a "ramshackle collection" of vintage films donated by a collector, both star William Hartnell, the first incarnation of the Doctor, and Purves, and are the first and third episodes from the third season of Doctor Who.
The first episode, titled The Nightmare Begins, aired back in November 1965, while the third episode, Devil’s Planet, aired two weeks later. They were part of a “dark and gritty” 12-episode arc called The Daleks’ Master Plan, written by Terry Nation – the creator of the Daleks.
This follows the discovery of the second episode, Day of Armageddon, by a BBC engineer back in 2004 – meaning the opening three episodes of the arc have finally been recovered. The BBC has since confirmed that restored versions of the episodes will be released on BBC iPlayer this Easter.
Alongside Hartnell, the episodes also star Purves as the Doctor's companion Steven Taylor, Nicholas Courtney as Bret Vyon, Adrienne Hill as Katarina, and Kevin Stoney as Mavic Chen.
To mark the occasion, the Phoenix Cinema in Leicester invited Purves to view the recovered two episodes – originally under false pretences. Purves commented on the surprise reveal: "My flabber has never been so gasted."
Purves added after the screening: "I'm speechless, knocked out. I'm not sure I even saw those programmes go out originally – I remember the stories, but having seen them, the pictures are unfamiliar to me.
"I didn't remember the first one when I was still almost comatose following the injury I received fighting in Troy in the wonderful Mythmakers – which of course is missing."
The former companion has previously spoken to Doctor Who Magazine about how he "gave up long ago" on the hope that missing episodes would ever be found. This reveal is therefore a particularly heartwarming moment for the actor.
As of writing, a total of 95 episodes from the show's first six years are still missing, after the BBC notoriously erased or reused tapes between the 1960s and 1970s in an attempt to save on storage space and costs.
Purves and Doctor Who historian Toby Hadoke – who originally lured the star to Leicester for the event – both noted that the rediscovery of these classic episodes will undoubtedly reignite fans’ interest in the earlier seasons of the iconic British sci-fi show.
"It was the fourth appearance of the Daleks and it'll be exciting to fans for a lot of reasons," Purves explained. "The fans of Doctor Who are legion, and they seriously love the classic times.
"I'm astonished these two wonderful episodes have finally turned up. So many of my episodes are missing – it's heartbreaking to me.”
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The recovery is thanks to Film is Fabulous! (FIF), a charitable trust that preserves private historic film collections in the UK. This discovery marks the first missing episodes of Doctor Who to be announced since 2013.
"These are gems in what was an eclectic and ramshackle collection, a lot of which hadn't been looked after as well as the Doctor Who had,” professor of cinema and television history at Leicester's De Montfort University, Justin Smith – chair of trustees at FIF – told the BBC.
"The collector did recognise what he had, but how he acquired them has been lost to time. A lot of the films had suffered water damage and the cans had corroded.”
These two historical episodes are particularly notable as the arc The Daleks’ Master Plan was not sold by the BBC to overseas broadcasters, as censors deemed it too violent. As a result, it was only originally broadcast in the UK.
The two restored Doctor Who episodes will be screened at a special event organised by the FIF team on Saturday 4 April, with Purves as guest of honour. Fittingly, it will take place on the same day as the restored episodes become available to watch in full on BBC iPlayer.
Doctor Who will return at Christmas and is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
Check out more of our Sci-fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
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