Episodes from William Hartnell era are from mostly lost 12-part adventure called The Daleks’ Master Plan
Two episodes of Doctor Who from the William Hartnell era, which have not been seen since 1965, have been released after being discovered in a private film collection.
The two episodes, released on Friday and starring Peter Purves as the Doctor’s companion, are parts one and three of a mostly lost 12-part adventure called The Daleks’ Master Plan, written by the Dalek creator Terry Nation and broadcast as part of the third series of Doctor Who in November 1965.
The two episodes – The Nightmare Begins and Devil’s Planet – were recovered by Film is Fabulous, a charitable trust run by film collectors with the aim of securing and preserving private collections. The estate of the deceased owner of the episodes, in whose collection the film prints were found, wishes that he remains anonymous, and so details about the circumstances of the find have been scarce.
Among his collection were four other Doctor Who episodes, but all of those were already held by the BBC. The original 16mm telerecordings of the two Dalek episodes have been restored, and were made available on iPlayer in the UK on Friday morning. They will also be shown at a sold-out event at Riverside Studios in Hammersmith, west London, Saturday afternoon.
