Lost 'Doctor Who' Story "The Underwater Menace" Will Be Released as an Animated Adventure In 2023

One of the best — and occasionally most frustrating — things about Doctor Who is its longevity. The series, which premiered in 1963, will celebrate its 60th anniversary this November, a colossal achievement that spans 872 episodes, encompassing 300 stories spread across 39 television seasons. Wading into all that historical context can feel daunting, particularly for those of us who came to the world of the blue police box in the wake of the series' revival in 2005. And that's before you even consider that a significant chunk of its earliest seasons no longer exists.

Between t967 and 1978, BBC policy was to routinely delete archive programs for various practical reasons, including lack of space and scarcity of material. As a result, many of the show's earliest episodes, from William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton's First and Second Doctor eras, are now missing or incomplete. I7 out of 253 episodes remain lost to this day.

Luckily, however, a complete audio recording for all episodes still exists, which means fans can still see these classic stories after a fashion. Animators have reconstructed and recreated many of the series' lost or incomplete installments, including Second Doctor stories "The Faceless Ones," "Fury from the Deep," "The Evil of the Daleks," "The Macra Terror," "Power of the Daleks," and "Web of Fear."