March 13th, 2026
27 comments
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Two Missing Episodes from The Daleks’ Master Plan Found
From the BBC Press Office
Doctor Who fans are in for a treat this Easter, as two ‘missing’ episodes from the 1960’s will be made available for viewers on BBC iPlayer.
The episodes, thought to be lost forever, were found by Film is Fabulous! – a charitable trust run by film collectors, cinema lovers and vintage television enthusiasts. They approached BBC Archives after finding them in a private collection. BBC Archives has worked to restore the original 16mm telerecordings – meaning viewers will be able to watch them in the best possible condition on BBC iPlayer.
The two episodes; The Nightmare Begins and Devil’s Planet were from the third series entitled The Daleks’ Master Plan. Written by Terry Nation, the series starred William Hartnell as the Doctor and Peter Purves as Steven Taylor. It also featured Nicholas Courtney as Bret Vyon, Adrienne Hill as Katarina, and Kevin Stoney as Mavic Chen.
Noreen Adams, Director of BBC Archives says: “We’re thrilled to have worked with the team at Film is Fabulous! to bring these lost Doctor Who episodes to viewers on BBC iPlayer this Easter. BBC Archives has been working to restore the original recordings and update these to broadcast quality, ensuring fans can enjoy a little extra treat with their Easter Eggs this April.”
These two episodes add to a raft of Doctor Who programming which forms The Whoniverse on BBC iPlayer.
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Sascha
March 13th, 2026 - 2:04pmI Hope us Non UK whovians will get a way to watch them asap
David Minter
March 13th, 2026 - 2:00pmWow, a tingle literally ran up my spine when I read this! Of all missing stories, The Daleks’ Master Plan seemed to be the one most unlikely to ever recover episodes.
I wonder if we’ll see a Blu-Ray release.
PJ
March 13th, 2026 - 3:11pmAMAZING NEWS SHAME IT WASN’T EPISODE 12 BUT SO EXCITING TO HAVE TWO UNSEEN EPISODES HOPEFULLY THEY WILL BE RELEASED ON IPLAYER
Paddy Troughton
March 13th, 2026 - 1:33pmAbsolutely dumb founded to hear of these 2 episodes returned. As peter put it so perfectly my flabber has never been so gasted. Forever thankful for film is fabulous doing amazing work preserving film and television history and the fact we get missing episode returns is a nice bonus. Roll on the 4th of April
Paddy Troughton
March 13th, 2026 - 1:36pmIf you would like to support film is fabulous they accept charity donations on their website. https://filmisfabulous.org.uk/
Andy
March 13th, 2026 - 12:48pmWow this fantastic news two episodes from the Daleks Master Plan. This is made my day well done thank you Film is Fabulous. I will look forward to seeing them on iPlayer soon. Then hopefully that will give the green light to animate the rest. Or if Film is Fabulous discover any more. Yeah so we now have nearly half of this story now. Once again well done Film is Fabulous and thank you.
Peter
March 13th, 2026 - 12:45pmOMG this is incredible! Amazing seeing those clips. I’ve been listening to the soundtracks since late 1996 (horrendous quality bootlegs on cassette – which I’ve still got)
Ep 1 is particularly great to get as we don’t have a decent quality soundtrack of the first 12 mins (not on the Randolph tapes – they start when the TARDIS arrives). We also had zero visual reference for the characters Roland and Vizan in the amazing opening scene. Ditto loads of stuff in Devil’s Planet. We also now have 3 of 5 episodes featuring Katarina (just need her first and last).
Arggghhhh roll on 4th April. this is absolutely incredible news.
Bill Silver
March 13th, 2026 - 12:38pmAnd, with luck, there may be more to come.
D84
March 13th, 2026 - 11:39amIt may alter how feasible an animation of DMP is
With interest in the story already high, and the clear notion that on any animated release it is likely these recovered episodes would be included – it may move things around
I expect they will still animate all 12 parts as they have done with the other releases of this nature but it may stir things up
Would still be a gargantuan effort as its such a long story with 12 parts to get through
Bookcollector
March 13th, 2026 - 12:03pmIt will take the best part of two years to animate if not longer. Hope we get the episodes released sooner possibly on a myth makers animation as that makes sense. I think an individual release is a long way off unfortunately
Dunc
March 13th, 2026 - 10:30amThis is amazing news. I also wondering if they’ll release these on dvd/blu-ray?
pupbenny
March 13th, 2026 - 10:25amI initially misread ‘two’ as ‘ten’ then LOL but amazing to have found any! Great news to have new missing episodes STILL turning up after so long! 😀
Andy R
March 13th, 2026 - 9:28amAwesome news and amazing work. Nice they premiered them to Peter Purves too.
Jason Z
March 13th, 2026 - 1:37pmAnd they lied to him about what he was going to Leicester for, too!
rich
March 13th, 2026 - 3:07pmHe’s a big fan of GB News so easily lied to
Scott
March 13th, 2026 - 9:28amThis I brilliant news, hope they find more episodes soon, in the not too distant future.
War Chief
March 13th, 2026 - 11:46amMore episodes with the Delegates…..and the Meddling Monk……and the tragic last episode, with Sara Kingdom…..and well, the rest of the story really….!
And if they find The Myth Makers and The Massacre, those episodes would nicely bookend this story….
but excellant, excellant news……what a good Friday 13th…..!
James
March 13th, 2026 - 8:59amSomeone asked Ian for comment? Lol
So we’re now half way to a complete version of DMP now. With 2,5,10 already archived, the prequel (Mission to the Unknown) remade by UNClan, and now 1+3 only leaves 7 eps to be sorted out. Maybe FiF may stumble upon a few more episodes. Hopefully a Box set maybe late 2028.
What a suprise to wake up to this morning.
RPG74
March 13th, 2026 - 8:58amFantastic. Lets hope animating the rest is a priority. I’ll happily accept black and white animations, and only those for the missing episodes would be fine! I suspect others feel the same.
What a find!
Troughton’s Trousers
March 13th, 2026 - 8:36amSplendid news! Looking forward to watching them. Wonder what other episodes may have been found in the collectors’ treasure troves…
ThingsfallapartUK
March 13th, 2026 - 11:11amAbsolutely this. We get excited about Doctor Who in this community but these collections have so many other lost media that hopefully gets uncovered and restored
Auton
March 13th, 2026 - 8:32amAmazing news. Can’t wait to watch them
TimelordTim
March 13th, 2026 - 8:15amExcellent news, looking forward to seeing them.
Prof Horner
March 13th, 2026 - 8:12amWhat fantastic news to wake up to. Best of all it’s on iPlayer from next month.
The ergon
March 13th, 2026 - 8:38amFound out via Gordon about 4pm this morning. I couldnt sleep and just checked my phone. I Couldnt believe it.
The ergon
March 13th, 2026 - 8:39amThats 4am.
The ergon
March 13th, 2026 - 8:07amAvailable to view on iplayer the 4th April.
Toby hadoke discussed the findings on breakfast tv.