Two Lost Doctor Who Episodes Have Been Found, But Their Guardians Are Too 'Terrified' To Return Them

"Doctor Who" has long been regarded as one of the pillars of science fiction television. Unfortunately, back in the 1960s and 1970s, the BBC regarded previously broadcast "Doctor Who" episodes as junk that was just taking up space, so the episodes were destroyed to make room for new programming. Some lost "Doctor Who" stories have since been recovered from collectors, overseas broadcasters, and — in the case of two episodes of the serial "The Daleks' Master Plan" — in the basement of a Mormon church. However, despite decades of searching, 97 episodes remain lost.

That number could be whittled down to 95, according to a new report by The Observer, but there's a problem. Film collector John Franklin, who knows the locations of the two missing episodes, says their guardians are afraid that if they come forward their precious mementos could be confiscated, and that they might even face criminal prosecution. The lost episodes were secretly recovered from bins after being discarded by the BBC, and could be considered stolen property. Franklin explained:

"The collectors involved are ex-employees and so are terrified. The rule was that you didn't take anything, even if it had been thrown out. But if you loved film and knew it would be important one day, what did you do? So what we need now is an amnesty."

The BBC has said: 

"We welcome members of the public contacting us regarding programmes they believe are lost archive recordings, and are happy to work with them to restore lost or missing programmes to the BBC archives."

However, this falls short of declaring a general amnesty for episodes that could be considered not "lost," but stolen. And those in possession of those early "Doctor Who" episodes have good reason to be afraid.

The criminalization of non-authorized ownership of films and TV shows began long before the era of bootleg VHS tapes and internet piracy. As Franklin explained to the Observer, the former employees who fished these episodes out of trash are now in their 80s, which means they're old enough to remember when beloved British comedian and TV presenter Bob Monkhouse was arrested in 1978 and charged with conspiracy to defraud film companies by illegally importing copies of movies. Though he was later acquitted of the charges, his library of 1,800 films had been seized by the police and most of it was never returned.

Monkhouse's confiscated collection included the sole copy of the 1931 British comedy thriller "Ghost Train" and missing scenes from Buster Keaton's "The Cameraman." Both were destroyed. It's the kind of loss that comes as a gut-punch to those with a passion for film preservation: tragic, senseless, and — worst of all — carried out under the authority of the law. 

"These collectors were seen as criminals, but now we can see they are really saviours," film restorer Mark Stuckey told the Observer. "An amnesty would stop them being frightened of prosecution."

The U.K. isn't the only country that carried out such raids on private film collections. In a 1977 paper for the Cleveland State Law Review, Francis M. Nevins Jr. condemned the MPAA's Film Security Office for its publication of "false and misleading legal notices," which resulted in dozens of hobbyists having "their homes invaded and their prints confiscated without search warrants by federal agents." 

2023 has brought fresh reasons to hope that "criminal" collectors might rescue films from the company that owns them. This week, Warner Bros. shelved the completed comedy film "Coyote vs. Acme" for the sake of a tax write-off, even telling interested buyers that the film wasn't for sale, according to Rolling Stone.

It's a move that came as a nasty shock, even after Warner Bros. did the same thing to "Batgirl," which had completed filming, and animated film "Scoob! Holiday Haunt," which was "practically finished" according to its co-writer. "Coyote vs. Acme" had scored very highly with test audiences, and the news of its indefinite imprisonment in the Warner Bros. vault prompted a wave of outrage from the industry and testimonials from those who had seen it. Filmmaker Brian Duffield said, "I still laugh about an amazing John Cena scene in 'Coyote vs. Acme' where he threatening[ly] snarls 'I tawt I taw a puddy tat.'"

Oscar-winning composer Steven Price shared a video of a choir recording an arrangement of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture for the film, vocalized entirely through the word "meep." But a behind-the-scenes sizzle reel shared by another crew member has been removed from social media through copyright strikes by Warner Bros. Discovery.

As for the lost "Doctor Who" episodes ... well, it's understandable that their rescuers might be reluctant to return them to the same corporation that tried to trash them in the first place.