At the time of writing this, we’re just a short while after two long lost missing episodes of Doctor Who were rediscovered and released back to the BBC for the public to be able to watch.
For many years, there were 97 episodes of the classic era of Doctor Who that had gone missing, but in early 2026 that number reduced down to 95 with two episodes turning up in the hands of a private collection.
For a bit of added context, when Doctor Who was originally made in the 1960s, it was an in an era where the BBC and film and television companies in general didn’t keep an archive of all past programming that had been broadcast. In the modern era, it’s impossible to imagine that a prominent media company such as the BBC would broadcast something and not keep it themselves, and that there would be no copies in the hands of the public either.
Well, that’s exactly what happened with Doctor Who in the early years, and also for so many shows like Dad’s Army or Z Cars. The logic was that as TV moved into the colour era, they partly figured that there wasn’t much value in showing old black and white content. Also, the actor’s unions at the time had a major issue with tv channels broadcasting re-runs of TV shows. If a channel could just show a TV show over and over, they wouldn’t need to keep hiring actors to act on TV. Or at least this was their logic.
If you remember the line in Back to the Future, when Marty’s uncle, as a kid questions Marty ‘What’s a re-run?’. That’s because in the 50s and 60s they hadn’t been invented yet.
So, because of these factors and some others, the BBC started junking old episodes of Doctor Who. Tapes were erased and reused and others discarded entirely.
So, this brings the question where I make this story about me.
Yeah, that’s right me.
If you don’t know who I am, I run the pop culture podcast Geek Battle, and as anyone who has seen that show will know, I’m a big Doctor Who fan.
But I’m also a trained actor, and an aspiring supervillain.
So, here’s what I would do if I was able to rediscover the currently 95 missing episodes of early Doctor Who.
I’d hold them for ransom with the condition for their return being that the BBC cast me as the Next Doctor. That’s what!
Oh yes.
I’d go full Davros on the BBC and the Doctor Who fanbase.
But I wouldn’t demand money.
Oh no.
If the Beeb and the fans ever wanted to see the lost in time episodes of William Hartnell and Patrick Traughton ever again, then I would have be cast as the Doctor himself.
For every episode I appear as the Doctor in, I would gleefully restore one of the lost in time missing episodes of the first or second Doctor.
Now, you may think this makes me a bad guy or seems unreasonable, but do you know what I think is unreasonable?
That the BBC simply didn’t bother to keep old black and white episodes properly in their archive because they didn’t think anyone would be interested in watching old black and white TV episodes…
For this mistake there are consequences, and if I were the one to rescue them, this is what the consequences would be.
And if I did somehow get my hands on them…
This is how I’d lay out my demands…you could consider it my audition…
To begin with, I’d watch all the missing episodes myself.
I’d have the satisfaction of knowing that I’m the only person in the world to have watched these missing stories since the 1960s…
And once I’ve done that, smug and self-satisfied…I’d do the most Doctor Who thing imaginable….
I’d make the announcement that I have found the lost in time collection of Doctor Who’s missing episodes, then I’d live stream a video of me watching one in the background…just so the fanbase can collectively soil themselves at the sight of William Hartnell blurry in the background.
But at this stage, I wouldn’t make my full intentions known.
And sure, people would scream that it is AI, but in my next public address I would play an 18 second clip in crystal clear 1960s quality for the world. Only at this point I would make my demands.
And no, I wouldn’t demand money. I wouldn’t want simple pathetic money in exchange for the restoration of the priceless history of our beloved time lord. Nor would I demand that the chaos of the Timeless Children storyline be de-canonised. Although this would be tempting, and I know that fans would rejoice at this.
My demand would be simple.
The Doctor regenerates into a version played by me.
A fair exchange. 95 episodes where I have the keys to the Tardis. Script approval. Final cut.
I would be a Doctor that wouldn’t cry on an episode by episode basis. Nor would I run around with my fam. Nor would I wear sonic sunglasses or wear decorative vegetables.
I would be not the Doctor you think you want, but I’d be the Doctor you deserve.
And if my demands were not met, and for some reason I wasn’t cast as the Next Doctor, I guess I’d just cast myself as the Next Master.
And I’d create my own adventures where episode by episode I destroy the reels and spools of film of a missing episode until my demands are met.
The destruction of Marco Polo. The Myth of the Myth Makers. The incineration of the Power of the Daleks.
Each would be nuked in a suitably more elaborate fashion…
Or meet my demands. Make me the Next Doctor and let me heal the wound in time…or destroy it. The choice would be yours.
95 episodes lost in time no more. Just call me the Time Lord Victorious. Call me the Valeyard. Call me your next Doctor.
And look…this is all fantasy. You could call it some kind of blurring the lines pseudo fan fiction. It’s unlikely to ever happen, so no harm, no foul.
But if you don’t want this to scenario to happen, well…you’d better just hope that I don’t find the missing 95 episodes before anyone else.
So everyone else out there had better try to find them before me!
The clock is ticking…
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