Doctor Who, BBC’s long-running sci-fi television series about a Time Lord known as The Doctor, has lost many of its original programming from the early seasons featuring the first two doctors, played by William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton. Instead of losing these Classic Doctor Who episodes entirely, the British Film Institute has decided to say, “Geronimo!” and dive into animation to revive the missing episodes.
Part of BFI’s “Missing Believed Wiped” event, the Classic Doctor Who episode titled “The Wheel In Space,” will join the ranks of other missing episodes that will receive a revival through animation. “Missing Believed Wiped” is an annual event held by the British Film Institute in London that works to recover lost moments from British television history.
Other than “The Wheel In Space,” over 90 episodes from Classic Doctor Who seasons have been lost over the years due to BBC’s archival policy of deleting past episodes; many of the classic footage was wiped for an assortment of reasons relating to practicality, including shortage of materials, insufficient space for storage, and unattained rebroadcasting rights. The audio from some of the lost episodes has been recovered, thanks to the devoted fans who recorded the epsiodes when they originally aired, and will be coupled with the animation.
The synopsis for the Classic Doctor Who episode “The Wheel In Space,” which originally aired back in 1968 on BBC One, is as follows:
“The Doctor and the crew of the Wheel battle against the invading Cybermen.”
BFI will premiere the animated Doctor Who mini-episode of “The Wheel In Space” on December 15th in London.