Image via BBC
Published Mar 25, 2026, 7:24 PM EDT
Greer Riddell (pronounced Gre-er Rid-dell) is a very tired Londoner who is fuelled by tea and rarely looks up from her laptop. Before joining Collider in March 2024, Greer spent over a decade making social, content and video for UK media brands and freelance clients including the BBC, Bauer Media and Glastonbury Festivals. Greer is first and foremost the Social Media Coordinator at Collider, looking after Social Video and TikTok but is an occasional Features Writer.
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60 years ago, the BBC routinely erased and reused its 16mm reels to save money and space. This short-term solution has now created a chasm in early British television history and culture, as hundreds of hours of pioneering programming have been lost to time. One of the most significant casualties was Doctor Who, whose first six years produced 253 episodes spanning William Hartnell's tenure as the First Doctor, and Patrick Troughton, as the Second. With the original reels wiped, generations of fans and TV historians only have partial access to the earliest adventures of the Time Lord.
Over the decades, many of the 253 lost Doctor Who episodes have been recovered through campaigns and archival work by fans and organizations. Now, in the largest Doctor Who discovery since 2013, when nine lost episodes were found in Nigeria, BBC Archives and the Leicester-based charity Film Is Fabulous! have announced the recovery of two episodes long considered gone. These episodes are critical to understanding the foundation of Doctor Who and his now iconic antagonists, the Daleks. Their discovery provides an underexplored avenue for future archival efforts, reigniting the hunt for the remaining 95 lost episodes to complete the 26 unfinished stories.
What Happens in Doctor Who’s “The Daleks’ Masterplan”?
Image via BBCThe two newly-found episodes of Doctor Who, which have not been viewed publicly since their original airing in the 1960s, feature the first incarnation of the Doctor, played by William Hartnell, tackling a Dalek plan to take over the Earth. They are from the 12-part 1965 serial “The Daleks’ Masterplan” and are the episodes “The Nightmare Begins” and “Devil’s Planet,” which join the previously recovered “Day of Armageddon” to complete the first three installments of the Daleks’ first major story. Written by Dalek creator, Terry Nation and Dennis Spooner, the serial also starred Peter Purves as Stephen Taylor, who has criticized the BBC, including in Doctor Who Magazine, for their destructive policy: “I’m furious the BBC was so profligate and unthinking. They didn’t even archive the telecine copies. How stupid is that?”
The first newly recovered episode, “The Nightmare Begins,” originally broadcast in November 1965 as part of Season 3, sees the Doctor and Steven land on the jungle planet Kemble while searching for help for an injured companion. They unexpectedly discover a secret Dalek assembly, where they have allied with Mavic Chen, played by Kevin Stoney, the Guardian of the Solar System, to take over Earth. The Doctor and Steven secretly observe the gathering before being detected, ending the episode on a tense cliffhanger. The second episode, “Devil’s Planet,” aired two weeks later, follows the Doctor after he has stolen a critical component needed for the Daleks’ plan. He lands on the planet Desperus and he and his companions must navigate the chaos as the Daleks arrive in pursuit.
“The Daleks’ Masterplan” is a dark and gritty 12-part arc with more than half of its episodes still missing. Other key cast members include Nicholas Courtney in an early appearance as Brett Vyon, Jean Marsh as Sara Kingdom and Adrienne Hill as Katarina. Courtney would later become known for his recurring role as the Brigadier. The serial marks the fourth appearance of the Daleks and is notable for the first brutal deaths of female companions in the series.
Related
Why Are There So Many Missing Doctor Who Episodes?
Broadcasts of Doctor Who were wiped under a BBC-wide policy in the 1960s and 70s due to the high cost of reels and lack of archiving priority and strategy. Even technical review copies, which were created from the original negatives to check quality and determine whether edits were required for overseas sales, were discarded. Unlike previous Doctor Who episodes which have been recovered from foreign broadcasters, “The Daleks’ Masterplan” had not been sold abroad because Australian and New Zealand censors deemed it too violent. So, combined with the shift to color, the black-and-white serial was considered commercially worthless.
Film is Fabulous! recovered the episodes from a ramshackle private collection. Justin Smith, chair of FIF, said to the BBC that, “A debt of gratitude was owed to the anonymous late collector, whose films largely focused on his love of trains and canals, including hundreds of home videos, which were donated to FIF after he died.”
Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Survival Quiz
Which Sci-Fi World
Would You Survive?
The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars
Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Ten questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you'd actually make it out of alive.
💊The Matrix
🔥Mad Max
🌧️Blade Runner
🏜️Dune
🚀Star Wars
Test Your Survival →
01
You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do? The first instinct is often the truest one.
APull on every thread until I understand the system — then figure out how to break it. BStop asking questions and start stockpiling — food, fuel, weapons. Questions don't keep you alive. CKeep my head down, observe carefully, and trust no one until I know who's pulling the strings. DStudy the patterns. Every system has a rhythm — learn it, and you learn how to survive it. EFind the people fighting back and join them. You can't fix a broken galaxy alone.
Next Question →
02
In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely? What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires.
AKnowledge. If you understand the system, you don't need resources — you can generate them. BFuel. Everything else — movement, power, escape — runs on it. CTrust. In a world of fakes and informants, a truly reliable ally is rarer than any commodity. DWater. And after water, information — the two things empires are truly built on. EShips and credits. The galaxy is big — you survive it by being able to move through it freely.
Next Question →
03
What kind of threat keeps you up at night? Fear is useful data — if you're honest about what you're actually afraid of.
AThat reality itself is a lie — that everything I experience has been constructed to keep me compliant. BA raid. No warning, no mercy — just the roar of engines and then nothing left. CBeing identified. Once someone with power decides you're a problem, you're already out of time. DBeing outmanoeuvred — losing a political game I didn't even know I was playing. EThe Empire tightening its grip until there's nowhere left to run.
Next Question →
04
Which of these comes most naturally to you? Your strongest skill is your best survival asset — use it accordingly.
AHacking, pattern recognition, finding the exploit in any system — digital or human. BMechanical skill — I can strip an engine, rig a weapon, or fix anything with whatever's around. CReading people — knowing when someone's lying, hiding something, or about to run. DDiscipline and endurance — mental and physical. I outlast things rather than overpower them. EPiloting, navigation, knowing how to get from A to B when every route is dangerous.
Next Question →
05
How do you deal with authority you don't trust? Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything.
ASubvert it from the inside — learn its rules well enough to weaponise them against it. BIgnore it and stay out of its reach. The further from any power structure, the better. CAppear to comply while doing exactly what I need to do. Visibility is the enemy. DManoeuvre within it carefully. You can't beat a system you refuse to understand. EResist openly when I have to. Some things are worth the risk of being seen.
Next Question →
06
Which environment could you actually endure long-term? Survival isn't just tactical — it's physical, psychological, and very much about where you are.
AUnderground bunkers and server rooms — cramped, artificial, but with access to everything that matters. BOpen wasteland — brutal sun, no shelter, constant movement. At least the threat is honest. CA dense, rain-soaked city where you can disappear into the crowd and nobody asks questions. DMerciless desert — extreme heat, no water, and something enormous living beneath the sand. EThe fringe — backwater planets and busy spaceports where the Empire's attention rarely reaches.
Next Question →
07
Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart? The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are.
AA tight crew of believers who've seen behind the curtain and have nothing left to lose. BOne or two people I'd trust with my life. Any more than that and someone talks. CNobody, ideally. Alliances are liabilities. I work alone unless I have no choice. DA community bound by shared hardship and mutual survival — people who need each other to last. EA ragtag team with wildly different skills and total commitment when it counts.
Next Question →
08
A comfortable lie or a devastating truth — which can you actually live with? Some worlds offer one. Some offer the other. Very few offer both.
AThe truth, no matter the cost. I'd rather live in a brutal reality than a beautiful cage. BNeither — truth and lies are luxuries. What matters is surviving the next hour. CI've learned to live with ambiguity. Some truths don't have clean answers. DThe truth — but deployed strategically. Knowing something others don't is power. EThe truth. Even when it means confronting something in yourself you'd rather leave buried.
Next Question →
09
Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all? Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they're actually made of.
AI won't harm the innocent — even the ones who'd report me without hesitation. BI do what I have to to protect the people I've chosen. Everything else is negotiable. CThe line shifts depending on who's asking and what's at stake. DI draw a long-term line — nothing that compromises my people's future, even if it'd help now. ESome lines, once crossed, can't be uncrossed. I know which ones they are.
Next Question →
10
What would actually make survival worth it? Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another.
AWaking others up — dismantling the illusion so no one else has to live inside it. BFinding somewhere — or someone — worth protecting. A reason to keep moving. CAnswers. Understanding what I am, what any of this means, before time runs out. DLegacy — shaping the future in a way that outlasts me by generations. EFreedom — for myself, for others, for every world still living under someone else's boot.
Reveal My World →
Your Fate Has Been Calculated You'd Survive In…
Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for.
💊 The Matrix
You took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You're a systems thinker who can't help but notice the seams in things, the places where the official version doesn't quite line up. In the Matrix, that instinct is the difference between life and permanent digital sedation. You'd find the Resistance, or it would find you. The machines built an airtight prison. You'd be the one probing the walls for the door.
🔥 Mad Max
The wasteland doesn't reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That's you. You don't need comfort, community, or a cause larger than the next horizon. You need a vehicle, a clear threat, and enough fuel to outrun it. You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider.
🌧️ Blade Runner
You'd survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely. You read people accurately, keep your circle small, and ask the questions others prefer not to answer. In a city where humanity is a legal designation rather than a feeling, you hold onto something that keeps you functional. You're not a hero. But you're not lost, either. In Blade Runner's world, that distinction is everything.
🏜️ Dune
Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards. Patience, discipline, pattern recognition, political awareness, and an understanding that the long game matters more than any single victory. Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You'd learn its logic, earn its respect, and perhaps, in time, reshape it entirely.
🚀 Star Wars
The galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn't have it any other way. You're someone who finds meaning in being part of something larger than yourself. You'd gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire's grip can be broken. Whatever you are, you fight. And in Star Wars, that willingness is what makes the difference.
↩ Retake Quiz
Missing episodes of Doctor Who have been previously recovered in several waves, beginning in 1983 when 16mm prints of episodes 5 and 10 of “The Daleks’ Masterplan” were discovered at a church in Wandsworth, London. In 2004, the episode “Day of Armageddon” was returned by a former BBC engineer, having survived as another technical copy used for quality checks. A wider public effort followed in 2006 through a Blue Peter appeal encouraging fans to search private collections, contributing to further additions such as the 2011 recovery of episodes from “Galaxy 4” and “The Underwater Menace.” The most significant modern discovery came in 2013 in Jos, Nigeria, where nine missing episodes from Second Doctor stories were uncovered, marking the largest single recovery in decades. BBC Archives have now restored the two latest episodes to broadcast quality, and they will be released on BBC iPlayer at Easter 2026, with a special screening in London on the same day, April 4.
“The Daleks’ Masterplan” is pivotal for understanding the series' original tone, scale, and characters — many of which have informed how the series has continued in its original run and current iteration from Russell T. Davies. With this new recovery, the first quarter of the largest Dalek story ever attempted is now available to fans, renewing hope that further missing episodes may be unexpectedly found in the UK rather than abroad. The complete history of Doctor Who may finally be preserved, and the BBC will be finally redeemed for their biggest archival mistake.
Release Date 2005 - 2022-00-00
Network BBC
Directors Graeme Harper, Euros Lyn, Douglas Mackinnon, Jamie Magnus Stone, Charles Palmer, Rachel Talalay, Joe Ahearne, James Strong, Jamie Childs, Saul Metzstein, Toby Haynes, Wayne Che Yip, Nick Hurran, Richard Clark, James Hawes, Daniel Nettheim, Colin Teague, Keith Boak, Azhur Saleem, Adam Smith, Andrew Gunn, Nida Manzoor, Lawrence Gough, Paul Murphy
English (US) ·