Philip Morris of Television International Enterprises Archives (TIEA), who returned nine previously missing episodes of Doctor Who to the BBC Archives in 2013, recently revealed that he had found all episodes of The Web of Fear back then. Episode 3, featuring the first appearance of Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart, went missing again shortly after the discovery, presumably stolen and sold to a private collector.

The Doctor Who Missing Episodes Discussion Group on Facebook has now been given a photo of all 12 film cans found in Africa. They posted the picture on the Facebook group with permission by Philip Morris. On the photo you can see the production code PP (The Enemy of the World) written on the side of one of the cans, the further eleven cans are also part of that serial and of the following story The Web of Fear (Code QQ). Among them is the now once again missing episode 3 of the classic "Yeti's in the Underground"-story.

The following statement was released on Facebook:

On the second anniversary of the release of the newly-recovered and restored “Enemy Of The World” and “Web Of Fear”, Philip Morris, Executive Director of TIEA has authorized us (The Doctor Who Missing Episodes Group on Facebook) to release this photograph of the twelve film cans which he originally discovered in Jos, Nigeria.

This photo was taken immediately after Phil had discovered the film cans and verified that the film reels inside matched what was on the labels.

As you are no doubt aware, one of these film cans - the one containing Episode 3 of “The Web Of Fear” – went missing in between when this photo was taken (in late 2011) and when the cans were delivered to the central collection point in Abuja, Nigeria. The location and disposition of this film can and its contents is currently unknown.

Philip Morris put out the following statement:

The picture you see is one I took after checking the 12 Doctor Who film cans in Jos in 2011. All film leaders were checked to ensure cans matched their contents, this is a practice we follow in fine detail with due care shown. All programmes held at this station were physically checked by myself and my own team. No undue attention was drawn to the Doctor Who prints by myself or any of my staff, however I instructed one of my trusted team to ensure the Doctor Who prints were hidden until authorisation for retrieval could be obtained.

However two prints, one QQ3 Web of Fear 3 and another spare print were taken from one of my guys by a guy at the station who took the two prints to his office. This was reported to me within hours. I was not unduly concerned I knew their location. I have to admit I was really excited and told somebody I thought would not leak any sensitive information - big big mistake. Within 4/5 days the station had been named online. Fortunately by this time our job was done, however what of Web 3? I physically searched Jos again, asked the guy who took the films where they were. Initially he denied all knowledge until I produced the picture-he just looked at the floor and said he put them back on the shelf.

I didn't believe a word, and took the pictures and with one of my collegues and went straight to the top of the NTA, however the guy simply denied it. That is until earlier this year when I returned to Nigeria. I met the same guy again so I asked him directly - he just laughed and said "I don't know anything about missing episodes."
I firmly believe this episode is in the hands of a fan and we will trace it. I hope this goes someway to explain why I must maintain a certain level of security around TIEA and its work.

Thanks to the Doctor Who Missing Episodes Group and to Philip Morris for the kind permission to publish the picture on DWN.

On the eve of the second anniversary of their publicised recovery, Fantom Films have announced a special project to provide commentaries for The Enemy of the World and The Web of Fear, the two returned Season Five stories starring Patrick Troughton that were released 'vanilla' on DVD and via iTunes. Who Talk! will see cast and crew brought together to discuss the two stories, under the guidance of commentary moderation stalwart Toby Hadoke.


The commentaries will be released on both CD and download formats, and will feature Deborah Watling for both stories, with Enemy represented by Mary Peach, Milton Johns, Carmen Munroe and Bill Lyons, and Web by Ralph Watson, John Levene, and Derek Martin; production reminiscences are provided by Sylvia James and Roger Bunce. In addition, the still unaccounted for episode three of the latter story will feature former BBC Archivist Sue Malden, who gives insight into the BBC policies of wiping and archiving material, as well as missing television in general.

Producer Paul WT Ballard says:
He also advised:

The two releases will be published in November 2015, and will be available to pre-order at a discounted price. See the Fantom Films website for full details.



Please note: these commentaries contain no BBC copyrighted elements and do not feature audio from the episodes themselves - these are designed to be played alongside the official DVD/iTunes releases.

BBC Worldwide have now confirmed the details for the forthcoming release of The Underwater Menace on DVD, due on the 26th October 2015:

Today sees the launch of Big Finish's latest series of tie-in adventures, this time focussing on the Doctor Who spin-off, Torchwood; the first in the series, The Conspiracy, features John Barrowman, reprising his role as Captain Jack Harkness. Meanwhile, the three earliest Doctors all have an outing this month, with the First and Vicki's perceptions tested in Short Trips: Etheria, the Second, Ben, Polly and Jamie encounter The Yes Men, and the Third returns (in the form of Tim Treloar) alongside Jo and Mike Yates in the Third Doctor Adventures (Vol 1). Finally, the Seventh Doctor and Mel are caught up in diminutive shenanigans in Terror of the Sontarans ...

BBC Worldwide has abandoned plans to release the second Doctor story, The Underwater Menace on DVD.

This month's Doctor Who Magazine reports that the plan to release the two surviving episodes from the story, alongside animated versions of the two episodes missing from the archive, have been cancelled by the BBC, following financial problems with the company contracted to provide the animation.

The Underwater Menace was first shown at the start of 1967, starring Patrick Troughton alongside Anneke Wills, Joseph Furst, Michael Craze and Frazer Hines. Following the episode junking which took place in the 1970's only Episode Three remained in the archives. This episode was included in the Lost in Time DVD Box set, released in 2004. However in 2011 Episode Two was recovered alongside the third episode of Galaxy 4.

It was planned to release the two existing episodes from the story, alongside animated reconstructions of the missing episodes, with BBC Worldwide telling Doctor Who News last December that they hoped to release the disc in 2015. However this has now been cancelled following financial problems at animation company Qurios which have seen the firm cease trading. It has not proved financially viable to find another partner to take on the animation and the BBC are reluctant to release an incomplete version.

Although a DVD release now seems very unlikely, it is possible the episodes may be released at some point in the future via some other means. A commentary track has been recorded along with bonus material intended for the DVD.

Until then, Episode Two of The Underwater Menace stands as the only classic Doctor Who episode, currently in the BBC archives, which has never had a release on DVD.

In a statement to fans on their Facebook page as well as in a newsletter, German DVD distributer Pandastorm Pictures announced that their release of The Five Doctors, originally planned for 26th June 2015, will now be released two months later, on 28th August 2015.

The reasons for the delay are, according to the Facebook message, "problems with the material". The newsletter adds that Pandastorm believed the german dub to exist but realised too late that it had been deleted. Thankfully a fan helped out with his recording of the german dub.

Here is the original newsletter announcement, translated from German:

Dear Doctor Who-fans,
we received a lot of positive feedback from you for the last few months. There were photos with you and the boxed sets, a self-made action figure of the Candyman and even Sophie Aldred (Ace) who can be seen on a picture, posing with our second 7th Doctor boxed set. WOW! We would like to send you all a big THANK YOU. Without you the making of these boxed sets would not have been possible.

Some of you might already know that we will also release "The Five Doctors" in Germany. We planned to release it on 26th June 2015 but we sadly have to delay the release to 28th August 2015. After some misunderstandings we now know for sure that the German TV-version had been destroyed. The good news is that our appeal to fans last summer payed off after all and a Doctor Who-fan made his recording available to us. All this took us a lot of time, so that the DVD's won't be ready in time, if we want to deliver a high quality product.

Pandastorm then continued listing all the versions of the 20th Anniversary Special that will be on the 2-Disc-Set:

• TV version in English

•  TV version in German (including German subtitles for the scenes edited out in Germany)

•  Three-part TV version in German (heavily edited, some scenes arranged in a different order)

•  Special Edition in English

•  Special Edition in German (including German subtitles for the scenes that were not shown in Germany)

So far Pandastorm Pictures released all three seasons of the seventh Doctor in season boxed sets in Germany. After The Five Doctors they are going to release two boxed sets for the complete sixth Doctor run and a 2-disc DVD release of The TV Movie.

BBC Worldwide have given an update on the status of the last classic story expected to be released on DVD, The Underwater Menace:


The highly anticipated DVD will include the only known existing episode that has yet to be made officially available to own, episode two (rediscovered in 2011).

Animation studio Planet 55 have issued the following statement regarding their involvement with creating animated episodes of Doctor Who:


The release comes as the status of the last expected classic series DVD, The Underwater Menace, remains uncertain.

Dual Planet are to release two albums which include music that featured in Doctor Who during the William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton eras:


The albums will be released in both vinyl and CD formats, and can be ordered from their website. Some sample tracks can be heard via their Soundcloud page.

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Thanks to Dual Planet we have five prizes up for grabs. In order to be in with a chance of winning, answer the following question:
Please send your answers along with your name, address and where you heard about the competition to comp-dual@doctorwhonews.net with the Subject "Space Age". The competition is open world-wide and the winners will be able to choose which composer and format (Vinyl or CD) to receive (please specify in your entry). Only one entry per household will be accepted. Closing date: 31st May 2014.

Restoration Team member Paul Vanezis has released a video showing some of the delicate work carried out on the Second Doctor episodes that were recovered last year.

The nine episodes - from The Enemy of the World and The Web of Fear - were returned to the BBC's archive in Perivale on Friday 31st May and the next day the film prints were taken to the Digital Media Services department of BBC Studios and Post Production in South Ruislip for transfer.