The episodes, The Nightmare Begins and Devil’s Planet, were from the third series entitled The Daleks’ Master Plan, and aired in the 1960s.
It stars William Hartnell, who plays the First Doctor, and Peter Purves as Steven Taylor.
The episodes also featured Nicholas Courtney as Bret Vyon, Adrienne Hill as Katarina, and Kevin Stoney as Mavic Chen.
Why are there ‘lost’ Doctor Who episodes?
A large number of episodes of the beloved sci-fi show Doctor Who have been lost.
It is due to the BBC routinely deleting archive programmes, which could be because of a lack of space or rebroadcast rights.
Due to this, many episodes from the programme’s first six years are missing, primarily from seasons 3, 4 and 5.
Some have been recovered over time from different sources, such as overseas broadcasters and private collectors.
Both the BBC and fans of the show continue to try to locate missing episodes, with many having already been restored for release on VHS and DVD.
Other missing episodes have had their visuals reconstructed, with the audio surviving.
Most of the episodes are from the Patrick Troughton era, who was the Second Doctor.
However, there are more Hartnell stories completely missing.
The original series aired on television from 1963 to 1989, before being rebooted in 2005.
The most recent season, starring Ncuti Gatwa as the 15th Doctor, aired in 2025.
When are the 2 ‘lost’ Doctor Who episodes coming to BBC iPlayer?
The BBC has confirmed that the two ‘lost’ episodes of Doctor Who from the 1960’s are coming to BBC iPlayer.
They are The Nightmare Begins and Devil’s Planet, which were from the third series entitled The Daleks’ Master Plan.
The Nightmare Begins notably features a first Doctor Who appearance for Nicholas Courtney, who went on to play the iconic Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge Stewart.
The episodes were found by Film is Fabulous!, which is a charitable trust run by film collectors, cinema lovers and vintage television enthusiasts.
They approached BBC Archives after finding them in a private collection, which worked to restore the original 16mm telerecordings.
Viewers will be able to watch the two episodes on BBC iPlayer in the UK from 6am on April 3 (Good Friday).
When is Doctor Who coming back?
Doctor Who fans await news of the show’s future, after a big cliffhanger ending in 2025.
The previous series ended with the return of Billie Piper, who notably played Rose Tyler alongside Christopher Eccleston’s Ninth Doctor in 2005 and David Tennant’s 10th Doctor in 2006.
However, it was not confirmed whether she is ‘The Doctor’ or a new character.
Following the cliffhanger, it was confirmed in October that Disney would no longer partner on any future seasons of Doctor Who.
Despite no episodes since Gatwa’s departure, a new Christmas special written by showrunner Russell T Davies has been confirmed to be coming in 2026.
The Doctor Who Christmas special will be produced by Bad Wolf with BBC Studios for the BBC after the partnership with Disney ended.
The BBC also confirmed last October that it “remains fully committed to the show and will announce plans for the next series in due course”.
In the meantime, a spin-off, The War Between the Land and the Sea, a series which was also partnered with Disney, has aired on the BBC.
A brand-new animation series for CBeebies is also in development.
Speaking to Deadline recently, BBC Studios boss Zai Bennett said that while he “won’t speak for the BBC”, he said that “we’re all in it together” when it comes to keeping the Time Lord on the small screen.
Recommended reading:
He said: “We’re a big, important part of Doctor Who and are all motivated to make sure Doctor Who has a long and flourishing life.
“We’ve got the Christmas special coming. After that, it’s time for us all to work on it.”
What is your favourite episode of Doctor Who? Let us know in the comments.
