The programme was the first in-depth documentary chronicling the long-running BBC TV series Doctor Who . It was first broadcast the day after the airing of the sixth part of The Talons of Weng-Chiang , which closed off the fourteenth season of the show. The programme features numerous clips from episodes of Doctor Who, along with interviews of cast and fans, including families, children, students, teachers, psychologists and educationalists. Tom Baker and outgoing producer Philip Hinchcliffe both contributed interviews. Behind-the-scenes footage showed the recording of The Talons of Weng-Chiang, as well as rehearsals and pre-production planning.
It included many clips from past Doctor Who stories dating back to the first serial, An Unearthly Child , which aired in 1963. These include footage from Galaxy Four and The Invasion , which no longer exist in their entirety. Clips included from these episodes were shown from 16mm film copies, the original videotapes having been wiped. The use of the Galaxy Four clip from episode 1 ("Four Hundred Dawns") ensured that this remains the only surviving footage of that episode, and was for many years thought to be only surviving footage from the serial as a whole until the full episode 3 ("Air Lock") was recovered in 2011. See also Doctor Who missing episodes.
Invasion of the Dinosaurs, simply titled Invasion in Part One, is the second serial of the 11th season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts on BBC1 from 12 January to 16 February 1974.
Robert Colin Holmes was a British television scriptwriter. For over 25 years he contributed to some of the most popular programmes screened in the UK. He is particularly remembered for his work on science fiction programmes, most notably his extensive contributions to Doctor Who, which included working as its script editor from 1974 to 1977.
Inferno is the fourth and final serial of the seventh season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in seven weekly parts on BBC1 from 9 May to 20 June 1970. The serial remains the last time a Doctor Who story was transmitted in seven episodes. This serial was also the last regular appearance of Caroline John in the role of Liz Shaw.
David John Lee Maloney was a British television director and producer, best known for his work on the BBC science-fiction series Doctor Who, Blake's 7 and The Day of the Triffids. The Guardian described him on his death as "one of that old school who could turn out 30-minute dramas in two days shooting time".
The Tenth Planet is the partly missing second serial of the fourth season in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 8 to 29 October 1966. It was William Hartnell's last regular appearance as the First Doctor, and the first story to feature the process later termed "regeneration", whereby the lead character, The Doctor, undergoes a transformation into a new physical form. Patrick Troughton makes his first, uncredited appearance as the Second Doctor.
Philip Michael Hinchcliffe is a retired English television producer, screenwriter and script editor. After graduating from Cambridge University, he began his career as a writer and script editor at Associated Television before joining the BBC to produce Doctor Who in one of its most popular eras from 1974 to 1977. In 2010, Hinchcliffe was chosen by Den of Geek as the best ever producer of the series.
The Talons of Weng-Chiang is the sixth and final serial of the 14th season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts on BBC1 from 26 February to 2 April 1977. In the serial, which is set in 19th-century London, the 51st century criminal Magnus Greel travels to the city and poses as an ancient Chinese god to find his missing time machine.
Galaxy 4 is the first serial of the third season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Written by William Emms and directed by Derek Martinus, the serial was broadcast on BBC1 in four weekly parts from 11 September to 2 October 1965. In the serial, the First Doctor and his travelling companions Vicki and Steven arrive on an arid planet, where they encounter the beautiful but dangerous Drahvins and the hideous but friendly Rills, two crash-landed species in conflict with one another. Both species wish to escape as the planet is set to explode in two dawns, but the Drahvin leader Maaga wants only her people to make it out alive.
The Myth Makers is the third serial of the third season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Written by Donald Cotton and directed by Michael Leeston-Smith, the serial was broadcast on BBC1 in four weekly parts from 16 October to 6 November 1965. In the serial, based on Homer's Iliad, the First Doctor and his travelling companions Vicki and Steven land in Troy during the Trojan War. The Doctor is captured by the Greeks and forced to formulate a plan for taking the city, while Steven and Vicki are captured by the Trojans and forced to devise a means of banishing the Greeks; the latter duo meet Katarina, who becomes a companion by the serial's end.
The Power of the Daleks is the completely missing third serial of the fourth season of British science fiction television series Doctor Who, and which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 5 November to 10 December 1966. It is the first full story to feature Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor.
Several portions of the long-running British science-fiction television programme Doctor Who are no longer held by the BBC. Between 1967 and 1978, the BBC routinely deleted archive programmes for various practical reasons—lack of space, scarcity of materials, and a lack of rebroadcast rights. As a result, 97 of 253 episodes from the programme's first six years are currently missing, primarily from Seasons 3, 4 and 5, leaving 26 serials incomplete. Many more were considered lost until recovered from various sources, mostly overseas broadcasters.
The Virgin Missing Adventures were a series of novels from Virgin Publishing based on the British science-fiction television series Doctor Who, which had been cancelled in 1989, featuring stories set between televised episodes of the programme. The novels were published from 1994 to 1997, and featured the First through Sixth Doctors. The Missing Adventures complemented the Virgin New Adventures range, which had proved successful.
Robert Banks Stewart was a Scottish screenwriter, television producer and former journalist. He was sometimes credited as Robert Stewart early in his career. Banks Stewart contributed extensively to drama for the BBC and ITV for several decades, which included creating and producing the series Shoestring (1979) and Bergerac (1981) and producing the first series of Lovejoy (1986). He also produced and co-adapted the early episodes of The Darling Buds of May (1991).
Christopher Benjamin is a retired English actor with many stage and television credits since the 1960s. His television roles include three appearances in Doctor Who, portraying Sir Keith Gold in Inferno (1970), Henry Gordon Jago in The Talons of Weng-Chiang (1977) and Colonel Hugh Curbishley in The Unicorn and the Wasp (2008). He also provided the voice of Rowf in the animated film The Plague Dogs (1982).
Dudley George Simpson was an Australian composer and conductor. He was the Principal Conductor of the Royal Opera House orchestra for three years and worked as a composer on British television. He worked on the BBC science-fiction series Doctor Who, for which he composed incidental music during the 1960s and 1970s. When Simpson died aged 95 in 2017, The Guardian wrote that he was "at his most prolific as the creator of incidental music for Doctor Who in the 1960s and 1970s, contributing to 62 stories over almost 300 episodes – more than any other composer."
Doctor Who – Lost in Time is a BBC three-disc boxset DVD released in 2004. It is a collection of restored Doctor Who episodes and clips from stories that are incomplete or missing from the Corporation's archives. There were, at the time of release, 108 missing episodes, all from the black-and-white 1960s era. Although the search goes on many or all of these episodes may be lost forever—hence this collection's title.
Michael Spice was a British character actor who appeared in television roles.
The twenty-fifth season of British science fiction television series Doctor Who began on 5 October 1988. It comprised four separate serials, beginning with Remembrance of the Daleks and ending with The Greatest Show in the Galaxy. To mark the 25th anniversary season, producer John Nathan-Turner brought back the Daleks and the Cybermen. The American New Jersey Network also made a special behind-the-scenes documentary called The Making of Doctor Who, which followed the production of the 25th anniversary story Silver Nemesis. Andrew Cartmel script edited the series.
The fourteenth season of British science fiction television series Doctor Who began on 4 September 1976 with The Masque of Mandragora, and ended with The Talons of Weng-Chiang. The third Fourth Doctor series, it was the final series of Philip Hinchcliffe's production, whilst Robert Holmes stayed till The Sun Makers in the next series.
Doctor Who: Thirty Years in the TARDIS is a special 50-minute television documentary celebrating the 30th anniversary of the science-fiction series Doctor Who. It was originally broadcast on Monday, 29 November 1993, on BBC1. The programme was the first BBC-produced, in-depth documentary chronicling Doctor Who since Whose Doctor Who was broadcast in April 1977, and it followed a 30-minute, categorized compilation of archive clips broadcast in 1992 on BBC2 entitled Resistance is Useless. The show featured many clips from the show's episodes, and interviews with the cast and crew. Several iconic scenes from the show were recreated, with young actor Josh Maguire playing the part of a child imagining himself involved in the settings.
