Doctor Who: Top 10 missing stories we want to see completed

Across streaming services and physical media, there are many great Doctor Who stories to watch - but there are also many great stories that are incomplete or even entirely missing. Here are the top 10 missing stories that we'd love to be able to watch.
We look back on the missing episodes of Doctor Who, and select the top ten stories that we want to see restored in full.
We look back on the missing episodes of Doctor Who, and select the top ten stories that we want to see restored in full. / BBC
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
1 of 11
Next

One of the greatest tragedies of Doctor Who is that many of its earliest episodes are missing. Due to a complete lack of foresight on the BBC's part, many episodes were deleted from their archives, for reasons as simple as a lack of space.

On the one hand, this only applied to episodes from the show's first six seasons - all of which were from the '60s and in black and white. Some of Jon Pertwee's color episodes were also deleted, but black-and-white copies still existed, and color has been fully restored in almost all of these cases. So the only Doctors with significant gaps are the first two - William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton.

However, that's still a significant portion of the show's history that's gone. These stories include the first regeneration; the first "new Doctor" story; the first meetings of some major friends and companions - as well as some major enemies. While many episodes have been found over the years, 97 episodes are still missing. Out of a total of 253 for the first six years, that's over a third of the black-and-white years gone.

There are many stories that we want to see completed or returned in full. Of course, some more than others - for example, I can't imagine the fandom would be too excited if the remaining episodes of The Space Pirates were found. But there are definitely stories that we'd love to see completed, even if it's just one episode that's missing. Here are our top ten.