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. The Region 2 and Region 4 releases are a single three disc set. In Region 1, it is available as two separate releases or as a single three disc set.
Content
Footage found in the set varies from complete episodes to extremely short surviving clips that were cut either for time or for censorship reasons. Several episodes in the set include commentary tracks moderated by Gary Russell and featuring actors and crew from the original productions. For budget reasons, Lost in Time does not feature text commentary or a photo gallery.
Hartnell Era
008 : Brief 8mm clips from Episodes 4 and 5, made by a fan pointing a mute cine camera at a TV screen during transmission. These have been synced up with the appropriate sections from the extant soundtrack.
014 : Episodes 1 and 3, plus soundtracks for 2 and 4. Also includes introduction and linking material provided by actor William Russell in character as Ian Chesterton. Episode 3 has a commentary option featuring actor Julian Glover, with its production slate hidden as an "Easter Egg".
018 : A lengthy sequence from Episode 1, plus an off-air film recording clip from the beginning of the episode. The lengthy sequence is not included on this disc, instead kept within The Missing Years – see below.
020 : Off-air film recording clips of all 4 episodes.
028 : Brief censor clips and amateur footage showing the filming on-location.
029 : Various footage from Episode 4, including off-air film recordings.
Troughton Era
030 : Clips including footage re-used in surviving programs, off-air film recordings, and a trailer aired on the BBC ahead of the original transmission.
031 : Censored clips and some on-location footage.
032 : Episode 3 and censored clips. This episode was, at the time, the earliest surviving episode to feature Patrick Troughton as the Doctor and Frazer Hines as Jamie McCrimmon.
033 : Episodes 2 and 4, plus soundtracks for 1 and 3.
034 : Clips including censored footage and off-air film recordings.
035 : Episodes 1 and 3, plus a clip from an off-air film recording of Episode 2.
036 : Episode 2, with a commentary option featuring actor Deborah Watling moderated by Gary Russell. Also The Last Dalek – footage showing the filming of model and effects sequences at Ealing Studios, and a recreated climactic sequence combining this footage with the original soundtrack.
038 : Episode 2, clips from Episode 4, and amateur footage showing the filming on-location. There is a commentary option on the episode featuring Deborah Watling.
040 : Episode 3.
041 : Episode 1 plus censored clips from other episodes, with a commentary option on the episode featuring Deborah Watling and story editor Derrick Sherwin.
042 : Censored clips, footage from the filming of the final episode in studio, and a recreated climactic sequence combining such footage with the original soundtrack.
043 : Episodes 3 and 6 plus censored clips from other episodes, the latter episode with a commentary option featuring story editor Derrick Sherwin and director Tristan de Vere Cole.
049 : Episode 2, plus surviving film sequences from Episode 1.
''The Missing Years''
The 1998 documentary The Missing Years is included on disc 3. It details the loss and recovery of 1960s episodes and is presented by Frazer Hines and Deborah Watling. It features the longest extant clip from an otherwise-missing Doctor Who episode – over six minutes of Episode 1 of Galaxy 4; a version of "The Final End" recreating the climax of The Evil of the Daleks; fan Ian Levine stating that he believes there will never be fewer than 110 missing episodes, then begging to be proven wrong ; and a lengthy recreation of the first regeneration sequence put together from all that exists of the end of The Tenth Planet and the start of The Power of the Daleks. The feature was previously released on VHS. In its original form, this documentary was presented in an earlier VHS boxset ; both regions shared the tape with the one surviving episode of The Underwater Menace, which pre-dates the rediscovery of some of the Lost in Time content. The DVD presentation includes some new footage documenting the return of two previously missing episodes – "The Lion" was discovered in New Zealand in 1999, while "Day of Armageddon" was returned in 2004 by a former BBC employee. This addendum ends the documentary.
Material found since the release
In 2005, a year after the set was released, three clips from The Power of the Daleks were found on a 1966 edition of Tomorrow's World and returned to the BBC. The clips were released as parts of extras on the Genesis of the Daleks DVD and The Trial of a Time Lord DVD. They were subsequently included on the DVD release of The Power of the Daleks along with the rest of the surviving footage from that serial. In 2011, two complete previously missing episodes were returned to the BBC. The first was episode 3 of Galaxy 4, which was released on the special edition DVD of The Aztecs. The second was episode 2 of The Underwater Menace, which was included in a DVD release of that story in October 2015. In 2013, nine more episodes were recovered: the remaining previously missing episodes of The Enemy of the World; and episodes 2, 4, 5 and 6 of The Web of Fear. Both stories were released on iTunes on the day their recovery was announced. The Enemy of the World was released on DVD in November 2013 and The Web of Fear in February 2014.
