New Doctor Who: The Daleks' Master Plan ...

I say 'new' Doctor Who, but of course we're talking about some new 'old' Doctor Who.

This crazy show has something of a history around its past, which is ironic for a programme which is all about time travel. Just in case you're not up to speed ... while there have been 65 years or so of Doctor Who episodes transmitted by the BBC, not all of them still exist to enjoy today. This is largely as a result of the cost of videotape back in the sixties and early seventies, and the BBC's need to reuse it where they could, but also because the BBC saw themselves very much as a television producer and transmitter, and not as an archive. So they got rid of a large number of programmes by wiping the tapes for reuse, or throwing filmed copies away to make space for other things ... never stopping to think that someone in the future might be interested in seeing them again.

And thus it was that just 97 episodes of Doctor Who remained missing from the BBC's archives, consigned to the dustbin of history. The irony is that while they threw away the completed programmes, they kept all the production paperwork and photographs that had been taken. And enterprising fans had kept audio recordings of the episodes that they made at the time of transmission ... so we could listen to the episodes and look at the photographs, appreciating the details of which BBC studios they were made in and how much the costumes cost ... but we couldn't watch them.

After a long period in which there were no Doctor Who recoveries - missing episodes rediscovered in collections or at overseas television stations - hope was fading that anything more would be found. But then ...

In 2025, an organisation called Film is Fabulous managed to get access to the film collection of an elderly collector. It seems he didn't even know what he had ... but what he had included two episodes of sixties Doctor Who which were missing from the BBC's archives!

They were recovered, repaired and cleaned up, returned to the BBC, and on Good Friday, 3 April 2026, they went live on the BBC iPlayer for everyone to enjoy once more!

And what a treat. The two episodes both came from a 12 part story called 'The Daleks' Master Plan', a 1965/66 epic which saw the Doctor (William Hartnell), along with companion Steven (Peter Purves), and a handmaiden from ancient Troy called Katarina (Adrienne Hill), team up with  Bret Vyon (Nicholas Courtney in his first ever appearance in Doctor Who) and his sister, Space Special Security Service operative Sara Kingdom (Jean Marsh) to try and foil an invasion of the Solar System by the Daleks, aided by the Guardian of the Solar System himself Mavic Chen (Kevin Stoney). The story encompassed many worlds, escapes, chases, intrigue and excitement as the Daleks try to obtain the emm of the mineral taranium that they need to power the awesome Time Destructor weapon. 

Bret Vyon (Nicholas Courtney), the Doctor
(William Hartnell), Katarina (Adrienne Hill)
and Steven (Peter Purves) consider the
taranium core.

Some of the story existed (episodes 2, 5 and 10) but most was missing, and this episode recovery comprised episodes 1 and 3 of the adventure. So we could finally see how it all started, and, indeed, enjoy the first three episodes uninterrupted.

This was a fascinating time for Doctor Who. Under John Wiles' producership, the show was abandoning some of it's previous companion characters and tropes and trying to move into a more groundbreaking approach to the stories and adventures. Indeed, the whole of 'The Daleks' Master Plan' was foreshadowed with a one episode adventure called 'Mission to the Unknown' which didn't feature the regular cast at all. This laid the groundwork for the Daleks' presence on the planet Kembel, and the alliance of aliens from the outer Galaxies who were coming together with the Daleks to attack the Earth. After this episode, there was then a four part story called 'The Myth Makers' which had the Doctor, Vicki and Steven adventuring in ancient Troy, and then, at the end of this, Vicki leaves, Katarina enters the TARDIS, Steven is injured, and they're off to the start of 'The Daleks' Master Plan'.

I enjoyed the first episode a lot. 'The Nightmare Begins' sets the scene with Mavic Chen heading off on a holiday (in reality to conspire with the Daleks) while the Doctor and friends arrive on Kembel so the Doctor can try and find something to help Steven. Bret Vyon is also there and he stumbles across the TARDIS and thus the scene is set ...

The direction from Douglas Camfield is as good as we have come to expect from him. Great visuals, tracking shots and interest in every scene. The performances are also good, and we come away somewhat in awe.

I found it interesting that in episode 2 the characters talk about something that we don't see! In episode 1, Bret Vyon is trapped in a magnetic chair in the TARDIS while the Doctor heads outside to see what he can find, leaving Katarina caring for Steven. Vyon persuades Katarina to give Steven some pills he has in his belt pouch which will help cure him. Then in episode 2, Katarina and Steven are suddenly outside the TARDIS, Steven has a jacket and shirt on (he was topless in episode 1), and Bret Vyon has escaped. It seems that he persuaded Katarina to release him from the chair and they all left the TARDIS as they thought it might be dangerous to stay there as the Daleks were outside ... in fact it was the safest place to be.  But we never see any of this happen. They just talk about it!

The second recovered episode is part 3, 'Devil's Planet', and this for me is the more enjoyable of the two. We're now in Mavic Chen's stolen Spar spaceship heading for the prison planet Desperus, and the Daleks take control of the ship remotely and bring it down on the planet. What makes all this so interesting is that there are very few photographs of the events on Desperus available, so we see sets and characters we have never seen before (except for on the original transmission). This is just sublime for a died-in-the-wool fan, and I loved the beardy men (and women) and their initial struggle over a knife. This reminded me of the show's first story, '100,000 BC' and the struggle to control fire: who controlled fire, controlled the tribe. And here we have the same thing with the knife being the symbol of power.

The giant feet of a 'screamer' bat
threatens Kirksen

There's also some giant 'screamer' bats on the planet to contend with, and to my surprise we don't actually see them, just a shadow. Which is very intriguing as there is a photo of one of the criminals, Kirksen (Douglas Sheldon), being attacked by a giant pair of legs and feet ... so they built it but never used it on screen (except to throw said shadow perhaps). Fascinating. Maybe Camfield felt it didn't work as a visual so decided to just go with suggestion.

The episode ends with a cliff hanger that the Daleks arrive on Desperus, but the Doctor and friends escape, taking off again in the Spar, but with an unwelcome passenger: one of the criminals, Kirksen; who grabs Katarina and holds her prisoner in the airlock of the ship. Exciting stuff!

While we had 3 episodes already, with a story like this which features a variety of characters and locations for which there is little or no visual record, this is a real treat. It makes me wish so hard that more of the story did exist and that we could enjoy it all again. But sadly this is not the case. 

As with much of sixties Doctor Who, there are episodes missing which we would love to revisit but cannot, relying on the memories of those who saw them on transmission to confirm that they were indeed some of the very best that Doctor Who had to offer at the time. When we get a discovery like this, it just cements that stories like 'The Daleks' Master Plan' was indeed a 'masterful' set of episodes, and truly deserves its reputation as one of the great lost classics of television of the time. 

For the moment, point your browser or television to the BBC iPlayer (in the UK) or to the BBC's YouTube channel (in the USA) to enjoy again the start of the greatest adventure that the Doctor has ever undertaken.

POSTSCRIPT

For my first viewing I wanted to get into the mood, so there are a couple of other things to seek out to watch in order to get an effective build up to the newly recovered episodes.  

I suggest:

'Mission to the Unknown' - the episode no longer exists, but the University of Lancashire remade it in 2019 using the same cameras and style as were originally used in the sixties. Moreover an enterprising fan matched the remade episode to the original soundtrack, and the result is probably as close as you can get to watching the original. The soundtrack matched version can be found here: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7nz2pu

After this, there is a rather lovely interlude/teaser which uses AI to recreate key visuals from 'The Myth Makers' and thus provide the introduction of Katarina and the injuring of Steven so that you go into 'The Daleks' Master Plan' reminded of the immediately preceding story. This is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmZ3yquMEqA

Then we have episodes 1-3 of 'The Daleks' Master Plan' to watch on iPlayer, but you then need to skip episode 4 and head to episode 5 ... or you can watch a photo reconstruction of episode 4 on Dailymotion: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7gw2s9

However you decide to watch these returned episodes, I hope they bring you as much joy and happiness as they have to me ... a little slice of classic Who has come home to rest. And may there be many more.

*****************************

While I'm here ... If you're a fan of film, then have a look at a Film Festival that I run with my wife, Sam.  THE SYKEHOUSE FILM AND WRITERS' FESTIVAL combines writing with filmmaking, and we have an amazing weekend coming up on the 16/17 May showing some of the films entered in this year's festival, plus guests and panels and talks and pitching sessions with agents and film producers ... all sorts of great things.  Here's a rundown of what to expect:

For more information and tickets, please visit www.slhfilmfest.com