Alfonso Espina

Staff Writer

Rumours of newly found missing Doctor Who episodes appear to be true, according to a report by BBC News.

Earlier this year, Bleeding Cool claimed that lost episodes of the early BBC sci-fi drama had been discovered.

“What I’ve been hearing and some of it is attributed to an eccentric engineer who worked for broadcasters across Africa with a taste for science fiction and a habit for taking things for ‘safe keeping’, is that the BBC have secured a large number of presumed-wiped episodes of early Doctor Who,” revealed BleedingCool.com’s Rich Johnston.

“And there are lots. Lots and lots. Completed serials that we’ve only had incomplete before, full series that nothing existed of. Not everything. But heaps and heaps. Possibly even The Full Hartnell.”

The BBC may have destroyed many of the show’s original transmission tapes, but the majority have been saved after being transferred on to film for foreign broadcasters.

Despite this discovery, it is reported that a total of 106 episodes from the ’60s, featuring the show’s first two stars –  William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton –  still remain missing.

No word yet on exactly how many of those episodes have been retrieved, but BBC Worldwide is expected to hold a press conference later this week to make an official confirmation.

Doctor Who first aired on the BBC back in 1963. On November 23, it marks its 50^th anniversary on air with a television special that will include current star Matt Smith and his predecessor David Tennant.