In what feels like the sort of thing ‘Doctor Who’ fans dream about but rarely get to actually celebrate, ‘Doctor Who’ is bringing two long-lost 1960s episodes to BBC iPlayer this Easter. The newly recovered instalments come from William Hartnell’s era and restore another missing piece of the show’s famously incomplete archive.
The episodes are ‘The Nightmare Begins’ and ‘The Devil’s Planet’, both from the 1965 serial ‘The Daleks’ Master Plan’. They were discovered by Film is Fabulous!, a charitable trust focused on preserving private film collections, before being passed to BBC Archives for restoration from the original 16mm telerecordings.
That makes this a pretty major moment for Whovians. These are the first missing ‘Doctor Who’ episodes to be recovered and announced since 2013, and they bring back more of one of the most famous lost stories from the Hartnell era. Since ‘Day of Armageddon’ was previously recovered in 2004, fans can now watch the first three episodes of ‘The Daleks’ Master Plan’ once again.
The serial was written by Terry Nation and Dennis Spooner, and starred William Hartnell (Doctor Who) as the Doctor alongside Peter Purves (The New Adventures of Black Beauty) as Steven Taylor. It also featured Nicholas Courtney (The Saint) as Bret Vyon, Adrienne Hill (The Moonstone) as Katarina, and Kevin Stoney (The Forsyte Saga) as Mavic Chen. Of course, Courtney would later become even more closely tied to the Whoniverse through his much-loved role as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart.
BBC Archives director Noreen Adams said: “We’re thrilled to have worked with the team at Film is Fabulous! to bring these lost Doctor Who episodes to viewers on BBC iPlayer this Easter. BBC Archives has been working to restore the original recordings and update these to broadcast quality, ensuring fans can enjoy a little extra treat with their Easter Eggs this April.”
The story behind the find is almost as brilliant as the recovery itself. The episodes were found in a cardboard box inside a large and rather ramshackle private film collection, with Film is Fabulous! helping rescue and preserve the material. Because ‘The Daleks’ Master Plan’ was never sold overseas, unlike some other recovered missing episodes, these prints were never expected to turn up in foreign broadcasters’ archives. That made the chances of finding them seem vanishingly small, which is why this discovery feels especially remarkable.
Peter Purves was invited to a screening in Leicester under false pretences before being surprised with the news that the episodes had been recovered. After watching them, he famously said: “My flabber has never been so gasted.” Frankly, fair enough.
The arrival of these episodes also adds even more weight to BBC iPlayer’s growing ‘Doctor Who’ offering, which continues to house a huge chunk of the Whoniverse in one place. For longtime fans, archive obsessives, and anyone curious to see a bit more of Hartnell’s original run, this is the sort of discovery that still feels a little bit magical.
‘Doctor Who’ missing episodes ‘The Nightmare Begins’ and ‘The Devil’s Planet’ premiere Saturday, 4th April 2026 on BBC iPlayer.
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