[moscow360]

Hello. I just got into watching Doctor Who, and I wanted to get the original 1963 series as well, but I can't seem to find Season 1 stories "Marco Polo," "The Sensorites," and "The Reign of Terror". Are these not out on DVD, if they are, where do I find them?

Thanks!

moscow360

[thetao]

I suspect you figured it out by now, but in the mid-to-late 1970's the BBC destroyed much of its older television archives, to save space and also to re-use the video tape. As I understand it, this happened due to a combination of 1) being supported through taxes, they were trying to act responsibly...as their charter didn't include acting as an archive, and 2) their agreement with the actors' union (etc.) allowed only 1 broadcast and 1 repeat per program. As a result, a large portion of Doctor Who episodes from 1963 to 1968 were lost, and some from 1969 to 1973 exist only in black and white. A few are recovered irregularly from private collections around the world, but I don't think anything short of a time machine will allow recovery of everything. Episodes of "Galaxy 4" and "The Underwater Menace" were recovered in late 2011. See

BBC - Doctor Who - Missing Episodes Recovered! (Updated) - News & Features

"Marco Polo" is totally lost, but you can get an audio recording (on CD) from Amazon UK and other UK merchants. "Reign of Terror" was available on VHS (missing 2 episodes) and is supposed to be released sometime this year, with animation filling-in the missing sections. "The Sensorites" was released to DVD in just the last few weeks.

There's a full writeup about what's missing at

Doctor Who missing episodes - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A handful of storylines from the first 26 years exist but remain unreleased to DVD. Sticking to their current schedule, I think the BBC will finally have it all out within the next 2 years.