Lost Doctor Who episodes are being brought back to life using cartoons and colour.
To mark the sci-fi show’s 60th anniversary this year, two stories from the 1960s are to be drawn and released on Blu-ray and DVD.
They are William Hartnell’s penultimate story The Smugglers, and Patrick Troughton’s third adventure, The Underwater Menace.
Both four-part stories were originally transmitted by the BBC, before film prints were sold overseas, and the original tapes were destroyed.
Episodes two and three of The Underwater Menace have been recovered, but only brief clips from The Smugglers story exist.
An insider said: “Fans have been delighted as the show’s fourth season has been slowly restored through animated episodes.
“Only 10 of the 43 broadcast episodes still exist, so we’re getting to see the missing classics.”
Last year, the BBC ended the release of animated versions after BBC America stopped funding the restoration of early stories. But new funding has been arranged.
BBC bosses plan to colourise certain stories from the Hartnell and Troughton eras (1963-69), for broadcast next year. This is likely to include the very first story, An Unearthly Child.
The animation deal is not connected to the show’s tie-up with Disney+.
The 60th anniversary will be marked on BBC1 with three autumn specials featuring David Tennant, 51, as the 14th Doctor, before Sex Education’s Ncuti Gatwa, 30, takes over.
UKTV is also having two of Tony Hancock episodes, Twelve Angry Men and The Blood Donor, colourised for broadcast this year.
* Follow Mirror Celebs on Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.
