Enemy of the World and the Web of Fear · 3:55am Oct 11th, 2013
So, what are The Enemy of the World and The Web of Fear, you may be asking yourself? If you claim to be a Whovian and are asking, please hand in your credentials. Just kidding.
For those who don't know, ( or want someone else to explain it) the Enemy of the World and The Web of Fear are two previously incomplete Doctor Who stories dating back from 1968. Both have just been found and released by the BBC.
Now how can a story be incomplete, especially Doctor Who? If you want more detailed information, go to Wikipedia or SF Debris for more, but the short of it is that the BBC wasn't archiving shows and they didn't think Doctor Who was relevant to future generations so it got scrapped. As of September 2013, there were 106 missing episodes, which caused 27 stories, (Classic who was a serial show, so multiple episodes made up a single story), to be rendered ether incomplete or flat out missing.
Outside of a few episodes recovered hear and there, the last time a serial was complete was in 1991 with the Tomb of the Cybermen, giving Patrick Troughton, the 2nd Doctor, a total of 6 complete serials out of the 20 he did.
At least until today, that is. Eleven episodes of the 2nd Doctors run have been found and released, completing one story and nearly completing another. I'm am super exicited as the 2nd Doctor is my favorite, and the near completion to the Brigadier's introduction is fantastic. To bad episode 3 is missing from the Web of Fear as that is the episode in which he makes his debut. But given that for the last 45 years, only one part has existed, anything new is welcomed.
Now both stories come from Season 5, one of the hardest hit by the wiping of tapes. As for the plots of each, Enemy is about a double of the Doctor trying to take over the world and the Doctor stopping him, while Web is the second appearance of the Great Intelligence, the big bad from Series 7, as he uses his Yeti to take over the London Underground.
Both Stories are available on iTunes right now for $10, and both will be available on DVD in a few month's time. Here's to hoping that the remaining 97 missing episodes don't stay that way.
