Doctor Who: Missing Reign of Terror episodes to be animated

Doctor Who2 Entertain have confirmed the missing episodes from the William Hartnell story The Reign of Terror will be re-created via animation.

The company announced it was releasing the 1960s story on DVD earlier this year but at the time merely stated the release would be “near complete” as possible. It was widely expected that the missing episodes would be animated for the release. Episodes four and five of the story are currently missing from the archives.

It won’t be the first Doctor Who story to receive the animation treatment on DVD. In 2006 the missing episodes of the Patrick Troughton story The Invasion were re-created via animation. The release proved popular with fans and raised hopes that other Who stories with episodes missing (such as The Tenth Planet and Evil of the Daleks) would receive similar treatment – the costs involved though seemed to end that idea at the time. The DVD release of The Reign of Terror is likely to be early next year.