Lost episode returned!

Episode two of The Daleks' Master Plan returned.

2004 gets off to a good start, with news from Steve Roberts that episode two of the 1965/1966 Dalek marathon, Day of Armageddon, has been delivered to the Restoration Team.

The twelve-part space romp stars William Hartnell, Peter Purves (Steven) and Adrienne Hill (Katarina), along with Nicholas Courtney as Space Special Security agent Bret Vyon.

The episode was returned by Francis Watson, until recently Head of Engineering at Yorkshire Television in Leeds. As a young engineer working for the BBC in the early seventies, Watson had been given the task of clearing out a room full of junk at the Corporation's Television Film Studios in Ealing. Among the rubbish were two 16mm cans marked Doctor Who, which Watson saved from destruction so that he could watch them on the projector at his local film club.

Until this week, only parts five and ten were known to exist, having themselves been discovered in a junk pile in the mid-eighties.

Watson says that he has always felt slightly embarrassed about "borrowing" the films, but he can be assured that, thirty years on, both the BBC and fans of the series will want to give him a pat on the back, for his minor indiscretion undoubtedly ensured the episode's survival.

Day of Armageddon is a great find, as this second episode contains scenes with several characters for which very little visual reference material still exists - in fact only a single, blurry photograph of the alien leader Celation is known to have survived in a private photograph collection.

The second of Watson's film cans contained a poor-quality episode of The Expedition, an episode of the very first Dalek adventure, of which the BBC already has a master copy.

Steve Roberts says he is delighted with the find and can't wait to begin the work on clearing up the film, with the hope that it will be included on a forthcoming DVD release.

The return of Day of Armageddon takes the total of missing episodes down to 108. If you think you have any programme that is missing from the archives or film stock that you think may be of interest, do not hesitate to get in touch. Visit the BBC Treasure Hunt site for more details.