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Rating: 
Summary: Lost in time.... but worth the find!
Review: As most Doctor Who fans know, there are huge gaps in the archives for the black and white era of the show that featured the first two actors to play the role, William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton. Due to a total disregard for archiving material and, criminally, as a cost cutting exercise, there was a systematic junking policy for `expired' TV shows across many broadcast networks through to the 1970's. In many ways, Doctor Who fared better than most with many complete stories surviving either in private hands or more often by happy accidents.
Although anything to have survived is miraculous, in many cases, irritatingly, stories were left incomplete on the archive shelves. Pretty much useless to any broadcaster and indeed seemingly for home DVD or video release. But the bright guys at the BBC have spotted a way to gather up all this stray material and package it together on a collection of three discs featuring not only eighteen complete episodes but a whole myriad of other snippets and gems from the vaults.
As a huge Doctor Who fan, I was thrilled to see all these homeless relics gathered together, but from a wider commercial viewpoint, I don't think it's a particularly interesting project. But isn't it wonderful for fans to be indulged in this way? I'd never seen either episodes of The Faceless Ones before, so this was a real treat, as it was to see the newly discovered gem from The Daleks' Master Plan.
The problem for me is that alone, or even where two or more episodes exist, it's exceptionally frustrating to watch what remains of these stories. If you're watching episode one for example, you're completely hooked by the end and then hugely disappointed that there is no more! For stories that just have the odd episode from the middle of the story, it's enough to drive you barmy. My biggest irritation came from watching episode 4 of The Celestial Toymaker. What on earth is going on? It would have been so, so much better had the DVD contained a synopsis of what was missing to help flesh out some of the material and put things into context. Definitely an opportunity missed. In a step towards this, there are soundtracks included for two missing episodes from The Crusade and The Moonbase, which does help complete those stories, but since photos exist of both missing episodes, why weren't they included? When all there is to hear is music or sound effects, it leaves you bewildered as to what might be happening. A photo or a subtitle would have been so much more effective.
Also gathered from the cutting room floor are many, many short clips (in some cases, don't blink or you'll miss them) from other completely deleted episodes. It's sad that in so many cases these split second clips are all that have remained. There's also a lot of home movie footage, which is really interesting. I believe this to be the only color examples of footage from the era and although short, they are wonderful to see.
We can but hope that as time goes on, some of the missing material will turn up. No one would have thought the complete Tomb of the Cybermen would suddenly reappear in 1992. So hope springs eternal. Until then, here's some classic Who, brilliantly restored and remastered to enjoy.
Rating: 
Summary: WOW!!!
Review: Cant wait for this set! Who was the idiot at the BBC that destroyed most of the early Doctor Who's?! The BBC should of known that VCR's was coming,and that some day a format called DVD was going to take the VCR's place in the home.I so much would love to have all the old Doctor Who story's on DVD?! I always wanted to see The Fury from the Deep story,I read the Target book and loved it.I have some of the audio Cd's but it's not the same as watching it.This set will be nice.Cant wait to see The Daleks Master Plan part 2. I hope The first Dalek story will be coming out on DVD soon? It's sad they will not be in the new series.Update the Daleks will be in the new series.
Rating:
Summary: A chance to see episodes I've only heard
Review: For those of you who want to know the rest of the stories included on these discs, the BBC has released a series of cds with the soundtracks and added voice-over narration that does tell you what's going on. This is much more clear than the soundtracks alone and they include all the episodes; also most of the narration is done by Peter Purves (who played Ben) or Fraser Hines (who palyed Jaimie) so the the voices fit into the stories neatly. Some are available on Amazon's US site, and most via the UK site, but the latter charged me the book rate shipping and handling because they are in the system as audio books. I thought it was very interesting to get a look finally at some of the charaters I'd been listening too - some are very different than I had imagined.
Rating:
Summary: Oddly incomplete...
Review: I find it very odd that there is footage from 10th Planet in the Earthshock DVD that is not in this one. It would seem to me that if they wanted to make these complete, these snippets would be included.
Also, wardrobe for the actor who played Ian Chesterton during his linking narration is awful. That yellow checkered vest throws a hideous moire' onto the screen.
Also, during The Lion, one scene has a big dark band running down the side. I'm surprised no one made an effort to clean that up. The Cleanup on these episodes is normally outstanding, but in that instance, they really did flub.
Still, to finally be able to see these classics is worth the price. Especially the last episode of The Celestial Toymaker, which set up The Gunslingers.
Like many, I keep hoping that one day, someone, somewhere, will find more of the lost episodes. Until then... We have these, the Audio CDs with narration, and the novelizations to key our imaginations.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing Patchwork
Review: I was somewhat disappointed by this patchwork as it has no complete story at all. While the Moonbase and the Crusade offer Audio for the missing episodes there is no commentary so you are left to wonder what is happening in the silences.
I expected more from the BBC
The episodes that are shown are captivating and do give an insight into the quality and occasional lack of quality that makes up Doctor Who.
The Underwater Menace with its string transported Fish People and exaggerated evil madman was quite amusing.
Yes the Show was great what a shame the DVD production is not.
Rating:
Summary: At Last!
Review: If you are not a "fan of the programme", then you will be wasting your time with this set.
However, if you are as big a ner(oops!) fan as me, then you will have heard about these episodes.
I've read through the scripts for these shows, and am very very happy to finally see the extant film. Sadly, this also makes you realize what a tragedy it is that the Beeb lost or destroyed so many of the early stories. (Yes, destroyed. They're trying to back out of that now, but some of the episodes in this set exist only because someone was fan enough to get ahold of any and all extant film or copies.)
Anyway, we have end of the first regeneration scene (Pat Troughton replacing William Hartnell); and episode of The Celestial Toymaker-- this is one I'd really like to surface as a complete story, and others. Ben and Polly finally have a little more screen time (the only complete story with these companions is "The War Machines").
Wonderful for the fan who knows what is gone, but merely a sidebar for the casual sci-fi fan.
Rating:
Summary: A treat for devoted fans
Review: Quite frankly, there should be two ratings for this collection. If you've never seen Doctor Who before, this collection is not for you, so don't bother buying it. On the other hand, if you're a serious fan of the classic BBC science-fiction series, this is a rare gem of a collection, well worth the expense.It's a bit unusual in that, although more of the Second Doctor's (Patrick Troughton) stories are forever lost, the Troughton collection takes up two DVDs, while the First Doctor (William Hartnell) has only one DVD. Nevertheless, the BBC is to be commended for the production values they've put into this collection. On some stories (The Moonbase, eg.), they've included the entire story, even though only two of the four episodes still exist. For the other two episodes, the BBC have included the original audio soundtrack, so it is possible to at least listen to the entire story. Audio and video quality is surprisingly good. (It's often interesting to compare the sharpness of 1960s B&W video with the dreadful quality of late 1960s and early 1970s colour video - anyone who can receive a CHUM-CITY station such as VR or PL can check out the washed-out prints of Ironside or Kojak, or hockey fans can compare the quality of the recent Canada Cup rebroadcasts on TSN.) The DVDs contain existing episodes from a number of stories which are incomplete, and also hold a number of gems such as original BBC trailers for stories, including a trailer for Troughton's first story, "Power of the Daleks". An often-overlooked gem is the "Who's Who", biographies of some of the key actors in various stories. Some people who went on to bigger and better things appeared in the series in the Sixties, such as Julian Glover and Jean Marsh. It's also interesting to note how many actors in 1960s British TV played guest roles in Doctor Who, The Avengers, and Z Cars. Certainly, this release is very specialized in nature, given its fragmentary condition. However, no fan should be without it.
Rating:
Summary: Your only chance to glimpse the missing stories...
Review: The first reviewer was right. If you aren't a big fan of Doctor Who, this release might not be the best purchase for you. If, however, you know all about how the BBC decided back in the mid 70s that they had too many tapes lying around of the show, and decided to incinerate a bunch to save space, and wish the people doing it had thrown themselves in the incinerator instead, this release is for you. This is your only chance to catch a glimpse of classic stories we, but for bad luck and bad decision making, might be able to watch in their entireties. One bad thing, you'll be asking yourself when watching part 3 of The Celestial Toymaker "they junked The Web of Fear and kept this?!".... There are some really good episodes in this set. Your enjoyment of them will be tempered only by the realization that you'll never get to see what happens next. Excellent set though. I'd give it 6 stars if that were possible!
Rating:
Summary: Although it makes you crave for more, still worth the wait
Review: The Lost In Time set is something hardcore Doctor Who fans, including me, have been looking forward to for a long time. For those who aren't familiar with the history of this show, back in the 70's, a bunch of BBC executives decided they wanted to save money in storage space by destroying a bunch of tapes containing episodes of many of their old shows. This was a time before there was a market for video compilations, and they figured no one would want to see these again. Also responsible were some of the short-sighted agreements the actors/musician unions had with the BBC which limited how many times one could rerun programs. But before they destroyed their copies, they transferred many of them onto film for exporting to other TV stations around the world. By the time they saw the error of their ways, it was too late, and the search was on for the stories they exported which continue to this day. Although I heard that the number of Dr. Who episodes destroyed pales in comparison to other archived shows, it was still a short-sighted move on their part, regardless of their rationale at the time.
So unless a miracle occurs, these restored episodes from stories where half or less of the episodes survive are all we have left of some of the early 60's stories when William Hartnell and later Patrick Troughton portrayed the Doctor. The set includes the remaining episodes as well as surviving clips of some of the stories where none of the episodes exist, and a 1998 BBC special on the missing episodes hosted by Frazer Hines and Deborah Watling.
Some of the stories featured:
1) The Crusade (ep's 1 & 3) - Historical story during the Hartnell era which includes Episode 1 that was recovered in 1999. Some parts of the episode could not be fully restored, but considering the circumstances, we should be lucky to even have it.
2) The Dalek Masterplan (ep's 2, 5, 10) - Epic 12-episode Dalek story. Included is episode 2 "Day of Armageddon", returned to the BBC in January 2004. First appearance of actor Nicholas Courtney as Bret Vyon. He would later return as longtime recurring character Colonel (later Brigadier) Lethbridge-Stewart.
3) The Evil of the Daleks (ep. 2) - Only surviving episode of this 7-parter. Debut of Deborah Watling as travel companion Victoria Waterfield.
4) The Web of Fear (ep. 1) - The second story to feature the Yeti invading the London Underground, and was the debut of Nicholas Courtney as Lethbridge-Stewart, although he's not featured in episode 1.
5) The Wheel In Space (ep. 3 & 6) - Cybermen story and the debut of companion Zoe Herriot (Wendy Padbury).
As enjoyable as this collection is, it nevertheless makes you crave for more for obvious reasons. It's frustrating to be able to see stories at only the beginning or middle or end. This is the sad legacy of the BBC's short-sightedness that we can only hope there are some private collectors who are secretly stashing episodes and are just waiting for the right time to come out with them (what those reasons are I have no idea). If you are a beginner Dr. Who fan, then wait until you see some of the complete stories first before checking this out.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent but incomplete
Review: The two volume set LOST in time is a very plesant collection of incomplete Dr. Who episodes and small film clips that survive from missing episodes from the mid 60's.
They are an excellent addition to any Dr. Who fans collection but I still felt it came up short.
For two of the stories "The Crusade" and "The Moonbase" The audio of the episodes was inserted so the complete story could be experienced. I see no reason why this could not have been done for a couple of the others particularly Toymaker & the Wheel in Space. I would have paid an additional $10 for the DVD without blinking an eye for that.
Dispite that objection the collection is worth your time and your money. Of course who knows, as time passes maybe more of these episodes will surface from private collections and my objections will be moot.
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