missing episodes you missed at the time

[John Miller]

I was thinking recently how as a child, without the asset of video it was inevitable with serials one or two episodes were missed.
Examples I recall included 'Seeds of death' last episode, as I went to a school friends party & we weren't allowed to watch it. My older niece watched it for me & was supposed to do flashback notes. In the case of some recovered material from stories now lost, I would be seeing these for the first time as I missed them originally. Another (missing) example, 'Web of fear' from which I seem to recall only eps 1 & 2. If a middle episode were recovered, it would be a new item to me!
Does anyone else have similar memories?

[Brad Phipps]

Sadly I was born the year the junking stopped, so I never got a chance to see any of them. I wish I could've seen the transition from Hartnell to Troughton, must've been shocking back then to do it for the first time.

[John Stewart Miller]

I did see the changeover, it was around firework night 1966. I was lying on the sette reading the Dr Seuss book 'Put me in a zoo' as I recall. during that first following story I recall my auntie saying 'I don't think this is suitable for you' (being 5). It was the 'Dalek conveyer' scene.
'Power' is remembered as being a 'classic'. I would second this but note that some middle episodes were quite dull and dragged! The sets & costumes were quite boring, grey bolier suits. To a boy of that age it looked more like an episode of 'The troubleshooters', quite talky.
The reaction at the time was that, played up by Troughtons performance, the audience were waiting to see where he'd hidden the loveable grandad figure. I was annoyed I'd just grown old enough to watch without running out of the room, and to love the first Doctor, when he left. The impression was the new Doctor was a stranger or imposter. After a couple of episodes due to the Daleks, I forgot about it. Troughton was much more stupid during the first few episodes, and I don't think audiences liked him at first. The toned down performance, more subtle, as seen in 'The Moonbase' heralded the settled in, established Doctor figure.

As I point out in my topic, I had missed most of episode 1 of 'Moonbase' but liked the monster at the end, not realising due to redesign it was the cybermen. People at the time tended to have to miss episodes as they went out with Mum or Dad, had guests, or were expected to sit at the table for tea & turn the telly off. Believe it or not a friend found a reel to reel off air late 1980s documenting this (I have a cassette copy). The family are testing a new tape recorder. This has half of 'Dalek masterplan' ep 6. Then you hear someone turn the t.v. off before the climax saying 'come on, teas ready!'

P.S. This is still me, I changed my name to avoid confusion with another John Miller..

[John Stewart Miller]

By the way, the following applies to what I missed: -
Recall observing I think (very young, 4) 'Web planet' think ep. 4. The bit where a butterfly person is talking and seen through a heart shaped hole in a sculptural leaf type plant. It was on video but blurred at the edges, I imagined as if being seen 'through a fruit bowl' - ! I quickly decided I wasn't going to watch any more (think I'd seen 'The zarbi' but they scared me less than the Menoptera!).
Similarly I left 'The space museum' where the crew see themselves inside glass museum cases - I didn't get it. I recalled the disembodied episodes 'The watcher' and 'the executioners' for some reason. It was a similar situation with 'Reign of terror' (the scenes where the crew are on a cart going to the guillotine) and 'Dalek Invasion' (Doctor on an operating table, and Barbara clamped by the neck against a wall. I ran out of the room in the first scene of 'The ark' returning in episode 3 where it looked like the Monoids had cricket jumpers on, were in a white room (I thought inside the Tardis) and could talk.
The first one I braved right through was 'War machines' which I felt to be tailor made for me (not too scary). I recall turning off after episode 1 of 'Highlanders' meaning we turned back on half way through 'moonbase' episode 1. The cybermen had been redesigned so you couldn't tell the face at the end was one till episode 2. I recall missing episode 3 most clearly.
I would deliberately turn off in 'boring' stories (faceless ones, war games). However I went to school friends parties (circa 68 -69) during some good ones. Paul Matthews' Mum let us watch 'Fury from the deep' epsiode 2. In 69 however, I missed the last part of 'Seeds of death' completely, trying to arrange for my niece to watch it for me and tell me what happened afterwards.
So with some of the rare or missing 'classic' episodes, I missed them anyway...

[Deleted]

I missed Part 2 f Power of The Daleks as Our Telly was broke & the guy did not come to fix it till Monday after the broadcast , for younger members it must be remembered that in Nov 1966 most Working class homes did not have more than one TV set

[johnstewart]

Yes - I also seem to think now I missed ALL 'Dalek Masterplan' and 'Galaxy 4' - perhaps as 'Forest Rangers' ran opposite on ITV and was my Brothers fave.

[lmrcpr]

because i'm only 28 I wasnt born when they where on orignaly so have never had the chance to see the missing ones.

[B Thomas]

I didn't start watching until Spearhead from Space so, yeah, I missed all the missing ones...