Photograph of the complete Web of Fear and Enemy of the World film cans released

Philip Morris of Television International Enterprises Archives (TIEA), who returned nine previously missing episodes of Doctor Who to the BBC Archives in 2013, recently revealed that he had found all episodes of The Web of Fear back then. Episode 3, featuring the first appearance of Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart, went missing again shortly after the discovery, presumably stolen and sold to a private collector.

The Doctor Who Missing Episodes Discussion Group on Facebook has now been given a photo of all 12 film cans found in Africa. They posted the picture on the Facebook group with permission by Philip Morris. On the photo you can see the production code PP (The Enemy of the World) written on the side of one of the cans, the further eleven cans are also part of that serial and of the following story The Web of Fear (Code QQ). Among them is the now once again missing episode 3 of the classic "Yeti's in the Underground"-story.

The following statement was released on Facebook:

On the second anniversary of the release of the newly-recovered and restored “Enemy Of The World” and “Web Of Fear”, Philip Morris, Executive Director of TIEA has authorized us (The Doctor Who Missing Episodes Group on Facebook) to release this photograph of the twelve film cans which he originally discovered in Jos, Nigeria.

This photo was taken immediately after Phil had discovered the film cans and verified that the film reels inside matched what was on the labels.

As you are no doubt aware, one of these film cans - the one containing Episode 3 of “The Web Of Fear” – went missing in between when this photo was taken (in late 2011) and when the cans were delivered to the central collection point in Abuja, Nigeria. The location and disposition of this film can and its contents is currently unknown.

Philip Morris put out the following statement:

The picture you see is one I took after checking the 12 Doctor Who film cans in Jos in 2011. All film leaders were checked to ensure cans matched their contents, this is a practice we follow in fine detail with due care shown. All programmes held at this station were physically checked by myself and my own team. No undue attention was drawn to the Doctor Who prints by myself or any of my staff, however I instructed one of my trusted team to ensure the Doctor Who prints were hidden until authorisation for retrieval could be obtained.

However two prints, one QQ3 Web of Fear 3 and another spare print were taken from one of my guys by a guy at the station who took the two prints to his office. This was reported to me within hours. I was not unduly concerned I knew their location. I have to admit I was really excited and told somebody I thought would not leak any sensitive information - big big mistake. Within 4/5 days the station had been named online. Fortunately by this time our job was done, however what of Web 3? I physically searched Jos again, asked the guy who took the films where they were. Initially he denied all knowledge until I produced the picture-he just looked at the floor and said he put them back on the shelf.

I didn't believe a word, and took the pictures and with one of my collegues and went straight to the top of the NTA, however the guy simply denied it. That is until earlier this year when I returned to Nigeria. I met the same guy again so I asked him directly - he just laughed and said "I don't know anything about missing episodes."
I firmly believe this episode is in the hands of a fan and we will trace it. I hope this goes someway to explain why I must maintain a certain level of security around TIEA and its work.

Thanks to the Doctor Who Missing Episodes Group and to Philip Morris for the kind permission to publish the picture on DWN.