"A Happy Christmas to all of you at home"

Several years ago I looked at Doctor Who at Christmas and then later at Doctor Who episode 097 The Daleks' Master Plan Part 7: The Feast of Steven, the only original series episode of Doctor Who to appear on Christmas Day. It is also completely and utterly barking mad. I'll be having a listen to it later.

Feast of Steven was famously never telerecorded so is so very unlikely to be ever seen again. During this period of the program no Telesnaps were being taken by John Cura - the then producer John Wills' decision depriving us of pictures for Galaxy Four, Mission to the Unknown, Myth Makers, Dalek Masterplan, The Massacre, The Ark and The Celestial Toymaker. In that period just 9 out of the 33 episodes survive and just one complete story, the Ark.

However the actor Robert Jewell, usually inside a Dalek casing, makes a rare onscreen appearance in The Feast of Steven as the Clown (who we're led to believe is Bing Crosby). Jewel had some photos of the broadcast of this episode taken as it was a rare appearance of him onscreen and they are now the only visual record of this missing never to be returned episode. I didn't know these existed at the point when I originally blogged the episode but you can see them on the internet at http://missingepisodes.blogspot.co.uk/p/offair.html to catch just a glimpse of this missing episode.

So, in the words of the late great William Hartnell 48 years ago today:

"A Happy Christmas to all of you at home."