Has Missing Doctor Who The Smugglers Been Found?

Jonathan Appleton is a writer at Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews - All the latest Doctor Who news and reviews with our weekly podKast, features and interviews, and a long-running forum.

That’s the intriguing question posed by blogger Chris Swanson, who claims that it’s been ‘personally relayed’ to him by a ‘confidential source’ that this late era First Doctor story has been recovered.

Important for us to stress that the usual health warnings apply to this the same as any other missing episodes information; indeed as Swanson himself says, he hasn’t been able to find any additional confirmation.

 The Smugglers is perhaps best remembered for being exceptionally bloodthirsty with various gruesome acts of violence. 

As with so many of these rumours this is frustratingly inconclusive, of course, and fans will have to make their own minds up as to how much credence to attach to an unconfirmed story with no supporting detail.

With all of its episodes missing from the archives, The Smugglers is perhaps best remembered for being, as described by Jonathan Morris in Doctor Who Magazine‘s Missing Episodes First Doctor Special, ‘exceptionally bloodthirsty’ with various gruesome acts of violence. A surviving clip from part 3 was unsurprisingly excised by an overseas censor, who took exception to Pike doing away with the unfortunate Jamaica with his spike.

The Smugglers may not be the most fondly remembered story of its era but the censor clips and behind the scenes footage are surely enough to make the prospect of seeing it for what would be the first time for most of us enticing, if irritatingly out of reach. What do you think? Time for an extra rum ration?

Or should we stand fast?

(Via WhatCulture)

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