Don’t Panic! Dad’s Army Missing Episode Gets Animated – Could Doctor Who Be Next?

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They may have been the boys to stop old Hitler’s game but now they could be about to start a new influx of animated adaptations of missing episodes – giving hope to beleaguered fans that an announcement could be imminent.

This week the BBC will release a missing episode of classic sitcom Dad’s Army, which has been animated for the BBC Store. The episode, A Stripe for Frazer, has not been seen it was first broadcast 47 years ago. While the audio remains, the full episode was lost in the great cull of the BBC archive during the 60’s and 70’s – before the existence of the lucrative home video market.

Now, with animation bringing the episode back to life for die-hard fans, could we soon see more missing episodes of Doctor Who receive similar treatment.

We’ve already had Second Doctor classic The Invasion brought to life by the process, followed by the First Doctor’s final episode The Tenth Planet, and the Second Doctor adventures The Moonbase and The Ice Warriors.

Exploring the potential, the Metro sat down with Niel Bushnell, an author and animator who worked on the film Space Jam and numerous Doctor Who projects, to talk about the tantalising prospect.

“Animation is often very time consuming and labour intensive. Trying to recreate lost episodes of Doctor Who complicates the process further as you’re recreating something that existed as opposed to just creating something without restrictions.”

Restrictions to the process might hamper the chances of seeing more animated episodes but, perhaps the biggest restriction imposed on any project would, more than likely, be money.

BAFTA-nominated director Chris Chapman, who helmed many Doctor Who documentaries and the animation for The Ice Warriors, underlines the prohibited budgets and limited returns for such a project.

“The challenge is always money. As these releases have never been for broadcast, budgets are tiny and that forces you in to a more stripped-back approach. Budget has been the reason so far that you’ve not seen more Doctor Who animations.”

However, the idea of selling such episodes directly to fans via the BBC Store does open up any potential project to a wider and hopefully more lucrative audience.

With so much audio only material still in existence, Doctor Who seems ripe for more animated treatment – giving fans a new way to see lost material.

The 30 minute flash-animation of A Stripe For Frazer will be available exclusively on BBC Store from today.

 

 

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