#8-b: The Reign of Terror Missing Episode Notes

Doctor Who Animated:
A recreation of The Reign of Terror Episode 5

Fortunately, not very much of The Reign of Terror is actually missing. Episodes 1 - 3 exist in their entirety, as does Episode 6. The VHS released in The End of the Universe collection already offered the existing episodes in beautiful quality, and the DVD release further improved on that. With the first three episodes intact, there is little barrier to the story building momentum.

That leaves only Episodes 4 and 5 missing from the archives: If Episode Four was the only one missing, it would be no great loss. It's a place-holder episode, largely taken up with Susan and Barbara managing to get recaptured after their escape. Save for an excellent scene between the Doctor and Robespierre and the cameo by Ronald Pickup, there's really not much of any interest.

Episode 5, however, is the best single part of the entire story. It's the only episode to even attempt to address why the French Revolution happened to begin with. Barbara, Leon, and Jules all reference what France had been like before the Revolution, giving just enough to hint to viewers that Things Were Not Good, and possibly prompting a few young viewers to want to know more. This is also the episode with the strongest interaction between the Doctor and Lemaitre and the Doctor and the jailer. As such, it is a great shame that this part is missing.

The first version of this post speculated that the DVD release, when it came, would feature a mini-reconstruction.  Much to my surprise, it was released with the missing episodes fully animated!  It is very limited animation, with gestures that often do not seem very naturalistic and many overly-quick cuts to try to disguise the limited movement.  But I enjoyed watching the missing episodes in this form far more than in the previous forms available.  Frame by frame, the images looks beautiful, authentically recreating the look of the story, and the movement of characters is sufficient to bring the two episodes to life in a way that was never previously possible.  Truth be told, I would not mind watching a completely missing story animated in this fashion - The animation may be limited, but it's enough to restore these episodes as proper visual entertainment.

For anyone still offended by the idea of turning Classic Who into a cartoon, however, the previous options for experiencing these episodes remain available:

The BBC Radio Collection: This story was released on audio CD, with the soundtracks to all six episodes presented with narration. I have not listened to this particular release, but assume it's of the usual standard for BBC audio releases - Meaning that the audio quality is doubtless as good as possible given the source material. I'm sure the narration is used to just the right effect to bring the story to visual life - but I can't escape feeling that the purchase price of the CD isn't really worth a scant two episodes.  That's doubly true now that the DVD release includes animated versions of those two episodes - And for a lower cost than the audio version!

The Loose Cannon Reconstruction: This is one of Loose Cannon's "middle" works, meaning that it falls well short of their later efforts but still features clearer visuals and sound than their earliest ones. By and large, it is a serviceable recon, with effective cutting between the stills to mimic some of the visual effect that would have been provided by the actors' expressions. There's just one hitch: An ill-judged attempt to add motion results in a ridiculous overuse of video of a swinging door, taken from Episode 3. The door to Jules' study opens and closes, opens and closes, opens and closes so many times that it becomes unintentionally comical. That issue to the side, it's a solid reconstruction, very easy to enjoy.

VHS Bridging Narration: The animated episodes have rendered into a mild curiosity the VHS release's bridging narration by Carole Ann Ford. I will say that this spare overview does adequately fills the gap in what's not exactly a plot-heavy story to star with, and even features the few seconds' of existing footage from the missing episodes. It's the least adequate of the available ways to complete the story, though... And again, with the animation done for the DVD version, this really is nothing more than a curiosity piece now.


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