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1963-1969 LOST MEDIA
Up until the 1970s, the BBC would clear and re-use tapes of their old programs to make way for
new ones. This practice was so pervasive that in 1978, the BBC found that out of all 253 episodes
from Hartnell and Troughton's eras, not a single original tape remained.
156 of these lost episodes have been recovered. 97 remain lost, or at least undiscovered. There
have been rumors running around in the Who fandom since at least the 1980s of private collectors
who haven't shared their personal copies of some of these lost episodes - sometimes you even hear
names - but I haven't come across any concrete proof or met these people myself.
As for those of us who were not alive in the 1960s to see these lost episodes first-hand, there
exist reconstructions of various forms and formats: tele-snap reconstructions, official animated
adaptations, fan-made recreations, surviving audio with added visual description, etc.
RECONSTRUCTION FORMATS
Occasionally, the BBC has commissioned animated reconstructions to be made for lost episodes.
These are mostly available for streaming wherever you choose to watch Classic Doctor Who, which
makes them the easiest to access. Their quality varies - the animation can be pretty choppy with
stiff movements and the art styles, frankly, can be rather unattractive. Still, it's nice they exist.
Some look better than others.
Loose Cannon Productions has a series of telesnap-style reconstructions which are generally
the most recommended that I've seen.
Some Second Doctor serials can be accessed through their surviving audio soundtracks, with
narration added over scenes which relied on lost visuals to be understood. These soundtracks have
been released in CD and vinyl format, and can be found in the Internet Archive library.
All lost episode serials have had novelizations published by Target Books. Most of these books
are fairly cheap when they turn up in book resale shops, ebay, or conventions. They can also be found
in the Internet Archive library.