Nine missing episodes of the cult BBC science fiction drama "Doctor Who" have been found in a television station storeroom in Nigeria, nearly half a century after they were last seen, the broadcaster said Friday.
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Among the recovered 1960s footage is most of the classic story "The Web of Fear", a black and white adventure in which the Time Lord, then played by Patrick Troughton, battles a robot yeti in London's underground train system.
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The tapes were found gathering dust in a television station in Jos, a central Nigerian city plagued by chronic sectarian violence.
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The trove, which is being described by the BBC as the "largest haul of missing episodes recovered in the last three decades", also includes six-part story "The Enemy of the World."
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"It's thrilling," said Mark Gatiss, author of recent "Doctor Who" episodes.
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"Every single avenue seemed to have been exhausted, every now and then something turns up — but to have two virtually complete stories out of the blue is absolutely incredible."
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The BBC destroyed many of the drama's original tapes in the 1960s and 1970s but some were copied for sale to foreign broadcasters.