Why The BBC Doesn’t Have The Rights To The First Doctor Who Episode

The BBC seeks to celebrate Doctor Who’s roots with its 60th anniversary celebration, but the show’s first episode will not be available. The series, which follows the eponymous Doctor’s travels through time and space in his inconspicuous ship, the TARDIS, first aired in 1963. In its classic iteration, the show ran for 26 seasons between 1963 and 1989. Following a failed attempt to revive the series with a TV movie in 1996, the series was successfully revived in 2005. It is currently the longest-running sci-fi series in the world, as well as the most successful.