After months of speculation which intensified over the last two weeks, the BBC has announced that nine formerly missing episodes of Doctor Who have been rediscovered. All the episodes are from the Second Doctor’s era and come from two stories – The Enemy of the World and The Web of Fear.

“The Enemy of the World first aired on BBC One in December, 1967. Episodes 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6 had been missing from the BBC archives but have now been found which means that a complete version of this classic six-parter now exists,” the BBC said on its Doctor Who site.

“Episodes 2 – 6 of The Web of Fear were feared lost forever but now episodes 2, 4, 5, and 6 have been recovered. This means that now, aside from episode 3, this adventure also exists in its entirety,” they said.

“Both stories star Patrick Troughton as the Doctor plus Frazer Hines as Jamie and Deborah Watling as Victoria. The Web of Fear introduces the much-loved character Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart (later known as the Brigadier) whilst The Enemy of the World is unique insofar as Patrick Troughton also stars as the story’s main villain – the evil Salamander,” they said.

Before this announcement, the most recent count of missing episodes featuring the first two Doctors was 106. Many media sources reported that all of them had been rediscovered.

The stories will be released soon on DVD in the UK and are already are available on iTunes. A clip from The Enemy of the World is available on the BBC Doctor Who site.