List of unmade Doctor Who serials and films

During the long history of the British science-fiction television series Doctor Who, a number of stories were proposed but never fully produced. Below is a list of unmade serials submitted by recognized professionals. Although the BBC intended to produce the serials, they were not made. Many have become subjects of features in Doctor Who Magazine or other periodicals and books devoted to the television show.

The unmade serials existed during the tenure of each of the previous thirteen incarnations of the Doctor. Reasons include strike action (which caused the partially-filmed Shada to be abandoned), actors leaving roles (The Final Game, cancelled after Roger Delgado's death), and the series' going on hiatus twice—in 1985 and 1989.

The plots of the unmade serials varied. The theme of a civilization in which women are dominant was proposed twice, for The Hidden Planet and The Prison in Space. In some cases, elements of an unmade series were adapted or moved from one project to another. Song of the Space Whale was intended to be the introduction of Vislor Turlough until it was repeatedly postponed, making Mawdryn Undead Turlough's first appearance.

Some unused stories have been adapted for other media. Shada was animated, and several unmade serials were compiled into an audio series released by Big Finish entitled The Lost Stories.

First Doctor

Submitted for season 1

The Giants

The series' first serial, The Giants, was to be written by C. E. Webber. In the first episode, "Nothing at the End of the Lane", the four main characters (then the Doctor, Cliff, Lola, and Biddy) are shrunk to a miniature size and attacked by giant animals.

The serial established the Doctor's original backstory; the Time Lord escaped from "his own galaxy" in the year 5733, seeking a perfect society in the past. He was pursued by agents from his own time who sought to prevent him from stopping their society from originating. By May 1963, a storyline for all four parts had been established and the first two episodes scripted. The story was rejected on 10 June 1963 as too thin on characterisation, and the giant monsters were considered clichéd and too expensive to produce. Some of the initial opening script was retained for An Unearthly Child when Anthony Coburn was commissioned to write a replacement on 14 June 1963, with details about the Doctor's home removed.

Around early September 1963, the idea was given to Robert Gould to develop. Known as the "minuscule" storyline, it was expected to be the season's fourth serial. The story was dropped from this slot in January 1964, and Gould abandoned work on it altogether a month later. In March 1964, the story idea was offered to writer Louis Marks and eventually became Planet of Giants.

The Masters of Luxor

The Masters of Luxor, originally entitled The Robots, was a six-part story submitted by Anthony Coburn while he was part of the BBC Script Department. It was considered for the second serial of Season 1, in which the Doctor faces a self-aware robot which is trying to gain a soul. The story was rejected by the production team in mid-September 1963 in favour of Terry Nation's first Dalek serial, but Titan Books published the unused scripts in August 1992. Edited by John McElroy, the text of Coburn's script was amended to fit accepted conventions – for example, consistent use of the name "Susan" rather than the "Suzanne" and "Sue" used by Coburn. It was adapted by Nigel Robinson for Big Finish's The Lost Stories in August 2012.

The Hidden Planet

Malcolm Hulke's The Hidden Planet, commissioned in December 1963, was to be the fourth or fifth serial of Series 1 after the insertion of The Edge of Destruction into the production block. It was further postponed in January 1964 when it was realised that substantial rewriting would be needed. The story would have concerned a planet in an orbit opposite Earth's, with a society parallel but opposite to it; women were the dominant sex, and all clovers had four leaves. The original script was sent back for rewrites which, due to a pay dispute, were not made until after Susan had left the series; this necessitated further rewriting. A third submission was rejected because Ian and Barbara were due to leave, and the script was dropped. The story was the subject of a 1983 April Fool's Day prank, when issue 76 of Doctor Who Magazine reported that one episode had been filmed, rediscovered, and would be integrated into The Phoenix Rises: a twentieth-anniversary special co-starring the Fifth Doctor.

Britain 408 AD

Also written by Hulke, the story involved the departure of the Romans from Britain around the beginning of the fifth century amid clashes with the Celts and the Saxons; the time travellers brought the indigenous savages back to the safety of the TARDIS. Britain 408 AD was first submitted on 2 September 1963. Story editor David Whitaker asked Hulke to revise his original storyline because he felt that the plot, with its many opposing factions, was too complicated and its conclusion echoed that of An Unearthly Child. It was hoped that an amended version of Britain 408 AD directed by Christopher Barry would fill the sixth slot of Season One (Serial F), but on 23 September it was decided that the production block did not need another historical story and Hulke's serial was abandoned. The spot in the schedule was ultimately occupied by The Aztecs, and Hulke began work on The Hidden Planet. After Whitaker's departure, Hulke resubmitted Britain 408 AD. It was rejected on 2 April 1965 by Dennis Spooner, Whitaker's successor, because Romans had already appeared in his own story.

The Red Fort

Terry Nation had intended his second seven-part serial, commissioned on 24 September 1963, to be set during the British Raj in India (probably as the eighth serial). The story was abandoned; the Daleks were a success, and demand for further science-fiction adventures grew.

Farewell Great Macedon

Farewell Great Macedon (also known as Alexander the Great in the script's early stages) was a six-part story for Season 1 written by Moris Farhi. The Doctor and his companions are framed for murder as part of a conspiracy to kill Alexander the Great and must endure several trials, including walking on hot coals, to gain the trust of their bodyguard Ptolemy. The script was published by Nothing at the End of the Lane in October 2009.

The Fragile Yellow Arc of Fragrance

The Fragile Yellow Arc of Fragrance, the first script sent by Moris Farhi, was one episode long and was never seriously pitched for production. It was included in the 2009 publication of Farhi's script for Farewell Great Macedon.

The Living World

The Living World was written by Alan Wakeman, one of several writers contacted by David Whitaker in mid-1963. The story, commissioned on 31 July 1963, involved a planet ruled by sentient rocks and trees who could control humans with an inaudible sound. A four-part breakdown of the story featured in the third volume of the magazine, Nothing at the End of the Lane, with the episode titles "Airfish", "What Eats What", "The Living Planet" and "Just in Time". Susan is referred to as Suzanne, and Barbara is referred to as Miss Canning.

Untitled storyline (Gould)

An idea suggested by Robert Gould when he abandoned work on the "minuscule" storyline in February 1964 involved a planet where plants treated people the way people treat plants. It was rejected by Verity Lambert, who felt that it was too close to the book The Day of the Triffids.

Submitted for season 2

The Dark Planet

Written by Brian Hayles, the story was Hayles' first submission to the series. It focuses on the Doctor, Ian, Barbara, and Vicki landing the TARDIS on the planet Numir, whose sun is extinguished, and encountering surface-dwelling "light people" and subterranean "shadow people". The story was rejected in favour of Bill Strutton's The Web Planet by story editor Dennis Spooner on 8 February 1965 because of its similarity to Malcolm Hulke's The Hidden Planet.

The Slide

Written by Victor Pemberton, the story focuses on a sentient form of mud which tries to take over the minds of British townsfolk. Script editor David Whittaker rejected it as derivative of the Quatermass serials of the 1950s, and Pemberton later submitted it to BBC Radio after removing the Doctor Who elements from it. The Slide was commissioned as a seven-part serial which premiered on the BBC Light Programme on 13 February 1966. This inspired Pemberton to adapt it as the Doctor Who story Fury from the Deep, which aired in 1968.

Submitted for season 3

The New Armada

Written by David Whitaker as he planned to leave as story editor. He submitted The New Armada in late February 1964 for season 2, but was rejected in the wake of The Dalek Invasion of Earth. Whitaker resubmitted it for season 3 in late 1965, but it was rejected by story editor Gerry Davis on 17 January 1966. The six-part story was set in sixteenth-century Spain.

The Space Trap

Robert Holmes' first story submission for the series was submitted to story editor Donald Tosh on 25 April 1965. The four-part story idea involved the Doctor and his three companions arriving on an uninhabited planet to discover a spacecraft controlled by robots while its human occupants are in suspended animation waiting for additional crew members to again operate the crashed ship. The Doctor and his companions are taken captive and trained by the robots as replacement crew members. Only three additional crew members are required, so the least-useful member of the Doctor's party will be killed by the human crew. The serial was rejected primarily due to the robots' similarity to the Mechanoids in the previous season's The Chase. Holmes resubmitted the story idea to producer Peter Bryant on 20 May 1968, which led to the commissioning of what became The Krotons.

Untitled storyline (Lucarotti)

John Lucarotti's storyline about Leif Eriksson was turned down by Donald Tosh because Vikings had already appeared in The Time Meddler. Lucarotti used the plot in "Who Discovered America?", a 1992 short story for issue 184 of Doctor Who Magazine.

Submitted for season 4

The Hounds of Time

The Brian Hayles storyline was submitted in mid-1966, around the time Hayles completed The Smugglers, and may have required the Second Doctor. A mad scientist kidnaps humans from points in Earth's history. The scientist works for an alien warlord who wants to study humanity to determine the best time to invade.

The Nazis

Brian Hayles was commissioned to write a storyline for The Nazis on 8 March 1966. Hayles was hired to write The Smugglers shortly afterwards, which he was told had a higher priority. The Nazis was abandoned on 15 June of that year because its events were considered too recent.

The Ocean Liner

Written by David Ellis, the storyline was submitted as a spy thriller in January 1966 and was rejected by Gerry Davis in April of that year.

The People Who Couldn't Remember

Written by David Ellis and Malcolm Hulke, the story was submitted to the production office in April 1966. Script editor Gerry Davis rejected it on 15 June of that year because he wanted to avoid comic serials after the poorly-received The Gunfighters.

Second Doctor

Submitted for season 4

The Ants

Written by Roger Dixon, the story was submitted on 16 January 1967. The TARDIS brings the Doctor and his companions to the Nevada desert, where they discover that they have been shrunk to one-tenth of an inch. They learn that local ants have become super-intelligent from atomic-bomb tests and plan to take over Earth.

The Big Store

Written by David Ellis and Malcolm Hulke, the story was submitted on 15 November 1966 about faceless aliens infiltrating department stores as display mannequins. Ellis and Hulke reused the plot in The Faceless Ones.

The Imps

Written by William Emms and planned as the fourth serial of Series 4, The Imps was a four-part story about a spaceship overrun by imp-like aliens and aggressive alien vegetation. The script was commissioned on 17 October 1966 and had to be rewritten to accommodate a new companion, Jamie. Due to Emms' illness, further rewrites were needed to explain the loss of Ben and Polly. Its place in the schedule was taken by The Underwater Menace, and on 4 January 1967 the story was dropped.

The Mutant

Written by Barry Letts, the story outline (submitted around November 1966 to story editor Gerry Davis) involved a race of beings undergoing a butterfly-like cycle of mutations which included a chrysalis stage.

The New Machines

Written by Roger Dixon, the story was submitted in early 1967. A race of people is wiped out by powerful robots which they created. The robots become so advanced that they create a new race of people, and fear that the new humans will dominate them. When the Doctor arrives on their planet, they interpret it as proof of their fears.

The Return of the Neanderthal

In this Roger Dixon storyline, the TARDIS is dragged under the sands of Terunda and encounters people descended from Neanderthals who want to return to Earth in 2016.

The Sleepwalkers

This six-part Roger Dixon story, submitted on 16 January 1967, involves the TARDIS crew's arrival on a far-future Earth where a community of youths depends on unseen Elders who live in the mountains.

Twin World

This Roger Dixon story was submitted in early 1967.

Untitled storyline (Letts)

This Barry Letts story, submitted around November 1966, is about a sinister organisation operating on Earth as an amusement park.

Submitted for season 5

The King's Bedtime Story

In this Roger Dixon story, submitted on 16 January 1967, the Doctor and his companions must perpetually enact a king's favourite story without changing it.

Operation Werewolf

Written by Douglas Camfield and Robert Kitts, this six-part storyline was submitted to the production office on 18 September 1967. Camfield and BBC colleague Kitts had developed the outline in 1965 due to Camfield's dismay with another sub-standard script, and it would probably have been directed by Camfield. The Doctor arrives in Normandy just before the D-Day landings, and the story includes a plan to stop the Nazis from using a form of matter teleportation. Only a draft script for episode one was written. It went through several rewrites until 1967, when it was abandoned after producer Innes Lloyd left and the writers had other commitments. The serial was given individual episode titles, although this practice had ended with The Savages in 1966. Episode titles were "The Secret Army", "Chateau of Death", "Lair of the Werewolf", "Friend Or Foe", "Village of the Swastika", and "Crossfire". Big Finish adapted the storyline into an audio drama scheduled for release in July 2024.

The Queen of Time

The four-part adventure serial was written by Brian Hayles. The Doctor encounters the evil Hecuba, a relative of the Celestial Toymaker.

Submitted for season 6

The Aliens in the Blood

This Robert Holmes story, submitted on 22 October 1968, is set in the 22nd century and deals with an outbreak of mutants with ESP which disrupt a spacelane.

The Dreamspinner

This four-part Paul Wheeler story was commissioned as a scene breakdown on 23 February 1968.

The Harvesters

Written by William Emms, the serial was redrafted in early 1970 as The Vampire Planet and considered for the season-7 finale before it was dropped.

The Impersonators

Written by Malcolm Hulke, the six-part story was commissioned on 5 July 1968 and cancelled on 30 December of that year. Its production budget was allocated to The War Games (which Hulke co-wrote with Terrance Dicks), allowing that story to be expanded to 10 episodes.

The Laird of McCrimmon

Written by Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln, the storyline was considered in early 1968. It would be set in Scotland in Jamie's ancestral home, Castle McCrimmon, where the Doctor's old foe (the Great Intelligence) plans to use Jamie's body. At the end of the story, Jamie would remain behind as the new laird.

The Lords of the Red Planet

Written by Brian Hayles, the story would have been about the origins of the Ice Warriors after their debut story. It was dropped c. May 1968.

The Prison in Space

Dick Sharples' The Prison in Space, originally The Amazons, had six other working titles during its development. Sharples returned to the idea of a female-dominated planet last attempted with The Hidden Planet. The four-part story, commissioned on 4 June 1968, would feature Jamie in drag and deprogramming Zoe by spanking her. The serial was rewritten to accommodate Frazer Hines' desire to leave by introducing a new companion named Nik, and again when he decided to stay. Scripts for the first two episodes were delivered on 27 August 1968. The production team was unhappy with the serial, and when Sharples refused further rewrites it was replaced by The Krotons.

The Rosemariners

Written by Donald Tosh as The Rosacrutians after Tosh contacted the production staff in early 1968 to gauge their interest, the story originally featured Jamie and Victoria. By the time Tosh delivered the first materials for the story, Patrick Troughton had decided to leave the series. When it was turned down by the production team, Tosh had finished a script for the first episode and notes for the next three episodes. He completed a full storyline for Doctor Who Magazine (DWM) in 1994. Set on an Earth space station, it deals with a conflict between the space-station staff and the Rosemariners (a group who plan to hold the staff hostage in return for Earth supplying them with sophisticated weapons).

Third Doctor

Submitted for season 7

The Circles of Power

Written by Brian Hayles. The story focuses on a faulty communications satellite which causes the release of robotic "sensorspheres", inducing amnesia in their victims.

The Mists of Madness

Written by Brian Wright, the Doctor discovers a community of artificially-created humans. The storyline was submitted on 9 May 1969, and was commissioned by script editor Terrance Dicks. It was scheduled to be the season-7 finale, but Wright accepted an academic writing post in Bristol and was unable to write it.

The Shadow People

Written by Charlotte and Dennis Plimmer, the seven-part story was submitted to the production office on 10 November 1969. It was considered for the season-7 finale after The Mists of Madness was cancelled, but a pay dispute with the writers led to its replacement by Inferno.

Submitted for season 9

The Brain-Dead

Written by Brian Hayles, the story was submitted to the production office in the spring of 1971. An Ice Warrior plans to invade the Earth with a Z beam which reduces the temperature of what it strikes to absolute zero, and turns humans into zombie-like slaves. Script editor Dicks rejected the storyline, but the inclusion of the Ice Warriors inspired the development of The Curse of Peladon.

The Daleks in London

The Daleks in London, commissioned on 25 May 1971 for Robert Sloman, was to be the season-9 finale in 1972 and re-introduced the Daleks after a five-year absence. It would have been similar to The Dalek Invasion of Earth, although it was set in contemporary London.

The Mega

Written by Bill Strutton, this four-part story was submitted to the production office on 25 September 1970 when Strutton regained interest in writing for the series after scripting The Web Planet five years earlier. It was ultimately discarded, and was later adapted by Simon Guerrier as a six-part story for Big Finish's The Lost Stories in December 2013.

The Shape of Terror

Written by Brian Hayles, the story was submitted in spring 1971. An alien shape-shifting entity attacks a space station and attempts to merge with the Doctor, which unwittingly causes its own destruction. Hayles recycled elements, particularly its Agatha Christie mystery style, in his script for The Curse of Peladon.

Submitted for season 10

Multiface

Written by Godfrey Harrison, the four-part story was commissioned by Letts on 19 July 1971 and dropped on 25 February 1972.

Submitted for season 11

The Automata

Written by Robert Holmes, the four-part story was commissioned on 16 January 1973 and was replaced by The Time Warrior.

The Final Game

The Third Doctor's final story was to be The Final Game by Robert Sloman and Barry Letts as uncredited co-writer, which was commissioned on 15 February 1973. The story was to end with the revelation that the Master and the Doctor were brothers, or opposing aspects of the same being (the ego and the id), and the Master dying in a manner suggesting that he sacrificed himself to save the Doctor's life. Roger Delgado (who played the Master) was killed in a car accident in Turkey on 18 June 1973, and the story was scrapped and replaced by Planet of the Spiders. Elements of its plot were used for the Tenth Doctor special, "The End of Time".

Fourth Doctor

Submitted for season 12

Space Station

Written by Christopher Langley, this storyline for a four-part story was submitted to the production office on 30 December 1973. The Doctor and Sarah arrive at a space station in the distant future, when humanity no longer lives on Earth. Commissioned for scripts on 24 January 1974 and planned as the second story of Season 12, it was dropped on 17 June 1974 and replaced by Lucarotti's The Ark in Space.

The Ark in Space (Lucarotti)

Written by John Lucarotti, this script came about after Space Station was rejected; Lucarotti was suggested by Terrance Dicks as a replacement writer on the strength of his Moonbase 3 script. The story would use the same setting as Space Station to save money by sharing sets with Revenge of the Cybermen. Commissioned in June 1974, Lucarotti devised the ark: a space station housing a plot of countryside the size of Kent. The six-part story was about the ark's invasion by the Delc, a spore-like fungus with separate heads and bodies. The final episode would have the Doctor defeating the Delc leader by hitting it into space with a golf club. Lucarotti planned to give each episode a frivolous title, citing Puffball as the title of an early episode and Golfball as the final episode's title. When the draft scripts arrived from his home on Corsica, Holmes and Hinchcliffe felt that they were too complicated to produce on the programme's budget. It was replaced by a different story with the same title by Robert Holmes, which shared the setting with the previous version.

Untitled Dalek storyline

Written by Terry Nation. It was rejected as too similar to his previous Dalek stories and replaced with Genesis of the Daleks. Big Finish Productions released an audio adaptation of the script from the first episode of this story with additional material for the rest of the story adapted into an audiobook by Simon Guerrier in May 2023 as Doctor Who: Daleks! Genesis of Terror.

Submitted for season 13

The Angarath

Eric Pringle was commissioned on 11 August 1975 by producer Philip Hinchcliffe to write the first two episodes of the four-part story. Pringle submitted the final two episodes without commission on 10 March 1976, but the story was cancelled on 23 June of that year.

The Eyes of Nemesis

Written by Brian Hayles, this story was submitted to the production office on 15 May 1975. It would involve the Doctor and Sarah in a chase between the hunter Torr and his quarry, Lakdem. Near the end, it is revealed that Torr works for the Celestial Toymaker.

The Haunting

Written by Terrance Dicks, this six-part story was submitted at the start of November 1974 and would have dealt with vampires. The storyline was commissioned on 11 December 1974 and was abandoned on 13 May 1975.

The Menday Fault

Written by David Wiltshire, this was an unsolicited script for a six-part story. The story revolves around a nuclear submarine diving into the Fault of Menday and discovering a subterranean world. The world's sun is dying and the underground dwellers, Suranians led by Zorr, are planning to invade the surface world. Wiltshire was never commissioned to develop the storyline further.

The Nightmare Planet

Written by Dennis Spooner, the story centers around a planet where drugs in the food and water are used to control the populace. Punishment would be meted out by temporary withdrawal from the drugs, which would cause people to see monsters around them. The storyline for the four-part story was commissioned on 31 January 1975.

The Prisoner of Time

Written by Barry Letts, the storyline for this four-part story was commissioned on 21 January 1975. It was based on an audition piece for the role of Sarah Jane Smith that Letts had written in 1973, and was initially known as Time Lord Story.

Pyramids of Mars (Greifer)

Written by Lewis Greifer, this story was commissioned in July 1974 and would have involved museum keepers chased out of the British Museum by a mummy. A group was scaring people away to gain access to a sarcophagus containing wild rice from thousands of years ago to seed Mars and make a fortune. It was replaced by Robert Holmes' Pyramids of Mars (under the pen name Stephen Harris) when Griefer became ill; the scripts were late, and were not what the production team wanted.

Return to Sukannan

Written by Terry Nation, the story was commissioned for a storyline on 13 February 1975 and was replaced by The Android Invasion.

The Silent Scream

This unsolicited Chris Boucher story was sent to the production office in early 1975. Although only fifteen minutes of material was considered unsuitable for Doctor Who, script editor Robert Holmes brought in Boucher to discuss ideas with himself and producer Philip Hinchcliffe. This led to unmade scripts for The Dreamers of Phados and The Mentor Conspiracy before being commissioned as The Face of Evil.

Submitted for season 14

The Gaslight Murders

Written by Basil Dawson, this four-part story involves murders in Victorian London. Dawson, a veteran screenwriter, was approached by script editor Robert Holmes to develop a story that would introduce a new companion to replace Sarah Jane Smith after her departure. The new character would be a Cockney girl whom the Doctor would take under his wing and educate like Eliza Doolittle in George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion. The story, planned as the fourth story of Season 14, was abandoned and replaced by The Face of Evil.

The Foe from the Future

Robert Banks Stewart's six-part story was commissioned in May 1976. It was replaced by The Talons of Weng-Chiang, which used the same basic premise of a villain traveling back in time. Stewart became the script editor of Armchair Thriller and was unable to deliver the scripts, forcing Robert Holmes to rework the story.

The Dreamers of Phados

Written by Chris Boucher and submitted after The Silent Scream was rejected in early 1975, it was based on a premise Hinchcliffe and Holmes wanted to use in which people and machines are controlled by a computer that malfunctions.

The Lost Legion

Douglas Camfield's four-part story was commissioned on 22 January 1976, and involved the Doctor and Sarah arriving in North Africa at an isolated French Legion outpost. The outpost has become the battleground for two alien races, the Skarkel and the Khoorians. The story was planned to write out the character of Sarah, who would be killed by one of the aliens. The first script was submitted on 9 February 1976, and was removed from the series schedule that April. Camfield continued to work on the scripts, delivering the final part on 24 September 1976.

The Mentor Conspiracy

Written by Chris Boucher, this story was (like The Dreamer of Phados) based on an idea brief from Holmes and Hinchcliffe. Set on a spaceship that has been home to several generations of a civilization, the script was declined on 30 October 1975.

Submitted for season 15

Killers of the Dark

Script editor Anthony Read approached David Weir, with whom he had worked. Weir's six-part script, planned as the season-15 finale, was commissioned on 18 July 1977. Weir's script had elements of Asian culture, and included a race of cat people with links to Gallifrey; scenes included a gladiatorial duel in a stadium filled with cat people. Read and director Gerald Blake determined that the story would be impossible to shoot on Doctor Who's budget, and the story was abandoned in mid-August 1977. With only two weeks before filming, Read and Williams quickly co-wrote The Invasion of Time.

The Divided

This four-part Moris Farhi story was commissioned by producer Graham Williams on 8 November 1977. The lost script was not produced, and Farhi no longer remembers what it was about; whether it was considered for season 15 or season 16 is unknown.

The Krikkitmen

Written by Douglas Adams, this was one of several ideas Adams proposed to the production office around 1976; he submitted The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy scripts to BBC Radio and Doctor Who, and was hired by both. The Krikkitmen is believed to be the story on which he had spent the most time working before it was rejected by script editor Robert Holmes, who encouraged Adams to work on The Hitchhiker's Guide and continue submitting material for Doctor Who's season 16; this led to his commission for The Pirate Planet. Adams revised The Krikkitmen for Paramount Pictures in 1980 as a Doctor Who feature film, although nothing came of the project. He included many ideas from The Krikkitmen in his novel, Life, the Universe and Everything, the second sequel of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Submitted for season 16

Shield of Zareg

Written by Ted Lewis and also known as The Doppelgängers, the search for the fourth segment of the Key to Time takes the Doctor and Romana to Nottingham, where they meet Robin Hood and discover that he is actually a villain. The scripts for the first two episodes of the season's four-part fourth serial were delivered to the production office on 28 April 1978. Although a third script arrived on 12 May 1978, Lewis was inebriated at a meeting with Graham Williams and Anthony Read and the unsuitability of the submitted material led to its replacement by David Fisher's The Androids of Tara (in the same swashbuckling genre).

Untitled storyline (Boucher)

Written by Chris Boucher, this idea was submitted shortly after Boucher completed Image of the Fendahl. The story involved a remote Earth outpost under attack.

Untitled storyline (Adams)

Proposed by Douglas Adams, the Time Lords mine a planet and use a machine that would sap the aggression from the natives to make them peaceful. One Time Lord would become trapped in the statue and absorb the aggression, driving him insane. He planned to make the machine dematerialise, re-form around Gallifrey and hollow out the planet. Elements of this story were re-used by Adams in his script, The Pirate Planet.

Untitled storyline (Baker and Martin)

Proposed by Bob Baker and Dave Martin, it concerned two planets (Atrios and Zeos) at war over a catastrophic shift in their orbits. The war was encouraged by a mysterious force, and the Doctor was forced to fashion a Key to Time to temporarily freeze both planets' armies. The Shadow (the mysterious force provoking the war) was planning to use the Key to Time to pit the universe at war against everyone. The Doctor thwarted the Shadow's plan by unfreezing both planets' armies and giving each the co-ordinates of the Shadow's planet, which was between both planets. Elements of this story were recycled in The Armageddon Factor.

Submitted for season 17

Shada

Main article: Shada (Doctor Who)

Shada was a six-part serial written by Douglas Adams that was scheduled to conclude Season 17 and air from 19 January to 23 February 1980. Production was halted during studio recordings due to a strike. The remaining studio scenes were never recorded, and the serial never aired.

Child Prodigy

Written by Alistair Beaton and Sarah Dunant, this four-part story was commissioned on 12 December 1978. The scripts, delivered on 5 January 1979, were rejected four days later as unacceptable.

The Doomsday Contract

John Lloyd (a frequent collaborator with script editor Douglas Adams) adapted material from his unpublished science-fiction story GiGax and submitted Shylock, a four-part serial written in Adams' light-hearted style. After providing a second draft of the storyline to modify parts of the script to avoid issues such as the rules involving child actors, Lloyd was forced to focus on his commitments as producer of Not the Nine O'Clock News. Williams, still interested in the storyline, planned to involve Allan Prior to work on the scripts. The storyline was commissioned on 7 February 1979, and a script list dated 29 June 1979 links Prior and Lloyd to the project. Lloyd agreed to another writer taking on his story on 25 August 1979. In the story, the Doctor is summonsed to appear in court when a corporation tries to buy Earth to obtain a matter-transmutation device.

Erinella

Written by Pennant Roberts, this four-part story was commissioned on 10 January 1979 as Dragons of Fear. The adventure would involve the planet Erinella and two men fighting over a princess. The Doctor would become involved in his own timeline by arriving at the wrong time and being accused of poisoning.

The Secret of Cassius

Written by Andrew Smith, the story was rejected by Read in August 1978.

The Tearing of the Veil

Written by Allen Drury, scripts were commissioned on 2 April 1979 for this four-part story. It was set in the Victorian era, in and around a vicarage. The vicar has recently died, and fake spiritualists are exploiting his widow. The first episode would open with a seance, during which the TARDIS would arrive. On 19 September 1979, the story was accepted subject to alterations.

Valley of the Lost

Written by Philip Hinchcliffe, this story involved the Doctor and Romana encountering an alien Luron named Godrin who crash-landed in a South American jungle in 1870. Adams wrote to Hinchcliffe on 3 January 1979 that the proposed script would be too costly to produce.

Untitled storyline (Adams)

Written by Douglas Adams, the story would involve the Doctor retiring and still being called on to solve problems. It was replaced by Shada.

Untitled storyline (Mills and Wagner)

Written by Pat Mills and John Wagner, the story was submitted around the beginning of 1979 and would involve a parallel universe in which the Roman Empire never fell.

Submitted for season 18

The Dogs of Darkness

A scene breakdown for this four-part Jack Gardner story was commissioned on 29 March 1980, and the scripts were commissioned on 11 August of that year. It was still under consideration in April 1981, when Gardner was asked to expand "The Dogs of Darkness" into full scripts with the Fifth Doctor for Season 19.

Farer Nohan

Written by Andrew Stephenson, a scene breakdown for this four-part story was commissioned on 18 March 1980.

Into the Comet

This James Follett story involved monsters attacking a race of beings who live inside Halley's Comet, unaware that there is anything beyond it. Into the Comet would have used the companions Romana and K9. Follett was a novelist who pitched the idea to script editor Douglas Adams around September 1979, when they met and discussed the forthcoming return of Halley's Comet. Adams rejected the storyline and Follett resubmitted Into the Comet to new script editor Christopher H. Bidmead around May 1980, but the storyline was not pursued.

Invasion of the Veridians

Written by Nabil Shaban (better known as Sil from the Colin Baker Doctor Who stories Vengeance on Varos and The Trial of a Time Lord), a longtime fan who had suggested himself to replace Roger Delgado as the Master after Delgado's death. Offering this script to the production office in 1980, Shaban also put himself forward as a potential successor to Tom Baker as the Doctor. Nothing came of the story.

Mark of Lumos

Written by Keith Miles, an outline of this four-part story was commissioned on 14 March 1980.

Mouth of Grath

Written by Malcolm Edwards and Leroy Kettle, a scene breakdown for this four-part story was commissioned on 18 March 1980.

The Psychonauts

This David Fisher story was discussed with script editor Douglas Adams in late 1979, shortly before Adams left Doctor Who. New producer Nathan-Turner was not interested, and The Leisure Hive was developed as the season opener.

Romanoids

Written by Geoff Lowe, an outline arrived at the production office in the summer of 1980 and was passed along to Nathan-Turner on 9 December of that year.

Sealed Orders

A scene breakdown for this four-part Christopher Priest story was commissioned on 27 February 1980, and full scripts were commissioned on 24 March 1981. The story (set on Gallifrey) involved hopping back and forth in time; this resulted in several variants of the TARDIS and a spare Doctor, one of whom was killed.

Soldar and the Plastoids

Written by John Bennett, a scene breakdown for this four-part story was commissioned on 10 April 1980.

Song of the Space Whale

Space-Whale was originally pitched by Pat Mills and his writing partner, John Wagner, in 1980 as a Fourth Doctor adventure. When the production office showed interest, Wagner left the project; the script was commissioned as a four-part Fifth Doctor story for a scene breakdown on 7 September 1981, and full scripts on 2 December of that year. The new drafts reduced the humor, and the renamed Song of the Space Whale was now planned as the third serial of season 20 to introduce companion Vislor Turlough. The story concerned a group of people living in the belly of a whale in space, as the Doctor attempts to protect the creature from being slaughtered by a rusting factory ship. The castaways in the whale and the ship's captain would be working-class characters, with the castaways' dialogue based on that of a working-class Northern Irish family Mills knew. He and script editor Eric Saward "fundamentally disagreed" on the character of the captain (Saward wanted a more Star Trek-type figure) and the dialogue for the castaways. According to Mills, "there was a Coronation Street quality to it that Eric felt didn't work in space. He thought the future would be classless, and I didn't." Mills' disagreements with Saward led to the script being delayed until it was too late to be Turlough's introductory story, and it was considered for seasons 21 and 22. The script, revised as two 45-minute episodes, was still listed in July 1985 as an ongoing script; by November 1985, Nathan-Turner confirmed at a convention that it had been dropped.

Fifth Doctor

Submitted for season 19

The Enemy Within

The opportunity to write this four-part story was offered to Christopher Priest after his previous script, Sealed Orders, was cancelled. The scene breakdown was commissioned on 5 December 1980, and the scripts on 6 February 1981. Priest's story dealt with the "secret" of what powered the TARDIS – in this case, fear. Hidden inside the TARDIS was the one being the Doctor feared above all others, and the psychic tension between them produced the energy to move through space and time. The story involved the Doctor having to confront and ultimately defeat this fear, and was designed to write out the character of Adric. After hearing nothing from the production office about his completed scripts (or his payment), Priest contacted John Nathan-Turner and was told that the scripts were unusable and he would not be paid. After a bitter dispute, Priest was paid and Nathan-Turner and Eric Saward were compelled to write a letter of apology.

Genesis of the Cybermen

Written by Gerry Davis, this four-part story was submitted on spec to the production office around February 1982. In it, the Doctor and his companion Felicity arrive on Mondas (Earth's twin, orbiting on the opposite side of the Sun) when the Cybermen are being created. While the Doctor works on the TARDIS, Felicity encounters the gentle Prince Sylvan. Sylvan accidentally activates the TARDIS, sending him, the Doctor and Felicity fifty years into the future. Sylvan's brother Dega is now king, and has used the Doctor's device to begin turning his people into Cybermen. He has constructed a space fleet with which he intends to invade the mineral-rich Earth, and plans to kill any unconverted Mondans with cyanide gas. Felicity appeals to Dega's partly-Cybernised wife, Queen Meta, who shoots her husband dead and is killed by Krail, Dega's chief of staff. Sylvan and a band of Mondan rebels flee to Earth in the spaceships, and the concussion of take-off knocks Mondas out of its orbit into deep space. Former script editor Davis submitted this idea around early 1981, intending it as a prequel to The Tenth Planet (his and Kit Pedler's original Cyberman serial, which also included Cyberman Krail). It borrowed elements of The Ark and The Savages, two stories on which Davis had been story editor. Producer John Nathan-Turner and script editor Antony Root were not interested in Genesis of the Cybermen. Davis wrote his storyline with only the Doctor and one female companion in mind, calling the companion "Felicity" rather than writing with a particular companion in mind.

Hebos

Written by Rod Beacham, a scene breakdown for this four-part story was commissioned on 5 December 1980.

Project Zeta Sigma

The Fifth Doctor's first story was originally intended to be the four-part Project Zeta Sigma, written by John Flanagan and Andrew McCulloch, (who had scripted Meglos). The story, concerning nuclear disarmament, was not intended to directly follow the events of Logopolis; instead, the Doctor and his companions would have already left Earth. Commissioned as Project "4G" on 7 October 1980, the script was unworkable and producer John Nathan-Turner dropped the story on 19 February 1981.

The Psychrons

Written by Terence Greer, a scene breakdown for this four-part story was commissioned on 13 June 1980.

The Torson Triumvirate

Written by Andrew Smith, a scene breakdown for this four-part story set on present-day Earth was commissioned on 25 November 1980.

Submitted for season 20

Parasites

Written by Bill Lyons and also known as The Parasites, a scene breakdown was commissioned on 22 September 1981. Scripts were commissioned on 16 February and 23 April 1982, when it was considered for Season 21.

Way Down Yonder

Written by Lesley Elizabeth Thomas, a scene breakdown for this four-part story was commissioned on 23 April 1981.

Untitled storyline (Lee)

Written by Tanith Lee, scripts for this four-part story were commissioned on 6 February 1981.

Submitted for the 20th-anniversary special

The Six Doctors

This 90-minute Robert Holmes story was commissioned on 2 August 1982. The Doctors and their companions are drawn to the planet Maladoom and trapped by the Master, who is working for the Cybermen. The Cybermen want to isolate and incorporate the genetic material that permits Time Lords to time-travel freely.

Submitted for season 21

Children of Seth

After completing Snakedance, Saward asked Christopher Bailey to write another story. The initial outline for May Time was commissioned on 24 August 1982, in which the Doctor and his companions arrive at the court of Byzantium. Full scripts were commissioned on 16 September 1982 with the title Man-watch, but were dropped from production. A second attempt at the story entitled Children of Seth was attempted as a Sixth Doctor story, and scripts were commissioned on 14 July 1983. This failed because Bailey did not devise a structure for Doctor Who's new 45-minute-episode format or create a tangible villain for the Doctor to face. It was adapted as The Children of Seth by Marc Platt for Big Finish's The Lost Stories in December 2011.

Circus of Destiny

Written by Ben Steed, this two-part story was delivered in January 1983 but not taken forward.

The Darkness

Eric Pringle submitted this storyline for a four-part story to the production office in August 1981 with The Awakening, but only the latter was developed further. This story may have involved the Daleks.

The Elite

This Barbara Clegg story, submitted in late 1982, dealt with a race of intelligent youths controlled by a lone Dalek.

Ghost Planet

Written by Robin Squire, this four-part story had a scene breakdown commissioned on 5 January 1983 and scripts on 20 May 1983. The story may have been considered to incorporate the Sixth Doctor.

Hex

Written by Peter Ling and Hazel Adair, the story developed from plans by producer Nathan-Turner to create a sequel of the 1960s soap opera Compact entitled Impact. After drafting three or four scripts for the proposed Impact, Nathan-Turner told Ling and Adair that plans for the soap had been cancelled and offered them the opportunity to write for Doctor Who as compensation. A scene breakdown (reduced from six parts to four) was commissioned on 12 July 1983, but after three months of script development (in which the story was restructured into two 45-minute episodes) it was rejected. The plot involves the disappearance of a number of people on Earth, which leads the Doctor and Peri to the planet Hexagora. The Doctor becomes romantically involved with Queen Zafia, who is trying to save Hexagora's insect race from destruction with a plan to infiltrate and take over Earth.

The House That Ur-Cjak Built

Written by Andrew (Michael) Stephenson, a scene breakdown was commissioned on 10 June 1982.

Nightmare Country

Written by Stephen Gallagher, the script was submitted in late 1982 but rejected by Saward because of cost. The four-part story would involve the Doctor, Tegan and Turlough testing a reality simulator which projects a graveyard world overrun by the Vodyani, who find a way out of virtual reality and into the real world. Big Finish Productions produced an audio adaptation of the story which was released on 14 November 2019.

The Place Where All Times Meet

Written by Colin Davis, a scene breakdown was commissioned on 10 June 1982.

Poison

Written by Rod Beacham, a screen breakdown was commissioned on 27 April 1982 and scripts on 27 May of that year.

The Rogue TARDIS

Written by Barbara Clegg, the story was submitted in late 1982 and dealt with the Doctor searching for a missing Time Lord who has regenerated to merge with his TARDIS.

The SCI

Written by William Emms, this four-part storyline was discussed (but not commissioned) in 1983.

The Underworld

Written by Barbara Clegg, this story was submitted in late 1982 and saw the Doctor travel down the river Styx in ancient Greece.

Warmongers

Written by Marc Platt and Charles M. Stevens (a pseudonym for J. Jeremy Bentham), this story was submitted on spec in 1983 and was discussed with Saward but not commissioned. It dealt with Sontarans and Rutans in England during the Blitz.

The Zeldan

Written by William Emms, this four-part storyline was discussed but not commissioned when Emms approached the production office in 1983.

Sixth Doctor

Submitted for season 22

Cat's Cradle

Written by Marc Platt, the story was submitted to Saward in 1984 and rejected as too ambitious and complex for Doctor Who's budget.

The First Sontarans

Written by Andrew Smith, a scene breakdown was commissioned on 10 January 1984. Initially conceived as four 25-minute episodes, the two 45-minute episodes would have been set in 1872, involve the Mary Celeste in some way and elaborate on the origins of the Sontaran-Rutan war. The First Sontarans was turned down because the Sontarans were to appear in the season-22 serial The Two Doctors.

The Guardians of Prophecy

Written by Johnny Byrne, a plot outline for this story (also known as The Place of Serenity) was submitted to the production office by Byrne in July 1983.

Leviathan

Written by Brian Finch, the scripts for the two-part story were commissioned as Livanthian on 14 August 1983 and later became Leviathan.

The Macros

Written by Ingrid Pitt and Tony Rudlin, it was conceived as a four-part Fifth Doctor story during season 21 before being revised as a two-part Sixth Doctor tale. Only the first episode was commissioned as The Macro Men on 19 January 1984.

Volvok

This was written by Ian Marter, who had played Harry Sullivan in the series. The script for episode one only was commissioned as Strange Encounter on 2 February 1984. The two-part story is thought to have dealt with hospital overcrowding.

Original season 23

See also: Doctor Who season 23 § Original Season 23

The Nightmare Fair

Main article: The Nightmare Fair

Written by Graham Williams, this two-part story was commissioned on 25 September 1984 as Arcade and was planned to begin the original 23rd season. Nathan-Turner hoped to have Matthew Robinson direct the story, which would have included the return of the Celestial Toymaker.

The Ultimate Evil

Written by Wally K. Daly, this two-part story was planned as the second story of the original 23rd season. Nathan-Turner hoped to have Fiona Cumming direct. Daly wrote a novelization of the script which was published by Target Books in August 1989. It was later adapted by Daly for Big Finish as part of their Lost Stories series in November 2019.

Mission to Magnus

Main article: Mission to Magnus

Written by Philip Martin, this two-part story was planned to be the fourth story recorded and third story broadcast in the original season 23. It would have featured the Ice Warriors teaming up with Sil to ice the planet Magnus as a new home for them, but the Doctor and Peri realise that this plan would ruin life for both of them. Nathan-Turner hoped to have Ron Jones direct the story.

Yellow Fever and How to Cure It

Yellow Fever and How to Cure It was a three-part story by Robert Holmes that was scheduled to be recorded third and broadcast fourth in the original season 23. It would have taken place in Singapore and featured the Autons as monsters, with the Rani or the Master appearing. Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart would have returned. The first episode was commissioned on 26 October 1984 before being put on hold, and the entire story was commissioned on 6 February 1985. Nathan-Turner hoped to have Graeme Harper direct. After the news of the hiatus, Holmes was asked by the production team to continue with the story in six 25-minute episodes without the Master. He reportedly only completed a story outline before season 23 was cancelled.

In the Hollows of Time

This was commissioned as a two-part story by Christopher H. Bidmead on 21 November 1984. Nathan-Turner hoped to have Matthew Robinson direct the adventure, which would have been Robinson's second season-23 story. After the news of the hiatus, Bidmead was asked by the production team to continue with the story as four 25-minute episodes.

The Children of January

Written by Michael Feeney Callan, this story was commissioned on 5 February 1985. After the news of the hiatus, Callan was asked by the production team to continue with the story as four 25-minute episodes and was backed up for the original two-part 45-minute episodes. Nathan-Turner hoped to have Bob Gabriel direct; Gabriel directed early EastEnders episodes in 1985. It had been planned that an adaptation of this story would appear as part of Big Finish's The Lost Stories, but that fell through due to the author's other commitments and it was replaced by The Macros.

Doomwraiths

Written by Philip Martin, this story was submitted on 28 December 1983 and dealt with an alien race returning to Earth to discover that their "humanity" experiment has failed. The TARDIS alerts the Doctor to the fact that a regeneration is in progress nearby, suggesting the presence of a fellow Time Lord. The Doctor instead finds the elite of the Doomwraiths emerging, reconstituted, as shimmering metal columns with moving strips and a deadly purpose. The Wraiths find that human evolution has failed and mankind has not taken on their form; they will release a plague to destroy humanity, relocate the missing section of genetic code and repopulate Earth themselves. The Doctor and Peri discover that the Doomwraiths have a genetic flaw that gives them the impulse to destroy. He destroys the discovered code block, but says that the Doomwraiths may have left their legacy on other worlds.

Flipback

Written by David Banks.

Gallifrey

Gallifrey was a Pip and Jane Baker script for four 25-minute episodes that was commissioned on 11 March 1985 in the wake of the hiatus announcement, which reportedly would have dealt with the destruction of the Doctor's home planet.

League of the Tancreds

Written by Peter Grimwade, this two-part story was commissioned on 13 August 1984 and abandoned due to budgetary concerns on 8 November 1984 after the completion of a scene breakdown.

Meltdown

Written by Gary Hopkins, this story reunites the Doctor with former companion Victoria Waterfield (who is now crusading against nuclear waste).

Point of Entry

Written by Barbara Clegg, this storyline involves the Doctor and Peri in Elizabethan London as an alien race, the Omnim, returns via an Aztec knife. It was also to feature Christopher Marlowe.

Space Sargasso

Written by Philip Martin, this story was submitted on 28 December 1983 and had the TARDIS pulled to a spaceship graveyard controlled by the Master.

Valley of Shadows

Written by Philip Martin, this story was submitted on 28 December 1983 and had the Doctor travel into the Egyptian underworld to save Peri.

The Trial of a Time Lord candidates

Attack from the Mind

Writer David Halliwell was approached by Eric Saward in early July 1985 as a prospective writer for the "new" Season 23. Halliwell submitted his untitled first draft of the untitled two-part story for episodes nine and 10 to the production office in late July 1985. The story deals with a conflict between the ugly-looking Freds and the beautiful Penelopeans. Work on a second draft began on 14 August 1985 and was completed by 22 August, with a third draft submitted on 11 September of that year. Saward spent much time with Halliwell on further drafts, changing the name of the Freds to Trikes. The fourth revision was delivered on 26 September 1985, and 7 October 1985 saw a fifth draft arrive at the production office. Halliwell received a letter from Saward on 18 October 1985 advising him that Attack from the Mind had been cancelled.

The Second Coming

This was written by Jack Trevor Story, who was invited to the same series briefing as David Halliwell. The two-part story (episodes 11 and 12) was intended to share sets with Attack from the Mind and a narrative link.

Pinacotheca

Written by Christopher H. Bidmead, the story was commissioned on 29 October 1985 as The Last Adventure. This replaced the scripts by David Halliwell and Jack Trevor Story (episodes 9–12) with second-draft scripts of all four episodes delivered by 9 January 1986. The story was rejected on 7 February 1986 by Eric Saward.

Paradise Five

Written by P.J. Hammond, the story was commissioned as End of Term on 10 February 1986 as a replacement for Pinacotheca for episodes 9–12. It involved the Doctor investigating the resort of Paradise Five, while Mel goes undercover as a hostess.

Time Inc.

Time Inc. was the title for the concluding two-part story arc originally written by Robert Holmes for episodes 13 and 14 when it was commissioned on 4 February 1986. Holmes died on 24 May 1986, however, and was unable to work on the script past the first part. Script editor Eric Saward was tasked with completing the story; his version of the script ended with the Doctor and the Valeyard locked in battle in the time vortex, with no clear victor. This ending was disapproved of by series producer John Nathan-Turner as too down-beat and ending the show at an inconclusive moment if the BBC decided to cancel the series; Saward was annoyed by what he saw as Nathan-Turner's reneging on what Saward and Holmes had long agreed on for the series ending. John Nathan-Turner commissioned Pip and Jane Baker to write the final episode after Saward withdrew permission for his version of episode 14 due to rejection of his proposed ending. The broadcast versions of episodes 13 and 14 were renamed "The Ultimate Foe" on the final scripts, an early title used for Pip and Jane Baker's broadcast episodes 9-12 serial that became Terror of the Vervoids.

Submitted for Season 24

Mel introduction story

According to his book, Doctor Who: The Companions (published around the time The Trial of a Time Lord was broadcast), producer John Nathan-Turner intended to chronicle the Doctor's first meeting with Melanie Bush in a later episode.

Strange Matter

Written by Pip and Jane Baker, Time and the Rani (originally Strange Matter) was planned to be Colin Baker's final story. When it became clear that Baker did not want to return, it was rewritten as the Seventh Doctor's opening story with his regeneration occurring before the titles.

Seventh Doctor

Submitted for season 25

Knight Fall

Written by Ben Aaronovitch, this story concerned privatisation. It was submitted in May 1987; script editor Andrew Cartmel liked some of the concepts, but felt that it was generally inappropriate for Doctor Who and had too many supporting characters. Cartmel encouraged Aaronovitch to pitch more stories, which led to Transit.

Transit

Written by Aaronovitch, it was replaced by Remembrance of the Daleks.

Submitted for season 26

Alixion

Written by Robin Mukherjee, this three-part story was considered for season 26 as the "spare" script if another planned was no longer suitable. It was to take place on a monastic planet inhabited by humans and large beetles. The humans were monks who produced a special elixir that enhanced intelligence from beetles who fed on intelligent beings. The abbot wants to feed the Doctor to the beetles to produce a more potent elixir for himself. The script was not completed beyond a partial storyline; Mukherjee was unsure how events would have been resolved beyond a contest of wills between the Doctor and the abbot. Mukherjee would have been the first person of colour to write for the programme; Malorie Blackman was the first, 29 years later, with Rosa.

Avatar

Written by David A. McIntee, this was a four-part Lovecraftian horror story set in Arkham, New England in 1927 (although McIntee later began a rewrite changing the setting to Cornwall). The story involved alien body-snatchers who could only inhabit the bodies of the dead. The villain would discover the remains of a Silurian god and try to clone a new body from the fossilized body to inhabit.

Illegal Alien

Written by Mike Tucker and Robert Perry, this was a three-part Cybermen story set in war-torn 1940s London. Tucker and Perry had completed the first two episodes in script form and the final episode as a storyline which they were planning to submit at the start of season-26 production. Ben Aaronovitch intercepted the script, suggesting that submitting Illegal Alien to script editor Andrew Cartmel when he was editing something similar (The Curse of Fenric) was a mistake and to submit it for the following series.

Lungbarrow

This Marc Platt story was to feature the Doctor and Ace, who arrives at the Doctor's ancestral home on Gallifrey and meets his relatives. Platt and Andrew Cartmel agreed that the storyline did not work for TV and it was replaced by Platt's Ghost Light, which contained more of Ace's backstory and less about the Doctor's origins.

Shrine

In 1988, writer Marc Platt discussed with script editor Andrew Cartmel an idea (inspired by Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace) about stone-headed aliens looking for their god-king in 19th-century Tsarist Russia.

Under consideration for season 27

Before the original Doctor Who series ended, tentative plans had been made for a 27th season with the assumption that it would maintain the pattern of two four-part and two three-part stories. Big Finish Productions produced audio adaptations of several scripts as part of their The Lost Stories releases. The safe-cracking companion introduced in Crime of the Century (never named during planning) is Raine Creevy, played by Beth Chalmers.

Bad Destination

The opening three-part, studio-bound story was to be written by Ben Aaronovitch: a space opera with a race of samurai insect-like aliens called the Metatraxi. Bad Destination was to open with Ace in the captain's chair of a starship, and the story would concern the politics of humanitarian aid. The Metatraxi were originally conceived as part of a stage play entitled War World. Bad Destination was later adapted by Aaronovitch and Cartmel for Big Finish's The Lost Stories in July 2011 as Earth Aid (a title invented by Dave Owen for his "27 up" article in DWM).

Thin Ice

This four-part second story of the proposed season was to have been written by Marc Platt and contain Ice Warriors in 1968 London. Ace would have left for the Prydonian Academy to become a Time Lord. The story was to introduce a character with underworld connections, intended to become a recurring character like the Brigadier. The character would have a daughter born at the end of the story who would be named by the Doctor. An Ice Warrior's armour would have been in the London Dungeon and two reincarnated Warriors continue a long rivalry. Platt planned to have bikers controlled by the Ice Warriors (wearing similar helmets), scenes on an Earthlike, pastoral Mars, a more mystical bent to the aliens and a deepening of their history. He said that the name Ice Time was "only ever invented for an article in Doctor Who Magazine" (Dave Owen's "27 up" article).

Action At a Distance

This story was to have been written by Andrew Cartmel and would have introduced a cat burglar or safecracker as the next companion. The character with underworld connections from Thin Ice would be older and the father of the new companion.

Blood and Iron

Cartmel had wanted to write a story of his own, and planned this to include the Seventh Doctor's regeneration.

Hostage

Written by Neil Penswick, this was a three-part futuristic thriller in which a group of soldiers are hunting Butler and Swarfe, two shape-shifting criminals. In the part-one cliffhanger Swarfe changes into a monster who goes on the hunt in part two.

Night Thoughts

In this Edward Young horror story, set in an isolated house, a group of university staff (one of whom is disabled) are trapped in the house during winter. One of the characters is a murderer.

A School for Glory

Written by Tony Etchells and another writer, this was to be set during the Great War. The narrative was planned to alternate between the trenches and a British country house which doubles as an army academy.

Submitted for the 30th-anniversary special

Lost in the Dark Dimension

The idea of a video-only anniversary special was first mentioned in a memo from Nathan-Turner to head of video production Penny Mills on 18 February 1992. With Tom Baker not unwilling to appear, an original production was considered and there was a meeting in June 1992 to discuss the special; by 21 July 1992, writer Adrian Rigelsford (later joined by Joanna McCaul) had completed an initial outline for Timeflyers. Shortly afterwards, the project was given the cover name The Environment Roadshow. A production office opened in the first week of September 1992, with shooting planned for January–February 1993. The script was sent to Peter Cregeen on 22 March 1993, indicating that Graeme Harper was being considered as a director for the special. Budget issues plagued the production, however; shooting was postponed to November–December 1993, with a final delivery date of 14 March 1994. Around mid-May, Cregeen indicated that he wanted to see the special broadcast on the BBC in November 1993. By the end of May 1993, the project was known as The Dark Dimension before a working title of Lost in the Dark Dimension was chosen. Harper was hired to direct the special in June 1993 and wanted Rik Mayall to play the villain, Hawkspur. What was hoped to be the final shooting script was completed on 21 June 1993 and, with the production now aimed for broadcast instead of direct-to-video, Alan Yentob greenlit the special with the completed project planned for delivery by 27 November 1993. Budget issues continued to plague the production by early July 1993, and on 9 July 1993 the project was cancelled. Doctor Who's thirtieth anniversary was celebrated with the light-hearted Children in Need charity special Dimensions in Time and the documentary 30 Years in the TARDIS. According to a BBC press release,

The future? The Earth is dying under the onslaught of industry, the polar caps are melting, the ozone layer is nearly destroyed ... To save the planet, the Doctor must overcome the combined forces of some of the most feared of his old adversaries. But he must also confront a far greater enemy – one that has already reverted him to his Fourth Incarnation – in order to save both the past and future Doctors before they are taken out of time and cease to exist.

Eighth Doctor

1990s US reboot – Leekley bible

Early in the process that led to the 1996 Doctor Who film, Universal Television had Amblin Entertainment produce a writers' bible detailing John Leekley's proposed pilot and episodes of a new series. Although the series would have established a new continuity rather than following the original series, the bible reused many elements of the original series. It is unclear if clearance could have been obtained for all the episodes.

The pilot was to have the half-human Doctor seeking his father, Ulysses, through a number of time periods: contemporary Gallifrey (where Borusa dies and is merged with the TARDIS, and the Master becomes leader of the Time Lords), England during the Blitz, ancient Egypt, and Skaro (where the Daleks are being created). Other proposed episodes included The Pirates, in which the Doctor teams up with Blackbeard, and several remakes of stories from the original series:

• The Talons of Weng-Chiang, set in New York City
• Earthshock, featuring the "Cybs" (Leekley's more-piratical version of the Cybermen)
• Horror of Fang Rock
• The Celestial Toymaker, under the control of the Master
• Don't Shoot, I'm the Doctor, a more historically-accurate remake of The Gunfighters
• Tomb of the Cybs, a remake of The Tomb of the Cybermen in which the Cybs are awakened by the Master
• The Yeti, a remake of The Abominable Snowmen with the Dalai Lama and Edmund Hillary
• The Ark in Space

Earlier versions of the bible included:

• The Cybs, a story set on Mars in which the Doctor escapes capture by hiding in a gold mine
• A remake of The Sea Devils, set in a Louisiana oil rig
• The Outcasts, in which the Cybs would attack Gallifreyan outcasts
• The Land of Fear, a conflation of The Reign of Terror and The Claws of Axos
• A remake of The Dæmons, set in Salem, Massachusetts
• A completed version of Shada, which would have introduced Romana and Professor Chronotis as Romana's uncle

Leekley's scripts were not well-received, and in September 1994 he was removed from the project.

Ninth Doctor

Pompeii

Written by Russell T Davies, the episode was intended for the episode 11 slot of Series 1. The Doctor, Rose and Jack would land in Pompeii on the day that Mount Vesuvius erupted. The story evolved into "The Fires of Pompeii".

Untitled storyline (Abbott)

Written by Paul Abbott, this episode was intended for the episode-11 slot of series 1. In the story, the Doctor manipulates Rose's life to determine the perfect companion. The episode was dropped due to Abbott's commitment to Shameless and other projects.

Tenth Doctor

Doctor Who and the Green Knight

Written by Stephen Fry, the episode was to be set in the 1920s and would have been about the Arthurian legend of the Green Knight. Drafts were written for the eleventh episode of series 2 in 2006, with Fry attending the first series-2 cast read-through. Due to budgetary constraints, the episode was to be moved to series 3. Fry, with no time to rewrite due to commitments to Kingdom, allowed the team to withdraw the episode from series 3.

The Suicide Exhibition

This Mark Gatiss episode would have had a Nazi task force assault London's Natural History Museum, which had been overrun by monsters; a secret chamber would have been discovered beneath the museum. Originally written for series 3 with Martha Jones as the companion, it became the third episode of series 4 and was rewritten with Penny Carter and Donna Noble. The episode was removed from the schedules when Russell T. Davies wanted to pursue "The Fires of Pompeii" instead. Gatiss used the World War II setting for his next story, "Victory of the Daleks", and the museum elements were used in Steven Moffat's "The Big Bang".

Century House

Century House was written by Tom MacRae for series 3. The Doctor was to appear on a live broadcast of Most Haunted, investigating a house haunted by the "Red Widow"; Martha Jones watches at home in a frame story. The episode did not fit into the production schedule, and was pushed back to series 4 with the show watched by Donna Noble and her mother, Sylvia. Due to dissatisfaction with the premise and to avoid two comic episodes in the same series, it was replaced with Davies' "Midnight". This premise was expanded in the Doctor Who audio drama, No Place. An audio drama of "Century House" by VocaLAB Productions was released in 2022 with Tenth Doctor impersonator Elliott Crossley.

Eleventh Doctor

Untitled storyline (Graham)

Written by Matthew Graham and planned for the 2010 series, the story was to be about an old people's home and a lighthouse that was a spaceship. Trips to the US and Graham's work on Ashes to Ashes precluded him from developing the storyline to the script stage.

Untitled storyline (Shearman)

In an interview, Robert Shearman said that he was asked to write an episode for series 5 by Steven Moffat. Shearman attended the read-through, but left after feeling that he could "never get the story right".

Death to the Doctor

This episode was written by Gareth Roberts. Before settling on the storyline that would become "The Lodger", Roberts developed a storyline for the 2010 series which would have featured a disgraced Sontaran named Strom. The idea reached the draft stage before it was abandoned.

Twelfth Doctor

Untitled storyline (Mathieson)

This Jamie Mathieson episode would have had the Doctor mistaken for Matthew Hopkins, the Witchfinder General. Moffat found the story too dark, and Mathieson wrote "Oxygen" instead.

"Sleep No More" sequel

After "Sleep No More" aired, Mark Gatiss developed a sequel set thousands of years before Gagan Rassmussen's Morpheus process experiments at Le Verrier where the Doctor discovers the same process experimented with on Earth. The script was changed when Gatiss learned that showrunner Steven Moffat was leaving and the story he was doing would be his last for the show; he pitched "Empress of Mars" instead.

Thirteenth Doctor

Safari

This story was based on an early idea Ed Hime had in the first writer's room for series 11. The storyline was set in a former military compound which had been turned into a safari lodge on a war-devastated planet that was home to the Blox (Damaje). The rare life form was a tourist attraction, and a draft of the script was set on the planet Kryll. The story was shelved for series 11 in early 2017 because Hime decided to write "It Takes You Away" before transforming the idea into "Orphan 55" in 2018.

Ptings

Written by Chris Chibnall, this story would have been a sequel to The Tsuranga Conundrum.

Alternate series 13

The original series 13 was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, requiring production alterations. Ed Hime and Pete McTighe were commissioned to write untitled episodes for the original series. A pirate-themed story was planned for an episode of Flux, but ultimately didn't happen. This element was reworked into "Legend of the Sea Devils" for the 2022 specials.

Alternate 2022 New Year's special

Whilst planning the 2022 specials, Chris Chibnall had planned for the 2022 New Year's special to be set aboard a bullet train moving through space. When it was realised that he would not have enough time to allow the production team to build the set in time for production, he wrote Eve of the Daleks as a replacement. A version of the original idea appeared as the opening of the 2022 BBC centenary special, The Power of the Doctor.

Unmade television spin-offs

Proposals for Doctor Who spin-offs included one featuring the Doctor's friends Professor George Litefoot and Henry Gordon Jago from "The Talons of Weng Chiang".

The Daleks

Dalek creator Terry Nation pitched The Daleks to the BBC on 1 November 1966, writing a thirty-minute teleplay ("The Destroyers") as a possible pilot episode for an American co-production. Lead characters included agents Captain Jack Corey, David Kingdom, his sister Sara Kingdom (from "The Daleks' Master Plan", in which Kingdom died) and Mark Seven, an android. On 22 November 1966, the BBC told Nation that they were no longer interested in the project.

Nelvana cartoon series

In 1990, after the cancellation of the live-action series, the BBC approached the Canadian animation company Nelvana and proposed an animated continuation of the show. The cartoon series would feature an unspecified new Doctor, incorporating elements of various BBC-series Doctors. It was intended as a continuation of the cancelled series to save money (rather than appealing to a younger audience), with design elements promoting merchandise sales. According to Nelvana's Ted Bastien, "We went through a lot of development on it, then we were scripting and storyboarding it and about four scripts had been written. It happened really fast".

Concept art depicted several possible versions of the Doctor, based on actors such as Peter O'Toole, Jeff Goldblum and Christopher Lloyd, with wardrobe elements of previous Doctors. Production sketches had new versions of allies such as K9, and enemies such as the Daleks and Cybermen. The Master would be a "half-man, half-robot with a cybernetic bird accessory and a face modeled after Sean Connery". The show would include female companions from Earth and space battles which the BBC would not have been able to afford for a live-action series.

The series would have been Nelvana's biggest to date. According to Bastien, "it was pulled out from under us" after a British animation studio told the BBC that it could do what Nelvana intended for a much lower price. The project did not proceed further, and no pilot was produced.

K-9 and Company

Main article: K-9 and Company

Elisabeth Sladen was approached to return to Doctor Who as Sarah Jane Smith to aid the transition between Tom Baker and Peter Davison, but declined the offer. After an outcry when K-9 was removed from the show, producer John Nathan-Turner proposed a spin-off with the character.

Rose Tyler: Earth Defence

When it was decided that Billie Piper would leave Doctor Who at the end of series 2, executive producer and head writer Russell T. Davies considered giving her character Rose Tyler a 90-minute spin-off production (Rose Tyler: Earth Defence) in the hope that such a special would become an annual bank holiday event. The special would have picked up from Rose's departure in "Doomsday", when Rose joins the Torchwood Institute of a parallel Earth. The special was commissioned by BBC One controller Peter Fincham and assigned a production budget. Davies changed his mind while filming Piper's final scenes for series 2 of Doctor Who. He later called Earth Defence "a spin-off too far", and decided that the audience being able to see Rose when the Doctor could not would spoil the ending of "Doomsday". The production was cancelled. Davies said that Piper had been told about the idea, but the project ended before she was formally approached about appearing in it. The plot element of Rose working with an alternative Earth's Torchwood was revisited in "The Stolen Earth" and "Journey's End".

Proposed films

Marco Polo adaptation

Walt Disney Productions had expressed interest in a remake of the Doctor Who serial Marco Polo as an historical adventure film, without the Doctor and his companions.

Third Dalek film

Plans to adapt the Dalek serial The Chase were shelved after the poor box office reception of Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D..

Doctor Who Meets Scratchman

Brian Williamson's conception of a poster for Doctor Who Meets Scratchman, from Doctor Who Magazine #379

During spare time in filming, Tom Baker (the Fourth Doctor) and Ian Marter (Harry Sullivan, who novelised several Doctor Who scripts for Target Books) wrote a script for a Doctor Who film entitled Doctor Who Meets Scratchman (alternatively, Doctor Who and the Big Game). The Doctor encounters the Devil (who calls himself Harry Scratch or Scratchman), the Daleks, robots known as Cybors, scarecrows made from bones and, briefly, the Greek god Pan. Vincent Price and Twiggy were associated with the production; Price would have played Harry Scratch and Twiggy a replacement female companion after Elisabeth Sladen left the TV series.

The finale of the film would have taken place on a giant pinball table, with the Doctor, Harry and Sarah dodging balls and battling Daleks. Until the late 1970s, Baker repeatedly tried to obtain funding for the film. In a 1975 interview, he referred to flaws in the two 1960s Peter Cushing Dalek films: "There have been two Doctor Who films in the past, both rather poor ... There are many dangers in transporting a television series onto the big screen ... a lot of things that you could get away with on the small screen wouldn't wash in the cinema." Baker received donations from fans for the film, but returned them in accordance with legal advice. Plans were dropped after the release of Star Wars. In late January 2019, BBC Books published a novelization of Baker's screenplay co-authored by James Goss.

Dr Who's Greatest Adventure

In 1984, after failing to finance King Crab (a horror film based on Guy N. Smith's Night of the Crabs), Milton Subtosky (who produced the 1960s Dalek films) adapted the screenplay into a Doctor Who film with two Doctors. Subtosky envisioned Jon Pertwee or Tom Baker as the older Doctor, and a new actor as the younger one. The film's working title was The Lossiemouth Affair, and it became Dr Who's Greatest Adventure. Subotsky pursued production of the film until his death in 1991.

Lacuna film proposals (1987–1994)

As the original Doctor Who series neared its end and during the first interregnum (1989–1996), a number of attempts were made to adapt the series to film for the first time since the two 1960s Peter Cushing films. Jean-Marc Lofficier profiles a number of film proposals in his book, The Nth Doctor, some of which came close to being produced. The only film version of Doctor Who produced other than the Cushing films was the 1996 made-for-TV film, which was developed as a continuation of the TV series rather than a re-imagining of the concept. The film had the working title of Doctor Who: The Last of the Time Lords. Among script proposals profiled by Lofficier are several submissions by Doctor Who and Space: 1999 alumnus Johnny Byrne and others by Robert DeLaurentis, Adrian Rigelsford, John Leekley, Mark Ezra and Denny Martin Flinn.

Related works

Radio series

During the late 1960s, a radio series starring Peter Cushing (who played a human version of the Doctor in two films featuring the Daleks) was planned for production. A collaboration between Stanmark Productions and Watermill Productions, a pilot was recorded and a further 52 episodes were to be produced. In the pilot, "Journey into Time", the Doctor and his granddaughter travel back to the American Revolution. The script was written by future Doctor Who television-series writer Malcolm Hulke, but the recording is lost.

Doctor Who webcast

In 2003, the BBC announced the return of Doctor Who as a series of webcasts on BBC.com; Richard E. Grant was announced as the Ninth Doctor. A webcast by Paul Cornell entitled "Scream of the Shalka" was completed and released on bbc.com; this was followed by an online text short story entitled "The Feast of the Stone". Work was well underway on another webcast story, "Blood of the Robots", to be written by Simon Clark. Before production began it was announced that Doctor Who would return to television with Russell T. Davies as showrunner, and webcast production was halted. Its synopsis was, "A blend of adventure, drama and humour. The Doctor arrives to find a world full of intelligent, sensitive robots that have been abandoned by their human owners, who are too squeamish to 'kill' them when they're obsolete. Now ruthless salvage squads are hunting the robots in order to make room for human settlers forced to migrate from their dangerously over-crowded home planet."

See also

• Doctor Who: The Lost Stories

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