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, actors leaving roles, 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
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 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
'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, 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. The story was abandoned; the Daleks were a success, and demand for further science-fiction adventures grew.Farewell Great Macedon
Farewell Great Macedon 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.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 Whitaker 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
' 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.