Doctor Who: Season 26B - The Lost Stories Seasons 28-32

 

Throughout Doctor Who’s history there have been many stories which have been unmade, story ideas junked and left shelved. Not every story is like this but many never see the light of day, in this small blog post I will talk about undeveloped stories in the Richard Griffiths era which never got to be made.

Season 28

Hostage by Neil Penswick:

This three part futuristic thriller by Neil Penswick was submitted during Season 28’s development, It was about an elite group of soldiers sent to hunt down shapeshifting criminals named Butler and Swarf, who had stolen a weapon and taken it to an overgrown jungle planet, the Doctor and Kate would discover that the planet was the final battleground in a battle between the Time Lords and the Jagaroth.

Penswick described the story as “Doctor Who meets Predator and Aliens.” Fraser and Aaronovitch decided that the story didn’t fit their vision for the show and so it was rejected.

A School For Glory by Tony Etchells:

Submitted by Toby Etchells, A School For Glory was to be set in World War I trenches and a boarding house which acted as a military academy, it is believed that the story would’ve had two writers and many believe it would’ve been written by Tony Etchells and Ben Aaronovitch.

Fraser rejected it due to wanting to use Illegal Alien, which is set in World War II.

The Clockwise Cuckoos by Matt Sanders:

Matt Sanders submitted the story during development of the season, it would’ve centred around  the Autons as they replace a gameshow host and his assistant, the season was also set to include Sil, the Brigadier and Colonel Crichton. It was rejected as Fraser wanted a darker tone for the series and he felt that this story didn’t fit that.

Season 29

The Pendant by Rona Munro

This story would’ve seen the return of the Rani, apart from the story focusing on her using an alien pendant for her own scientific needs nothing else is known about the story.

Untitled Story by David A. McIntee

David A. McIntee’s story would’ve focused on a space station which would be overrun by space zombies, Fraser disliked the scripts and rejected it in favour for Marc Platt’s The Returned Lives.

The Doppelgängers by Mike Tucker

This story would’ve seen the Doctor and Kate cross into a universe which is parallel with this one but they would meet their evil counterparts who look exactly like them. While both Fraser & Aaronovitch liked the story, Mike Tucker was unable to complete the script.

The London Invaders by Ian Briggs

Set to be Kate’s final story, Ian Briggs’ scripts showed Sam Creevy’s gang fighting Zygons in present day London and Kate ended up dying in the final script, Fraser and Aaronovitch felt that Kate dying would be an unsatisfactory end to the character and it was replaced by Love and War.

Season 30

An Earthly Child by Marc Platt

Before his story The Terror Inside was submitted, Platt wrote a story which would see the return of Carol Ann Ford as Susan. It’s not known why the story was rejected.

The Gallifrey Prison by Paul Cornell

Not much is known about the story except that it would see the return of Ainley’s Master.

Destination: Holocaust by David Roden

Written by David Roden, this story involved the Doctor meeting with the Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart fighting against Cybermen in a church. This story was dropped in favour of The Champion of Time.

The Dark Dimension by Adrian Rigelsford

This story would’ve been set in an alternate timeline, where the Fourth Doctor never survived his deadly fall in Part 4 of Logopolis, thus meaning Doctors 5, 6, 7 & 8 never existed. The story would be centred around an older Fourth Doctor, the Brigadier & Bernice and the new companion trying to fix the universe as well as defeating whoever caused history to go wrong. This special, had it gone any further, would’ve been too expensive to film and Jon Pertwee and Colin Baker refused to return unless they were given a bigger role with Tom Baker being given most of the screen time. This story was dropped in favour of The Champion of Time.

Ascend From Darkness by Andrew Cartmel

Not much is known about the story, it was rejected in favour of The Champion of Time.

The Eyes of Death by Marc Platt

Not much is known about the story, it was rejected in favour of The Champion of Time.

Season 31

Knight Falls by Ben Aaronovitch

The story was rejected for unknown reasons.

Untitled story by Rona Munro

The story would’ve centred around a casino which is being used for cover by the Master, it was rejected due to Stephen Garwood and Colin Brake feeling that the story wouldn’t have been great to use.

The Lords of Gallifrey by Marc Platt

The story would’ve seen the Doctor be sentenced to Death by Arkadian who escaped power and would’ve most likely killed off Romana and Leela, it was felt that killing off both these characters wouldn’t go down too well with the fans.

The Mystery by Anthony Horowitz

The story would be a film-noir type of story set in 1940s London during or after the Second World War, due to other commitments it was abandoned.

The Men in Black by Steven Moffat

Due to his success with Press Gang and Joking Apart, Garwood asked Moffat to write a story on Doctor Who. He came up with a storyline where strange men dressed in black walked around the streets late at night terrorising anyone in their path, it was abandoned due to how busy Moffat was.

Season 32

Shakedown by Terrance Dicks

The story would’ve seen the return of the Sontarans and the return of former Doctor Who writer Terrance Dicks, it’s unknown why the story was dropped.

Planet of The Rani by Kate Orman

The story is believed to feature an alternate Earth where the Vikings conquered the world using the Rani’s technology and leadership, it was deemed too expensive to make.

An Opera of Fear by Gareth Roberts

The story would be about an intergalactic opera being threatened by a sabotage, it was rejected mainly because Garwood didn’t feel as though that story suited Griffiths’ Doctor.

The Dalek Surge by John Peel

This story was a proposed regeneration story and would’ve seen the return of the Daleks, it would’ve seen Earth in the year 2024 and the Doctor, Bernice and David be killed in the same story. However with Bernice’s much happier departure in Return of The Living Dad and other commitments this story was abandoned.