Doctor Who: 5 Most Intriguing Stories That Were Never Made

Drwhofire For a television institution as big and sprawling as Doctor Who, it can be expected that over its long half-a-century history, many ideas for episodes or spin-off series or even film adaptations didn't make it to the screen for various reasons. Examples include a potential episode written by Stephen Fry set in the 1920s, Century House, a script by Tom Mcrae that would have seen the Doctor take part in a 'Most Haunted' ghost-hunting type programme and even an animated series based on the show was considered in the 90s. However, those are the stories that never were on this list of Stories That Never Were. Now, let's look at the stories that were. Are. Whatever.

Honorable Mention - Shada

Shada In this list I will only be looking at unmade stories that not only failed to make it onto TV but also were never picked up by writers in other medias. For instance, some of the most famous unmade stories for fans are those that would have comprised Sylvester McCoy's third series as the Doctor if the show had not been put on hiatus in 1989. Recently, though, the good people at Big Finish Productions adapted these stories for audio so none of them will be appearing in this article. Shada, a story written by sci-fi genius Douglas Adams for Tom Baker's Doctor, has also been adapted in other media but, it's so famous, a list of unmade Doctor Who stories would not be complete without it. The serial would have seen the Doctor and his companion, Romana, visit contemporary Cambridge and become embroiled in the machinations of Time Lord villain Skagra and his attempts to get hold of a mystical book that contains the Gallifreyan prison of Shada. Filming had begun on the story, however, due to strikes at the BBC, it was never completed. Over the years, though, the story of Shada has traversed the mediums; it was re-recorded as a webcast in 2003 with Paul McGann filling in for Baker and last year it was novelized by modern TV series writer Gareth Roberts. A character from the story, Professor Chronotis, even appeared in Douglas Adams' own novel, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. Rather than being the most-known unmade story, Shada should go down as Doctor Who's most made story ever!
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