10 Doctor Who Characters Who Almost Had Different Endings

Fourth Doctor serial The Hand Of Fear was the final regular appearance of Sarah Jane Smith during the classic years, with the Doctor accidentally dropping her off in Aberdeen - hundreds of miles away from her home in South Croydon.

For Sarah, this obviously wasn't ideal, but considering the alternate ending that the showrunners originally had in mind, she was lucky to escape with her life.

After actress Elisabeth Sladen informed the producers that she wished to depart the show for good, attention was turned to developing her exit. Around this same time, Who veteran Douglas Camfield was commissioned to write a serial called The Lost Legion, a four-part story involving a conflict between two groups of aliens.

This story was also set to be Sladen's last, and the plan was to have one of the aliens kill her off, making her one of the few companions in the show to actually die.

However, when the showrunners grew concerned about the progress being made on The Lost Legion, it was abandoned, and The Hand Of Fear - including Sarah's new ending - was readied in its place. And the rest is history.