10 Doctor Who Episodes That Were Never Made
9. Genesis Of The Cybermen
After 1982's Earthshock brought the Cybermen back to Doctor Who after a seven-year absence, the Fifth Doctor almost battled them again - and inadvertently help create them.
In 1981, Cyberman co-creator Gerry Davis proposed an origin story similar to 1975's Genesis of the Daleks, where the Doctor would travel to the Cybermen's home planet long before their creation. These Cybermen, first appearing in The Tenth Planet (1966), were augmented humans from Earth's twin planet Mondas.
'Genesis of the Cybermen' was to act as a prequel to Davis' 1966 adventure and would place the Doctor into the metal giants' history, even forcing him to help in their early development. The episode would also explain the events of The Tenth Planet - why Mondas had been knocked out of orbit and was returning to Earth. Ultimately, the story wasn't produced.
Cost issues initially set this episode back, but producer John Nathan-Turner's interest further waned when he decided Earthshock was a stronger script and he didn't want to include too many Cybermen stories in his run.
The origins of the Cybermen and many elements from Davis' story would later be explored in Big Finish's audio adventure Spare Parts, and in turn: 2017's World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls. The latter story would see the origin of the Mondasian Cybermen on board a colony ship, with the Master being key to their evolution - not the Doctor.
We're yet to actually see Mondas and the original Mondasian Cybermen's origin on-screen, but at least we know we came close.