10 Doctor Who Episodes That Were Never Made

One of the defining features of the Third Doctor era was the Doctor's rivalry with the Master, expertly portrayed by the late Roger Delgado. Appearing as a consistent menace to the Doctor and UNIT from 1971 to 1973, the Master's relationship with the Doctor was often the focal point of many encounters.

Originally introduced as the Moriarty to the Doctor's Sherlock Holmes, the Master's arc was to be concluded in 1973's 'The Final Game', written by Robert Sloman. Set to reveal more of both Time Lords' backstories, Sloman planned to give them a final, daring battle, before the Master would have a change of heart and sacrifice his life for his old friend. Injured, the Doctor would then regenerate into his fourth body.

Also planning to unveil the Master as the Doctor's brother - an idea that's darted around the fringes of the show since - the script was left unproduced following Roger Delgado's untimely death. Last seen the same year in 1973's Frontier in Space, the Master's story would be left unresolved - with the production team deciding to write the character out entirely.

The Final Game was quickly replaced with 1974's Planet of the Spiders, which saw Jon Pertwee's Doctor regenerate into Tom Baker, but the last-minute change left a noticeable hole in the series. The Master would return in 1976's The Deadly Assassin, played in a decaying final form by Peter Pratt, but Delgado's performance as the first on-screen Master couldn't be rivalled.

The story was finally adapted into a non-profit audio serial in 2018, but we're yet to see an official novelisation or Big Finish adaptation of its events.