10 Doctor Who Episodes That Were Never Made
7. Thin Ice
Following the BBC cancelling Doctor Who for the second time in 1989, a whole season of adventures was lost. Included in this missing season was the return of the Ice Warriors after fifteen years, in an episode which would also see the departure of companion Ace.
'Thin Ice' - unrelated to the 2017 episode of the same name - featured the Seventh Doctor and Ace arriving in late 60s London where the Ice Warriors were trapped, rather anachronistically, under the London Dungeon. Awaking from their hibernation, two factions of the warring Martians would appropriate London as a battleground and even take control of a biker gang as henchmen.
The episode also intended to feature sections on Mars, which would have been the first time on-screen that the Ice Warriors were actually depicted on their home planet until 2017's Empress of Mars.
At the story's conclusion, Ace would decide to leave the Doctor to join the Prydonian Chapter on Gallifrey as its first human Time Lord - an idea carried over to various novels and audio productions.
This episode was canned along with the rest of the fabled Season 27, which also would have included a WWI epic and a Blade Runner-esque sci-fi thriller. However, much of the season's contents have resurfaced as audio adaptations, comics, and novels. Thin Ice's writer Marc Platt would later adapt the story into The Lost Stories for Big Finish in 2011, but watching the Seventh Doctor battle against the long-absent Ice Warriors would have been a treat for fans.