10 Doctor Who Episodes That Were Never Made
4. Doctor Who Meets Scratchman
After the success of the non-BBC produced Dr. Who/Dalek movies from the 60s, and long before 1996's TV Movie, another Doctor Who movie was proposed.
Also known as 'Doctor Who and the Big Game', 'Doctor Who Meets Scratchman' was a Doctor Who script written by Tom Baker. On breaks whilst filming his first season as the Doctor in 1974, Tom Baker and co-star Ian Marter began scripting a big-budget Doctor Who movie. In it, the Doctor, Harry Sullivan, and Sarah Jane Smith would face Daleks, scarecrows, 'Cybors', and even the Devil.
Calling himself 'Harry Scratch', the Devil would trick the Doctor and his friends into playing an epic intergalactic game centred around a remote Scottish island being overrun by scarecrows. The finale would see the heroes battling for survival against the Daleks on a huge pinball table - definitely an idea the TV show couldn't afford with a BBC budget.
With the script written and in talks with production companies, Tom Baker even got the legendary Vincent Price interested in portraying the Scratchman. However, due to rights issues, lack of funding, and eventually Marter and Baker's departure from the TV series, Doctor Who Meets Scratchman was buried.
2007's Doctor Who Magazine Issue 379 saw artist Brian Williamson illustrate sections from the story, including movie poster mock-ups and concept art.
In 2019, writer James Goss and Tom Baker released an adaptation of the screenplay in novel format - titled simply 'Scratchman'. Baker narrated the audio adaptation - finally bringing his unique Doctor Who story to life in the Doctor's own voice.