Abraham Lincoln was a great man. He managed to outlaw slavery in the US, attempted to unite the warring sides of the Civil War into a more perfect union, and did it all whilst sporting some sweet muttonchops and a stove pipe hat. For many, however, he is remembered as the presidential ghost who simply can't get enough of the White House and haunts it to this day. Seriously, many are insistent that they've seen old Honest Abe floating around the hallways of the Oval Office, apparently ever since his death (one photo of his widow purportedly features her assassinated husband putting a calming hand on her shoulder). So, obviously, there should be an X-Files episode about it! A little less offensive than the airline crash inspiration, we suppose. Glen Morgan and James Wong were gearing up to start working on spin-off show Millenium, but not before developing a story that was a "sort of Abraham Lincolns ghost in the White House type of thing". The script was to feature Mulder and Scully investigating reports of the presidential haunting, partly because Morgan had "done a lot of research and I had always wanted to write a feature about Lincolns ghost". Unfortunately the writing partnership could never quite crack it, the amount of time they spent drafting and rewriting the screenplay meaning they had to move onto other things. They lost interest and felt the producers had, too, Morgan stating "I felt they didn't want my heart and soul anymore, so I wouldn't give this one to them". Goofy though the idea was - and undoubtedly a little insane - we would've liked to see what they'd done with it.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
