10 Unmade Doctor Who Stories We're Glad We Never Saw
3. Sarah Jane Smith Gets Murdered Then Burned On A Funeral Pyre
Prolific Doctor Who director (and official Timeless Child) Douglas Camfield pitched the idea of a script centred around the foreign legion for Doctor Who's fourteenth season. Entitled The Lost Legion, it focused on a brutal alien battle that finds its way to a remote African outpost. The Doctor, Sarah and soldiers from the French Foreign Legion are caught in the war between the Skarkel and the Khoorians. It doesn't end well, and Sarah Jane Smith is gunned down by one of the aliens. She dies in the Doctor's arms and is placed upon a funeral pyre.
Robert Holmes was unimpressed by Camfield's first draft and replaced it with The Hand of Fear instead. It's just as well, despite the fact that it would tragically end Sarah's story and deny us Lis Sladen's late career resurgence, it would have also reflected badly on a beleaguered production team. Season 14 was notorious for attracting the attentions of "Clean Up TV" campaigner Mary Whitehouse, who regularly complained about the violence and horror in the series.
Her campaign eventually led to Philip Hinchcliffe being replaced by Graham Williams, who was tasked with lightening things up a bit. Imagine Whitehouse's outcry however, had she seen the Doctor's best friend gunned down on teatime telly! Imagine Mary Whitehouse actually watched anything she was furious about...