10 Unmade Doctor Who Stories We're Glad We Never Saw

2. Doctor Who's Sexist Space Prison

Doctor Who Sarah Jane Smith
BBC

When David Bradley played the First Doctor in Twice Upon A Time, there was outcry at Steven Moffat's portrayal of an outdated old sexist, who's also a touch xenophobic. Moffat had clearly mixed up the character with the actor who played him! However, compared to this unmade serial from the 1960s, the First Doctor threatening to smack Bill's arse is a drop in the ocean.

Attempting to "lighten up" Doctor Who, producer Peter Briant commissioned jobbing writer Dick Sharples to write Prison In Space a more humorous story for the sixth season. Sharples conceived of a society, run by "Amazonian" women who had disenfranchised men and banned war. President Babs (yup) puts the Doctor and Jamie on trial and are sent to prison.

The Doctor and Jamie convince their fellow male prisoners to mount an uprising against the totalitarian "Dolly Guards". The end of the story involves the women becoming enlightened about the positive impact of men, and move towards a more egalitarian society. Which would be all well and good if the ending didn't also feature Jamie spanking Zoe to reverse her anti-male brainwashing.

It reads like a comedy sketch version of the show, written by someone who'd never watched it before. Big Finish adapted it for a, presumably more progressive, audio adventure in 2010.

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Citizen of the Universe, Film Programmer, Writer, Podcaster, Doctor Who fan and a gentleman to boot. As passionate about Chinese social-realist epics as I am about dumb popcorn movies.