20 Cancelled Doctor Who Episodes You Need To Know About

If you thought The TV Movie pushed the envelope for Doctor Who think again. Because it could have been a whole lot crazier.

During the early days of the project, American writer John Leekley was tasked with creating a writers’ bible for a prospective season.

Essentially a complete reboot, it reimagined the show as a sort of Greek myth, with the Doctor’s former tutor, Borusa, now his grandfather, and the Master now his half-brother.

Most of the episodes would've been remakes of memorable classic Who serials. But the pilot was slightly more original, opening with the Master becoming president of the Time Lords, the dying Borusa merging with the TARDIS, and the Doctor embarking on a quest to find his long-lost father Ulysses.

In the pilot alone, viewers would've been transported to war-torn London and ancient Egypt, before a showdown on Skaro with Davros and the redesigned, “Spider” Daleks.

Leekley’s ideas were met with a lukewarm response, which is probably for the best given that they would have taken a sledgehammer to 30 years of continuity.

He was removed from the project and had nothing to do with the TV Movie that did end up on screens.