6. Sarah Jane Smith Was Originally Going To Be Killed Off
In 1976, Elisabeth Sladen decided to leave Doctor Who. A story was devised in which The Doctor and Sarah would go to North Africa and discover two alien races trying to destroy one another, which would have concluded with Sarah being killed by one of the aliens. The author, Douglas Camfield, also wrote such Who classics as The Dalek Masterplan, The Web of Fear, The Invasion, Terror of The Zygons and The Seeds of Doom. Ultimately, it was rejected by the production team, particularly Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen. When Sladen finally left the programme in 1976 her final scene was improvised on the day with Tom Baker as the two actors still were not happy with the way Sladen left the show. She would later return in The Five Doctors before getting a brief spin of series entitled K9 and Company which only had one pilot episode before being cancelled due to poor ratings. Sladen eventually returned to the revived series in 2006 and between then and her untimely death in 2011, she inspired a whole new generation.