Doctor Who: 10 Things You Didn't Know About The Autons
3. The Autons Almost Battled The Sixth Doctor
After almost appearing two years prior in The Five Doctors, the Autons were set to appear with the Sixth Doctor in an episode penned by creator Robert Holmes - but it never came to be.
Titled 'Yellow Fever and How to Cure it', this unmade 1985 episode was intended to feature Colin Baker's Doctor, as well as renegade Time Lords the Master and the Rani, and even the return of the Brigadier.
Set to be filmed in Singapore, Holmes' script featured the Rani allying with the Nestene Consciousness and experimenting on its Autons to make them faster, stronger, and more deadly. This included equipping them with ricocheting bullets and flamethrowers. Imprisoned by UNIT in Singapore would be the Master, who the Doctor and the Brigadier would have to ally themselves with to stop their adversaries.
However, the production was halted when the BBC decided to cancel Doctor Who for the first time in 1985. When the show returned after massive fan backlash, there was no budget to film this expensive episode and it was scrapped. Robert Holmes was instead offered a serial in the 1986 Trial of the Time Lord season titled 'The Mysterious Planet', with absolutely no Autons in sight.
Holmes sadly passed away in 1986 before 'Yellow Fever' ever saw the light of day, and still no novelisation or audio adaptation of the intriguing story has been produced.
The Autons wouldn't return on-screen until the 2005 revival, but the Sixth Doctor would go on to face his plastic foes in various comics, novels, and audio productions in the years after.