What Happened Next? 10 Planned Seasons Of Cancelled TV Shows

9. Doctor Who Season 27

Once upon a time the unthinkable happened; BBC cancelled Doctor Who. Falling ratings and the 'assumption' that the iconic show was now outdated meant that Doctor Who ended in 1989 after a massive 26 seasons. What was a real shame was that the show was in a bit of a renaissance period with Sylvester McCoy's final run of stories viewed as some of the best; The Curse Of Fenric is arguably an all time classic, a far cry from the travesty that was the Seventh Doctor's first series two years earlier.

The other big travesty of Doctor Who's cancellation was that we never saw the 'Cartmel Masterplan' come to fruition. Named after script editor Andrew Cartmel and developed with Ben Aaronovitch, and Marc Platt, the seeds were set up in season 25's Silver Nemesis.

...Omega and Rassilon were the founding fathers of Gallifrey. They towered above the Time Lords who followed. They were demigods. a subtle attempt to say that there was a third presence there in the shadowy days of Gallifrey's creation. In other words, the Doctor was also there. So he's more than a Time Lord. He's one of these half-glimpsed demigods.

Had Doctor Who continued, the Doctor's role in this would have been revealed as layers of mystery were added back into his character. Season 27 with due to feature a story set on historic Gallifrey and focusing on his family. Sophie Aldred's Ace would have left after eight episodes, possible to join the Time Lord Academy. The new companion was going to be something akin to a cat burglar whose father was a gangland boss and had been positioned as an upper class young lady. (It is likely Planet Of the Dead's Lady Christina is influenced by this idea). Aside from ancient Gallifrey, we would have also likely have seen a story set in the 60's and the return of the Ice Warriors. It is also likely to have been the final series for Sylvester McCoy himself...