The Lost Stories

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A promotional poster for The Lost Stories Series 1.
Not to be confused with missing episodes, televised
Doctor Who stories that were made, transmitted, and subsequently lost by the BBC.

The Lost Stories was a range of Doctor Who audios released by Big Finish Productions beginning in 2009. It took scripts or story treatments that had been officially proposed to the BBC from 1963 to 1990, converted them into audio-appropriate scripts and recorded them with as many of the original cast members as possible. The line was wholly separate from their monthly Doctor Who and The Companion Chronicles ranges. During the production of this series, the Doctors and companions involved continued to be as active as they normally were in other ranges.

Concept

Initially, the range was to have produced the stories intended for production during season 23. When that season was delayed, these stories were abandoned in favour of what became The Trial of a Time Lord.

Big Finish expanded the ambition of the range soon after announcing it. As the range developed, it changed from being about "the season 23 that never was" to more generally producing a whole range of never-made television stories. As of 2012, Big Finish had announced stories from the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Doctors' eras. Stories involving the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Doctors were full cast audios, while stories from the First, Second, and Third Doctors' eras had a format more akin to the "enhanced audiobooks" of the Companion Chronicles range.

The key factor for the producers was that the stories in this range must have at some point been officially proposed to the BBC. In some instances, the scripts produced by Big Finish were essentially those that had been delivered to the BBC; in others, they were wholly written for Big Finish based upon story ideas that had been proposed to the script editor of the era. In a few cases, finished scripts like The Song of Megaptera (originally titled The Song of the Space Whale) were tweaked for the audio medium. In others, as with Leviathan, they were more substantially altered.

Sixth Doctor stories

As the original impetus for the range, the Sixth Doctor stories deserve special consideration. Originally, the idea was that all known season 23 scripts and story ideas would be produced. Due to rights issues and writer availability, this proved impossible. Additionally, Big Finish research into "the season that never was" revealed scripts and story ideas actually meant for season 22. The producer of the range decided to take a more liberal approach to the concept. He put together a "new" season, comprised of most of the stories known to have been destined for season 23 and some stories meant for season 22. He knit all the stories together with continuing narrative elements not present in the original television scripts and story treatments. The result was an enhancement of the original goal of simply adapting the known stories for audio. The very fact that there were eight stories in the first run of Sixth Doctor stories immediately suggests a different season length than would have been possible on television during the Colin Baker era (however it was common for the BBC to commission more stories for a season than would necessarily be broadcast, in case one fell through, so the number of Season 23 stories in existence is not a reliable indicator of how long the season might have been; plus, at the time Season 23 was being planned there was every likelihood that Baker would have stayed on into Season 24 or beyond, so any leftover stories could have been used for later seasons).

As produced, the Sixth Doctor stories do possess a different tone from the standard Big Finish Doctor Who range. They employed a style of electronic music evocative of the one that would likely have been used had the stories been produced for television in 1985. Moreover, the characterisations of Peri and the Sixth Doctor are closer to the season 22 versions of the characters than typical for the main Big Finish Doctor Who range.

In the 3rd series of Lost Stories Big Finish released three more Sixth Doctor stories, two intended for Season 22 and one for 23, which featured the return of Victoria Waterfield the Traken Union and the Melkur and the Sontarans

Seventh Doctor stories

In addition to the full-cast Sixth Doctor stories, the Lost Stories range also includes a Seventh Doctor series. In contrast to the first Sixth Doctor series, the first Seventh Doctor series are closer to the intention of the unmade Season 27. Perhaps due to the personal involvement of then-script editor, Andrew Cartmel, this branch of the Lost Stories hit the main beats planned for that season. Ace was joined by the new companion, Raine Creevy. Brigadier Winifred Bambera and UNIT returned, as had been planned. As of 2013, the effect of these major character developments on the Seventh Doctor's general usage in the main Doctor Who range has not been revealed. Of particular interest is whether Raine, having been established in The Lost Stories, will cross over into the main, monthly line. She made her first appearance outside of The Lost Stories in AUDIO: UNIT: Dominion.

First and Second Doctor Stories

At the beginning of the second series, Big Finish released two boxsets, one for each of these Doctors. The First Doctor box set contained Farewell, Great Macedon and The Fragile Yellow Arc of Fragrance, both featuring narration from Carole Ann Ford and William Russell. These stories were presented as halfway between a Companion Chronicle and a full-cast audio in order to capture as closely as possible the sense of the original story without some of the original actors. The Second Doctor box set contained only one story from that Doctor: Prison in Space, and the intended pilot for the Dalek spin-off series The Destroyers. Prison in Space featured both Wendy Padbury and Frazer Hines as Zoe Heriot and Jamie McCrimmon, respectively, while The Destroyers featured Jean Marsh as Sara Kingdom. Another story for each of these Doctors was released in Series 3: The Masters of Luxor for the First Doctor and The Rosemariners for the Secod Doctor, both of which featured the same regulars as the box sets. The Fourth series focused on these early Doctors, with the First Doctor getting his final release in The Dark Planet, which was also Maureen O'Brien's first audio story alongside William Russell. The Second Doctor got two stories: The Queen of Time and Lords of the Red Planet.

Third, Fourth & Fifth Doctors

These Doctors featured the least in the range, but never the less got at least one story each. The Third Doctor only appeared once in the final story of the range The Mega Featuring Katy Manning as Jo Grant and Richard Franklin as Mike Yates. The Fourth Doctor got one box set between the second and third series (despite not being part of either), which contained the stories The Foe from the Future and The Valley of Death, both of which featured Tom Baker as The Fourth Doctor and Louise Jameson as Leela. The Fifth Doctor got a trilogy of stories in the third series featuring Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton as Nyssa and Janet Fielding as Tegan Jovanka, interestingly, these are the only stories produced by Big Finish to date to feature just Nyssa and Tegan as companions, without Adric or Turlough.

List of stories

# Title Author Doctor Featuring Season which was meant to be broadcast Released
1.01 The Nightmare Fair Graham Williams (Adapted by John Ainsworth) 6th Peri Brown and the Celestial Toymaker 23 November 2009
1.02 Mission to Magnus Philip Martin 6th Peri Brown, Sil and the Ice Warriors 23 December 2009
1.03 Leviathan Brian Finch (Adapted by Paul Finch) 6th Peri Brown 22 January 2010
1.04 The Hollows of Time Christopher H Bidmead 6th Peri Brown and the Tractators 23 February 2010
1.05 Paradise 5 PJ Hammond and Andy Lane 6th Peri Brown 23 March 2010
1.06 Point of Entry Barbara Clegg and Marc Platt 6th Peri Brown 23  April 2010
1.07 The Song of Megaptera Pat Mills 6th Peri Brown 22  May 2010
1.08 The Macros Ingrid Pitt and Tony Rudlin 6th Peri Brown 22 June 2010
2.01/2.02 Double release
*Farewell, Great Macedon
*The Fragile Yellow Arc of Fragrance
Moris Farhi (Adapted by Nigel Robinson) 1st Susan Foreman, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright 1 November 2010
2.03/2.04 Double release
*Prison in Space
*The Destroyers
Dick Sharples (adapted by Simon Guerrier) & Terry Nation (adapted by Nicholas Briggs and John Dorney) 2nd Jamie McCrimmon and Zoe Heriot 6 December 2010
2.05 Thin Ice Marc Platt 7th Ace and Ice Warriors 27 April 2011
2.06 Crime of the Century Andrew Cartmel 7th Ace and Raine Creevy 27 May 2011
2.07 Animal Andrew Cartmel 7th Ace, Raine Creevy, Winifred Bambera and UNIT 27 June 2011
2.08 Earth Aid Ben Aaronovitch and Andrew Cartmel 7th Ace and Raine Creevy 27 July 2011
3.01 The Elite Barbara Clegg and John Dorney 5th Nyssa and Tegan Jovanka 20 October 2011
3.02 Hexagora Paul Finch, from a story by Peter Ling and Hazel Adair 5th Nyssa and Tegan Jovanka 20 November 2011
3.03 The Children of Seth Christopher Bailey and Marc Platt 5th Nyssa and Tegan Jovanka 20 December 2011
Box 1 Double release
*The Foe from the Future
*The Valley of Death
Robert Banks Stewart (Adapted by John Dorney) & Philip Hinchcliffe (Adapted by Jonathan Morris) 4th Leela 14, 15 January 2012
3.04 The Guardians of Prophecy Johnny Byrne (Adapted by Jonathan Morris) 6th Peri Brown and the Melkur 22 May 2012
3.05 Power Play Gary Hopkins 6th Peri Brown and Victoria Waterfield 23 June 2012
3.06 The First Sontarans Andrew Smith 6th Peri Brown and Sontarans 22 July 2012
3.07 The Masters of Luxor Anthony Coburn (Adapted by Nigel Robinson) 1st Susan Foreman, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright 1 August 2012
3.08 The Rosemariners Donald Tosh 2nd Jamie McCrimmon and Zoe Heriot 6 September 2012
4.01 The Dark Planet Brian Hayles (Adapted by Matt Fitton) 1st Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright and Vicki Pallister 2 September 2013
4.02 The Queen of Time Brian Hayles (Adapted by Catherine Harvey) 2nd Zoe Heriot and Jamie McCrimmon 6 October 2013
4.03 Lords of the Red Planet Brian Hayles (Adapted by John Dorney) 2nd Zoe Heriot, Jamie McCrimmon and the Ice Warriors 6 November 2013
4.04 The Mega Bill Strutton (Adapted by Simon Guerrier) 3rd Jo Grant 9 December 2013

External links