List of unproduced stories
List of unmade stories, as that title is less ambiguous regarding the distinction between "unproduced", "unsold" etc. See its wide adoption on Wikipedia. Many of the stories featured on this page were produced, but were not released.
Talk about it here.
The following is a list of unproduced stories from the world of Doctor Who. This list includes television serials and spin-offs, audio productions, comic books, novels, and short stories. These stories were all considered or planned for production yet not officially released. Some of the most common reasons include that the script was not delivered on time, the production was disrupted, or the story was rejected in favour of another pitch.
TV stories
Doctor Who
Season 1
- "Nothing at the End of the Lane" (replaced by TV: "An Unearthly Child")
- The Giants (replaced by TV: An Unearthly Child)
- The Living World (replaced by TV: An Unearthly Child)
- The Masters of Luxor (replaced by TV: The Daleks, adapted into AUDIO: The Masters of Luxor)
- Untitled story by Gould (replaced by TV: Marco Polo)
- The Hidden Planet (replaced by TV: The Keys of Marinus)
- Britain 408 AD (replaced by TV: The Aztecs)
- The Red Fort (replaced by TV: The Reign of Terror)
- The New Armada (replaced by TV: The Reign of Terror)
- Farewell Great Macedon (adapted into AUDIO: Farewell, Great Macedon)
- The Fragile Yellow Arc of Fragrance (adapted into AUDIO: The Fragile Yellow Arc of Fragrance)
- Untitled story similar to The Day of the Triffids by Gould
- The Jokers
Season 2
- American Civil War episode (replaced by TV: Planet of Giants)
- Gunpowder Plot episode (replaced by TV: Planet of Giants)
- Salem Witch episode (replaced by TV: Planet of Giants)
- The New Armada (replaced by TV: The Rescue)
- The Man in the Ice
- The Slide (adapted into TV: Fury from the Deep and the non-Doctor Who audio The Slide)
- The Outlaws (adapted into a Short Trips)
- The Greatest Gamble
- Livingston
- The Son of Doctor Who
- The Hidden Planet
- The Space Trap (adapted into TV: The Krotons)
Season 3
- Untitled story by John Lucarotti (replaced by TV: The Massacre, adapted into PROSE: Who Discovered America?)
- The Dark Planet (adapted into AUDIO: The Dark Planet)
- The Face of God
- The Hands of Aten
- The White Witch
- The Hidden Planet
- Untitled story by Lucarotti
Season 4
- The Clock
- The Evil Eye
- The Hearsay Machine
- The Heavy Scent of Violence
- The Herdsmen of Aquarius
- The Hounds of Time
- The Man from the Met
- The Nazis
- The Ocean Liner
- The People Who Couldn't Remember
- The Imps (replaced by TV: The Highlanders, adapted into PROSE: Mission to Venus)
- The Ants
- Bar Kokhba
- The Big Store (adapted into TV: The Faceless Ones)
- The Mutant (adapted into TV: The Mutants)
- The Sleepwalkers
- Twin World
- Untitled story by Letts (adapted into AUDIO: The Paradise of Death)
Season 5
- The King's Bedtime Story
- Operation Werewolf
- The Queen of Time (adapted into AUDIO: The Queen of Time)
- The New Machines
- The Return of the Neanderthal
- Untitled story by Dixon
Season 6
- The Dreamspinner (replaced by TV: The Invasion)
- The Prison in Space (replaced by TV: The Krotons, adapted into AUDIO: Prison in Space)
- The Lords of the Red Planet (replaced by TV: The Seeds of Death, adapted into AUDIO: Lords of the Red Planet)
- The Impersonators (replaced by TV: The War Games)
- Untitled story by Sherwin (replaced by and adapted into TV: The War Games)
- The Aliens in the Blood (adapted into the non-Doctor Who audio Aliens in the Mind)
- The Eye in Space (DWM 146)
- The Laird of McCrimmon
- The Rosemariners (adapted into AUDIO: The Rosemariners)
- The Stones of Darkness
- Untitled story by Ling
Season 7
- The Shadow People (replaced by TV: Inferno)
- The Mists of Madness (replaced by TV: Inferno)
- The Vampire Planet (The Harvesters on resubmission, replaced by TV: Inferno)
- The Circles of Power
- Untitled story by Ray
Season 8
- The Cerebroids
- The Mega (adapted into AUDIO: The Mega)
- The Space War
- The Spare-Part People (TEDW 9)
- Untitled story by Camfield
- Untitled story by Worth
Season 9
- The Daleks in London (replaced by TV: The Time Monster)
- The Brain-Dead
- Multiface
- The Shape of Terror (adapted into TV: The Curse of Peladon)
Season 10
- Deathworld (replaced by TV: The Three Doctors)
Season 11
- The Automata (replaced by TV: The Time Warrior)
- The Final Game (replaced by TV: Planet of the Spiders)
Season 12
- Space Station (replaced by Lucarotti's version of TV: The Ark in Space)
- Lucarotti's version of TV: The Ark in Space (replaced by TV: The Ark in Space)
- Return of the Cybermen (replaced by TV: Revenge of the Cybermen and adapted into AUDIO: Return of the Cybermen)
- The Sea of Fear
- Untitled story by Adams (adapted into non-Doctor Who audio Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, episode 6)
Season 13
- The Beasts of Manzic
- The Eyes of Nemesis
- Fires of the Starmind
- The Haunting (replaced by TV: The Brain of Morbius, eventually adapted into TV: State of Decay)
- The Menday Fault
- Nightmare Planet
- The Prisoner of Time
- Return To Sukannan (replaced by TV: The Android Invasion)
- The Silent Scream
Season 14
- The Angarath
- The Dreamers of Phados
- The Gaslight Murderers (replaced by TV: The Face of Evil, adapted into TV: The Talons of Weng-Chiang)
- The Lost Legion (replaced by TV: The Hand of Fear)
- The Foe from the Future (replaced by TV: The Talons of Weng-Chiang, adapted into AUDIO: The Foe from the Future)
- The Mentor Conspiracy
Season 15
- Killers of the Dark (replaced by TV: The Invasion of Time)
- The Krikkitmen (adapted into a non Doctor Who novel and, later, PROSE: Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen)
- The Divided
- Untitled story by Holmes
Season 16
- The Lords of Misrule (replaced by TV: The Power of Kroll)
- Shield of Zarak (replaced by TV: The Androids of Tara)
- Untitled story by Boucher
Season 17
- Child Prodigy
- The Doomsday Contract (adapted into AUDIO: The Doomsday Contract)
- Erinella (replaced by TV: The Horns of Nimon)
- Shada (completed as TV: Shada in 2017 and adapted into WC: Shada, AUDIO: Shada and PROSE: Shada)
- The Secret Of Cassius
- The Tearing of the Veil
- Valley of the Lost (adapted into AUDIO: The Valley of Death)
- The Doctor Retires (replaced by TV: Shada, inspired TV: The Snowmen)
- Untitled story by Mills/Wagner (adapted into COMIC: Doctor Who and the Iron Legion and AUDIO: Doctor Who and the Iron Legion)
- Untitled story by Mills/Wagner (adapted into COMIC: Doctor Who and the Star Beast and AUDIO: Doctor Who and the Star Beast)
- Untitled story by Mills/Wagner (adapted into COMIC: City of the Damned)
- Untitled story by Mills/Wagner (adapted into COMIC: Doctor Who and the Dogs of Doom)
Season 18
- The Castle of Doom (replaced by TV: The Leisure Hive)
- The Dogs of Darkness
- Farer Nohan
- Into the Comet
- Invasion of the Veridians
- Mark of Lumos
- Mouth of Grath
- The Psychonauts (replaced by TV: The Leisure Hive)
- Sealed Orders (replaced by TV: Warriors' Gate)
- Untitled story by Brosnan
Season 19
- Project Zeta Sigma (replaced by TV: Castrovalva)
- Genesis of the Cybermen (inspired AUDIO: Spare Parts)
- The Enemy Within (replaced by and adapted into TV: Earthshock)
- Hebos
- Psychrons
- Romanoids
- Soldar And The Plastoids
- The Torson Triumvirate
Season 20
- Parasites
- The Song of the Space Whale (replaced by TV: Mawdryn Undead, adapted into AUDIO: The Song of Megaptera)
- Way Down Yonder
- Untitled story by Lee
20th anniversary
- The Six Doctors (replaced by TV: The Five Doctors)
Season 21
- Circus of Destiny
- Hex (adapted into AUDIO: Hexagora)
- The Darkness
- The Dark Samurai
- The Elite (adapted into AUDIO: The Elite)
- Ghost Planet
- The House that Ur-Cjak Built
- Manpower (also known as May Time and The Children of Seth adapted into AUDIO: The Children of Seth)
- The Metraki (replaced by TV: The First Sontarans)
- The First Sontarans (adapted into AUDIO: The First Sontarans)
- Nightmare Country (adapted into AUDIO: Nightmare Country)
- The Place Where All Times Meet
- Poison
- The Rogue TARDIS
- The SCI
- The Underworld
- Warmongers
- The Zeldan
Season 22
- Cat's Cradle (adapted into PROSE: Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible)
- The Macro Men (adapted into AUDIO: The Macros)
- The Song of the Space Whale (replaced by TV: Vengeance on Varos, adapted into AUDIO: The Song of Megaptera)
- The First Sontarans (adapted into AUDIO: The First Sontarans, replaced by TV: The Two Doctors)
- The Guardians of Prophecy (adapted into AUDIO: The Guardians of Prophecy)
- League of the Tandreds
- Livanthian (misspelling of Leviathan, adapted into AUDIO: Leviathan)
- Volvok
Season 23
- The Nightmare Fair (adapted into PROSE: The Nightmare Fair and AUDIO: The Nightmare Fair)[1]
- The Ultimate Evil (adapted into PROSE: The Ultimate Evil and AUDIO: The Ultimate Evil)[2]
- Mission to Magnus (adapted into PROSE: Mission to Magnus and AUDIO: Mission to Magnus)[2]
- Yellow Fever and How to Cure It[1]
- The Hollows of Time (adapted into AUDIO: The Hollows of Time)[2]
- The Children of January (final story)[2]
- Dark Labyrinth
- Doomwraiths
- Gallifray (commissioned under the misspelt title, no work ever completed on the story)[1]
- Iceberg (adapted into PROSE: Iceberg)
- Point of Entry (adapted into AUDIO: Point of Entry)[1]
- Meltdown (adapted into AUDIO: Power Play)
- Space Sargasso
- Valley of Shadows
- Untitled story by Pritchard[1]
Season 23: The Trial of a Time Lord
- Attack from the Mind (replaced by TV: Terror of the Vervoids)[1]
- Paradise 5 (also titled End of Term, replaced by TV: Terror of the Vervoids, adapted into AUDIO: Paradise 5)[1]
- Pinacotheca (also titled The Last Adventure, replaced by TV: Terror of the Vervoids)
- The Second Coming by Jack Trevor Story (replaced by TV: The Ultimate Foe)[1]
- Wasteland by Robert Holmes[1]
Season 24
- Untitled Mel introduction story (inspired AUDIO: The Wrong Doctors)
- Untitled pirate story
Season 25
Season 26
- Shrine (replaced by TV: Ghost Light)
- Illegal Alien (adapted into PROSE: Illegal Alien)
- Alixion
- Lungbarrow (adapted into PROSE: Lungbarrow)
Season 27
- Earth Aid (adapted into AUDIO: Earth Aid)
- Ice Time (adapted into AUDIO: Thin Ice)
- Crime of the Century (adapted into AUDIO: Crime of the Century)
- Animal (adapted into AUDIO: Animal)
- Hostage (adapted into PROSE: The Pit)
- War of the Daleks (adapted into PROSE: War of the Daleks)
- Alixion
- Night Thoughts (adapted into AUDIO: Night Thoughts)
Season 28
- Avatar
- Hostage (adapted into PROSE: The Pit)
- Network (inspired AUDIO: The Rani Elite)
- A School for Glory
30th anniversary
- Lost in the Dark Dimension (replaced by TV: Dimensions in Time)
- Destination: Holocaust (replaced by TV: Dimensions in Time)
- The Endgame (replaced by TV: Dimensions in Time)
Amblin Reboot
- The Pirates (bible sample premise, an adaptation of TV: The Smugglers)
- The Talons of Weng-Chiang (bible sample premise, an adaptation of the previously aired story by the same name)
- Earthshock (bible sample premise, an adaptation of the previously aired story by the same name)
- The Horror of Fang Rock (bible sample premise, an adaptation of the previously aired story by virtually the same name)
- The Celestial Toymaker (bible sample premise, an adaptation of the previously aired story by the same name)
- Don't Shoot, I'm the Doctor! (bible sample premise, a more historically accurate version of The Gunfighters)
- Tomb of the Cybs (bible sample premise, an adaptation of The Tomb of the Cybermen)
- The Yeti (bible sample premise, an adaptation of The Abominable Snowmen)
- The Ark in Space (bible sample premise, an adaptation of the previously aired story by the same name)
- The Outcasts (bible sample premise, an adaptation of The Invasion of Time)
- The Sea Devils (bible sample premise, an adaptation of the previously aired story by the same name)
- Shada (bible sample premise, an adaptation of the famously unaired story by the same name)
- The Claws of Axos (bible sample premise, an adaptation of the previously aired story by the same name)
- The Dæmons (bible sample premise, an adaptation of the previously aired story by the same name)
- The Land of Fear (bible sample premise, an adaptation of The Reign of Terror)
- Fathers and Brothers (pilot written after the bible, a loose adaptation of TV: Genesis of the Daleks)
TV Movie
- Dr. Who? (subtitled "The Time of My Life" by REF: The Nth Doctor)
Series 1
- Pompeii (replaced by TV: Boom Town, adapted into TV: The Fires of Pompeii)
- Untitled story by Abbott
Series 2
- The 1920s (replaced by TV: Fear Her)
- The Living World (reworked version of the unproduced season 1 story replaced by TV: An Unearthly Child)
- Untitled story by Graham
- Untitled story (writer unknown)
Series 4
- Century House (replaced by TV: Midnight)
- A Midwinter's Tale (replaced by TV: The Next Doctor and TV: The Waters of Mars, adapted into TV: The Empty Planet)
- The Suicide Exhibition (replaced by TV: The Fires of Pompeii, also later suggested as part of 2009-Specials)
- Untitled Christmas special (replaced by TV: The Next Doctor)
- Untitled Easter special (replaced by TV: Planet of the Dead)
Series 5
- Death to the Doctor (replaced by TV: The Lodger; adapted into a Sarah Jane Adventures story)
Series 7
Series 8
Series 9
- Doctor Who and the Cave Monsters (this pitched story led to Peter Harness being offered to pen the two-parter TV: The Zygon Invasion/The Zygon Inversion)
- The Last One To Go To Sleep (was rejected due to being too similar to TV: Sleep No More)
- The Bird (early version of TV: Heaven Sent)
Series 10
- Sleep No More sequel (replaced by TV: Empress of Mars, later in the process also intended as a third Peladon-story)
- Untitled Christmas Special (debut of the Thirteenth Doctor)
Unknown season/series
- The Harvesters (original submission, Second Doctor story)
- The Hallow Men (Third Doctor story)
- How The Monk Got His Habit (Twelfth Doctor story)
- Solid Ground[5] (Twelfth Doctor story, adapted into the Silver Surfer "Shadows in the City of Light" story)
Untitled Daleks Spin-off
Season 1
- The Destroyers (adapted into AUDIO: The Destroyers)
The Sarah Jane Adventures
Series 5
- Meet Mr Smith (fourth story)
- The Thirteenth Floor (fifth story, adapted into a story for a non Doctor Who series)
- The Battle of Bannerman Road (final story)
Halloween specials
- Full Moon (first special)
- The Station (second special)
- Untitled special (third special)
- Night of the Spectre (fourth and final special)
Christmas special
Torchwood
Series 1
- Untitled story by Whithouse
Series 2
- Untitled story by Lidster/Davies
- Checkout
- Deadline (adapted into AUDIO: The Dead Line)
- Cross My Palm with Silver (adapted into TV: Sleeper)
- The Jinx
- Revenants (adapted into TV: A Day in the Death)
- Skypoint (adapted into PROSE: SkyPoint)
Home media
Reeltime Pictures
BBV Productions
- A film featuring the Ice Warriors.
- A film featuring the Cybermen on an island (loosely adapted into the Cyberon audio Cyberhunt)
- Ishmael's Star, by Mark Gatiss (REF: Downtime – The Lost Years of Doctor Who)
- Untitled Zygon film, by David A. McIntee (REF: Downtime – The Lost Years of Doctor Who)
Webcast
- Blood of the Robots (second of the "Shalka" trilogy)
Film
- A third movie written by Milton Subotsky featuring two Doctors.[6]
- Doctor Who Meets Scratchman (adapted into PROSE: Scratchman)
- The Krikkitmen (adapted into a non Doctor Who novel and, later, PROSE: Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen)
- The Crossroads in Time by Michael Bond[1]
- Doctor Who - The Movie (subtitled "The Return of Varnax" by REF: The Nth Doctor, adapted into Doctor Who - The Time Lord)
- Doctor Who - The Time Lord (some drafts subtitled "Crystals of Power", "Immortality Bullet" and "The Genetic Duplicate" by REF: The Nth Doctor)
- Last of the Time Lords (some drafts subtitled "The Fall of Gallifrey", "The Mark of Varnax" and "Chameleon" by REF: The Nth Doctor)
- Doctor Who - The Movie (subtitled "The Jewels of Time" by REF: The Nth Doctor)
- Untitled David Yates movie.[7]
Audio
Doctor Who: The Monthly Adventures
- Untitled Moffat script (adapted into TV: Heaven Sent)[8]
- Summer in the City[9]
- Friends and Enemies[9]
- Dead Men Walking[9]
- The Clutches of Kali[9]
- Spiders[9]
- We are the Dead[9]
- Alone Again[9]
- Dead Man's Hand
- Best of All Possible Worlds[9]
- Earthstorm
- Fifty-Fifty
Short Trips
BBV Productions
- Zygon: Kill or Cure, synopsis by Iain McLaughlin
- Zygon: Precis, synopsis by Iain McLaughlin
- Drome, by Dave Stone
- The I Job, by Jon Blum
Comics
Doctor Who Magazine
Marvel
Radio Times
Robot
Daily Mail
Faction Paradox
IDW
Prose
Doctor Who Annuals
The Journeys of Doctor Who
- Four or five untitled short stories (Original publication was never completed due to the death of David Whitaker, with Rennigan's Record, the only completed story from The Journeys of Doctor Who, being published in DWM 200 14 years later)
Virgin Missing Adventures
BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures
- Mentor
- There Are Worse Things Than Angels
- Ends
- Valentine's Day
- To Hold Back Death
- Enemy of the Daleks
- The Why Knot
BBC Past Doctor Adventures
- Requiem
- Campaign (replaced by PROSE: Grave Matter, adapted into unlicensed charity book)
- Time's Champion (replaced by PROSE: Spiral Scratch, adapted into an unlicensed charity book)
- The Killing Stone (adapted into an unlicensed audio story of the same name)
- Smoking Mirror
- Destination: Bandril
BBC Books (unspecified series)
Big Finish Productions
Tales of Hyspero
Faction Paradox
Lethbridge-Stewart
- Fear of Light
- Horror of Det-Sen (2nd volume)
- Blood of the Witch Tree, pitched as Feralia
- Day of the Intelligence
- The HAVOC Files: Five[13]
The Target Storybook
- Untitled short story by Gareth Roberts (commissioned and written but never published)
Spin-offs
Television
- Untitled Dalek spin-off
- Jago and Litefoot spinoff (inspired AUDIO: Jago & Litefoot)
- Nelvana's series
- Rose Tyler: Earth Defence (inspired AUDIO: Rose Tyler: The Dimension Cannon)
- Unused Torchwood Miracle Day story arc
- Untitled Paternoster Gang spin-off
Radio
Plays
- World War (replaced by The Ultimate Adventure)
- The Inheritors of Time by John Ostrander
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 DWMSE 3
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 The Lost Season (DVD range documentary, released on The Ultimate Foe)
- ↑ James Henry's blog entry
- ↑ James Henry's blog entry
- ↑ Original pitch by Dan Slott
- ↑ Doctor Who Bulletin 81, Milton Subotsky interview
- ↑ twitter thread by DWM editor Tom Spilsbury
- ↑ DWM 484
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 9.6 9.7 [1]
- ↑ http://www.thewhoshelf.com/2019/12/29/ben-tedds-interview/
- ↑ After-Image #6 - January 1988
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Lee Sullivan "lost" comics
- ↑ https://gallifreybase.com/gb/threads/coming-soon.229566/page-26#post-12127728