Untitled (Ark)

by: Douglas Adams
Episodes:
Companions: Sarah, Harry
Submitted for: Season 12

Story: Centered around an ark which was sent to save a race from their dying planet. The ark contained members of society that didn't actually do anything useful.

Notes: This was the first script submitted by Douglas Adams, and like his other unused Doctor Who stories such as 'The Krikketmen' and 'Shada' the ideas contained within it found their way into his later work, in this case the second installment of The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, The Restaurant at the End of The Universe.

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Space Station

by: Christopher Langley
Episodes: 4
Companions: Sarah, Harry
Submitted for: Season 12

Story: Unknown

Notes: The setting for this story was central to the idea of season 12, with 2 other stories being directly linked to it. When it became clear that the scripts were unworkable, script editor Robert Holmes kept the setting when giving the replacement story ('The Ark In Space') to John Lucrotti. The replacement scripts would also be below par, and would have to be completely rewritten by Holmes.

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Ark in Space

by: John Lucrotti
Episodes: 4
Submitted for: Season 12

Titles:
1. Puffball
2.
3.
4. Golfball

Story: Keeping a rendezvous, the Doctor, Sarah and Harry materialize on an ark where humans are kept in cryogenic suspension on a plot of countryside the size of Kent. Aliens have invaded the ark and divided into two species: the Delc, who are just heads with no bodies operating on mental energy, and their lumbering servants who have bodies but no heads and handle all the physical work. The servants can reproduce in a flash, and the climax sees the Doctor triumph by driving the Delc into space with a golf club.

Notes: Having contributed to the series 'Moonbase 3', writer John Lucarotti (who had previously written three Hartnell stories), was invited to submit a story by outgoing script editor Terrance Dicks. As Christopher Langley’s 'Space Station' had been abandoned, the idea of a space ark was given to Lucarotti. Problems started when the scripts started to arrive, delayed by the fact that the writer lived on a yacht in Corsica. Each script had an individual title, as had been the practice when Lucarotti last wrote for the show. They were overwritten and featured a large hydroponics centre which could not be achieved within the studio budget allocated. Robert Holmes then took the basic idea and wrote the scripts himself, retaining the title but little else.

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Return of the Cybermen

by: Gerry Davis
Episodes: 4
Submitted for: Season 12

Titles:

1. The Beacon In Space
2. The Plague Carriers
3. The Gold Miners
4. The Battle For The Nerva

Story: Nerva Beacon (from 'The Ark In Space') was originally a mineral processing station, now acting as a service and relay beacon in the asteroid belt, with its resources decimated by the Cyber-Wars. The female Captain Warner is attacked in the main control room by a Cybermat which infects her with an alien disease. The Doctor, Sarah and Harry arrive by transmat in the mess room to find the beacon deserted; they are watched by four survivors – Commander Stevenson, Professor Richard Kellman, Dr Anitra Berglund and young Bill Lester. Exploring, the Doctor’s party enter a crusher which bears traces of gold dust. The crusher is then activated by Kellman to stop the plague spreading. Anitra stops the process, and Stevenson confronts the travellers. Intrigued by mysterious scratches he observes on the walls and floors of Nerva, the Doctor consults his diary, reading the entry headed “C on T. 24/10/2248 AD”. Sarah helps Anitra tend to Warner in the sick bay. A Cybermat attacks, infecting Sarah, and Anitra finds the creature can be destroyed with gold dust. Warner dies, and the Doctor tells Stevenson that they are under attack from the Cybermen, who supposedly died out 50 years previously. Suspecting that a Cyberman is concealed on Nerva, the Doctor searches the reluctant Kellman’s locker – and discovers a Cyberman hiding amidst the spacesuits.

The Cyberman is joined by another to take control and await the arrival of the Cyberleader. Recalling the Cybermen’s weakness to radiation, the Doctor realizes that the humans held prisoner in the sick bay can use an X-ray machine as a weapon. Gaining the upper hand, the Doctor determines to locate the dormant Cyberleader hidden on Nerva and find an antidote for Sarah. The Doctor and Harry search the area near the Gyro room (supposedly already searched by Kellman), realizing that a Cyberman could exist in the liquid oxygen tanks. Inside the oxygen tank is the skeleton of a miner – covered in gold-dust. The Doctor and Harry find themselves sealed into a tank with three dormant Cybermen by Kellman. As the creatures begin to revive, Stevenson and Lester burst in and rescue them. It is Kellman who is activating the Cybermen, nad now the dome-headed Cyberleader (last seen as the Controller in The Tomb Of The Cybermen) enters the Gyro room, confronting the crew. The Cybermen have orders to destroy the asteroid alongside Nerva by using the beacon itself to smash the planetoid out of orbit and burn it up in the nearest star.

The Cyberleader explains that the asteroid is a major producer of gold, a substance which could destroy them and their Cybermats. Since all the humans will die on the Nerva anyway during the impact, the Cyberleader hands the Doctor the antidote for Sarah, who recovers. In the sick bay with Anitra and Harry, the Doctor says he believes the asteroid to be inhabited. Kellman activates the dematerialization controls to travel to the asteroid and is surreptitiously followed by the Doctor. The Time Lord trails Kellman through deserted gold mines to a cavern containing four miners led by Evans. Evans has been waiting months for Kellman to return with his son, John, whom Kellman claims remained on the Nerva. The miners have been virtual prisoners for 25 years, and now worship a golden totem; this god was their saviour after the mine workings were attacked by the Cybermen. Two miners, Jones and Williams, find the Doctor and believe him to be a thief because of a bag of gold dust he has appropriated. Kellman attempts to discredit the Doctor in the eyes of the miners, but the Doctor shows Evans a locket from the skeleton which the mna identifies as his son’s. Kellman’s escape ends in his death when the miners dynamite a tunnel; Evans too dies, making the Doctor promise to get his men to safety on the Nerva. As the Cyberleader directs full power on the Nerva, the Doctor is unable to locate the place in the cavern to dematerialize back to the beacon.

The Doctor locates the dematerialization ray and returns to the station; by now the Cybermen have noticed his absence from the Nerva, and take Anitra hostage. The Doctor gets to the sick bay, where Sarah and Harry attempt to take control of the Cybermats. As the deadline for the Doctor’s return expires and Anitra is about to be killed, the Doctor enters the Control Room and offers himself to the Cyberleader as a scientific expert, replacing the dead Kellman. Harry escapes from the sick bay via some ducting, armed with a Cybermat reprogrammed by the Doctor and filled with gold dust; this attacks the Cyberman guarding Lester in the engine room as the Doctor and Stevenson are forced to start the collision course with the asteroid. With minutes to impact, the reprogrammed Cybermats attack the Cybermen, and finally the Doctor uses one of them to overpower the Cyberleader. The retros are fired just in time to halt the Nerva’s impact with the asteroid. The Doctor tells Stevenson about the miners, and the Commander reveals that he had the Doctor’s TARDIS stashed in his cabin, having mistaken it for ‘some form of convenience’.

Notes: Outgoing producer Barry Letts and script editor Terrance Dicks commissioned Cybermen co-creator Gerry Davis for a Cyberman story for Season 12, to aid the changeover from Jon Pertwee to Tom Baker. They stipulated that it should be studio-bound and use the same sets as Christopher Langley’s Space Station. Davis came up with the notion of a Las-Vegas style intergalactic casino, with the gaming tables deserted and the gamblers killed by a mysterious plague. It would transpire that the Cybermen could be destroyed by using the casino’s gold reserves.
Davis soon dropped the casino setting and turned instead to the Cybermen infiltrating a confined human settlement, as had been used in The Moonbase.
Incoming producer Philip Hinchcliffe was unhappy with the style of the scripts, which he felt was a ‘vintage story’. It fell to incoming script editor Robert Holmes to rewrite the scripts, defining the new Doctor’s character more strongly and to feature location filming. Gerry Davis retained the writer credit on the serial, though he was unhappy with the changes made.

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Avenging Angel

by: Robert Sloman
Episodes:
Submitted for: Season 12

Story: Unknown

Notes: As planning for Season 12 got underway, Robert Sloman was pencilled in for the final story of the season, as had happened for the past four years. It was briefly under consideration around November 1974, but it would appear that little work was done as Sloman could not later recollect even submitting a story. It was soon replaced by Robert Banks Stewart’s 'Terror Of The Zygons'.

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The Haunting

by: Terrance Dicks
Episodes: 6
Companions: Sarah, Harry
Submitted for: Season 12

Story: Unknown

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The Prisoner of Time

by: Barry Letts
Episodes:
Submitted for: Season 12

Story: Involved the Time Lords

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Nightmare Planet

by: Dennis Spooner
Episodes: 4
Submitted for: Season 12

Story: Set on a world where, unbeknownst to them, the masses are kept under control with a continuous supply of drugs in the food and water. Whenever somebody does something wrong, the drug is stopped and they see awful monsters and horrific images all around them and die of fright.

Notes: Rejected at storyline stage by script editor Robert Holmes who was concerned about the implications of the drug-taking. Interestingly, the idea of a population controlled by drugs was used by Holmes himself in his later story, The Sun Makers.

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Return to Sukanna

by: Terry Nation
Episodes:
Submitted for: Season 12

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Untitled (Egyptology)

by: Lewis Greifer
Episodes: 4
Submitted for: Season 12

Story: The Doctor attends the International Emergency Conference on Food Reserves with his friend Professor Fawzi who, along with the Scots agronomist Dr Robertson, has developed a grain which will be launched and grown on the surface of the Moon to solve Earth’s food problems for the next millenium. Mrs Smythe, the wife of the British Museum’s Director of Antiquities, calls the Doctor away to examine her husband; Smythe was bitten by a scorpion which emerged from a sarcophagus newly arrived from Egypt, and is half-mad with fear, gibbering about Sebek, a rocket and the Book of the Dead. The sarcophagus is opened, but instead of containing a mummified prince dead some 4,00 years, inside is a mummy with the head of a crocodile, the form taken by the Egyptian god Sebek, the first lieutenant of the evil Seth and enemy of Osiris, Isis, Horus and Anubis. Another form of Sebek is the scorpion. As the Doctor leaves to consult the Book of the Dead, the crocodile-headed form’s eyes illuminate. Reading that “The eye of Horus gives me eternal life”, the Doctor takes a trip in the TARDIS to visit a High Priest of the Egyptian First Dynasty, and learns that Seth, Sebek and some 74 followers killed Osiris, only to be dispersed by Osiris’ son, Horus, and Isis. Meanwhile, at the British Museum, the mummies appear to be wearing eye amulets; these vanish before the Head of Department can arrive, but a seventh mummy is now present. When the Director examines it, a bandage unwraps from the mummy and strangles him. The Doctor explains his theory to his companion Sarah and the Brigadier. Egyptian mythology is based on extraterrestrial visits to ancient Egypt; there was a war between a civilizing mission led by Horus/Osiris and a destructive mission led by Seth/Sebek. Possession of the eye gave enormous power, and using ‘pyramid power’, the aliens could lie in suspended animation for millenia. The Director’s body is discovered, and the question why Seth is now returning is posed. Meanwhile, Fawzi is working late in his office when he is bitten by a scorpion…

Fawzi is found half-mad, tracing out a shape which Robertson says is the basis of their food formula. Robertson insists that the work must be completed for the processing plant; the Moon rocket will launch in days. Fearing that Sebek aims to stop the mission, the Doctor urges Robertson to complete Fawzi’s work in isolation. Heading for the mummy room at the Museum, the Doctor’s party find their way blocked by an invisible force of telepathic power. The Brigadier advocates blowing up the room – although Sarah finds another way in and prevents the detonation, showing that Sebek and the mummies have gone. Robertson completes the formula and sends it to the Director of the processing plant; the Doctor’s party arrive to find him triumphant, but after they have departed, Robertson returns to his study to find Sebek there…

The Brigadier does not understand what has happened, and when the mummy room is found to be back to normal, it seems as if everything was a dream. The Doctor decides to check with Robertson, who, after celebrating with his wife, finds himself beset by terrifying visions of half-man/half-animal creatures from Egyptian mythology. Robertson is driven mad. The Doctor insists on getting to the processing plant where the Director says everything is proceeding to schedule, but denies them entrance – ordering security guards to kill the Doctor and his party on sight if necessary. Struggling with the Director, the Doctor reveals a scorpion bite on his sleeve, but he and his companion are arrested. However, the Director allows the Doctor to summon the Brigadier before arranging for transportation of the food seedlings to the Moon shot launch pad. The technicians in the workshop seem to be working normally, but then an Ibis goddess apeears alongside the Doctor, freeing him and Sarah so they can investigate; the technicians are actually working under the control of silent mummies, and they also find the green-faced mummified body of the Brigadier. The Doctor and Sarah are too late to prevent the grain being taken to the launch pad, but the Doctor has a handful analyzed by a soil biologist who reveals that it is a nutrient/organism which will erode the Moon and so destroy the life cycle of the Earth. They hear on TV that the Moon Probe has just been launched…

Rocket Control has no influence over the Moon Probe. The Doctor and Sarah return to the mummy room at the Museum where Sebek and the mummies are encased in plastic pyramids lying North to South; they control the rocket and the pyramids are impervious. Rather than blow up the entire museum, the Doctor consults the Book of the Dead again, which reveals that the central control must be Seth himself. The TARDIS returns to ancient Egypt where the High Priest’s riddle takes them to the labyrinth of the pyramid at Cheops. On arriving there, the Doctor and Sarah are guided by a blind man with a dog who warns them about the lance of Seth, which will paralyze them into immobility. Lost in the maze, the dog’s barking leads them to a welcoming Seth, who is armed with his lance and the Eye of Horus. The Doctor and Sarah are frozen by the lance, and they see themselves, mummified and green-faced. Seth is then attacked by the dog, dropping the Eye which the Doctor, released from immobility, grabs. The Eye makes Seth disappear; Isis and Horus appear and the Doctor hands over the Eye to Horus, who looks up and appeals to Osiris. The Moon probe explodes. The Doctor and Sarah visit the Museum mummy room which is back to normal; the Doctor explains that he resisted the lance by thinking of rice pudding (“I didn’t know you liked rice pudding, Doctor” – “I don’t. I hate it”). Sarah is sorry about the dog which died, but the Doctor shows her a picture of the god Anubis – the dog’s head is the same. As Sarah remarks that the dog must be immortal, the Doctor says he doesn’t believe in demonology and throws a stick at a dog… the one from the pyramid.

Notes: Approached by script editor Robert Holmes to write a story set around Egyptian mythology, Lewis Greifer submitted the above, untitled storyline. It referred to the Doctor throughout as “Dr Who” and his companion as “Jane” – apparently a name he chose. It was with revisions and suggestions by Holmes that a storyline entitled ‘Pyramids Of Mars’ was developed. The scripts went through rewrites, but several factors (including Greifer’s ill-health and move to Tel Aviv) led to the story being abandoned and a hasty replacement written by Holmes himself.

Fires of the Starmind

by: Marc Platt
Episodes:
Submitted for: Season 13

Story: The Doctor, Sarah and Harry land on the Doctor’s home planet of Gallifrey, which is under attack from a sentient star. The star wants to take over the planet by manifesting itself in the Time Lords’ libraries, which are stored on light particles.

Notes: Marc Platt submitted this storyline towards the end of Season 13, not knowing that script editor Robert Holmes was already planning a Gallifrey storyline. Holmes commented that, of the hundreds of unsolicited manuscripts he had received, it was the first of any merit whatsoever.

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The Beasts of Manzic

by: Robin Smith
Episodes:
Submitted for: Season 13

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The Angarath

by: Eric Pringle
Episodes: 4
Submitted for: Season 13

Story: Revolved around sentient Rocks people who worshipped them as Gods.

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The Menday Fault

by: David Whiltshire
Episodes: 6
Submitted for: Season 13

Story: The Doctor and Sarah are aboard the experimental nuclear submarine Thor to observe its attempt to break the world undersea depth record – which Thor quickly passes when it dives into the 20,000ft deep ‘Fault of Menday’, situated in the Bermuda Triangle. As the hull begins to react adversely to the pressure, the Commander orders the submarine to surface – but the vessel continues to descend before the pressure suddenly decreases. The crew become weightless before a jolt sends them tumbling to the floor. The depth gauge reads 30,000ft. Footsteps are heard on the hull and the outer hatch begins to open…

A creature enters through the hatch, subduing resistance by using a pressure weapon to squeeze several crewmembers to a pulp. The Doctor theorizes that the submarine has penetrated an inner world within the Earth itself. The creature orders the crew to disembark, and they emerge into a world of blue grass, white trees and towering red buildings. Light radiates from a ‘sun’ of green incandescent gas. The Doctor is thrown into prison with the others. He is horrified by the threat posed by the Polaris missiles aboard the submarine; the underworlders’ sun is dying and they plan to use the missiles in an invasion against the surface world!

The Doctor and the Commander are taken from their cell to a large palace and introduced to Zorr, the leader of the Suranians – who demands information about the surface world. A water tank is revealed. Inside is Sarah, water swirling around her ankles. If the Doctor and the Commander don’t co-operate, the water level will rise. Another tank is revealed. The water is somewhat higher and a horrifying creature, identified as a Trelw, is swimming inside. Zorr reveals that the Trelws are an aquatic race conquered by the Suranians and used in their experiments. These creatures have previously been sent to the surface world to test the possibilities for survival, and have given rise to certain Earth legends. Trewls are both poisonous and carnivorous – a fact which Zorr demonstrates by throwing a scrap of food into the tank, which the creature leaps upon. Within three-and-a-half hours the water levels in Sarah’s and the Trewl’s tank will coincide and the creature will be released. The Doctor and the Commander are forced to tell the Suranians about the surface world. Whilst the Doctor attempts to explain Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, the Commander gives a guided tour of the submarine. Secretly, he sets a timing device on the nuclear warheads. Back in the cell, the Commander tells the Doctor what he has done. The Doctor is horrified. The explosion will expand the gases of the Suranian sun, destroying the Earth. Stunned, the Commander says that the warheads will detonate in one hour…

The Doctor demands to see Zorr. He escapes from his two escorts by tying their tails together, then makes his way through the streets to the submarine. He finds it guarded so swims to the hull. As he pulls himself up from the water, a hideous shark creature snaps at his heels. With only moments to spare, the Doctor deactivates the firing mechanism, but he is captured by guards and taken to Zorr, who orders the Doctor to be taken to the museum. He is joined by the Commander and Sarah in a long gallery containing various human figures on display in different historical dress. These are not waxworks but the past victims of the Bermuda Triangle – turned into display objects by the Suranians. Despite pleas from the Doctor and his companions, two crewmen are brought in and frozen by a hypodermic injection. As an incentive, Zorr warns that the same thing will happen to one crewman per day if the humans don’t co-operate. In the cell, the Doctor considers the possibility of escape. He hatches a plan to blast through the energy barrier between the surface and the Suranian world using the nuclear torpedoes. First, he says Sarah must trust him with another plan. The Doctor and Sarah are taken to the palace and Sarah is returned to her glass tank. Zorr is angered by the Doctor’s lack of co-operation, and the gate between Sarah’s and the Trelw’s tank is raised. The creature rushes forward with a ghastly roar…

Sarah faints and the Trelw picks her up, but does not harm her. The Suranians are amazed and in the confusion, the Doctor releases Sarah and her rescuer. They escape down a side tunnel. Realizing that the Trelws are the basis for the surface world’s stories of mermen, the Doctor had realized that Sarah would be safe and had told her so in prison. The Trelw says he is called Nephus, one-time leader of the erebus. He claims that his people are being mentally controlled by a Suranian machine, which the Doctor deduces is a transmitter sending its power through the weapons that the Suranians carry. The Doctor and Sarah break into the transmitter room and sabotage it. Guards burst in and drag them away to Zorr, who has decided that they are a threat. Two syringes of freezing liquid are produced, and the Suranians move towards their captives…

Thanks to the Doctor’s tampering, the transmitter room explodes. A Suranian inadvertently stabs himself with his own needle and, in the confusion, the Doctor and Sarah escape. They release the captured submarine crew and race toward the docks. In the grand hall of the palace they are surrounded by guards. Nephus and a score of his people burst in and overcome the Suranians. In the ensuing battle, Nephus kills Zorr. Later, at the dock, Nephus and the Doctor say goodbye. After promising to return, the Doctor boards the submarine and it finally sets sail. Quickly he calculates the figures needed to break through the energy barrier. The nuclear torpedoes fire and the ship is suddenly through, rising quickly to the surface. Everyone is overjoyed. Later the Doctor confides to Sarah that he is troubled – this is not the last they’ll see of the Suranians…

Notes: This was submitted on-spec by full time butcher Wiltshire after he read about disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle, and decided to write a Doctor Who story around the subject. No further development was taken, and his letter from the production office simply stated that ‘all the available slots have been filled’

The Gaslight Murders

by: Basil Dawson
Episodes:
Submitted for: Season 14

Story: Travelling alone, the Doctor lands in Victorian London and becomes involved in a gruesome murder plot. He befriends a young Cockney woman and at the end of the story she joins him in the TARDIS.

Notes: As a replacement for Sarah Jane Smith, producer Philip Hinchcliffe and script editor Robert Holmes devised an Eliza Doolittle-like character companion for the Doctor. Holmes wanted to do a Fu-Manchu pastiche, but was tied up on The Deadly Assassin. Veteran comedy writer Basil Dawson was approached, but his story fell through at an early stage. The companion character was developed (as Leela) in The Face Of Evil, which was pulled forward to replace it, and Holmes wrote the Fu Manchu pastiche in The Talons Of Weng-Chiang.

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The Lost Legion

by: Douglas Camfield
Episodes: 4
Companions: Sarah Jane Smith
Submitted for: Season 14

Story: A desert Foreign Legion outpost becomes the final battleground of an epic war between two rival alien races, the Skarkel and the Khoorians. In a terrible fight the two opposing sides completely annihilate each other. However, a Khoorian in it's dying moments uses it's last of strength to blast Sarah Jane, who dies the arms of a distraught Doctor. Hearing that the fighting has stopped, the legionnaires finally emerge from their hiding places where they find the body of Sarah Jane atop a burning funeral pyre as the TARDIS dematerialises before them.

Notes: Proposed by Camfield during his time directing 'The Seeds of Doom', this story was a homage to the 1939 film 'Beau Geste'. Robert Holmes was unsure about the project, but producer Philip Hinchcliffe pushed it through with the proviso that Camfield would also direct the serial. When the script for Part One arrived, Holmes’ reservations increased and he prepared a possible replacement in a heavily revised version of 'The Hand Of Fear' which had been planned for later in the season. Camfield’s scripts for Parts Two and Three were delivered over a month late, by which time it had been dropped.

Interestingly, following Camfield’s death in 1984, some thought was given to filming the story, but nothing came of the idea.

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Untitled (Time Lords)

by Robert Holmes
Episodes: 6
Companions: Leela
Submitted for: Season 15

Story: Involved the Time Lords.

Notes: Producer Graham Williams asked departing script editor Robert Holmes to craft a six part sequel to ‘The Deadly Assassin’ to close Season Fifteen. Robert Holmes declined the offer, wanting a break from the show and the brief was handed to one of incoming script editor Anthony Read’s colleagues, David Weir, who came up with 'Killers in the Dark'.

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Killers in the Dark (or The Killer Cats of Gen-Singh)

by: David Weir
Episodes: 6
Companions: Leela
Submitted for: Season 15

Story: Alien cat people with links to Gallifrey battle the Doctor

Notes: Intended as a sequel to The Deadly Assassin, script editor Anthony Read commissioned fellow ‘Troubleshooters’ writer David Weir. Weir came up with a storyline which featured a race of cat-people. The production team were sufficiently confident to have costume designer Dee Robson prepare sketches of the costumes for the male and female cat-people. Problems began when Weir started to deliver the scripts, very late, and they were pronounced unworkable, featuring ‘crowd scenes in Wembley Stadium, 96,000 human shaped cat-people.’ With only days until the director was due to join, Read and producer Graham Williams devised an alternate story, using an idea which they had intended for the following season, and so was born ‘The Invasion Of Time'.

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Doctor Who and the Krikketmen

by: Douglas Adams
Episodes: Season16
Companions: Sarah
Submitted for: Season 16

Story: The Doctor and Sarah have to attempt to stop the release of the deadly Krikkettmen, who's planet has been held in stasis by a wickett gate. Only by finding and destroying the wickett key can they ensure the safety of the universe.

Notes: Douglas Adams originally submitted this idea as a movie pitch to the Doctor Who office. It was rejected, however Phillip Hinchcliffe was impressed enough to offer Adams a submit another idea, which became 'The Pirate Planet'. The ideas in this script would later form part of the third Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy series ;Life the Universe and Everything'. Similarly, elements of the dropped serial 'Shada' formed part of 'Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency'. Anyone who claims that Douglas Adams managed to scrape a whole career out of one to two ideas would be a liar, obviously.

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The Doppelgangers(or The Shield of Zarak)

by: Ted Lewis
Episodes: 6
Companions: Leela
Submitted for: Season 16

Story: About an old style hero who is not as heroic as his reputation makes out

Notes: Ted Lewis was unable to complete the scripts for this story due to personal and health problems. It was replaced by 'The Stones of Blood'.

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The Doomsday Contract

By: John Lloyd
Episodes: 4
Submitted for: Season 16

Story: On the beautiful beaches of Cimmerian II The Doctor, K9 and Romana are taking a well deserved holiday. While they sunbathe The Doctor tells Romana about the mythical Spondilas chamber, a legendary machine that can disassemble any object to it's fundamental parts and reassemble it into any other object. Fascinated, Romana urges The Doctor to continue however K9 reminds the Doctor that he has an appointment just before a voice in The Doctor's head informs him that he is required to attend an intergalactic tribunal.

Meanwhile, far away at the tribunal a fierce courtroom battle is taking place between the Plenium Trust and the Cosmegalon Incorporated group of companies over possession of planet C2456378DCD/42K.

The Doctor arrives at the tribunal and asks the desk clerk what the case he has been asked to attend is about. The clerk informs him that two massive corporations are fighting over ownership of planet C2456378DCD/42K. The Doctor is startled and explains that C2456378DCD/42K is the galactic code for the planet Earth. Alarmed, the Doctor bursts into the chamber just as Marmaduke Quilt QC is apologising for the non appearance of his prime witness. On seeing the Doctor the judge grants the court a recess. during the recess the doctor meets Smilax VP of the Plenium Trust Corp. Smilax explains that the earth was the last known testing ground for the Spondilas chamber and that they think it may have been left there. The Spondilas chamber was created by the Plenium Trust Corp, but Cosmegalon bought the planet and everything on it for scrap, Plenium disputed the ownership so it went to court. Happily, due to an enstoppment action neither party was allowed access to the Earth until the end of the trial, however this was several thousand years ago and the trial is still ongoing. On his way back to the court a member of Cosmegalon attempts to bribe The Doctor, but he refuses to take the cash.

When the trial resumes The Doctor points out that the sale was illegal since an inhabited planet cannot be sold. The defence objects, claiming that there is no intelligent life on the Earth and the judge decides to give the Doctor 4 Cubitons to prove the existence of intelligent life on the disputed planet.

The Doctor and Romana leave the courtroom and head for the TARDIS. As they dematerialize the Doctor realises that they are being followed. Examining the console he locates the ship that is following them and identifies it as belonging to the Children of Pixis, small faceless creatures. The Doctor initiates evasive maneuvers and lands on the Earth.

Looking around them, they find that they have arrived in medieval Yorkshire. The Doctor figures the best place to find a reasonably intelligent person in this time period would be in a monastery. Romana sees small child and catches up with it to ask for directions to the monastery, however when the child turns around she realises that it is in fact one of the Children of Pyxis. The child immobilises her with an ultra high sonic scream and two other children appear and take her back to the ship.

The Doctor soon realises that Romana has been captured by the children and starts searching for her, but overhead he hears the incongruous sound of a 20th century helicopter. Looking up he sees it come to land in between two houses. He goes to the landing spot but instead of finding a helicopter he finds a small Fiat car in its place. The Fiat then transforms into a bulldozer and starts towards them. One of the children peeks out of the vehicle and points a small tube in their direction. The building beside them then explodes and the Doctor and K9 flee with the bulldozer in hot pursuit. Wherever they turn it seems the Children can anticipate where they are going no matter how well they are hidden. The Doctor realises that the reason the children are always able to find them is that because they are blind they have supersensitive hearing, so sensitive in fact that they can hear the crackling of the electrical signals going though the Doctor's brain, in effect they can hear the Doctors's thoughts.

The run to an outhouse to hide and give the Doctor time to think. Soon enough the bulldozer arrives and turns itself into a crane complete with wrecking ball. The ball makes a swing for the building that houses the Doctor and K9 but suddenly the engine stops. The Doctor peeks out the door to see Romana jumping out of the cab. She tells them that he too realised that the children were hearing their thoughts simply started thinking that they should switch off the engine. However, a figure emerges from the shadows, Smilax and his associate. It transpires that he was able to immobilize the vehicle and the children with a special device. Realising that time is running out to find a witness to prove that there is intelligent life on earth they quickly grab the first person they can find, a lowly guard, and bundle him into the TARDIS. Before they are able to take off the guard explodes . The Doctor realises that the children are after them again an quickly erects a force field to protect them from a similar fate. The Doctor is dismayed that they have lost their prime witness and time has run out and they must return to the court.

They arrive just as proceedings are recommencing and the judge asks them to present their evidence of intelligent life. The Doctor offers them his scarf which had been knitted by an earth woman but the judge refuses to accept it. The Doctor stalls and stalls until the judge's patience wears thin and stops him, concluding that The Doctor has failed to produce the required evidence and therefore rules in favour of Cosmegalon.

With a smile the VP of Cosmegalon asks for the time/space co-ordinates of the earth. The Doctor quite happily hands them over and suggests that since the Earth isn't inhabited by any intelligent life they could save money by only sending a scout ship to pick up the Spondilas Chamber. The VP thanks him for his advice. Romana is disgusted that the Doctor handed over the co-ordinates so easily, but the Doctor insists that the Earth can look after itself.

Over the Yorkshire moors The VP of Cosmegalon swoops down to land in his scout ship, eager to find the Spondilas Chamber, but The Doctor has given him the co-ordinates to Flyingdale Missile Base in the 20th century. The missile base quickly detects the UFO and goes on full alert, scrambling their harriers to intercept. Just before he and his ship are blown to smithereens the VP marvels at the fact that there was intelligent life on the planet after all.

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The Tearing of the Veil

By: Alan Dury
Episodes:
Submitted for: Season 17

Story: The Doctor and Romana find themselves at a vicarage in the Victorian era where a charlatan posing as a medium is about to perform a seance. Somehow during the ceremony the medium summons an evil force which channels itself into a daemon doll that is used by the medium as a prop. The Doctor loses most of his life force and dazed, wanders around in a nightgown. A poltergeist attacks K9, tearing him to pieces.

Notes:
This storyline was given the green light while Douglas Adams was script editing the show. By the time two of the episodes had been written Chris Bidmead had taken the helm. Since Chris wanted to steer the show in a more hard science based direction The Tearing of the Veil no longer fitted and was dropped.

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Child Prodigy

By: Alistair Beaton and Sarah Dunant
Episodes: 4
Companion: Romana
Submitted for: Season 17

Story: Unknown

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Dragons of Fear (or Erinella)

By: Pennant Roberts
Episodes: 4
Companion: Romana
Submitted for: Season 17

Story:The TARDIS arrives on a beach on the green world of Erinella (a Celtic pun meaning 'Perhaps Island') where the sky changes colour instead of night falling - days are known as whites and nights are known as blues by the natives who speak in literally translated Welsh, giving them unusual speech patterns. Their names are derrived from colloquuial Welsh phrases.

The Doctor, Romana and K9 leave the TARDIS and head into the forests and encounter a charcoal burner. The burner recognizes the Doctor and leads him to the nearby castle where the guards also recognize the Doctor and capture him. He is taken to a dungeon where he learns he has been imprisoned for the murder of the owner of the castle, and despite his protests he has never been to this planet before, everyone seems to know who he is.

Romana and K9 head back for the TARDIS when they encounter a medieval dragon which turns out to be friendly and leads them away from the guards to meet its bear-like keeper Og (Ogarth is his full name). Og reveals that the Dragons are timid but if someone is scared of them, they become so emboldened they increase dramatically in size. As Og is not afraid of the Dragon, it keeps them very small.

In the dungeon, the Doctor is met by the Errinellan Queen. She knows that the Doctor is innocent but want him to take the blame - she is the one responsible for the death of the local lord, having got his warring brother to poison the lord's wine. The Queen conducted a long-term affair by correspondence with the brother and now she intends to kill this brother, blame the Doctor, execute him and then she will rule all of the island now the territorial wars are over.

The Doctor realizes that when he materialized recklessly at the start of the story he misoperated the time mechanism and arrived AFTER he should have. The Queen offers the Doctor one last feast before his death, and the Doctor realizes the Queen will poison the remaining brother at the feast and blame him. He is also startled to learn that 'Doctor' is now a curse word.

Romana learns some of the situation from Og and convinces him to help her rescue the Doctor. The Dragons advance on the castle as the feast begins and the Queen mentions to the Doctor she knows their secret because she met Og Arth. "Oh, you mean that cockney painter," the Doctor jokes. And then escapes back to the TARDIS in the confusion and travels back in time and emerges to try and foil the Queen's plot as the two brothers are arguing over the affections of a princess, meeting all the characters for the first time. The cliffhanger to part three is the same as part one, this time told from the point of view of the natives rather than the Doctor.

In the future, Romana's rebellion runs aground as the Queen warns the soldiers not to fear the Dragons. The Doctor finally meets up with Romana and Og and together they realize the Dragons can divide like amoeba if driven on through shouts and insults. The dragons swell up and divide into two smaller dragons. With sheer force of numbers, the Queen's forces are defeated and the Doctor arranges for the Queen to unintentionally confess. The final scene features the TARDIS crew finally saying hello to everyone as they leave in the time machine.

The TARDIS arrives on a beach on the green world of Errinella (a Celtic pun meaning 'Perhaps Island') where the sky changes colour instead of night falling - days are known as whites and nights are known as blues by the natives who speak in literally translated Welsh, giving them unusual speech patterns. Their names are derrived from colloquuial Welsh phrases.

The Doctor, Romana and K9 leave the TARDIS and head into the forests and encounter a charcoal burner. The burner recognizes the Doctor and leads him to the nearby castle where the guards also recognize the Doctor and capture him. He is taken to a dungeon where he learns he has been imprisoned for the murder of the owner of the castle, and despite his protests he has never been to this planet before, everyone seems to know who he is.

Romana and K9 head back for the TARDIS when they encounter a medieval dragon which turns out to be friendly and leads them away from the guards to meet its bear-like keeper Og (Ogarth is his full name). Og reveals that the Dragons are timid but if someone is scared of them, they become so emboldened they increase dramatically in size. As Og is not afraid of the Dragon, it keeps them very small.

In the dungeon, the Doctor is met by the Errinellan Queen. She knows that the Doctor is innocent but want him to take the blame - she is the one responsible for the death of the local lord, having got his warring brother to poison the lord's wine. The Queen conducted a long-term affair by correspondence with the brother and now she intends to kill this brother, blame the Doctor, execute him and then she will rule all of the island now the territorial wars are over.

The Doctor realizes that when he materialized recklessly at the start of the story he misoperated the time mechanism and arrived AFTER he should have. The Queen offers the Doctor one last feast before his death, and the Doctor realizes the Queen will poison the remaining brother at the feast and blame him. He is also startled to learn that 'Doctor' is now a curse word.

Romana learns some of the situation from Og and convinces him to help her rescue the Doctor. The Dragons advance on the castle as the feast begins and the Queen mentions to the Doctor she knows their secret because she met Og Arth. "Oh, you mean that cockney painter," the Doctor jokes. And then escapes back to the TARDIS in the confusion and travels back in time and emerges to try and foil the Queen's plot as the two brothers are arguing over the affections of a princess, meeting all the characters for the first time. The cliffhanger to part three is the same as part one, this time told from the point of view of the natives rather than the Doctor.

In the future, Romana's rebellion runs aground as the Queen warns the soldiers not to fear the Dragons. The Doctor finally meets up with Romana and Og and together they realize the Dragons can divide like amoeba if driven on through shouts and insults. The dragons swell up and divide into two smaller dragons. With sheer force of numbers, the Queen's forces are defeated and the Doctor arranges for the Queen to unintentionally confess. The final scene features the TARDIS crew finally saying hello to everyone as they leave in the time machine.

Notes: Director Pennant Roberts submitted a storyline soon after completing work on The Pirate Planet. Producer Graham Williams was enthusiastic about the idea, but the scripts, which would have needed a great deal of special effects, including Colour Separation Overlay (CSO) to avoid the need for filming at night and also for the shrinking/growing process, proved too expensive to realize in the slot it was intended for and it was replaced by The Horns Of Nimon. Incoming producer John Nathan-Turner recommissioned it for Season 18, but script editor Christopher Bidmead felt that too much work would need doing to fit the new direction the show was taking, and the project was shelved.

Untitled (Retirement)

By: Douglas Adams
Episodes: 2
Companion: Romana
Submitted for: Season 17

Story: The Doctor’s mood swings finally get the better of him and he goes into self-imposed retirement, having grown sick and tired of having to save the universe every day of his life.

Notes: Having already decided to leave at the end of the season, Douglas Adams submitted this story idea. Graham Williams dismissed it, feeling that it went against everything the show stood for and made the Doctor an anti-hero. Adams persisted with the notion until very late in the day, when he was forced to come up with an alternative in Shada (the character of Professor Chronotis could almost be a replacement for the Doctor). In the early Nineties, Mark Gatiss had the Seventh Doctor in a similar self-imposed retirement at the beginning of his Virgin New Adventure, Nightshade.

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Into the Comet

By: James Follett
Episodes: 4
Companion: Romana
Submitted for: Season 17

Story: The TARDIS crew land on a comet whose inhabitants believe that their world is the sum and total of the universe.

Notes: Novelist James Follett met up with script editor Douglas Adams, and they discussed the forthcoming return of Halley’s Comet. Unfortunately, the resulting storyline was not taken up. He later reworked it and submitted it again to Christopher Bidmead around May/June 1980, with the same result.

Sealed Orders

by: Christopher Priest
Episodes: 4
Submitted for: Season 18

Story: A complex story featuring a time paradox, and lots of hopping back and forth in time, leading to multiple TARDISes and a spare Doctor, one of whom was killed. It would also have seen Romana leaving.

Notes: Science fiction novelist Christopher Priest was approached first by Douglas Adams and then Christopher Bidmead to write for the show. Despite misgivings, he came up with a story, and was commissioned to provide scripts. At some point, the brief changed (possibly following the decision not to reintroduce Leela, as Louise Jameson had originally agreed to bridge the gap between seasons), and so the story was deemed unusuable and dropped.
It had been rumoured that the Sealed Orders of the title were given to the Doctor to kill Romana, but this was denied by script editor Bidmead in a DWM interview.

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The Psychonauts

By: David Fisher
Episodes:
Submitted for: Season 18

Story: The Nephilim are creatures from outer space who can time travel, using sarcophagi-like 'sleep chambers'. The Doctor must prevent them from crossing into our universe.

Notes: This was one of two story ideas that David Fisher submitted for Season 18; the other, 'Avalon', became The Leisure Hive.

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Untitled (Doctor Who meets Tom Baker?)

By: John Brosnan
Submitted for: Season 18

Story: The Doctor lands outside BBC Television Centre in a parallel world where he meets Tom Baker playing himself, the actor that plays the Doctor in the television series. They team up in order to defeat and unknown alien threat.

Notes: Keen to bring different types of stories to Doctor Who, Douglas Adams started looking further afield for potential writers, including attended a science convention. As a result, Starburst magazine’s movie critic John Brosnan pitched this fourth wall busting notion. Understandably it was never pursued and is included here only because I think it would have been brilliant.

The Lost Valley

By: Phillip Hinchcliffe
Companion: Romana
Submitted for: Season 19

Story: The Doctor decides to show Romana the sights in London, and she enjoys being a ‘tourist’. He also decides to look up some old friends and is persuaded by one of them to give a talk on the lesser known Brazilian ragwort. The Doctor good-naturedly agrees, only to find the lecture is to take place in South America! Amused for once by the notion of old-fashioned transportation, the Doctor duly flies out with Romana.

In flight, the aircraft starts behaving oddly, and crashlands deep in the Brazilian jungle. All radio equipment is destroyed. The Doctor sees to the survivors, then leaves Romana in charge and sets off forn help. He is watched by ‘eyes’ in the jungle.

The Doctor is captured by a group of natives, and is taken to a camp where he meets a Victorian explorer. The Doctor recognizes him as Professor Perkins, who was lost in the Brazilian jungle in 1873 – the Doctor has been captured by the Professor’s scouts. Perkins explains something of his expedition (omitting all mention of gold) and grows deeply suspicious of the Doctor, who seems to know more than he should. He decides to keep the Doctor captive. The Doctor realizes that someone is meddling with time!

Back at the aircraft, Romana and the others are attacked with blow darts by a different set of natives – wild, farouche, frightening. They are captured and led away.

From talking to the native bearers, the Doctor learns of the city of gold and of other unspeakables, including a strange skull that the Professor has in his possession. The expedition comes across a large rusting wreckage. Only the Doctor realizes that it is an aircraft.

Romana and the others are taken to a part of the hidden city. Romana notices some artefacts from a Luron scout ship which is not ‘of Earth’. Her captors talk about submitting her to the judgement of their God. She is led before a giant facemask. It speaks in a terrifying voice and she sees the ‘yellow eyes’. They are clearly alien!

The alien, Godrin, realizes that Romana is ‘different’ from the others. He is told of the crashed aircraft from the sky and begins to see a means of accomplishing his mission and reaching civilization.

The Professor is determined at all costs to get his hands on the Maygor gold, even if it means murdering the Doctor. First, however, he will use the Doctor’s cleverness to find the city. This happens and he makes some kind of deal with Godrin, whereby the Professor gets the gold and Godrin has the dangerous Doctor delivered into his hands.

The Doctor and Godrin finally confront one another, but not before Godrin disposes of the mercenary Professor. All is suspiciously ‘sweetness and light’. The Doctor realizes that Godrin is a risk to Earth, but is not sure how. As yet, he has no proof of other Lurons, because Godrin plays things close to his chest. Godrin tells the Doctor that all he wants is a lift to London. With the help of booster equipment from Godrin’s scout ship, they will be able to repair and ‘jump start’ such a simple piece of machinery as an Earth airliner.

This they do, but the Doctor is worried. Why does Godrin wish to go to London? Is Godrin the only Luron?

Back in 1979, the lost jet miraculously reappears in British airspace and radio contact is restored. The Doctor mentions their strange extra passenger. The jet touches down and Godrin cleverly slips off the plane. Via Jodrell Bank, he signals to the millions of Lurons who have been waiting at the edge of the Solar System for the all clear.

Entering Earth’s time zone for the first time, the gigantic Luron spaceship appears in the heavens and terrifies the world. A mile long, it hovers over Windsor Great Park and blots out the sun. A ferry ship is sent down. Statesmen and Chiefs of Staff are ordered aboard to talk. All seems friendly. The Lurons explain how they were forced to leave their home planet because of destructive solar winds, and how all they want is a compatible planet on which to live in peaceful harmony.

The statesmen and militia return to earth. While on board, one of them has secretly been duplicated, and now he quietly starts ordering the defence air forces to stand down. Also, despite a promise to the contrary, Luron ferry ships land contingents of Luron infiltrators in London and they start to take over key positions.

The Doctor is not idle during all of this. He twigs to the Lurons’ plan and, by trickery, he and Romana gain access to the Luron motheship. There they demand a Very Important Piece of Equipment at the heart of the great vessel. This is the Luron equivalent of an atomic submarine’s nuclear reactor, the source not only of all electrical power, but also the Luron ‘life force’. It is their ‘Sun’ in miniature, which they simulated and brought with them – without it they will all die. Their mothership will always hover in Earth’s sky because to remove it would be to destroy their habitat (including their own time-field). If it remains however, the solar rays it relies on will destroy mankind in a matter of months!

Singelhandedly, the Doctor deals with the danger, risking his own life as he penetrates the artificial Sun. He solves the problem by incapacitating the 'Sun’ for a while so that, whilst some Lurons die, the rest agree to leave Earth in peace and find another planet. This he only manages at the last moment, when the danger to his own life is at its greatest.

Notes: Williams thought that this serial would be to expensive to produce, so the script was abandoned.

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Doctor Who Meets Scratchman

by: Tom Baker and Ian Marter
Submitted for: Screenplay for a movie

Story: A new fertilizer being used on Earth causes terrible effects and scarecrows become animated. They are able to reproduce and go on the rampage, raiding stores and using their sticks as weapons. Then the Cybermen appear from the sea.
The villain of the piece is Scratchman (an old name for the Devil), who is controlling things from out in space and just wants to make trouble.
The finale takes place on a giant pinball table, with the Doctor and his companions trapped on it whilst Scratchman fires balls at them. The balls disappear down holes, which are gateways into other hells.

Notes: During the filming of season 12 Marter and Baker decided to try their hands at submitting a storyline for Doctor Who as they felt that some of the scripts they were getting were substandard. They submitted some ideas to the production office, but these were rejected. Still enthused, they hit upon the idea of making a film script. While on holiday in 1976 they worked out a rough script. They presented it to the British Board of film Classification which offered half the proposed budget of £500,000. James Hill was lined up to direct and Vincent Price was to star as Scratchman. Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith) was at one point considered for the role of companion, but in time actresses such as Susan George and Twiggy were also mooted. Unfortunately Baker was unable to come up with the remaining 250,000 and the idea was dropped.

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