History UnfinishedEpisode / DoctorWho

* "'''Operation Werewolf'''" by Douglas Camfield and Robert Kitts. The TARDIS lands in Normandy, France on June 1st, 1944 — five days before D-Day. The Doctor discovers that the Nazis are developing a way to teleport troops across the English Channel: the so-called “Operation Werewolf”. To stop the Nazis, the Doctor allies himself with the Resistance — including Fergus [=McCrimmon=], a descendant of Jamie's — but must first uncover the traitors within.

* "'''The Lost Legion'''" by Douglas Camfield. An isolated North African outpost of the French Foreign Legion becomes the focal point of a confrontation between the Skarkel and the Khoorians, two factions of an alien race. At the story's conclusion, the last of the aliens shoots Sarah Jane as it dies, and she expires in the Doctor's arms. The Legionnaires build a funeral pyre for Sarah, which burns as the TARDIS dematerialises.

Given its decades-long history, it should come as no surprise that ''Series/DoctorWho'' has had plenty of unmade stories. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unmade_Doctor_Who_serials_and_films A more comprehensive overview]] can be found at Wiki/{{Wikipedia}}.

* "'''The Krikkitmen'''" by Creator/DouglasAdams. Two million years ago, the inhabitants of the planet Krikkit built a race of androids called the Krikkitmen to wipe out all life in the universe. They were stopped by the Time Lords, who trapped Krikkit within a temporal prison. Now, however, a group of Krikkitmen which escaped the Time Lords' sentence are trying to reassemble the components of a key which can free Krikkit — components of which happen to resemble elements of the Earth game of cricket, itself actually a reflection of the ancient war. The Doctor and Sarah stumble upon this plot when they see the Krikkitmen steal the Ashes during a test match at Lords. They then travel to the planet Bethselamin to foil the next step in the Krikkitmen's quest. Largely recycled into Adams' third ''Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' book, ''Life, the Universe and Everything'', although a novelisation by James Goss (substituting Sarah Jane with Romana, to match Goss' earlier adaptations of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS16E2ThePiratePlanet The Pirate Planet]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E2CityOfDeath City of Death]]") was released in 2018.

* Famously, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E6Shada "Shada"]] was only partly finished due to a production strike terminating its filming, and so never aired, making it the only example in the show's history of a story that had to be abandoned midway through shooting. It later became a RecycledScript when Douglas Adams used some of the ideas and characters as the basis of ''Literature/DirkGentlysHolisticDetectiveAgency''. The episode has seen multiple adaptations: The existing footage was released with linking narration by Tom Baker by BBC Video in 1992, [=BBCi=] and Big Finish released a webcast featuring the Eighth Doctor, Romana and K9 in 2003, with an audio release later that year with additional scenes, Gareth Roberts novelised it based on the television scripts in 2012 and animation was also used to fill in the unfilmed scenes in 2017.

* "'''Genesis of the Cybermen'''" by Gerry Davis. The Doctor and his companion “Felicity” arrive on the planet Mondas, Earth's twin orbiting on the opposite side of the Sun. While the Doctor works on a piece of TARDIS equipment, Felicity encounters the gentle Prince Sylvan. Sylvan accidentally activates the TARDIS, sending him, the Doctor and Felicity fifty years into the future. There, Sylvan's brother, Dega, is now king and has used the Doctor's device to begin turning his people into Cybermen. He has constructed a space fleet with which he intends to invade the mineral-rich Earth, and plans to kill any unconverted Mondans with cyanide gas. Felicity appeals to Dega's partly-Cybernised wife, Queen Meta, and she shoots her husband dead — only to be killed by Dega's chief of staff, Krail. In the confusion, Sylvan and a band of Mondan rebels flee in the spaceships to Earth; the massive concussion of take-off knocks Mondas out of its orbit into deep space.

* "'''The Song of the Space-Whale'''", aka "'''The Space-Whale'''", by Pat Mills and John Wagner. The TARDIS is captured by Captain Greeg of the spaceship ''Orkas'' when the Doctor interferes with his attempts to hunt a massive Ghaleen — a “space whale” with the ability to travel in time. Also on the ''Orkas'' are Krakos, an alien Tuthon who wants to steal the orb which powers the Ghaleen's time travel, and Rina, who believes that a community of castaways is living in the belly of the Ghaleen, and who has stowed away aboard Greeg's vessel in the hope of rescuing them. In fact, the castaways have constructed a “raft-ship” which would permit them to escape, but their leader, Waldron, has not disclosed the fact that the device works, because he believes that by remaining within the Ghaleen, they are living a life safe from the outside universe. Krakos succeeds in seizing the orb, however, causing temporal energy — which induces “time necrosis” — to flood out of the Ghaleen. The Doctor uses the raft-ship to reverse the damage, and Krakos is killed trying to escape the Ghaleen's belly. The castaways are rescued, but Waldron has been inside the Ghaleen for so long that when he attempts to leave, he dies of time necrosis. Greeg is overthrown by his second-in-command, Stennar, and the Ghaleen is allowed to return to its pod. Mills submitted this to the production office several times, and it was variously considered for the Fourth, Fifth ''and'' Sixth Doctors; it would eventually be adapted in 2010 by Big Finish as a Sixth Doctor story with Peri, under the title "The Song of Megaptera".

* "'''The Dark Planet'''" by Brian Hayles. The TARDIS lands on the planet Numir, whose sun has been extinguished. The people of Numir have become divided into two factions: the surface-dwelling Light people and the subterranean Shadow people. The Doctor, Barbara and the TARDIS are captured by the Shadow people, but rescued by Teelss and the Light people using a powerful laser weapon. However, the time travellers discover that the Light people are fanatics who intend to launch a “sun bomb”: an artificial sun which will eradicate the Shadow people. But the Shadow people have snuck into the city by hiding in the TARDIS. Seizing control of the laser weapon, they destroy the sun bomb. The time travellers escape in the TARDIS, even as Numir is destroyed in the conflagration. Dennis Spooner feared that it hewed too closely to "The Hidden Planet". An audio adaptation was released by Big Finish Productions in 2013. The intended episode titles were:

* "'''The Nightmare Planet'''" by Dennis Spooner. Concerned a planet where the populace is unknowingly subjugated with drugs in their food and water. Misdeeds are punished with the temporary suppression of the drugs, which causes the people to see terrible monsters all around them. Robert Holmes was unhappy with the drugs element and it was dropped.

* "'''Time Inc.'''" by Robert Holmes. It is revealed that the Valeyard was in fact the Doctor's final incarnation. The finale then opened with the Master saving the Doctor from the quicksand while the Valeyard kidnapped Glitz. The Doctor encountered Popplewick again, who led him into a trap baited with an illusory Mel. Popplewick, too, was revealed as a construct of "JJ Chambers"-- who, in turn, was unmasked as the Valeyard. While news reached the courtroom of the High Council's mass resignation, the Master warned that the Valeyard had materialised his TARDIS around a time vent in the Matrix. If the vent were to be opened for too long, there would be catastrophic ramifications for the space-time continuum. The Valeyard — shown to be a pitiable old man afraid of dying-- planned to use this threat to force the Time Lords to grant him the Doctor's remaining regenerations. The Master revealed that he was hired by the High Council to murder the Doctor in exchange for a pardon, but had now decided not to follow through. The Doctor bluffed his way into the Valeyard's TARDIS just as the Valeyard opened the time vent door. Struggling, the Doctor and the Valeyard plunged into the time vent while the Master had Glitz seal the door, saving the universe but trapping the Doctor for all eternity. The story was the planned two-episode finale to the Trial. As Holmes' health failed, the script was completed by script editor Creator/EricSaward, but the ending was vetoed by producer John Nathan-Turner for both being too bleak and an invitation for the BBC to end the programme. Long-brewing acrimony between Saward and Nathan-Turner caused the former to resign and withdraw the use of the final episode, forcing Nathan-Turner to hire other writers to put together a new episode 14 at the last minute using the already secured cast and locations but with no elements of the Saward finale.

* "'''Yellow Fever and How to Cure It'''" by Robert Holmes. The Master and the Rani are in Singapore, disguised as street performers, and working with the Autons. The Doctor also runs into the Brigadier, who is on holiday. This serial did not get far enough into development before being scrapped to say that ''all'' of these elements would have made it in; had it been made, the story could have featured any or none of them. While internal BBC documentation confirms that Pip and Jane Baker gave permission to use the Rani, it's unlikely the planned location filming in Singapore would have gone ahead, as the multiple problems caused by filming in Spain for "The Two Doctors" resulted in overseas shoots being ruled out for future seasons.

* "'''Gallifrey'''" by Pip and Jane Baker. May have involved the destruction of Gallifrey.

* "'''Century House'''" by Tom [=MacRae=]. While Martha watches at home, the Doctor joins a live broadcast of ''Series/MostHaunted''. Their target is an old house purportedly haunted by the “Red Widow”. The climax would have involved the house catching fire. The episode was re-proposed for Series 4 with Donna and Sylvia being the ones watching at home, but was felt to have too many similarities with other episodes in the season, so it was replaced with "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E10Midnight Midnight]]".

* "'''The Masters of Luxor'''", originally titled "'''The Robots'''", by Anthony Coburn. The TARDIS is drawn by a signal to one of the moons of Luxor. There, they discover the world is dominated by robots led by the Perfect One. The Perfect One has been experimenting on people to discover the secret of life, and kidnaps Barbara and Susan; he plans to use them as test subjects before draining their life force. The Doctor and Ian escape to the wilderness, where they find and reawaken Tabon, the scientist who invented the Perfect One. Tabon confronts the Perfect One, sending the robots out of control. The robots kill Tabon and destroy the Perfect One while the time travellers escape in the TARDIS.
** A scriptbook was published in 1992, and an audio adaptation starring Creator/WilliamRussell and Creator/CaroleAnnFord was released by Big Finish Productions in 2012.
** The episode titles for the serial were:

* "'''Britain 408 AD'''" by Creator/MalcolmHulke. Involved the departure of the Romans from Britain around the start of the fifth century in the midst of clashes against the Celts and the Saxons, culminating with the time travellers fleeing the indigenous savages back to the safety of the TARDIS.
** Creator/DavidWhitaker asked Hulke to revise his original storyline, feeling that the plot — with its many opposing factions — was too complicated, and also that the serial's conclusion echoed that of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E1AnUnearthlyChild "An Unearthly Child"]] too closely.

* "'''Farewell Great Macedon'''" by Moris Farhi. The TARDIS materialises amidst the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, where the Doctor and his companions meet Alexander the Great. Four members of Alexander's retinue, however, are plotting to murder the king and his successors so that one of their number, Seleucus, can ascend to the throne and allow them to return to their homeland. The conspirators try to frame the time travellers, but the Doctor and Ian succeed in a series of trials and Alexander's bodyguard, Ptolemy, proves their innocence. However, history cannot be changed, and despite the Doctor's efforts to save the king's life by having Ian build an iron lung, Alexander dies while Ptolemy helps the companions escape to the TARDIS.
** The first episode would have explained the time travellers' ability to understand other languages by showing them hooked up to a computer which teaches them Ancient Greek.
** The episode titles were:

** A scriptbook was released in 2009, and an audio adaptation starring Creator/WilliamRussell and Creator/CaroleAnnFord was released by Big Finish Productions in 2010.
* "'''The Fragile Yellow Arc of Fragrance'''" by Moris Farhi. On an alien planet, a man named Rhythm woos Barbara. She is unaware, however, that her rejection of his advances mean that Rhythm is now sentenced to die. It was decided that the subject matter was unsuitable for ''Doctor Who'' and it was rejected.
** An audio adaptation was released by Big Finish Productions in 2010.
* "'''The Living Planet'''" by Alan Wakeman. The TARDIS lands on a planet whose surface is largely covered with a pattern of small, edible hexagonal structures. The travellers are attacked by flying metallic fish which also surround the TARDIS. The Doctor fears that the mysterious Palladins have finally caught up to himself and Susan (here named Suzanne), but they are saved when long stems extend out from the hexagons, spearing the animals. They realise that the fish are part of the planet's bizarre ecosystem. Drawn by a strange, maddening sound, they discover a series of holes, down which Suzanne becomes trapped. Ian ventures into a hole to rescue her, and they deduce that the entire planet is a gigantic living organism — the hexagons are like skin cells and the holes permit respiration. The planet tries to absorb the TARDIS, but its alien construction is incompatible and the planet is forced to release it, allowing the travellers to escape.
** Wakeman used ideas for the programme's backstory developed by Anthony Coburn but ultimately discarded, in which Suzanne is really an alien princess named Findooclare and she and the Doctor are being pursued by the mysterious Palladins.
** Wakeman's planned episode titles were "Airfish", "What Eats What?", "The Living Planet", and "Just in Time". The story was deemed to be too sophisticated for the intended child audience and abandoned.
** In 2005, following ''Doctor Who'''s successful return to television, Wakeman unsuccessfully offered "The Living Planet" to Russell T Davies.

* "'''The Dark Planet'''" by Brian Hayles. The TARDIS lands on the planet Numir, whose sun has been extinguished. The people of Numir have become divided into two factions: the surface-dwelling Light people and the subterranean Shadow people. The Doctor, Barbara and the TARDIS are captured by the Shadow people, but rescued by Teelss and the Light people using a powerful laser weapon. However, the time travellers discover that the Light people are fanatics who intend to launch a “sun bomb”: an artificial sun which will eradicate the Shadow people. But the Shadow people have snuck into the city by hiding in the TARDIS. Seizing control of the laser weapon, they destroy the sun bomb. The time travellers escape in the TARDIS, even as Numir is destroyed in the conflagration.
** Dennis Spooner feared that it hewed too closely to "The Hidden Planet".
** The intended episode titles were:

** An audio adaptation was released by Big Finish Productions in 2013.
* "'''The Slide'''" by Victor Pemberton. A sentient form of mud emerges from a fissure and begins to take over the minds of British townsfolk.
** Creator/DavidWhitaker rejected it, feeling that it was a "stewpot" of earlier ''Doctor Who'' science-fiction ideas with a hint of ''Franchise/{{Quatermass}}''. Pemberton later retooled it as "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E6FuryFromTheDeep Fury from the Deep]]".

* "'''The Son of Doctor Who'''" by Creator/WilliamHartnell. The Doctor encounters his evil time-travelling son, to whom he bears an uncanny physical resemblance.
** Hartnell was interested in playing characters other than the Doctor. As a mechanism for achieving this, he suggested that he could also play the Doctor's son, who would be an adversary for the Doctor. This does not appear to have been seriously pursued.

* "'''The Big Store'''" by David Ellis and Malcolm Hulke. The TARDIS lands in a department store in 1973 London. The store has been taken over by two species of aliens — one, a master race, is identified only by numbers, while the members of the faceless slave race are named with letters. The latter are being transformed into duplicates of the humans which have been abducted onto the aliens' spacecraft to maintain the charade at the store, while the unprocessed members pose as mannequins. The master aliens intend to colonise the Earth, subjugating humanity by releasing a new strain of bubonic plague. The Doctor convinces the aliens to leave the Earth in peace.
** Creator/InnesLloyd and Gerry Davis liked the story, but they decided that an airport would be a better setting, so it became "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E8TheFacelessOnes The Faceless Ones]]".
* "'''The Imps'''" by William Imms. An interplanetary passenger liner lands at a remote spaceport on Earth, bearing with it imp-like creatures who can become intangible, and alien spores. They cause an aggressive form of vegetation to spring up around the spaceport and attack the humans within.
** The story was rushed into production when it was decided that "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E5TheUnderwaterMenace The Underwater Menace]]" could not be suitably realised on the show's budget. Imms completed draft scripts and some rewrites before falling ill in November. Then it had to be rewritten to accomodate Jamie. With the writer too sick to do the necessary work, "The Underwater Menace" was resurrected in its spot in the schedule.
** Imms later used elements of the story for his Sixth Doctor choose-your-own-adventure book, ''Mission to Venus'', published in 1986.

* "'''Twin World'''" by Roger Dixon. On a planet in a binary star system, every birth produces twins who are the polar opposites of one another. The power of the ruling twins is governed by the prominence in the sky of the planet's two suns. As the Doctor arrives, the sun related to the evil twin is about to enter a prolonged period of ascendancy, and the good people of the world fear that by the time this period ends, their planet may be doomed. The Doctor saves the day with the use of a simple invention.
** This story was also proposed for Season 5.

* "'''The Aliens in the Blood'''" by Robert Holmes. In the 22nd century, the Outer Space Commission Of Control (OSCOC) controls the flow of traffic in the spacelanes. OSCOC is located on an island in the Indian Ocean, and its staff — led by Dean Thawne — are in frequent conflict with the primitive natives. The TARDIS materialises on the island in the midst of a rash of sabotage which has resulted in the loss of many Earth spaceships. Although the natives are suspected, it transpires that the culprits are actually mutant “Mark II” humans, who have infiltrated OSCOC. These mutants have gained the power of ESP but are cold and emotionless, and now intend world conquest. The Doctor defeats the mutants by constructing a device which broadcasts along their psychic wavelength and burns out their superhuman abilities.
** Creator/TerranceDicks was wary of the proposal, feeling that OSCOC bore similarities to the eponymous facility in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E7TheWheelInSpace The Wheel in Space]]". He was also concerned that Holmes' proposal that the Mark II Humans be distinguished by a physical feature like an extra-long thumb was reminiscent of the TV series ''The Invaders''.
** In 1977, Holmes adapted it into a standalone radio serial.

* "'''The Laird of [=McCrimmon=]'''" by Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln. A possessed Jamie pilots the TARDIS to 1746 Scotland and his ancestral home, Castle [=McCrimmon=]. There, he finds the current Laird, Sir James, is on his deathbed. Yeti appear and surround the castle while the local villagers fall under the influence of the Great Intelligence; the only person who seems to be immune is a girl named Fiona, with whom Jamie falls in love. The Great Intelligence wants to inhabit Jamie's body and become the Laird once Sir James dies. However, the Intelligence is defeated by the Doctor, and Jamie decides to stay behind and become Laird himself.
** This was intended to write Jamie out when it was thought that Creator/FrazerHines was leaving. It was abandoned due to a legal dispute with the writers.
* "'''The Prison in Space'''" aka "'''The Amazons'''", "'''The Female of the Species'''", "'''The Lady Killers'''", "'''The Masters of Zenos'''", "'''More Deadly Than the Male'''", "'''The Revolutionaries'''", or "'''The Strange Suffragettes'''", by Dick Sharples. The TARDIS materialises on a planet where women have ruled for the past five centuries; they have disenfranchised men, banned war, and developed a way to extend their lifespans so that procreation is no longer imperative. The Doctor and Jamie are arrested and sentenced by President Babs to a prison satellite controlled by the Dolly Guards. They quickly recruit their cellmates — Albert, Garth and Mervyn — into helping them foment a resistance movement. Meanwhile, Babs brainwashes Zoe and sends her to the satellite as an ostensible ambassador. Once there, though, Zoe betrays the Doctor and Jamie, and they and their collaborators are put on a rocket destined for a remote planet. However, prior to her conditioning, Zoe told other women about the way males and females coexist on Earth, and this incites a revolution against Babs. The newly enlightened women rescue the Doctor; Jamie frees Zoe from her brainwashing by spanking her. It has been suggested that the script's blatant misogyny was a strong factor in the decision to abandon it, since it was literally the ''only'' script they had ready to go and, unusually for the show, Sharples was an established television writer of some repute.
** An audio adaptation (starring Creator/FrazerHines and Creator/WendyPadbury) was released by Big Finish Productions in 2010, and a scriptbook was also released in 2011.
* "'''The Rosemariners'''", aka "'''The Rosicrutians'''", by Donald Tosh. The TARDIS materialises on an Earth space station, which has been virtually abandoned as a result of subterfuge by Rugosa, leader of the Rosemariners, whose spaceship, the ''Rosemarinus'', is nearby. The Rosemariners are using a venom secreted by their special roses to brainwash people. It transpires that the ''Rosemarinus'' is actually a prison ship; Rugosa was an inmate who managed to overthrow the wardens. He now plans an invasion of Earth, but the Doctor manages to inject Rugosa with the venom, thereby incapacitating him and returning control of the ''Rosemarinus'' to the wardens.
** The idea came from research Tosh was doing while planning his own rose garden, while the title was a variant of Rosicrucian, a secret religious society which flourished in the seventeenth century. Many of the character names were derived from rose-related terminology, such as Rugosa (from rosa rugosa, an oriental type of rose).
** An audio adaptation was released in 2012.

* "'''The Brain-Dead'''" by Brian Hayles. The Ice Warriors, led by Commander Kulvis, plan to invade modern-day Earth using a weapon called the "Z" beam, which is capable of freezing anything it touches to absolute zero. In particular, the Ice Warriors can use it to freeze a human brain, turning the afflicted individual into a subservient Brain-Dead. The Ice Warriors hijack a communications satellite and use it to take over the crew of its receiving station, whom they set to work constructing a giant "Z" beam transmitter. They plan to use the satellite network to broadcast the "Z" beam around the world, enslaving mankind and adjusting the Earth's climate to something suitable for Martian habitation. Realising that metals are extremely conductive at absolute zero, the Doctor overloads the "Z" beam transmitter just at the point of broadcast, destroying the Ice Warriors and the Brain-Dead.
** The inclusion of the Ice Warriors led to the creation of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS9E2TheCurseOfPeladon The Curse of Peladon]]".
* "'''The Shape of Terror'''" by Brian Hayles. A rescue team led by Commander Hallett is summoned to research station Pi Delta 6 on the planet Medusa Centaurus. Hallett arrives to find the station deserted, and his security officer, Garford, believes it has been attacked by pirates. Indeed, when the TARDIS brings the Doctor and Jo to Pi Delta 6, Garford accuses them of being associated with the pirates. In fact, the station has fallen victim to the Energid, a shapeshifting protoplasmic entity which can absorb people's brains. The Energid wishes to merge with the Doctor, but when the Energid attempts the fusion, the Doctor manages to rally the minds of those whom the Energid had previously consumed, and the creature is destroyed.
** The idea of an Creator/AgathaChristie-style mystery was attractive and was incorporated into "The Curse of Peladon".

* "'''The Final Game'''" by Robert Sloman. The Doctor and the Master are revealed to be two aspects of the same person: the Master representing the "id" (instinctual needs and desires) and the Doctor the "ego" (conscious perception of and adaptation to reality). The Master ultimately perishes in an explosion which saves the lives of the Doctor and others; it remains unclear if this was a final act of redemption on the villain's part.
** This was created in response to Creator/RogerDelgado's desire for the Master to be written out of the series because his attachment to the programme was making it difficult for him to find other work. This story only got as far as a single conversation between Sloman and Creator/BarryLetts before Delgado's untimely death. That said, given ''Doctor Who''[='s=] love of the JokerImmunity trope, it's highly unlikely that this kind of change would've stuck, especially considering the Master's popularity as a character.

* "'''Fires of the Starmind'''" by Marc Platt. Information in the Time Lord libraries is stored on photons. A sentient star uses this as a means of invading Gallifrey.
** Robert Holmes felt the story lacked action and drama, and was in need of a proper antagonist.

* "'''The Nightmare Planet'''" by Dennis Spooner. Concerned a planet where the populace is unknowingly subjugated with drugs in their food and water. Misdeeds are punished with the temporary suppression of the drugs, which causes the people to see terrible monsters all around them.
** Robert Holmes was unhappy with the drugs element and it was dropped.

* "'''Killers of the Dark'''", aka "'''The Killer Cats of Geng Singh'''",[[note]]This "alternate" title was invented by Creator/GrahamWilliams at a fan convention when he was unable to remember what the title actually was[[/note]] by David Weir. Concerned a race of cat people native to Gallifrey.
** The story was abandoned because it was far too ambitious to ever realise on the show's budget, with a scene involving a giant stadium full of cat people often cited.
* "'''The Krikkitmen'''" by Creator/DouglasAdams. Two million years ago, the inhabitants of the planet Krikkit built a race of androids called the Krikkitmen to wipe out all life in the universe. They were stopped by the Time Lords, who trapped Krikkit within a temporal prison. Now, however, a group of Krikkitmen which escaped the Time Lords' sentence are trying to reassemble the components of a key which can free Krikkit — components of which happen to resemble elements of the Earth game of cricket, itself actually a reflection of the ancient war. The Doctor and Sarah stumble upon this plot when they see the Krikkitmen steal the Ashes during a test match at Lords. They then travel to the planet Bethselamin to foil the next step in the Krikkitmen's quest.
** Largely recycled into Adams' third ''Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' book, ''Life, the Universe and Everything'', although a novelisation by James Goss (substituting Sarah Jane with Romana, to match Goss' earlier adaptations of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS16E2ThePiratePlanet The Pirate Planet]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E2CityOfDeath City of Death]]") was released in 2018.

* "'''Shield of Zarak'''", aka "'''The Doppelgangers'''" or "'''Shield of Zareg'''", by Ted Lewis. Dealt with the notion that legendary heroes might, in reality, have been the antithesis of the way history would ultimately portray them. Apparently, the specific example planned was to have the Doctor and Romana encounter Myth/RobinHood in their search for the fourth segment of the Key to Time, only to discover that the alleged hero was actually a blackhearted villain.
** Lewis was unfamiliar with ''Doctor Who'' and it was clear that the scripts needed work. He had also begun a descent into alcoholism amidst marital difficulties, and was drunk when he met with Creator/GrahamWilliams and Anthony Read to discuss the script.

* "'''The Doomsday Contract'''", aka "'''Shylock'''", by John Lloyd. While vacationing on Cimmerian II, the Doctor is summoned before the Altribunal of Coelare Coelum, an intergalactic court. He has been called as a witness in a millennia-old case in which the Plenum Trust Corporation (whose Executive Vice President, Smilax, is an old friend) is opposing the purchase of the Earth by Cosmegalon and its unscrupulous owner, Jugend Bruisa. Plenum had been testing the Spondilas Chamber — an incredibly powerful device capable of polymorphing matter — when Cosmegalon bought the Earth via dubious means. Now Smilax fears that Chamber falling into Bruisa's hands. In court, the Doctor gives evidence that the Earth is home to intelligent life, which by law would nullify Cosmegalon's ownership. He is sent to Earth to retrieve a human as proof. Arriving in mediaeval Yorkshire, the Doctor is prevented from completing his task by the monstrous Children of Pyxis, who have been despatched by Cosmegalon. Fortunately, he is saved from death by the timely intervention of Smilax, and does manage to spirit away the Spondilas Chamber. Nonetheless, with the Doctor having seemingly failed, the court rules in Cosmegalon's favour. However, the Doctor tricks Bruisa and the Children of Pyxis into travelling to modern-day Earth near a missile base, where their ship is annihilated.
** When it became clear that Lloyd's commitments to ''Series/NotTheNineOClockNews'' were going to prevent him from finishing the script, Douglas Adams indicated to Lloyd that he would commission Allan Prior to finish the scripts, although this does not appear to have been seriously pursued. An audio adaptation was released by Big Finish in 2021.

* "'''Valley of the Lost'''" by Creator/PhilipHinchcliffe. The Doctor and Romana travel to the jungles of Brazil, where they come upon a Luron scout ship which crashlanded in 1870. The vessel emits a bubble of time which has kept the surroundings preserved as they were then — including a lost city of gold, inhabited by Maygor savages who worship the only Luron survivor, Godrin, as their deity. Godrin convinces the Doctor to bring him to London, but once there uses modern technology to send a signal to the Luron fleet to commence an invasion of Earth. The Doctor and Romana manage to infiltrate the Luron mothership and take control of its power source. Faced with destruction, the Lurons agree to abandon their invasion.
** Hinchcliffe had earlier submitted the idea when Creator/GrahamWilliams was producer, with Leela as the companion, and this earlier version was adapted by Big Finish Productions as an audio drama starring Creator/TomBaker and Creator/LouiseJameson in 2012.

* Famously, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E6Shada "Shada"]] was only partly finished due to a production strike terminating its filming, and so never aired, making it the only example in the show's history of a story that had to be abandoned midway through shooting. It later became a RecycledScript when Douglas Adams used some of the ideas and characters as the basis of ''Literature/DirkGentlysHolisticDetectiveAgency''. The episode was eventually finished using animation to fill in the unfilmed scenes in 2017.
** "Shada" has had multiple adaptations beyond the above: the existing footage was released with linking narration by Tom Baker by BBC Video in 1992, [=BBCi=] and Big Finish released a webcast featuring the Eighth Doctor, Romana and K9 in 2003, with an audio release later that year with additional scenes, and Gareth Roberts novelised it based on the television scripts in 2012.

* "'''The Song of the Space-Whale'''", aka "'''The Space-Whale'''", by Pat Mills and John Wagner. The TARDIS is captured by Captain Greeg of the spaceship ''Orkas'' when the Doctor interferes with his attempts to hunt a massive Ghaleen — a “space whale” with the ability to travel in time. Also on the ''Orkas'' are Krakos, an alien Tuthon who wants to steal the orb which powers the Ghaleen's time travel, and Rina, who believes that a community of castaways is living in the belly of the Ghaleen, and who has stowed away aboard Greeg's vessel in the hope of rescuing them. In fact, the castaways have constructed a “raft-ship” which would permit them to escape, but their leader, Waldron, has not disclosed the fact that the device works, because he believes that by remaining within the Ghaleen, they are living a life safe from the outside universe. Krakos succeeds in seizing the orb, however, causing temporal energy — which induces “time necrosis” — to flood out of the Ghaleen. The Doctor uses the raft-ship to reverse the damage, and Krakos is killed trying to escape the Ghaleen's belly. The castaways are rescued, but Waldron has been inside the Ghaleen for so long that when he attempts to leave, he dies of time necrosis. Greeg is overthrown by his second-in-command, Stennar, and the Ghaleen is allowed to return to its pod.
** Mills submitted this to the production office several times, and it was variously considered for the Fourth, Fifth ''and'' Sixth Doctors; it would eventually be adapted in 2010 by Big Finish as a Sixth Doctor story with Peri, under the title "The Song of Megaptera".
* "'''The Six Doctors'''" by Robert Holmes. The Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth Doctors (with their companions, including Jamie and Tegan) are drawn to the planet Maladoom, where they meet the First Doctor and Susan. They are trapped by the Master, who is working for the Cybermen. The Cybermen want to isolate the genetic component which permits Time Lords to travel freely in time and space; they will incorporate this factor into their own biology and conquer the Time Vortex. The Doctors manage to escape, but the First Doctor and Susan are really cyborgs created by the Cybermen. The other Doctors manage to destroy the duplicates and discover that it is the Master's TARDIS which has brought them to Maladoom. It is now operating out of control and threatens the universe, but the Doctors are able to deactivate it and return to their proper places in the timeline.
** Holmes had trouble adding the list of things required for the special and dropped out. He reused the idea of the villains trying to steal the Doctor's genetic code for "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS22E4TheTwoDoctors The Two Doctors]]".

* "'''The Elite'''" by Barbara Clegg. The TARDIS lands in a city embroiled in a protracted war. Most of the population is very young, and has been bred for intelligence to give them a strategic advantage. Appalled, the Doctor is branded a war criminal but saved by the twelve-year-old General Aubron. They join forces with savages on the surface of the planet who turn out to be people banished from the city because they were not sufficiently intelligent. Together, they assault the bunker of the ruling High Priest. The High Priest turns out to be a Dalek who crashlanded on the planet centuries earlier, and who has been manipulating the society to elevate them to the point where they will make it possible for the Dalek to return to Skaro.
** Adapted by Big Finish in 2011.
* "'''Hex'''" by Peter Ling and Hazel Adair. The Earth's most brilliant minds are being kidnapped, and the Doctor traces the disappearances to the planet Hexagora. Confronting Queen Zafia, the Doctor learns that Hexagora is spiralling away from its sun, and the Hexagoran civilisation risks destruction. She claims that the kidnappings are intended to provide them with the brainpower to find a solution to the dilemma. The Doctor offers to help move the Hexagorans to an uninhabited planet, but Zafia will agree to this plan only if the Doctor agrees to a “marriage of state”. However, Peri discovers that the Hexagorans are actually bee-like creatures who are transforming themselves into clones of the kidnapped humans. Their plan is to infiltrate Earth, but Zafia will first absorb all of the Doctor's knowledge when they are married. A renegade Hexagoran named Jezz sets fire to the Hexagoran hives, and the Doctor and Peri grimly rescue the abducted humans while Hexagora burns.
** Adapted by Big Finish under the title "Hexagora" in 2011.
* "'''Nightmare Country'''" by Stephen Gallagher. The Doctor agrees to let a race of beings called the Engineers make some repairs to the TARDIS. In return, he offers himself as a test subject for a Reality Simulator, constructed by a Master Engineer called Konis. The simulation is intended to be benign, but the Doctor finds himself amnesiac on a graveyard-like world overrun by the sinister Vodyani. In the TARDIS, Tegan and Turlough learn that the Reality Simulator actually generates a genuine alternate reality. Tegan enters the Simulator and frees the Doctor, but the Vodyani have found a way out of the machine as well. It transpires that the Vodyani were accidentally created by the mind of Konis' apprentice, Volos, who is now merging with the Vodyani leader. Volos sacrifices himself to stop the Vodyani, and Konis destroys the Reality Simulator.
** Adapted by Big Finish in 2019.

* "'''Paradise 5'''", aka "'''End of Term'''", by P.J. Hammond. The nine moons of the planet Paradise form a vast holiday complex. The Doctor's evidence at his trial depicts his adventure on Paradise Five, where he suspects something is very wrong. Mel poses as a hostess and befriends Lorelei, an assistant to the sinister Gabriel who runs Paradise Five. With the help of holidaymakers Tapp and Aht, they realise that people are disappearing, and nobody has booked their time on the pleasure world themselves; rather, the trips are always last-minute surprises. Investigating one of the collection ships which ferries people away from Paradise Five, the Doctor discovers that it is a slave vessel, with angelic aliens kidnapping the holidaymakers. Gabriel uncovers Mel's ruse and Lorelei reveals herself as one of the alien slavers in disguise. The Doctor, Mel, Tapp and Aht are trapped on the ship. But Aht, a scientist, deduces that the aliens are vulnerable to elevated temperatures, and Mel organises everyone into an aerobics routine to generate body heat. The aliens are unable to hold their form, allowing the prisoners to escape to the shuttle port, where they are able to alert the authorities. The Valeyard accuses the Doctor of failure, because he was unable to uncover the identity of Gabriel's mysterious business partner.
** Adapted by Big Finish in 2010, but with all the Trial elements removed and Mel replaced with Peri to better fit with the other Lost Stories.
* "'''Time Inc.'''" by Robert Holmes. It is revealed that the Valeyard was in fact the Doctor's final incarnation. The finale then opened with the Master saving the Doctor from the quicksand while the Valeyard kidnapped Glitz. The Doctor encountered Popplewick again, who led him into a trap baited with an illusory Mel. Popplewick, too, was revealed as a construct of "JJ Chambers"-- who, in turn, was unmasked as the Valeyard. While news reached the courtroom of the High Council's mass resignation, the Master warned that the Valeyard had materialised his TARDIS around a time vent in the Matrix. If the vent were to be opened for too long, there would be catastrophic ramifications for the space-time continuum. The Valeyard — shown to be a pitiable old man afraid of dying-- planned to use this threat to force the Time Lords to grant him the Doctor's remaining regenerations. The Master revealed that he was hired by the High Council to murder the Doctor in exchange for a pardon, but had now decided not to follow through. The Doctor bluffed his way into the Valeyard's TARDIS just as the Valeyard opened the time vent door. Struggling, the Doctor and the Valeyard plunged into the time vent while the Master had Glitz seal the door, saving the universe but trapping the Doctor for all eternity.
** The story was the planned two-episode finale to the Trial. As Holmes' health failed, the script was completed by script editor Creator/EricSaward, but the ending was vetoed by producer John Nathan-Turner for both being too bleak and an invitation for the BBC to end the programme. Long-brewing acrimony between Saward and Nathan-Turner caused the former to resign and withdraw the use of the final episode, forcing Nathan-Turner to hire other writers to put together a new episode 14 at the last minute using the already secured cast and locations but with no elements of the Saward finale.

* '''"Mind of the Hodiac"''' by Creator/RussellTDavies. Deep in space, the mysterious Hodiac is organising a run on the Galactic Stock Exchange to raise money to hire mercenaries. On Earth, the Maitland family is plagued by psychic events. And linking these events together is the Sixth Doctor's coat.
** This was Davies's first ''Doctor Who'' script, with a complete script for the first 45-minute episode and about eight pages of notes for the concluding part, and he thought that it must have been among his submissions to the ''Doctor Who'' production office in the late 80s. It was written in 1986 with the Sixth Doctor and Mel in mind, although Davies wondered if it might have been written in the interregum between Colin Baker and Sylvester [=McCoy=]; in [[https://twitter.com/russelldavies63/status/1340024808994709506 a 2020 tweet]], Davies stated that Creator/AndrewCartmel liked the script and held onto it for consideration, but ultimately wasn't able to do anything with it before the show's initial cancellation in 1989. An audio adaptation for the Sixth Doctor and Mel, with Scott Handcock writing the second episode from Davies's scene breakdown, was released by Big Finish in 2022.

** When it became clear that Lloyd's commitments to ''Series/NotTheNineOClockNews'' were going to prevent him from finishing the script, Douglas Adams indicated to Lloyd that he would commission Allan Prior to finish the scripts, although this does not appear to have been seriously pursued. An audio adaptation is to be released by Big Finish in 2021.

* "'''Cat's Cradle'''" by Marc Platt. The TARDIS is turned inside-out, forcing the Doctor to navigate through an alien landscape in order to restore his time machine.
* "'''The First Sontarans'''" by Andrew Smith. Involved the ''Mary Celeste'', and would elaborate on the Sontaran-Rutan war. It was scrapped due to the Sontarans already being used in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS22E4TheTwoDoctors The Two Doctors]]". Eventually adapted by Big Finish.

Prior to the series' hiatus in 1985, a whole series was planned, presumably intended to air in the first half of 1986. The first six stories have been confirmed as being the intended order. Following the hiatus, it was decided to scrap the entire plan in favour of what became "The Trial of a Time Lord". Three of the originally intended stories-- "The Nightmare Fair", "Mission to Magnus" and "In the Hollows of Time"-- were adapted by Big Finish in 2009, and "The Ultimate Evil" followed suit in 2019 (having originally fallen victim to rights issues with the writer); "The Children of January" fell through due to the writer's other commitments, and not enough exists of "Yellow Fever and How to Cure It" to justify an adaptation.

* "'''Mission to Magnus'''", aka "'''Planet of Storms'''", by Philip Martin. The Doctor is lured to the planet Magnus Epsilon by Anzor, a Time Lord who used to bully him at the Academy. The planet has been ravaged by a virus which is fatal to any male exposed to sunlight. However, Zandusia, ruler of Magnus Epsilon, believes that the neighboring planet Salvak has found a cure and plans an invasion. She petitions the Time Lords to travel back in time and prevent the virus from ever being released. When Anzor refuses, Zandusia tries to steal the secrets of time travel. Meanwhile, the Doctor's old enemy Sil is on Magnus Epsilon, apparently in Zandusia's employ. The Doctor lays a trap for Zandusia in Anzor's TARDIS, but the other Time Lord is caught in it, and is locked into a slow course back to the origin of the universe. Peri join forces with a runaway boy named Vion to rescue the Doctor. Together, they investigate ice tunnels and discover that Sil is really working with the Ice Warriors, led by Ice Lord Vedikael, who set off a series of explosions to change the tilt of the planet's axis. This will make Magnus Epsilon an arctic world suitable for the Ice Warriors, and Sil will profit by selling cold weather gear to the natives. However, when the Ice Warriors decide to eliminate Sil now that his usefulness is at an end, he reveals the existence of back-up explosives. The Doctor sets these off, restoring Magnus Epsilon's orientation. The Ice Warriors are killed by the return of the heat, and the Salvakans arrive to offer to help rebuild the planet.

* "'''Iceberg'''", aka "'''Flipback'''", by David Banks. In 2006, human scientists in Antarctica race to construct a device which will undo an imminent reversal of the Earth's magnetic field. However, the Cybermen are also present in Antarctica and are plotting to sabotage the device, giving them the opportunity to conquer the planet in the confusion caused by the reversal. The device is activated prematurely, crippling the Cybermen, and giving the Doctor the opportunity to stop the Cyber forces.

** The story was the planned two-episode finale to the Trial. As Holmes' health failed, the script was completed by script editor Creator/EricSaward, but the ending was vetoed by producer John Nathan-Turner for both being too bleak and an invitation for the BBC to end the programme. Long-brewing acrimony between Saward and Nathan-Turner caused the the former to resign and withdraw the use of the final episode, forcing Nathan-Turner to hire other writers to put together a new episode 14 at the last minute using the already secured cast and locations but with no elements of the Saward finale.

* "'''Transit'''" by Ben Aaronovitch. In the future, a system of transportation portals spans the solar system, but now seems to have opened a gateway to Hell.

* "'''Illegal Alien'''" by Robert Perry and Mike Tucker. The Doctor and Ace confront the Cybermen in World War II London.