Later this year, two previously unmade serials written for Doctor Who in the Eighties will be adapted as audio productions!
In 2009, Big Finish Productions created a new range called The Lost Stories – a series of Doctor Who audios based on stories or even ideas suggested for the TV series, but were never made. We haven’t had a release in the series since The Mega, released all the way back in the show’s fiftieth anniversary year.
So it’s both a great surprise and a delight to hear that, after a gap of over half a decade, two more Lost Stories are finally being made. They are Nightmare Country by Stephen Gallagher, starring Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor, Janet Fielding as Tegan and Mark Strickson as Turlough, and The Ultimate Evil by Wally K Daly, starring Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor and Nicolas Bryant as Peri.
Originally written for Doctor Who’s twenty-third season, The Ultimate Evil has finally been adapted as an audio production.
(Photo credit: Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions.
Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)
The Ultimate Evil
"The Doctor and Peri’s holiday plans go awry when they cross paths with the slimy super-salesman Mordant and his scheme to start a war."
This story is particularly intriguing, as it was originally meant to be part of the original Season Twenty-Three. However, that entire season was completely scrapped when Doctor Who was cancelled. When the show was quickly brought back, the entire season was replaced by a brand new serial, The Trial of a Time Lord.
Many of these stories were adapted for the first season of The Lost Stories. However, at the time, Big Finish wasn’t able to include The Ultimate Evil with the other adaptations. That thankfully has changed, and writer Wally K Daly seems very happy to finally be adapting his own script.
"I wrote The Ultimate Evil for TV in 1984 but sadly it was never made because Michael Grade decided to take Doctor Who off the air. I adapted it as a novel some years later, but am delighted to bring it back now as an audio play. It’s proof that it’s impossible to kill Doctor Who!"
Stephen Gallagher’s Nightmare Country was written Doctor Who’s twenty-first season, but was too expensive to produce at the time.
(Photo credit: Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions.
Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)
Nightmare Country
More from Winter is Coming
- For All Mankind finally gives us information in Episode 405, “Goldilocks”
- Watch a stunning VFX breakdown of The Wheel of Time season 2
- Of course Steve Toussaint (Corlys Velaryon) thinks Eve Best (Rhaenys Targaryen) should rule Westeros
- Confirmed: The Last of Us season 2 will air in 2025
- Final season of Star Trek: Discovery will have “a lot of action, a lot of adventure, a lot of fun”
With the Fifth Doctor story, Nightmare Country, the key reason why it wasn’t made for Season Twenty-One originally was, according to Stephen Gallagher, the budget.
"Nightmare Country was my detailed pitch for Season 21 and would have been my third story for the show, but for a terse note from the production office that read, ‘You’ve sent us another million-dollar movie and we just can’t do them’. Some ideas you can recycle, some parts you can reuse; but where do you find another show like Who? So my million dollar movie went into the files and I moved on, until the day my and the Doctor’s paths crossed again. Sometimes, it seems, you just have to stay ready and keep the faith."
Stephen Gallagher’s two TV stories for the series were Warrior’s Gate and Terminus. The former is a very strange but well made story, and it sounds like Nightmare Country could be equally interesting.
Regardless, I’m excited that we’re finally getting more Lost Stories, and I can’t wait to listen to these two when they’re released on CD and download in November.
Are you a fan of The Lost Stories? Which of these two appeals to you more? Let us know in the comments below.