‘Operation Werewolf’ and the original plan for ‘The Three Doctors’ both become Doctor Who Lost Stories. 

Doctor Who has a long and varied back catalogue of stories, stretching over six decades.

Of course, all the tales we treasure went through changes before entering production. Since 2009, audio producers Big Finish have explored various scripts and storylines that, for one reason or another, didn’t make it to our television screens.

The latest offerings in their Doctor Who – The Lost Stories range are quite different from each other. One draws on the initial storyline for the show’s 10th anniversary tale, while the other is inspired by a WWII set Patrick Troughton story.

Deathworld

First up is a story based on the original treatment, written by Bob Baker and Dave Martin, for what later became ‘The Three Doctors’.

In the broadcast version, the Patrick Troughton’s Second Doctor returns, while an ailing William Hartnell makes a couple of glorified cameo appearances on the TARDIS scanner as the First Doctor. Together, they unite to fend off the threat of the lost Time Lord pioneer Omega from his anti-matter universe.

‘Deathworld’ is very different to the story that ended up on screens – there’s no Omega here, and instead the Doctors become caught in a temporal game of chess played between the President of Gallifrey and Death itself.

Stephen Noonan, Michael Troughton and Tim Treloar voice the First, Second and Third Doctors. Frazer Hines and Katy Manning also appear as Jamie McCrimmon and Jo Grant, while Jon Culshaw will play Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. John Dorney adapts the story, and it comes with a stunning cover from artist Sean Longmore.

Producer David O’Mahony said:

“After Baker and Martin submitted the idea for Deathworld in 1972, the story had many challenges and went through multiple rounds of re-writes and changes to characters, locations and actors, to the point that The Three Doctors was now completely different to the story first conceived.

“John Dorney and script editor Simon Guerrier wanted to go back to the original concept and explore what that idea could have been. Deathworld is the epitome of a Lost Story – taking a great idea and being able to fulfil it without the time and budget constraints of when it was pitched for television.”

Operation Werewolf

The second release is based on a storyline submitted to the Doctor Who production office in 1967 by Douglas Camfield and Robert Kitts. It takes place in Normandy, 1944, three days before the D-Day landings, where the Doctor and his companions discover secret Nazi experiments.

Scripted by Jonathan Morris, it stars Michael Troughton as the Doctor, Frazer Hines as Jamie, and Wendy Padbury as Zoe.

David O’Mahony explains:

“A combination of story elements, budget constraints, and some sensitivity about the recent World War 2 meant that Operation Werewolf was shelved. The story caught Jonathan Morris’s brilliant imagination and we ran with the original outline.

“As with all our Lost Story productions, I hope the original teams would be proud of what we have created.”

Doctor Who – the Lost Stories: ‘Deathworld’ and ‘Operation Werewolf’ are available to pre order and released in July 2024. Both are available on Collector’s Edition CD with download, or digital download only, from Big Finish.