In February 1985, BBC One controller Michael Grade made the decision to put Doctor Who on hiatus. Initially thought to be an attempt to kill the show off for good, public outcry later forced him to reduce it to a delay of 18 months - rather than debut at the beginning of the year, as the show had been doing since Peter Davison became the Doctor, it would start in September. More drastic was the cut in runtime - the delayed season would run for just 14 25-minute episodes.
The 1985 season had seen a shift to 45-minute episodes (the show had previously been running twice-weekly on weeknights, and this year had also seen a return to the traditional Saturday nights), which the originally planned 1986 run would have retained. So late in the day was the postponement that pre-production had already begun, and it was roughly known what the lineup of the season would be, and work was well underway. With the hiatus and abbreviation of the season, the decision was made to throw out all work that had been done on the 1986 serials in favour of one over-arcing story, The Trial of a Time Lord. Here, then, is what Season 23 looked like in a parallel universe where the powers that be were slightly more favourable to the show...
These stories would definitely have been part of the run:
The Nightmare Fair
A story written by former producer Graham Williams, which would have been filmed on location in Blackpool and seen the return of 60s villain The Celestial Toymaker. Matthew Robinson, previously of Resurrection of the Daleks and Attack of the Cybermen, was scheduled to direct. At the point at which it was abandoned, the scripts were fully completed and had been sent to the regular cast and key crew.
Williams subsequently novelised his unmade script for Target Books in 1989 (Target had novelised virtually every broadcast story they could and were running out of materials, so decided to adapt some of these unproduced stories under the banner "The Missing Episodes"). Two dramatisations of the script exist: a fan-made production in 2003, and a Big Finish production in 2009 as the inaugural release of its Lost Stories range, starring Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant. Michael Gough, who had played the Toymaker in the 60s and was scheduled to reprise the role for the 80s production, had retired from acting and the role was taken over by David Bailie (who had already played the role for Big Finish in a previous release, The Magic Mousetrap).
Mission to Magnus
A story written by Philip Martin, it would have seen the return of Sil from his previous year's script Vengeance on Varos (in the event, Martin contributed a script for the reworked Trial season which also featured Sil), as well as featuring the Ice Warriors. (Had the 1986 version gone ahead it would probably have been directed by Ron Jones, who had directed Varos and went on to direct Martin's Trial story, Mindwarp.) Martin also novelised his script in 1990 (the script was not complete but had been fully storylined, so he took the opportunity to complete it for the novelisation), and it was also adapted as Big Finish's second Lost Story in 2009.
The Ultimate Evil
A story written by newcomer Wally K Daly and tentatively scheduled to be directed by Fiona Cumming, which by all accounts is largely nonsensical gibberish about an arms dealer trying to get a planet to break a truce. This was also novelised for Target in 1989, but when Big Finish enquired about the possibility of an audio adaptation they discovered Daly had already agreed to do an audiobook adaptation for the Royal National Institute of Blind People and were unable to agree terms with him.
These stories would probably have been part of the run:
Yellow Fever and How to Cure It
A 3x45 story written by Robert Holmes and down to be directed by Graeme Harper, which at various times was down to be filmed on location in Singapore, and feature the return of the Master, the Rani and the Autons (the final version could have featured any or all of these villains, but the Singapore filming would probably not have gone ahead: after the problems encountered with the location shooting in Spain for The Two Doctors caused that serial to run considerably over-budget, John Nathan-Turner either decided against any further overseas shoots or was ordered by the BBC not to do them; in the event, this proved academic as future seasons did not have the budget for it.)
Yellow Fever was briefly considered for inclusion in the revised 14-episode 1986 season as a six-parter, but was abandoned when the decision came to do the Trial story instead. A storyline was purportedly completed but lost, and there isn't enough material surviving to justify an audio adaptation.
In the Hollows of Time
A story by former script editor Christopher H. Bidmead about a sinister plot in an English country village, which would have featured the return of the Tractators from Bidmead's previous story Frontios and the Master (it is unlikely that both this and Yellow Fever would have featured the Master, so presumably had both made it to production one of them would have removed him). Also briefly considered for inclusion in the 14-episode version of Season 23 as a four-parter, but obviously wasn't. There were reportedly plans for this to receive a Target novelisation, but such a book never materialised. Bidmead later adapted the story for Big Finish's Lost Stories as The Hollows of Time. However, around the time of production/release, the Master was scheduled to appear in David Tennant's final story on television and Big Finish were prohibited from explicitly using the character; consequently, the audio version features the mysterious "Professor Stream" as the villain, and can only ever hint at his true identity.
The Children of January
A story for which no known synopsis exists (other than it featured a race of "runaway proto-humans" who were "sort of human bees"), written by Michael Feeney Callan and scheduled to close the season. Callan was scheduled to adapt the story for Big Finish as part of the first series of Lost Stories, but it fell through due to his other commitments and was not remounted later.
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