Cartmel Masterplan The Cartmel Masterplan was a term invented by fans and popularised by " Doctor Who Magazine " that very roughly described the overall " vision " script editor Andrew Cartmel and his cadre of writers , including Marc Platt and Ben Aaronovitch , had for re - introducing mystery and general darkness into the character of the Seventh Doctor in the waning seasons of the 1963 version of " Doctor Who " . The " plan " — although Marc Platt has called it " more of a mood and direction " than a detailed plan — would have dropped hints of the Doctor ' s actual origins throughout the later part of Sylvester McCoy ' s tenure as the Doctor . Due to the show ' s cancellation and John Nathan - Turner ' s occasional tinkering with scripts , however , very little of the " masterplan " was ever seen on screen . The " plan " was largely left to play out in other media and was an especially profound part of the Virgin New Adventures range in general and the novel " Lungbarrow " in particular . Overview . Purpose and origins . The " masterplan " was an attempt to restore some of the mystery of the Doctor and the Time Lord s after years of overexposure and overfamiliarity . The Cartmel Masterplan is generally considered a fan - conceived term and came about around the same time that the discussion of canon first came to the attention of Doctor Who fandom . The plan . The overall plan for Cartmel was to reveal that the Doctor was some form of a reincarnation of the Other , a mysterious figure from Gallifrey ' s past who helped form the Time Lords ' society and perfect the time travel technology of the Time Lords . An early draft of " Ghost Light " , set , at this stage , not in Gabriel Chase on Earth but the Doctor ' s ancestral home on Gallifrey , was planned as the lead - in to this reveal but the script was shot down by series producer John Nathan - Turner . Cartmel ' s plans were later incorporated into the Virgin New Adventures series , to which Cartmel and other writers from the late McCoy era contributed , paying off in the final New Adventure novel to feature the Seventh Doctor , " Lungbarrow " . " Lungbarrow " had as its origins a proposed early draft of " Ghost Light " . The earlier version of " Ghost Light " in turn evolved into a new story and the new story into the novel . A direct reference to the Other appears in Ben Aaronovitch ' s novelisation of " Remembrance of the Daleks " in a flashback sequence with him , Rassilon and Omega . At some point before 1992 , Cartmel , Aaronovitch and Platt sat down and gathered their ideas about Gallifrey . These were passed onto then - New Adventures editor Peter Darvill - Evans , who incorporated them into a " Doctor Who " writer ' s guide . References . Seasons 25 and 26 . Seasons 25 and 26 included hints toward this new direction . Some were included in the broadcasts and some were not : As well as these , it seems the Doctor also gains new powers previously unseen in the show . An unfilmed scene from " Survival " was to feature challenging the Doctor ' s identity and true nature . The Doctor would argue that we must all " evolve " in some way . This scene was cut when it appeared that the series had come to an end . Rather than finishing the series on such an inconclusive note , the production team decided to go with a different ending scene . Planned season 27 . Had a twenty - seventh season been developed , Marc Platt ' s " Ice Time " would have revealed that Ace had been trained by the Doctor to become a Time Lord , her rebellious attitude helping to reshape Gallifrey ' s policies and role in the safeguarding of time and space . This is mentioned by the Doctor to Ace in the novels " Set Piece " and " Lungbarrow " . Something roughly similar happens in the online original story " Death Comes to Time " . " Ice Time " would also have introduced a petty criminal from the 1960s whom the Doctor would help . Following Ace ' s departure , a subsequent story , set in the 1980s , would have this character ' s daughter , an aristocratic cat burglar , join the Doctor as his new companion . The intended finale of this twenty - seventh season was to have been " Alixon " , a story which may or may not have seen the Doctor regenerate into his eighth incarnation and the departure of McCoy . These story concepts were much later developed into full audio scripts as part of Big Finish Productions ' The Lost Stories range . Other media . Andrew Cartmel added further aspects of his ideas when he started writing comic strips for " Doctor Who Magazine " , beginning with his debut story , " Fellow Travellers " , in which it is revealed that the Doctor has maintained contacts with humans on Earth for years and has purchased a house there . The more sophisticated and mature Virgin New Adventures line made the Doctor a more morally ambiguous , unreadable character who had extensive powers and an unknown history . Fans nicknamed the Doctor in his period as " the dark Doctor " or the " arch - manipulator " . The novel " Lungbarrow " , the final Seventh Doctor novel , written by Marc Platt , revealed the Masterplan in detail . The TV movie . The TV movie seemingly sums up the Masterplan , although not in the same way that " Lungbarrow " does . It features the Doctor saying that he is half - human , a statement that caused much controversy among fans . Cartmel said he in no way intended for that to be the summary of his Masterplan and preferred " Lungbarrow " ' s depiction to the TV movie ' s .