The Lost Stories

The Lost Stories was a range of Doctor Who audios released by Big Finish Productions starting in 2009.
It took scripts or story treatments that had been officially proposed to the BBC from 1963 to 1990, converted them into audio-appropriate scripts and recorded them with as many of the original cast members as possible.
The line was wholly separate from their monthly Doctor Who and The Companion Chronicles ranges. During the production of this series, the Doctors and companions involved continued to be as active as they normally were in other ranges.
The series originally ended in 2013, as Big Finish had effectively mined every existing unmade story of the classic era within a reasonable stage of development, and in order to focus on The Early Adventures, which told new stories using a similar format to that used for the First, Second and Third Doctor ranges here. The series was revived in 2019. 
Each CD release features a reversible cover, the reverse evoking the format of the covers to the Target novelisations of the 1970s.
==Overview==
===Concept===
The idea of creating a series completing lost adventures had not been one unconsidered by Big Finish from the start — however, it was largely believed that a series based on unoriginal material would not sell. The release and success of the Stage Play series, which adapted plays like The Ultimate Adventure into audio stories, put these thoughts at odds, as it soon became clear that fans were very eager to see these legendary lost tales brought to life.
Big Finish expanded the ambition of the range soon after announcing it. As the range developed, it changed from being about "the season 23 that never was" to more generally producing a whole range of never-made television stories. Big Finish released stories for every classic Doctor except for the Eighth Doctor, whose unmade stories represent early drafts of the TV Movie and the concept of a reboot series. Stories involving the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Doctors were full cast audios, while stories from the First, Second, and Third Doctors' eras had a format more akin to the "enhanced audiobooks" of the Companion Chronicles range, although featuring a greater number of voice actors and instead told from a third person viewpoint.
The key factor for the producers was that the stories in this range must have at some point been officially proposed to the BBC. In some instances, the scripts produced by Big Finish were essentially those that had been delivered to the BBC; in others, they were wholly written for Big Finish based upon story ideas that had been proposed to the script editor of the era. In a few cases, finished scripts like The Song of Megaptera (originally titled The Song of the Space Whale) were tweaked for the audio medium. In others, as with Leviathan, they were more substantially altered.
The sixth and seventh series introduced a twist to the concept: Return of the Cybermen, Daleks! Genesis of Terror and The Ark were not based on serials that were ultimately never made. All three aired in Season 12 in the form of Revenge of the Cybermen, Genesis of the Daleks and The Ark in Space respectively. The releases in The Lost Stories were adapted from earlier versions of the scripts, which changed during their original development to become the versions which made it to television. Return of the Cybermen still follows a similar storyline to Revenge of the Cybermen but with differing plot details. The plot of The Ark was adapted from John Lucarroti's initial script for the serial and diverges drastically from The Ark in Space as the story progresses.
Daleks! Genesis of Terror was more specifically only an adaptation of Terry Nation's original script for Episode 1 of Genesis of the Daleks, not the story as a whole. It was decided to present the script almost entirely as it was, and the release is resultantly a full-cast verbatim script reading of the first episode, rather than a traditional audio adaptation. (BFX: Daleks! Genesis of Terror) For the sake of completion, cast members subsequently read out the storylines of the remaining five episodes.
===First and Second Doctor stories===
At the beginning of the second series, Big Finish released two boxsets, one for each of these Doctors. The First Doctor Box Set contained Farewell, Great Macedon and The Fragile Yellow Arc of Fragrance, both featuring narration from Carole Ann Ford and William Russell. These stories were presented as halfway between a Companion Chronicle and a full-cast audio in order to capture as closely as possible the sense of the original story without some of the original actors. The Second Doctor Box Set contained only one story from that Doctor: Prison in Space, and the intended pilot for the Dalek spin-off series The Destroyers. Prison in Space featured both Wendy Padbury and Frazer Hines as Zoe Heriot and Jamie McCrimmon, respectively, while The Destroyers featured Jean Marsh as Sara Kingdom. Another story for each of these Doctors was released in Series 3: The Masters of Luxor for the First Doctor and The Rosemariners for the Second Doctor, both of which featured the same regulars as the box sets. The fourth series focused on these early Doctors, with the First Doctor getting his final release in The Dark Planet, which was also Maureen O'Brien's first audio story alongside William Russell. The Second Doctor received two stories: The Queen of Time and Lords of the Red Planet.
A number of these stories had previously been released in script form. The Masters of Luxor had previously been issued as a script book by Titan Books in 1992, whilst Farewell Great Macedon, The Fragile Yellow Arc of Fragrance and The Prison in Space had been issued as script books by the fanzine Nothing at the End of the Lane in 2009.
===Third, Fourth and Fifth Doctor stories===
These Doctors featured the least in the range, but nevertheless got at least one story each. The Third Doctor only appeared once in the final story of the original run of stories, The Mega, featuring Katy Manning as Jo Grant and Richard Franklin as Mike Yates. 
The Fourth Doctor got one box set released during a break in the third series (despite not being part of it), which contained the stories The Foe from the Future and The Valley of Death, both of which featured Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor and Louise Jameson as Leela. The Fourth Doctor became more prominent in the range post its 2019 revival. Return of the Cybermen and The Doomsday Contract were released in the sixth series. Return marked the debuts of Sadie Miller and Christopher Naylor as Sarah Jane Smith and Harry Sullivan and The Doomsday Contract featured Lalla Ward as Romana and John Leeson as K9. Daleks! Genesis of Terror and The Ark both followed in the seventh series, and utilised the same concept (and main cast) as Return of the Cybermen by adapting earlier drafts of scripts that became TV serials in Season 12.
The Fifth Doctor got a trilogy of stories in the third series featuring Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor, Sarah Sutton as Nyssa and Janet Fielding as Tegan Jovanka. These would be the only stories produced by Big Finish to feature just Nyssa and Tegan as companions, until The Waters of Amsterdam in January 2016. Another Fifth Doctor story Nightmare Country was released in the fifth series, featuring Janet Fielding as Tegan and Mark Strickson as Turlough.
===Sixth Doctor stories===
As the original impetus for the range, the Sixth Doctor stories deserve special consideration. Originally, the idea was that all known season 23 scripts and story ideas would be produced. Due to rights issues and writer availability, this proved impossible. Additionally, Big Finish research into "the season that never was" revealed scripts and story ideas actually meant for season 22. The producer of the range decided to take a more liberal approach to the concept. He put together a "new" season, comprised of most of the stories known to have been destined for season 23 and some stories meant for season 22. He knit all the stories together with continuing narrative elements not present in the original television scripts and story treatments. The result was an enhancement of the original goal of simply adapting the known stories for audio. The very fact that there were eight stories in the first run of Sixth Doctor stories immediately suggests a different season length than would have been possible on television during the Colin Baker era (however, it was common for the BBC to commission more stories for a season than would necessarily be broadcast, in case one fell through, so the number of Season 23 stories in existence is not a reliable indicator of how long the season might have been; plus, at the time Season 23 was being planned there was every likelihood that Baker would have stayed on into Season 24 or beyond, so any leftover stories could have been used for later seasons).
The first two stories, The Nightmare Fair and Mission to Magnus, had previously been released as Target novels in 1989, under The Missing Episodes banner. The third story in the Target range, The Ultimate Evil, was not adapted as the writer, Wally K Daly, asked for too high a fee and was also working on an adaptation of the story for the RNIB at the time. The Ultimate Evil was later adapted in the fifth series.
As produced, the Sixth Doctor stories do possess a different tone from the standard Big Finish Doctor Who range. They employed a style of electronic music evocative of the one that would likely have been used had the stories been produced for television in 1985. Moreover, the characterisations of Peri and the Sixth Doctor are closer to the season 22 versions of the characters than typical for the main Big Finish Doctor Who range.
In the third series of Lost Stories, Big Finish released three more Sixth Doctor stories, two intended for Season 22 and one for 23, which featured the return of Victoria Waterfield (Power Play), the Traken Union and the Melkur (The Guardians of Prophecy) and the Sontarans (The First Sontarans).
After Russell T Davies rediscovered a script he'd written for the Sixth Doctor and Mel Bush in 1987 whilst taking part in a Doctor Who: Lockdown! Tweetalong of The Runaway Bride in 2020, Big Finish adapted it as a standalone release in the Lost Stories. Mind of the Hodiac was released in 2022.
===Seventh Doctor stories===
In addition to the full-cast Sixth Doctor stories, the Lost Stories range also includes a Seventh Doctor series. In contrast to the first Sixth Doctor series, the first Seventh Doctor series is closer to the intention of the unmade Season 27. Perhaps due to the personal involvement of then-script editor, Andrew Cartmel, this branch of the Lost Stories hit the main beats planned for that season. Ace was joined by the new companion, Raine Creevy. Brigadier Winifred Bambera and UNIT returned, as had been planned. Raine made her first appearance outside of The Lost Stories in Dominion, acting as companion later in the Seventh Doctor's life whilst Ace is on Gallifrey.
Another story from Season 27, Night Thoughts, had been released in 2006 in the Main Range. This story incorporated Hex, who had not appeared in the original script.
==Stories==
===Series 1===
# 	Title 	Author 	Doctor	Featuring 	Season which was meant to be broadcast	Released
1.01	The Nightmare Fair 	Graham Williams (adapted by John Ainsworth)	6th 	Peri, Celestial Toymaker	23 	12 November 2009
1.02	Mission to Magnus 	Philip Martin 	6th 	Peri, Sil, Ice Warriors 	23 	9 December 2009
1.03	Leviathan 	Brian Finch (adapted by Paul Finch) 	6th 	Peri 	22 	21 January 2010
1.04	The Hollows of Time 	Christopher H Bidmead 	6th 	Peri, Tractators 	23 	18 February 2010
1.05	Paradise 5 	PJ Hammond, Andy Lane 	6th 	Peri 	23 	10 March 2010
1.06	Point of Entry 	Barbara Clegg, Marc Platt 	6th 	Peri 	23 	April 2010
1.07	The Song of Megaptera	Pat Mills 	6th 	Peri 	22 	May 2010
1.08	The Macros 	Ingrid Pitt, Tony Rudlin 	6th 	Peri 	22 	June 2010
===Series 2===
# 	Title 	Author 	Doctor	Featuring 	Season which was meant to be broadcast	Released
2.01	Farewell, Great Macedon 	Moris Farhi (adapted by Nigel Robinson) 	1st 	Susan, Ian, Barbara 	1 	10 November 2010
2.01	The Fragile Yellow Arc of Fragrance	Moris Farhi (adapted by Nigel Robinson) 	1st 	Susan, Ian, Barbara 	1 	10 November 2010
2.02	Prison in Space 	Dick Sharples (adapted by Simon Guerrier) 	2nd 	Jamie, Zoe 	6 	December 2010
2.02	The Destroyers 	Terry Nation (adapted by Nicholas Briggs and John Dorney)	none 	Sara, Daleks 	Unproduced spin-off 	December 2010
2.03	Thin Ice 	Marc Platt 	7th 	Ace, Ice Warriors 	27 	April 2011
2.04	Crime of the Century 	Andrew Cartmel 	7th 	Ace, Raine 	27 	18 May 2011
2.05	Animal 	Andrew Cartmel 	7th 	Ace, Raine, Bambera, UNIT	27 	2 June 2011
2.06	Earth Aid 	Ben Aaronovitch, Andrew Cartmel 	7th 	Ace, Raine 	27 	16 July 2011
===Series 3===
# 	Title 	Author 	Doctor	Featuring 	Season which was meant to be broadcast	Released
3.01	The Elite 	Barbara Clegg, John Dorney 	5th 	Nyssa, Tegan, Dalek	20 	14 October 2011
3.02	Hexagora 	Paul Finch, from a story by Peter Ling and Hazel Adair	5th 	Nyssa, Tegan 	20 	November 2011
3.03	The Children of Seth 	Christopher Bailey, Marc Platt 	5th 	Nyssa, Tegan 	20 	December 2011
3.04	The Guardians of Prophecy	Johnny Byrne (adapted by Jonathan Morris) 	6th 	Peri, Melkur 	22 	May 2012
3.05	Power Play 	Gary Hopkins 	6th 	Peri, Victoria 	23 	June 2012
3.06	The First Sontarans 	Andrew Smith 	6th 	Peri, Sontarans 	22 	23 July 2012
3.07	The Masters of Luxor 	Anthony Coburn (adapted by Nigel Robinson) 	1st 	Susan, Ian, Barbara	1 	16 August 2012
3.08	The Rosemariners 	Donald Tosh 	2nd 	Jamie, Zoe 	6 	19 September 2012
===Series 4===
# 	Title 	Author 	Doctor	Featuring 	Season which was meant to be broadcast	Released
4.01	The Dark Planet 	Brian Hayles (adapted by Matt Fitton) 	1st 	Ian, Barbara, Vicki 	2 	12 September 2013
4.02	The Queen of Time 	Brian Hayles (adapted by Catherine Harvey)	2nd 	Jamie, Zoe 	6 	29 October 2013
4.03	Lords of the Red Planet	Brian Hayles (adapted by John Dorney) 	2nd 	Jamie, Zoe, Ice Warriors 	6 	15 November 2013
4.04	The Mega 	Bill Strutton (adapted by Simon Guerrier) 	3rd 	Jo, the Brig, Yates, Benton	9 	18 December 2013
=== Series 5===
# 	Title 	Author 	Doctor	Featuring 	Season which was meant to be broadcast	Released
5.1	Nightmare Country	Steve Gallagher	5th 	Tegan, Turlough	21 	14 November 2019
5.2	The Ultimate Evil	Wally K Daly 	6th 	Peri 	23 	14 November 2019
=== Series 6===
# 	Title 	Author 	Doctor	Featuring 	Season which was meant to be broadcast 	Released
6.1	Return of the Cybermen	Gerry Davis (adapted by John Dorney)	4th 	Sarah, Harry, Cybermen	12 (developed into Revenge of the Cybermen)	17 March 2021
6.2	The Doomsday Contract 	John Lloyd (adapted by Nev Fountain)	4th 	Romana II, K9 	17 	17 March 2021
===Series 7===
# 	Title 	Author 	Doctor	Featuring 	Season which was meant to be broadcast 	Released
7.2Released under this number, please do not change	Daleks! Genesis of Terror	Samuel Clemens 	4th 	Sarah, Harry	12 (developed into Genesis of the Daleks)	25 May 2023
7.1 	The Ark 	Jonathan Morris	4th 	Sarah, Harry	12 (developed into The Ark in Space) 	8 June 2023
===Specials===
# 	Title 	Author 	Doctor	Featuring	Season which was meant to be broadcast	Released
The Fourth Doctor Box Set	The Foe from the Future	Robert Banks Stewart (adapted by John Dorney) 	4th 	Leela 	14 	9 January 2012
The Fourth Doctor Box Set	The Valley of Death 	Philip Hinchcliffe (adapted by Jonathan Morris)	4th 	Leela 	15 	9 January 2012
n/a 	Mind of the Hodiac 	Russell T Davies and Scott Handcock 	6th 	Mel 	23 	30 March 2022
==Cover gallery==
The First Doctor Box Set.jpg|The First Doctor Box Set
The Second Doctor Box Set.jpg|The Second Doctor Box Set
The Fourth Doctor Box Set.jpg|The Fourth Doctor Box Set
==External links==
==Footnotes==
 
Category:Audio overviews
fr:The Lost Stories