A hypothetical season 4

[Jason Thompson]

How's this for a series outline? Comments and suggestions welcome. Offers to write scripts even more welcome...

1: The Doctor and Martha decide to go and watch an Apollo Moon landing. On the Moon they find aliens planning to use the TV system on Apollo to make first contact with Earth. Their intentions are peaceful, but are all the aliens united in their intent?

2: The TARDIS arrives on Earth in the 30th century, a world of overcrowding, food supply problems, and a massive divide between the average man and those running the show. Something lurks, fomenting unrest.

3: The TARDIS lands in the present day, where one plastics firm is using stolen waste disposal research to sabotage his competitors. But the research was not completed, and the material is deadly and more widely destructive than first thought.

4+5: A world where movement outside certain areas is a crime, and where there is no night. A world where townspeople are routinely collected in the Harvest. An artificial world, built in a ring around a star, invaded by aliens that use organic tissue in their technology and incorporate it into themselves. Now the aliens plan to use the ring to collapse the central star and provide a singularity to power a massive transport system that would allow them to cover the whole universe.

6: A young boy discovers tremendous mental powers. Appalled at the danger he represents, he flees his abusive family after accidentally killing his mother in a fit of rage. Now the Earth is threatened by an incorporeal and hostile intelligence, and this boy is the only one with the power to stop it. The Doctor must persuade him to help. Martha is nowhere to be seen.

7: Martha is in a madhouse, and no-one believes her stories of travelling in time and space with a strange man in a police box. Where is the Doctor?

8: The TARDIS lands on a world of an ancient society where all disease has been eradicated, all natural disasters tamed, all societys ills controlled. Idyllic. And stagnating. Overcrowding is a huge problem. To combat this, a governing computer randomly decides when disasters have struck, and people in affected areas must give up their lives. Can the Doctor and Martha solve the overcrowding and give them something to strive for again?

9: A new planet in the solar system of the near future suddenly hatches out and the largest creature ever seen heads for Earth.

10: The TARDIS stops dead, nowhere, no time. The Doctor and Martha are subjected to a mental attack by something that hitched a ride.

11: On a future Earth colony, crops are failing. A blight is threatening starvation. Worse, it threatens the whole ecosystem of the planet. Where did it come from and can the Doctor stop it?

12+13: A world is ending. A disaster is imminent. The Doctor cannot stop it. No-one and nothing can stop it. But the people can survive. The question is how many, and who decides who lives and who dies?

[Si Hunt]

9: A new planet in the solar system of the near future suddenly hatches out and the largest creature ever seen heads for Earth.

Is it Michelle McManus?

Si.

[Zbigniev Hamson]

There seems to be a bit of an obsession with crop blight going around.

[SiHart]

There's certainly plenty of scope to get the science wrong in those stories.

Otherwise it sounds quite exciting and intriguing. When's it on?

Si xx

[Larry]

some nivce ideas there Jason, but I think you need to have a returning villain/alien in there some where.

[Jason Thompson]

Why, Larry? Seasons 13 to 16 of the classic series, generally held to be among the best, feature between them one story with a recurring villain: The Deadly Assassin. I think we've had enough of them for the time being.

Or I suppose the lurking something in episode 2 could be something familiar....

[Ian Lethbridge-Stewart]

Excellent ideas Jason - I especially like the hatching planet and the attack within the TARDIS episodes.
Best of all a year off from the Daleks and no Earth invasion in episodes 12 and 13

[Dave Lewis]

Jason's ideas are far too good for RTD's Doctor Who. I think season four will look like this...

1. New Knighted Kingdom, Inc by Russell T Davies

The Doctor and Martha travel a million years into the future to discover a world that has based its lifestyle, laws, values, employment, entertainment, clothes and dialect on England in the twenty first century. A big alien cow tries to kill a few people but the Doctor saves the day. Pam St Clement guest stars.

2. The Solitary Reaper by Simon Messingham

The Doctor takes Martha to 1801 to visit William Wordsworth in the Lake District. They discover that behind the poetic episode title is a cliched emotional set-piece dressed up as romantic drama involving a girl, some daffodils, and a plot by an evil spirit entity from the dawn of time to hide in the words of Wordsworth and then invade the future. The Doctor kisses Martha, Wordsworth, the girl, the evil spirit, and himself. But ungratuitously.

3. Super Kallid's Back In Bristol, Accents Are Atrocious by Peter Grimwade and Russell T Davies, from an idea by Peter Grimwade

The Doctor joins Captain Jack and his friends at Torchwood to investigate strange happenings in twenty first century South West England, where residents have mysteriously stopped talking like cider-addled inbred farm yokels. Starring Jimm Sohn as Kallid.

4. The Beasts Of England by Russell T Davies

Some strange roaring beasts invade a parallel twenty first century England, where the Doctor and Martha, despite the fact it's impossible for them to get there, turn up just as a group of freedom fighters led by Rose Tyler work out what the alien invaders are...

5. Roar Of The Drashigs by Russell T Davies

Cheaply made roaring glove puppet monsters continue their invasion of the parallel twenty first century Earth. Rose and Martha bitch at each other, Mickey comes out, and the Doctor saves the day with a moral speech that pays homage to the very worst excesses of Malcolm Hulke and Terrance Dicks.

6. The Webb Of Fear by Gareth Roberts

The Doctor and Martha arrive back from the parallel universe to find themselves in twenty first century London, where a hideous ageless being has invaded the underground railway network. The Doctor must fight against the botox-enhanced Christian powers of the evil horror, whilst wearing roller skates and a tracksuit.



To be continued... possibly.

[Ian Lethbridge-Stewart]

Super Kallid's Back In Bristol, Accents Are Atrocious

How long did it take you to think of that???

[Milky Tears]

I think this thread has peaked with Jimm Sohn!

The rest of it is a load of old toot.

[SiHart]

A big alien cow tries to kill a few people but the Doctor saves the day

It's the Doctor Who episode that someone in this house has dreamed of.

Si xx

[Dirk Gently]

I don't know why RTD just doesn't remake the old series stories that are missing. Lets have Fury of the Deep without the padding cut down to 50minutes. I'm sure Pip would love it...but I'm not sure how Martha will look in Zoe's outfits. Maybe Jack could wear the skin tight catsuit.

[Captain Tancredi]

How's this for a series outline? Comments and suggestions welcome. Offers to write scripts even more welcome...

3: The TARDIS lands in the present day, where one plastics firm is using stolen waste disposal research to sabotage his competitors. But the research was not completed, and the material is deadly and more widely destructive than first thought.

That's a good idea, and it was equally good when Doomwatch used it...Uncle Terrance's dictum about original ideas still holds good!

I'm going to have a go at this myself later, but I think better on paper so it may be a while.

[Captain Tancredi]

Okay...meanwhile in an alternative universe...

1. Sleepless in Sunderland The Perennial Insurance Company's call centre has all the latest technology, loads of awards...and more than double the average number of nervous breakdowns among the staff. When one of her staff dies tragically, newly-promoted team leader Cassie Holmes decides to investigate.

2. Dead Reckoning The Doctor takes Cassie back to the court of Elizabeth I, where they meet royal astrologer Doctor John Dee and superspy Christopher Marlowe before becoming embroiled in a plot to place Mary Queen of Scots on the throne.

3. Closed System The Corambis system was the great social experiment of its day- fifteen planets, each run according to a different philosophy. Then it was forgotten about. Now a threat from the outside forces the Doctor to try to unite the various societies or all of them will be destroyed.

4. Trick of the Light In 1920s Cornwall, the Doctor and Cassie have to work out the connection between a dying artist, the tragedy which wiped out the population of Meeran Prime and a man apparently made out of diamond.

5. Adonai Ancient Alexandria was the crossroads of the pre-Christian world, with temples set up to a thousand different gods from every nation. But when the Doctor arrives, he finds that the gods have been putting in quite a few appearances lately...

6 & 7. The Saviours/The Redeemer Colony Uska Four was terraformed only three years ago, but the colonists are dying and in urgent need of medical help. Could the occupants of a spacecraft buried deep beneath the surface be the answer to their problems? This story features the return of the Cybermen.

8. Elementary, My Dear Holmes The Doctor and Cassie join forces with Doctor Joseph Bell to investigate a series of eerie happenings in Victorian Edinburgh.

9. All Saints In medieval France, the Doctor takes holy orders so that he can investigate a series of miracles at the Abbey of Saint Thomas, while Cassie discovers the Abbot Henri's secret. This story features the return of the Adonai.

10. Only You For the last year, Dr Alys McCormick has been the only human crewmember left on Alcestis base. So why has she started seeing a strange Doctor and another young woman around the base, and who keeps writing messages on the walls?

11. The Fiends of Ashtaroth Written by and guest starring Mark Gatiss. In Edwardian England, Lucifer Box was the man women wanted to have and men wanted to be. Or have. But when he follows a deadly trail to the ancient city of Petra, he finds that if he is to defeat a cowardly plot to abduct Queen Alexandra, he must call on his old friend the Doctor.

12 & 13 Despair/Faith The Adonai have returned to Earth once more, sparking a series of religious revivals to fuel their feeding frenzy. Cassie has to decide who her friends are, while the Doctor has to decide whether the human race is ready to believe in itself.

Not forgetting...

Christmas Special- Child of Light Mayhem ensues as the Doctor tries to get Cassie to hospital in time to deliver her (and Lucifer's) baby.

[Dave Tudor]

So, is Sally re-introduced at the end of the Xmas special, or in episode one of series four...?

[Rob McCow]

1. How Deep Is Your Love
Introduces new companion, Liam Nevine.

2. Never Forget
Liam demands the Doctor takes him back in time to save the favourite episodes of his TV show. On the way they meet the sinister Pamelanash.

3. Back for Good
Martha returns only to find that Liam has, apparently, eaten the Doctor.

4. Sure
Evil deodorant monsters attempt to destroy Earth, while Liam's personal cleanliness causes a rift in the TARDIS team...

5. Love Ain't Here Anymore
The deodorant monsters have Martha in their clutches - will the Doctor be able to care?

6. Everything Changes
Torchwood crossover episode, not featuring Cardiff, any of the Torchwood team, Captain Jack or anything from Torchwood at all.

7. Babe
A runaway talking pig hijacks the TARDIS leaving Freema and Liam trapped in the BBC film vaults.

8. Relight My Fire
Returning to the living sun from 42, the Doctor finds the same sets and situations again.

9. Pray
And they stretch out to 2 episodes!

10. Why Can't I Wake Up with You
The Doctor falls into a coma in 14th Century France while Liam lets them eat cake.

11. Could It Be Magic [Radio Rapino Version]
Martha defeats a cabal of evil Witches with Radio Rapino.

12. A Million Love Songs
Earth is invaded by a million love songs.

13. I Found Heaven
Liam is killed in the shock end to the series!

[Pip Madeley]

Here's a storyline for series four:

S.O.S by Roger Sloman
An emergency distress call draws the TARDIS to the planet Zeta Major, where a sinister force called the 'Keith' is picking off the crew of a Morestran camping expedition crew one by one, after they unwittingly commit the unforgivable crime of switching their radio on.

Si Hart would enjoy that.

[Andrew Curnow]

Those all sound very exciting. I'd actually quite like to see the Agatha Christie meeting that the Doctor was raving about yesterday - perhaps HE was responsible for her mysterious disappearance in the 1920s...

[Captain Tancredi]

I possibly ought to explain a bit about the Adonai- they're born of a half-formed feeling that the revived series ought to start creating one or two returning villains of its own. The idea is of a race of aliens who feed on religious faith and have taken the form of various gods and religious figures in different cultures throughout history- think along roughly the same lines as the System Lords in Stargate but more bizarre, as the Adonai would take on the physical characteristics of the god they embodied. The climax would see the Adonai attempting to enslave present-day Earth, with the alternative being that the human race has to stop believing in gods and start believing in itself.

[Alex]

1) Where No Man Has Gone Before - A drunken Doctor heads back to June 2000 to witness Keith Chegwin appear nude on Channel Five's The Naked Jungle. But when he notices tiny aliens the Malaknorakians attached to Keith's scrotum, he realises that he will have to face his most dangerous encounter yet to save the world.

2) The Rise and Fall of Sally Sparrow - We catch up with Sally Sparrow, who's almost bankrupt thanks to the rise of dvd rental services. She turns to stripping to raise money, and quite enjoys it, until one day she feels a crab like claw stuffing a five pound note in her g-string...

3) Saved By The Bong - After the Doctor miraculously saved Sally from having to do that trick with ping pong balls at the end of the last episode, she decides to become a full time companion. They head off to Amsterdam to have a relaxing holiday, but soon discover the city is under attack, and the only way to defeat the aliens is to blow copious amounts of cannabis smoke at them.

4 + 5) Love Shack / The One Where They Meet The Cast of Never The Twain - The Doctor takes Sally back to see Cavemen, but is astonished to find the cast of tv's Never The Twain are alive in the past, and ruling the planet with fists of steel. Can The Doctor defeat both Windsor Davies AND Donald Sinden?

6) Cyberflap - Another attack from the Cybermen gets everyone in to a panic, until the doctor stops it really easily. The dead cybermen are then used to me make intelligent cat flaps - but it seems that these cyber flaps may not be as animal friendly as was hoped...

[Dave Lewis]

Super Kallid's Back In Bristol, Accents Are Atrocious

How long did it take you to think of that???

Minutes - it's based on a vastly better gag by someone else.

[Andrew Curnow]

but is astonished to find the cast of tv's Never The Twain are alive in the past, and ruling the planet with fists of steel

What a beautifully-crafted sentence! Thanks Alex, it's not often I laugh on a rainy Monday morning, but that's really done the trick.

[Jason Thompson]

That's a good idea, and it was equally good when Doomwatch used it...Uncle Terrance's dictum about original ideas still holds good!

Never watched Doomwatch, so had no idea it had been used. Those of you with long memories may recognise the plot from a story I put up on the Beeb boards a few years ago.

[Captain Tancredi]

I was being flippant, Jason- and feel free to have a go at a couple of mine too! To cut a long story short, the basic premise of the first episode of Doomwatch, called 'The Plastic Eaters', is that an experimental laboratory is working with a virus which can break down plastic into its constituent chemicals. However, thanks to equal measures of arrogance and ignorance on the part of the minister responsible for the project, the virus is transmitted via the minister's fountain pen to his secretary and from her to a family member who just happens to take a flight to South America, which crashes when all the plastic components of the plane dissolve.

[daleks are supreme]

I got a better idea for episode 1. they go to see the doctor who weekend! hahahaha...